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[Pencil_Art]

"Thank you for your assistance, elder." Drake smiles.

[Emma]

Joseph thanks the clerk and gets up to leave, as he is walking out he thinks about where to go to next. He remembers that he saw a strange man earlier, presumably a warrior, walking towards the Veteran's Hall not having any other lead he decides to follow this man and go to the Veteran's Hall himself.

[Transcendant]

Joseph Leaves the scribe heading towards the Veteran's Hall. He finds a sturdy building made of logs, and an enormous one at that. The entryway and the reception hall all have walls lined with weapons displayed fairly decoratively, as well as several trophies of war, flags of outside powers, a set of goblin armor, etc.

The old and rather cranky veteran from the street you saw before looks you up and down with a scowl on his face, which you imagine to be permanent fixture of his. He says two word in an angry voice,

"You're. Late!" He screams at you as loud as he possibly can three inches from your face, which seems to be rather considerably loud. While things are in the bronze age and not a modern one, this should give you some idea of his idea of interacting with people.

He then grabs your arm and ushers you into a training room, he speaks right over any words you try to say and complains about your armor not being polished to the point where he can see his face in any part of it especially the inside, and your complete lack of discipline from the tardiness. He doesn't give a damn about much of anything. He shoves you into that training room, smooth wooden floors and about 40 ft by 40 ft. There is a large square boarder painted on the floor and four armored men with wooden weapons standing at attention in a straight line.

The old man grabs your spear and forcibly wrestles it away from you after a small amount of time trying for it, "You'll kill somebody with this you damned fool! ONLY I GET TO KILL RECRUITS!" He glares at the four armored young men with the wooden weapons. He shoves a wooden spear at you and sets your bronze spear leaned against the wall in a corner of the room. "Complete disregard for protocol! No sense of responsibility and timely appearance when five people are waiting on them! The Kids these days! They're not nearly enough to have made it when I was their age! Things were different then I'll tell you!" He very intently and angrily shouts these and other things while moving around intently and taking your spear temporarily and giving you a wooden training one. He is impatient as hell and does not give a shit about anything.

He shoves you into the center of the square painted on the floor. "Nothing that won't heal in a day! Nothing below the belt! Or I'll give you something that won't heal in a daym and I'll belt you! Begin!"

You are faced with Four young armored men who have apparently been told to spar you. The first man has a wooden sword, the second has a wooden sword and a wooden shield, the third has a wooden ax, and the fourth has a wooden spear. They rush towards you all at once.

Clearly there has been some mistake and it doesn't seem anybody cares. What do you do?
________________________________________________________________________________________
The rest of you stand in front of the old monk kneeling in front of the spring pool in the temple. The younger monk has joined you and carries a pack for your other team member, who is ... who only knows where. The old monk has indicated that he will answer whatever you ask.

What do you say, what do you do? Etc.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Alexi sets his bow, arrows, and pack on the ground. He then sits with his legs crossed and begins to take in the serenity of the temple. He then looks at the monk and asks,"How do you keep this place so serine in a world full of turmoil? "

[Transcendant]

The old monk calmly says,

"One dawn vanquishes a thousand darks.
One law stops a thousand injustices.
One broom sweeps a thousand boards.

We have many brooms....

Cleansing within is more important than cleansing without."

[femmelf]

"There are way more goblins than us. How haven't they overun us? How do we deal with dozens of them at once? Same with everything else really?"

[Transcendant]

The old monk calmly says,

"One shield stops a thousand arrows.

We are many shields....

The arrows aim at us, but only rarely are fired in unison, often at each other.

Divide. Conquer. Let them trip over themselves. Use them as your protection against other thems.

Every strike a motion; every motion a strike."

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Alexi whispers under his breath the words of an old veteran that came to his mind,"Thrust and counter thrust"

[Emma]

Joseph attempts to remain calm, his father had taught him a little about fighting multiple enemies. He brings up anything that might help him here, he has a spear that's good he was trained in the spear and he has a longer range than most of those attacking him. He quickly looks around the room for anything that might help him and let him take the enemies one by one, there doesn't appear to be anything that would allow him to do that. All other options failing him Joseph decides that it would be best to take his enemies by surprise and so he charges towards the one wielding a sword.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

"Are we to find the missing with the goblins? Shall we be the ones who cause the goblins to kill themselves off in this area?"

[Transcendant]

Joseph looks about the all too plain room for advantage. The only thing here are yourself, four sparring opponents and one perpetually pissed off veteran instructor. Of course there is your bronze spear propped up against the corner, but that seems to be explicitly off limits and you know it wouldn't be looked upon well if you took it. The room itself is 40ft by 40 ft, so you do have room to manuver.

Your four opponents come at you in a straight horizontal line. From Left to right: the first man has a wooden sword, the second has a wooden sword and a wooden shield, the third has a wooden ax, and the fourth has a wooden spear. They rush towards you all at once.

You have decided to charge the leftmost opponent wielding a wooden sword with your wooden spear, but I imagine you would like to abide by the veteran instructor's instructions (threat) not to cause serious harm, as you assume would they.... 

First, you run together and his sword swings in a downward arc, which you catch on your spear's mid shaft. He tries to kick you, but you shift weight to your left foot and dodge, barely. You strike his shoulder with your spearblade's flat. Then you catch the second man's sword on your spear's haft end, and duck under his shield swipe. You position sidestep the downward wooden ax swing as well, and the fourth and final man with the wooden spear tries to effectively attack you but can't over the second and third man after trying to move to intercept you.

This causes the veteran instructor to call out, "Better positioning against him! He's making you trip over yourselves! Surround him! Don't let him focus only on your left flank so the right can't strike! We practiced this before! DAMN YOU ALL!"

Second, you hold your spear horizontally, and slam the shaft down on the first sole sword wielding man's arms and then pivot so you strike the same shoulder with the spearblade's flat again. All the while you leverage the spear-shaft behind the sword's cross-guard and leverage it out of his weakened grip. With no weapon, he immediately backs out and against the wall, showing his hands up as he does. He leans against the wall, out of the fight and rubbing his shoulder where the armor was not....

Meanwhile the second man positions his sword blade just overtop of his shield, trying to position a strike against you. He tries twice; you dodge the first, and catch the second on your spear's shaft, angling for deflection. Meanwhile, the Axman tries to slam the flat of his blade into your arm, you barely manage to slide backwards and away from him, avoiding him and the fourth man's spear thrust.

The veteran instructor shouts, "You're not even using a formation against him! Spearman behind the shield's wall. Ax try to flank! DO IT DAMN YOU!"

Third, they seem to follow orders rather well overall and the fourth man, the spear wielder, stands behind the second man with the sword and shield, benefiting from the protection while capitalizing on striking with his weapon's range from behind the cover of his friend. Meanwhile the third man, with the ax, backs up and circles around you while trying to flank. It seems the formation is quite to their advantage, as your attention is occupied deflecting and dodging the deadly combination of sword and spear strikes from behind the shield's protective blocking, and none of those hit you.

However, with your attention divided, the man with the ax comes at you from a 45 degree angle and swings, aiming to hit with the flat of his blade. You thought you dodged it. You did not. You catch it in the upper arm. Your armor and the fact that it is the ax blade's flat protects you from serious injury, but if this were real, that would've hurt.

The veteran shouts, "About damn time ONE of you finally hit him. Really! Now corner him already like you actually know what you're doing! There are walls in this room! Use them, and those things you call brains you allegedly have! AND YOU, DO WHAT YOU DID BEFORE AND POSITION ONE SO THEY'RE ALWAYS IN THE WAY OF THE OTHER! Move around, and keep them tripping over each other damn you!"

The instructor watches and the three remaining sparring recruits watch you intently, while the one staying against the wall looks on at this.

What do you do?

_________________________________

In another, much more serene location, the older monk answers,

"The missing may be with the goblins, or not.
They are too many, the goblins, to destroy forever.
It has been tried; it has failed. But, it is not impossible to harm them.

We know only what we know and sometimes, what we find.
Find what is keeping the merchants away from the Old Road in the west.
Find what is keeping the goblins away and our people away or missing.
They are many tribes the goblins, some worse than others. Changing often enough.

Suspicion is not to be trusted. Maybe the goblins took them or found them and took them.
Maybe they did not. We can only know from looking. Seek this out.
Open the village to food shipments again, and we may live to know.

Beware the goblins of the the crowhand."

The old monk, still without opening his eyes, makes a motion with his hand, holding it up at a 45 degree angle to his face, moving it wards his face, and then pulling it away to straightening the hand horizontally, then pressing it against his face again.

"That in orange black is the crowhand mark. Never trust it. It is betrayal's face."

[Robot Parade Leader]

Very politely ask the old monk,

"What do you know of the goblins that we should know?"

[Transcendant]

(Are we liking this? Just an interest check)

The old monk says, "There are a great many goblins and a great many divided tribes. They are without honor most of them. Always be wary."

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

((ya this is fun))

Alexi being very calm now by the serenity of the place stands, leaving his bag and bow on the floor, and walks over to stare into the the spring pool. He takes in a deep sigh knowing the gravity of what he and his are about to get caught in and sits away from the monk staring into the calm water of the pool.

[Transcendant]

(Ok well, we're at a bit of a standstill here. Recap:

Gamedragon's character Joseph is in a rather interesting sparing match, having incapacitated 1 of 4 down to 3 opponents.

The rest of you are with a knowledgeable old monk who has told you several things including {read entire thing for more detail}

1.) The Crowhand Goblins are never to be trusted, showing you their marking.
2.) The goblin political structure occasionally has kings, is unified and a problem, but there hasn't been a king in a while.
3.) The Old Road west of town might be a place to look to see what's been keeping the merchants away from supplying the town with food....)

Group got split and I don't think Joseph is getting out of the sparring match he wandered into without finishing it at this time. Everybody wants an open world game without being led, but then....)