it's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark

[chainlightning]

WHO: Merrill, Morrigan, Thranduil, Ellana, Inessa, Zevran, Bruce, Maxwell, Bethany, Beleth, Leliana, Amelie
WHAT: A trip to fetch an eluvian goes wrong and everyone gets a taste of Kirkwall hospitality.
WHEN: Harvestmere 7-11
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Plotting post one and two! Warnings for Creepy Stuff, monsters, violence, gore, etc.

ẁ͈͔̙̮͖͆̆̔̂e̸͉̻̘̤̪͈̮̘̍ͧ̓̒̆͢ͅl̷̡̠̰̜̞̗̰͎̱̃ͩ̔ͭ̂c̠̳͎ͦ͗ͧ͊o̰̦͕̭̩̟͂͑ͫ̄͂̈ͪ̐͗m̶̫̜̤͑̉́͗̈́̏͆e̫̼̜̤̎ͩ ̴̡̯͔̤̻̭̳̤̟̱̔͌͛ͩț̞̣̲͕̟̗̫͔ͫͪ̾͘͡ō͓̟͔͉͕͔̄͛̿ͧ́ ̛̰̬̳͎̥̳̍ͣͣ̈͘͟t͍̬̺͖ͫ̓̊̈͛͛ͮh̡̟̣͔ͤ̀ͫ̈ͩ̕ͅe̡̦̮̎͘ ̸̭̭͙͖͓̱͉̙͋ͫͪ̉̽̔̂́ͅc̏ͮ҉͖̭͇i̞̰̖̤̹̞͇̤͙̿ͣ̄̄͞ṭ̴̫̯̤̱͈̺̒̀ͨͯͨ͡y̯̮̜̼̤̱̿͒ͦ͒ ̨̱̘̮͔̞̼ͮ̆ͫ̓ͬ͝o̘͈̜͍͓̳̖̔ͬ͟͡f̶̹̘͈̘͊ͅ ̨̣̪͎̐̋͂͂̏̐c̨̩̈̈́ͬ̔͂̌̚h̶̶̡̳̲̭̪̔̍͋̔a̴̐ͬͫ͛ͨ҉̢̖͚̯i̯̤̜̺͍̋̒̽͗͗ͪ̌n̵̷̴̤͙̬͉͔͂́̎s͙͕͎̓

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TEAM A VS VENATORI

[chainlightning]

[ everyone is gathered and told what they need to know: what an eluvian is, that merrill has one her clan found several years ago stashed in the hawke family manor in kirkwall, that they are to fetch it with the assistance of a second team coming by boat, and that corypheus wants it and therefore everyone absolutely must keep their mouths shut about what they're doing and what they've just learned.

morrigan has readied her eluvian for use. they all go through, with merrill leading the way to her own eluvian. it isn't much of a walk, but the sights are certainly distracting; there are dozens of dark eluvians all around them. this eluvian is opened and the party goes forward once more-

-but it does not smell of basement, of slight mildew and damp. it smells old, ancient, of rotting wood and blood. and right in front of them is a group of venatori. one of them, palm obviously bleeding, quickly raises it and casts something. runes drawn in blood around the eluvian glow and it makes a sound like shattering glass, though it remains intact.

there is no way back. based on the massive firestorm that one of the mages casts toward the party, it doesn't necessarily look like there's an easy way forward, either. ]

[circleprodigy]

[Learning about eluvians is enough to get Inessa's interest and compliance, no issue there. Though not especially 'elfy' in many respects, she can't help but retain an (academic) interest in elven magic. It may far removed from her own experiences with magic, but it's magic nonetheless and thus has her curiosity. With Garahel at her side, the Grey Warden mage peers at every aspect of the crossroads along their path, noting the eluvians and blooming vegetation. She pauses to pick a budding flower for later inspection, then rushes catch up. They have a job to do, after all.

Upon stepping out of Merrill's eluvian, Inessa's on instant alert as Garahel's hackles rise. Spotting the Venatori and their use of blood magic, Inessa's eyes narrow and she quickly casts Barrier over herself and those nearest, hoping to mitigate that firestorm. When it passes, Garahel will charge forward and attempt to overwhelm the nearest one.]

[serannas]

It's beautiful. Ellana never dreamed that something like this could happen to her. The stories she'd heard growing up said that the eluvians were used for communication across long distances, but they could have simply been a myth. To find out they're real, and not something you speak through but walk through is an incredible thing. This is better than any elven ruin because the crossroads are intact. Neither Tevinter nor Orlais has found this and stripped it bare of what it once was. The colors are so bright and even though it's quiet and many eluvians are dark, Ellana still gets a sense of life here. It's like something is sleeping, just waiting to be awoken, like the ancient elves who practiced Uthenera.

As they exit the eluvian into Kirkwall, Ellana brushes a tear from the corner of her eye. She wishes they could have stayed longer. But now she experiences mood whiplash as the Ventatori attack out of nowhere. Like Inessa, Ellana's immediate reaction is to put down a barrier over the area around her and then to send Chain Lightning down on the nearest enemies.

[amygdalae]

This was--well. None of this is what Bruce had quite been expecting, that was for sure. From the Eluvians to the Crossroads (which was another thing altogether) and--this. This very harrowing situation.

Fortunately for Bruce he is at the back of the party for the most part, which allows him a bit of time to draw out his own staff and begin casting barriers to everyone else he can reach around him and when necessary, throwing some healing and other support spells too. Apparently this was no time to think about the stuff he had heard and seen recently - he could do all of that later, once this situation was handled.

But one thing seemed to be pretty clear - this was probably not where they were supposed to end up at.


[OOC: I'm gonna be gone for the weekend (working at a con for both days), so feel free to skip me when needed! Just assume he's at the back throwing support spells and healing when he can. Just keep in mind that he's not a spirit healer so he can do all of those fancy things spirit healers can do - just standard stuff for him.]

TEAM B DOES DETECTIVE WORK

[chainlightning]

[ having been picked by the inquisition to go to kirkwall in order to assist "with a mission of important", the second group is slightly more in the dark. they have been told they will receive details upon arrival from the first team, whose names are provided but whose method of travel (how can they get there first? maybe they took an earlier ship? but didn't we see them when we left...?) is unknown to all save leliana.

they are met by a forward agent and directed immediately to high-town and to the hawke manor. the agent advises that no one has been seen going in or out, but admits that there is a blind section near a window thanks to a neighbor that refuses to have inquisition agents on his property. she also admits that no agents have attempted the door due to the stories of boobytraps that run rampant regarding the manor in kirkwall's underworld; no doubt, she tells them, the result of varric and his many connections. how much truth is in those rumors remains to be seen. ]

Re: TEAM B DOES DETECTIVE WORK

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Oh no, they're absolutely true." Bethany stated from the middle of the group, her lips curving up into a bright smile. "We rigged the place to the Black City and back to keep the Inquisition from finding Marian, or me, or Carver. Quite a lot of it, honestly, will blow your face off but Varric probably added a few modifications of his own ... "

She paused, looking around and clearing her throat, "But, ah, I can disable them. You know. With some help. Anyone here good with traps?"

[dreadinquisitor]

"Well, this sounds like fun," Maxwell murmured, shaking his head as he stepped forward. Reaching for the fine tools tucked into the pouch at his belt, he arched an eyebrow at Bethany. "Where do we start?"

TEAM A IN THE DARK

[chainlightning]

[ it is dark. it is quiet. you do not know how long you have been in the darkness, only that it is long enough that you are hungry and thirsty. your limbs may feel weak and heavy. the walls may feel like they are closing in, if you're aware of any walls at all. maybe everything is just darkness, darkness forever, as far as the eye can see. maybe that's all that is left. maybe everything else was just a dream.

you make camp when you all agree that it is best to go no further without some rest. sleeping in shifts seems best, but it's hard to sleep. it is too quiet in the dark. it is simultaneously too loud, as though something is breathing in your ear. you can hear something moving in the dark.

is it a friendly member of your group, or is it something else?

do you dare take a look?

oh. there it is again. ]

[circleprodigy]

[Thank goodness Inessa isn't particularly fearful of the dark. As a Grey Warden, that's not a trait she can afford to possess, given where darkspawn are often found and the conditions in which they emerge. Her elven heritage helps her out as well, her large eyes glinting in the dark as they move along. She focuses on remaining calm and collected, as always, even as the sheer amount of quiet is slightly unnerving. I have seen abominations as a child; a little dark is nothing.

And yet, that sound of something moving heightens her already alert state. She pauses, turning toward the noise and trying to see the source for herself.]

What was that?

[Garahel, perking up, heads toward the sound of movement and sniffs around.]

[ombranera]

Not me. [ Zevran murmurs, sheathing his blades. Having them out now- as much as it might prepare them for whatever is to be found? Would end in accidents unless given a solid target. ] Perhaps you might summon a wisp of some sort to provide light? That is a thing mages can do, yes?

[ Wynne had done so often enough in the Deep Roads, when the torches became few and far between and the shrieks were skittering in the dark. ]

[arcaneadvisor]

[Dark is something Morrigan knows well, and curiosity is not something so easily sated. They ventured through her eluvian, and there are none here that she feels beholden to - perhaps Zevran, in the strange way that they are become family now - but when she steps out, she says nothing.

Her eyes adjust, not as those of an elf might but as one who has spent long years prowling shadows, waiting for a shape to come that might be friendly, or wary, or might have teeth and a mind to tear out the throat of a young girl. Or worse.

There are always worse things in the between places of the world, and as she grips her staff, unwilling to cast a light lest she draw attention to herself (she knows how bright a light in the dark is, how often has an unwary traveller been lured by such a ploy?) she walks away until she can hear nothing more than heart in her ears and her footsteps, soft as she can make them.]

[chainlightning]

[ The more Morrigan walks, the colder it begins to grow. There is nothing that physically presents toward cold in the tunnel itself, no ice or snow or wind, but Morrigan will find that she is growing goosebumps and that her teeth may threaten to clatter together.

Just as it seems too cold to keep walking, there is a cry eerily similar to that of a young boy from straight ahead. ]

TEAM B IN THE DARK

[chainlightning]

[ the others have to be down here somewhere. it's dark, though, even with torches; a deep, penetrating darkness that light can't seem to dispel. it swallows it up like tar past a few feet, leaving your sight far less useful than it otherwise would be.

you come to a crossroads: three paths branching off from the one you've been on, the intersection only barely lit even when you're standing in the center of it. one of these paths must be the way the venatori took, but right now it's impossible to tell which one. perhaps if you went down one a bit...?

the tunnel to the far left has some cobwebs, broken away in places, hanging above it. the tunnel to the far right has shattered glass in the center of the passage, glinting softly in the firelight. the tunnel in the center is bare, save for the elaborate, geometric carving around the entrance.

in the meantime, it's time for a break from walking. there is no break from the darkness, but the intersection seems like a good place to sit and take a breath for now. ]

[fightingale]

Leliana considers the three tunnels. How easily might they be able to tell how recently the glass had been broken? Dust on the shards? And what was the glass from? And the cobwebs could have been broken too recently for the spiders to repair them, or perhaps they had been abandoned? She frowns, looking between them, but looks over her shoulder to the others.

"Take a moment. Heal as best you can."

They may well have taken one path and laced clues down another in preparation. It was what Leliana would do, after all, and the Venatori may be vile but they were not incompetent.

[chainlightning]

[ Without moving closer to one of the entrances, there's no way to tell -- though the cobwebs do sway slightly with a draft. ]

TEAM A VS THE DARKNESS

[chainlightning]

[ you don't know where you're going. you have to be going somewhere, trudging along in the dark with this artifact. there has to be a way out somewhere. the venatori got in, and so the inquisition can get out, right? but there is nothing but darkness and what rests within it.

the eluvian, from behind, makes a horrid creaking sound. something beneath your foot cracks, snaps. and something in the darkness moves close enough that you feel a brush of cold air over your skin. ]

[circleprodigy]

[Inessa can admit, at least to herself, that she's growing weary of the dark. It could be worse, in so many ways, but enough is enough. They'd better find an escape route, and soon.

That creaking sound causes Inessa to jump a little and she grips her staff tighter, brandishing it the direction of that movement. Immediately, she casts a Barrier over herself and the others. If she's overreacting, then they're within their rights to tease her about it later. Even so, she'd rather be teased than dead.]

[arcaneadvisor]

[Of them all, Morrigan has used eluvians the most. That is to say she has in fact used them, has been within the Crossroads more than any of their number have before they came through hers to here.

She has seen the shattered eluvians. Those gone dark. She has wondered and understood what might lurk upon the other side.

So she sets her jaw, staff in hand with a hex at the ready for there are dark things from the days when Arlathan fell, the long-forgotten magics of the ancient elves when they sealed the ways shut behind them; Sundermount is not so far, and dark things still prowl there, things that do not know that the war is long over, that the world has moved on.]

There should be aught amiss with this. [There is something distinctly unhappy in her tone, but not the usual way of Morrigan, something more unsettled as she glances back at the eluvian again.] Not this way.

TEAM B VS THE DARKNESS

[chainlightning]

[ you're walking in the darkness. you're beginning to realize that you aren't entirely certain if you know the way back, if you know the way you came. you feel like you've been walking forever; you feel like you will be walking forever.

it is truly quiet now, you realize. nothing but your steps sounds in the darkness and the person in front stops suddenly. there's light ahead, light that doesn't belong to any mage's staff or any found torch. the light is faint, and there isn't much of it, but it's close. it looks to be- covered in something...? ]

[fightingale]

If she were an optimist, Leliana would conclude that the light is not covered in something that's probably terrible. However, the reality is that she is not an optimist and that they are in Kirkwall, a place famous for everything being three times worse than you anticipated, even when you were expecting everything to be awful.

In theory it would be advisable for the Advisor not to be the first to approach the inevitably terrible thing in Kirkwall. She did not come here, however, to send others to perform all risks. When she was in her tower she knew well enough that her agents were sent to do her bidding, to be her hands and eyes and ears. They performed their duty to help the Inquisition, and she would not act so high above them in the field when they relied upon one another for their lives and for the success of the mission.

She holds out a hand, cautioning, to stop any from attempting to pass her for a moment, and draws a pebble from her pocket, just in case, tossing it forward to see if the quiet clatter of sound or the bounce of pressure triggered any traps, or disturbed anything else that might waiting in the darkness near that light. Perhaps it would be nothing, but if something did react then it would not harm to have a little distance.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany's lips pressed together -- of all the people who were in the front, Leliana should have been further back than this. Without a word, she shifted her hand over all of them, pulling over a green veil of protection over the party, as she looked down the hall.

She moved up even with Leliana, her brown eyes narrowed as she watched the darkness for a reaction, staff held tightly in both hands as she waited. If necessary, she'd shove Leliana behind her and raise another shield.

A REUNION

[chainlightning]

[ with great foes slain, some of the darkness seems to have lifted. it's still horribly hard to see but it's less smothering. now fire springs to life on the ceiling above, lighting their paths until they meet in the center -- a circular room with multiple passageways going off to all sides. the way Team B took is fully lit, now; everyone can safely follow it back to what remains of the Gallows and back out into the fresh air above ground.

for now, it might be best to take stock of everyone and everything while everyone's together. time to hug. ]

EXPLORING KIRKWALL

[chainlightning]

[ let's try that again.

WELCOME TO KIRKWALL! the city of chains is known for its dark history, more recent upheavals, and being the setting for "Hard in Hightown". the city and surrounding areas are open to exploration as members of the parties are looked over by healers. supplies are purchased, and help is offered to the guard. go for a shopping trip in hightown, or check out the wounded coast! just don't think about how thin the veil is here, or any of the horrors lurking just out of sight.

:D ]

The Black Emporium, etc

[circleprodigy]

[Not having been to Kirkwall before, Inessa is willing to go wherever Merrill's willing to give a tour. If it's a somewhat rambling tour thanks to direction issues, that's fine. She wants to get a sense of the city that has seen so much upheaval, and see how it's recovering.

There's also the matter of the Black Emporium. Having heard tales of the mysterious location, she's eager to see it for herself, if Merrill can be of any help there. If the prices are reasonable, she might even be able to bring back a souvenir for Ciri or Kain.]

sundermount;

[arcaneadvisor]

[Kirkwall isn't a place she ventured on her travels before. The ruins are scarce, Orlais was more fruitful, and the Tale of the Champion spoke of her mother enough to put her off.

Since she is here however and with Kieran safe (or safe as he is ever likely to be) back at Skyhold, she sets her sights towards Sundermount. Any who are willing are welcome to join her when she announces her intention, setting off on foot out of Kirkwall.

The site of an ancient battle between the Imperium and the elves of Arlathan where horrors are still said to prowl, without knowledge that the war they were summoned for is long since over and decided? Who wouldn't want to come with her.]