Fandom High School

"Good afternoon, students!" The usual brusque cheer, the usual clearing in the hilly woods, a usual Friday afternoon for Rangering! Except for two things.

Students might benoticing a great deal of other visitors in the class today, furry visitors and scaly ones, winged ones and shelled ones. There were all sorts of critters and creatures everywhere today.

Also, Minsc was a lady. Despite his current feminitity, though, he was definitely still Minsc. Just with breasts and he was cutting a bit more of a svelte, though still muscular figure.

"I hope you find your day well," Minsc continued, "and if not? Suck it up! You're not the only one stuck in a woman's body! You know, there's this story I know about a girdle that changed your gender, but I have not equipped myself with any such item, so hopefully, it shall pass soon, like it did last time, without the help or cost of a priest to remove the curse."

"But enough about that! We're talking with animals today, not breasts, so it's always good to be in a good mood when you do that, because animals can tell that sort of thing and be really nasty if you don't like your attitude!"

"As rangers, as you have hopefully noticed by now, we must be very attuned to nature! We rangers do that by communicating with animals; if we did it with plants, we'd be druids, and they don't get nearly as awesome of weapons. So animals it is, then! Some rangers, like myself, are so attuned to animal communication that we have a faithful animal companion, right, Boo? Others of us are just naturally born animal communicators! It just happens, sometimes! Like waking up with a bosom."

"As for me, the advice I can give is this: animals are people, too! Just ones with claws and fangs and other things to hurt you with. So be respectful, keep in mind that they are other intelligent creatures and be mindful of cues: warning cues, welcoming ones. Pay attention to how they respond; be warm and inviting. Don't make sudden moves, unless you're dealing with something that is trying to get you to prove yourself. To help, there are a variety of delicious things for animals to eat available; many of them will be glad for the gift, but watch out! Some may be offended by the bribe. Communication with animals is often just about feeling it; it is not something that can be taught, but something that must be lived."

"I will do my best if you have questions! About animals, that is! I can't help with the girl thing, I'm afraid."

[[ OCD is on the way took its sweet ass time, but is finally up! ]]

"Good afternoon, class!" Minsc was, as usual, very excitable when his students came into the the Danger Shop this week, with an added side effect of being glad he had an afternoon workshop, all things consider. The setting looking an awful lot like the clearing they were in last week, but with an assortment of long-range weapons available. "Some of you may remember this class from last time! This is the class where we do buttkicking, but at a distance! Like last time, I noticed that many of you are already very proficient in swords. I am sure many of you also have a proficiency in range weaponry, too, but the range weapons is one of the reason we are called range-ers! It is also because we range over a wide range of land and have a wide range of knowledge and can kick a wide range of butt, and..."

Minsc paused, seemingly lost for a second in his own definition.

"It is a very versatile word," he concluded. On that point, anyway, because he started back up on the lesson.

"So here we have a collection of different range weapons. I know some people use guns and lasers, pew pew, but rangering is an older art, so we will use older weapons! We've got bows, crossbows, some very nice slings, and darts." And, yes, those last ones were big giant lawn darts. Last semester, it had been a mistake. This semester, he decided that they were far too awesome to ignore!

"I would not be surprised if some of you already have a proficiency in one of these long-range weapons already. If so, try one you're not as familiar with. Or, instead of just going for the targets, I can put you in a real battle with a beastie form the programming, and what you can do there is work on being able to fight an enemy who, unlike the targets, won't just stay put, so you'll have to work on potentially switching in and out between weapons for a more efficient kill!"

"Off to the side, there are also practise swords and staffs. If you are done with target practise, it is good to keep up your other work, and you may choose to spar with each other! I actually encourage this, as no ranger should get rusty! Well, then! Have at it! And if there are any questions, please just ask! TO ARMS!"


[[ OCD is coming gets another shot! ]]

As the class headed in today, they'd find the usual clearing set up in the Danger Shop had a little village near it this time, though they were on its outskirts, with the usual choices of weaponry and armourments available to the students. Minsc clasped his hands together with a loud sound to get things started.

"Hullo!" he said. "It is our last day! So let's do some rangering!"

He made a sweeping gesture toward the village. "Random Village here has been having some problems! These problems seem to be of a distinctly creature-like manner, making you, as a ranger, before for the task of vanquishing it! From here, you are on your own! ....Unless you decide to partner up, you can do that too, or even work in a group if you'd like! I like groups of six myself. But! From here, you can go into the village and ask around for clues on what is happening. Or you may stay here in the woods and put your tracking skills to use! Or both! It never hurts to use all the resources available to you!"

"I will tell you one thing," Minsc said, "the source of this problem has with it a treasure! The point of the final, then, if to find the source, stop the problem, find the treasure, and then bring it back to me. If you do not find the treasure, but have a grand story of adventure instead, that is also acceptable."

"Now go forth!" he barked. "And ranger away!"


[[ OCD is on the way has saved the day!! ]]

"Good afternoon, class!" Today, they would find themselves being greeted by their brusque teacher in the usual Danger Shop clearing, although the woods seemed a bit thicker, the rocky bits rockier, and there was the sound of a waterfall and a river off in the distance, which spilled out into the sea. It was all very pretty.

"Today we are working on two very important ranger skills! Tracking, and plant finding!" He started to hand out some papers, which were probably pretty helpful and full of information, but Minsc would not be offended if anyone made paper planes or blew their noses in them...because they had a lot of information on them and reading was hard. "Being able to recognize signs of creatures in the area recently might be a big difference between a successful raid or being eaten by a bear! And knowing the difference between a plant that can a heal and a plant that can give you explosive stomach pains is very good, too! You'd be surprised how similar they make some of those! So please look over the material, ask any questions if you've got them, and I'd like you to pair up, go into the woods, and start tracking! Try to find the lair of a creature or monster hidden in these woods, and then try to locate at least three bad plants and three good plants! When you are done, you may work on your sparring or target practise. Now go!"


[[ OCD on the way has been eaten by a grue! ]]

"I don't know if you noticed," said Minsc, addressing the class without his usual business-like (business-like for Minsc, anyway) manner, "but there are alligators! Shooting goldfish! We would all be horrible rangers indeed if all we did was sit on our butts and have a class while there were alligators shooting goldfish! So I shall make this quick, and then you are all to go out there and kick butt! I know that Boo and I will be!"

"So. Quick. As protectors of goodness, a ranger typically focuses a great deal of his energies into being very good at destroying one particular type of bad-doer, especially if they are common to marauding their homes! This allows you to gain a bonus to your roll strike them even better, though the careful study of what makes that creature tick...and stop ticking! We not only specialize on weapons, but also on enemies!"

"Here is a very nice list of common enemies favoured by rangers in my homeland of Faerûn! Look them over, pick one that you might be interested in choosing for your favoured enemy, and then spend the next week studying that enemy! Because that is the key! To know a bad guy is to know it's weaknesses and that is how a ranger gets bonus rolls fights them better! Research well! Whatever you pick, you will be going up against next week!"

"And, should there be a favoured enemy that you have already from your homework, you are welcome to pick one of those, too, especially if it will be more helpful to you in buttkicking later!"

"Now! Questions? No? Take a pick and get out of here! I want to hear about all the alligator butt you have kicked!"


[[ OCD on the way just so happens happens to have goldfish-shooting gators as its favoured enemy! Go fig. ]]

Here it was! It was Friday! Fifth Period! Time for Rangering! Minsc was very excited to be starting up his new class, although he had yet to compile together a syllabus. It seemed like it didn't really matter that much; rangers really had no need for a syllabus and, really, he rarely stuck to it anyway. Next week! he promised himself. Next week he would!

But, for now, class! He had his students meet in the preserve, in a small clearing surrounded by trees, and stood grinning at them eagerly, a hamster in one hand and his broad sword in the other.

( The berserker, he likes to <i>talk</i>... )

[[ please wait for the OCD is ready for buttkicking! ]]