( 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

[ichaer]

"And I might not have made it to you in time." Ciri says, bristling slightly. She could barely sit up without her head spinning and there could have been so much that could have gone wrong in that time.

"That is assuming you had time to figure something out because even if the Wolf didn't get you there was still the vines, Venatori and the flesh abomination to worry about."

[thecookery]

"I think I handled them just fine, thanks." She just might not be able to eat meat for a while after the conclusion to the fight with the golem.

[ichaer]

"Because I took down the Wolf." A beat. "You're welcome."

She'd cross her arms if she could but simply sits there and idly plays with the ends of her hair with her good hand.

[thecookery]

"By nearly dying," she grumbles, quieter and slightly petulant-sounding. "Which you're not allowed to do. I--"

She stops, glaring at a fly that's landed on the cart and obviously done something terribly offensive to earn such animosity. "If you did, your girl would feed me to her dog."

[ichaer]

"But I didn't nearly die. You could have died though and I couldn't..." Ugh. There is some grumbling on her part, pulling at the ends of her hair a little more and letting out a long sigh. "I wasn't going to let that happen so I just reacted. I did the first thing that came to mind to get her attention away from you."

Her gaze drifts slightly and Ciri stares at the mountain range but the statement about being fed to a dog gets her attention. Honestly, she cannot help but laugh. "Even if she was my girl I doubt Nessa has that mean of a bone in her body. Here's a secret though: Garahel is quite ticklish if you ever find yourself cornered against him."

[thecookery]

Okay, Avery might not be ready to move past this just yet, but she is at least not in the mood to argue about it anymore, so instead she just gives Ciri a sideways glance.

"You say that, but over you, I wonder if she wouldn't grow one."

[ichaer]

Ciri is fine to let it pass because it helps the tension lessen and allows her to lean back and relax. Again, she cannot help but laugh.

"Then I just won't be dying any time soon. I'd rather her stay the way she is even though Nessa can be scary when she's angry."

[thecookery]

Nodding, Avery says, "Good. At least try not to die of boredom until we get back so it's naught to do with me when she goes on her rampage."

[ichaer]

"I'll suppose I can manage somehow through this torture I've found myself in. Besides she'd likely find a way to bring me back and beat me up before she turned her rage on someone else."

She glances to Avery again and grins. "So have no fear, I shall stay alive for both your sake and my own."

[thecookery]

"Good," she says again, looking down and trying to appear like she feels less... whatever she's feeling right now. It's a mystery, even to her. Let's just stick with 'trying to appear like she feels less.'

[ichaer]

"Good." She repeats, drawing her sheathed upwards with an expression that might look on the side on amusement but if it is there is nothing beyond the small smile on her face.

Ciri considers falling back asleep but an idea strikes her, glancing toward Avery. "Once my arm heals a little, I thinking of making a trip to Denerim. Would you like to come along?"

[thecookery]

She blinks in surprise. What? Where did that come from?

"You just thought of this now?"

[ichaer]

"No, I've been thinking about this since I returned from Emprise du Lion."

And the shit show of that mission. "It's just after everything with the Wardens, Weisshaupt and what has happened here... I need a break if just for a day or two. Much as I love Kelpie, company that can respond to my jokes and comments are nice too."

[thecookery]

Avery's thought about going back home to Denerim before of course, but she's always found excuses to put it off for... well, for a number of reasons. But maybe it wouldn't be so bad? Especially if she had a little backup.

"Jokes?" she checks after a moment. "You planning to come up with some worth hearing then?"

[ichaer]

How dare. Ciri might actually make a face that looks to be offended.

"I am always worth healing. That's why you spoke with me so long after I woke you up with the question about cookies."