faderift | ( closed ) player plot: the stars go waltzing

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( closed ) player plot: the stars go waltzing

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.

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The journey here hasn't been an easy one - at least for Jamie. His brief rise into consciousness may have given him enough time to work his watch free and stick it on a tree branch, but it's earned him a blow to the head and a headache that still seems to be lingering even after he's spent some time cooling his heels in the dungeon.

But aching head or no, he's not one to give up easily. There's no guarantee that that anyone from the Inquisition would find the watch, or even know who it belongs to. They still need to figure out some sort of way to get out of here, and the sooner the better. He's had enough experience with dungeons and being locked up in general that he's always looking for that way out - and he knows a chance when he sees it. When most of the guards wind up taking off, leaving only the sulky one behind, he shifts as best he can so he's within hearing distance of both the girls, making sure to keep his voice as low as possible so it doesn't carry and wreck what might be their best shot at getting out here.

"Right. Now's our chance."

Edited 2016-09-12 19:19 (UTC)

Cosima's been coughing on and off since they arrived, and it's always been an thick, wet, uncomfortable sound. But perhaps it's something they can use, now. Cosima doesn't have much else, at any rate. She squints toward the door, mostly a blur of light in a wall of black.

Very low: "You think if he thinks I'm actually going to stop breathing, he'll come check on me?" She's not entirely sure, herself - she isn't sure if they particularly need any of them alive. But it's worth a shot, maybe, unless either of the others have a better plan.

He's heard that cough of hers a time or two since they've been down here, and it doesn't sound good. So far it he can't tell if the guards have noticed - or even care - but if she can make it seem like she's actually going to cough to death, that might be another matter.

"Aye, maybe so. If they wanted us dead, we wouldn't be here now."

He's convinced of that much. Given the sheer numbers at the rift, once the rifters and shardbearers had fallen it would've been easy enough to take all of them out for good, and not just Avery - although he hopes he's wrong in what's happened to her, and she managed to escape in the end. He doesn't know, though, and the fact that they're all here and they all have shards makes him think that they're wanted alive - for now.

"If we can get yon guard in here to check on that," he adds, voice still quiet, "he'll be distracted. One of us can take him out, then."

Lexa scoots closer across the floor, as far as her chains will stretch. She's been drifting in and out and doing her best to keep an eye on the guards when she can, but it's a struggle. It takes the jumpstart of actual planning to give her the energy to blink herself truly awake and push toward them, speaking quietly as she looks between the pair of rifters.

"If you two lure him in, I can wait here behind the door just out of sight. I'll grab the guard, and you kill him." She's looking at Jamie at the end there, obviously, and though it's not phrased as a question, one brow is lifted with it anyway. It's not meant to be insulting, it's just that none of them are at their best right now, the rifters even worse off, and if he can't take the guard out, well. Then they need a different plan.

Cosima is way, way out of her depth here. On a variety of levels. She's pretty sure she's never been involved in killing a human before, but she shuts that out. Survival first. Everything else later.

Instead, she gives a nod. If Jaime's going to object to the plan, now's the time, because Cosima clears her throat and then starts coughing. It's voluntary enough, at first, but her lungs really are a problem. Soon the sound is uncomfortable, wrenching and wet and truly alarming.

She hopes she'll have time to stop coughing while the other two take out the guard. It would be a bit humiliating otherwise.

The guard ignores the coughing, at first. He has better things to be doing. After thirty seconds or so, he scowls and bangs on the door. "Hey. Quiet."

His patience is limited and there are orders to keep them alive, and so the impatient young recruit pushes the door open, a cup of water from the barrel outside the door in hand. His arm is half raised to toss it at Cosima, rather than offer it to her.

"Be quiet."

It's not the first time that Jamie's had to take a life before - and if they get through this mess, it likely won't be the last, either. That doesn't mean he likes the idea, and the way his mouth is tugging off to one side is a fairly good indicator of that. But when Cosima starts coughing, he doesn't hesitate, just moves to make it look like he was going to the door to call for the guard, jerking his head toward Cosima in a way that certainly looks frantic enough - and hopefully believable enough, as well.

"Och, don't you think if she could she would? There's something really wrong with her and- He holds up his still bound hands to show his helplessness. "Look, you don't want her to die, do you? She needs your help, man."

Lexa remains silent, lingering in the shadow just behind the door as the guard barges in, his attention on Cosima's coughing, his hands full of water-cup.

When Jamie's talking has pulled the guard's focus even more towards himself and Cosima, Lexa strikes. She steps suddenly up behind him, looping her chain around the guard's neck and pulling tight enough to prevent him from shouting for help. A heel slams into the side of his knee at the same time, aimed to take him crumpling to his knees, the better to be subdued more permanently. Normally she'd just do it herself, snap his neck or hang on until his thrashing stopped. But in her current state just holding the chain tight around his neck is taking all the strength she can afford to spend and she's not too proud to take Jamie's help when it's right here to be had.

The guard watches Jamie with a condescending shade of frustration. He flicks his wrist, sending the water over Cosima, all while holding eye contact with the prisoner before him.

He's opening his mouth to speak when a chain loops around his throat. There's no change for even a strangled sound, with the force of Lexa's weight behind it. His gloved hands scrabble at the chain, the pressure crushing his windpipe.

He starts to struggle immediately, pitching his weight forward to try and shake Lexa off, but the slam of her heel into his knee makes his leg buckle, so the effort turns into an awkward stumble and stagger, nearly sending him right to the floor.

Edited (FORGOT A THING) 2016-09-16 17:09 (UTC)

So far, things are going to plan - for a relative definition of plan, anyway. Still, Jamie knows that even with the element of surprise, chances are that the chain by itself isn't going to be enough. Lexa's right. He's going to have to take of the guard one way or another before he recovers enough to fight back.

There's a few things that might work. The guard has weapons, and if he can grab one of the daggers he could make it quick and painless. That's chancier, though, and if something goes wrong they'll have a fight on their hands. The noise from that might draw the others back and then the attempt'll be over before it stars. The other option - and possibly the better one in this case - is to use something in the room to his advantage, and even as the guard staggers, his eyes dart around the room to see what he can use.

His eyes fall on some barrels of grain, most sealed to keep vermin and insects out. One, however, has been opened relatively recently and not sealed back up again, leaving the lid sitting somewhat loosely on top. It's large, it's heavy, and if Jamie can manage to hit him in the right place it can do a lot of damage. Whether it'll be enough to take the guard out completely or just knock him out, he doesn't know, but there's not enough time to hem and haw over a decision. Before he can second guess himself, he lunges, grabbing the lid and yanking it free, swinging it at the guard's head with all the strength he can manage. If that's not enough, then he'll go for the daggers, but with luck it'll do something.

Cosima sits up, stopping coughing as best she can and massaging the base of her throat. She's smart enough to know that any attempts to physically help will likely just get in the way. If things get really bad, maybe she can get one of his daggers and give it to Jaime or Lexa, but for now she's concentrating on staying out of the fight.

The guard's stagger comes nearer to dislodging Lexa than it usually would, unbalanced up on her toes until he's half-crumpled toward the floor. She tugs the chain tighter, links clattering and scraping against each other as she twists them around his throat and looks at Jamie expectantly, her face beginning to go red, though less quickly and severely than the guard's.

When Jamie comes up with the barrel-lid she tries to lean back while still bracing the guard still, which requires a bit of contortion, locking her leg around the knee she's injured to pin him, and ducking her head against the back of his shoulder to avoid being clipped by the blow.

All in all, Phil here is having a very bad day. All he wanted was for his coworkers to accept him, you know?

Anyway, here he is, face purpling, a strangled gurgling forcing out of his throat, before it is followed by the crack of the barrel lid hitting his head. He stops struggling, goes limp, and lurches to the ground, body in a messy heap. The rise and hall of his chest is weak and thready.

From a hook on his belt hangs a collection of keys, heavy looking things. It is the smaller ones that will release their shackles, and one of the larger that will do for getting them out of their current cell.

For what it's worth, it's not a state that Jamie particularly wanted to put Phil in - and when the man collapses, there's a genuine look of regret on his face. He drops the lid to one side, letting it fall wherever it wants to, and moves to the man's side, reaching down to yank the keys free from Phil's belt, holding them up to try and see what ones might do what. There's a lot of keys, though, and not a lot of time, so he thrusts the keys towards Lexa, knowing enough about glasses to know that since Cosima doesn't have hers at the moment she's likely going to have a harder time seeing where things need to go.

"Here, take these and see what you can do with them. I'll get the rest of his weapons."

Maybe Phil'll do them a favor and stay unconscious long enough for them to get out, and then maybe they won't have to kill him. But just in case he doesn't, Jamie means to be ready to do what he has to.

Cosima seems to have recovered, or at least as much as she's likely to, and gets to her feet. Everything aches, but nothing in particular should keep her from being able to move. Small blessings.

"Should we tie him up?" she asks, low. "We could rip some cloth or something."

"Kill him," Lexa orders, as she takes the keys Jamie pushes at her. Not that it's her place to order, but there's an unmistakable note of command in her voice, half intentional half habit.

She drops the chain on the guard's torso to muffle the noise and starts flipping through the keys on the ring. She's looking for one that seems the right size and material, and steps over to try the smaller ones that seem likely in Cosima's shackles, the angle being more awkward (and therefore slower) on her own.

"He's too big for us to bring him along as a shield and these people won't care about a hostage. Leaving him alive only risks him raising the alarm and being one more we have to fight through. Cut his throat quickly before he wakes up."

She tries another key, and one more before finally the lock clicks and Cosima's shackles crack open. Lexa catches them before they can drop noisily to the floor and puts the keys into Cosima's hand, holding out her own wrists. A belated thought turns her head back toward Phil and Jamie.

"You could put on his uniform. Before you bloody it."

Edited (SORRY i'm done now it was just a terribly punctuated sentence) 2016-09-18 21:13 (UTC)

In other circumstances, that particular order might have brought out a protest from Jamie, possibly even coupled with a slightly snarky comment, but in this case she's right and he knows it. Their best chance at getting out of here lies with them not being missed for as long as possible. Even though Phil doesn't appear to be in great shape, if he does manage to raise the alarm, they're done for. As he pulls the dagger from Phil's belt, he keeps it in his hand, looking down that the hapless guard.

"Aye," he says, quietly. The least he can do is make it quick. He's just about to put the knife to Phil's neck when Lexa's other suggestion stops him, and he nods instead, setting the dagger down so he can try and see about getting the man's uniform off of him first. He's still shackled, though, and it makes for an awkward disrobing at best. As he tries to yank the top off the guard, he glances back over at the others, mouth tugging off to one side as he pulls a disgruntled face.

"Look, could you hurry up with those and see about giving me a hand here? This'll go faster if I've not got this chain getting in my way."

Cosima looks slightly ill, but doesn't really feel she's in a position to object. Beyond traveling to the rift that got them here, she doesn't know Jaime or Lexa. And while she doesn't want to kill anyone, she even less wants to get them caught by slowing down the escape attempt - or worse, have them decide she's a liability and leave her behind.

Instead, she comes to help Jaime with his clothes. She's nearsighted, and she can manage close-up work like buttons.

Lexa finishes unlocking herself and then steps quickly over to unlock Jamie too before he gets any more tangled up in clothes. Maybe she should apologize for not thinking of that straight off, but that's not really her style, especially in these circumstances. But she does give Jamie a nod of approval as he readily agrees that Phil's got to die. She'd anticipated some resistance, and is pleased not to find it.

While he and Cosima work on trading Jamie and Phil's places, Lexa steps over to the door, leaning to peak at the hall and listen for a second. Once she's confident that there's no one to notice, she reaches through the bars and starts trying keys. She's as quiet as possible, but it's difficult not to jangle them around a little, flipping between options at this angle.

The lack of apology doesn't bother him, especially given their current circumstances - but he is grateful for the assist, and Lexa gets a nod of thanks as his cuffs spring open. Once that's done, things go much smoother, and with Cosima's help he's soon looking the part of one of the guards, albeit one that's ever so slightly shorter in height. With a little creative dressing, though, Phil's uniform winds up fitting well enough, leaving Jamie ready to go.

Or mostly ready to go, as there's still one loose end to be tied up. Jamie glances down at Phil for a moment longer before lifting his head back up, a look of regret in his eyes as he refocuses on Cosima. There's not much that he can do to protect the girls from what he has to do, but even if he thinks it's not something that Lexa is going to have much of a problem with, if he can shield Cosima from the sight of it in some small way he will.

"Maybe you'd best go help Lexa now," he suggests in a tone that's gentler than one he's used around either of them before. "I'll be with you in a few moments."

"You could have just said, 'turn around, I'm going to do it now,'" Cosima says, quiet and a little sad, but not fighting him. Instead, she moves over to Lexa's side. Trying keys is a one-person job, so there's not much to help with, but knowing what has to happen doesn't mean she wants to watch.

The keys are a one-person job, and one Lexa is just finishing. There are only a couple keys left that could fit this lock, and she nods to Cosima while reaching through the bars to try another.

"Keep an eye out down the hall and let me know if you see movement."

Finally, this key clicks the lock over and she removes the key, pocketing the key ring and looking over her shoulder at Jamie to see if he's ready to go.

Edited 2016-09-25 02:30 (UTC)

"Aye, maybe you're right."

His voice is quiet as well, but the regret in it is still plain to hear all the same. This isn't something that he particularly wants to do, any more than she wants to watch, and if she even wants to talk to him after all of this, maybe he'll try and explain. However, the longer he waits, the better the chance the others might come back, so when she goes over to the door, he turns back to Phil, taking a moment to pull him back behind the barrels, as out of sight as he can get the man short of shoving him into the middle of one. It might buy them a little more time than just leaving him there for anyone walking by to notice - and it means that if one of the lasses turns back at the wrong time, they don't have to see, either.

He makes it quick, at least. It's all he really can do for the man, for the moment. Later on, there might be something else, but there's no time for anything but what needs to be immediately done. When he goes to rejoin the others, it's with a newly cleaned dagger in his hand, leaving no visible sign of what's just happened, save for the expression on his face.

Sometimes, he's very tired of all the killing.

There's still a long way to go before they're free, though, and he shoves the regret into the back of his mind in order to focus on the task ahead.

"Let's go, then."

Edited 2016-09-27 01:27 (UTC)

"All clear this way," Cosima says, quiet - she's squinting, a little, but she's not so nearsighted that looking for movement is a problem. She glances back at Jaime, her expression a little sad (and not a little worried), but not horrified either. "You're right, we should get moving."

She wants to be out of here as badly as they do, even if she's the least helpful toward that end for now.

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( closed ) player plot: the stars go waltzing

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sorry!!

not a problem!

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