Description
A middle-aged man stands here dressed haphazardly in an assortment of
mismatched clothing and armor. He is relatively handsome, given his age,
with a symmetrical face, strong jaw clear skin, and striking green eyes.
Most of all, though, your gaze is drawn to his smile, which seems
completely genuine and devoid of any guile or deceit. His profession is not
immediately apparent, but the lack of scars and bulging muscles suggest that
his training is not of the martial variety. A traveling sack is slung over
his shoulder from which you can see protruding many scrolls and books.
Role
Pestering the Customers
Added Tue Sep 29 23:27:03 2020 at level 51:
"Risund! Leave that poor man alone!"
He frowned at the sound of his father's words and bit his lower lip. He'd
heard them many times before. They meant that he'd pushed things too far.
Again. And now he'd have to do without whatever additional information
this particular patron might have been willing to share with him while
sitting and drinking in his father's small pub.
And what a sad little pub it was! Located in the South Dairein settlement,
it was almost exclusively frequented by local farmers and tradesmen. These
were men who, much like Risund himself, never left the village. Men who
were born there, would die there, and didn't much care for anything that
happened too far past the boundaries of their own fields. This irritated
Risund to no end. His curiosity and obsession with learning all about the
wider world was nearly insatiable, and the outlets available to satisfy it
were few and far between.
Long ago he had borrowed and read every book owned by anyone in the village
who could read. Twice. These contained a bit of history and some
geography, but it was not a proper education by any means and Risund knew it
all too well. He felt the lack of it keenly whenever he'd strike up a
conversation with one of the few travelers who found their way into his
father's establishment, only to be embarrassed when his ignorance of some
common topic was exposed.
His solution was to supplement his meager education with any piece of
information he could glean from the few sojourners who had the misfortune to
be stuck for the night in his small backwater of a home town. Risund picked
their brains, mercilessly at first, and quite annoyingly, though with each
admonishment from his father his skill at extracting useful information
(without annoying them) grew. He felt no ill will to them, of course. Not
at all. In fact, Risund was a rather kind-hearted boy who got along with
almost everyone. At least, everyone he wasn't trying to pump for
information.
Thus did Risund first begin to practice the skills of conversation,
negotiation and, truth be told, of persuasion. In hind sight, perhaps it
was in his blood all along. His father, after all, was basically a
bartender. No bartender puts food on the table for long if he's not able to
be a friend to all; every man's confidant and shoulder to cry on when his
wife left him or his dog died or his crops failed. Soon enough Risund was a
master of this craft as well. Sincere when he needed to be sincere,
laughing when he needed to laugh, doing whatever was necessary to keep the
patron engaged while he gently probed for any scrap of information about
life outside the village.
The Player is Played
Added Tue Sep 29 23:30:08 2020 at level 51:
"You're a what now?" he asked once more, confused by the odd woman's answer.
A "conjurer" she had said, but what even is that? Some sort of mage? She
certainly didn't look like a mage. For one, she was way too good looking,
and she didn't use any of the fancy words the few mages he'd met always
used. The woman had also walked into the pub with an axe slung over her
shoulder, and with a weird looking coyote padding along behind her. Who
ever heard of a mage with an axe? Or a coyote? His father had nearly
struck the animal before the woman intervened, somehow placating him in
record time and convincing him that the creature wouldn't bother his other
patrons.
At first, Risund was surprised at how quickly she'd dealt with his father,
who would usually have been quite opposed to the idea of a dog, much less a
coyote, being in his bar. Once he began to speak with her, though, his
surprise quickly turned to awe and respect. He'd begun their conversation
as he usually did, with some chit chat, after which he'd normally steer them
in whatever direction he wished to go. If the person was a priest, he might
ask about their deity. If they were from one of the larger cities he might
ask what it was like to live in such a place. No two conversations were
ever the same, but he almost always came away from them with his knowledge
of the world enriched.
With her, though, he'd been chatting for a good ten minutes before it
finally dawned on him he'd told her nearly his entire life story without
getting a single iota of information in return! He stopped talking, then,
abruptly, as the thought rattled around in his brain. The woman smiled at
him, patiently, waiting for him to work through his mortification. It was
not a malicious, gloating smile, but one of pure amusement. Still, that
knowledge did little to mitigate how foolish he felt.
Eyes Opened
Added Tue Sep 29 23:33:34 2020 at level 51:
They said nothing, then, for a moment, she smiling and him opening and
closing his mouth while attempting to find the words that would allow him to
appear to be something other than a rank novice who had been masterfully
outplayed. He failed to do so, as he was, in fact, a rank novice who had
been masterfully outplayed. The woman, patient as ever, took it upon
herself to break the awkward silence. She proceeded to explain to him,
without any hint of mockery or condescension, what a "conjurer" was, what
the craft entailed, generally speaking, and the amazing things it had
allowed her to accomplish.
Risund listened to her every word, rapt, and saw, at least, the means by
which he might finally satisfy his boundless curiosity. How could he have
ever imagined it might be possible to contact denizens of other planes? Or
that there even *were* other planes? To call forth beings who would allow
him to travel, safely, to places few mortals dare to tread? And that his
success in such an endeavor might ultimately hinge more on his skill at
persuasion than upon his strength of limb or depth of intellect? It was
almost too good to be true!
He left the next morning, bidding his father farewell and apologizing
profusely for leaving him the lurch. Convincing as ever, the old man wasn't
too mad at him. He loved his son, and, on some level, had always known he
was destined for greater things than keeping bar in a second-rate pub in a
backwater town.
He had hoped to talk to the woman again, but she had woken early and left
before he'd risen. He chuckled to himself, realizing belatedly that she'd
never even given him her name, and he hadn't had the sense to ask.
Outplayed again, it would seem. She *had* given him directions to Galadon,
though, and specifically to the conjurer's guild there, and so he was not
directionless as he set out from the Settlement.
As he walked south along the road, visions swam in his mind of all the
frightening and exotic places he might travel to once he had learned what
the guild had to teach. It put a spring in his step, and for the first time
in a long time he was excited about what the future held.
PK Wins
Aug 25, 2020|Lv 21|Galadonian Settlement|Vannem vs 1: [21] Risund (100%, magic missile)
Sep 3, 2020 |Lv 28|The Imperial Lands|Kartha vs 1: [28] Risund (100%, magic missile)