( closed ) player plot: the stars go waltzing

[eviscerates]

WHO: Adelaide, Araceli, Avery, Bellamy, Bruce, Ciri, Cosima, Daenerys, Jamie, Korrin, Lexa, Martel, Merrill, Ruby, Sabine, Teren.
WHAT: catch all log; the capture of shardbearers, their rescue, and related shenanigans.
WHEN: Gently timey wimey for flexibility, Team Rescue arrives at the outpost on the 10th.
WHERE: Orlais/Nevarra borders (roughly halfway between the Fields of Ghislain and Trevis), and then a Creepy Place.
NOTES: Log for the missing shardbearers player plot; ooc here & here. Only the travel threads for teams one and two are going up for now, the rest will go up on Friday :]b And to clarify - when I say party style, what I mean is subthread to your hearts content!
WARNINGS: HORROR THEMES. Abduction, experimentation/torture, forced ingestion of lyrium, implied past deaths/murder, violence.

SPEEDY LINKS

• TEAM ONE: travel to Craintellier
• TEAM ONE: rift two attempt & Venatori attack
• TEAM ONE: dungeons
• TEAM ONE: escape attempt — Cosima, Jamie & Lexa only
• TEAM TWO: travel to Craintellier
• TEAM TWO: post rift investigation — Adelaide, Bellamy & Sabine, Bruce, Korrin & Teren, Ciri & Merrill
• TEAM TWO: take the outpost — Attack & Distract & Stealthy & Stealy
• TEAM TWO: regroup & into the dungeons — plus a Lexa-shaped guest star
• ALL: finding your shardbearers
• ALL: boss fight
• ALL: epilogue & return to Skyhold — tba

click for bigger version. full map of Thedas here.

East of Perendale and south of Trevis, next to a river's winding course, there lies the bones of a fortress. It is an old and almost forgotten place, a dramatic, clawed seeming thing reaching up into the sky, harsh against the the rolling hills.

It is an ancient place, dating back to 660TE, a testament to an Empire suffering after civil war and grasping to restore its wealth and influence after it had been so shaken. It stands as a memory of grandeur, rather than an icon of it, and bears the marks of devastation and scarring that so much of the land suffered during the First Blight. It was all but abandoned thereafter, host only to the desperate and the greedy, and never for long. Once ornate mosaics now only hold flecks of gold, flakes that stubbornly resisted the hands of looters trying to pry them away. Other colours, reds, whites, greys and blacks, they all remain.

The site was chosen for its riches, sitting atop a mine that once held immense wealth, seams of gold that would bring wealth back into the Empire and help restore stability. Opulence, the central Tevinter staple (aside from slavery and blood magic, some might say).

But they dug too deep, and when the First Blight came so too did the darkspawn.

It has a new master, now, and he serves the Elder One. Parts of this stronghold may be in ruins now, but remember: it is not what lies on the surface that counts, but what lurks beneath it.


AD VICTORIAM, AD GLORIA.

Comments

TEAM TWO: post rift investigation/picking up clues along the way medley.

[eviscerates]

( OOC: This is going to be divided into three subthreads, one for each mini team. I will GM clues and stuff to look at - for an example of what I mean, check out KB's awesome GMing in the abomination plot.

Each subthread will be for a different area along the way to the Fortress, and I've used RNG to assign "teams" to those areas. You can either do a thread with just your character, or it can involve others from the group - I'm fine either way.

If you really want a your character to be investigating an area they aren't RNG'd to then that's okay, but it will be the characters assigned to that area that find the clues :]b )

BELLAMY, ADELAIDE & SABINE: near the second rift

[eviscerates]

Here the search begins.

Once the rift is closed, there is a chance to begin investigating if the party ever made it this far after successfully closing the first rift. The first rift, according to the requisition officer, was atop a nearby hill, while the second was in the valley. Even with the sun shining, there is a light fog in the valley, though it’s not too difficult to see through.

There is a a tall oak tree, with great gnarled roots. Not too far away there is a rocky hillside with dramatic outcrops of stone, that the first party would have had to descend in order to get down from where the first rift was located.

There are also some patches of dark liquid of varying size, and the carcasses of the demons they just defeated, rage and fear and fearlings all steaming on the ground.

[glandival]

Does being marked like the Herald make you special? Sabine isn't sure. It's painful, for one thing, when that ribbon of bright green magic leaps from the back of her wrist and up towards that queasily pulsing seam of ripped through reality. It also feels as though it has little to do with her. But still, she uses it when she must, now, and in the aftermath, she is sunk into a thoughtful crouch as she tugs lambskin gloves back onto her hands, long enough to cover her wrist, the fingertips sliced away so that her fingers peak like little claws.

Two blackbirds gutter in the branches of a tall oak tree. The fog seems to mute the sounds of the world beyond.

She stands, then, approaching the shine of dark liquid puddling in the ground, circling around where a fear demon has crumpled, steaming with the processing of degeneration, bubbling and sinking into soil.

[nonsibi]

Demons are least likely to have anything of use to loot. And Bellamy wouldn't call it looting anyways, especially not when they're here on a mission. Turning over the dead is really almost a reflex at this point, a habit born of necessity.

The rage demon at his feet is briefly heavy in death, not yet sizzling away into nothing. Bellamy pries the corpse up from the soft ground using the toe of his boot, then abandons that effort and grabs hold with his hands instead, hauls the thing sideways. Movement catches his eye and he stiffens, warily, before mentally realizing Sabine as an ally.

He leaves off searching the corpse at his feet anyways, his attention held by the patch of dark liquid that she's headed toward.

"What in the Blight is that?"

[eviscerates]

The liquid is dark red going black, congealing where it is puddled and smelling faintly metallic, though the demon next to it is breaking down, demonic ichor seeping into the blood.

That's quite a lot of blood, though, more than might be produced in a fight.

[fleurdesel]

"Ichor. Blood." Adelaide ignores any that seems into her skirts, crouching to get a better look at the puddles. Fighting demons leads to ichor, this isn't all that strange. But this much blood? Either they are carrying wounded, carried back bodies, or.

"Blood magic." It isn't outside the realm of possibility.

[eviscerates]

A closer look at the blood would reveal a length of something trailing out of the puddle - a length of delicate chain, although most of it remains concealed by the blood and ichor.

[nonsibi]

Bellamy, having stepped closer, freezes momentarily. The look he shoots Adelaide is wary, easily dismissed as a Templar's brand of caution and nothing more. His hand tightens on the hilt of his sword, a brief squeeze.

Then he lets go. His tight jaw suggests at some remaining tension, but he's spotted the chain and he crouches beside the puddle.

"Look."

[glandival]

Sabine watches mage and Templar circle and study and make pithy observations, content to watch their perimeter, as much as most of it is shrouded in fog. But when someone says look, she looks.

"It would look charming on you," she says, thickly Orlesian and very dry. She chin ups at the other woman in their little makeshift party. "What is the word, for the ones who use that magic? Maleficar?"

KORRIN, BRUCE & TEREN: near some forest nonsense

[eviscerates]

Further along the trail, where the terrain has flattened out, erratic patches of white flowers growing here and there, leading into the woods.

Away from the hills the fog has almost cleared completely, and sunlight catches something on the muddy ground.

There is a lot of to explore, with some noticeable broken branches.

[gatheringstorm]

The glint of...something on the muddy ground catches Korrin's attention and she immediately heads over to see it up close. Maybe it's nothing, but she'd rather investigate and be sure that she's wrong rather than pass up a potential clue. Some part of her hopes it's an item of Araceli's, a sign of her presence.

[eviscerates]

There is something metallic and circular sticking out of the mud, though part of it has obviously been pressed deeper into the ground and will need to be dug out, the mud around it drying and thick.

[gatheringstorm]

Well, she's not afraid of getting her hands dirty. Korrin slips off her gloves and begins to dig, trying to hurry before the mud dries any more than it already has done. She'll frowns intently, completely focused on her task.

[eviscerates]

It doesn't take too much digging for it to come lose into Korrin's hand, a silver bracelet, some of the details obscured by clinging mud. The mermaids, however, are pretty distinct. Unfortunately, so is the dried blood worked into some of the details.

[gatheringstorm]

Well. That's a punch to the gut. Korrin's eyes grow suspiciously bright, and a lump in her throat forms as she bows her head, unable to take her gaze away from the the dried blood. Please be alive, kadan. She's thankful for mostly steady hands as she reaches for her waterskin, to clean off the bracelet. Araceli will have this back, whatever it takes.

[amygdalae]

So far Bruce's own search hasn't gotten him anywhere, but from the corner of his eye he sees Ataash apparently picking up something, so he goes over to her. "Find something?"

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin nods, her voice a bit rough when she responds, turning the mermaid bracelet over in her hands. "...yeah. I gave this to Araceli a while back. This had dried blood on it. If she's...." Nope, can't bring herself to finish that sentance.

CIRI & MERRILL (& ???): near the river

[eviscerates]

Furthest along the trail.

The sparse outcrops of white flowers continue.
The ground here is softer, muddier, and it is possible to sink in a little, leaving some tracks on the ground. The sound of water might draw some attention. You guys maybe that ominous dark trail is worth looking at, idk.

[ichaer]

The mud matters little to the Warden, thankfully. In fact, she'd take mud up to shoulders over snow, caves and abominations. The mission before this one still lingers in the back of her mind and the news of missing agents was the last thing she needed after that mission.

It helps keep her mind off of it though so she marches along the trail following the sound of water for now.

[eviscerates]

Her search is not, as it turns out, without company. The sound of trudging through mud as drawn attention, and there is rustling through some nearby grass, long as dense enough to make seeing just what's coming very difficult.

[chainlightning]

The flowers are nice, at least. Merrill had been crouched down, trying to distinguish anything she can from the tracks -- she's never been a scout, but she was raised Dalish, and she should be able to tell a human track from a bear if nothing else. The rustling, however, has one hand go to her staff as she looks up, freezing but ready to cast at a moment's notice.

[eviscerates]

SURPRISE YOU GUYS

it isn't terrible. Unless you think an adorable black fox sticking his head out through some long grass is terrible. He might even be recognisable as Lux, companion to a certain parkour pirate rifter. The fox steps out, circles around Ciri and Merrill, and barks a couple of times.

[ichaer]

Truth be told, Ciri is probably jumpier than usual. She doesn't immediately draw her sword when the adorable creature pops its head through the long grass but there's a sudden bout of tension in her stance.

And then there's confusion but what in the Maker's name was she looking at... ?

"Isn't it rather big for a fennec?"

[chainlightning]

Merrill, on the other hand, is immediately bounding forward, hands outstretched.

"Lux! Oh, you're okay-" And antsy, apparently, and as much as Merrill wants to cuddle the fox and reassure him that it's okay, they're here for a reason -- plus Ciri probably wants an explanation. So.

"He belongs to one of the people on the first team, Araceli. He's a sweetheart and incredibly smart and Araceli wouldn't leave him behind... Do you know where they are, boy?"

[eviscerates]

Merrill! It's Merrill, good. Lux rubs up against Merrill for a moment, taking comfort in the familiar person (friend!) and noses her shins before skipping away and circling them once, twice, before pointing towards the sound of water. Unfortunately, he is pointing down the slick, steed, muddy track.