Tarquin

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Katrina was halfway through sawing another bandit in half when the captain's voice rang out. It seemed she was finally getting herself involved. At least she hadn't completely lost her nerve and panicked or something, which would have been an outright death knell for her career...at least as far as Katrina was concerned. Finishing off the bandit she had been working on, Katrina heard the ones that wanted to report back. Katrina was about to set upon them even before the captain made an extremely obvious order. But her efforts were unnecessary, as their resident ice mage Tiral saw to the fleeing cowards. Katrina was a little disappointed, but there were other targets to be had; in particular, some of them had the nerve to carry on fighting.

Katrina immediately set upon the closest bandits that still gripped their weapons tightly. Before, she had been taking her time with her kills, performing excessive flourishes to get more out of it. But with them looking like they wanted to run, she figured it was best she cut them down swiftly. Three of them fell, one after the other, as Katrina guided her double sword through their soft armor and even softer flesh. They might have had the guts to keep fighting in the face of all this, but Katrina had just fixed that problem; their guts were now displayed on the ground for all to see.

"Disappointing, really..." She murmured to herself. She had fun, but it was over a little too quickly for her liking. "...fortunately there's more to be had." Thinking beyond the present scene, she knew there laid a whole slew of other bandits. Of course, they had yet to see this jumped up "Bandit King Jeremiah". Katrina wanted to take his head personally. Not for the glory, but so she could rest easy knowing she had cut the head off this serpent.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Some people are trying to be all sagacious and comment on what true tactics are.

Meanwhile Katrina's in the corner being all "Kill kill kill!"

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

It really was quite amusing for Katrina to see their captain getting flustered by all the attention she was receiving. Sometimes, Sult's nonsense was just what this company needed, as far as Katrina was concerned. Of course, she wouldn't appreciate being on the receiving end of such nonsense, but she could have a giggle watching other people have to deal with it. It was not long before the group of them chanced upon a destroyed cart. The obvious conclusion was that it had been raided by the bandits. Katrina had to wonder what kind of poor sod had ended up in a notorious bandit territory. Had they been living under a rock? Were they foreign? The captain raced in to check on the scene. Katrina watched curiously before a bunch of bandits appeared on the scene. This was a trap, and their captain had rushed right into it. That did not speak well of her.

But the positive side was that the enemy had finally shown their faces. This may not seem like good news to many, but Katrina had been itching to butcher some of these scum for a while now. She dismounted with exceptional speed and raced to engage the first enemy she could find. She chanced upon some poor sod that had emerged from the treeline, trying to circle around the other knights. He spotted Katrina when she was only a few mere steps from him, and he froze on the spot. Katrina swung her double sword and cleaved through the man's left arm. He was already panicking and had no chance of fighting on, but Katrina wasn't finished. She whirled her sword around and slashed him right across the torso, then followed up with a slice to the right leg, cutting it off. The bandit's corpse collapsed in front on her.

An arrow shot towards her shortly after her first kill. She evaded it, and her gaze transfixed on the nearby bandit that had fired. He could see that she looked positively giddy at having seen her next target, and he turned to run. Katrina easily caught him and skewered him through the back. She pulled her sword out of the wound only to preform a strong slash to finish the man off. He fell flat on his face, and was silent. Katrina's clothes were already drench in blood, and her armor spattered with various stains and splotches. But this didn't bother Katrina in the least; she was in her element. It was almost nostalgic, taking her back to her time in the slums fighting some of Thaln's most wretched. Only now, she wasn't just fighting peasly thugs and other rif-raff, but a real bandit horde. The blood on her wasn't a few drops from a broken nose, but everything that had gushed out of the deep wounds she had sliced open.

And all she could think of was where the rest of them were, so she might finish the job.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Marianne is sweet, and Katrina is sour. Super sour.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

The only person Katrina actually dislikes is Marianne right now. We'll have to see about the rest.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Why this was a job for the knights, Katrina did not know. It seemed to her that the kingdom's soldiers ought to be more than well equipped to take on a pack of uppity bandits, but they had failed miserably. What kind of kingdom was Thaln, if it's soldiers couldn't defeat the outlaws within its borders? Some might claimed this self proclaimed King Jeremiah and his ilk were special, that they were all too strong, but Katrina had to wonder if Thaln's military hadn't simply gotten soft. Perhaps they were too used to relying upon the Knights of the Iron Rose to handle their own problems anymore. Whatever the case was, it was their job right now to crack some bandit skulls open, and Katrina was all too ready to put an end to this pack of rabid dogs.

Their task aside, one large concern was their fresh commanding officer; Fanilly Danbalion. Katrina didn't approve of the idea of picking random women born at a certain time for command, but she could care less if someone was picked by an antiquated tradition as long as they stepped up to the role well enough. Fanilly had yet to do anything of real note, and as such Katrina had yet to form a real opinion of her. She did not expect much from her, however, and she wouldn't hesitate to take sides the moment she made it clear she couldn't hack it. Then again, Katrina would only take the side of someone she thought might do the job better. She definitely wouldn't jump in on the side of some poncy noble that thought the position ought to be theirs by birth or some other rot. The only thing Katrina respected was success, and only a proven commander would be worth fighting for.

On the thought of poncy nobles, Katrina noticed Marianne piping up with her moronic opinion. Katrina didn't give half a stuff about titles and courtesies, and it seemed Tyaethe shared her sentiment. She sniggered as Marianne was put in her place. As for the rest of it, Katrina didn't really care what tactics they used as long as they got stuck in. If these really were just a pack of dirty criminals, they would panic once they got bloodied badly enough. Between herself, Garrett, Tyaethe and the other knights with even a scrip of real experience, they could probably rout them alone. In any case, Katrina was ready to dismount and head in.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

I have another question;

Are we likely to encounter more creatures than those listed under the races on the OP? Or are those races the effective limit of what we might expect to encounter?

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

I have one if you don't mind;

What was the previous Iron Rose captain like? I figure anyone making judgements about the new one would use the last one as a point of reference.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

@Doc Doctor The point was you should give him a more specific motivation to join in.

But if you don't want to do that, that's your business.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Personally, I feel that his past as a cannibal mercenary shouldn't have much bearing on how he gets in. Unless he was such a notorious douchebag that they've heard of him even in Thaln, or his jungle homeland is right next to Thaln (which would be a bit weird), they couldn't have possibly heard of him. Considering Themerlinhawk's character kind of walked down from the Velt foothills and petitioned to join, it seems like the only real requirements are being a capable fighter and/or being prepared to do good deeds.

That said, it still begs the question why a guy from some far off land decided to root up and join a distant knight order. If he just wanted to do good deeds, the Iron Rose knights can't possibly be the only people that help people in this whole wide world. I think people just think there should be a more specific reason for choosing to join the order than random whimsy.