faderift | THE FALLOW MIRE

THE FALLOW MIRE

WHO: Open to all
WHAT: The Inquisition sends forces to the Fallow Mire to deal with undead, plague, and missing scouts.
WHEN: Firstfall
WHERE: The Fallow Mire: Inquisition camps, Fisher's End, The Tavern, etc.
NOTES: For more information about the setting and RP opportunities in it, check out the OOC Post.

The trip down the mountains from Skyhold is no walk in the park, and south of the Hinterlands the land turns wet and miserable, subject to seemingly endless storms. Villagers have tried to carve out a meagre existence in the Fallow Mire, but their lives are under constant threat by a tidal wave of undead rising from the murky waters flooding much of the region.

The Inquisition has sent a sizeable force, and travel back and forth between the Mire and Skyhold happens as often and as quickly as conditions allow. The camp is a neat patch of tents on the largest bit of dry land to be found. "Dry" is relative; everything's still pretty muddy. There are several clusters of tents, tucked between rock outcroppings and abandoned buildings, the least leaky of which are being used to store what supplies the Inquisition has managed to haul in over the difficult terrain. Campfires are numerous and fill the area with a constant smouldering glow and low-hanging cloud of smoke that mingles with the morning and evening fogs. It's lovely, really.

Fisher's End barely even counts as a village-- just a haphazard handful of ramshackle buildings perched on the edge of the swamp-- but it does have a single tavern. It's a dreary-looking wooden shack like every other structure in the area, distinguishable only by the lamp still lit above the door and the sign that swings creakily in the breeze. Whatever was painted on it has long since worn away and been molded over. The place is just known as "the tavern" because it is literally the only tavern for miles and miles around.

Inside is dim and smoky from peat-burning fires in the two grates. There are a half-dozen tables with benches, none of which ever seem quite level on the uneven floor. The bar is tended by Thorolf, a grizzled bearded fellow with a local accent so thick he's almost unintelligible. No matter the time of day he serves a simple fisherman's meal of hard bread, salted fish, and a hunk of strong cheese. His cellar is stocked with exactly three varieties of alcohol: one ale, one wine, and one spirit, all of which are strong and dark. There aren't many locals left, but there are usually a few hunched over a mug or huddled around the fire.

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"Aye, I do."

Jamie knows full well what's coming next. Demons, or undead, or with their luck, maybe both. This time, at least, he's better equipped to deal with them, and as he hears the noises, he shifts into a ready position, bringing his sword up and scanning the area for the first sign of the demon's arrival.

A hint of movement out of the corner of his eye catches his attention, and he turns quickly, just in time to see one of the demons spring into existence not more than a foot away. With a yell, he moves to meet it, swinging his sword at its neck. Likely it'll take more than one blow to down it, but there's always the chance he'll get lucky.

Two terror demons and a host of corpses, lovely. Glad that she cast the barrier when she did, Korrin now moves into position and goes on the offensive, casting Chain Lightning. As it shocks her initial target and arcs to others, she raises her voice.

"Target the demons first! The corpses will--"

And the Vashoth mage doesn't get to finish her sentence. One of the terror demons phases in and out of the Fade, shrieking as it reappears and knocks her on her back. "Vashedan!" She tries to stand before her barrier can wear off, not wanting to be prone when it does.

In this case, he's already of the mind the demons are the more dangerous foes, and he's already opened his mouth to say as much when the demon in front of him vanishes, a second before his blade makes contact. He lurches forward without quite meaning to, thanks to momentum, but is able to recover after that, pivoting on his feet to try and find where the demon has gone off to.

Apparently it's decided that Korrin and her magic is the bigger threat, but by the time he realizes that she's already been knocked on her back. So far it doesn't appear to have been able to do much to her other than that, but he doesn't want to risk the chance that it will. Luckily being by the beacon means that she's not all that far away, something that he's privately a little glad for simply because it means he has a chance to get to the demon before it can do more than what it's done. Accordingly, he doesn't even think, he simply barrels across the space between them, using the pommel of his sword rather than the blade in an effort to either stun it or knock it back long enough to give her a chance to be able to get to her feet.

If nothing else it'll put him between it and her - unless it decides to pull that phasing trick again, but he's no mage. It's the best he's got for the moment.

Thanks to Jamie, Korrin has the time she needs to get back on her feet without incident. She'd thank him for it, but they can have that conversation after the demons and corpses are destroyed. Now is...a little inconvenient for that.

Once she's standing, Korrin wastes no time in using her winter magic to lock the terror demon in a sheet of ice, freezing it in place. "Strike fast! I won't last long!" While he attends to that, she then turns her focus to the other terror demon, unleashing an explosion from beneath and responding unholy shriek from the creature in response. A couple of the corpses catch fire as well, though some were not in the blast range and still approach.

Right now being thanked is the last thing on his mind, truthfully. Once they get through the fight is time enough for that. For now, he's far more focused on getting the demon away from Korrin - something it seems he's been successful at when a burst of white hits it and turns it into a frozen statue. This particular magic he's seen before, and even as Korrin calls out he's bringing his sword up to strike.

"On it!"

What follows isn't exactly pretty, but it doesn't have to be, not while he's got the chance to attack multiple times before it can move again. The important thing is hitting it, which he's able to do quite well now that it can't pull it's disappearing trick. The only problem is those undead. There's a group of them advancing on his position, made up of both the uninjured ones and a couple of the sturdier ones that'd been hit by the explosion but made it through. Those were still on fire, and while it's quite possible that they'll eventually fall over of their own accord, right now they're still up and closing fast. While Jamie does feel the heat from the flames, he doesn't have a lot of maneuvering room, and all he manages to do is put the almost-dead form of the terror demon between him and them, which isn't going to buy him much time at all. If he can get the demon taken care of before the undead get to him, though...

It's worth a try, and he raises his voice loud enough for Korrin to hear, in the hopes that she's able to do what he's seen with some of the other ice-magic users around here.

"Don't suppose you can make a barrier out of that ice magic of yours, can you?"

"I wish! But no, that's not something I can do." Korrin's a storm mage, and her grasp of ice magic is limited more or less to what he just saw, with Winter's Grasp. Normally, she's fine with it but at the moment she very much has to agree that having a wall spell -either fire or ice- would be very helpful about now.

Still, she's not helpless. The Vashoth mage closes in to renew her Barrier spell over them, then casts Chain Lightning. The lightning never touches Jamie but arcs to their nearby enemies, including the injured terror demon that breaks out of the ice. She's not worried, though; it's not down yet, but it will be soon.

It may not be a wall of ice or fire, but he'll take it. The lightning coursing through the undead takes the ones that are on fire out, and while a couple of them manage to close with Jamie, the renewal of the more personal barrier means the first few blows have little effect - helped, perhaps, by the fact that Jamie is aware enough to adjust his footing and more or less dodge out of the way. His efforts are focused on the terror demon, which is doing its best to return the blows he's raining down on it.

And then it pulls the same trick it did on Korrin earlier, stepping through the Fade and appearing underneath Jamie, unbalancing him and sending him sprawling. The demon lets out a triumphant shriek and swipes at Jamie's prone form, meaning to shred him where he lays. However, while Jamie is a little discombobulated from being knocked on his backside, he's had enough experience with fighting various sorts of creatures before that he knows the blow is coming, and is able to roll out of the way just enough that the talon skitters across the armor he'd picked up before coming out here. He knows he can't stay the way he is, though, not while the demon is trying to press his attack, and he scrambles to his feet, bringing up the sword just in time for the demon to bear down on him. The sword drives deep into the the demon's midsection, and it stops dead in its tracks, swaying for a second before collapsing where it stands.

There's no time to be grateful that it's dead, though, as the undead that are left start to lurch towards him - and Korrin as well, the movement something he barely catches out of the corner of his eye. It's enough, though, to get him shout a quick warning even as he pulls the sword free of the dead demon and tries to regain his footing.

"Undead coming your way!"

Ugh, poor Jamie. Korrin absolutely hates that terror demon speciality trick, but at least she's used to it. That shriek never fails to send chills down her spine, but she refuses to let revulsion prevent her from acting. The Vashoth mage raises her staff, prepared to blast the thing into oblivion as soon as she can get in a clear shot, but Jamie's skewering happens first. Her eyebrow raise and after a moment's shock, she nods in firm approval.

Whatever she's about to say goes unsaid for now, though, as their attention can't afford to be divided while any of those creatures still stand. "I got them! Stand back...." When the undead are gathered close enough, she triggers a massive explosion underneath them, provoking loud shrieks as the creatures burn in agony. Whatever's left standing from that blast won't be for too much longer.

"Right."

While he's not sure what exactly she has planned to take care of the undead, he's seen enough to know she'll have something that'll cause a fair amount of damage to them - and that it's something he doesn't want to be caught up in the the middle of, either. He's already moving when she warms him to stand back, dodging to the side to avoid one of the corpses and swinging at another, catching it a glancing blow before darting further back.

The blast that follows is more than enough to take it out, along with most of the rest of the group. There's a couple of stragglers that are still up, however, and when he sees that, Jamie jumps back into action. Luckily, between the explosion and the fire, it doesn't take much to get them to fall for good. He doesn't relax when that's done, though, simply shifts his grip on his sword and looks around to see what's left. The one demon is down, and the corpses, but he's lost track of the other terror demon in the chaos, and his eyes flick back and forth as he looks around to see if he can spot it. Maybe Korrin's managed to take it down, but...

"That's not it, is it? Where'd that other demon go?"

"I--" Korrin whirls around just in time for the terror demon to phase back in, knocking her into the beacon. While that's certainly painful, at least she's not flat on her back as before. Forcing herself to straighten, even while wincing, she fires off with her staff, relentlessly blasting away even as it swipes at her with its claws. That Barrier spell is holding out, but it won't last forever. So she unleashes a salvo of lightning blasts from her staff at point-blank range. Time to tear it apart for good.

Well, that's an answer to his question - just not one he particularly wanted to see. Or hear, for that matter, as the terror demon makes that noise again. It's one that's rapidly becoming one of his least favorite things to hear, but any urge he has to shudder at it is pushed aside when he sees Korrin go flying into the beacon, instead replaced by a fair amount of alarm.

"Korrin!"

She's able to get on her feet again, which is good, but the fact the demon is still around is not, and he moves to help, coming in on the side so as to avoid those lightning blasts she's sending at it. With any luck, his sword and her magic together will be enough to take the thing down before it recovers enough to pull that phasing trick again.

Between Jamie's skill with a sword and Korrin's relentless blasting with her staff, the terror demon finally collapses. And none too soon, as her barrier falls away. She takes a moment to catch her breath, needing it after that slam into the beacon, and manages a small smile at Jamie. "Thanks. One down, who knows how many beacons to go. Are you alright?"

Once the demon finally falls, he takes a moment to catch his breath and look around. Nothing else seems to be coming, which is good, and he decides it's a good enough time to take stock of his injuries. There'll likely be some bruising from his fall earlier, and he has a couple of cuts and scrapes, but that barrier of Korrin's kept the worst of the damage from getting through, which he's both pleased and impressed by. Everything else he can deal with, as far as he's concerned. No need to worry her over that. Not when he can worry over her a little bit instead.

"Och, I'm fine. What about you, though? You hit that beacon fairly hard, looks like."

"Eh, it's just some bruising. I should probably learn how actual healing magic some day, but there always seems to be something else I want to learn first." To appease Jamie -and partly so back will stop aching, Korrin fishes out said healing potion and takes a sip. She doesn't want to waste it all on something relatively minor.

"How are you holding up? This being your first excursion that wasn't a complete surprise and whatnot."

"There's actually magic that heals, too? I thought it was just all those elfroot potions and poultices and things."

Although the potions are pretty handy to have, he has to admit. Seeing Korrin taking one - even if it's just a sip - also makes him feel a little bit better, and he nods to himself in satisfaction before shrugging in response to her question.

"Anyway, it's not as though it's the first time I've fought beasties, you know. I've run across them enough times in my life that the odd fight's come up before. I could do without that stick-figure demon being able to pop up from underneath your feet, though. If they're at the other ones, too, could make things more difficult than we'd thought."

Grimacing, Korrin nods in agreement, so tired of those particular demons and their preferred, frustrating method of attack that she can't seem to counter in time.

"I would count on it, honestly. The best thing to do is to focus on them first; down them and the rest will be easier. And I'm glad you have previous experience fighting, that will help. Still, being in Thedas, having that mark, it has to be an adjustment. I just wish it could be an easier one.

As for healing magic, yes, it exists. Some people even work with spirits -not demons- to provide more healing than they ever could alone. They do good work, but I'd rather be out on the front than in the healing tents all day."

"Me too," he agrees. Being able to heal isn't a bad thing - far from it - but he knows that it's not something that he's really suited for. He may not be a fighter in the same sort of way as some of the warriors and Templars he's seen around here, either, but it's something he knows he can do. Even if for some reason he'd be able to learn the more magical type of healing, it wouldn't be the right fit - and not just because trying to wrap his mind around magic is still something he's trying to do.

"I'll admit, healing does sound useful, but all this magic is a lot to try and sort out. The rest of it's not so bad, though. I've landed in plenty of strange places before this as well. How do you think I wound up fighting all those beasties?"

Korrin laughs at that, though not unkindly. "Fair enough! Sometime when we're back in Skyhold or another place with decent brew, I'll buy you a round or few in exchange for some of your stories. I was curious anyway, but it sounds like you have some exciting ones."

And she has some of her own, so it's an even trade. It's not going to happen in the mire, though. Between the constant danger and gloom and terrible tavern swill, she knows her mood won't improve enough for it here.

Telling stories he didn't mind. Even though a part of him thought she'd likely think him mad after a few of those, the idea of decent ale is enough all by itself to get him to agree quite readily, and he gives her a quick but emphatic nod.

"Deal. Although I may be wanting to do the same, fair warning."

He almost wishes they could go and do that now, if he was being honest. But he's been to what they call the tavern around here, and the drinks there are awful enough that even if they weren't running the risk of undead or demons popping up at any moment he wouldn't pick it as a place to go and swap tales. And there were still plenty of demons and undead to deal with, the thought of which got him to grimace faintly even as he pulled out a cloth to clean his sword off with. The damp around here was bad enough as it was. He didn't need to make things worse by not keeping the blade clean.

"Think that'll be awhile yet, though. So what's the plan, then? Back to camp or do we follow this trail and see if we can find more beacons?"

Jamie's right, of course, and Korrin sighs even as she knows there's nothing to do about it but be patient. Tavern time will come; for now, they have Inquisition work to do. She's not about to shirk her duties just because it's not in her to complete them stoically. If she has to be in the mire, it's only fair that she get to complain, just like everyone else.

"If you're up for it, I want to keep going. The more we clear now, the less we'll have to do later. And perhaps even the sooner we can leave this wretched place. Maybe. If the Maker is kind, though looking at this place, I have my doubts."

Complaining is totally fair, as far as Jamie's concerned. More than fair, really, given what this place is like. He doesn't blame Korrin for grousing about being stuck here for the foreseeable future - and given the chance, he'll happily complain about it as well. Okay, so maybe not so happily, but complaining seems to be just about right to him.

"Aye, same here. Feels like we'll be stuck in this place forever, doesn't it? Probably be raining on us the entire time as well, with our luck."

He lets his glance flick upward for a moment to rest on the clouds, his mouth tugging off to one side at them. The rain hadn't stopped so far - at least, as far as he could tell - and it didn't look like that was going to change any time soon. Maybe Korrin had a point, though. If they clear enough places out, maybe they'd be able to head back that much sooner. It was worth a try, anyway, and after a moment he glances back at her instead.

"I'm up for it, though. Besides, if we take care of the demons now, it'll make traveling easier for everyone else. Any particular way you want to go?"

"I don't care about rain as much, but if I have to commission this armor again just to have a set without swamp-smell ingrained into it, I'll be very annoyed. This didn't come cheaply, you know." It's less bragging and more worried that what she poured her savings into will be wasted. But the scent of the swamp is nauseating enough without carrying it with her everywhere she goes.

Staring ahead, she indicates one of the paths. "Northeast. From what I heard the other scouts say, there hasn't been much of an Inquisition presence there, yet. We can begin clearing the way for others, at least."

"No, I'd imagine it wouldn't have."

He's been here long enough to get an idea of how much the armor costs, and given how tall Korrin is, likely hers cost a bit extra. Having to replace it because of the swamp-smell would take a considerable chunk out of whatever coin she did have. At least with his kilt he could wash it until the smell went away.

"Makes me glad I've the kilt. But...maybe with luck the smell won't stick around. And with luck we'll not have to make our way through a lot of bog while we're looking for these beacons, aye?"

At least the first part of the path looked dry enough, and he nodded once to himself before tucking his cleaning cloth away and shifting his grip on the sword so he could walk with it out. There was no way he was going to go through this place without having it at the ready.

"Right, let's go, then."

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THE FALLOW MIRE

Beacons!

Re: Beacons!

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