( 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

[amygdalae]

Bruce, likewise, doesn't quite like what he's seeing here, and he purses his lips once he reads the words. It is a fact that the presence of the Rifters, no matter how low key the Inquisition tried to hide it, was still going to be a thing eventually. He had just hoped that it would lead to situations like this.

He picks up the tattered notes and pockets them for later. "They've got a few things to answer for," he murmurs his agreement as he stands back up. "Let's see what else we can still find around here." There was Bonaventura's item and now this - perhaps they could be lucky the third time as well.

[eviscerates]

It looks like they've found everything of interest. All that remains are irregular, ofd outcrops of white wild roses. They've been dotting the trail very sporadically since around the second rift.

[gatheringstorm]

Peering around, Korrin sighs. "I...think that's it. At least we know if we see those flowers that we're still going the right way. So far." Let's see what the others have found."

[amygdalae]

Looking around himself, Bruce has to agree with Ataash. It seems like this is the end of the road for them, as far as finding anything else goes. Not surprising, but still... it is a bit disappointing.

"Yes," he returns, showing his assent with a nod. "Hopefully the others have found something as well."

[doneisdone]

Teren has trailed behind them with her daggers at the ready, prepared for any encounter that proves unfriendly to two magic users. They seem to know the Rifters involved, and she doesn't interfere with their speculation, though she does begin to range ahead to carefully follow the trail of flowers. Per Korrin's advice, she also keeps an eye out for a black fox.