ash_blackwell (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ash_blackwell) wrote2009-07-08 03:55 am
ash_blackwell) wrote2009-07-08 03:55 am
Dubhain's Journal part 1
Okay… I’ve had a couple requests from folks in the store that I type up Dubhain mac Dhara O Raghailligh giolla Romero’s adventures in journal format. I could start another journal just for that, but I’m really not doing that much with this one and there might be folks here interested in reading this as well. I will be LJ cutting the journals to keep from eating everyone’s friends pages alive.
For those who played with Lord Drachenheim, Dubhain mac Raghailligh o Dhara three years ago the back history for this character is almost the same (as I really missed playing him and reset him back to 100 points for this game), save for the fact he did not return to Inismore after the War of the Cross and get hired as Rhiannon ni Nolan’s bodyguard. Instead he hired on as a bodyguard for a Syrneth artifact hunter from Eisen named Nikolas von Insel. When Nikolas retired from active collecting in late 1667, a Vaticine priest who was also seeking Syrneth artifacts by the name of Father Romero hired Dubhain. This journal covers the adventures of Romero’s group of artifact hunters.
[[Translations for Cymric will be given in these brackets. They do not appear in his actual journal -sh]]
13 Secondus, 1669
I feel rather silly doing this, but Father Romero says this will help me master writing fluently in Castillian as well as help me work out on my own some of the questions about the nature of good and evil I have brought him over the last few months. Clare concurs with him and points out that I can start to substitute in Cymric words as I learn them into this journal to speed up my mastery of writing that language and I suppose I can do the same with the Théan that Father Romero is now teaching me.
Which does little towards making me fell less silly about doing this. I am no noble nor hero to have tales told around the fire about me, nor am I a filid [[bard, learned man-sh]] to spin tales to teach or entertain. But as the Father has pointed out, my questions are about things that have happened since we were hired and gave our oaths to Romero to aid him. Perhaps he is right about the task of organizing my thoughts to write the events down on paper being the first step in looking at them objectively.
It certainly will help to pass the time as we sail from Avalon to the co-ordinates Captain Drachens has read from the chart we have thanks to Erin and give me a place to complain about the fact that when writing was first thought up no one thought about how awkward it would be to write holding the quill left-handed.
I am writing around and around the point Cymbr-style without ever coming to the heart of the matter. The truth is I am uncertain as to how to begin. I guess I should just focus on my companions and work from there.
Father Romero is probably the first practicing Vaticine I have ever felt comfortable around. I really did think I was perhaps losing my hold on sanity for considering hiring on with him when Nikolas suggested it. Yet a year and three months latter, I find that he has become more than just Father Romero: I have to make an effort to keep from calling him athair [[father- sh]] and meaning it in the family sense.
I wish I had Erin’s skill at art. I am not the most skilled at giving a description of a person. Being Castillian and from Tapeda, he has a lot of the look you would expect from a southern Castillian: dark, curly hair; almost black eyes; swarthy skin. He is not tall compared to the rest of our group (as usual I am shorter than everyone else by several inches), and I suspect he is older than he looks, for he is far wiser than the late 30’s I would guess looking at him.
Our other Castillian, Montolio Ortega, is from closer to the Montaign border in Aldana. He is paler than Romero, and has straight, dark brown hair rather than curly black, but the two look very similar and could be taken for brothers. He was another surprise. In him I have found a true brother. We are fairly equally matched with a blade and we are very similar in disposition, though he is a touch more hotheaded than I. He is five years my senior at 38 and much like myself has been drifting for several years before we met Romero, though he did not seek employment with a mercenary company in Eisen, choosing instead to work as a guard. That quite likely was the wiser choice. I envy him his solid night’s sleep.
Clare Becket is from Avalon- a poor accident of birth that I forgive her for, as she shows none of the intolerance of the old ways I expect from the folk of that Isle. Her red-gold hair and green eyes aid greatly in forgetting her nationality, as does the fact that she speaks, reads, and writes my native Cymric. She says that Avalon has changed greatly in the thirteen years I have been gone from Inismore. Perhaps it has. The folk I met these last two weeks are not the intolerant Vaticine of Banriona Iarann [[Iron Queen -sh]] Margaret’s reign. They were respectful of the old ways, and seemed genuinely happy under Banriona [[Queen -sh]] Elaine’s hand. This is something I will have to think about, especially as Clare is the third person of our group that I have come to think of as family. She is the little sister I never had, yet she is a knight in the service of the Banriona.
Erin Metzger, for all the feminine Cymric first name, is an older Eisen Explorer and I suspect is at least a petty noble. Either that or a he’s a thief, for he holds a dracheneisen knife and panzerhand. He’s probably a couple years older than I am, and he most certainly has fought in the War of the Cross, just as I did. He is of a bit above average height, with dark blond hair and a thick mustache that he takes great pride in. I still don’t know what to make of the man, even after fifteen months in his company.
His accent places him from Vaticine Eisen, probably Posen, yet it is obvious he holds no reverence for Father Romero. I, who hold to the old ways of the Tuatha de Dannan [[the first people, the Sidhe -sh]], show Father Romero more respect than a man supposedly of his own faith. Erin seems to be with us purely for the chance to explore. He doesn’t seem to require a source of money like Montolio, Ymir, Iyla, Veil, and I, nor to with us from duty like Clare and I think Captain Drachens (though I am less certain of Drachens than I am of Erin and shall leave him for another day.) He is by far the most proficient at making out the scratches and drawings we find at the ruins we go to and figuring out what we need to know to survive there, but there is something about the man that makes me hesitant to call him filid.
Though, to be perfectly fair, as hard as that is with Erin: he did not condemn me as demon-born when my blood-tie to the Tuatha de Dannan was revealed to him five months ago by Keired-Din’s cursed iarann [[iron -sh]] shackles. He was curious about the Tuatha de Dannan, but accepted them as another people of Théah rather than as agents of the an-séalaigh [[Unseelie, lit: unbound -sh]] Legion so many Vaticine condemn us for being. There is much about him I must consider, even now.
Veil von Dock is another whose name implies something different from the reality. I had bethought him a child of the border between Eisen and Vodacce, but he turns out to be the youngest child of the head of the Falisci family. Why he has chosen this usename and decided to travel I do not know, but I suspect he may have come to trouble for his light-fingered ways. I have never seen a single sign that he has stolen from anyone in our group (and we all know that he pilfers from the dead and he would be the first suspect if an item were to go missing), but he is not above stealing from almost anyone else, including temples we know have active sorceries being practiced within.
For all that he has respected our belongings, he is the least loyal to our group, disappearing for months at a time and reappearing usually with trouble at his heals. No- I am unkind. He has only once reappeared with trouble at his heals. That trouble was mostly of his own making and has lead to our entire group not being welcome on Falisci island and to other troubles besides, but the other time he actually reappeared at a timely moment and actually was able to aid us and that disappearance was not of his choosing in the first place.
Ilya Stulokovich is a good solid Ussuran man, seemingly convinced that pain is something that stops other people, not himself. He broke his leg and refused to allow the rest of us to protect him, nor allow us to slow down to make it easier for him to keep up. He is very good with his axes and I have to wonder if he has some Vestenmannavnjar blood, as he in the heat of battle sometimes reminds me of the berserkers of the isles. I wish I had had a better chance to get to know him, but he found out that his homeland had been invaded by the Montaign and left us with Father Romero’s blessing to help in the defense of Ussura. It was 5 months later that he returned and met up with us in Numa, the Montaign in retreat from Grandmother Winter. He was with us for a month and then… No, I get ahead of myself, and I do not think I am ready to write of this now. He is safe with his countryman, and as much as I dislike Boris’ interest in Clare (especially as Clare does not seem to return it), Boris is a good man and Iyla is in the best care possible.
Ymir has never given us his family name. This is very strange behavour from a Vestenmannavnjar man, but with his Aarensfolk accent it is almost certain that he is as knowledgeable of Laerdom [[rune-magic –sh]] as my family is of Glamour. Something troubles the lad, and troubles him greatly. Ever since we got scattered when leaving Montaign he has been having nightmares every night worse than I do, and sometimes has panick attacks by day. I wish I knew if it was the shackles we all were in or an effect of what scattered us that has triggered this change in the lad. Whatever the problem is, his fear of it leaves him unable to speak of it.
Abraham is the unluckiest man I have ever met in my life. He has more usenames than any spy or mercenary I have ever seen. The rest of the group is not certain that Abraham is his real name, but there was something in his face when I asked him that makes me think that for once he told the unembellished truth. The lad has traveled almost everywhere and speaks… This is hard. I don’t think I’m ready to write about this either. One step at a time.
Lu’call Ni’acin is the newest member of our group. The young Vendel lad had been a member of Captain Drachen’s crew, but ended up with us after a disagreement with his captain about the best course of action at the time. I’m a decent shot with a pistol, but he has an accuracy I have not often seen. I know that this is not his true name. I have seen the P branded in his shoulder. But, for a pirate, he has shown a grasp of honour and morals that I have often seen lacking in his supposed “betters.”
That covers whom I travel with, and it’s time to spar with Montolio and try to keep in something resembling fighting form. I shall try again tomorrow to start what I can recall of our journey.
For those who played with Lord Drachenheim, Dubhain mac Raghailligh o Dhara three years ago the back history for this character is almost the same (as I really missed playing him and reset him back to 100 points for this game), save for the fact he did not return to Inismore after the War of the Cross and get hired as Rhiannon ni Nolan’s bodyguard. Instead he hired on as a bodyguard for a Syrneth artifact hunter from Eisen named Nikolas von Insel. When Nikolas retired from active collecting in late 1667, a Vaticine priest who was also seeking Syrneth artifacts by the name of Father Romero hired Dubhain. This journal covers the adventures of Romero’s group of artifact hunters.
[[Translations for Cymric will be given in these brackets. They do not appear in his actual journal -sh]]
13 Secondus, 1669
I feel rather silly doing this, but Father Romero says this will help me master writing fluently in Castillian as well as help me work out on my own some of the questions about the nature of good and evil I have brought him over the last few months. Clare concurs with him and points out that I can start to substitute in Cymric words as I learn them into this journal to speed up my mastery of writing that language and I suppose I can do the same with the Théan that Father Romero is now teaching me.
Which does little towards making me fell less silly about doing this. I am no noble nor hero to have tales told around the fire about me, nor am I a filid [[bard, learned man-sh]] to spin tales to teach or entertain. But as the Father has pointed out, my questions are about things that have happened since we were hired and gave our oaths to Romero to aid him. Perhaps he is right about the task of organizing my thoughts to write the events down on paper being the first step in looking at them objectively.
It certainly will help to pass the time as we sail from Avalon to the co-ordinates Captain Drachens has read from the chart we have thanks to Erin and give me a place to complain about the fact that when writing was first thought up no one thought about how awkward it would be to write holding the quill left-handed.
I am writing around and around the point Cymbr-style without ever coming to the heart of the matter. The truth is I am uncertain as to how to begin. I guess I should just focus on my companions and work from there.
Father Romero is probably the first practicing Vaticine I have ever felt comfortable around. I really did think I was perhaps losing my hold on sanity for considering hiring on with him when Nikolas suggested it. Yet a year and three months latter, I find that he has become more than just Father Romero: I have to make an effort to keep from calling him athair [[father- sh]] and meaning it in the family sense.
I wish I had Erin’s skill at art. I am not the most skilled at giving a description of a person. Being Castillian and from Tapeda, he has a lot of the look you would expect from a southern Castillian: dark, curly hair; almost black eyes; swarthy skin. He is not tall compared to the rest of our group (as usual I am shorter than everyone else by several inches), and I suspect he is older than he looks, for he is far wiser than the late 30’s I would guess looking at him.
Our other Castillian, Montolio Ortega, is from closer to the Montaign border in Aldana. He is paler than Romero, and has straight, dark brown hair rather than curly black, but the two look very similar and could be taken for brothers. He was another surprise. In him I have found a true brother. We are fairly equally matched with a blade and we are very similar in disposition, though he is a touch more hotheaded than I. He is five years my senior at 38 and much like myself has been drifting for several years before we met Romero, though he did not seek employment with a mercenary company in Eisen, choosing instead to work as a guard. That quite likely was the wiser choice. I envy him his solid night’s sleep.
Clare Becket is from Avalon- a poor accident of birth that I forgive her for, as she shows none of the intolerance of the old ways I expect from the folk of that Isle. Her red-gold hair and green eyes aid greatly in forgetting her nationality, as does the fact that she speaks, reads, and writes my native Cymric. She says that Avalon has changed greatly in the thirteen years I have been gone from Inismore. Perhaps it has. The folk I met these last two weeks are not the intolerant Vaticine of Banriona Iarann [[Iron Queen -sh]] Margaret’s reign. They were respectful of the old ways, and seemed genuinely happy under Banriona [[Queen -sh]] Elaine’s hand. This is something I will have to think about, especially as Clare is the third person of our group that I have come to think of as family. She is the little sister I never had, yet she is a knight in the service of the Banriona.
Erin Metzger, for all the feminine Cymric first name, is an older Eisen Explorer and I suspect is at least a petty noble. Either that or a he’s a thief, for he holds a dracheneisen knife and panzerhand. He’s probably a couple years older than I am, and he most certainly has fought in the War of the Cross, just as I did. He is of a bit above average height, with dark blond hair and a thick mustache that he takes great pride in. I still don’t know what to make of the man, even after fifteen months in his company.
His accent places him from Vaticine Eisen, probably Posen, yet it is obvious he holds no reverence for Father Romero. I, who hold to the old ways of the Tuatha de Dannan [[the first people, the Sidhe -sh]], show Father Romero more respect than a man supposedly of his own faith. Erin seems to be with us purely for the chance to explore. He doesn’t seem to require a source of money like Montolio, Ymir, Iyla, Veil, and I, nor to with us from duty like Clare and I think Captain Drachens (though I am less certain of Drachens than I am of Erin and shall leave him for another day.) He is by far the most proficient at making out the scratches and drawings we find at the ruins we go to and figuring out what we need to know to survive there, but there is something about the man that makes me hesitant to call him filid.
Though, to be perfectly fair, as hard as that is with Erin: he did not condemn me as demon-born when my blood-tie to the Tuatha de Dannan was revealed to him five months ago by Keired-Din’s cursed iarann [[iron -sh]] shackles. He was curious about the Tuatha de Dannan, but accepted them as another people of Théah rather than as agents of the an-séalaigh [[Unseelie, lit: unbound -sh]] Legion so many Vaticine condemn us for being. There is much about him I must consider, even now.
Veil von Dock is another whose name implies something different from the reality. I had bethought him a child of the border between Eisen and Vodacce, but he turns out to be the youngest child of the head of the Falisci family. Why he has chosen this usename and decided to travel I do not know, but I suspect he may have come to trouble for his light-fingered ways. I have never seen a single sign that he has stolen from anyone in our group (and we all know that he pilfers from the dead and he would be the first suspect if an item were to go missing), but he is not above stealing from almost anyone else, including temples we know have active sorceries being practiced within.
For all that he has respected our belongings, he is the least loyal to our group, disappearing for months at a time and reappearing usually with trouble at his heals. No- I am unkind. He has only once reappeared with trouble at his heals. That trouble was mostly of his own making and has lead to our entire group not being welcome on Falisci island and to other troubles besides, but the other time he actually reappeared at a timely moment and actually was able to aid us and that disappearance was not of his choosing in the first place.
Ilya Stulokovich is a good solid Ussuran man, seemingly convinced that pain is something that stops other people, not himself. He broke his leg and refused to allow the rest of us to protect him, nor allow us to slow down to make it easier for him to keep up. He is very good with his axes and I have to wonder if he has some Vestenmannavnjar blood, as he in the heat of battle sometimes reminds me of the berserkers of the isles. I wish I had had a better chance to get to know him, but he found out that his homeland had been invaded by the Montaign and left us with Father Romero’s blessing to help in the defense of Ussura. It was 5 months later that he returned and met up with us in Numa, the Montaign in retreat from Grandmother Winter. He was with us for a month and then… No, I get ahead of myself, and I do not think I am ready to write of this now. He is safe with his countryman, and as much as I dislike Boris’ interest in Clare (especially as Clare does not seem to return it), Boris is a good man and Iyla is in the best care possible.
Ymir has never given us his family name. This is very strange behavour from a Vestenmannavnjar man, but with his Aarensfolk accent it is almost certain that he is as knowledgeable of Laerdom [[rune-magic –sh]] as my family is of Glamour. Something troubles the lad, and troubles him greatly. Ever since we got scattered when leaving Montaign he has been having nightmares every night worse than I do, and sometimes has panick attacks by day. I wish I knew if it was the shackles we all were in or an effect of what scattered us that has triggered this change in the lad. Whatever the problem is, his fear of it leaves him unable to speak of it.
Abraham is the unluckiest man I have ever met in my life. He has more usenames than any spy or mercenary I have ever seen. The rest of the group is not certain that Abraham is his real name, but there was something in his face when I asked him that makes me think that for once he told the unembellished truth. The lad has traveled almost everywhere and speaks… This is hard. I don’t think I’m ready to write about this either. One step at a time.
Lu’call Ni’acin is the newest member of our group. The young Vendel lad had been a member of Captain Drachen’s crew, but ended up with us after a disagreement with his captain about the best course of action at the time. I’m a decent shot with a pistol, but he has an accuracy I have not often seen. I know that this is not his true name. I have seen the P branded in his shoulder. But, for a pirate, he has shown a grasp of honour and morals that I have often seen lacking in his supposed “betters.”
That covers whom I travel with, and it’s time to spar with Montolio and try to keep in something resembling fighting form. I shall try again tomorrow to start what I can recall of our journey.