Knight of the Gith

[DoS Archive]

From: sirjoran@aol.com (Sir Joran)
Date: 10 Oct 1998 19:14:34 EDT


The baying of his mount stirred him out of his thoughts of dueling. He looked up and found his sergeant approaching up the knoll he was situated upon. Straightening his pose he swiveled the sharp cut noble faced featured towards him expectantly. Bringing his mount along side his captain's, the sergeant saluted with a pump of his right fist to his chest over his
heart, and proclaimed, "Zet'su'quai xal Talon, Captain Red Talon!"

"Zet'su'quai xal Talon, Sergeant Moon Talon," came the standard reply between those of the brotherhood. Long had he toiled since the days of being an Initiate to become a Knight Captain of one of the Outlands fiercest monastic warrior societies. He was never one to boast of his own adventures, he had comrades, like Moon Talon, who he campaigned with
who reveled in telling the adventures. His motivation was towards a life long goal, and everyday he lived he trained his body, mind, and soul for when the time would come. Even long since becoming a captain he stilled worked and trained as if he was trying to break out of Initiate, and his men respected him for his hard work and dedication and tried to emulate it in their own habits. He noticed the demeanor of his sergeant was calm in a business
as usual manner. "I take it the training this morning went well?"

"Aye, captain, them berks we just git last moon seem to have the basics drilled into them real good. Don't be rattling their bone-boxes too much in the field neither, though they need to be learning to stay more alert while doing their tasks." You could see the slight pride ole Moon Talon had in his eyes for the latest recruits he was training. He was
good at instilling discipline and the basic ways of the brotherhood into new soldiers. The preliminary tasks before the war-games would take a few more days, so everything going on now was rudimentary drills of procedures and planning. These reports to his commander was just cursory protocols and updates on information he was either already well aware of or needed confirmation were correctly performed. PTSIZE=8>"Want me to run them through the 'Pike Wheel" maneuvers to see if their ready to handle the timing of formation changes, captain?"

He considered a moment looking down towards some assembled squads watering their mounts at a nearby stream. The elves they were combating in these war-games had excellent artillery capability. He had a feeling they would try to avoid open field direct confrontation, and wouldn't commit their limited infantry to melee, but rather as guerilla tactics. Taking a moment to think of some options he
decided speed and off angles would be the best approach he advised his sergeant. "Nae, sergeant Moon Talon, I don't expect us to be using those types of strategies this time. Instead have them work with the bowmen calvary to do shield wall drills. Ye know those quick criss cross wave attacks we designed this last spring?"

Looking down a moment, the sergeant stroked his pointed chin contemplating the answer. He wasn't the quickest of sorts when it came to remembering complex plans, but he understood how to make them quicker and more accurate. Finally he looked up and smiled. "Aye, captain, I 'member. Do yew want to work with the 1 shield squad and 1 bowmen squad, or the 1-2, or the 2-2?"COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=8>

"Try them all, start with 1-1, then do the 1-2 and 2-2 options and let me know on the progress. The terrain is kindly enough to be not too rough or uneven so we can avoid getting lame mounts a bit better. I figured that will keep them occupied for the next couple of days and they will get excited about learning something new. I will be contemplating my strategy for the games for the next few days,
so keep me updated on the progress of the drills."

The sergeant nodded and snapped to attention in the saddle as he salutes once again with a pumped fist to his heart, "Duukao xal Talon, sarksaoul wzalquai Zirth Adept, Red Talon" He then backed his mount away and began to turn back down the knoll. After a few steps by his mount, he reigned it in and turned back towards his captain with a perplexed
look. "I noticed ye hadn't set yew own camp yet, want me to send some berks up to do it for yew?

"Nae, sergeant, I shall be going to RhyDin for the next couple of days. I need to get away and clear my head to relax so I can properly plan for these war-games. I'll be keeping my blade keen anyway by getting in a few spars down in the Arena." He returned the salute to his training officer, and dismissed him to his duties. Indeed he looked
forward to getting a few duels in over the next couple of days. He had become annoyed when the Standings showed he had lost his Warlord rank when he should have not. A simple mistake by the RDIs that was fixed, and they assured him he would not lose his peer wins.

He had started his dueling career on RhyDin when the new cycle started in the Arena. So he had three long months ahead of him to see how he would end up after a cycle. Hopefully, not a 0-0-0 out born again Commoner, but rather an established Warlord. Every weekend thus far he had atleast came out with more wins then losses, and with each weekend had himself a new rank. Yet this weekend though by his record he should still be a Warlord, he would
have to duel as a GrandMaster. While annoying and a bit bother that the Standings were wrong, he decided to make the best of it and refocus on making sure that when he made Warlord again this weekend which he was sure of, their would be some padding to his record. His next goal had been to see how he faired upon the Warlord Rankings, but time enough for that. He had the opportunity to see what being each rank for a weekend each was like, perhaps
having to be GrandMaster again for a weekend would just make his blade more keen to learn some skill and show some. And working his mind on dueling strategy would give him the type of physical workout to be ready for battle, and tune his mind to some strategies to contemplate for the war-games.

He dismounted his mount, leaving him to a nearby squire after an affectionate pat on his mount's flank. He informed the young cadet when he would periodically return for reports and meetings. With that he simply plane shifts to an alley down the street from the Red Dragon Inn. Walking in the afternoon weekend crowd he mingles into the crowd of other travelers to explore the sites and sounds of RhyDin's central plaza marketplace. When the sun
set he would head for the Arena and duel with a bit more motivation and purpose then usual.