( 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: regroup & into the dungeons.

[eviscerates]

Team Stealth has gathered some information, found some items taken from the missing party, and successfully opened the giant, mechanically operated doors to the fortress.

Team Attack has managed to gather a little information of their own, and draw out a good number of adversaries as well as the initial wave that came out after Avery, so that they won’t be going into enemy territory against such alarming odds.

And Tevinter’s answer to Team Rocket has blasted off.

In another stroke of good news? Two wagons from the Inquisition have arrived, one manned by Burly, tal-vachef of the kitchens. A chance for steeds to rest a little on the way back without people to carry, for the injured to be able to lie down and rest, and for supplies to be replenished before charging into battle.
Burly and his npc companions will guard the entranceway against other potential Venatori threats that might arrive and leave our heroes trapped. (Burly heard his fellow cook and others he likes were imperilled, and volunteered on this rare mission to assist.)

The two teams are reunited, the sound of water cascading a distant roar. To approach the fortress (or return to it after re-stocking) it is necessary to cross a bridge still being restored, which damaged and treacherous stonework and large gaps that risk a tumble into the waterfall. Maybe just don’t look down. Once they are in the entranceway, the air becomes much cooler. Stone serpents coil along archways, chains hanging from their mouths to hold burning dishes of oil that light the hallways.

They already know it is the easternmost passageway that they must look to; now they just need to find their missing companions.


( OOC: One thread, no threading order, I will GM traps/Venatori/points of interest. Branching off is okay if you want for dialogue and chats or checking out rooms here and there, but make sure to tie back into the main thread and indicate if you are branching off so others know to continue the main thread.

This thread will culminate involve FINDING LEXA in a separate location, and then finding the MAIN DUNGEON.

Note: injuries incurred in this thread won't be anything huge and dire, unless you wish to make them so. That is so you don't need to worry about being aware of surprise injuries, etc, before we commence the main boss fight log. That won't go up right away, though! )

What is this, a bridge for ants?

[fleurdesel]

A moment to restock, to be thoroughly vexed by the venatori trio giving them the slip, to rest. To consider their next move as they consider how it is they are to enter. At first Adelaide says nothing, weighing the effort she's expanded in the earlier fighting versus what it would take to make the path clear and safe. Reluctantly downing a lyrium potion Adelaide summons a wisp for herself with a wave of one hand and strides to the edge of the bridge. Platform to platform, gap to gap. What needs to be filled, what needs support. It is something she could, in theory, manage on her own- but it would leave her a weary liability for the remainder of the mission.

With both Martel and Ruby inside? She cannot overextend herself in such a manner. "Merrill?"

She calls over her shoulder, inclining her head. "Could I borrow you and your vines for a moment?"

Connect the platforms with vines, entwine the ice in a laced overlay- a stable bridge for them to cross. Simple enough.

[gatheringstorm]

"I still say we should've gutted them...." Korrin can grumble about that all she wants to, thank you very much. They were part of the group holding Araceli, and leaving them alive at all is an insult, in her mind. She tries to focus, though, since they still have a ways to go and she doesn't want any moment of distraction to spell the difference between having her love back and...nope, not thinking about it.

She pauses by Adelaide, glancing to Merrill and ready to help energize something if more effort is needed.

[chainlightning]

"Of course!" Merrill calls back. She's just as displeased about the Venatori idiots escaping as the rest are, but at least one has a scar to remember her by. The priority, however, is still her captured friends. The goal is to get everyone out and back to Skyhold alive and in as good of health as can be expected. If that means lyrium potions, then so be it.

If that means tapping into blood, then so be it.

She comes up to Adelaide and calls upon the earth. Roots and vines reach across the stone, tangling and twisting together to make something more solid than just a straight stretch. Nature doesn't tend to do straight lines anyway.

[thecookery]

These people and their casual magic malarkey. Avery shakes her head and turns back to Burly instead. "I don't know what we're doing here, mate," she quietly grumbles in his direction, scowling. "But for some totally stupid reason, I feel like I've gotta see this through."

She points at him with the mace she took off one of those slave warriors they'd encountered earlier. "You'd better not die out here protecting this shit bridge. If you do, I'm making you sound like a right arsehole when we tell everyone back at the keep what happened. Got it?"

[eviscerates]

Burly very gently pats Avery's shoulder, picks up a meat pie in his hand (the sort that is solid and dense and best enjoyed cold, with flaky pastry) and carefully wraps it up in cloth, before holding it out to her. The pie looks very small in the hands of a man of Burly's proportions. He tilts his head very slightly, eyebrows raised, a silent take this?

Avery is feisty, but everyone needs helps keeping their strength up, and she's been through a lot. He is glad to see one of his friends is still strong, though, still well. She need not eat it now - just have it with her for if she gets hungry.

As for the comment about dying, his shoulders rise and fall in a brief, silent laugh. With one hand Burly reaches into the wagon, and raises a great hammer, to be wielded with both hands, and nods to her. I'll be fine.

Burly looks to the others as well, and tilts his head towards little parcels on the back of the wagon. Provisions to take, easily carried things, and the side of his mouth tugs with silent concern. Food for their missing, simple things to be kind on the stomach; whether they leave them here or take them along is up to them.

[fleurdesel]

Framework offered, Adelaide reinforces and winds planes of frosted ice. It grows and twines, closing the gaps between stone, reinforcing the vines at every joint. it takes a great deal of focus to be certain of it's stability- but with Merrill's assistance? They are able to do it quickly and efficiently, with certainty that this will hold.

Once completed she shakes out chilled fingers, nodding in gratitude to Merrill. "That will hold well. We may cross."

[glandival]

Sabine, nearby, watches these feats of magic happen a little like one might marvel at a tiger with a chain around its neck; curtailed danger that is, in its own right, fascinating to behold. She stands upright and poised, all light weight leathers, utilitarian braiding, knives both visible and not. She hasn't seen battle just yet, but she has every intention of following this group in search of those taken.

There had been notes. One of a Fade traveller, noble bearing, scars on his chest:

Additional hands required.

At the mage's announcement, Sabine starts to move, only a little dubious of crossing a bridge of ice and plantlife that had only just recently been twisting, as lively as snakes, but hell. You do only live once.

[gatheringstorm]

Burly is already a favorite of Korrin's, so she smiles and claps his shoulder, grateful that he's here. Supplies for Araceli and the rest will be taken, whatever's light enough to store on her person without compromising her freedom of movement. The food won't do them any good if she doesn't survive to give it, after all.

The, after looking over the bridge, she gives a nod of approval. "Let's do this, then." She'll happily take point, to provide more shielding for the rest.