Training: Zyrrqel Qilooy

[Jools Noctru]

Blue is my Game Master (GM) voice. Please consider everything said in blue to be Out-Of-Character (OOC).

Before we start training, I would like you to post your character background story. Go into as much detail as you like. This is very important, because every character in the Combine needs to know where they come from, and what type of person they are. Once you have posted your background, we will proceed with your training.

[Zyrrqel Qilooy]

(OOC: Okay, this is Zyrrqels biograhy. I'm rather new to forum roleplay and I'm not a native speaker of the English language so I very much appreciate every critique and advice you can give to me.)


In year -14, Zyrrqel Qilooy was born into a respected traditional Gand Family. Many family members were notable Findsmen, while the other part of the clan worked as traders and scientists on one of the space stations orbiting the ammonia-gas planet Gand.
While he was introduced into family traditions and the belief in Ara, the god of the mists he began to develop a big interest in the rest of the Galaxy. His Family intended to make him either a Findsman or a trader, but Zyrrqel felt a strong inner urge to learn more about other planets and solar systems, about the environment, history and everything connected with it. So from his earliest days on Zyrrqel strived to become a scientist, explorer and researcher. His unlimited intellectual curiosity was one of his strongest characteristics since he began to become aware of the world surrounding him in the first years of his life.
As soon as he learned to read at the age of 3, he started reading all material he could get into his scaly, three-fingered hands and he used every oportunity to talk to foreigners and aliens while helping on his familys trading business in the years to follow. Some of his relatives worked on a space research lab on Gand and they were his favorite dialogue partners in these early years.

It was on one of these occasions while he was in the lab, that he made the acquaintance of Dr. Gerden Tornell, a human geoscientist and archaeologist. Zyrrqel was only 12 years old then. Nevertheless they had some intense scientific discussions and Dr. Tornell sensed the big thirst for knowledge and scientific prowess of the young Gand.
It was then, that Zyrrqel saw his big chance. He asked Gerden to take him onto his ship as his student. It was the young Gands deepest wish to learn all he could from this experienced, old human scientist. His family wasn't ready to let him go at that time, though. They wanted him to show his worth first, and so he had to graduate in space piloting and computer science first. He reached that goal in 2 years and was allowed to use his family name from this time on.
Now he could depart from Gand for the first time and he started his travels with his mentor Dr. Gerden Tornell. They spent 6 years together and a deep mentor and student bond was formed between the two of them in this time. Zyrrqel learned that Tornell was a force user and worked as a scientist on behalf of the Jedi Order. Together they visited many planets in the outer rim and explored their ecosystems, gelogy and ancient heritage. Zyrrqel learned a lot about science in general and about the galaxy in these years.
At the age of 94 years, Tornell died unexpectedly when their ship was attacked by an unidentified fighter in the outer rim. It was never solved who attacked them, or why. Zyrrqel Qilooy never got to know if Tornell sensed an affiliation to the force in him and took him along because of that or if he just appreciated him as a scientist.

After the death of Dr. Tornell, Zyrrqel returned to his family on Gand and told them about his decision to apply himself to the studies of geology, biology and archaeology at a university. His parents weren’t very happy about his plans. Being members of a very traditionalist Gand clan, his Family feared that he would forget about his origin and traditions and that he wouldn’t be of any use for the clan. So they told him that they would support him only if he was willing to accept theyr terms. He would always have to keep his Gand traditions high and never forget about where he came from and what he was. They had him swear an oath of loyalty to the Gand society, his clan and family and that he would never deny his affiliation to the Gand society and the religion of Ara and the Mists of Gand. Although Zyrrqel had always been a rather open- and liberal-minded Gand, he accepted these conditions in order to being able to start his intendet scientific career.

Thanks to a letter of recommendation, Dr. Gerden Tornell had written for him a while before his sudden death, Zyrrqel was able to start his studies at the famous University of Alderaan, studying geology, xenobiology and xenoarchaeology. After he brilliantly finished his degrees after 7 years of intense study, he returned to Gand once again and was granted the rights to use his given name from now on, because of his scientific success. He now was a full member of Gand society. His family wanted him to stay on Gand and work as a scientist for their clan, but he denied. The urge to explore the vast Galaxy was still burning inside him and he sensed that it was his destiny to devote his studies and work to the whole galaxy and not just the planet Gand. And so he left Gand once again, and while still following the oath he swore to his people, he was sure that his intended path led into the infinite widths of the universe and he felt an insatiable urge inside him dragging him to the unknown and unexplored…

[Jools Noctru]

The training consists of a number of situations for you to react to. Unless otherwise stated, these situations do not follow on from one to the next. You will be told what are you are expected to focus on in which section.

In Description and Tone, you must focus entirely on the describing the scene set before you and establishing a tone to the area. Do not worry about combat just yet.

You have landed at the spaceport of a planet in the outer rim that reminds you vaguely of home. It is not too special but it has a lot of people, and for the most part they seem friendly enough. You can hear the sounds of an outdoor market from not too far away, and you notice a grouping of large tents off to the south. There is a sign next to the tents but you can't read it from here. You realize you are hungry as the smells of food reach you from the market and you can only conclude that there are the usual array of bars, restaurants and food vendors in the small town around the spaceport.

[Zyrrqel Qilooy]

It was one of the first spaceflights Zyrrqel had done on his own. His family gave a little ship to him for his time at the University of Alderaan. On his way there, he decided to visit and explore some planets he didn't know, yet. The first interesting planet on his route was a small gassy planet resembling his homeplanet Gand. So the young curious pilot decided to use this as his first stop.

The engines of the small shuttle like ship made screaming and jowling sounds as Zyrrqel pilotet it into the lower atmosphere of the unknown planet. Yellowish-grey mists and clouds surrounded his old, rusty spacecraft during its landing approach. But unlike Gand, his homeplanet, on this planet the mists dissolved approximately 1km above the planetary surface, allowing a spectacular view from one horizon of the flat desert below him, to the other. Shortly after this moment of admiration Zyrrqel focused his mind on landing the ship on the landing platform which was coming closer every second. He was highly concentrated while navigating the shuttle to it's destination.

A few minutes later, the young Gand was already stepping out of the ship and examining the new environment. He was clothed in his usual, worn brown leather cloak, the mouth and chin part of his insectile head hidden by his respirator mask and shortly after leaving the ship he pulled the hood of his cloak over his head to shelter from the cold wind. The spaceport itself seemed rather deserted small buildings looking like clay huts from the distance surrounded the spaceport on its western northern and eastern side, while the open desert could be seen south of it. While letting his eyes take in the whole situation and his surroundings Zyrrqel spotted some tents south of his position at the edge of the small town. There was a big sign on the biggest of the tents, but because he wasn't able to read it at that distance, he started to walk there kind of curious what was awaiting him there.

After getting closer to the colourful, storm-raged tents he began to notice the murmor of many voices coming from there. He could also discern the writing on the sign now, but he wasn't very familiar with the writing on it. He could only guess that it meant something like 'market' or 'bazar' probably. Beginning to feel hungry he hoped that his guessing was correct. When he entered the big circle the tents formed he could see that he was at least partly correct. Some of the tents were build like market stalls and some of the bigger tents looked like they were some kind of taverns or public tents. But besides those, there were also tents that looked like people were living in them and there were a lot of big animals and wagons surrounding the place, so that Zyrrqel concluded that these people must be nomads. It was beginning to get dark already, and many fireplaces and torches were lighting the place giving it a very archaic ambience.

While he was walking around between the tents, looking for a place where he could ask for something to eat, he could see that the people there belonged to many different species so it didn't seem like it was a native tribe or something like that. After walking around like that for a few minutes three rather small figures approached him from one of the bigger tents. Zyrrqel began to feel a little uneasy, not entirely sure what kind of place this was. One of the three was even holding a blaster rifle in front of him but he couldn't make out much more because they were wrapped into their cloaks againste the cold blowing wind like himself. Only when they had almost reached him he could see that they were Gand as well. They waved and greeted him in their native language when they recogniced his origin and Zyrrqel was feeling quite relieved.

They received him like an old friend and invited him into their tent, where Zyrrqel met their wives and children as well. He was invited to eat with them and learned that they were living a nomadic life on this planet as traders and herdsmen with a lot of other, likeminded people from many different races. They were a rather friendly bunch of people and Zyrrqel was hoping to learn some interesting things about this planet from them. While eating together, they were talking about this and that and Zyrrqel was deeply grateful that he met such nice people of his nation so far away from home.

"I'm very interested about geology and would like to learn more about this planet's history and interesting places in this area. Is there anyone who knows about such things among your group?" Zyrrqel finally asked after they finished eating, not being able to suppress his scientific curiosity any longer.

He looked eagerly from one of his hosts to the other, because instead of answering, they started debating about who could know such things almost ignoring Zyrrqel for about 5 minutes. The young Gand wasn't able to understand much, because they talked in a strange dialect and very fast and most of what they said where probably the names of other members of the camp. Finally they became silent and one of them started to tell Zyrrqel the result of their dispute.

[Jools Noctru]

It's always good to fully describe an area if you're the first one there - it lets other people see the same area you do and helps interaction. It's also an aid to roleplaying in that people can react better to different environments - characters used to fine restaurants can look down their noses at a seedy bar, and people used to the seedy bar might be a little intimidated and out of place in a fine restaurant.

You have shown to be quite apt in describing both your character's background as well as a scene set before you. You have been using the correct tense for your posts, and I have confidence you no longer require training on Tone and Description.

Next will come Player Character (PC) interaction. You are to assume that the Trainers character is an old friend, and react to them accordingly. Remember that you can not control the actions of other PCs. If you prefer, you may weave this next scenario into your current setting, but it is not required for training.

You are at the bar, ordering another drink when your old friend Skritt Zavv, an aging Geonosian, approaches you and attempts to slap you on the back.

"Hey, buddy, I didn't expect to see you here. How have you been?"

[Zyrrqel Qilooy]

Zyrrqel felt the friendly slap on his back and immediately spun around in a fluid movement, his greyish-green compound eyes scrutinizing the source of the slap. It was a spindly, old Geonosian and the Gand immediately recognized him as Skritt Zavv, one of his former lecturers at Alderaan University. His mood changed from very relaxed and absentmindedly, while sitting on the barstool, to alarmed and wary, when feeling the slap, finalizing in joyful astonishment when recognizing his old friend - all this within a few split seconds.

“Hey, buddy, I didn't expect to see you here. How have you been?” Skritt said, smirking about the unremarkable signs of surprise showing in the Gand’s face, which only someone knowing him very good could discern.

“Skritt Zavv!” Zyrrqel’s voice sounded kind of metallic and bubbling through the respirator mask and the vocoder which was attached to it, allowing him the use of Basic language. Only very perceptive beings would have noticed the faster and somewhat irregular bubbling in the little tanks of his respirator, caused by the sudden adrenaline rush.

“What are you doing here on this Station?” Zyrrqel went on after the very short pause, which he needed to sort out his thoughts and adjust to the unexpected situation. “It’s quite some distance away from Aderaan and you’ve never been a very enthusiastic traveler, as far as I remember.”

Zyrrqel Qilooy arrived on this isolated research station only a few hours earlier and after a long journey spent working and reading on his small spaceship, he decided to get some distraction from his scientific work while relaxing at the only bar of the small space station. He had planned to meet one of the chief scientists and discuss some questions he had, concerning available records of asteroids in some specific Outer Rim sectors. But meeting his old friend, the talented and well-known historian and archaeologist Dr. Skritt Zavv, opened some totally new opportunities of scientific debate and discussions for him, which he already was looking forward to.

[Jools Noctru]

I am confident that you will do well in Player Interaction, so lets move on!

In NPC Interaction, you will focus primarily on the proper ways to interact and do light combat with NPCs. This first section is unmoderated, and you should control your opponents' actions.

"Listen Zyrrqel, I'm only going to say this once..." Skritt said while carefully eyeing around the station's bar. "I came to warn you."

Before he even gave Zyrrqel a chance to respond, he continued "--Now before you start asking questions, haven't you noticed anything odd the last couple of minutes?"

The bar suddenly goes quiet and you ignore it. You're still slightly flabbergasted by the appearance of Dr. Zavv.

"We can't talk here. Meet me at my ship in hangar bay 7C in an hour. Act casual. I'll see you soon..." Skritt whispered, before getting up and leaving the bar.

Within moments of silence you are suddenly spun around and two very strong hands are able to grab a hold of your throat.

The very large and angered Wookie begins to shake you in his grip. You know as well as he that within moments you would die. You hear some shouts of agreement from the cowardly supporters nearby. Things to the effect of "You get 'em!" and "Thatta boy!"

You are in a fix.

[Jools Noctru]

Training cancelled due to inactivity. Please post a new request to re-open your RP training with us.

[Calgor Grim]

Training reactivated. We have done NPC interaction I believe. Are we ready to resume? We can move onto combat if willing.

[Zyrrqel Qilooy]

Combat sounds good. I haven't finished the last scenario Jools started. Should I continue with that one or do you want to start something else?