faderift | The Annulment at Dairsmuid

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The Annulment at Dairsmuid

WHO: Araceli Bonaventura, Korrin Ataash, Malcolm Reynolds, The Outsider, Aleron Darton, Kas, Anders, Malcolm Reed, James Norrington, Ellana Ashara, James Kirk; Rivaini npcs
WHAT: The Annulment at Dairsmuid; arriving at Rivain to meet with Araceli and her mage contacts that requested aid from Templars hunting them down. When Araceli goes to bring the group to her contacts, they're informed that the Templars have abducted the mages forcing the team to return to the Circle at Dairsmuid to rescue them and kill the Templars responsible
WHEN: 15th-20th Solace
WHERE: Rivain; Dairsmuid
NOTES: OOC posts here and here, sending crystal announcement; violence, discussions of annulment, probably going to need warnings for language; I'll edit as I go, if people can bring things to my attention, I would appreciate it
Starters will all be below, subjects in headers

We of the Dairsmuid Circle wait now, behind barricades. I have sent word to our brother and sister mages of this outrage. When they break through, we will not die alone.

—Final journal entry of First Enchanter Rivella, slain in Dairsmuid, 9:40 Dragon

Contents;
Arrival at Dairsmuid
Meeting the Mage Contacts
Team Dungeon Crashers
Team Templar Crushers
Aftermath of the Rescue
Timestamp; Dairsmuid Adventures
Epilogue

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[After a journey by land and by sea, arriving at Dairsmuid is no doubt a relief to those who heard Araceli's plea for aid and came to the rescue. On horseback they ride through the mountains and over rough terrain until they take ship for the last leg of the journey.

The arrival at Dairsmuid is at first light, the promise of heat already in the air as the sun turns the sails to gold as the sailors call out to one another. Araceli waits at the docks, hands on her rapiers as they disembark, ready to take them to a nearby tavern for a quick drink before the next stage of their journey.

Feel free to thread out all your travel and arrival interactions, and to ask Araceli anything you didn't get to over the sending crystal before she takes you all to meet her mage contacts!]

[As soon as everyone has recovered and found their legs again, a young man joins their group to speak with Araceli; they leave Dairsmuid behind because it's not safe for mages. Not when there are Templars. Not when there is the threat of Qunari looming. Two small boats await them where they'll pass mangroves on their way to the temporary camp where the mages and their loved ones had fled to.

It's the aftermath of an uproar when they arrive, Araceli leaving everyone to find out what happened. When she calls for everyone, her face is grim: the Templars arrived when she left the previous night to await them all in Dairsmuid.

Time is of the essence but the contacts, upset and frightened as they understandably are will submit to questioning but they all agree on one thing: they have been returned to Dairsmuid so the Templars can finish what they started. The Inquisition must help them now or it will be too late.

Feel free to mingle as you see fit and to chatter to the contacts at the camp, or do some investigating - if you'd like me to npc let me know but you can npc the contacts yourselves like during the soiree!]

[The Circle at Dairsmuid still stands though the fighting has left many scars, misery and despair as likely to choke as the ash and dust. Araceli leads one group that splits away after recon work, heading down the steps as carefully as they can.

There are several mages bound in chains, all of them look exhausted and drained, more women than men with only three Templars in attendance. Two are clad in the heavy armour of knights though the armour is dirty and stained from their journey to capture the mages, and poorly kept. The third figure is dressed in lighter garb, a cruel man with an even more cruel smile.

He's trying to draw them into a discussion about just how much magebane it might take to actually start killing them off, and if it'll be different with the Seers, their laughter echoing off the walls.

If you want to do some recon work, feel free to start this thread using the blurb and build from it, let me know what extra npc details you need!

It's up to you how to handle any injuries you'll pick up, and if everyone fights or if some of them try to pick the locks and start getting the mages out of the firing line!]

[With half the group slipping off downstairs to rescue the mages, that leaves the rest of the group to deal with the Templars once and for all.

Easier said than done; the barricades written about by First Enchanter Rivella, her journal passed to Araceli Bonaventura by a survivor and heralding all of this, are now being used by the Templars they were meant to stop. There are warriors and knights, and behind them there are several archers; they're ready and they're waiting.

The mages were defiant, they said help was coming. The Templars are spoiling for a fight.

If you want to do some recon work, feel free to start this thread using the blurb and build from it, let me know what extra npc details you need!

It's up to you how to handle any injuries you'll pick up and how the fight goes, if you do want me to npc anything since I won't be fighting in this thread, please let me know!]

[It's over.

At last the Circle of Dairsmuid is silent once more. There are bodies to be healed and bodies to be burned but the Inquisition has been successful and the mages are grateful once they finally make it up from the dungeon on shaking legs.

There are tears, unsurprisingly, after everything that happened here once when the Templars first came and now knowing they can live without fear. But to see their home reduced to such a state? Their libraries with knowledge to be found nowhere else in Thedas reduced to ash, artifacts turned to dust and rubble. They're in no state to do it but they still try to search the shelves for some fragment they might take with them to their new life, so it won't be lost again.

And at last, when all is said and done, it is time to leave the Circle of Dairsmuid for the final time, to close the doors on another unhappy chapter of history.

Folks can feel free to come and go between the dungeons and the main hall, explore as much as you'd like in the Circle, make your own threads, just a little post-battle breathing space.]

[Of course it's not all doom and gloom in Dairsmuid; there's some time after the rescue before the ship comes to take people home to have a few adventures in Rivain.

Or if you don't feel like rushing back right away, Araceli is staying for an extra couple of days to celebrate her twenty-first birthday by the sea the way a Castilean should.]

[Thanks to the swift intervention of the Inquisition members coming to Rivain, the survivors from Dairsmuid are able to safely make it to the docks at last.

Even with healing efforts from the mages of the party as well as the supplies brought with them thanks to Adelaide LeBlanc asking what might be required, the survivors are still wobbly. Magebane is a terrible thing. Shock is even worse. Or perhaps it's the magnitude of what comes next: a journey across the sea and then by land, going to a different country where the situation is still so unsure as of yet. But there was a promise of a better life. A place where mages might be free and despair clings to them along with smoke from the burning of the Templars that tormented them for so long.

They wait long enough for those from the camp to meet them and to say their farewells because haven't they suffered too? It's an argument they won't budge from as they load their possessions onto the ship, reluctant to part with some items even when necessity demands it must be so. It isn't a happy farewell but it might not be farewell forever. One day, when the world is less mad, when the fires don't burn quite so hot, when Rivain remembers again that it has always been different, that is has always been freer than the rest of Thedas?

The Inquisition will not receive any true formal support from Rivain but those from the camp are going home again. They will speak well of all who helped, they will say that the Inquisition did not sit idle. That the Inquisition came in their darkest hour.

That is enough, perhaps, that is much more than any might have expected when even freeing the mages alone might have been considered a victory.]

[Farewell to Rivain folks, if you'd like to thread anything on the journey home, this is where to do it!]

Edited 2016-07-24 13:30 (UTC)

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arrival at Dairsmuid;