The Annulment at Dairsmuid

[foxsays]

WHO: Araceli Bonaventura, Korrin Ataash, Malcolm Reynolds, The Outsider, Aleron Darton, Kas, Anders, Malcolm Reed, James Norrington, Ellana Ashara, James Kirk; Rivaini npcs
WHAT: The Annulment at Dairsmuid; arriving at Rivain to meet with Araceli and her mage contacts that requested aid from Templars hunting them down. When Araceli goes to bring the group to her contacts, they're informed that the Templars have abducted the mages forcing the team to return to the Circle at Dairsmuid to rescue them and kill the Templars responsible
WHEN: 15th-20th Solace
WHERE: Rivain; Dairsmuid
NOTES: OOC posts here and here, sending crystal announcement; violence, discussions of annulment, probably going to need warnings for language; I'll edit as I go, if people can bring things to my attention, I would appreciate it
Starters will all be below, subjects in headers

We of the Dairsmuid Circle wait now, behind barricades. I have sent word to our brother and sister mages of this outrage. When they break through, we will not die alone.

—Final journal entry of First Enchanter Rivella, slain in Dairsmuid, 9:40 Dragon

Contents;
Arrival at Dairsmuid
Meeting the Mage Contacts
Team Dungeon Crashers
Team Templar Crushers
Aftermath of the Rescue
Timestamp; Dairsmuid Adventures
Epilogue

Comments

Recon

[tactical_alert]

This is more Malcolm's speed. Much as he is capable of charging into a fight and kicking some plated arses, information is always the first key to victory. He volunteers to help scout out the area, making silent hand gestures to Milady. Ever the Fereldan at heart, working well with a dog. They are quick, efficient, quiet, and he has some memory of the landscape. Of the barricades. He remembers the First Enchanter's last stand.

Any who are equipped for the job are welcome with him, though he warns that too many feet risks too much noise. They can join him in seeing how fucked the odds are on the outset.

[extramural]

Footsteps are lightest when they don't exist. It's possible to make Malcolm panic slightly (again) when the Outsider comes up next to him, levitating a few inches off the ground, but at least he's quiet.

"Should all else fail," he murmurs, "feel free to shove me forward as a distraction. I imagine I can look enough like an abomination to draw their attention."

For the record, he isn't joking.

[tactical_alert]

It takes a moment to notice, and when he does, he makes sure not to pull a face. He doesn't think it's appropriate to be dragging Rifters everywhere, though he supposes it'll be fine if they find an actual rift in there. The Templars would be having a lot more trouble, but it'd give them a distraction.

He immediately discards the idea of ripping one open. That never ends well. "Drawing the attention of all of them, yourself?" Well, he did say should all else fail. "I doubt it will come to that. The Templars broke through the barricade before. We're fewer in number and brute strength, but we can find a way that doesn't put anyone in absolutely unnecessary danger." Unless it's himself, but shh.

[extramural]

With as much death as the Circle has seen, and with what the Outsider knows about the Fade and the Veil, it would not surprise him if there was either a rift or angry spirits about. (Well, besides him.)

"I am more difficult to kill than it looks." Still perfectly able to be killed, of course, but harder than your average scrawny, pale fifteen-year-old. "In any case- if you send your dog ahead to peer around, I will be able to see through her eyes, so long as I can see her."

[tactical_alert]

It isn't that he distrusts magic. The Chantry's unofficial stance would suggest otherwise, but magic simply is in Thedas, and there are those who can use it. Some better than others, some with better intentions. This sounds different, and while the Outsider boy was helpful before, it's Rifters he isn't always so keen on.

Look, he's working on it. "It wouldn't hurt her?" That's the immediate concern. He will never make a secret that he loves his furry partner. Her eyes and ears are alert, though she glances back at her master, inquisitive. "I could...have her sneak around, or simply play the part of an average stray dog taking a jaunt to somewhere with food. There's no getting inside unless there's some new entrance they somehow haven't secured." Always a possibility, but if these Templars are any good, they'll have made a check so none can escape.

[extramural]

"Not at all. She will be completely in control of herself, and likely will not even know I am seeing through her eyes with her." Here, he'll even crouch down and offer his hand out for the dog to sniff, if she would like to. She's no Overseer hound, so there's the hope that she won't actively and immediately jump for his throat.

She seems smart enough not to do that, at least.

"I will have to be able to see her for it to work, in Thedas, but she will be able to move more freely than we will and we can discreetly follow behind her."

[tactical_alert]

Not unless she's given the order to. Somehow a dog manages to look skeptical. Maybe she's gotten some habits from her owner, but she does sniff the offered hand, tail giving a little bit of a wag, subdued for her normal reaction of greeting new people, but she is on the job right now.

"...All right. I'll have her do as much of a perimeter check, you just make sure you don't give yourself away while you move." He gains Milady's attention, giving her ears a scratch and speaking softly in Orlesian. Dog lords, honestly. "Go ahead. If we dawdle too long, the others will start worrying we got captured."

[extramural]

At least there is that bit of a wag. It would be more difficult if she kept turning around to snarl at him while they worked.

"I will be careful." It's all he can promise. Once the pair are ready, the Outsider takes a breath and focuses. There is nothing visible, no flash of magic, but perhaps a Seeker can feel even this foreign magic. If not, there is the Outsider, staring (seemingly) ahead. "As she goes, then."

[foxsays]

Where once mages manned the barricades, Templars have settled behind them for the moment; a strained air where triumph mixes with suspicion, hands seldom far from their weapons. (The mages talked as mages will do. Help was coming. They will be stopped, they will not get away with this. The Inquisition will not let this stand.)

"--kill them and get it done with," an archer is complaining to a knight by their side, voice muffled slightly by their helm.

The knight shrugs as best one can shrug in full plate, more concerned with counting through a box that clinks and rattles and sloshes very quietly, the care seemingly out of place for where they are. "You know how he is, d'you want to be stuck with him complaining he didn't get to try his experiment? We'd never hear the end of it."

"But if they come-"

"Have some of this, that'll settle you." Lyrium is passed over, and well, the archer does crack half a smile when she tugs off her helm to down it.

as good an excuse as any to use this icon

[tactical_alert]

There is a feeling of something, but under most circumstances, even he might be hard-pressed to identify it directly as magic. But magic it is, if the Outsider's eyes see as he says they do. Malcolm gains the dog's full attention, orders mostly through hand signals, a light spatter of Orlesian words perhaps for emphasis. Milady might not be a mabari, but she is plenty smart, and when he lets the last signal fly, clearly a go signal, off she goes.

They're far enough away from the circle that her travel through the underbrush goes unnoticed until she clears the treeline, looking jolly as can be. She trots by the barricade once, sniffs at the ground, turns around to continue to trot another way across as if perhaps looking for scraps mages might have dropped. Catches the voices, though perhaps the Outsider's magic only allows him to glimpse through the dog's eyes and not also her ears. Still, the archer and knight are seen, passing lyrium, the restlessness.

If there are any other ways in, any holes enough to slip through for a surprise, any dilapidated walls that might be mounted, she rounds around the building to see, and it's up to the Outsider to keep up eye contact however long he can.

omg what a cute fluffer

[extramural]

Sticking to the trees, the Outsider may as well be a ghost; dressed all in black, he blends with the shadows. This is more difficult than he had expected -- keeping the dog in his sight would be easier if he had the rest of his abilities, but if he did, he wouldn't have to keep her in his sight, either. (Thanks, Thedas.)

Still, at least the mages are alive -- there isn't much point in having guards if they're already dead. The passing of lyrium makes his nose wrinkle. It is tempting, so tempting, to reach out and take control of one of them, to start the fight here and now. It is not his role, though, and so he moves through the trees to try and keep the dog in his sights.

maybe hit the mute/lower the audio if you've got headphones in/if you're in public

[foxsays]

Time in a land that loves them little - true, even in Rivain there are places where the Chant is sung with passion, and where a Templar always finds a friend, a sympathetic ear, where people don't trust mages - makes the Templars twitchy. Dairsmuid feels like a haven, like a stronghold but there's something off about the air here.

"I knew a guy," one says to another as they patrol because it makes it less monotonous to talk, if the words aren't a screaming jumble in their head. "He had to have one of them Seers assist him once, back before this all got reported. Watched her get possessed. Wasn't right after that."

"That's why we came here. We'll burn this place, gut it. Nothing left of whatever--" The speaker stops, tapping the first with his bow as he squints into the shadows. "What in Andraste's name--Hey!"

[tactical_alert]

Milady has her orders, oblivious to the foreign magic, and she does not bolt back where she came from. The tension, though, and the shout from the Templar make her start. Her casual trot becomes faster, shooting into a run until she disappears out of sight at last around the building.

"Damn," Malcolm curses under his breath. Normally upon discovery he'd quietly double back to a safer location, let the dog sniff him out, but he can't just leave the Rifter here. If he's found, he'll be in the same position as the other mages. Or worse. He moves forward, not quite in the Outsider's tracks, but near enough. So long as the boy gets behind one of the trees, he should be safe from any bow-flung arrows. Still, Malcolm takes up a position of his own, drawing back, aiming for the offending archer through leaves and branches. Not a clean shot, but if things escalate...

Everyone just be very calm, very quiet, and very still, and perhaps everyone can go home safely and soundly. At least until the attack is actually supposed to start.