( 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]

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.

[youwonscience]

"Oh wow. You must have seen a lot of cool stuff that way, huh?" Or possibly not, but it's an offering to talk about home, if Dany wants it.

[unsullies]

'Cool stuff' isn't exactly apt, and she tilts her head a little indicating the curious word choice.

"I saw a lot of things," is all she says, after a pause. "It was very different from the life I had led until that point. Some good, some bad."

Some - much - very, very difficult.

[youwonscience]

Cosima knows she should rein in the slang, but it's harder than you'd think. She hopes that being kind and polite will mainly make up for it. "I've never been a nomad of any kind, but I definitely know the feeling of having your whole life turned upside down."

[unsullies]

"It was a necessary change, or so my brother thought," she explains, expression distant. "We needed an army to take back our family's throne. He offered me in marriage in exchange for the Dothraki's fighters."

For all the good that did. She can still easily recall Viserys' golden crown.