faderift | [Closed] The Wrong Road

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[Closed] The Wrong Road

WHO: Kallian, Adelaide, Hermione, Ruby, Eirlys and Merrick with special guest appearances by Anders and Norrington
WHAT: Gathering supplies. What could possibly go wrong?
WHEN: Backdated to the beginning of Cloudreach
WHERE: The Hinterlands
NOTES: Warnings for demons, violence, injury and mages being outed, will be updated as needed.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to travel to the Hinterlands in search of supplies and rare herbs. Royal elfroot, in particular, is something that would be more than welcome, although extra supplies of regular elfroot, and blood lotus wouldn't go amiss. The air is warmer than it has been, carrying with it the promise of spring and renewal, and the journey there is easy, allowing for pleasant time spent enjoying a break from winter. The Hinterlands still aren't without their dangers - rebels and outlaws, packs of mabari and thin and hungry bears just waking from hibernation. You never know what you might find...

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So far things have been fairly uneventful. Even with the early spring weather, there's still places where herbs can be found, some having gone to seed but tucked into places where animals haven't been able to get at them, young shoots of others poking up through the soil and the water - and in places, full grown, easily harvest-able herbs. They're not the only supplies that can be gathered, though. Animals can be hunted, minerals can chipped out of rocks, and even if there's nothing right around them, people can meet up at camp and relax or try and figure out where to go next.

The Inquisition may have a strong presence here, but the Hinterlands are large enough that there are still areas that hold surprises. The first warning of one comes when the three rifters with the group feel a stab of pain, the marks in their hands starting to spit and spark a second or two before flaring with light - something that comes with all too familiar hum and crack of sound from a rift opening not too far away. While it can't be seen - yet - it can be felt by the rifters, and Jamie, at least, is familiar enough with the sensation that he knows what's going on.

"There's a rift around here somewhere!"

And then they follow a turn on the path, and it's there - the green glow overhead casting an eerie light on the gathering of demons that have suddenly sprung into being in a clearing, the all too familiar sight of wraiths and shades and the spindly form of a terror demon promising a fight ahead.

(OOC: An open fighting thread for the first or second wave of attacks. Make your own starter or tag other people and have fun killing demons!)

The fight is going well so far, but that rift isn't so easily closed. So far the small group of rifters have managed to disrupt it, but it's far from actually being closed. And as it opens again, the second surprise of the day comes with the arrival of more terror demons, something that's never a good thing.

The rift has been closed, but one of their own has been injured, and the arrival of Norrington and his templars may very well have complicated things - especially given what's happened to keep their injured party from dying. The question is, what happens next?

(OOC: After the fight, for the aftermath and for Anders's arrival. Multiple threads welcome, just state if your thread is open or closed!)

Ruby's never tried to close a Rift before today. And in terms of letting the Wolf out and having her on display, that's definitely not something for so many strangers. She'd had a chance to get to know people a little when she did so during the mission for Morrigan, and so far she's been sticking to arrows and explosives.

"Oh come on," she murmurs under her breath, and Ruby hurls a collection of elemental grenades towards the terror demons. "Heads up!"

She's about ninety-five percent sure she has the timing on those perfected, by now. Well, ninety-three percent. Everything should be fine.

Gathering.

Ruby is in her element. Not the snow so much, but the searching and gathering and hunting. The cold air is crisp, and the fresh smell of plants starting to peep up over it is kind of invigorating. She bounds over the snow, moves quick and light, and seems to find things pretty fast.

Experience, she says. Experience means she can find plants from another world easily in the snow, yeah. Sure. That's how that works.

Camp.
Alternatively she can be found murmuring to herself at camp, carefully putting together devices and occasionally stopping and sucking her thumb when she catches it on a sharp element in the spike grenades. And if she's not doing that, she's fletching some arrows.

Even in spring and unseasonable warmth, the Hinterlands are still chilly, and Kallian wraps her cloak more tightly around herself against the wind. The little elf is on the lookout for herbs to bring back, and seeds so that they might grow their own in Skyhold's garden. Elfroot is plentiful, at least the normal kind, and embrium dots the countryside, but she keeps hoping to stumble across rarer plants.

Sometimes she sings softly to herself while she gathers the plants, but she will sing for the group if asked to do so.

At camp, she carefully bundles the herbs together and hangs them to dry.

While it could be said that Jamie's adjusting to his new life here well enough, there's some old habits that he hasn't quite managed to give up just yet. One of those is poking his nose in when he spots something unfamiliar and asking questions. Gadgets in particular are sure to get his attention, and while the ones here may not be as high-tech as the ones he's seen the past few years, the devices that Ruby are working on are interesting enough that it's not too long before he winds up drifting over to investigate, winding standing maybe just a little bit closer than he probably should in the process.

Personal space isn't something he's always good with, unfortunately.

"What're you doing?"

Jamie hasn't noticed the chill quite as much as Kallian has, thanks to most of a lifetime spent in a similar climate. Even though he knows that it's all changeable - especially around here - he's enjoying the faint briskness that the air holds and not worrying about it too much. That is, until he happens to spot Kallian pulling her cloak just a little bit tighter around herself, something that gets him to frown slightly before picking his way over the rocks to her.

"Hey, you're not cold, are you? You can borrow my plaid if you like."

Her cheeks color a little.
"The wind feels different coming off the lake than it does off the sea," she explains softly. "I'll be all right. I should have just brought clothes that aren't quite so thin."

She glances up at him from under her hood.
"It's sweet of you to offer, though."

One wave wasn't enough? There had to be two? Kallian isn't getting close to the fight if she can help it, but she hovers around the edge, watching out for green bubbles rising up out of the ground, and trying to see if anyone's gotten hurt so far.

Thank God for wolf hearing and generally being aware of when people draw closer, or she might have jumped. As it is, Ruby looks to Jamie with a bit of a smile. "I'm trying to figure out these elemental mines. Electric-- uh, lightning ones. I think I've got the mechanism down mostly, but this is a little more combinated than the spike traps."

And, to clarify, "I've been working on training as an Artificer. I figured I may as well make myself more useful for stuff like this, you know?"

Gathering
It had seemed like a fairly straightforward supply run, and Eirlys had been eager to sign up. What wounded there had been in Skyhold under her charge were in a good enough state that she felt confident leaving them for just a little while, and she knew it would do her some good to get back out in the world. Anders had rejuvenated her physical strength, but she knew that mentally she was still exhausted from the long winter trying to save as many in her alienage as she could from the ravages of fever, and she'd continued in the same mindset on her return to Skyhold. This felt like something of a holiday to her, and she relishes the wide open spaces of the Hinterlands, looking as though the weight has lifted off her somewhat as she walks along through the fields and across the brooks, and looking positively delighted as she finds a thick growth of crystal grace, stooping to pick the dainty flowers and trying to get them into the pouch on her belt without crushing them.

Camping
It was still a novelty to her to sleep out in the wilderness, covered only by the wide open sky. Eirlys sits a little way from the fire, legs crossed in front of her, leaning back with her head craned high, humming to herself a little, enjoying the magnificence of the starry tableau above them and the peace she feels inside her for the first time in a long time.

Eirlys pales at Jamie's words, a bad feeling settling in the pit of her stomach. She'd known that she'd have to face another rift eventually, it was part and parcel of rejoining the Inquisition, but she hadn't been prepared for it to be so soon. She knows there's little she can do to help the others - she's a healer, not a fighter, and she curses herself for not having learned more than basic self defense, which was only good against a drunken shem and not against a horde of demons.

As a couple of wraiths make their way toward her, she grabs for her belt, her hand closing around a confusion grenade, and for the first time she feels grateful that Araceli had persuaded her to make offensive potions as well as ones that heal. She lobs it toward the wraiths, which immediately stop heading for her and turn on each other, and then without a second thought, she runs.

She tries to tell herself that it's the sensible thing to do, that she can't fight off these demons nor close the rift, and that she'll only get in the way if she stays in the thick of things - they'll need their healer whole herself to tend to their wounds afterwards, after all. But she knows that voice is lying, that she'd bolted in her own terror as soon as she saw the lava-like rage demon slither out of the Fade. It made her think of the one that had killed Wellow - that she was still sure her own bitter anger had summoned, not understanding one bit how demons and rifts work - and she wondered whether it could be the same one, following her, ready to kill her or take her as a vessel.

She screws her eyes shut, head pressed into her knees, hearing the fighting go on and hating herself for feeling so cowardly and weak.

Edited 2016-04-12 20:25 (UTC)

Gathering

With a list in mind that's longer than she'd like, Adelaide picks about the herbs and seedlings around camp. Minerals aren't her first priority but anything that could lend itself to the stores of the healing tents is worth gathering while she is escaping a day or so of her mother's tricks. The Attache expressed intent to join until Adelaide showed him the tent where she'd be sleeping. Wisely- he declined. All the better to ignore it for a short while. Where there are plants? There is Adelaide, pruning or sketching for future reference.

Camp

Scrapes, bumps, bruises, twisted ankles, etc. Adelaide peers about the group at the end of each day to ensure they aren't ill or injured, mending what she can with magic before resuming her notes on the shards. If she is not grinding poultices or brewing potions? She's writing.

That thin, lingering whine scrapes at the back of Adelaide's mind- she cannot quite pick out where she knows it from until the rifters hands start to sputter and flare. Aside from that initial landing in Haven months ago and the incident with Sina, rifts are unfamiliar and strange to her- more than enough to set her teeth on edge. Something unknown and dangerous, something that grinds across her senses of the veil;

All over the discordance of demons as they snap into being.

Her reaction is immediate and instinctive- a barrier cast about everyone present with a flare of blue light and murmured words. Something to protect them from the demons and all their horrors.

While it's not his attention to embarrass her - far from it - as usual he feels like he's managed to do it somehow. But also as usual, he finds himself charmed by that faint blush, and has to catch himself before he winds up looking at her for longer than would likely make her feel comfortable. The conversation he's had with Anders not that long ago has driven that part of things home quite well, and he winds up glancing down at the plaidweave cloak that Adelaide'd gifted him for a second or two instead before glancing up at her.

"Aye, well, if you're sure. I'm used to weather like this, though, so if you change your mind, let me know. Any luck with finding the herbs we're looking for so far?"

Oblivious to the fact he's nearly startled her while she's working with sharp objects - something that might not have had the best result - he gives her a brief and slightly crooked smile in return.

"Oh, I know what electricity is." He says it off-handedly, as though he's been aware of it his whole life. This isn't strictly true. It's something he's only come into contact with the past few years, but he's learned enough about that he knows well enough what it can do, even if he likely couldn't explain that part of things very well to a lot of people here. "So those are ones'll give you a great shock if you happen to be too close when they go off, right?"

For a second he leans forward a little, rubbing his fingers together as if considering reaching out towards the device, but then he thinks better of it, and tucks his thumbs behind his the belt that holds his sporran in place instead.

"I've heard about those, but not seen them before. At least not up close. Are they very hard to put together?"

It's good to be out in the open again. As large as Skyhold is, there's times where it felt somewhat crowded, and it's not as easy to get away as it'd been when he'd been traveling with the Doctor. So a supply run seems like a perfect chance to get away for a bit - and it appears he's not the only one that's thinking that way. Eirlys looks happier than she did the last time he saw her, and while it could be for some other reason than being out here, as far as he's concerned whatever's happened to get to look that way is a good thing.

He's not right next to her when she finds the crystal grace, but he's still close enough to see her stoop and pick something, and given all he's found for his troubles so far are some tree branches and small piles of not-yet-melted snow he doesn't have to feel overly guilty about giving into his curiosity. So it's not long before he pops up by her side, craning his head as he tries to see what she's doing.

"Find anything good?"

Edited 2016-04-13 04:13 (UTC)

That flare of blue light is something that's more than welcome right now, the barrier giving Jamie a chance to pull his sword from its scabbard and ready it as the demons start towards the group. His eyes flick over towards Adelaide, remembering the first time he'd stood with her facing down a group of demons. He might have a proper weapon this time and not a large chunk of slightly burnt wood, but there's a part of this that's all too familiar, and the expression on his face shows it.

"Och, that's just great. Just what we needed, more demons. So much for a quiet trip."

"Here."

The light is dimming, and while there might have been enough for the fire and the dimming daylight to suffice when Adelaide started writing, it sure doesn't seem like enough right now. Ruby sets down a couple of candles, already lit, and a cup of tea.

"Spare yourself the eyestrain headache."

Edited (words!!!) 2016-04-13 09:54 (UTC)

"You do?" Ruby brightens, at that. "And that's pretty much it exactly. Well, I'm working on these little guys to give any bears we might run into a nasty shock. They seem pretty resilient to the cold, so I figure it doesn't hurt to have some back up."

Grinning at his interest, Ruby picks up one of the books she is working from. "Here. It's got some pretty cool devices in there - lots of theory which is kind of dense to get through, but the diagrams are great. When I can figure them out, any way." She really, really needed to check in with Varric on the proper approach with some of this stuff later.

"They're probably easier to put together when you have a teacher. I've done my fair share of DIY and repaired dish washers and all, but this is a little different."

It was the sound of yells that grabbed Norrington's attention from where he and his troop were taking care of a left-over cell of Red Templars who were, of all things, trucking around more red lyrium.

He finished wiping off his sword, frowning as he gestured to the rest of his people to follow him through the brush. He had heard there was another Inquisition group out here, and by the flash of green in the sky they might have just found another rift.

That ... was clearly more obvious as a terror demon burst through the brush, and Norrington let out a curse as he lifted his sword and called out to his troop.

"People! On me! Kill the creature and then fan out, we might have an open rift!"

She has had to squint these past few minutes, double checking what she wrote a moment ago to be certain she's writing the correct thought in the correct place. Suddenly: Light. Perhaps she ought to have conjoured a wisp but this works just as well.

And tea.

"Thank you-" Adelaide looks up with a half smile. "I do appreciate it."

"Remember what I did when we met?" The vibrant blue of a Heroic Aura waits, glittering in one hand as she considers the field. Demons she might strike down without remorse but a close quarters battle is not something she can handle with comfort and skill just yet. Jamie, on the other hand-

She does not ask before casting the aura, building up his defenses and agility for the upcoming battle. "Do you think you can count to thirty?"

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Page 1 of 6

[Closed] The Wrong Road

Hunting, Gathering and Camping

Finding The Rift

Closing the Rift (Closed to the Rifters and Kallian)

Aftermath

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Camp

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Eirlys | Open!

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Adelaide | OPEN

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Gathering

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camp

"combinated" self pls use words that are actual words

Norrington | Later in the Rift

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