faderift | ( closed ) player plot: the stars go waltzing

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( closed ) player plot: the stars go waltzing

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.

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"Shit... Avery! Move—"

It was about all that Ciri was able to get out before the wolf lands atop her, knocking the air out of her lungs and snapping it's jaws around her already injured arm. The pain is almost unbearable but she pushes back until she can get a grip on the hilt of her sword. She isn't sure if it'll work but she has to try and with all the strength she can muster, she kicks at her knife to drive it in further before stabbing her sword into the wolf's side until she can feel it exit out the other side.

Gritting her teeth, she keeps pushing and hopes it'll be enough to put the wolf on its side so it cannot escape the cloak being thrown atop it.

For one fleeting second Araceli is almost fine.

Her blade is kind of coming free. Her mind is less foggy thanks to having to function on pure instinct, the pain is strangely helpful but then her ribs are weirdly hot.

"Ruby! Calma--" The words are forced out but they stop very suddenly because oh fuck. The room is moving? Why is the room moving? Why does her leg--

And hello Avery because this is the least graceful landing Araceli has attempted, Ruby you're fucking up her perfect parkour record, none of you must ever speak of this she has a reputation to uphold. As she smears blood and drops the rapier so no one gets stabbed by accident with it. Thanks Ruby for helping her find something worse than being shot in the calf, totally needed to know that.

Seriously Korrin better not break anything because someone is going to have to carry Araceli out of here once the adrenaline is gone as she awkwardly fumbles for her blade again.

The Wolf is downed; she yelps, an unguarded sound of pain as the sword drives through her side and to her back. She drops, instantly, silver burning through her system, breath wet and ragged as she lies on the ground beside Ciri. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts and there’s a low whine.

And then the cloak settles on her, properly. The cloak shimmers, a wave of magic and shifting light and colours as it falls over the Wolf. For a moment she is still the Wolf, giant paws twitching slightly—

and then a groan and a gasp of pain that is all human, Ruby, and no Wolf. Her voice sounds raw, and she tries to jerk away from the pain instinctively, only to groan again at the sword still in her gut. Her pupils are blown, irises burning gold with the pain and the push to change conflicting with the magic of the cloak, but the lyrium blue is gone, even as blood remains plastered across her skin, her mouth and jaw and neck.

Ruby can’t remember why she’s here. She can’t remember what’s happened, a block of time spanning from the pain of silver being pushed into her skin and left there and more lyrium and now this, lying on the floor looking at Ciri who… has looked better, honestly. It’s hard to piece together, to figure out quickly and especially when she’s in so much pain and there is the smell of copper covering everything, but mostly just the pain. Everything hurts.

“You need— a healer.” It's broken with a painful hitch of breath. They should get Ciri a healer. God, she’s not thinking straight. Maybe she could use a healer, too.

( ooc: from this point on all your characters are totally free to just dive into the Golem fight, if you want them to! :]b )

Edited 2016-09-21 22:21 (UTC)

And with Ruby's voice there is a moment of silence before Ciri laughs. A tired, barely there laugh but it is the only sound she can currently muster up in her throat. It takes a few minutes before the pain fades a little, lets her think and put words together enough to form something in response. "You're one to talk. I— I'm not the one with the sword in my gut."

No, she's not. She's just the one on the ground with a mangled arm that has bone piercing through skin and teeth marks that make her like a roughed-up chew toy. Her good hand still holds at the hilt of her sword, numbly realizing it is still being held in the woman's gut and pining her to the floor. Is the silver still hurting her? Not that the sword isn't causing enough pain. But would she bleed out if it was removed?

It really doesn't feel real but she pulls the sword free, letting it fall to the floor nearby before pressing her hand and the cloak against the entrance wound to help stem the bleeding.

Avery groans some more!

With her leg like this, there was basically no way she wasn't getting knocked to the ground by the bardic frisbee toss. Fortunately though, she's more dazed by it than actually injured further, and when she sits up enough to see the wolf no longer a wolf... she just plonks herself right back down onto the ground and takes a deep breath, not even caring that she's probably lying right in the middle of a puddle of Venatori blood and worse. Worries about things like dirty clothes and standing and the other giant monster in the room can wait like half a second, okay?? Get off her back!

Speaking of off her back, Avery rolls sideways to look toward Araceli and sigh out, "You okay?"

Gutwound, arm and mauling, leg, leg. Adelaide has all of three seconds to cast her eyes over the injuries available to her- one of which she cannot even tend to with magic despite her arguments to the contrary, before the gutwound (and Ruby) take priority. "Let me."

Chaos behind them, blood all around them, Adelaide, settles shoulder to shoulder with Ciri as her eyes and hands blaze blue. She tugs the cloak aside enough to press her hands against the wound, cooling mist flowing into the torn flesh. It will not be as painless as it could be, this healing, too focused she is on the stitching together of flesh and slowing of blood and- working against something that leaves Ruby's wound resistant. "Red, this is going to be uncomfortable, but you must hold still, Ciri-"

She glances over, lips pressed thin. "There are bandages in the pouch at my belt, healing potions and poultices. Araceli and Avery will need them to slow the bleeding. Once this is closed I will see to your arm."

Oh does that squelching slide feel pretty disgusting when she slides back.

"Hola," she breathes, reaching out with her good hand to pat somewhere on Avery (hopefully not the face) because more words will need a couple of minutes. Is it possible for your brain to leak out of your ears because between the Venatori assault, the lyrium, and flying through the air so suddenly it feels like a possibility. "I usually land better, my apologies. What about you?"

Still, she didn't break anything that way because instinct kicked in so she makes herself sit up and breathe deeply, clearing her head as much as it's cleared since Korrin got through to her in the dungeons. "Toss me the bandages, I have one good arm at least, I can do something." Stitches, she's going to need stitches, but that'll take some work she doesn't have the coordination for at present.

For a second, Avery grabs the hand patting her and squeezes it, making a sound that is almost a laugh. "I'll manage," she answers, then tries to get back up to her feet, letting out a pained grunt along the way. "...probably."

Incidentally, her rise is neither quick nor pretty in all this slick mess, and by the time she makes it, so much of Avery is covered in blood she looks like something out of a bad slasher flick. She tests her weight on her injured leg as she looks from Araceli to Ciri to Ruby and becomes keenly aware that there isn't really anything more she can do for them.

But the others? The ones still getting smashed and tossed and... vomited on(???) by the horrid thing on the other side of the room? Them she can maybe help.

Somehow?

"Sure, sure," she grumbles as she starts grimly walking past Adelaide. "Bandages, poultices. Sounds good. Save me a few, yeah?"

Edited 2016-09-22 23:19 (UTC)

Her cloak. She has her cloak. Ruby's fingers gather the familiar cloth and aqueeze it tight. This is important, she rememebers, but not why, the same way the ribbon in her hair was comforting withouther being able to pin it down.

She has trousers, still, though they have been cutaway at the knee, feet bare. The once-white blouse she wore when they came to Craintellier, too, has been cut partly away at the shoulders to exposehet arms, and there are perfect circular puncture burns that dot her skin, with exit wounds on the to mirror them. Three needles remain in her left upper arm, revealed only when the cloak shifts. They arw not so different from knitting needles in appearance, save for the sharpness and the silver they are composed of; the final straw Ruby had endured before the Wolf pushed to the fore. The skin around them is livid and burned.

The burn of something so close to silver in her gut is possibly the worst kind of physical pain she's ever experienced, even if there's shock and confusion to deal with, to distract from it in some way. It's nothing, she thinks, to the drag of it back out, and Ruby yells with it, a raw and strangled sound that she doesn't try to swallow down. The sword is gone but the bite of it remains, and she feels very in danger of passing out when--

God, she knows their names. What are their names, these people that her mind classifies as good and warm but she can't place?

-- when hands are pressing down on her gut. It's a focal point of sharpness in a dull and constant thud of it all over that seems to surge with her pulse, and her eyes widen with it as she struggles to find her breath.

Her gaze has locked on the bite marks on the warrior's forearm and the blood, even if she has to break her staring away with another spike of pain as the woman with glowing eyes and magic and a cooling touch tries to fix her.

"What happened?" To her arm and to Ruby and to-- "There's too much blood." She can smell too much of it, more than makes sense.

Ciri hates to hear Ruby yell, she hates to feel the warmth of blood seeping through the cloak and staining her already blood stained hands. The dull throb of pain is the only thing that can keep her awake now so she focuses on it, ignores the urge to lay back down and fall back into unconsciousness.

But then there's someone there. For a moment Ciri does not realize Adelaide is at her side, shoulders bumping until the cloak is tugged away and the world is suddenly bathed in a blueish-white light. Numbly, she moves her hands from Ruby's wound and only snaps back into focus when she hears her name. She nods, reaching for the mentioned pouch and trying to get gathered everything that had been mentioned.

Okay, she can do this much. This is something she can handle. Her response to Ruby's question is a grin and a shake of her head. "Just relax now." And with that, she manages to get on her wobbly legs even though it is a fight. Enough of one that she does not stop herself from open one of the potions and downing it in one big gulp. It doesn't work miracles but she feels closer to herself than she had a moment ago.

Of course, Avery is also clearly feeling like herself too and she watches her walk away. A smile is given to Araceli before she sets the supplies down aside from one extra potion. She passes it off to Avery as she passes, bending to grab her discarded sword with her one hand and chuckling.

"Right, well... giant flesh monsters are a first. It looks more less how I feel."

"Shit-" Adelaide offers quietly by way of explanation, the hand not pressing against the slowly mending gutwound of Ruby's reaching up to pull those needles free one by one. "Is fucked."

Not how she'd normally sum things up, not her usual language- but an apt summation none the less. Poultices, bandages, potions passed along, her focus on the blood under her hands and she must- she must divorce herself from who it is she is treating. It is Ruby, it is her wolf but those emotions are locked up tightly in a little box and shoved to the back of her mind in a way that leaves her shoulders tense and jaw clenched, even if her hands are gentle. Any other patient. Any other wounded, weary patient, and three more to see to afterward. With the golem raging behind them and no way of knowing if she'll be called upon again?

She must work swiftly.

"Araceli- how is your leg, Ciri, your arm?" She can plan what comes next while she focuses on this. While Compassion's comforting song flows along her skin and pours their shared power into torn flesh and bloody skin. But Avery-

Avery is wandering - there is a battle to be fought and she feels fit to do so but there must be something she can do to turn the tide. Blue glow sustained in one hand she calls out. "Avery- can you run?"

The taste of the potion is less familiar to her than most here, probably. Avery might be prepared to fight, but that's not the same as being an experienced soldier.

Still, she manages to get out some surprised thanks and downs it, quickly feeling a number of her aches and pains begin to lessen. Though her leg... Well, they can worry about that later. Assuming they win and there is a later.

That thought in mind, Avery glances briefly to Adelaide, then back to the golem, muttering, "Hope so. That thing probably hits like a battering ram."

"Well, it doesn't look like it's going to fall off so I'm going to take that as a win." Ciri muses, needing to joke to ignore everything else. "From the piece of bone sticking out it looks like the break was clean. Skin's a little mangled up though..."

Which was putting it lightly but there wasn't any that looked as though it was threatening to fall off in some disgusting strip of bloody skin. The potion has helped stem the blood flow and has taken her off the edge of unconsciousness. Curiously, she glances between Adelaide and Avery as they speak with a raised brow.

Shit is fucked. She'd laugh, because something is telling her that's funny somehow but the rest of everything that's happening is just—

Too much. Too much pain, too many thoughts, too much blood in the air that feels like its smothering her. The blood loss on top of everything else makes holding onto consciousness near impossible, and she forces her eyes open again, loosely grasps the wrist of the woman helping her, and is about to try to cobble together a response or a word, anything, struggling with even remembering what it was that felt important to say.

"Captain," Ruby starts, when her eyes roll back and consciousness slips away from her.

For the best, probably.

"You have until the count of thirty. Make it count." A twist of golden light crackles through the air between them, curling around Avery. It circles her, flares- and fades with excruciating slowness as the spell takes effect. Around her? The world seems to have slowed. To all onlookers? Avery shall move with inhuman quickness.

That much done Adelaide returns her focus to the bloody wound under her hands. Ruby passing out is- concerning, but only in the distant way that any patient might concern her. She must set this to rights and then join the others.

"What?" she asks in confusion, pausing to look toward Adelaide once more. And then... things start to get... weird...

For a second, Avery's impulse to panic tries to take over. Something is clearly wrong with her, and just as clearly, magic is to blame. Again. Her breath hitches, her heart-rate spikes, and every instinct is telling her to forget about the wolf, forget about the Venatori, forget about the golem. This thing that is happening to her right now? This is the danger here...

And it takes a hell of a lot of willpower to shove that back down into a box for later. If she doesn't do anything about that monster, some of them could die. All of them could die.

Jaw tight, Avery grinds out between her teeth, "A little more warning next time," (the thought of how intelligible that's actually going to be right now doesn't occur to her) and then she turns and runs toward the fight.

"Not shot," Araceli manages after squeezing Avery's hand back but when she goes to get to her feet herself, her leg doesn't want to support her, sending her back down to ground so she inches across the floor to fumble a poultice.

There's no art to slapping it over the bite once she's got the ruined mess of her trousers out of the way, holding it with the left hand as she bandages with the right. Gritting her teeth against the burn, she manages a tight smile when she watches Avery go.

"Adelaide-" and when has Araceli ever called her Adelaide? Madame LeBlanc if she has something related to work, Dama de Oro when she is teasing but she can't help it. "Do you need anything?" Her blade is back in her hand, and she can't fight again but she's inched her way back to Ruby, and she'll stay here until they're leaving.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( closed ) player plot: the stars go waltzing

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cw needles, specific reference to torture

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