( closed ) player plot: the stars go waltzing

[eviscerates]

WHO: Adelaide, Araceli, Avery, Bellamy, Bruce, Ciri, Cosima, Daenerys, Jamie, Korrin, Lexa, Martel, Merrill, Ruby, Sabine, Teren.
WHAT: catch all log; the capture of shardbearers, their rescue, and related shenanigans.
WHEN: Gently timey wimey for flexibility, Team Rescue arrives at the outpost on the 10th.
WHERE: Orlais/Nevarra borders (roughly halfway between the Fields of Ghislain and Trevis), and then a Creepy Place.
NOTES: Log for the missing shardbearers player plot; ooc here & here. Only the travel threads for teams one and two are going up for now, the rest will go up on Friday :]b And to clarify - when I say party style, what I mean is subthread to your hearts content!
WARNINGS: HORROR THEMES. Abduction, experimentation/torture, forced ingestion of lyrium, implied past deaths/murder, violence.

SPEEDY LINKS

• TEAM ONE: travel to Craintellier
• TEAM ONE: rift two attempt & Venatori attack
• TEAM ONE: dungeons
• TEAM ONE: escape attempt — Cosima, Jamie & Lexa only
• TEAM TWO: travel to Craintellier
• TEAM TWO: post rift investigation — Adelaide, Bellamy & Sabine, Bruce, Korrin & Teren, Ciri & Merrill
• TEAM TWO: take the outpost — Attack & Distract & Stealthy & Stealy
• TEAM TWO: regroup & into the dungeons — plus a Lexa-shaped guest star
• ALL: finding your shardbearers
• ALL: boss fight
• ALL: epilogue & return to Skyhold — tba

click for bigger version. full map of Thedas here.

East of Perendale and south of Trevis, next to a river's winding course, there lies the bones of a fortress. It is an old and almost forgotten place, a dramatic, clawed seeming thing reaching up into the sky, harsh against the the rolling hills.

It is an ancient place, dating back to 660TE, a testament to an Empire suffering after civil war and grasping to restore its wealth and influence after it had been so shaken. It stands as a memory of grandeur, rather than an icon of it, and bears the marks of devastation and scarring that so much of the land suffered during the First Blight. It was all but abandoned thereafter, host only to the desperate and the greedy, and never for long. Once ornate mosaics now only hold flecks of gold, flakes that stubbornly resisted the hands of looters trying to pry them away. Other colours, reds, whites, greys and blacks, they all remain.

The site was chosen for its riches, sitting atop a mine that once held immense wealth, seams of gold that would bring wealth back into the Empire and help restore stability. Opulence, the central Tevinter staple (aside from slavery and blood magic, some might say).

But they dug too deep, and when the First Blight came so too did the darkspawn.

It has a new master, now, and he serves the Elder One. Parts of this stronghold may be in ruins now, but remember: it is not what lies on the surface that counts, but what lurks beneath it.


AD VICTORIAM, AD GLORIA.

Comments

[unsullies]

When they sail, she imagines, as much as she can, that they are on a ship bound for Westeros. She imagines that she is finally returning home with the Dothraki army at her back, ready to claim her family's rightful throne. Dany opens her eyes, though, and the salty air is as unfamiliar here as it would be crossing the Narrow Sea. This is neither Westeros or Essos and she is a woman without a country.

Nevertheless, the trip is enjoyable enough. Ruby is close by, who she knows as well as she knows anyone in Thedas (which is to say, not very well at all). Still, her presence is a sort of comfort, and the silver queen takes to shadowing Ruby every so often, asking questions and then drawing away again to think on it all.

Why had she come on this mission? Dany can't fight, which isn't a secret, but she's also one of their 'rifters.' She takes a deep breath, trying to quell the anxiety that blooms in her chest. She remembers well the demons that she'd seen upon her first arrival and isn't looking forward to seeing them again.

[thecookery]

Hey, hey. At least Dany isn't alone on team noncombatant in this party, right? I mean, not that Avery is completely incapable of fighting, mind you, but she's more used to punching out muggers on dark city streets than hunting monsters in the wilds. So, you know, if a demon ever decides to go for Dany's wallet in an alley, she knows who to call, but otherwise? No, thank you.

But yes, other than that she's a Rifter and no trained fighter, Avery knows next to nothing about this strange, pale girl coming along with them on their mission, so she watches her curiously for a little while as they stand on the deck of the boat. "Your first time?" she eventually asks, nodding casually out toward the sea and taking in a deep breath. "It's mine."

She sounds like she hasn't quite made up her mind yet if she ever intends to give it a second try.

[unsullies]

The alley demons wouldn't get much from her wallet, honestly, but she would appreciate the sentiment nonetheless.

"It is," comes the reply, after a pause. The woman looks familiar, though no name immediately comes to mind. "Though... Well, I did cross the ocean once, but I don't remember it. I was an infant."

And that doesn't count, right?

"It's... really beautiful," Dany decides. "Though I feel for those who have gotten sick."

[thecookery]

And her name not coming to mind is more or less the way she likes to keep it. She does her job in the kitchens and avoids all this silly socializing when she can. The fact that she's started this conversation at all is surely a sign of the strange mood Avery's in at the moment.

She snorts at the comment about the sick folk though. "Well, they can always turn back around once we hit shore and have another look-see, if they're not too distracted. I've never been, but I've heard this city's a massive one."

[unsullies]

"What else have you heard of it?" As a Rifter, her own experiences and knowledge of the cities within Thedas are based almost entirely on hearsay, except for the small pieces she's seen herself. Skyhold and the Frostbacks. Halamshiral. The road that stretched in between.

"You are from Thedas, then?" she asks, in addition, but the question is easily answered. Avery has no glowing shard embedded into her palm.

[thecookery]

"Yeah, from Denerim," Avery answers anyway, nodding. "Never been this far away from it though."

Then she smirks a little. "But Cumberland... It's Nevarra, yeah? So they've surely got their mad death-worshipers building statues of their dead grandfathers and such in every space in the city that's not already taken by somebody else's grandfather.

"Also, I've heard they keep the mages in Cumberland in a palace fit for a king. That half the place is made of solid gold or something like that, but they call it a 'college' instead of a castle. Though who knows what the state of it is now, with the war going on."

She pauses to think of any of the other rumors she ever heard off of the traders who passed through Denerim. "There was some other stuff, I think, but it's been a while. Something about dwarves, maybe? They've got a whole lot of them or they had them build part of the city or something like that. I don't remember."

[unsullies]

"What is it like?" she asks, curious. She's only heard bits and pieces about the great capital of Ferelden, but imagines it to be like Kings Landing in Westeros (or, what she's heard of the place, anyway, having never been there).

"They value their mages better there than in these areas, then." She hasn't heard much positivity about the mages in these parts of the world... save for from the mages themselves. Being a bleeding heart for the 'oppressed,' the Targaryen finds that she sides, at least within her own mind, with the mages more often than not.

"Dwarves are very different in Thedas than... where I came from," she explains with a little smile. Of course, they are treated much, much more cruelly in her world, and they are far less common.

[thecookery]

Avery takes her time figuring out how to answer and address the girl's comments. She's not often asked for her opinion on things like that, or much of anything that isn't her work, really. "Denerim's a wild place," she answers eventually. "A stinking maze of districts and alleys it's easy to get lost in and get your purse stolen if you didn't grow up there. But it's full of people and full of life. Not so much as it was ten years ago, mind you, but it's getting there."

She stretches a little, popping her neck. "As for dwarves and mages, I've met my share, in passing. But most of both have always been kept away from folk like me, locked up in their towers or down in their underground kingdoms. Until this rebellion started, that is. Now there's children with lightning bolts in their hands running wild and burning half of Ferelden down, while templars panic and start executing anyone they think might have smiled at a mage in a tavern six years ago. Who knows? Maybe the dwarves'll follow suit and start popping up out of the ground like weeds. Weeds with axes.

"Suppose it could be different in Nevarra though. I hear the whole country's run by some secret circle of necromancers, and they've graveyards the size of cities to raise an army from if they need to."

[unsullies]

Denerim sounds enough like some of the Free Cities that Dany nods mutely, listening. It makes her think of being a girl in Pentos, clinging to her brother's clothes as they wandered the streets.

"Templars and mages," she repeats thoughtfully. "I imagine it will take more than a single rebellion to change their dynamic." If half of what she's heard of both groups is true, that is. "Do the dwarves quarrel with anyone in that same way?"

With the elves, perhaps, or even the humans? She hasn't heard as such, but it never hurts to ask.

"Nevarra... is still mostly a mystery to me," Dany states. "I haven't met anyone from there yet, I think, and have heard very little." Though, an army of the dead? Makes her think too easily of Drogo, alive, but out of her reach.

[youwonscience]

"Hey, um." Cosima ends up walking beside her at one point, leaning a little on her walking stick but keeping pace. "I don't know if you remember from the snow fight. Cosima." Team Violet, hooray? "Ruby talk you into this too?"

It's a light joke - Cosima had volunteered, though Ruby's involvement had helped convince her it was a good idea. (That... held true for the snow fight too, now that Cosima came to think of it.)

[unsullies]

The snow fight. Dany can't help the faint smile that appears, accompanied by an almost weary chuckle.

"Of course." How could she forget that incident? It had been a very, very strange way to get acquainted with their world and with the Inquisition. "I don't think we've met, but it's good to meet you. My name is Daenerys."

The mention of Ruby, too, earns a smile.

"She did. She was one of the first to find me when I arrived through the rift; I could hardly deny her a request now." Well, she could, but she didn't want to. To explore more of Thedas meant more of a chance to return home. Skyhold hardly seemed as if it would produce a rift back to their worlds anytime soon.

[youwonscience]

"She's good at that helping people out thing," Cosima says, with real warmth. She doesn't have a lot of people she counts as actual friends in Thedas yet, but Ruby's among them for sure. "How long ago did you come through?"

[unsullies]

"It was..." What do they call their months here? The young woman hesitates, thinking. "... Solis, I think."

Several fortnights now.

"And you?" Dany asks in return.

[youwonscience]

"Justinian," she offers. "The one right before, if I haven't lost track. I haven't been back out of Skyhold since then." Which seemed sensible, really. But on the other hand, closing the Rift she came through, even with coaching, feels like arguably the most useful thing she's done since arriving.

"Haven't given up on just hoping I'll pop back home any time now, but I figured as long as I'm here... may as well help."

[unsullies]

Dany feels the same, though she might not say so, if prompted. Their ability to close the rifts is the only asset she has to offer the Inquisition by way of aid.

"I wish there were more I could do to help," comes the low reply. "There is still so much about this world that is hard to understand..."

And so little she can contribute, as compared with the magical talents and weapons training of so many of the others.

[youwonscience]

"Tell me about it," Cosima commiserates. "I've been reading what I can get my hands on and asking a lot of questions when I can get away with it, but there's not a lot that's familiar. I mean, at least we can speak the language, I guess that's small mercies, since I'm assuming we're not all actually speaking what I call English."

She doesn't want to question that too much, but she wonders if it has to do with the shards.

"What did you do, back where you're from?"

[unsullies]

"English?" There have to be differences between Cosima and Dany's worlds, just as there are between her own and Thedas. "I spoke... the Common Tongue, mostly. Is that not - "

How can that be, speaking a language without realizing it? She blinks, glances down at her affected hand. More magic.

"I was khaleesi of a tribe of Dothraki," she says, knowing immediately that further explanation will be necessary. "My husband was their leader. The Dothraki are... wild, horse lords, men and women who roam, conquer, and never settle."

Not for long, anyway.

[eviscerates]

Ruby, for her part, is glad to be shadowed. Daenerys is a very nice shadow to have. As they walk, Ruby bites her tongue and occasionally turns to pluck a flower from the path following her courtesy of her ring, or grab another, and eventually when Daenerys is deep in thought? Ruby deposits a flower grown of white and purple flowers on her head, before grinning.

"So, I'm hoping that maybe the more rifts we close the more we'll understand about them, even if we aren't mages. Any insight or thing we learn could be useful for figuring out a way home."

She would like to think she is not so horribly imperceptive as to miss the fact that Daenerys seemed— wistful? Something when they crossed the Waking Sea. Ruby, for her part, was slightly seasick, but that's because wolves are not sea creatures.

[unsullies]

As Ruby speaks, the young woman behind her studies her palm. The mark is an interesting thing, of course, something shared by many, now, in Thedas, but still a mystery and a novelty. Dany looks up as the other finishes, nodding thoughtfully.

"There are mages within the Inquisition, aren't there? They haven't much to say about these, then?"

There are mages in their ranks, she knows, but that... is it, more or less. There is a lot to know about the Inquisition and its world and Dany has to take it in small doses.

"Thank you," she adds belatedly, cracking a smile at the crown of flowers. "You're always so thoughtful."

A queen crowned in flowers. Better than one of molten gold.

[eviscerates]

"Adelaide was doing some research into them before, just keeping track of any medical impact, pain and such. Solas is the guy you wanna talk to about the shards, but I haven't spoken to him, personally." Usually she's running errands or on missions, or organising whimsical snowfight adventures. "I figure more heads thinking doesn't hurt."

Ruby falls into step beside Daenerys, and beams. "You're welcome, although it'd debatable how thoughtful it is to make anyone go wandering across entire countries." Out of concern, sure, wanting to make sure Daenerys and Cosima both know what to do when faced with a rift... but maybe she could have opted for one a little closer to home to volunteer for. "How are you? Holding up okay?"

[unsullies]

"I haven't spoken with either," Dany admits, blinking, but committing the names to memory. Adelaide and Solas. "Are they mages, then, or scholars of magic?"

She assumes there must be a slew of humans, non-mages, who look into magical abilities and properties. Like the maesters of Westeros (though they might cast scorn on the idea of magic, now that she considers it).

"You hardly forced me," she points out with another smile. "I... truthfully don't like being stranded in Skyhold, much. I feel more at ease out here, traveling."

It's a little like traveling across the sands with a khalasar - her khalasar. Minus the Dothraki and the sand, of course.

"I'm well enough," Dany replies. "And yourself?"

[eviscerates]

"I don't know all that much about Solas, but from what I understand? He's kind of the guy when it comes to rifts. He helps predict where they're going to be open, so we can have people there to meet people and make sure they aren't stuck alone with demons, like when you arrived." Her smile turns fonder, then. "Adelaide's a member of the mage council. So, she's a mage, and she's a researcher. She used to be a teacher at one of the Circles, if you've heard much about them. She came to the Inquisition with a whole lot of her students from there, and she teaches Spirit Healing." Oh. She's... rambling. Proud rambling. Excuse her, she's just going to clear her throat. "So basically she's a scholar, yeah. Scholar and mage. Mage and scholar."

Just... stop, Ruby. Inhale, exhale, and then she hums a quiet sound of agreement.

"I like Skyhold plenty, but... I want to see more of this world, you know? And if I can do that and help, it seems kinda perfect. And I'm good. Things have been good."

[unsullies]

How does he know? Dany wonders, frowning slightly, but doesn't ask. Instead, she says: "It's good that you have him as a resource. I would have died without your aid."

The demons would have gotten her, and if not them, then exposure.

"I've only heard some of the Circles, but Adelaide sounds - wise," she settles. She sounds like she knows a lot of things, anyway, and has magical abilities to boot (though Dany is forever wary of magic).

"I understand." She wants to see and learn more of this world, too, though there will always be that desire to return home, to continue her quest to the Iron Throne. "The Inquisition certainly has its work cut out for them, or so it seems."

There are a lot of things for them to help with throughout Thedas, apparently. As with every world.

[eviscerates]

"She is, definitely. She's very responsible about magic, you know? Using it to help, rather than hurt." Ruby elaborates by going on, "magic has done a lot of harm in my world, so it's kind of nice knowing that there are people who use it so carefully."

Ruby huffs out a little bit of a laugh, though it's more of a yeah, you aren't wrong tone than something mirthful. "They're lucky they've got helpful people like you and me around then, huh?"

She gently bumps Daenerys' shoulder, with her own, before turning so she's walking backwards to face Daenerys as they wander. "Are you tired, or going okay?"

[unsullies]

Dany doesn't respond to that first part, but it's certainly on her mind. 'Magic does a lot of harm in my world.' Mirri Maz Duur's face drifts through her mind and Dany's expression hardens, briefly.

"... Yes," she agrees, only distantly aware of what she's agreeing to. The bump to her shoulder brings her back to the present and she swallows. "I'm fine," Dany answers, raising herself a little more to demonstrate. "I don't mind the walking."

Though she's more used to horses these days, she's certainly done her share of walking alongside them.