hlif | ic/ooc: reaver training

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ic/ooc: reaver training

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.

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Any ooc questions, ask away.

Students that have drunk the dragon's blood and have an understanding of Reaver skills.

Students that have drunk the dragon blood and are actively learning with Asher.

Individuals expressing a desire to learn about becoming a Reaver from Asher.

[Whatever this is going to entail, Kain is prepared for it. He knows that this won't be easy, it may even be incredibly painful to undergo this training... but he's more certain than anything that it's something he wants to do. He's determined. Everything Asher has said and demonstrated makes him envious of a Reaver's skills, prepared to learn more, to enhance his own abilities with these. It certainly gives him something to focus on.]

[Kain heads out to the appointed spot where they're planning to meet, stretching and preparing himself for what's to come.]

[Asher is not a teacher or a trainer, not really. Everyone came to his company fully trained, it was only a matter of getting the pieces to work together cohesively that, and teaching Aura doesn't count because she's his baby sister and the apple of his eye. Training this - and Asher knows it, Asher found the person responsible, hunted them down and got all the knowledge he needed but he doesn't let people see, he knows how this game works after all - is something else.

There are a few prayers murmured, because Asher believes in his gods, they move through him and by the time Kain arrives he's doing drills with his axe, spinning and moving it effortlessly around and between his hands and body for the size that it is. There are few enough private spots by Skyhold but he's been lucky enough to find one, offered some coin to a few kids to give him a hand clearing it and sent them back to their folks with some food and fresh eggs.

It's a while before he says anything, watching Kain carefully. The lance is going to change it. Reavers don't jump, they're in the thick of it, they're bloodied and shouting, close enough to see the fear in the eyes of whatever poor bastard they're facing down.]

Obviously you're not going to be a proper one until or when you drink dragon's blood but I can start you down the path. What's your weapons experience outside that lance?

[Kain knows they’re not yet at the point of drinking the blood, of making that final move to becoming a Reaver in full… but he’s eager nonetheless. Every training will bring him a step closer. He’s intense and serious enough to know it will take time, it cannot be done overnight, and preparing for this will be as much mental as physical. He doubts Asher will want to let him drink it and make that transformation until he’s proven himself. It’s a good thing he’s well-trained in various forms of combat.]

I can handle swords just fine, of course, two-handed and single-handed with a shield... Of those, I much prefer two-handed. [Greatswords and the like are much more in line with his fighting style. Of course, when in a serious battle, he sticks with his greatest strength with the lance, but he will frequently practice with other weaponry just to keep his skills sharp. It’s why his training takes up so much time, he doesn’t ever want to get out of practice in case he gets in some situation where he loses his main weapon and must make do. He glances at Asher’s weapon.] I’ve used axes a fair deal, as well, if that helps any. [Really, the only thing that’s not his style as far as bladed weaponry is concerned, are what would be considered ninja-style weapons in his world, smaller knives and the like. What they refer to as rogue weapons here.] Is that what you’d favor, for this?

Being a Reaver is a warrior discipline; rogues fight with bows and daggers, mages use magic. Warriors have a greater variety but it tends to come down either favouring a style that means accepting the brunt of an attack by blocking it and charging with it before you use your weapon, or you use a two-handed approach. Two-handed you can still block obviously but you're using the whole of the weapon, hopefully turning that into an attack as well. [Asher can use anything in a pinch, that's what life is when you're a mercenary though he's never used a lance; he's seen Qunari use similar weapons, and Tal-Vashoth, great long spears that can punch clear through a man, that can pin him to the ground if it's the correct angle.

But this? His great heavy axe? That's been Asher's first choice since he was able to lift it.] You're going to have to be in the press of the fighting for this to be of any great benefit to you, that's the thing; warriors in Thedas don't do what you do, we're always the front line. Archers and pretty much all mages hang back but we don't. That's why knowing if you can handle these is going to be helpful. Sword is probably more like your own in how to use it than an axe, so I'd say I teach you with what I know, then you can see if you can actually adapt it over to your own style.

Right... and from what I've gathered about your world's fighting disciplines, it's similar in ways to my world. Not the specialized powers we have, perhaps, but the basic three classes. Dragoon is truly just a word for dragon knight, we're warriors through and through. There are other warrior styles too, and mages, of course... even something like your rogues, with what we call ninjas. [That was one of the first things he realized, when he came here, and it make the world feel less foreign to him, knowing they have these similar fighting classes.] A large, heavy weapon such as the two-handed swords feels best in my hands. I've never taken as much to shields as simply using the weapon itself in blocking.

[And another serious expression, along with a nod. Kain is taking in every word, considering it all carefully.] Ah, but despite my jumps taking me off the field and letting me dodge enemy attacks, I also spend much of my time in the thick of it, right on the front lines. I don't hang in the back at all. No true warrior would ever do such a thing. [Though he can see how it would look to an outsider. His ability is as much about evading and speed, being like the wind, as it is stabbing things. But Kain loves the thrill of battle and being right in the midst of it.] Trust me, I'll have no difficulty keeping up... I train my ground fighting skills just as much as in air. Sword it is, then.

Don't go saying dragon knight too loud around the wrong company or they'll be thinking you've got a soft spot for Tevinter, they're the ones that had the Old Gods and a Blight is no small matter. Maybe you've had a different life fighting but I'm a mercenary, I've been one for long enough to know that I have to be able to handle whatever I can get my hands on if I want to keep them and my head. It's a good exercise though, you might need it if you're going to have to deal with enemies carrying shields, plenty of those Red Templars have them; if you understand a weapon yourself, you understand how an enemy uses it.

[Not that Asher can conjure fire but you can light poles and rope, and there are other tricks to get into the minds of mages, same as rogues, same as he's taught his own crew. They're all still alive and in one piece.]

No, but here we are on the ground and up close. I'm not saying you give it up but if you want to learn from the people that know how to fight as a Reaver, you'll have to learn that first and then, once you're ready, incorporate it. I can't teach you if you're not down here with me, can I?

Right, I'd forgotten the sentiment toward dragons. [It's a shame, because he's proud of what he is and his connection to the dragons. Still, he knows better than to go around proclaiming it to the wrong people out there. Saying the wrong things to the wrong people in Thedas is a bad idea overall.] All too true, any good warrior knows more than their specialty... that makes it far easier to know your enemy in turn.

[He nods agreement, looking at once stern and somehow eager at the same time. He's forever interested in pushing himself, getting stronger. So this will be a very worthwhile challenge.]

Fine by me, I'll refrain from using my jumps during all training. That's why I came here, after all... I'm actually looking forward to trying something entirely new.

[Once he's truly got a handle on this, he'll be able to incorporate it into his typical fighting style, merging the blood powers with that of the dragoon. Powers of the dragons, combined. He's excited for it, but patient enough to know that's for the future. One step at a time.]

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.

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.]

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.]

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.

Kain had sent along a message to Asher to let him know he was ready. He has all that he needs, now, to prepare the blood for drinking. That hadn't been so hard to gather the needed materials, in addition to the blood. Now, it's a matter of mixing and drinking it. He'd finally decided it was worth someone having his back, just to make sure he does it right.

So, he's at the area he'd mentioned meeting in, not too far off from Asher's camp, setting out the materials that he's collected for the preparation... the vial of blood, the infusion primers, the rashvine. He counts them precisely, checking and double-checking that he has the exact amount.

If he had been wounded as he had, then it meant that the gods had been sending a message to him. Asher had been lucky most of his life in battle but dragging his feet on this had clearly been a sign so he leaves as soon as he gets the message, at last looking much more like Asher than he has in some time, fur armour over the bandages. Still pale, at least the worst ravages of the fever and blood loss have cleared from his eyes, sharp as they ever are when he announces his presence by clearing his throat.

He hunkers down for a moment before he says anything, murmuring quiet prayers to the gods that he knows are watching, voice too low for most of the words to be caught beyond a few names here and there, Korth, Hakkon, Lady of the Skies.

"Told anyone else what you're up to?"

Kain shakes his head. “I didn’t want to alarm anyone.” It’s also such the typical Kain way, he’s done it many times, leaving the party on a whim (whether being controlled back home or for other reasons during the war)... or simply leaving home without any notification to anyone. There’s also the fact that he’d been even closer to the people back home, having grown up with them… and even then he’d still not bothered to tell them anything. He doesn’t need anyone trying to talk him out of something he’s set on, either. “That, and I’m sure this will be fine.”

Sure enough. Who knows, though. He’s trying not to let any apprehension get in the way of this path he knows he wants to walk. He pauses, about to start mixing things together. “Do these ingredients need to be heated or anything? Prepared in a certain order?” He’s no alchemist, after all, so he wants to be certain he’s got it right.

"Good thing I know spirit healers," Asher mutters under his breath because as much as this is getting right with the gods for him, fulfilling an obligation he's been dragging his arse on, there's his reputation on the line too, as well as that of the company should something go wrong in all this. Letting at least Christine know even after the fact might help, because he really doesn't know how it's actually going to go. "Well, I'd been drinking. Drinking a lot even for me and I'm a bigger lad than you. And I was just off a job that left me in a state, not as bad as the one you saw me in but not ideal and I'm here." Good solid reassuring manly slap to the shoulder? Good solid reassuring manly slap to the shoulder.

"Heat the blood first, gently, you don't want to boil or even simmer it but you want it warm. Warm as it'd be in the dragon. You want the deathroot cut fine as you can but make sure you don't inhale it. Infusion primer goes last, once the rashvine's dissolved in and it's smooth. Take it off the heat before you add it. Add that carefully but down it while it's still warm."

Yep, that's all the reassurance that Kain really needs. He's past a point where he'd question this, past a point of hesitating. Who knows, maybe the dragon blood will work with him really well, given his status as a dragoon. Either that or the foreign dragon-like influence will react and make it worse. He doubts anything will go wrong at this point, but even if it does... If it does, he has little to lose. "Even if something happens, it's what I want. I've not been more sure of anything in a long time."

Not since he'd left for Mount Ordeals, really. That had been his first moment of real conviction after all of the mind control, going off to redeem himself. Now doing this here feels right as well.

"Right... thank you. That's not so bad to follow." Really, even for someone like him who's no expert in potions-making, he can manage. He starts up, lighting a small fire, making sure that's going just right before he starts to get the blood warming and the ingredients cut. "At least it seems I have the advantage of being sober. Though maybe it's something better done drunk, who knows?" He knows others might look at this as a somewhat crazy idea to go for, but he sure doesn't see it that way.

"You'd better not get me kicked out the Inquisition for getting one of their rifters killed." Maybe Asher should've asked permission but would he be Asher if he asked permission? No. No he would not. He's the guy that rips off shirts in crowded taverns and goes off to wrestle bears and wins.

Now he's the guy that makes men from other worlds into Reavers. It'll be something to add to the resume he supposes, another angle for Melisende and Liadan to work to employers. Not a man to shy from risk or opportunity is our Asher, that's what they'll say.

"No, not better when you're drunk." Kain has perhaps seen Asher more serious than most but Asher has a responsibility to him, warrior to warrior, and as something of a teacher. That requires a certain level of seriousness that he doesn't usually display. "Scared my crew half to death when it happened, and they've seen me through bad things. Melisende knew me longer than any of the rest of them, when I joined the company we were both in before the Boneflayers, before the Boneflayers ever existed. Set a bone drunk, get in a fistfight drunk, go up and ask for a shag drunk. Not this. You're not you after this. You'll get to know."

Asher would have chosen this. And he doesn't regret it, not exactly, not when being a Reaver is the reason he has this reputation by now, and it's kept him alive ever since but he does regret that he didn't have a choice in the matter.

"I don't intend to die here and now. I'd like to think myself strong enough to survive this." Kain talks as he's carefully mixing the ingredients, warming the blood, getting the infusion and rashvine added one by one. He's always known it's pretty much his fate to go down in battle someday, again, the same way he'd died in the gods' war. It's not happening here and now, he refuses to let it. Hopefully this confidence won't be misplaced. He'd hate to think of ending it all like this.

This is no time to back off, and any doubts might just make this harder. Kain appreciates the seriousness coming from Asher, really, for something like this he's sure that it's needed. It's a choice he's made, and he's ready to see it through. That's the most important part of it all, the fact that it's his own decision to do this.

"I understand. It's better to approach this sort of thing with a clear mind." The ingredients are starting to blend in the mixture, gradually liquefying. Looks like it's mixing up pretty well. "I'll face this with the same determination I've put into every battle I've fought..."

"Steady heat," Asher reminds him, moving to stretch since one of the healers told him that he has to make sure his body heals properly and that means keeping the flesh and muscles supple, stopping anything from settling into the wrong position for too long. Easier said than done. Maybe, if he somehow lives this long, he'll do this in the hold with some of the young lads since he knows that the warriors up there have enough of an interest in it if they truly show promise. Berserkers are more common in the mountains holding to their closeness with the dwarves but there's no reason they can't blend the two together.

Rage and pain are tied so tightly after all, and if both could be mastered at once, and if they can harness the spirits to fight with them the way he knows some lowlander warriors do but better… (And it would be better, because they know spirits better, they don't fear them, they respect them, but other thoughts for other days, his mind is wandering the way it has since he got ill and he settles again.)

Peering into the mixture, he clicks his tongue and nods. "That'll be ready. Give it another stir, let it cool for a minute. Take a moment." Take a moment because Asher didn't get that, because Asher has always been taken by the arm for someone that seems so much a force of nature; pulled out of his house with the door shut on him, meeting Melisende in the tavern that first night and joining up because he had no other place, downing a drink that hadn't smelt too much different to anything else in his addled state. "It'll burn but so will everything else, and it'll hurt like a knife in the throat all the way down. To meet a Reaver is to change your fate - people pray they will never meet us on the battlefield for their fates are the ones changed, and not for the better." It's the last advice he can give before he nods. The blood will cool, and the blood should be as hot as it would be in the vein and the heart, at least to Asher's thinking and his memory of it, and Kain might start running hotter after he drinks this mixture anyway so he should get used to it now.

Kain is sure to follow that advice, ensuring the heat is nice and steady, that the contents of the mixture are evenly warmed. The whole thing is uniformly heated after a while, and he looks at it with a nod. Whatever happens next, well… he’s about to find out. He’s about to make one of the most important changes he ever has, one which will strengthen him like never before. He takes care as he stirs it, removing it from the fire to cool.

Seeing Asher’s approval, he realizes that the time has come. He’s had a lot of warning about what to expect, but that sense of anxious anticipation is there anyway. He hasn’t felt like this in a long time, not since the first ever battle he’d ever faced. But it’s a good thing, that kind of feeling. It’s the sort of thing that keeps a person from being blindly stupid about things. Kain holds up the mixture.

“I can handle a little burning. This is what I came for… what I was meant to be.” He can’t wait, now, to see how it’ll feel in the next battle he gets in. Nodding at Asher, he prepares to drink. “Whatever may happen next… thank you. I appreciate what you’ve done to get me this far.” Now it’s up to him to take the next step.

He puts the vial to his lips… and drinks. Immediately, he’s aware of just how hot it is, like fire scorching his throat. The burn is worse than hot food, worse even than Qunari alcohol. Despite that, he keeps gulping it down, feeling the warmth start radiating out from his chest, gradually spreading throughout his body. What starts as a tolerable warmth only grows all the hotter the more time that passes. It’s pure and total agony, like he’s suddenly burst into flames, and at first his eyes widen as he fears that it’s going wrong. His heart pounds wildly and his breath quickens, sweat pouring off of him as the blood continues to take hold, to change him.

He feels like he’s dying and yet... and yet at the same time, he’s never felt more alive.

What can a man do but watch? Last time he was blind drunk even for him but he's read about it because beneath everything else there's a hunger - maybe it began that night, or maybe it came with going to all the places he's been, knowing the world how he does - to know as much as he can. He folds his arms, Waits still and silent as any statue standing sentinel but the tension coils in his spine, ready to catch Kain should he need to, or ready to shout into the crystal for a healer though Asher knows that it'd be too late, that they'd be prolonging the inevitable if he sent for them. If Kain wasn't a rifter he'd say nothing, wait it out, put a knife to the back of his neck because that would be a kindness.

But that doesn't need to be the case here; Kain isn't showing the reactions that can go wrong immediately. Asher wasn't prepared, Asher had come off a hard job, too much drink, and everything else that comes with mercenary life. Hurtled into chaos.

"Meeting a Reaver on the battlefield changes a person," Asher says, aware that his voice might sound distant. He remembers the Boneflayers in those days, as if he was underwater only the water was boiling. "And not for the better. That'll be you. Breathe through it, accept the pain, make it yours."

The pain becomes unbearable, excruciating as it covers every inch of his body. He feels like he’s burning up, boiling alive, the fire burning outside him, surrounding him, and at the same time burning within, frying up everything inside. He almost wants to scream, but holds it back, growling and grimacing instead. He groans, agonized and panting heavily, the sweat pouring off him as the heat continues to overcome him, alter him into something more than he once was. Asher seems so far away when he speaks… The whole world is distant now… nothing about his surroundings seems real anymore. It’s like it’s all hidden behind a blood red fog.

Breathe through it, accept the pain, make it yours.

Breathe. Kain focuses on his breath, trying to take control and steady it. His heart feels like it’ll pound out of his chest at this rate. He takes one deep, long breath. This pain is his own. This pain is his own. This pain is his, he owns it… this pain does not own him. It’s his pain to claim and to bear and to turn against his enemies.That’s the way of the Reaver after all, to gain strength from pain… This is only the beginning.

Kain moans, but then suddenly something changes in his expression. He feels an immense surge of power, a strength unlike anything he’s ever felt before. It reminds him of flying, soaring recklessly through the air… For a brief instant, he suddenly grins wildly, adding a burst of sharp, sudden laughter, very unlike anything he’s ever done before. “Incredible!” That’s all he says, before his eyes roll back and he collapses to the ground, the dragon’s blood taking over to finish remaking him.

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ic/ooc: reaver training

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