Raymond Mercator While he was pondering as to what exactly to do the answer presented itself. The man held out his hands and introduced himself as Bryce of Oxenfurt. While the last name was odd nearly fit of nobility the man didn't seem to have that same air around him as that bunch. He took the hand a gave a firm handshake, despite the broken leg he still had all the strength in his arms, the kind of strength one only got from working long days in the fields. "Raymond Mercator, born near Aldersberg, bred in the Aedirnian countryside, lost everything and now we're here. Pleased to make your acquaintence, Bryce." He said, the feeling was entirely geniune it made him feel less alone around here. To have atleast someone to talk to, a familiar face. He wasn't sure, maybe Bryce had felt it in him that he had been on his last straws, but now he felt a lot better, prepared to not go down without a fight. "If you ever need a sword at your side, for whatever reason, Bryce, I would be honoured to stand with you." He said, eventhough his leg would play hell on his footwork he felt confident he would still be able to fight.
Raymond Mercator He once more felt a pat on the shoulder the man had a point he was still alive. "Aye, maybe I haven't fulfilled whatever purpose I was brought into this world for. This city will be an entirely fresh start for me. I'll make the most out of it or die trying. And really it's not like I'm a mage that lives for years and years and years and just won't die. If I got another 20 years then that's fine by me." He said feeling more determined to get through this all. "Thank you kind stranger, and you are right, I can't judge you on anything but your act of kindness. And such an act is all I need to know you're a good and caring man." He now had a bit of an idea as to what the argument earlier in the bar with his younger sister. "I would like to repay you I know you didn't do much for me, but if there's ever anything I could do to help you out, I could probably be found on the outskirts of the city." He considered asking the man for his name for a moment, but the way he had spoken he didn't seem to be the type that was looking to become acquainted with him, but it also seemed rude to just walk out on the man and he was pondering on what to do next.
Varraki watched as the blue and white troops disembarked from the Valiant, they formed up in what would have been an ancient battle formation. Infantry squares utilising shields of sorts to protect them, he had to admit it was a smart move. The problem with that formation however was to keep it up the troops had to move slowly to keep the formation intact, it was a rather unwieldy formation for long range operations. He watched them move closer painfully slowly and silently wished he had a cup of tea to make the waiting easier, that thing had mentioned something about tea, but there would be no time to make tea right now. He awaited the battle and as troops started to engage each other the formations collapsing to explosive bolts while return fire took its toll on the defenders. He watched through the scope and had found himself his first target, the explosive bolt had opened up the formation. He had chosen the position carefully, concealed himself and the sun was in such a place its light could not reflect off the glass scope attacked to the rifle. As the formation was trying to reform itself he fired, the shot rang out though the sounds of battle did a decent job of masking it and his target fell to the ground gurgling blood as the round tore into his throat. It had been just another soldier and while he had spotted several people outside of the formations, the wise hunter knew what animal to hunt and what animal to avoid. While it would be good to get such a kill he doubted he could manage it. And it took strength to know one's limitations. He prepared himself for his next shot, firing too quickly would only give away his position and he scanned for the next target.
Baldomar Ererim So the man gave his name and asked him to be called by that. "Well if that works for you, fine by me, Laurentinus." He said and waited patiently in line and did as he was instructed, seeing he wasn't an entirely unreasonable person. When it was his turn he spoke up "Baldomar Ererim." he kept it with that, didn't know any better and telling people it was a pleasure to meet them seemed such an odd thing to do was everyone but him able to see the future and predict the outcome of the meeting of a person? For all they knew everyone would backstab each other and how were those pleasant people? He just walked on, tempted to drag the hammer across the floor boards but deciding against it. He went on his way to inspect the food he had heard mentioned, seeing he had been traveling for quite a while and not always had had a decent meal. Hammer hunting deer was an art and one he was reasonably good at, but even that didn't guarantee a good meal every day.
He had moved throughout the wasteland with care to not be seen. When he got closer to the place where the figure he had seen had fallen he saw that a rather strange thing, it frightened him if he was being honest, he hadn't seen anything like it before a massive metallic construct, he immediatly froze when it had seen him and even spoke to him. He saw the red cloaked figure standing by it, and from the words chosen he deduced the figure was in safe hands. Therefore the distraction was no more, with his eyes locked on the massive machine he walked backwards and when he felt comfortable enough with how much distance there was between him and the thing, whatever it was, he took his eyes away and moved away the airship was close to landing. He increased his pace a little bit more careless about remaining unseen, he wanted to find himself a good post for the collection of the debt and to put more distance between him and that thing. He spotted quite a good position, again an uprooted tree, but this one was removed from the main line of advance of the hammers and it turned out to give him a decent option for retreat as on the other side of the mound there was a small forest. He unslung his rifle and concealed himself once more awaiting the arrival of the Hammers, so he could get this done and leave again.
The Prince had been stalking the forces of the Hammer for days, even weeks. The lands had changed from those he had called home to the devastated countryside. Bones strewn everywhere, trees uprooted, craters, the result of this extended conflict. A conflict they had wanted to drag him into, looking upon these lands he was motivated more to go back home after he had collected the blood price. The Code was clear for the murder of innocents the perpetrator had to die and while the perpetrators were dead, they were representatives. The representated faction had to pay the blood price, but he couldn't attack anyone, he had to collect the price from those who had chosen the life of a fighter. He had carefully chosen his position and concealed himself below one of the uprooted trees, he could see the tower and quickly looked it over through the scope and noticed something odd. Someone was climbing it, he watched quite intrigued with the sight, until something happened he couldn't clearly see what it was but the figure fell down. He would keep an eye out for people coming out of the tower who might have seen or heard anything and will help the person, if not he would go over himself. The tower was quite the impressive structure, as he admired it the massive gun opened fire, he couldn't discover what it was firing at, but he did see the massive Airship that was starting to land. He turned his attention back to the tower, he could see the figure climbing up again. They were alright then, he kept an eye on the airships landing proces, knowing that soon this land might be set aflame once more, he watched the figure climb the tower, they got higher this time but again something seemed amiss. He watched in horror as the figure seemed about to fall once more. "No.... hold on.... hold on... hold on.....steady.... steady..." He said as if his words would influence the outcome of it all. He watched with a feeling of horror as the person fell once more. He scanned his surroundings and found another suitable position to fire from, easily to disappear and it would allow him to check up on the person that had fallen. He slung his rifle around his shoulder once more and cautiously moved towards the tower, taking care to remain unseen, moving over to where the person had fallen, time was short, but he had to know if they were hurt or not.
Baldomar Ererim Baldomar had taken note of the fact the sound of his hammer scraping over the stones could be as experienced as annoying, well that was their fault for making roads out of stone and not dirt like a sensible person. The man he pushed past however decided to object to his practice of dragging the hammer along the stones. "No you cannot, mr. Fancypants. But I didn't realise there were such virgin ears amongst the group. Very well." He said as he lifted his hammer "Happy now?" He asked and walked away as they were invited in. "Thanks" He simply stated as he walked past the Bracklewoods and Mr Venger. He really didn't understand the need for all the bloody rules that Mr Fancypants mentioned. People had dragged hunks of metal into his home plenty of times, then again what would a city-boy know. I mean they threw rocks at each other as jokes how would anyone not involved understand that tradition? Then someone else appeared who seemed to be happy to work with everyone here. "Yeah, we'll see how this one goes....." He said, his last partners had been a bit reluctant to help him out when he needed it eventhough he helped when it was necesary.
Conrad Heinrich Adelbrecht Carsten von Eisenstein II The young noble listened to the magics Damian had, devil slayer? Damn that sounded pretty powerful, but it was no use. Vance asked him about his magics, he turned to his fellow noble. "Concealment, Dark Écriture and Heavenly body magic... I know they don't sound too useful, but I believe both Dark Écriture and Heavenly body possesed spells that granted flight...it will however be more dangerous than it already would be... seeing we have only just learned our magics and are far from mastering them. It will be risky, but if I carry someone....and Zephyros carries someone we got 4 people up there... I think between four of us we'll be able to figure it out." Conrad spoke offering up the idea. He would otherwise be up for some climbing.
Baldy is gonna settle the scores with those acursed Drakes, he is going Big game hunting
Veceslav Furst Veceslav's journey to Novigrad went off without a hitch after he had killed the Cockatrice he had run into. He had asked the guards at the gate if they had seen any other witchers recently, no valuable information to be gained. He knew it wouldn't be that easy, his scion wouldn't make a mistake like that but it never hurt to check. He sold some of the ingredients harvested from that Cockatrice and made his way to a rather specific tavern, the Nightshade. It had been ages since he had spoken to his friend, but hecould use some help at this moment, one of his oldest students was going on a genocidal rampage. He had to find her and quickly, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. Veera didn't know nor did Derrick, but after the attack on the Kaer he himself in a blind rage had gone on a similar terror campaign, he had gotten in way over his head and nearly gotten himself killed. The man he was about to meet did know about it, he had stopped him before it was too late. He ordered a drink and sat down, it wasn't too long before his friend had appeared, he had aged, quite a bit even. "Good to see you again, Crow" The man said, ordering himself a drink. "Likewise, Sigmund... wish it'd be under better circumstances though." The crow replied. They sat there with their drinks talking about trivial things first and when they were done they left together to find a more private place to talk about the issue. "It's her.... she's been in Novigrad recently and well when she finally came to the Kaer where I thought she'd be wintering she said something about wanting to murder all the dopplers... She stormed off I figured it'd be best to leave her for a bit, but she left together with one of the younger ones.... I gotta stop her..." Sigmund looked at him "I'll put out some feelers, see if anyone seen or heard something about witchers, I'll also have some people watch for dead people turning up. If I learn anything you're the first to know." Veceslav thank his old friend, they had worked together on the trials of witchers and they were responsible for the first female witchers. They caught up on times long since passed as they hadn't seen each other in years. Raymond Mercator He felt the hand on his shoulders and looked at the man next to him. "It's really that obvious then, isn't it... Aye.. I am not from around here, I am from Aedirn...or rather was from Aedirn. I fought in several battles, my last one I was there, the Black Ones were crossing the Yaruga, Demavend dead, no ruler in place. Luckily the nobility could atleast organise some sort of defense...The second Temerian Army under John Natalis supported us along the Mount Carbon - Dol Blathana line we held for three days then they smashed our lines to splinters... I was run down by one of those bastards, broke my leg... only survived by playing dead..." He stopped as the emotions were overwhelming him "I'm sorry, I shouldn't bother a stranger with this." He hadn't even told the worst, he was ashamed of himself for what he did, he should have died on that battlefield... there was no honour for cowards like himself. He left his wife and children to die. He felt the sword by his side, one of the few things from that old life, the sword that had been his father's before his.
Baldomar Ererim It had once more been a pain to get into the city, he hated the places for it, he hated way too many people in one spot like that and all their stupid little rules about what you could and couldn't do, he would generally end up in prison for existing or some other nonsense reason. He walked through the city, dragging his warhammer across the stones of the streets, making a rather annoying scraping sound, though he didn't mind it too much. He was supposed to get to some manor, if there was going to be some stuck-up twat going to try and educate him he'd be gone in record time. He already knew what he had to do then again the problem had been that fool of a greenbeard, he was the only one in town to actually get something done and the old maniac feeds him those blasted mushrooms? Oh well, I hope they all enjoyed the several dozens of fire ant colonies in their midst now. He looked at the manor and was severly underwhelmed. "Ugh... city folk and their houses..." He sighed and walked over hammer still grinding on the stones as he went along. Pushing past some fancy looking twat(looking at you Laurentinus) who was asking who a fellow man of the wildernis was supposed to be. Wasn't it obvious? What good were these fancy schools he heard about if they didn't teach you the obvious things. This was going to be such a pain, wasn't it?
Name: Baldomar Ererim Gender: Male Age: 36 Class: Shaman/Barbarian Weapon(s): Warhammer Armour: Leather Magic/incantations: -Dark Shamanic -Earth - Stone Crafting: Medicine Specialism: Health Appearance: Long black hair, brown eyes and a rough beard, relatively muscular, just your average barbarian Personality: It's Baldy no more explanation needed Origination: That one madtown in the Wilderniss Backstory: After his previous adventures he once again returned back to his hometown, after a while Elder Greenbeard(No not to be confused with Treebeard) got fed up with him and laced some of his lentil soup with mushrooms that would weaken the barbarian, who immediatly threw a fit, and left the place in search of another journey to grow stronger once more. He got wind of this so called adventurers society and decided why not join them, it's not like he'd run into anyone that he knew, where ever they had gone.
Raymond Mercator Despite Bryce's hand trying to steady him he couldn't help but fall onto the cold hard streets, as his knees hit the stone he let out a cry of pain. With Bryce's help he got back onto his feet. "No... it's not your fault..." He said only then recognising the person as the other bloke from earlier. "I wasn't entirely focussing on where I was going.... lost in thoughts you see..." He said, he wasn't exactly lying "I'm sorry for your inconvenience." all the while he was the recipient of the most inconvenience out of it, he could feel it in his leg. He had to get away from this place. He shifted his weight to his bad leg and winced, that was going to take a bit more time to heal, but what was he to do? Get rest and die in a bed of starvation because no one was there to take care of him? He looked Bryce in the eyes for a moment, this one was her brother then? Atleast they could take care of each other. He had no one left, not since he ran. The sadness was present in his eyes. "I should go.... I'm sorry..." Raymond said as he prepared himself to walk away.
Raymond Mercator He listened attentively as Tessa explained how things worked regarding work, of course Bar tenders didn't hire directly he knew that. "Thank you, I'll make sure to check it out tomorrow..." He said, he looked up when the door opened again and one of the blokes from earlier walked in. He saw something change in the smile of the girl. Oh what the hell had he been thinking, wait what had he been thinking? He had gotten himself confused for a moment, he stopped watching them and turned his eyes down, praying to whatever gods were out there that they didn't notice. He took a sip from his drink. Maybe it was better he never returned here. They'd never miss him anyways, probably forgotten about him in under a week with all customers coming in. He'd just be another face in the crowd, nothing special. He had seen other taverns in town, he could always go and drink there. He quickly finished his drink, walked over to the bar, put down 10 crowns, which he knew was too much for the drink and walked out the fact he broke his leg noticable in his gait. He walked out the door in such a hurry he caught his foot on the threshold and fell out of the establishment onto the streets...
Conrad Heinrich Adelbrecht Carsten von Eisenstein II He had the feeling most of his words had fallen on deaf ears and he wasn't far from the truth seeing only Florica seemed to have heard what he had been saying. She apparantly could see the sense in his words and seemed to agree with his theory of something else driving the populace away. He didn't miss what was happening between Vance and Shani. It had been over a week ago now, but it still stung like hell and he fought for control for a moment. A week... did the others he had run into know already? Did Alessia know? By now they may have noticed she hadn't been present, then again people went on missions splitting up the entire guild, he had been on two missions and only after that had run into Alessia, when he got back he'd try to bring the news. Right now however he needed to focus, but he knew deep down that this was going to keep on bugging him for quite a while. Currently standing around doing absolutely nothing he decided to take the lead and see who would follow, if no one followed him he figured he could use the alone time. He wanted to check out that wooded area just north of the destroyed strongpoint before moving on and started walking away. Going for the most left yellow circle on ze map
Conrad Heinrich Adelbrecht Carsten von Eisenstein II Seeing everyone else was way too busy with Thea and her lava, Vance even trying to get to her by jumping, well done to him, surviving such a suicidal plan but deciding to throw it out the window after one brush too close with death. He had to give the man credit for trying though, then Zephyros decided to play the hero of the day and turn into an angel to go get Thea, but leaving Vance stranded in the middle of nowhere surrounded by lava, what a guy. "I hate to rain on your parade, but there's someone else who could probably use a hand as well, just saying...." Conrad said pointing to Vance. He decided it was best to keep on thinking whatever was up with this gate, he considered to take this opportunity to blow it up or atleast force it open, but this situation did give him an idea. "Say.... why do you abandon a perfectly fine defensive structure or defensible position or a home.... by the looks of it it hasn't seen battle therefor to abandon it for that reason is not an option... They had to leave for a reason... Something differently threatening them maybe? A famine? Getting out of the city in the hopes of finding food? Or running from something? I mean you can't run forever so they hide? So that's why it's abandoned? Because they felt like they had to hide from something? Find a shelter for a coming storm so to speak?" Conrad spoke, more thinking out loud than directing it at someone in particular.
Conrad Heinrich Adelbrecht Carsten von Eisenstein II Conrad looked at Shani "As I had already pointed out that theory relied on me being entirely right, strongholds don't really destroy themselves, and I do not know about you but the most logical option for a military installation to be destroyed is it being destroyed in their use also known as war." Conrad said simply "As for bodies, you'd be surprised how quickly scavengers can clear out a battlefield..." Conrad stated matter-of-factly what they also forgot about was the fact that after a battle they'd clean up, they went off again this time towards a gate, it was closed and looked deserted, he took a look towards the top of the walls or see if he could discover anything from the arrowslits or the murder holes. It was then Thea decided it was time to play the floor is Lava and he though to himself "God damn it...really.... out of all the things that could happen.... are you ****ing kidding me...." He decided to ignore it, that was Vance's problem not his. He looked at the gate then at Shani "Bringing it down eh? I think that could be arranged...I mean I don't think we're going to learn much from lookin at it... It's abandoned or atleast as far as I can see, why I can only theorise as to what happened here, perhaps abandoned to flee from either a natural disaster or a war... If we can get inside maybe we can learn more about it...." Conrad said, he was just looking for an excuse to blow something up right now and well since Thea apparantly learned new tricks, Vance learned new tricks maybe he did as well. He vaguely remembered the magic picking ceremony and he hadn't really asked anyone about the missing details yet, but he did recall one of the magics that had been chosen by him could be used as a door opener amongst other things.
Conrad Heinrich Adelbrecht Carsten von Eisenstein II Conrad snorted at the comment of him being a military scholar. "I nearly got to put the theory into practice as well, just a bloody shame I didn't pass one test." He said, he then thought about what Vance said. "Okay, if what I say is true about them trying to break the siege by going through that pass, it means the forces came from that way. The most logical option for retreat would be in the exact opposite direction, I assume this would have been a forward position of a defensive line and if the attackers came from there, then retreat would be in that direction. And while they could have just fallen back through the pass giving up their position I suspect their officer had orders to fight, furthermore getting groups of soldiers out is going to get noticed and it'll turn into a massacre. If my assumptions are correct, then we should investigate in that direction..." He again pointed to things as he spoke, in the end pointing eastwards through the pass. "It alll however does rely on my assumptions being right... Alternatively we could investigate the immedite area to see if there are traces left of the invader..."
Conrad Heinrich Adelbrecht Carsten von Eisenstein II Conrad walked along with the others and they found a set of ruins. He looked at the ruins and the position of them. He listened closely to what was said, not that it wasn't anything he didn't notice himself. Then Vance somehow managed to get the wall back into a more original state, since when was he able to do that? He must have learned that while Conrad was out or something. He paced around for a little bit. "As for the Blackflames, heard of them, father mentioned them a few times, can't say I have met them... and while your guess of a Castle is a rather good one, it's not entirely right." Conrad said, he watched closely as Vance seemed to come to the same conclusion he had already reached. And just after Vance said he didn't know much Conrad chimed in "It is indeed a stronghold. It may have been part of a larger network of fortifications, given the location of this one, I'd say it was used to defend this pass. And Vance aesthetics of a fortress can make it look more formidable or threatening than it actually is. Sure it costs quite a bit of coin, but solid defenses are more than worth it." Conrad said pointing at things as he explained all the knowledge that had become relatively useless to him. "Given the state of this place, this has been the scene of some harsh fighting, taking strongholds is always rather.....messy..." His mind drifted to some historical accounts he read but quickly snapped out of it. "They tried to defend the stronghold and then send a portion of their soldiers through the pass to swing around.... risky tactic....but if executed properly it could have helped in breaking the siege allowing for a more organised retreat..." He muttered mainly just thinking out loud.
Conrad Heinrich Adelbrecht Carsten von Eisenstein II Conrad got annoyed with Shani about her remark regarding maggots, getting it all together and most importantly calling it fooling around. He nearly blurted something out regarding Cacti and leaving him alone but he could just save it. He boarded the vessel and found himself a quiet spot and soon drifted off to sleep, his dreams weren't all that pleasant and he half expected to see Vance when he opened his eyes again. Lucky for him he didn't, not so lucky for him his head felt like it was being hammered on constantly, he made sure to drink lots of water that day and just keep out of the way. For the remainder of the journey he stuck to himself. When they finally reached land again and no one luckily died from scurvy he was among the first to disembark. While he didn't mind being on a ship, he liked rock beneath his feet just a bit better, his entire family was like that. When Vance was going to say something and then sighed running after Thea, Conrad figured in an unknown land they would be better prepared if they stuck together and he too followed.
