Cadash Thaig and the Lights of Arlathan

[mythalenaste]

WHO: Sina, Velanna, Morrigan, Shale, Katniss, and Pel
WHAT: Finding an ancient elven magic and the history of a dwarven thaig.
WHEN: Forward-dated to the 17th
WHERE: Cadash Thaig
NOTES: Some violence, but only against darkspawn. Well. Darkspawn are a warning too.

The journey to the thaig provides few encounters with darkspawn, which are handily dealt with. That's the best thing to be said about it. Pel has never been in the Deep Roads before. It's actually sort of nice, she thinks. In the Deep Roads, there are usually only two directions from which you can be attacked. There's something reassuring and secure about that. It's also missing sounds of life, aside from life that wants to kill you. Fewer guessing games to be played about what caused that sound. Other than that, it's a bleak, dead place with occasional breathtaking architecture. Modern elves don't really have architecture. It's fascinating to see it, when she can.

They arrive at the thaig and it's...surprisingly green. How in the world a place that has never seen the sun can have this much green, she has no idea. There's no mistaking it for the surface, of course, but it's a comforting color to see.

Comments

mingling; + the bonus find of a lifetime

[arcaneadvisor]

general mingling;
History has a habit of repeating itself, and though she wasn't in a hurry to return to the Deep Roads, not after seeing an Archdemon fly overhead, not after facing down the horror of a broodmother made worse by Hespith, this is something she cannot resist.

Temptation lies in the forbidden.

At camp though she's able to relax a little more having been through this once before, quietly attending to her notes or harvesting some of the rarer plants to take back with them. And perhaps, in later moments, she might be caught with a true smile with her sending crystal telling tales into it as a boy's soft voice filters through - she will not say no if someone wishes to interject if it gets a boy off to sleep a little sooner back at Skyhold.

a fitting gift for a theirin;
It's a habit picked up from those days with Jonas that often sees Morrigan more willing to pick through whatever piles of dubious treasures the darkspawn leave behind than others might be. (Twas necessity in the Wilds too but fortunately until the Blight knocked upon their doors there were no darkspawn intrusions that some other places are always victim to.) A singular prize catches her eye though, one she brings back to wherever they've made camp.

Furry art. Ghastly. And yet, perhaps something vaguely familiar about it, if she can clean the worst of the muck off it as she gives it a smile that is absolutely alarming.

Perhaps more alarming though is the very distinct possibility that some genlock or hurlock once kissed the velvet lips of the potrait that will be returning to the surface with them.

Re: mingling; + the bonus find of a lifetime

[mythalenaste]

"What's that?"

Pel peers, and her eyes widen.

"That's not...is that Alistair with long hair?"

[arcaneadvisor]

Looking up from her find, Morrigan can hardly keep the smirk from her face as she beckons Pel closer, using her staff to illuminate it better.

"No, that is not Alistair but Cailan Theirin though I can see the similarity. Tis always the nose." She should know after all, Kieran has that nose. "To find a Velvet Cailan here of all places...there is a collector in Orlais who offers a reward for any returned to her, she despises what she calls 'ghastly influence'." There's a certain amount of relish and glee in Morrigan's voice but it's oddly fitting that an it's in the Deep Roads, isn't it?

[mythalenaste]

"...Why?"

[arcaneadvisor]

It's an effort to hold in her laughter, but even with so many mages and the solid reassuring presence of Shale (not that she would say, one cannot imagine how scathing Shale's response to flattery might) she remembers her time in the Deep Roads with the Hero. The misery of it, the Darkspawn appearing from everywhere like insects. They have a Warden with them but again that is a double-edged sword. She smiles, moving to hand the piece to Pel to allow her to inspect it better.

To handle that rather sumptuous velour.

"The rumour was that Cailan himself commissioned a large number of them shortly after his coronation, to stores around Denerim. The king had a growing kennel of mabari war hounds - he was the first one born in a palace after the Orlesian occupation after all, and so he received a portion of the profit from each of them to fund this venture. Such is the tale of them at any rate."

[mythalenaste]

"It's completely horrible." Her eyes are wide. Owlish. One finger pokes at the velvet and she shudders at the texture. "You're giving it to Alistair, right?"

Because that is the only thing that could possibly be done with this. It has to make its way to the one who will suffer the most at its existence.

[arcaneadvisor]

"Of course," Morrigan is smiling a terrible smile that last got used when she had dealings with the court, when there was someone (usually a man, because there are always men, and Morrigan has no time for them) attempting to impress her right before they realised she was about to eviscerate them. "At the correct moment. You may wish to be clear of the Warden camp, the screaming might trigger an avalanche."

Alistair is rather dramatic, and she has such plans for this.