( 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

[chainlightning]

Oh. Well that's- quite thoughtful of him, which makes her smile, head ducking down to look at Honeysuckle's main for a moment before she looks back over at him.

"I can try, at least. Though I'm not a healer, so past that, I imagine mostly hugs, if they want them." Are you a hugger, Bellamy? You should be a hugger. Everyone should be a hugger. Hugs are great.

Beyond that- she thinks it's going to depend on the circumstances they find them in. Which doesn't actually help her stop worrying that much. But...

"Talking helps."

[nonsibi]

Despite himself, Bellamy is a hugger. Mostly a manly hugger, okay; lots of clasping and bracing back pats and stuff. But this is still another secret that he's not keen to reveal. If it happens, it happens. And yet at the same time, he's also not going to discourage hugging in anyone else, so he just nods at Merrill's suggestion--not patronizing, just patient and even-keeled. Sure, why not.

"Think it'll be appreciated either way." Solemn agreement that he really does mean. Whatever they find waiting for them, it's bound not to be great. He's faced that kind of thought before. Faced the aftermath too. "And we got a long way to go. If you want to talk--"

He shrugs, reins held loose in his hands. "Better to do it now than during the actual mission, right?"

[chainlightning]

You can have all the hugs from Merrill that you want, Merrill. She won't tell. ...at least as long as you ask her not to.

The offer to talk is appreciated even more, though. Her smile is soft, almost shy, and for a moment she practically buries her face in Honeysuckle's mane. "Thank you. Do you- are there any people you know, in the missing group?"

Merrill knows five of them. That probably helps explain why she's so nervous.

[nonsibi]

"Not well."

He doesn't mention Lexa. She isn't worth mentioning. What's more, he doesn't know her well. Going up against a clan of Avvar and their heartless commander isn't the same as knowing them, not by a long shot.

Instead he shrugs, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. Hector's ears swivel in his periphery, as if he's listening in on the conversation.

"It doesn't need to be personal. Whatever's happened, our help is what's needed now. And--" This part's a little more light-hearted; Bellamy shoots her another half-smile-- "I happen to be good at this kinda thing. Not often that's happened to me in the Inquisition."