[CLOSED] PLAYER PLOT: The Ashes Underneath His Nails

[amygdalae]

WHO: Jim Kirk, Hermione Granger, Adelaide Leblanc, Herian Amsel, Anders, Inessa Serra, Raylan Gibbs, Ciri
WHAT: The Inquisition sends a group of agents to uncover the truth behind a string of mysterious disappearances.
WHEN: Kingsway 1st - 8th
WHERE: Emprise du Lion
NOTES: Plotting post is here - feel free to post in there still for queries and concerns and further stuff where needed. Warnings for blood, violence, talks about death, experimentation horror, abomination-related stuff etc and eventual on-screen child death. ALSO no tag order - just respond when you feel like you should and I'll try to hit it back if it feels appropriate!!

QUICK JUMP LINKS TRAVELLING TO FROMAGE & FROMAGE GENERAL THREAD ROUTE INVESTIGATION SEEKRIT CAVE ENTRANCE INTO THE SEEKRIT CAVE CAVE INVESTIGATION - LEFT TEAM CAVE INVESTIGATION - RIGHT TEAM KID ABOMINATION THREAD BACK TO SKYHOLD

(—he remembers the chill of the frost and snow biting at bare skin, its usual pure white now tinged a horrid pink from the blood on his hands. He's far away from them now, the danger and the pain and everything else, but the blood will forever be on his hands no matter how much he tries to wash it away. His father had been right all along. He truly was a monster of the greatest kind.)

QUEST: THE ASHES UNDERNEATH HIS NAILS (PART I) The message had come swiftly, the letter itself hastily written with a shaky hand. The request itself was simple; a plea for help from a village at the outskirts of Emprise du Lion, whose people have been mysteriously disappearing over the last few weeks. Considering the ongoing civil unrest that's still transpiring in Orlais the Inquisition made its decision to send out a team of agents to look into this message and see exactly what was going on. The eight agents tasked with the mission were given enough time to prepare for the trip ahead. They would all meet up first at the Inquisition camp set within the Emprise and from there travel for about a day until they reached where their destination was - Fromage, a quaint little village that rested at the outskirts of the area. From that point on, it was up to the agents of the Inquisition to solve this ongoing mystery. The mission: to discover the truth behind these disappearances - and to stop it, if possible.

Comments

ROUTE INVESTIGATION

[amygdalae]

[OOC Note: Because I am dumb and forgot about this - this thread will be GM'd too, in addition to the cave stuff below. This one won't be as heavy though, so just feel free to tag around and I'll throw in something as and where needed.]

The place feels almost far too silent when the agents of the Inquisition arrive here. It's far out enough from the village that their torches are mostly specks in the distance, but when they look ahead its clear that light isn't going to be too much of an issue. Not far from them, in between rocks and trees and debris from old, ruined buildings of ages past are pillars of red lyrium that jut up from the ground, their unholy red light glowing eerily in the darkness. Mages can, of course, hear its hum too, that broken discord of tune warped by whatever it is that had turned these crystals from their once vibrant blue to red. For a while after their arrival all is still quiet, but after a period of time it seems like there are the sounds of faint mutterings in the distance - mutterings that don't belong to any of them. People seem to be approaching, and considering what the agents have learned from the villagers in Fromage, there's a good chance it could be the company that they seek.

[bookish_lioness]

Again, Hermione isn't exactly about to stray too far from her group, though at least their journey has made it so she's a little more comfortable even with those she hasn't known as long. So regardless of who ends up walking besides her, she doesn't hesitate to grab at their arm, tugging them to a stop.

"Shh," she breathes out, straining her ears. Whether the others stopped with her or kept walking up in front, she can hear it a little more clearly; they're not alone on the road, and given the foreboding red lyrium not too far from them, she's not going to assume that's necessarily a good thing.

[dashing]

Herian nods to Hermione, and raises her sword cautiously, hand going to the hilt of her spirit blade as well. It was not to be taken up lightly, but the safety of those she worked with were beyond important. She hastens her pace a little, scrutinising the next bend in the road, and looks back to the party, a single brow quirked questioningly.

Very softly, "better a small number of us scout ahead, for certainty? Or that we gather close?"

Benefits to both, downsides, as well.

[amygdalae]

[Maybe Herian might want to rethink that option.]

[circleprodigy]

That humming...it's starting to fray Inessa's nerves. She does her best to avoid the red lyrium pillars, and Garahel wants nothing to do with them, but even so the abundance of them doesn't help. Warden stoicism is in effect, most of the time, but when she thinks no one's looking, the mask slips slightly and she rubs at her temple. Focus, Inessa. It's only going to get worse from here.

The muttering gets Inessa's attention, and she perks up a little as Garahel heads over to investigate. He doesn't bark, taking Inessa's instruction not to startle people already on edge in mind, but wags his tail and watches them curiously. For her part, Inessa stows her staff on her back and straightens, keeping her Grey Warden armor prominent. Desperate or not, she wants to put people as ease as much as possible.

[amygdalae]

[OOC Note: I AM DUMB AGAIN. For this thread it'll be easier to keep this as one single thread to ensure proper flow and stuff. No tag order, but keep posting to keep things going and I'll respond accordingly.]

The mutterings get closer, and now there are audible footsteps as well. Whoever it is, they're getting closer--

Close enough to see the blood red glow that is visible enough from the distance. And its not just one single glow as well; there is a handful of them.

[dashing]

"Or perhaps not," she exhales, barely audible and rather needlessly, casting a barrier, and summoning her spirit blade into being.

[justice_is_blond]

"Definitely perhaps not." Not like he's really a fan of splitting up in the first place, but they have so much cause to not do so, now. Anders casts haste over the group, pulling his staff out and taking position near the rear.

"Let's dance."

[circleprodigy]

The haste spell is definitely welcome, and the young Warden takes full advantage of it. Inessa quickly layers some mines between those approaching and her party. Those who cross the glyphs will be engulfed in ice. Adding to that, she'll cast an Affliction Hex to weaken any resistance they might have to it.

[amygdalae]

The glow comes closer, and indeed, its probably what they assumed - its a group of red templars, and from the looks of it it seems like none of them were prepared to have company that could actually fight back.

The first few templars step onto the mines that Inessa laid and they trigger, firmly encasing them in ice. The ones that didn't get that go around their frozen comrades and hasten their pace towards the agents, weapons already drawn and raised as they begin to charge towards the party.

[dashing]

Herian thrives in battle; it sets a thrum under her skin, and with each strike and the accumulating momentum, she feels more energised, more vital, mana recovering even as she spends it. As Anders castes haste on their party and Inessa hampers their enemies with ice, she casts a disruption field to further slow the Red Templars before she decides (in all her wisdom) to take on three at once.

She lunges, twists between them like a whirlwind to draw their focus and keep them away from the other mages in their party, spirit blade striking them relentlessly.

[justice_is_blond]

"Maker's..." Three at once. Of course it's three at once. People with swords... He doesn't bother finishing either spoken sentence or thought one, instead casting to wrap arcane prisons around two of the charging ones before setting them on fire.

There are altogether too many of these things across Thedas. Anders will not be sad when they're gone. If they're gone. The red lyrium has spread with frightening speed, though it's not really something he wants to think about. Better to just face what's currently in front of them.

"Shout if you're hurt!" This is his first time in combat with most of these people. With familiarity he'd be able to see who is slowing, faltering, without needing to be told, but he doesn't want to risk it this battle.

[ichaer]

Because what this battle needs is more whirlwinds but Ciri appears much like one.

Her movements are rhythmic dance-like motions that developed in the years she spent learning from anyone that would teach her. She uses her surroundings to help speed up her approach until she leaps, twisting and slashing downwards at one of the Red Templars.

He is knocked back in the attack, stumbling as she refuses to let up and pounces forward with another attack. She notes another charging at her back, spinning and swinging upwards as Ciri turns on him. Although he blocks, she does not let it throw her off as she spins again and grasps her sword with both hands, swinging upwards with a harder strike.

It's enough to break the guard and enough to let her get close. There's barely any resistance as she pushes her sword through the eye slit of his helmet.

[bookish_lioness]

Whereas everyone else in the group seems to consist of seasoned fighters, Hermione feels as though this is her very first go in the middle of a fight. It might as well be, for all the good she can do against Red Templars. She hadn't liked them when she'd first been spat out of a rift in the middle of them and demons and members of the Inquisition, and she's certainly not a fan of them now.

People in this world are used to fights culminating in bloodshed, but Hermione is still reluctant to actually use her magic quite so violently. She knows it can't always be avoided, but she has no stomach for it, and so the least she can do is make it a little easier for her comrades to do whatever they feel needs to be done.

Stunning spells rarely work on most of the creatures here, but since Red Templars are - ... were human, she calls out a quick, "Stupefy," a bright red flash shooting from the tip of her wand and heading straight for one of the Red Templars that were charging towards them. Without taking a second to see if it would strike or have much of an impact, she immediately turns her attention to another Red Templar, crying out, "Petrificus Totalus!" It would be nice to be confident enough in her magic here to be able to do wordless spells, but in the mean time, she wants to be sure that she can keep their opponents from getting too close to anyone who might not be ready on the offensive.

[amygdalae]

The field from Herian does it job, crippling more Templars and leaving them open for attacks from the others in the party. A few of them just manage to escape it, only to be caught by the combination of Anders's attack and Ciri's fast strikes. The ones caught in Anders's fire shriek before they collapse, while Ciri's target doesn't so much as gets a chance to scream before they die.

Hermione, with her Rifter status and unique magic is taken by surprise for the Templars. They ignore her at first, but when Stupefy has one of them stumbling back and Petrificus Totalus causes one of the Templars who had been about to strike to freeze in place it definitely gets their attention.

Perhaps too much attention, since now a good number of them turn their focus towards her and starts to go after her specifically.

[justice_is_blond]

He takes a breath, feeling the way the fight starts, letting it settle around him... and then there's a shift as there's a group heading for Hermione. Anders moves, fast, putting himself between her and most of the approaching Templars before mindblasting forward, hoping to at least slow or knock back some of them.

The next thing he does is renew barriers; there are too many around to risk them slipping.

"Mind the flanks! There could be others!"

[bookish_lioness]

... garnering undue attention was the exact opposite of what she'd wanted.

She staggers backwards when she sees just how many of the Templars are suddenly going for her, but luckily Anders is there to do what he can to protect her. She'll have to thank him for that later, when death isn't a very viable possibility,

Instead, one of the Templars who'd managed to slip around Anders' magic gets a Stunner to the chest, though Hermione doesn't realize that there's at least one archer among them, and clearing her immediate path of opponents means she also clears a path for an arrow, if someone doesn't have the foresight to step in.

[circleprodigy]

Upon seeing Hermione attract attention -and the rifter succeeded in getting her attention as well, with her unique magic- Inessa uses Fade Step, blurring toward Hermione on waves of magic, with Garahel charging ahead. Once there, she'll conjure a blizzard for the Red Templars. Clouds gather above and the freezing winds come, hopefully providing enough distraction and cover for the rest to act.

[universal_charm]

Kirk did not like silence. Not in this world, or any world. Silence meant no life - either because it had been destroyed, had not existed, or fled. Here, he thought it meant possibly a mix of the former and the latter, and neither was appealing. Beneath his coats he could feel his hair prickling, a sensation crawling down his back as he walked warily with the others into the ruins.

He pauses when he hears the sounds of others - others not in their group that is. He looks to the others and makes a motion, taking himself lower to the ground and creeping forward towards the sounds to see what might be there.

[amygdalae]

[What Kirk will find is, unfortunately, unwanted company.]