Thinking back, your life at the covenant really began with a strange conversation you had on the way. You were travelling by road, with a group of pilgrims and traders, you can't quite recall where, when you became aware that a pale woman, nobily dressed in green, was watching you. When she began a conversation with you, you were perhaps suprised, given that she did not seem to shun you in the way that mortals did. She asked you where you were going, and how you hoped your life would change, once you got there.
Little Karl looked back at the woman clad in green fabric, he didn’t know who she was or why she where talking to him. My name is Karl, he’d spluttered out, and I am going somewhere. Don’t know the name madam but they must need some new furniture. What I can’t figure out is why they sent fore me, doesn’t they have their own craftsmen or perhaps they don’t have one as skilled as my self. Karl suddenly what his farther always told him, that he shouldn’t brag about his craftsmanship. Cause if he did his father had told him, the devil would take him one day. As he spoke the next sentence Karl had clearly halted himself and changed subject. I am going to village in the great forest to work for a new master, I think that her name was Gudrun but really I can’t remember. I sound strange don’t it that a woman should be a master furniture maker, perhaps it is a widow that inherited her husband’s workshop. Don’t know what to hope for when I get there a nice bed and plenty enough of food will do, perhaps I can even get a coin once and a while to visit any faire that is nearby. I could certainly use new boots, Karl looks to his feet’s where his shoes are beginning to smile.
"Karl then. I will remember you. I am sure your new mistress has boots aplenty, but I am feeling fickle, and so will give you a gift. At the next village, there is a bridge, and beneath the bridge is a shadowy place where lichen grows. Beneath the lichen is a stone, and beneath the stone are a set of boots precisely your size. No man living owns them, so it is a waste for them to rest there, do you not agree? Perhaps they should be yours, for you have a long journey ahead. Longer, I think, than you can even imagine."
Karl looked at the woman as she spoke and wondered, could she be telling the truth? How could she know that there would be boots there in his size, probably a lie but one never knew. Karl smiled and thanked the woman, her appearance was one he never forgot.
When Karl reaches the next village, it is just past four in the afternoon. The group knows there is some hard travel ahead, so it plans to pause here for the night. Does Karl want to check out the bridge, at any stage, or will we just wrap this memory?
If you were forced to choose, you'd say that you became aware of the covenant, and your desire to travel there, after hearing about it from a redcap. Your first distinct memory of the covenant, though, is of a strange conversation you had, the following day. You were at a pilgrim's stop, and you were eating some of the bread that the church in that area provided for pilgrims, when a woman passed you a bowl of pea porridge and sat down opposite you. She was dark, you recall, perhaps an Arab, and was in her forties you'd guess, although quite handsome despite her age. She had a red velvet shawl over her shoulders.
"I have seen many travelers, and heard many of their stories, and I would like to hear yours. I presume, like most people here, that you are going a very long way, and for a very good reason, but what, do you think, you will find at the end of your road?"
Karl would have searched for the new boots. Far to interesting to skip.
Karl looked at the beautiful woman. He couldn’t help but to feel a little bit of awkward in the presence of a lady who talked to him, the only women who had talked to him except for his mother where those who ordered furniture and they had always a disgusted look upon their faces. He felt an warmth inside and felt the heat rush to his cheeks. He replied to the woman; Uhhh… My name is Karl, Karl Von Köln. I am one of the most skilled furniture makers in Köln. Karl stretched out his body to look as imposing as possible. I am travelling to Durenmar in the black forest to become a wizard. I am to become one of the most powerful wizards when I grew older. Karl hoped that he would impress the lady with his words. Somehow he felt within that he needed somewhere to belong, somewhere where people didn’t spit at him. Once he where a wizard, who could look down on him?
"Pride is good in a wizard." she said "I will remember you, Karl von Koln. You wanted boots, a meal and enough silver for the fair, yes? And to become one of the most powerful wizards when you grow older?" She laughs. "Good. Something for soon and something for later and something for later still. Goodbye, Karl von Koln." She placed a loaf of rye bread stuffed with mince and onions on the table and stepped away from it. Although the stopping place was not very crowded, you could not track her path from her seat to the doorway, she just faded into the crowd.
Karl looked at the doorway. Rose up and walked to the doorway, looked out and wondered what had happened. Who where this mysterious lady? Why where she so interested in him and had he said something he shouldn’t have said? Questions where mounting and when would there be answers?
Mad Max, lets move it along to the bridge. (Try to end your posts on actions, OK? This thing where you talk about what your character is thinking is fine, but as SG I need something for surrounding characters to respond to.)
When Karl reaches the next village, it is just past four in the afternoon. The group knows there is some hard travel ahead, so it plans to pause here for the night. What's Karl's plan? Head off during the day, sneak out of his lodgings at night...something else?
Thanks for the instruction of how you want my posts to be. Please tell me if the following is more like the style of post that you want to se from me.
Karl heads of during the day. To him there is no need to sneak when you are claiming an objective that is his by right. If anyone ask him where he is going he probably responds that he has an errand to run. Once he has found the boots he put them on and return to show of his new boots. He is still keeping the old boots if there could be a chance that he might trade them of for something else or give to someone needing. If he gives them away he makes sure that it is noticed by someone else so he at least get to be seen a generous in the eyes of the other.
Well his finds his new boots, and they are new-looking, and balck and chased with shiny brass heels. They are under the rock as predicted. A complicating factor is that they seem to have the footbones of their previous owner still inside them. What do you do when you discover that you are, perhaps, graverobbing?
Karl is horrified by the find, he wanted new boots but he won’t take them from the dead. If possible he takes tem to a place where they can be found so that they can be properly buried in hallowed ground.
Karl's boots, when removed entirely from the earth so that they can be left to be found, have leg bones sticking into them, from under the soil. You guess there's an entire body down there.
How are you going to leave them out to be found? Is that still the plan?
A body buried in the soil beneath a bridge is surely placed there by foul play, at least Karl draws that conclusion. If he know someone who he can trust amongst the pilgrims he talks to them about what he has found. Else he must make it know somehow, unsanctified soil in nothing for a good Christian. If Karl hasn’t one that he trust especially he talks to all the pilgrims and trust them to believe his tale. If anyone question how he got that information he refers to the mystic lady that visited him, someone must have seen her.
You feel that yoiu are close enough to Brother Albertus, a friar who is on a pilgrimage and travelling with this group, to confide in him.
"My son, you must go to the people in power here. You will not, I am sure, be blamed, for we are new to this town, and the body, you say, is fallen to bones and earth and ashes. If you wish me to come with you, then gladly I will."
I will go myself, but thank you Brother Albertus. If you don’t see me for awhile please come and look for me. Karl readies himself to go and find a person of authority and tell him about his discovery. Karl searches first for churchman then if no one such can be found then he tries to find a town elder or similar.
Karl approaches in a firm pace and tries to speak with authority despite his rather young age.
My name is Karl and I am a travelling pilgrim from Köln. When I was taking a stroll I found the most hideous tings burrowed beneath the dark soil under the bridge. It where remains of a human that I found. I have come to tell you this so that we can give that poor man a proper funeral, if you wish I can help with the grisly task at hand. Karl tries to speak with authority despite his rather young age.
It isn't until after the priest has been shown the body, and called the guard ot help him recover the body, that you see the woman again. You are waiting in a small room, where the guards have asked you to wait, eating the lunch they have given you, of soup and bread.
She just opens the door and walks in. She looks about briefly.
"Hrrrm, bread and boots and silver for the fair, wasn't it? I lose track, sometimes."