Laman Steel
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character: Laman Steel
login: AeolderrHere recorded is the history of perhaps the worst young knight of Torm.
"So you want to hear where ol' Laman came from, eh? Alright, I'll tell you if ya buy me another drink." He grins, wiggling twirling his mustache.
"I came from Vaasa, I'm sure you've heard of it. Makes your town of Norwick look like it's fighting an anthill once you've seen the spawn of evil that creeps beyond the gates of Vaasa. Thought I was to make my mark on the world there, Laman Steel! Great defender of the innocent! Destroyer of evil! Favored of the ladies." he winks with a smirk.
"Not all plans work out as we plan though, do we? I took out with a local company of the Knights of Torm. Good folk mostly, a few pricks, but there are a few pricks everywhere, eh? Anyways I suppose I owe most of what I am to them, and damned sight if I still ain't half the men they were, gut excluded of course." he chuckles.
"They trained me in the sword, I got good at that part, they trained me how to march and parade ground, I could fumble my way through it, but best of all…" he pauses for dramatic effect, "they got me free drinks at the bars after a successful day's heroing."
"Now see, this is the part where the Order and myself started disagreeing. I developed a bit of a drinking habit, think my record was getting lectured and disciplined by six different paladins ten times in one night. Needless to say there were quite a few who didn't think me up to snuff for their outfit."
He shrugs, taking a swallow from his drink."By this point you're probably thinking I'm the biggest drunkard and about as useful as a lame-legged mule, aren't ya? Well you'd be wrong if you were. I learned a lot from those knights, and I do follow the tenets of Torm, the important ones. I fight the good fight, evil need fear my blade, and I'll let no harm come to good folk when harm can be better entertained chewing on my well padded bones." guffaws with laughter.
"Course, I suppose I lacked the conviction most of them had. That ain't saying my faith is less, just that I followed it less zealously. I never cut off no thief's hand, I didn't look for folk with blackness in their heart to ostracize. Not to say I wasn't weary mind, but folk can change. Point is, I didn't go looking for no crusade to purge from my own folk. Too many goblins and orcs and nasties roaming about that disturbed the good folk more." He swallows from his mug, getting a bit more serious.
"Why am I here you say? Truth is the Knights got ashamed of me. Was all well and good when I was just a soldier, I was like that drunken cousin who shows up to your wedding. You're not sure who invited him, but you can't just kick him out." grinning a bit.
"The trouble came when I started, developing so to speak. Now I'm talking my bosom started growing, though I guess that did after my gut outpaced it. I mean when Lord Torm started taking an interest in me, and I felt his mark. Little things really, a blessing to any soldier, but certainly a longshot from any blessing a knight claims. I got sick less, can't honestly remember the last time I was laid up actually. Every so often, I could even heal a small wound on someone. May not seem much to most, but it's all a soldier could want really. Never having to miss a battle from illness, and the chance I can save a buddy who's just a bit too slow with a shield."
Reclines in his chair, resting his back against the wall, "oh right, forgot to tell you why I was here. Well basically, I'd taken the first steps to becoming a paladin. All well and good huh? Good for Laman ya think, well that's not what the Order thought. I wasn't half as polished as they were, embarrassed them really, made it look like any drunkard that could swing a sword could be a paladin. Now I did still have friends among them, but ya know how prickly honor can be, aye?"
He chuckles and drains the rest of his ale, "So I got the privilege of being sent to the most remote land they could think of to prove my worth as a warrior of Torm. They wouldn't call me paladin or knight." grins at that, "So I wandered, and found myself here. Probably be here to stay really, this whole mission is just a polite excuse of telling me not to come back."
Squints his eyes, twirling his mustache and looking across the table at the person he was talking to, "why ya so interested in me anyhow?"
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