RP:Shield And Squire

Part of the Dissonance Theory Arc

This is a Devout's Guild RP.

This is a Warrior's Guild RP.

Summary: Rorin tests out his new shield with his squire, Laffaire.

The Snowless Training Yard, Frostmaw

Rorin took his new shield out to the Snowless Training yard with his squire Laffaire. He figured it was a good time to give it a look see. The lantern-shield type design with a detached face from the complicated looking gauntlet was throwing him off a bit and he needed to see just what it was capable of. He also needed to see more if what Laffaire was capable of. She stood opposite of him on the battlefield and began to hop on each foot, psyching herself up, a low rumble beginning in her diaphragm that became a scream of bloody murder as she charged him with two war picks.

Rorin wasn’t much bigger than she was, and they were both built fairly athletic, but his defensive nature and carefully practiced posturing allowed him to shrug off her attacks in a steadily winding maneuver. Her agility and reflexes couldn’t beat his perceptive almost meditative use of the shield, turning what would have been armor wrenching blows into glancing strikes, thudding and ringing up his arm despite thick padding. Her onslaught was relentless and he was starting to go numb through his lower arm.

This still wasn’t quite enough though. Rorin knew there had to be more to the artifact he was wielding, he just wasn’t using it right. He decided to wait for the right moment and counter her strikes. When both of her picks were bearing down on him he positioned himself below them, rolling his arm up and around once they struck so that they would fall off to her sides and break her posture.

The Pilgrim would begin his offense. Moving in with the edge of his shield and then the flat all aimed to smack her in the chest. He went for a backhanded bash and stepped back to create some distance between them. Enough to really start punching in with the edge of his shield in straights and sweeping maneuvers. Something seemed to click around his hand as he went wide with a swing. Rorin clamped down on it and he could feel a clutch with a strange sort of mechanical resistance. The roll of gears came loose and the shield itself dropped to the ground on a chain attached to the gauntlets upper device.

Laffaire had evaded most of the strikes with his shield. She used her natural agility and tried to deflect what she couldn’t dodge using the bracers set on her arms and the heft of the war picks heads. She would allow Rorin to set some ground between them so that she could evaluate the position for a new angle to attack when his shield dropped to the ground. Seeing this as her advantage, she moved in with a fresh roar and intent to kill. Laffaire would swing in high with a leap, aim between his shoulder and neck on his left side, hoping to curve around his defense. She would trap him in with her legs and then he’d be ripe for the picking.

Rorin swing his left arm up in an attempt at defense as Laffaire swung in and around it, cinching her thighs around his neck. Before she could sink her picks into his side he got a good hold on his clutch and swung, the shield-flail bending round where it would hit her before she hit him. Laffaire was too quick for him though and bent back in a tight curve to fall safely off his right side. Rorin nearly hit himself in the face with the shield and chain as it swung around back to the right. Pedaling backward and raising it up, he could feel the shift and pivot of the clutch. The chain began to lengthen and shorten with different twists and pulls or pushes of his hand.

Gaining a quick and intuitive use of the shield flail device wasn’t easy but it was necessary if he wanted to survive. Shortening the chain and holding tight, Rorin began to swing it vertically on his right, lengthening it as it hit the bottom of the arc and sending it forward with a flick, a familiar arc between using slings and actual flails or weighted chains in his boyhood training sessions with the elves. If he missed he could pull it back and around, shorten it, turn with his hips, do a horizontal arc, and then an overhead swing.

By the end of the session Rorin understood his artifact much more than he had. He also managed to frustrate Laffaire much more than she had bargained for, keeping her at a medium distance using both the shield as a projectile and the chain as a quick tripping device. Once he was really in the zone she couldn’t get near him and he left the winner of the bout. Still, he had to commend her. She was fast, and reckless, but it also made her unpredictable and strong. She had a good grasp on the war picks as dual weapons as well, knowing when to strike with both and when to use one or neither, swinging with the weight of the head and the balance of the shaft. The paladin and his squire could consider this a solid success.