Vixia The Wealthy And Righteous Swords

Talinian looks back at Mia and nods, somehow guessing the thought...and hoping their less than bright guide got it right.

Bones looks quizzically at their guide. This Dalton seems rather simple minded, he thinks to himself, It's interesting that his master keeps him around. Bones looks up to the guards, putting his hands up, "It's a fine day indeed, friends. Young Dalton here was only bringing us here to see his master as we had questions after the nearby town's mayor, Raymond. We mean no trouble."

Quote from SpieltJoos >>

Quote from coachmanak >>

 

Bones you find 

 

(OOC - you left out something :) )

 My bad you find 16 silver worth of herbs to make healing potions with. (sorry if I am not useing the same tools as I did before on finding herbs, I think I am.

The guards wait a few moments and then open the doors.  A few guards are waiting on the other side of the door, 2 with short swords drawn(a pair of gnomes with little to no difference between them) a Sun elf with a pair of axes in hand and a Human who based on his size could be mistaken for a Goliath, a small one, but mostly he lacks some of the physical characteristics, the human has a maul in his hand with the head of it resting on the ground.

“Dalton!” The human is very excited to see Dalton and embraces him in a hug. “Ingon said you would not return till late tonight.  Happy to have you home early brother.”

“Maxer when did you get back?”  Dalton askes the human.

“We must have missed one another at the crooked turn, you must be accosted.  Ingon is resting as are the rest of the masters, why don’t you go to your quarters and we will show your guests to the guest quarters.”
“Yes, yes.  Thank you.”  Dalton turns to you all “they will take you to our guest quarters, ummmm and I will see you later tonight.”  Turning around from the group he says “Hi Virdan, hope all is well. Manlin and Davlin staying in trouble I assume?”  the Elf spits in your all direction when Dalton says hi to him.  The Twins shake their heads with a yes after being told hello.

The human, named Maxer swings his hammer over his shoulder and says this way, would you like a tour before being shown the guest quarters?”

You can hear the sound of a black smith, and mothers yelling at their children, animal noises, and a field with some workers in it singing a tone to work with.

(I am on my laptop so I am just going to put a link to the map rather than doing the image thing right now.)

Castle

The link is to the map of the castle’s area, only a few minor cosmetic differences between the image and reality.  Number 1 the wall that separates the area into different sections is completely gone, what little remains is just symply parts that are too hard to remove.  The walls are also made out of stone rather than wood, and you can see what parts were part of the original castle, and what parts are new, well I mean they are almost a thousand years old, but the other parts are even older.  You notice this same thing with some of the buildings that are in the village area.  Any area that looks like a field or open area is really farm land. 

Talinian pulls Bones and Mia aside. "Do you want a tour?" He asks quietly.

ooc: Assuming the answer is yes.

"We would enjoy that.  Thank you."

OOc: if the answer is no.

"We would prefer to be shown to our rooms, but thank you.   It has been a long day and night and morning."

Bones nods, "A tour would be interesting. To see how this band of lawful vampires live would be rather educational."

Upon meeting up with Dalton's mixed group of friends, or family? Mialee would be sizing them up. The twins were a curious pair. The elf she couldn't figure out whether she wanted to roll her eyes at him, or spar with him from his attitude. But then there was the goliath sized human with the maul in his hand that kept her attention. It was an interesting group to say the least. The blonde would simply nod to each of them in greeting.

Before Talinian would even pull them off to the side, Mia's brow would pop and she'd simply say, "Yes, please." to Maxer's offer to tour them and show her to her sleeping quarters. "Training grounds too if you have them." She'd add with a smirk, hand on the pommel of her own hammer.

Vixia Lore

As you start to walk you pass a somewhat larger building on your left, when you do so Maxer sticks his head in the door and says “Thrukurd I’m giving a tour to Dalton’s new friends would you take the gate for me?” a voice that is extremely deep and loud comes out from the building with a slew of curses and ends with a “YES!”

As you continue to walk Maxer points to the fields where there are people working “this is our farm, our Hands spend their day tending to it.  They make sure that all plants are growing healthy….. He continues with a short explanation as to how farming works.  You then walk through the small village he points out different shops, the bakery, and butcher shop are both mostly closed at this point as they ready things for dinner.  The blacksmith is a short Ulfsark just over 5 feet, with brindle patterned fur, but his breed is not identifiable what so ever. He gives a head raise to Maxer and you can see his tail behind him wagging almost uncontrollably, after Maxer yells a hello.

He takes you into the North most building that looks like it is the largest building in the village, not including the castle itself.  “This is the feeding room.  Most of us volunteer to be the master’s food, those who are chosen, The Blood, live here, and live comfortably.  They always eat before any of us, and are cared for very well. The sight you see is absolutely amazing, it looks extremely fancy with silks and fine carving on the walls.  There is a main area that is surrounded by doors, and a walkway for a second set of doors on a second floor, it looks almost like a tavern.  There are two people in here, the first are wearing the same type of drab and plain clothing, the second reminds you of what lower lords would wear.  Those in drab clothing are weighting on The Bloods bringing them food, one Dwarf female is receiving a message from a male, in one corner there is a human man with two women sitting on his lap, and one at his feet, there is a table of 6 people playing cards with a drab dressed person dealing.

There is more to the tour, but I wanted to pause here because I feel like this might be a spot where you might want to do some RPing.

Talinian scans the feeding room, hiding his disgust at the idea, noting anything of particular interest.  "It is clear the benefit which the vampires receive from this arrangement.  What benefit do the...providers receive?"

Perception: 6
Investigation: 9

Bones looks around the room at Talinian's question, "I'm assuming it is all of this? They seem to want for nothing and needn't raise a hand for it. An interesting life to choose, that is for sure."

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

"Master Bones is correct, the luxurory is what they receive, I do think that if you spent some time here you too would want to be a Blood.  But seeing as the Masters need only so few, not all are chosen.  It’s almost funny why I am not a Blood, I prove to be too useful elsewhere, but one day.”  Maxer pauses and points to an old looking Goliath, sitting in what looks to be a wheel chair, being fed soup from one of the people in drab clothing.  “One day when I can no longer swing this hammer I hope that I prove good enough that my blood be tasted, and that it is good enough to become a Blood.”

Mia would look around with open curiosity. The community seemed simple, almost cozy, self sustaining with it's own farms and agriculture. It was thriving with different shops and skilled labourers. She couldn't say she knew what to expect, but this would absolutely be a luxury away from other horrors that plague the realm. Unsurprisingly Mialee was quiet for most of the tour, listening and absorbing the culture and information being shared with them.

"How is one chosen?" Mia would finally break her silence to inquire further with Maxer. It was interesting that loyalty and desire to become a Blood wasn't enough. Why wouldn't he, Maxer, be chosen? "And is there a bonding of some sort that occurs once your blood is tasted and you have become a Blood?"

Bones nods as he listens to Maxer's reply, though he says nothing in return. He just looks quietly at the old goliath for a moment before they move on.

Having spent years at one of the most grueling magical schools in the world. Talinian was well-schooled in controlling his features and reactions.  He did so now.  "An interesting observation, Maxer,"  he replied in a neutral tone, neither face nor tone giving any hint of his disgust at the idea of turning himself into a beast of fodder for the mere comfort of his physical body.  Nor the disgust...no, he realized, it was not disgust, but a deep and abiding pity for those who had fallen so low they subjected themselves to it.

He wondered if the vampires were as good as everyone here thought or if they exercised some form of mental control over there food source.  Could they do that?

Nature: 7  What can he recall about vampires.

"This has been diverting and enlightening.  What else is there to see?"

While most Vampires can control the mind to some extent you would know that to control these many minds, for this long would be very taxing.

“Blood selection is very long.  First off the Masters only take so many people on to be bloods, so a person must die first, while in the early years this did cause for some underhanded actions the Masters quickly, and aggressively punished any who killed any Bloods.  Once a position opens up, anyone over the adult age of their race in the village may apply, most everyone does.  The masters then publicly draw 20 names that applied.  They in a private group talk about what good things they do for the community, if we serve too much of a purpose we are rejected, if we are easily replaceable we are moved into the selection pool.  Each of the 20 people are brought in and told either that they were selected and start an interview, or as in my case when I was drawn, told why we are too useful elsewhere.  Those who are selected spend up to 3 days with each of the Master, to so they get to know one another, the masters then vote for up to 5 to be tasted, these final Tasted are then feed off of by each master over the next few days, and they then pick which blood tastes the best.”  He ends the last part a little confused, not sure exactly how that part works out.  “Those who are not chosen then return to their life doing the job that they did before, most are ok with not being chosen, they understand that it is just not their turn, a few have gone into deep depressions,

Bones scowls at this explanation. "That is a rather bizarre process. I mean, you reward those that would take up a life of little work. Seemingly brushing aside those that would work hard and earn such a reward. This makes no sense to me. Those that are chosen should be something that all aim to achieve, and by awarding lessers, your potentially sully the reward and promote to the villagers that they should not try to be good at anything."

Talinian nods.  "I must agree with my friend.  This method of selection seems designed, if not in actuality then in effect, to not only promote the indolent among the population but to encourage the industrious to indolence in the hopes they will be deemed not only worthy but expendable." He pauses, then, "However, it would seem the method works for you all so clearly it has some efficacy.  What else can you show us?"

“The laziness that you speak of is not true, it is shown during the process, and their blood is not even tasted.  When I say that I am too valuable I don’t mean ALL guards are too valuable.”  Maxer points to a female half-orc who looks to not quite be middle aged. “Hurune over there is the one who was chosen a year ago when I was told I was too valuable to become a Blood, and she was a guard with me, a good one mind you, a really good shot, she lacks a little in the leadership department, we tried to give her a team once, and it did not go well.  Lastly most of us who get passed over for being too important gain the privilege when we are too old.”  He again points at the Goliath, “Loro over there was passed up 2 times when I was in my youth, my first year in the watch was his last, 2 years later he was chosen again to be in the blood trial, he was mostly a shoe in, none of the masters needed to spend time with him because they already knew him.”

Maxer takes a long pause and looks over the three of you takes a deep breath and then says “I feel that our ways disgust you, and you are questioning the legitimacy of our group.  You are not the first outsiders since I became a caption, not even the first I took on a tour, and you won't be the last.  Please be honest with me and don’t hold back.”

(OOG I am not sure if I am doing a bad day RPing this but the way that I can put it is if you were to put everyone on a scale of 1-10 on usefulness a 9 and a 10 would not go into the interview process, a 1-5 would because not all of the master would know that person, but they would not make it to the tasting, the people who get choisen are a 6, 7, or an 8 on the usefulnes scale.)