ic/ooc: reaver training

[hlif]

So I heard you wanna be a Reaver, kid.

Thanks to a wild night out on the outskirts of Nevarra, during a drinking contest, Asher drank something that happened to have the ritually prepared blood of a dragon in it. He passed out for two days and woke up a Reaver. Asher is more than happy to teach others this discipline.

This post is for anyone wanting to come to Asher for Reaver training so we can discuss it oocly and then have some ic stuff if you want to do more without it being spammed in any of the communities!

To become a Reaver will require Asher to have some sort of CR with your character - we can handwave the getting to know you parts, he hangs around the tavern and sparring ring often enough that they've probably already met.  Chantry-aligned characters would take more time to convince him, if they wanted him as a teacher, because he just doesn't get on with them.  Ideally it would involve going with Asher to procure dragon blood (from dragonlings unless you managed to get some from fighting a high dragon in any areas during plots) before he goes off to prepare it.  (Of course he asked the guy he got it from how he made such amazing moonshine he's not a total savage.)  Then you drink it, probably collapse, and Asher is proud of you.

If you want to work in obstacles, to draw out the training in the early stages or at any point, grab me here. 
 

Comments

[hlif]

Try not to. You already might have enough going against you when you've come through a rift; demons come through those, spirits too, and even though folk generally think spirits are good, right now you don't really want anyone to get twitchy around you. [One day he'll explain the Avvar ways but that'd be information overload and when even other natives to Thedas tend not to understand it, he doubts someone else from another world will stand much of a chance of getting it right, and it's something he actually holds dear to his heart.]

One of the first things you'll learn to do is easy enough to practice now; it's marking the battlefield as yours, gets called ring of pain. Once you're actually a Reaver proper then you'll really notice it but there's a way of holding yourself anyway.

[Most of the time, Asher doesn't hold himself like a big guy. He doesn't slouch, not exactly, but he draws himself up, shoulders back and axe at the ready; the wolf's grin creeps across his face and the air seems charged about him, his axe swinging in lazy circles through the air as he paces.]

There's a lot that's to do with commanding. With being good at it, at taking charge and leading the fight and drawing the focus. I'm a battlemaster and have been since I was twenty and not a single person under my command has ever died, I like to think that contributes to being good at being a Reaver.

[dragoon_pride]

I know… and believe me, dragons are feared and just as powerful back home, but… it’s part of my legacy. Even so, my world’s dragons aren’t these dragons, I understand that. I’ve been looking into it. [Researching more about dragons has started getting him a clearer picture on the varieties, and even the interesting bits of information such as the high dragons only being female I certainly don’t care to be lumped in with demons and similar horrors, though I know the rift doesn’t help matters.

[Anyway, Reaver training, yes please. Kain listens intently to this explanation, it’s a different way of looking at the battlefield… which is incredibly fascinating to him. Yes, good, he needs this. Something new which he’ll incorporate with his usual style, and strengthen himself in the process.]

Marking it as mine… I like the sound of that. [That and the intense confidence that goes into it, these are things Kain was made for. Things which he already does, he’ll just be channeling it a little differently.] And it ought to help that I’ve been Commander of the Dragoons for some time, myself. I’ve led battles. I can bring forth that experience to this as well. [It might be easy to overlook that fact, here everyone is just another Inquisition soldier, and same in Cosmos’ small band of warriors. But he has that background and can draw on it for this training.]

[hlif]

Good, I don't have to teach you that bit because the less time I need to spend in the library, the better. I've got a reputation to maintain. [Not that Asher is an idiot but it counts against him to look like an educated man outside of battle experience because for him, that's the only place it counts. Let him look the way he does to people and rake in the money, he'll teach Kain what he needs to if he's willing to handle the extra research on his own so Asher can take care of his other business in the Inquisition too.]

Makes it easier if the party has one warrior willing to draw the attention like that to allow mages and archers to hang back, for the other rogues to dart in and out, and for other warriors to defend the others; pull all the attention, take hits. The training isn't going to be easy. You're going to hurt. You're going to be bloodied and bruised before you've even sniffed the dragon's blood too, I started at the bottom of the rung when I joined my first mercenary crew as a lady, working my way up. [This is going to be a reflection on Asher too, for better or worse, since Reaver isn't one of the most common warrior disciplines about and if he does well, Asher'll say something because it'll look good for him.]

[dragoon_pride]

Then I promise you, you may keep that reputation intact. [Kain isn’t the sort one might expect as a regular in the library either, he’s much more a hands on and “learn by experience” type. But, well, there are times when the information is beyond him, and even back home he’d always had time for studying dragons and dragon lore. As a boy he used to disregard all other studies so he could learn about the scaly beasts. Well… and anything relating to battles and battle tactics of course. There was a lot to be said for learning from wars of the past.]

More and more, this is sounding like it’s truly the right path for me. Believe me, I can take some hits and keep going, even as I am now. It’s not a true challenge without some pain involved… and if it lets me defend others, all the better. [The war of the gods had made him even more reckless, even more the sort to push through his aches and pains to keep going. He may have been starting down something of a Reaver path already without entirely realizing it… Not intentionally and not purposefully before now, of course. But now that he has a focus, and a purpose for why he pushes himself like this… he feels fulfilled somehow. This is meant for him.] I certainly wouldn’t want to do this if it was easy, either.