( 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

[wontforgetyou]

His eyebrows arch rather spectacularly at that, practically disappearing into his bangs for the span of a few heartbeats. He'd expected that either the carrots were going to be used or they weren't, not to be handed only one solitary vegetable, and he has to resist the urge to make a comment to that effect. However, he's able to manage that easily enough and it's only a matter of moments before his eyebrows go back to where they were originally, followed by a brief shrug.

"fair enough. I'll be back shortly."

Fortunately for Avery (and everyone's dinner), one of the things the Doctor's managed to impress on him over the years is that hygiene is a good thing. So even though he does get teased about that from time to time, overall he's much better at keeping clean - and when she says 'thorough', he takes her at face value, making sure both his hands and the carrot are very very clean before he goes back. He even goes so far as to get the dirt out from under his nails - or, well, as much as he can manage without a scrub brush, anyway.

"Right. Is that clean enough, then, or should I have another go at it?"

[thecookery]

It's a little thing called subtlety, Jamie. She may not have it in... just about any other part of her life, but in her cooking, Avery knows how to make a little go a long way. Or in this case, how to make it add to the flavor without overpowering.

When he returns with the carrot, Avery gives it a once-over before nodding, "It'll do. You ever diced a carrot before?"

[wontforgetyou]

Okay, so subtlety isn't his strong suit either. But at least he's not completely unfamiliar with the idea that sometimes it's needed - and he may have a passing acquaintance with at least some of the skills that are called for here, something that gets his mouth to tug the tiniest amount off to one side for a second or two.

"Aye, I know how to do that."

The expression doesn't last long, however, and his expression smooths back out again, as though it hadn't have been there in he first place.

"Chopping and mincing, too, in case you need that as well. I may not be able to make much, but what I do know how to make my family's had a fair bit of practice at doing. Do you have any objections to my using my dirk to do it, or would you prefer I use something of yours?"

[thecookery]

She nods, satisfied, and says, "I've a knife and board here already." Because of course she packed a cutting board to go out into the middle of the wilderness. Doesn't everybody?

"While you dice that, I'll add some peas as well, and that ought to do the trick without leaving us nothing for later." Because right now that's Avery's greatest concern. Sure, they may have a couple of capable hunters among their party, but sometimes even that isn't enough. Sometimes there's just nothing around to be found, and making sure these bozos stay fed is the only thing she's been brought along for, right? It's not like she's a mage or a warrior or has any fancy rift-closing powers or anything. So if she can't even keep a good leash on their food stores, what's she doing here?

Wiping her brow with her sleeve, Avery sighs. "Sound good?"

[wontforgetyou]

"Aye, alright."

Jamie's seen stranger things than someone packing a cutting board and bringing out to the middle of nowhere - although that is pretty up there in terms of things that are just a wee bit odd. He's able to keep his face from showing that this time around, however, and simply goes where he's directed, making sure the board's on a surface that's going to keep it flat and steady. The last thing he wants is for the knife to slip while he's using it. He knows there'll be enough demons to deal with that it's better if he stays in one piece.

He's not sure if Avery knows that, though, and as he sets the carrot on the board, he looks over at her with a thoughtful expression. His head drops again a moment later (because again, he doesn't want to cut himself) but even though he's mostly concentrating on dicing the carrot, he can still ask a question or two without messing that up. A few moments later, and he does just that.

"Can I ask you something, though? Why did you want to come along with us? No offense, but I'd not have thought it'd be someone's choice to go deal with rifts and demons if they didn't have to."