faderift | OPEN: The Western Approach

WHO: Everyone!
WHAT: The Western Approach is a terrible place. You should definitely go there.
WHEN: Bloomingtide 15 onward
WHERE: The Western Approach
NOTES: This is open to everyone. Characters who would not happily go to the hell desert probably have to go anyway; it's a war, not a vacation.

Once these wastes were a land of plenty. Can you believe it? The rain came north over the Gamordan Peaks, turning the plains green and verdant for three months of the year. Eight hundred years ago, that changed. During the Second Blight, darkspawn spilled out of an enormous crack in the earth, corrupting it with their foul blood... and it never recovered, even after they were driven back underground. The Grey Wardens built Adamant Fortress to stand watch over that chasm, but eventually even they abandoned it to the wind and the biting sand.

What few of us eke out a living in this Maker-forsaken place do so knowing that any number of deaths await us: darkspawn raids, dragons, bandits—not to mention starvation from the lack of water and game. If we stay, it is because we know there are treasures buried in the bones of this place, ruins from the time when Tevinter ruled, and even earlier. We pass tales around our campfires of the things we have seen shrouded in the dust storms. My favorites are the ones about relics that could restore the Western Approach once more... but I don't believe them. Truth be told, on nights when the wind is calm, I can stand on a hilltop and see for miles in the moonlight over a stark beauty of which no other Orlesian can claim to know the equal. On those nights, I hope it will never change.

—From Lands of the Abyss by Magistrate Gilles de Sancriste

I. THE DESERT

When Scout Harding calls somewhere the worst place in Thedas, that's probably a bad sign. Even when nothing in the Western Approach is deliberately trying to kill you, there's nothing kind or forgiving about the landscape: bare and arid, carved through by sharp-dropped canyons, dotted with abandoned mines and signs of the deaths of lost travelers. Winds sweeping through to whip stinging sand into uncovered faces, and periodic dust storms obscure visibility entirely. It's warm enough to be dangerous but not so hot, at this time of year, that heat exhaustion and dehydration can't creep up on you while you aren't paying attention.

And at any given moment, something probably is deliberately trying to kill you. The food chain in the region is top-heavy, with quillbacks, phoenixes, hyenas, and varghests roaming hungrily and as likely to attack one another as the sparse local prey population. Compared to their natural competitors, the Inquisition's forces look like easy marks. The camps the Inquisition scatters at lookout points throughout the region require constant watch, and going anywhere alone is inadvisable. Not only because of the hostile local everything, but also because it is incredibly easy to get lost. One rock formation looks much like another after hours in the sun or bathed in shifting moonlit shadows, and good luck finding many other landmarks. There are a few: chunks of pillars or arches from some ruined structure, or the occasional odd pillar that might, if someone investigates, prove to mark a trail of sorts.

Plus: the only people who seem determined to survive out here are cutthroat bandits and stray Venatori. Double-plus: a high dragon makes occasional fly-bys, scouring the ground below for anything edible, armored or not.

Some reprieve comes at night, relief from both the sun and the area's primarily diurnal predators. But that's when the darkspawn come out.

II. GRIFFON WING KEEP

Bloomingtide 16-17: Taking the Keep

Only a small force of Tevinter cultists remains in Griffon Wing Keep when the Inquisition arrives, seemingly on their way out the door already, but the sight of Inquisition banners is enough to make them stay and fight. There's no need for siege equipment, but there is call for a little bit of patience. With it, a small battalion is able to evade the mages and archers on the walls and storm the doors with few casualties. Fewer than three dozen warriors wait inside. It's a quick, brutal fight; it only takes a night.

Bloomingtide 18 Onward: Home Away From Home

Once the Keep is cleared of occupants, it's ripe for the Inquisition to… occupy… But with implicit permission, at least. Those who aren't needed for fights elsewhere may be put to work clearing out debris and small animals and the remnants left by the cultists, and within a few days the fortress is a serviceable outpost, much more hospitable than the camps out in the sand. Barracks mean even those who don't have beds at Skyhold may have one here, and it takes less than a week for an enterprising merchant to arrive with ale.

III. THE STILL RUINS

Despite signs of recent activity, the lavish Tevinter palace tucked incongruously into the canyons is quiet and still, when the Inquisition discovers it—quiet, still, but not empty. The ancient ruin is brimming with demons and Tevinters in incredibly outdated fashions, all frozen in place, as they have been for hundreds of years. No one breathes or blinks, but their skin is still warm and alive to the touch.

Beyond the entryway and halls and through the courtyard, there are signs of research and experimentation, and one man stood unmoving with his hand clasped around something unseen.

Perhaps someone will discover the cause. Perhaps someone will undo the spell that's been cast over the palace. Perhaps, if someone does, someone will take the opportunity to not immediately murder all of these valuable sources of ancient information, and instead only murder most of them. In the meantime, however, it is unlikely that anyone will ever be able to get this close to a rage demon without receiving a face full of fire. Take advantage.

IV. CORACAVUS

Signs of the Venatori point upward: up the hills, up ladders and towers, and into the ancient Tevinter prison, Coracavus, that was built into the mountainside. The ruin is filled with sand now, with half-collapsed walls and anything not made of stone worn away by winds, and the Venatori are long gone, their hunt for relics from the glory days of the Imperium abandoned when an excavation attempt opened the prison to darkspawn, instead. The darkspawn have retreated as well, but there are signs of their presence. Namely the smell and the half-eaten corpses of slaves—primarily elven and dwarven—who were left behind to their fates when the Tevinters fled.

There's no sign of them now, but digging through their abandoned camps may turn up a name, if anyone would like to see that he pays.

V. ADAMANT FORTRESS

A day's determined walk from the nearest Inquisition camp, Adamant Fortress overlooks the vast chasm—dubbed the Abyssal Rift—from which darkspawn poured during the Second Blight. It stood abandoned for nearly 150 years before the Grey Wardens' recent reoccupation, and it's abandoned again now, emptied out well before the Inquisition's forces arrive. There are signs that the retreat was a hasty one: scattered belongings, opened doors, abandoned meals, and no fewer than fifty bodies left on a mass pyre that only half-burned without anyone to tend it.

The Veil has always been thin here, and it's thinner now, where demons have been pulled through from the Fade. Rifts hang over the battlements and in the corridors, and escaped shades lurk in the dark corridors, siphoning away the willpower of those who linger until they come close enough to attack. Those who visit the Fortress set up camp outside of it rather than within it, wisely.

There are clear signs of blood sacrifice, for those who look: the bodies, blood stains on the stone floors, neat lists of names systemically crossed through. Sorting through documents left behind may turn up vague notes in a mage's runic shorthand or the journal of a trepidatious new recruit (Lourde, a pickpocket, crossed through on the registers). Behind a locked door in the lowest rooms are the bodies of sixteen mages, still in their Circle robes, left lying where they fell when the Joining took them. Mages who were among the rebels in Redcliffe may recognize a face or two as belonging to the hardliners who left with the Tevinters.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Different? Than what's written about the Wardens in books?" He makes a soft noise, a breathless scoff of a laugh, "Now you have me curious, what do the books have to say about Wardens?"

He glances in her direction. There's a brief flicker of surprise that's just as quickly squashed.

"I didn't know any of the Wardens who were posted here," He says, tone more curt than he'd meant it to sound, "The only thing that isn't easy for me is to see how far this lot had strayed.

The important thing is to figure out why, and contain it."

"Wardens are supposed to protect people," Hermione says simply. "It's right there in their name. They ward. They shield. They protect. What I saw today... I don't claim to understand all of Thedas' politics and problems, but the Inquisition should have no reason to fight Wardens if they'd still been doing that."

Granted, she does have a fairly biased view of the Inquisition, given that they'd taken her and other rifters in and had given them shelter despite being wary of them, but she likes to think that they're the good guys, given that no one has actively tried to turn her into a weapon against innocent people.

She pauses for a moment before asking, "Will it be very difficult for you if you do have to face off against Wardens you know? As I said, you must have some friends in the Order. No one can spend that much time together, doing such dangerous work, and not grow at least a little close."

"I don't disagree. But it does say something that the Grey Wardens with the Inquisition, not to mention others who left when things turned sour, are all here to put a stop to whatever is going on here. This group was the exception. Whatever's happened here, we just need to make sure more Wardens don't fall victim," Because he was positive that something had happened to trigger this. Something, or someone, and with all the Venatori around, it seemed pretty obvious who that someone was.

"I think most of them are already questioning the commands they've been given and will quickly surrender. But no, I don't think it will be difficult at all," It wasn't a lie, not entirely. It wouldn't be difficult because he didn't know any other Wardens, there was no danger of running into an old friend here. None at all.

"Of course," Hermione said quickly. "I didn't mean to imply that all Wardens are a lost cause. You're proof of that yourself, not to mention the few others that I happen to know in the Inquisition. I only meant that there's a stark difference between what the Wardens are meant to be and what these Wardens were, and that just makes the whole thing even sadder, doesn't it? Corruption is never easy, regardless of who it happens to befall."

Hermione watched him uncertainly when he claimed he wouldn't have any sort of difficulty facing off with people he knew. It had been hard enough for her to watch Snape fight for the other side, and even Draco Malfoy, even if she hadn't particularly cared for either of them. "I hope they surrender easily enough, for your sake. Having to fight someone that you'd one considered an ally, even if not a friend, is always difficult."

"Heh," He gives her a sad looking smile, "Perhaps you've not been in Thedas long enough to know that that's the way of things. Your ally and friend today, and the man you have to kill tomorrow. That sort of thing is nearly as common as breathing here. Something you'll, unfortunately, have to get used to."

Hermione only stares at Blackwall for a few moments before admitting, "I've never killed anyone, either in Thedas or back home. I've won a war without having to take a life. If I can keep that streak going, all the better." She knows it sounds naive, especially considering that life in Thedas is so much harsher than life in Britain, but it's still something that she'll hold onto unless she has absolutely no choice.

"I only meant it hypothetically... but, uh... I do hope that doesn't change during your time here," He means it genuinely. Taking a life, even to safeguard your own, it changes a person. He'd gotten to a point where he had stopped questioning it, and now all he had were regrets at letting himself become so indifferent.

She nods for a few moments, silent at first before replying, "Thank you. I... I have the feeling that I'll be forced to do things here that I really don't want to do, and I'm trying to come to grips with that. It isn't easy, but...." Well. Few people in Thedas seem to understand her when she talks about her difficulty with the idea of needing to kill to survive. She hadn't even been able to bring herself to kill the woman who'd tortured her, and she's heard people casually mentioned having taken lives for far less than that.

OPEN: The Western Approach

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