( 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

[thecookery]

"Around's not so easy, actually."

The words are muttered weakly from the other side of a tree near the river's edge as they approach, followed by a heavy breath. "Not from here anyway. Too many waterfalls and crevasses."

[ichaer]

Focused on Merrill, Ciri does not notice if anyone might be around until the woman has made it down safety and the voice speaks up to answer the question that had been sent her way. She immediately looks over her shoulder, shocked before hopping off Kelpie and hurrying to where Avery sits.

"Avery! Are you hurt?" Because she'll be checking anyway.

[thecookery]

"Just catching my breath," she answers, almost laughing but too tired for much of one to come out. Slumped back against the trunk of the tree, Avery looks both exhausted and fairly well banged up, though other than some sort of leg wound she's wrapped with a sleeve torn from her own shirt, most of her injuries seem like superficial scratches and bruises that have already partially healed.

She pushes herself up a little straighter and winces. "Thought I heard voices. Wasn't sure what to think of it though, 'til I heard your yelling. Not very good at sneaking, are you?"

[ichaer]

Ciri will just laugh for the both of them then. "Helps to scare the bears off and besides I'm great at sneaking since you never seem to see me sneaking around the kitchens."

She grins and laughs again but her attention is on the bandaged area of her leg. Her medical bag is on Kelpie's saddle but for now she removes her waterskin from her belt and offers it since it's probably better than river water and whatever might be swimming around in it.

"I'm going to get this properly bandaged. In the meantime can you tell us what in the Maker's name happened with your group?"

[thecookery]

"Shut up," Avery grumbles and grabs the waterskin, taking a moment to have a drink from it and push down all the emotions threatening to overwhelm her right now. She's still alive, and people are here to help her. Who knows what would have happened if they hadn't found her? Who knows what has happened to everyone else??

After a moment, she clears her throat and answers, "I don't rightly know, to be honest. Not fully.

"The first rift was no problem, but the second was tougher. More demons. Stronger ones. And then halfway through, a bunch of people appeared out of the fog too. Soldiers. Blood mages." She swallows thickly. "I tried to fight back, but one of the mages... did something to me. I- I don't know what, but I guess I blacked out?

"When I woke up, it was just me and the demons. Everyone else was gone, and those things were all headed my way, so I ran."

[chainlightning]

Oh! Oh, there's a person -- Merrill gasps audibly and, as Ciri looks Avery over, takes a moment to pick Lux up to cuddle him and tell him how smart and brave he is. Who's a good fox? It's you!

Ahem. Anyway.

"Adelaide or Bruce can heal with magic as well, when we regroup with the others. Unfortunately I'm not any good at that myself." Avery is offered a little awkward smile, and then- "Oh! I'm Merrill. I'm glad we found you."

One down, several to go.

"The mages- did they sound like they were from Tevinter? Or... dress like it, I suppose, with the pointy hoods?"

[thecookery]

"Uh..." Avery blinks at her, unsure. "I don't know what people from Tevinter dress or sound like. But I guess some of them might have had pointy heads? It happened fast, and there was a lot of fog."

[ichaer]

As Ciri passes by Merrill to get to her medic bag, she gives Lux a happy little pet and a smile. What a good fox, indeed.

"We'll make sure they get it healed up but I just want to make sure in case we run into... trouble, I guess." Because who knew what was wondering around here given the current state of things.

Either way, she sets about unwrapping the shirt from the wound and looking it over. At least it looks clean and not infected which meant they wouldn't have to rush to try and find the others.

"You're not missing much with how they sound. It's all Manaveris Dracona and Na via lerno victoria or something like that." She huffs. "Tevene was never a strong suit of mine also this is going to sting."

That is Avery's warning before she pours a disinfectant on the wound.

[eviscerates]

Hello yes good yes please adore him more, he misses him mum :C For now, however, Lux is happy to squirm closer and snuggle up with Merrill, in absence of Araceli.

[thecookery]

Good. Hopefully Merrill thinks to cover Lux's ears too, because the string of expletives from over here is, frankly, impressive in its offensiveness.

[chainlightning]

Wow. That is impressive, and Merrill doesn't cover Lux's ears at all, because he's probably heard worse.

Instead, she offers, a bit hesitantly- "I mean, I could make you take a nap for a bit, but that seems uncomfortable too."

[thecookery]

"I'll be fine. Just--" And it clearly pains her even further somehow to say this. "--I could use some help. I've been... off. I don't know, shaky, ever since those mages did whatever it was they did. Between that and my leg, I couldn't get back up the slope."

She huffs and nods upstream, continuing, "Tried looking for a better way up, but it's just a dead end at a waterfall that way... I did find this though." Picking up something small and shiny off the ground, Avery holds it up to reveal a pair of eyeglasses.

"Cosima's," she explains with a quiet, bitter laugh. "When I left the rift, I guess in the fog I got turned around. Ended up going the same direction they did without even knowing it."