✶✶ cavern song ✶✶ o/a !

[a. seemanni]

For months, the people of Cintra have been going missing in the night, seemingly without a trace. Victims went to bed in the evening and left their homes frozen in time, untouched save for one single connection: each of the houses had, hidden within them, a fiend’s tooth.

Knights-errant gathered a party to search for the assailant, and managed to uncover the mouth of a cavern just outside of Cintra’s walls before they were attacked. Only two of the ten survived, returning to Queen Calanthe with tales of a mad beast, wide around as a tower and as tall as its battlements. The men who had returned had each been missing an eye, though they could not remember it having been removed, and it had called their names in their mothers’ voices. Cintran knights, accompanied by the court mage, were dispatched to look into this cave mouth by day. It seemed plain, almost too serene. There were no signs of a fiend to be found, no indication that the missing citizens were anywhere near the area. The situation seemed hopeless - until the court mage suggested they seek professional help. Perhaps they were in need of a Witcher.

[a. seemanni]

─────────────────────────────────

roleplay rules
• follow cs rules as well as thread rules, which are subject to change.
• max one role per player as there are limited spaces
• please disable signatures on the thread to avoid clutter
• this is a semi-literate roleplay. i want to aim for 300+ words per post.
• please pm me your reservations and leave forms in the discussion!
• realistic faceclaims are required! places are first come, first serve.
• diversity is encouraged and appreciated!
• stay active! i ask for at least one post per week. please let me know if you're going to be gone an extended period of time so that i don't remove you from the roleplay.

✶ i'm pretty lowkey, so if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask! i reserve the right to update the rules as seen fit and required, but for the most part, they shouldn't change too much!

[a. seemanni]

─────────────────────────────────

• school of wolf - miren of eysenlaan - chevreuil
"In the days of its glory, the School of the Wolf was one of the most recognized of the witcher schools. Its members gained the reputation of professional and reliable monster slayers. According to a legend, it is said that at some point of the history they hosted Count Esteril Thyssen and his lover Agnes, who were hiding from Videmont's wrath"

• school of cat - ranulf of belhaven - . nash .
"Unlike other witchers, those from the School of the Cat were not committed to a position of neutrality. As a result, they were often hired as spies and assassins. And it's no wonder – assassinating a nobleman usually paid better than slaying a drowner."

• school of viper - radoslav of glyswen - herald.
"One of the southernmost offshots of the witcher caste, it was probably the most alien and secretive. The Vipers managed to collect an incredible collection of books and scrolls on the Wild Hunt, leading some of its members to speculate whether their school was founded for the very purpose of solving the riddle of the spectral riders."

• school of griffin - jarviss of kovir - a. seemanni
"School of the Griffin was one of the known splinter fractions of the order created by Alzur and Cosimo Malaspina in the 10th century. Judging by their high social etiquette, the Griffins seemingly kept the original "knightly" values of the witcher order. They also had nothing against killing dragons."

• school of bear - saiorse of belhaven - yennefer
"They settled in the Amell Mountains and established contacts with dwarves and gnomes of this region. At the peak of their power they often travelled to Skellige, both due to its amount of monsters and the islanders' mindset akin to their own."

• school of crane - magnhild of haakland - daughter
"Skilled in both swords and early guns, the Cranes prove to be the best remedy to monsters of the air and the sea which can be encountered on long routes between Cherdian and Novigrad."

• school of manticore - name - user
"The witchers of this school are from the far east where Haakland and Zerrikania lies. They are uncovered in Duchy of Toussaint where a certain member found spiritual enlightenment. Members wear a manticore medallion."

[a. seemanni]

─────────────────────────────────

updates and announcements as needed!

[a. seemanni]

JARVISS OF KOVIR

griffin witcher | on the road to cintra | feeling zazzed
───────────────────────────────────────────────
jarviss’ first thought was that the streets in novigrad could stand to be a little wider. running from the novigradian mafia could be fun, and on horseback it was a fast-paced thrill ride. once or twice chalice, the palomino irish cob beneath him, hesitated or made a nervous whicker before she leapt a wall or raced by a cart in their daring escape - there were a pair of men on horseback hot on their heels, and though jarviss could take them no problem, he didn’t really want to. wreaking havoc through the streets may not have been much better, but it was less severe than a brawl or unfortunate murder. chalice nearly took a man’s head off with her hoof as she leapt down from one road to the other, and suddenly, they were thundering through novigrad gate and out into the surrounding town. jarviss whooped, and the two of them were off. he had somewhere to be, after all.

griffin witchers, for the most part, had the same view on work; a contract was a contract. dragons, drowners, zeugls. a monster was a monster and work was work. jarviss didn’t remember who had drilled that into him as he escaped the training ground for academic pursuits, but either way, this one was no different than the rest … until he read the fine print. strange disappearances, voice mimicry, and fiends’ teeth to boot? the possibilities had him doing backbends just to put things together. it had to be multiple monsters. maybe something they’d never seen before? the prospect of an entirely new monster was exhilarating, and as he made camp that night, he contemplated species.

breaking camp the next morning was just slightly easier, knowing he was riding for adventure. chalice seemed to have forgiven her rider for his rash path the day before and nuzzled his hand when he offered it. his ankle clipped the katakan trophy at her right flank as he swung himself up into the saddle, and he frowned at the soft feeling. eugh. jarviss clicked his tongue and brought the palomino about, and then they were on their way. cintra wasn’t far from the place they’d stopped for the night, off the path in a dense woods, and they would reach it in a couple hours or so.

[slaughter beach, dog]

█│▒║ ── 𝑴 𝑰 𝑹 𝑬 𝑵 - 𝑶 𝑭 - 𝑬 𝒀 𝑺 𝑬 𝑵 𝑳 𝑨 𝑨 𝑵 ─ ⚜ ─────────────── ─ ─ ─ ─ ─╶╶╶

location; on the road to Cintra ── tagging; Jarviss, open ── mentioned; -- ── wc; 788


Miren allowed herself to sway slightly looser in the saddle as they cut their way through the thicket, following the guidance of a twisting footpath. Chasing a mysterious Cintran contract, after all these years. She turned the thought over in her head. How likely is it that the ones spreading word had merely been blinded by fear in the moment, and the contract will turn out to be something as simple as a kobold wandering a little too far South? She breathed a beat of laughter, much to Whistler's apparent dismay, as she replied with a shake of her bridled head. It wouldn't have been the first time the poster of a contract had exaggerated the capabilities of their monster out of fear, lack of knowledge, or simple embarrassment over their reaction when facing something unfamiliar with a few too many teeth.

indentindentHiding from a Cat assassin had meant scraping together whatever coin she could get from the unremarkable contracts of equally unremarkable villages, and living a rather austere life on that coin. There had been a strange beauty in the simplicity of a life in the outer fringes of a kingdom, but there had also been days of hunger when the poor peasants had found themselves unable to pay or even spare food as a gesture of thanks. A few too many times of being caught in the rain with nothing more than a soggy bedroll could lead anyone to dream of a crackling fire and a stack of dry pelts. The life of a Witcher tended to be far from glamorous during the best of times, but Miren was more than ready to upgrade from sleeping on roadsides to at least half a roof over her head.
indentindentWere she to allow herself to muse about it, the thought of an actual bed might have sparked outright excitement, not to mention the chance to hunt something a little more challenging than an emaciated wolf. So what if it meant risking the attention of an assassin or two? Frankly, she believed they had long since dropped the hunt and taken advantage of the rumours about her death to collect their coin. But she also believed that the thin-skinned nobleman from Temeria would feel a sudden wave of frugality once Miren cropped up in Cintra and he had a chance to realize he had been swindled out of his money. And when the Cat found himself in hot water, she had no doubt he would come for revenge, regardless of how many mental leaps he would have to make in order to appoint Miren as the guilty party of his predicament.
indentindentA wave of tremors ran along the forest floor, at the very limits of Miren's perception. She tugged on the reins to keep the sound of Whistler's hooves from muddling the sounds of their vicinity. The lilting birdsong leaking from the depths of the woods had been interlaced with the rustling of some small mammal in the low undergrowth, but as she strained her ears, they became more distinct, and she found the muffled thudding of another horse's hooves against the soil. Instead of growing nearer as she had initially assumed, the steed was gaining distance between them.
indentindentKnowing to search the forest ahead of them, Miren contracted her pupils against the glare of the sun between the trees. A mop of black hair blinked in and out of view as the rider navigated the path between the trees. His beard was still shaped in a style she considered more at home on the chin of a bard than a Witcher, but the trophy swinging by his horse's flank was proof that he hadn't yet left his swords to rust. It was a shame, since Miren could remember him playing those reedpipes with such grace. Without a second of hesitation, she coaxed Whistler to follow. Cintra and Temeria may have shared a border, but Jarviss was the furthest a Witcher could get from a Cat.
indentindentGripping the saddle with her thighs, Miren let go of the reins, tossed back the hood of her cloak, and proceeded to cup her palms around her mouth.
"Jarviss!" she called with a touch of rasp in her voice, then shot her arms into the air in an unusually triumphant greeting. Her words echoed through the stillness of the woods, chasing on the tails of a flock of birds erupting from the bushes. The mare underneath her shifted and snorted to express her disgruntlement in the disruption of the quiet, but it would have taken more than that to drive away the fond smile tugging at the corners of Miren's lips. There was never a bad time to meet an old friend on the Path.