CLOSED: a prayer that will be answered

[byblow]

WHO: Adelaide, Alistair, Anders, Hercules, Kaisa, Lena, Sabine, Teren, Velanna
WHAT: Some safety precautions
WHEN: Solace 1-7
WHERE: The Deep Roads beneath the Western Approach
NOTES: OOC post.

Comments

( the gang takes a hike )

[byblow]

There's no definite way to measure the passage of time, here, except for footsteps and hunger and sleepiness. The last glimpse of sunlight comes before they've even entered the Deep Roads proper, when they finish the climb down the rickety scaffolding off the mining platform and venture into the unlit tunnels. That brief hike is the only portion of the journey that's truly cold and dark. The Deep Roads themselves, accessed through a crumbling breach in the walls, are kept warm and illuminated by a network of flowing magma and lyrium-laced pillars--and fire, lit torches and pit fires recent enough to still be burning. The roads have been closed, but they aren't abandoned.

The first small band of darkspawn attacks within the hour, and after them come deepstalkers and spiders and more darkspawn, always, felt ahead and beneath by the Wardens in the group, who are sensed in return. Some attack. Most retreat. They're on a mission down here, too, and the further everyone goes, the more the highway is dotted with primitive shrines made of bones and animal skins, broken weapons, crude barricades.

Still, it's a quick journey. They have maps at their disposal, and there are signs along the trail in the form of symbols etched into the stone walls, Paragon statues, and ancient road signs. They only have to stop to make camp once (and are only attacked in the middle of the "night" only twice, a small blessing) before they begin to hear a very faint song--familiar to some, redundant to Hercules--from ahead.

The closer they get, the more darkspawn there are and the less stable the stone is. A bridge has crumbled and needs to be patched, and at one point the roads are half-blocked by an old cave-in. But at the end the tunnel opens up into what looks like a thaig, a city-sized cavern, where the song shakes the ground and vibrates in the pillars.

That's as far as they get.

OOC | Make your own adventure time! Top-level and kill darkspawn/spiders/deepstalkers, sing campfire songs, complain, don't get the blight (please), clear the way ahead, get briefly lost, etc. etc. etc. If you aren't sure if you're allowed to do something, the answer is 99% likely to be yes, so just do it.

we're off to see the wizard | ota, suckers

[twelvelabours]

( Wandering and Thaiging. )
Beautiful, isn't it?

( The place is a mess, but you'd be hard pressed to deny there wasn't beauty in what the dwarves had created, and a tragedy in its being lost to them. Once he'd thought they might be able to take back a Thaig, give them back some of their kingdom.

He'd been a lot younger and a lot more idealistic, then. It's not that he doesn't still believe, but it's more duty now and less daydreams.

Alternatively, here - as Herc easily climbs over some rubble, he turns and offers a hand to the next person along. ) Watch your step. Don't want you to hurtle into lava, or anything. Probably bring the mood down.

( :') )



( Attack at camp, the second. )

They're coming again.

( Hushed, that, rolling his shoulders as he spins Striker Eureka in his hand. He's been fighting with the kind of ferocity that comes when your team's life is all that matters, confidence without recklessness that seems freer for the fact that he's accepted his decision.

Not announced it, not yet, but accepted it. His shield, Rebellion, rests on his arm, metal warped and twisted and vicious, all the better for beating faces to pulp, and in his hand flame lick over Striker Eureka's blade, unfurling and twisting around it. The Darkspawn don't reach the party first; they reach Hercules, battering the first full in the face as his sword runs another through. )


( Resting up. )
( He can be found doing two things. One is writing a letter on thin parchment in poor light, squinting at the paper and ink, or just staring it down without doing much of anything at all.

Or he's drinking wine from a skin, and holds it out obligingly, without prompting. )


( or wildcard me )

attack

[fightingdirty]

Fuck's sake.

[ It's exhaled on a sigh, and Lena pulls her kerchief up over her nose again, making sure it's still tied tightly behind her head. Then she draws her daggers and positions her left hand down at her belt, using her thumb to pop off a cork and her ring and pinkie finger closing around the small vial of poison there. Fifteen years as a mercenary and she can coat her blades with poison as easily as blinking.

But she doesn't want to waste its potency, so she waits until the Warden has slammed forward before dumping the poison on a blade and tossing the vial aside. Then she flanks the group of darkspawn and stabs the nearest one in the back. ]

hi I'm here too

[doneisdone]

And from nowhere comes Teren, her vicious, needle-like blades puncturing the lungs of a briefly bewildered genlock before she withdraws again to find a new vantage. She doesn't speak a word, and somehow manages to look prim and mannered as ever while fighting as dirty as Leonard Church's mouth. When she's visible, anyway.

[twelvelabours]

Max circles. He and Herc have gotten a good rhythm of fighting together over the years. Max isn't going to have him all that much longer, though - Max is going to be heading to the surface, and what's more is that there are folks here not immune to the blood the way they are. Without it needing to be said, Max runs, leaps onto the back of darkspawn headed to Lena's flank, tearing it down.

"Ogre coming," he warns, though by now the ones not familiar with darkspawn might have gotten acquainted enough with the sound anyway.

resting

[unbrokenoath]

[ Kaisa isn't surprised he heard her walking over. She's not quiet in anything she does, and that includes clanking up behind him in her heavy armor. She accepts the wine, and in a show of her great and boundless respect for Herc, she only takes a sip of it, before returning it to him.

Then she sets her head right on top of his head. ]

How're you doing, ser?

[twelvelabours]

( With a huff of amused laughter, Herc accepts the skin back and tips some back. It's good stuff - Orlesian, actually. It's a sign of his great and boundless respect for her that he didn't pass her a skin of the cheap stuff.

He's unperturbed by the contact, glancing her way. )

Not too bad. ( Easily said, but that doesn't make it any less a lie by omission, does it? ) You? Keeping out of trouble?

[unbrokenoath]

[ You're the best, Warden dad. Kaisa doesn't seem to catch on that anything could be amiss, and shrugs, lifting her head up in favor of sliding over to sit next to him. ]

I'm always keeping out of trouble.

[ That's a lie. ]

Hard to make too much trouble down here, anyway. It's so odd, isn't it? Better preserved than any ruins above ground. I wonder what it looked like when dwarves lived here.

ota

[doneisdone]

(travelin')

Despite her years, Teren is often one of the first to volunteer when a task requires someone lightfooted. It's at one blockage that she spots an alternate way out of the corner of her eye, mentions it idly, and then absconds to investigate, making her way up and down the deadly, crumbling rocks as nimbly as a mountain goat. In this way, she makes for an excellent scout, identifying weak patches and barking admonishments at anyone who ventures too close to them. Or falls into them.

(campin')

Maintaining her temporary-turned-apparently-permanent duties as Warden quartermaster, Teren ensures that everyone is fed and sufficiently watered when they stop for the night. She also, as with Skyhold, has a tendency to keep the ... well, "night" watch, not that anyone can really keep track.
Anyone who drinks too much or seems about to is offered her blunt assurance that if they stumble off a cliff, nobody's going after them.

(fightin')

Teren always seems to disappear during fights. This isn't because she isn't present, but because she invariably gets herself quickly out of the way so she can commit all her murders from behind and in secret. Usually she reappears a while later with a sack or two of scavenged supplies.
Honor is for Templars.

campin'

[justice_is_blond]

He joins her on the second 'night' watch, slipping out of his bedroll to sit next to her and peer out into the darkness. His dreams are dangerous again. It's taking a lot of work to adjust.

"Anything exciting going on? Or is this where you're indulging in the best snacks?"

[doneisdone]

Teren turns to look Anders in the eye, expressionless save for a small rise of her eyebrows.
"You've caught me," she says flatly, and digs into her pouch to brandish a thin wrapped bundle of dried meat, the fare they all brought along just in case there wasn't fresh food to be found, or fires weren't safe to build.
It is tough and unpleasant, just like her.

aggressively plays travel montage music

[unbrokenoath]

Traveling

[ She'd told that pretty rifter Araceli about the Deep Roads, once. She remembered explaining how it was both expansive and claustrophobic all at the same time. That she didn't particularly care for it. She'd thought that the one bright point in the mess with Clarel and Corypheus was that the Deep Roads were not a necessary part of dealing with them.

Alas, she was a fool.

Still, she handles it well enough, willing to chatter to anyone nearby about her other experiences with the Deep Roads. This was nothing, one time she had gotten her sword stuck in a Hurlock's spine and had to fight an ogre with her bare hands, honest! She also offers little encouragements, helping anyone who has trouble climbing around. She's not particularly agile, but she's like a tank, slowly and steadily rolling over whatever obstructs their path. ]

The worst part about the whole fight wasn't not having a sword, honestly, it was getting close enough to smell the ogre's breath. That hit worse than the punches.

Resting up

[ Berserkers are not known for their wisdom in battle. Or the ability to avoid injuries. The fact that Kaisa doesn't have to worry about getting the blight and others with them do only makes her more reckless, getting in the way of darkspawn that try to target anyone who isn't a Warden. Sometimes that means tackling darkspawn to the ground, sometimes that means getting in the way of one of their swords.

She's recovering from one of the latter instances, sitting on a boulder with her armor off, and her shirt rolled up just high enough to preserve decency, a long cut decorating her stomach. Nothing overly serious, but needing healing, and Kaisa is patiently waiting for someone to give her a hand. She doesn't seem overly bothered by the injury, focusing on twirling around the strange, garish sword pommel that was, apparently, actually a garish greatsword. She wasn't sure what kind of magical bullshit let the sword work, but who cared? It looked awesome. ]

Alistair

[ Kaisa is not particularly skilled in the fine art of debate, it's much easier to either threaten to punch someone, or actually punch them. But she will do neither of these to Alistair, and the subject at hand is of enough import for her to give debate a shot. ]

Alistair, you don't understand. This is an archdemon--or it's gonna be, maybe, some day. Do you know how long I've wanted to kill an archdemon? For forever, basically. It's my life's goal. And this one won't even kill me.

[ She clasps her hands together. Please, Alistair, think of the children. Or just her. ]

And then it won't ever be an archdemon! Once punch in the face, or maybe like ten, and bam! One whole blight avoided. It'll be the top high score for finishing a blight ever!

the one helpfully labeled Alistair

[byblow]

[ Alistair glances at her clasped hands. He's smiling a little--only a little, because he's Angry and has been for weeks, but not at her. He's also not yet considering this a sincere debate. ]

Why would I help you beat our record?

maybe it was for another alistair!!!

[unbrokenoath]

[ She reaches out, and thumps him on the back. It may be part of her negotiating tactics, it may just be that Kaisa's way to cheer people up generally involves hitting things, including the people involved.

It could be both. ]

Because this could be your record, too! Just like before, but without King Cousland, and even faster than last time! So, it'll be like you beating your own record. Besides, how many people can say that they helped stop two Blights?

Traveling

[justice_is_blond]

So when was this again, exactly? Simply for clearing up the timeline.

[His voice is a little amused despite everything. Hearing voices helps him keep adjusting to the silence in his head, so encouraging Kaisa to talk more can only be a good one.]

And how did you manage to not pass out from the stink of his breath?

[unbrokenoath]

It was when I was dealing with some trouble in the Kocari wilds. Some pockets of the horde that hadn't quite bothered to die yet. This was liiiike...a year after I joined? It was really fun!

[ She grins fondly. ]

Oh, well, luckily for me, I'd had to share a room with Oghren and my nose was still recovering from having to deal with him, so! I survived, luckily. Barely. I'd have been so mad if I had died that soon in my Warden career.

Let's have a caravan | OTA

[fleurdesel]

[ Hobbling Along ]

The best treatment for her leg at this point is rest and truthfully, she ought not have come. But this was something that needed to be done, an opportunity to perhaps wring out more answers from the Wardens, and an excuse to leave Skyhold. She'd been twisting herself in knots going slowly mad with the inactivity that came from spending her days hunched over a desk. It'll be amusing, later, when she remembers that is simply how she'd been in the Spire, that was life for her. To be stir crazy hadn't ever occurred, but now? Now she was active enough that simply sitting all day without a moment or two to walk or train was aggravating.

The hovering of her students did not help all that much either.

Even so there are times when leaning her weight on her staff and moving stiffly simply is not quick enough to keep up in the massive halls, when weaving through the rubble makes her stumble, when the effort of keeping pace without jarring her leg causes her to slow and stop for a moment, leaning against whatever is closest to take the weight off for as long as it takes her to catch her breath before she hobbles along. Perhaps coming was not the wisest choice, but she's come all the same.


[ Fighting Darkspawn ]

Never let it be said that limited mobility would hamper Adelaide's effectiveness in battle. So long as she kept to the middle were they surrounded or the rear as long as they were not, she could work; ice crackling along her fingers and spidering across the ground to erupt in walls to defend her allies or impale, the wispy blue glow of rejuvenation soothing hurts and urging them on to cut through the darkspawn. Afterward she makes a point to check everyone over, to mend cuts and bruises- and to make certain no one was spattered with tainted blood.


[ Insomnia's a Bitch ]

The few hours they have in camp to rest should be used for just that- resting. But be it the environment, the discomfort of the break, or her general unease with the possibility of darkspawn attack at any hour- Adelaide finds sleep does not come easily. She writes by wisp her observations- of the Thaig, of the wardens, of the darkspawn. If she is to be awake? She might as well attempt to be productive.


[ Wildcard ]

hobbling.

[twelvelabours]

"Councillor."

Herc isn't blind, and her struggle over a particularly rubble strewn, treacherous slope in their path isn't lost on him. She's barely made any headway on it when he's jogging a few paces from his place in their procession to catch up with her. "Can I offer you some help?"

Quite how much help she accepts is up to her, but he's watching her carefully. They need her, but Maker be damned if he doesn't think they've set her up for a bloody difficult time, if not outright failure by dragging her down here in this state.

[fleurdesel]

"Warden Hansen." She offers with a touch more chill than she offers most Wardens. For the sin of being unsuitable and yet thoroughly entangled with her friend, he suffers an extra portion of condescension and judgement.

Alistair might think she likes Herc better if he sees this. Frankly- she does not care. "..."

The slope and debris is given a long, withering look before she sighs and considers the pace they must set. "If you would be so kind?"

insomnia.

[byblow]

Sleep is for the weak. Alistair is weak. (Or he has nearly a year of tossing and turning and nightmares to make up for. Or both.) But down here he manages to sleep less like a rock than he has been on the surface, periodically opening his eyes to scan the bedrolls and make sure everyone is present and accounted for, the watch is still being kept, the fire isn't at risk of burning out. And when he wakes up feeling vaguely alert, he heaves himself up and stumbles to sit next to Adelaide, bag in hand.

However mild and respectful his dislike, it is dislike. He isn't here for a friendly chat. But he does start with, "Are you all right?"

[fleurdesel]

"I'm miles underground exposed to the most terrifying illness known to Thedas in the company of men I do not rightly trust on a good day while hoping to find what is, apparently an old god and prevent or at least delay it's waking." While she'd managed to be mostly civil during the first few days- it's slid quickly into being quiet and weary and irate. She has little enough time to herself down here- and that is for the better, being alone means being vulnerable, but it does grate. "And my leg is broken. 'All right' is not precisely the word I would use, Stable boy."

insomnia

[doneisdone]

As most in the warden camp have discovered, Teren likes the night watch. Between the song and her age and the darkspawn blood roiling through her veins, she doesn't find a lot of rest these days, but that's no excuse to not make herself useful.

Spotting Adelaide by her strange light, Teren approaches, her footfalls silent as she pads along the stone. "Lady Leblanc," she says, gruffly but quietly, shrouded in darkness beyond the wisp, "we will know before any darkspawn arrive." There are dreams. And she, well, she'll be awake to hear them approaching. They're not tremendously subtle.

[fleurdesel]

"I do not doubt your vigilance." That would be most unkind, for all that she doubts Alistair in general. "Sleep does not often come to me easily."

Less so down here than normal, but it is better to attribute it to a constant issue rather than point out 'you and your fellows are strange and secretive and it does not inspire confidence when I must trust you with my life'. That...is not entirely politic to say.

Hobbling along

[justice_is_blond]

He glances after her when she slows, eyes on her leg. It's not just that it's his fault. It's that she's a friend and she's in pain. Anders heads over and jerks his chin toward her leg.

"I'm guessing it's giving you trouble. Can I give you an arm? ...Or a back. I'm rested enough, I could carry you." Maker knows she's carried enough for him, really.

Re: Hobbling along

[fleurdesel]

"Could you?" It's skeptical more than anything else. Anders is not half so broad as the warriors in the party and while he has filled out since his arrival in skyhold-

She is not so light and dainty a thing to make the carrying easy.