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Teyao
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Adam: I miss Eric
Barracker, unaware of Adam's brother: I've had enough Erics for one lifetime
Haha. When writing the post i've totally forgotten about Adam's brother. I would've called him something else otherwise.
Barracker was in the courtyard at ‘Paladin’s Respite,’ the holy headquarters at the north western gate of Valhiem. There was a stronghold like this in every major city. Its purpose is to give Paladins a rest point, a place to eat, train and sleep if necessary. It would also deal with Paladin duties like monster bounties, holy crusades and registration for the military arm of the church. The vampire was using a wooden practice greatsword to wield, as was the rules. Nothing would replicate the weight and size of his orichalcum greatsword, but at least he could use his tower shield.
He had already completed a gentle warm-up of regular exercises, consisting of burpees, jogging on the spot to bring up heart rate before starting with the weapons. Vampires did not really pull muscles or need this kind of cardio but it was instilled in him, being a Paladin and an ex soldier. Now he was shield bashing the air, full power, fifty attempts on each arm. He practised all fundamental sword swings with each arm, full power, one hundred attempts, making sure his technique was perfect,
Barracker was focused on his training while two Paladins, Eric and Warren Burns stood still in their tracks and were glaring over at him. “It's that disgrace of a Paladin, again,” Warren mentioned with disgust in his voice. Looking over and pointing with his brother, spitting on the floor.
Barracker knew this routine and knew his training had come to an end, as these prats would only put him off his training. “Look at this leech, where’s he going? Nothing worse than a leech, scum.” Eric spat back his remark trying to engage Barracker into stooping as low.
Barracker stood up, picking up his wooden sword and tower shield. He waved them into the courtyard and gestured to use the training barracks. “Feel free to use the practise yard, you need it more than i do,” Barracker said calmly to both of them.
“Well isn’t he getting full of himself,” Warren exchanged a look with Eric. Warren was the cool headed one, as Eric was near boiling point, his face burning bright red.
“Warren, i think I’m going to show him what a crystal is capable of.” Eric drew his sword of steel and raised the tip of the end towards Barracker.
Barracker stood in fighting stance and spoke firmly, “If you dare strike at me, your arm will belong to me.” A glint of fury appeared across his face, until the Inquisitor came out.
“What's this nonsense? You two get in here now,” Inquisitor Clive spoke with ice in his tone. ”And you, the source of trouble I see. As always. Do whatever you have to do here and rid us of your presence.”
Barracker watched the two go inside ‘Paladins Respite’ and followed behind to return the practice sword back. “I have business here. A book on spectres.”
Inquisitor Clive nodded, “Very well, you know where it is.” Barracker walked off. Inquisitor Clive’s sudden laugh was almost like a snarl and he stopped Barracker for the last time. “Given up on the Cerberus I see.”
“Never.” Barracker snapped with sternness, and determination. One day it will be done. He could not allow that monster to roam free, but he wasn’t strong enough yet. Perhaps his duties with Second Chance would grow his power enough to finally right that wrong. But the first step was the Temple of Hades.
@Loksfjoer@Saiyan@Zool@Teyao
This post is for the ones with a mundane weapon. Barracker is going to choose Fenna once he realises she has a spear, as it takes much less oil to coat a spear tip rather than a longsword or a anchor or crossbow bolts or arrows. Fenna will be able to have a certain number of hits against enemies who can't be hit by non-elemental attacks.
This post is for the ones with a mundane weapon. Barracker is going to choose Fenna once he realises she has a spear, as it takes much less oil to coat a spear tip rather than a longsword or a anchor or crossbow bolts or arrows. Fenna will be able to have a certain number of hits against enemies who can't be hit by non-elemental attacks.
Barracker strode into the room he made into an alchemy lab. He got permission from Areleth and this helped him in his professional endeavours as a monster hunter. This room would be where his brewing and oil making would happen. Today spectre oil was on the menu. Barracker placed the sack, containing the wolf livers and a pint bottle of bear fat onto the stone table. The large corner table had different sections for boiling , filtration, distillation, mixing and everything else required. There was a pestle and mortar, a sink and various sizes of beaker, flasks and test tubes.
He rummaged through his sack, retrieved and organised everything. The Paladin started by setting some water to boil. Then began grinding up the Arenaria flowers as he read his tome on monster hunter practices to remind himself of the process. The key to making good spectre oil was to slowly add the mixture of flowers and silver dust to the pot of cooking wolfs liver, then filtering it before adding the sulphur at the end.
In the end, it took him five hours to make the spectre oil. The filtering was the longest part. What was annoying was the fact that he had barely enough to fill one of his blood vials. He wanted to share among the party members who did not possess magic. Spectres like ghosts and wraiths usually cannot be hit by mundane weapons. He would try to distribute what little he had to maximise effectiveness, nevertheless.
For now he pocketed the one vial he had and got to cleaning up himself, and the table. Wolf livers were messy.
Barracker strolled deep into ‘Greenglow Woods’. These woodlands outside the city had gotten their name because of the fireflies roaming the air. At night if you looked from the walls of the city or the road leading out of the north gate, your eyes would be occupied by the beautiful green glow coming from within the trees, hence the name. The vampire had made many great childhood memories here, he and Krillen turning these woods into their personal playground. He didn’t feel the need to bring his claymore and tower shield with him as ‘Greenglow Woods’ was known to be safe. The paladin had already procured a bunch of mistletoe, which was one of the two ingredients he had been looking for here. Now he had been looking for a particular rare white flower ‘Arenaria’ which is dotted with tiny silver spots along the petals. He eventually found enough, now the next stop was ‘The Hunters Lodge’ which was located just outside the city walls near the northern farmlands.
As Barracker strolled on his way towards the next destination. His mind thought back on last night, everyone seemed nice and he was glad he got introductions out the way. The way he got treated so normally, Barracker almost forgot about being a vampire himself for a second. He wanted to talk to Areleth about this group coming from another world, but apparently the High Septum of the Quinity had been summoned by ‘The Citadel’ for some reason. He would have to talk to him later.
Barracker opened the door to ‘The Hunter’s Lodge’, a sound of the bell jingled, signalling his arrival. Barracker held the door for a dwarf who was carrying a deer carcass out. He exchanged a nod with the shorter fellow and then proceeded to the counter. The giant shop attendant placed two hands onto the counter, chewing tobacco as he spoke with a grizzled tone. His name was Butch and he had a glass eye and worked the desk often. Butch was a Sibliconian, mountain people from the north. It was said that this tribe of humans bred with giants back in the mythic age and used their new found strength to carve out a kingdom in the mountains. After Ileandra the Great created the free people empire, Siblicon was the last kingdom to agree to the treaty. Giving them a reputation for being a stubborn group of people.
“What will it be today?”. The seven foot giant boomed.
“Three pints of bear fat, and four wolf liver to go with it”
Butch spat in the bucket next to him and leaned over the desk, chomping as he spoke. “We are pretty much out of bear parts. There has not been much hunting in the east as of late.” Barracker knew this was because of the war. “I might be able to scrape up a pint”.
“Alright, one pint of bear fat and two wolfs liver please.”
Once Barracker had gotten these ingredients, he made his way back into the city and paid a visit to the alchemists and purchased some silver dust and sulphur. After that, he made his way back home to use his alchemy lab.
Barracker entered ‘The Mended Drum’ after Zell, his eyes scanning the room. He was familiar with the name of this tavern. It held quite the reputation and its name reached the far ends of the city. He had never visited the place before today. His tavern of choice was ‘The Brass Monkey’, not that he preferred the roguish and criminal clientele but he felt he fit in better than the other choices of establishments. Ironic for a paladin but then again Barracker’s life was full of irony.
Zell walked over to a table with two people seated and introduced Barracker to the two of them. Barracker walked over and gave a salute, “Adam. MacKensie," he greeted as he looked at each of them respectively. "It is nice to meet you.”
The paladin could not determine which class the two adventurers belonged to, judging by the clothes. The one thing he did notice though was the red eyes of the young man. Which was strange for someone who was clearly human. A trait like this normally meant something bad, something to be wary of, as a paladin. But Barracker knew not to judge a book by its cover. As he had been judged for his appearance and his condition for the last few years.
Barracker took a seat at the table and did his best to make conversation for the rest of the evening, he stayed fairly late, long enough to get to know his new companions and to be introduced to Lillianna and Fenna, when they got back from their errands. He also saw James again.
Barracker bought everyone a drink and toasted to good fortune and health for the future. After people started retiring to bed, Barracker also took his leave and went back to ‘The Temple Of The Quinity’.
He thought to himself, I will see Areleth in the morning. A quick prayer was said to Hades and then he tried to get a few hours at least.
saiyan is on holiday. im just posting now :)
"A monster hunter, huh? Sweet,"
Barracker could hear in Zell’s voice that he was impressed. Barracker felt good to be acknowledged by a fellow swordsman but had to be humble about the reality of the job. “There is less glory in it than it sounds.” The job entailed getting rather messy and messed up. “Alot of blood, filth and saliva. Anything but sweet,” he chuckled.
"We could've done with your expertise in the Hillocks. Glad to have you aboard, pal."
Barracker placed a hand on Zell’s shoulder blade, briefly, as they walked. “I appreciate the words friend.”
“I definitely feel like someone or something brought us to this world. And whatever the reason - it's important." Zell grinned at him. "Just a feeling though. I tend not to think too much."
Barracker noted the swordsman grin, then looked around as he thought about the words. “I would not be surprised if The Quinity had a plan for you. Fate often has a hand in directing us to the choices we must face. How you choose, will be up to you.”
When they came upon Zell’s friend, Will, Barracker stayed silent throughout the conversation. He was surprised that someone who had only been in the city two days had made himself a drinking buddy. He imagined Krillen would be rather similar in a new city.
When Barracker and Zell approached ‘The Mended Drum’, they both bumped into James. The paladin took off his mask and gave a salute to the leader of his party.
"Hey James, look who I bumped into whilst taking a walk in the park. You off out? Cleric business or something?"
"Somehow it doesn't surprise me it was you who found him"
Barracker gave a nod, greeting the cleric, “hello James.”
"And hello again Barr- Kas!, you are part of the party after all, and that means a nickname"
The paladin laughed, “I guess that is a new one, my best friend calls me Barri.”
"But nah, it's not 'Cleric bussiness', I am just going to run some errands that I want to get done before we depart"
"I will visit the market, do either of you need anything?"
Barracker shook his head. Although he did need some ingredients to create a blade oil specific to spectral entities, he would get that himself tomorrow. “No thank you”. As James left Barracker said, “Take care.” Then looked at Zell and gestured towards the door, “after you.”
"Well fuck - have I got a story to tell you, mate. Pack a lunch and buckle your seatbelt."
Barrackers’ mind grew weary from the explanation, it was a lot of information to process. Another universe. It was hard to comprehend. Would Hades have known of this, all this time? Surely Hades' power reaches where they are from, maybe he is called another name there? Are the Quinity behind these people arriving in this world? But no… No magic, means no Source. But how can a world exist without Source? the paladin thought as the rabbit hole just kept getting deeper.
The events of their journey so far were hard to follow, because of the weight of implications of this other universe, but Barracker managed to keep up with Zell. In just a few days, without even knowing anything about the world they were in, their path had been riddled with danger. Suffering two deaths within their group, hunted by WitchQueen agents and stumbling into the grasp of ‘Aurok the man-eater,’ of all creatures to meet in this world. That atrocity of a beast would’ve probably killed a full party of adventurers of my strength, nevermind me on my own, he thought as a monster hunter himself. Mother Iris must’ve been on their side for even a single one of them to have survived.
--------------------------
"Hey Barracker,"
Suddenly Barracker was dragged out of his deep thoughts by his companion, but whatever he started talking about was difficult to concentrate on, as he was still quite bewildered and occupied by what he had been told in the park.
"You know; vampires aren't real in my world. We just have them in stories and mov- err, theatre productions and stuff. They're usually pretty scary fuckers, drinking blood and kidnapping women. There's some pretty-boy teenage-girl's fantasy types. But there's one vampire that I bloody loved... his name was Blade."
These people from another universe, where Source did not exist, had the gift of the Source crystal from the start. And the source had blessed James as a cleric with divine connection to the entire Quinity and all fifteen of the smaller gods. Did Areleth know the extent of ‘Second Chance’s’ importance? Was his destiny to join them truly part of Hades’ plan for the paladin? He was now feeling an added pressure to do his part for the team and keep them safe. Something deep in his gut told him that this would be a tall task.
"This dude was a total badass. Sunlight didn't affect him, he had a silver sword, a bandoleer of steaks and he hunted the bad vampires to protect humans. Wore shades, a bullet-proof vest and a trench coat, rode a motorbike. Kicked the shit outta everyone. Not to be messed with."
Barracker gave a vague smile to disguise the fact he hadn’t fully heard or understood what the other fighter had been rambling on about for the last minute.
"What. A. Film. If I could tell my mates I'm now fighting side by side with a badass vampire, they'd be jelly ay-eff, I swear. Ha!"
Get yourself together, he thought to himself.
"So, what have you been up to in your time as an adventurer? What did you do before this?"
Barracker rubbed the top of his hooded head. As he replied he could be heard perfectly well from behind his enchanted mask. “I spent my teenage years serving in the ranks of the military. First as a squire, then as a soldier. Then the gift blessed me as a paladin. But I became a monster hunter rather than joining an adventurer party. I have been doing that until now, the high septum Areleth thinks your party of great importance, and now do I come to the same conclusion,” the paladin spoke with a strong belief on the matter.
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