( 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

EPILOGUE | travel back to & arrival in Skyhold.

[eviscerates]

The air is cold when they emerge from the fort, and the waterfall roars, but they are out.
Still, as a wise member of the mage council once said: shit is fucked.

If enough of them can walk to get out of the fortress without needing Burly to come in and carry people, however, it can be considered a win. Anyone who can’t move themselves, and doesn’t have someone to move them? Burly will see to.

The entire party has survived, although just how great they feel is probably up for debate.
In short

— All of the shard bearers have been rescued, mostly in one piece
— They have acquired some information on Venatori projects, and one encrypted volume that will need to be studied in Skyhold
— Daenerys recruited a quartet of Venatori gladiator slaves to the Inquisition, and they will help defend the party on the way back to Skyhold
— Everyone probably needs to wash their hair five times
— This was a really… great… bonding experience…

This thread is a party style adventure for anything after the boss fight, including getting out of the fort, healing, travelling, cleaning themselves up, and whatever else you can think of. They have a cook there to make sure everyone gets hearty meals all the way back to Skyhold, they have people to see to their defence, and they have a couple of big wagons that they can all pile into, if they aren't in a fit state to walk or ride the steed they came down on. This trip will go via the Imperial Highway as much as possible, with some detours to avoid the War of the Lions raging across Orlais.

Do feel free to also include prompts for arriving back in Skyhold! Those specific prompts will be open to people not involved in the rest of this plot, although naturally the rest are closed to plot buddies.

ota

[eviscerates]

The one thing she insists on as she’s carried out of the dungeons: shackle me or kill me. She’s barely coherent but she keeps insisting, keeps repeating it over and over with a feverish kind of insistence until her wrists are shackled.

Considering the recent sword to the gut and daggers to the thigh and everything else that has happened, she isn’t exactly mobile, limited to lying in the back of the wagon with wounds that magic can’t heal but that it can help along, skin too pale and cheeks hollow.

Ruby Lucas is a shaking mess, when she’s Ruby of the Curse; a lost girl who doesn’t know what’s happening but knows she’s hurting and hugs her arms around herself protectively, fingers curling into the scarlet cloak that tumbles from her shoulders and pulls up the hood protectively. When she’s Red of before the Curse it’s a little better, though both tense at the sight of magic, at least Red can be persuaded to cooperate. It’s the times when she remembers life after the Curse and life in Thedas that might be worst, because in those moments she is lucid enough to piece together what it was she had done.

The first time she realised (remembered?) she threw up over the side of the wagon and didn’t want to be touched. The second time she almost stopped breathing with the horror welling up in her chest. Maybe more rememberings can happen.

She starts to be conscious more often than not, but just how coherent she is remains quite another matter.

Immediately they arrive at Skyhold, Ruby insists that she go to the dungeons.


( ooc: if you’d like to specifically deal with Curse!Ruby or pre-Curse!Red or regular FR Ruby, let me know in the subject or something. Any point in the timeline is good, feel free to wildcard, she just won’t be very mobile at any point. )

ota

[youwonscience]

Cosima looks more herself with her glasses back. Granted, she looks very small, wrung out and dirty, but herself all the same. Her arm has been seen to, in all the mess - at Avery's insistence - so the immediate pain of an unsplited fracture is no longer taking up a large chunk of her energy. The lyrium after-effects, however, are a bit more stubborn. At least she's pretty sure everything she's currently seeing is real. She's trying not to think about Maris, or the guard the left bleeding out in their cell, or the men who didn't listen when she begged them to leave her alone.

She can't help glancing over at Ruby more than a little. She missed the horrors of that last battle, and she isn't sorry, but she's still stricken at her friend's state.

Shakily, now and then she whistles snatches of a song that no one listening can probably identify as "Bohemian Rhapsody." It never lasts very long, a weak effort to comfort herself that she abandons as readily as she begins it.

OTA

[thecookery]

Avery is definitely going to be riding, as she is in no condition to walk with her leg like this. No condition to do much of anything, really. Bitten multiple times by the wolf and dragged and shaken by it as well, something's going to have to be done about her wounds soon if there's thread and needles for stitching, because magic doesn't seem to be doing much other than slowing the bleeding.

Before they even get as far as Crantellier though, the first time they pass anywhere near a creek or pond or anything like that, Avery is stubbornly hobbling in its direction, leg be damned. Not even caring if anybody or everybody is looking, she strips completely and tosses her ruined clothes aside (they're dead to her, she doesn't ever want to see them again), before diving in and trying to scrub all the blood off of her and out of her hair.

After that, she spends much of the ride back in pensive silence, even quietly acquiescing to Burly taking over the cooking completely for the trip.

ota

[ichaer]

It is hard for Ciri to remember a time when she felt this exhausted.

For most of the trip she can be found in one of the big wagons unable to holds herself up in the saddle well with her injuries. The compound fraction her left arm suffered has been fixed for the most part but the mangled skin and bite marks are another story altogether. Stitches have set the skin back into place, potions drank to stem of blood and a variety of smelly herbal balms applied that stings her skin.

The first clean creek, pond or lake they come across has Ciri hurrying to it for the chance to get clean especially to wash the dried blood, dirt and other grossness from her hair. She has never been especially pleased with the streaks of white that have slowly appeared in her ashen grey hair but she is glad to see them appear again. Of course, she has other issues that come with trying to wash your hair with only one working arm but she'll make it work.

As the journey continues toward Skyhold, Ciri mostly sits in silence or staring toward her mare following behind the wagon. For once, she leaves her long hair down and tends to doze off from time to time. It never lasts long as the smallest of sounds seems to startle the young Warden into wakefulness every time and the constant grip she keeps on her sheathed sword tightens just a little more.

im sorry i couldnt help myself

[thecookery]

Hey, Ciri isn't the only one occasionally nodding off in the wagon I'll have you know, and this time when she jumps awake, there's very clear evidence of this in the form of an extra weight against her shoulder. An extra weight that shifts and grumbles at the movement, halfway to waking up herself but not quite there just yet.

[ichaer]

The extra weight on her shoulder awakens her more. It's enough to make Ciri loosen the grasp on her sword and tiredly glance to her side, looking for the force when Avery comes into view. For a moment, she wonders if she should wake her up because nothing good could come from sleeping against her bony shoulders.

Ultimately, she decides against it and settles back into stillness with her focus on the passing mountain range.

[thecookery]

How very kind of you! Still, the gesture only goes so far, as a few minutes later, she'll be stirring uncomfortably awake anyway. These sorts of circumstances don't lead to the most pleasant of dreams, as one could imagine.

For a few seconds, Avery just blinks in confusion, not really sure where she is or what's going on, but as reality sinks back in again, she sits up with a groan and rubs at her eye. "Shit," she mumbles vaguely in Ciri's direction, voice somewhat hoarse. "Sorry."

[ichaer]

And in response Ciri can only offer a tired shrug. If one could even call that small amount of movement she made with her shoulders a shrug. It does give her the chance to shift, pulling hair over one shoulder and itching like a child at her bandages.

"Nothing to apologize for unless you drooled on my shoulder." She says, grinning.

[thecookery]

The sound she makes isn't a laugh, but it might be a shadow of what one might be like. "Yeah, well, what are you going to do about it if I did? Fight me?"

Clearly they are both in excellent shape to start punching each other.

[ichaer]

"I could push you out of this cart, probably. Maybe."

Definitely not. Tiredly, she yawns and lets herself relax back against the cart as close to a puddle as she can become. "But that would mean moving and I just cannot bring myself to do that."

ota

[doneisdone]

Teren needs her beauty sleep. And by that of course I mean she is in one of the wagons, laid out and refusing any manner of magical healing, since the last few days have put her in contact with enough magic to last a bloody lifetime.
Being the type to suffer in silence, she doesn't go out of her way to speak to anyone, and subsists on the rations she brought for herself. They got the job done, everyone's alive, no further emotional investment required. ...and if you thought she was cranky before, now she's in pain.

ota

[wontforgetyou]

The wagons are crowded.

Like so many others, Jamie is in no shape to be riding, thanks to his own injuries and still needing to recover from heavy lyrium dosing. Most of his smaller injuries have been easy to mend, but there's only so much that can be done for cracked ribs and a rather bad concussion, even though he stubbornly tries to insist he's fine and can ride his horse.

Once he's been told 'no' enough, though, he stays put in the wagon, slipping in and out of consciousness, depending on if it's one of the times he needs to be woken up to be checked on. Whether he's lucid or not varies as well, as there's times where he's caught in what seems to be his own past - or those who don't know him, maybe something else altogether, as his babbling about monsters is mixed with mentions of robots and spaceships and time machines.

Other times, though, he seems to be mostly himself, although with a headache and aching chest he's maybe not the best conversationalist. Still, he seems happy enough for any distractions, and not particularly inclined push anyone away who might want to keep him company. At least so long as he's able to stay awake, anyway. He might very well wind up falling asleep on whoever's sitting next to him. Sorry about that.

[gatheringstorm]

The vast majority of the time, Korrin is at Araceli's side, if not holding her in her arms and lap. After nearly losing her to the Venatori, she'll be as clinging as she pleases as long as it doesn't bother her kadan. Almost the only time she frees a hand is to stroke Lux, as well. The black fox has more than proven himself today, and he deserves all the spoiling.

But Araceli isn't the only one she cares about, among the group. Jamie falling asleep on her is completely allowed, without complaint or attempting to shrug him off. She can accept pillow status as long as he needs it. Whenever he stirs, she gently reaches into the pouch at her hip. "Hey...I forgot to mention it earlier, but I found your watch."

[wontforgetyou]

While he's not at all surprised by the fact that Korrin spends most of her time by Araceli's side, he's grateful for her willingness to let him use her as a pillow from time to time, and his sleep during the times that she does is just a little easier because of it.

And that easier sleep helps overall, meaning that when he does wake, it's to one of his more lucid moments - something that lets him react a little more quickly to what is clearly good news to him, given the pleased expression on his face a few seconds after she mentions the watch.

"Hey, you did? I'd thought I'd not ever see that again!"

His trying to sit up is more a reflex than anything else, but hopefully that'll allow her to get at the pouch a little bit better, even if the effort does make his head swim a bit.

[gatheringstorm]

Withdrawing the watch, she hands it over quickly so that he can get back leaning against her as he needs. "I tried to clean it, too, though we were in a rush. So, I can't say it was my best effort. We can get it nice and polished when we get back, though."

That and Araceli's mermaid bracelet helped fuel Korrin's rage and may have been responsible for some particularly brutal Venatori deaths. She doesn't care, though. Anyone who would do what they did deserved no mercy at all, ever. When she encounters them again, Korrin will be just as enthusiastic about ensuring their painful ends.

[wontforgetyou]

For once he doesn't protest when she shifts back to a position where he can lean against her again, and the moment the watch is in his hands he does just that, although he does give her a smile of thanks at the same time.

"You'd not needed to do that, you know...but thank you. I'd have missed it if it'd been gone for good. The Doctor made me get it so we'd be able to meet up places at the right time, but-"

He'd gotten used to it when he was traveling with the Doctor, and now that he was here, it was one of his few reminders of home. Privately, he's very glad that it's not gone forever. He tilted his head back - carefully, so as not to bump it - and let out a small sigh as he closed his eyes.

"Aye, well, never mind that. Thanks for letting me borrow you as a pillow, too. You sure you don't want to get back to Araceli? Or is Lux keeping her company right now? I've not really been able to get over to where she is to check."

[gatheringstorm]

"No, I get it, as much as I can for not being a rifter. Losing anything from your home is a big deal. I'd have missed it, too." She'd had enough of a rise in temper just thinking of the missing dragon tooth necklace she'd given Araceli, a symbol how close they'd become. At least that had been found, but even if it hadn't, she'd have eventually been able to replace it. A item from another world, especially one with sentimental value...well, that's a lot harder.

Turning to look, Korrin smiles a little as she stares at Araceli and Lux for a moment. Just the fact that Araceli is alive and safe brings that out, though she still has a long way to go in terms of healing. "You're welcome, Jamie. I'll get back to her soon enough, but Lux is being a good guard-fox. He probably needs a little one-on-one time with her, after being separated like that. At least those assholes weren't quick enough to catch him."

[wontforgetyou]

That smile on Korrin's face brings out a small one on Jamie's as well while her head is turned. He's glad that they're in a situation where everyone was able to get out. Araceli might need some time for healing, but she'll be able to heal, and he suspects Korrin'll be there to get her through it. That's a good thing, as far as he's concerned. Lux having been able to stay free was a good thing, too, and he twists his own head until he can catch a glimpse of the fox's fur.

"Aye, he's a clever wee beastie. I'd thought he'd been able to give them the slip when he didn't turn up in the cell with us." At least he'd hoped so, just like he'd hoped Avery had managed to escape as well, and while he's glad she had, he also wishes other things had gone differently. Maybe Araceli wouldn't be in such bad shape if they had. "We'd tried to get out, you know. Araceli and I. Turns out my kilt pin's not so good for getting manacles open."

CLOSED to lexa.

[nonsibi]

The great part about Lexa being injured is that Bellamy doesn't have to see her very much.

As a shardbearer and a target for the Venatori interest--and, after all of that, still a participant in the battle, by sheer virtue of her grit and determination and strength and pride--well, all of that means that she's been through enough to necessitate healing and rest and a great deal of stuff that keeps her largely out of sight on the way back to Skyhold. Wagons and not horseback. Sleeping and not sitting around the campfire.

Bellamy prefers it that way. Their recent shared experience has complicated things. He does not like Lexa. Doesn't trust her. Doesn't want anyone he cares about to like or trust her, because she screwed them so badly, left them for dead, worse than dead, broke her word. Would Bellamy have chosen his people over the Avvar, if the choice would have been his? Doesn't matter, because the choice wasn't his, was never his, was decided for him and Clarke and Octavia and everyone else Bellamy gives a damn about, by Lexa.

So why she had to go and be a decent partner in battle is beyond him. Why not just be dead, or, better yet, just not around, at all. Why ride off on a mission at all affiliated with the Inquisition when she could just be back with her people, since they're so damn precious to her.

This is the kind of stuff Bellamy thinks about on the way back to Skyhold. Working to keep himself angry.

And then one day he's riding, slow, trailing along beside the wagons with one eye on the countryside. And then there's Lexa. Still looking rough, but-- better.

He doesn't say anything. He nods, a spare dip of his chin. That's greeting enough.

[heda]

It's more greeting than she's used to from him, and Lexa returns it in kind after a second. She's better off than some of those kidnapped, worse than others. No un-healable wolf-bites, at least, and no lingering lyrium influence sending her raving out all her secrets. But she hates not riding but the first day's attempt was excruciating, and so she has spent most of the trip so far wrapped tightly in a spare cloak, napping in hopes of speeding the healing process along or at least of helping her ignore the jolts of pain every time the wagon bounces over uneven ground.

She's been thinking, too. Normally she'd keep her thoughts to herself, but she is both curious and intensely bored.

"Your people," she begins, clearing her throat, voice hoarse from disuse. "Do they want to stay in the mountains for good or are they waiting for something?"

[nonsibi]

His wariness lacks at least some of his usual suspicion. It's there, in the tightness of his eyes and the winch of his jaw, but--

"They're not waiting." And they certainly aren't waiting for permission; they're there by virtue of being there, by the work they've done to keep themselves alive. No thanks to Lexa. "It's as much a home as any of us have had. Not much else in Thedas for us. We're staying."

His hands are tight where they're gripped at the reins. He keeps looking at Lexa, steadily, colored a little too pale but still upright, still alive. Still the Avvar commander that screwed them over.

Bellamy lifts his chin. "You got something to say about that?" It only comes out a little gruff.

[heda]

Lexa doesn't respond immediately, except with a tiny nod of acknowledgment--more a slow blink than an actual movement of her head. That is the answer she had expected, but his confirmation still requires another moment of consideration before she speaks. These are weighty matters, and if speaking to Bellamy is in some respects just a warm-up for the real conversation, she knows she cannot afford to present to him an idea she isn't fully willing to support.

The cart bumps over deep ruts in the road. Tall prairie grass that grows up between the wheel tracks whisks along the bottom of the cart and across the leather of Lexa's boots. She brushes a fly away from her ear.

"If they wish to stay then they should become a hold. If they are a real settlement, recognized as part of my coalition, it will be far more difficult for others to oust them as lowlander invaders squatting on land they have no right to."

[nonsibi]

"No right."

Anger sharpens his otherwise dull repetition of what Lexa's just said. No right. As if they should need to be granted rights, after everything that's happened. Bellamy leans forward and drops his tone.

"You know, some people'd say you owe us one, for betraying us like you did."

But he's thinking, too. Trying to think. If they become part of her coalition, the threat that they're living under dissipates. Any day now, Lexa could decide that they don't belong, that the settlement they've scratched out for themselves is fit to be decimated--for the crime only of trying to find somewhere to be safe, some place of peace.

If this is their chance to find that peace--

"Is this a real offer?"

[heda]

No right at all. Lexa isn't going to budge on that point, or on the (ridiculous) notion that she owes them a chunk of her people's land for what happened in Montemps. But she doesn't start right in with that as a response. It's partly strategy, waiting out his initial anger, giving the sense behind it a chance to work through the way she can see it beginning to in his expression. And it's partly just that she does not have the energy to argue about this today.

So she waits, leaned against the side of the wagon as Bellamy considers, her eyes wandering to their surroundings, to the others in their party, mostly asleep or zoned out on horseback, and in between back to Bellamy's face. She nods, once, seriously.

"Yes." She considers saying more, even parts her lips and inhales like she might, but stops herself. She's gotten through to him, it seems. Maybe the less said at the moment the better, to avoid accidentally tweaking a nerve and ruining it.