faderift | WAR TABLE: the sunless lands

It is not long after the group leave Orlais' charted borders that the weather begins a change for the worst. The sun vanishes behind heavy clouds as the already cold weather drops into shockingly cold territory. The winds do not help as it bites at exposed skin, leeches away warmth and can easily chill someone to their very core if you happen to be improperly dressed in any way to face these lands.

The further one travels into these lands the more dangerous it becomes. They face mountainous paths whipped by heavy winds before it flattens into a bleak landscape but the danger comes from underfoot. Out on the barren ground it is hard to tell the difference between walkable ground, slick sheets of ice, or crusty snow drifts that will give way to weight and sink travelers into snow as deep as they are tall.

Scenery does not offer much but periodically the team will come across a chasm, like a crack in glass, that appears to go on forever into the distance and down into the earth.

Christine prepared for this journey as much as she could, but even with as many layers on as she could comfortably walk in, she's freezing. Heavy boots, wool socks, lined leggings under heavier pants, multiple shirts, a coat, hooded cloak, scarf, and gloves do little to stop the sharp bite of the frigid wind blasting her face as she slowly trudges through the snow. Even stepping in the larger footprints of the Qunari barely helps her, and behind her scarf, she's breathing heavily from the exertion. At times she starts to fall behind and needs a helping hand or an encouraging voice to get her back closer to the group.

Having been born and raised in Ferelden there is a part of Ciri that is used to the nature of ridiculous cold weather. This was something on a completely different level. Her entire body is shaking, trying to produce some form of warmth despite being wrapped head to toe in thick woolen winter wear. Wrapping her arms around herself, she bends at the waist and tries to curl into herself and keep walking.

It is hard not to notice whenever someone begins to fall behind considering the closeness they were being forced to keep so not to lose one another in the blinding white-outs that come up every so often. She slows her pace, furrowing her brows and breathing out a shaky breath.

"Here," she says, offering her hand. "We can rest soon. Daylight will not lasting much longer now."

Lifting her head at the voice, Christine extends her arm and takes Ciri's hand with a grateful sigh. "My thanks," she says, her voice slightly muffled by the scarf covering both her nose and mouth, but still intelligible.

"With night comes even more cold." A common complaint out here, to be sure, but she can't help herself. "At least we will be able to huddle together once more." Closer than they are while walking, that is.

Although Ciri offers a small smile, it is hidden behind the scarf covering most of her own face and can only nod her head. For now, she just focuses on making sure they keep a good pace with the group so that no one falls behind before they have a chance to even make a dent in this place.

"Getting out of this wind will help with the chill quite a lot and there is a way of building snow caves to help with the warmth." Once she knew about this mission there had been quite a lot of reading to get done. "But you're right, huddling together is the best way to make sure we get through the night."

"At this point, I will happily move snow in order to make a cave to block the wind." It's the wind that's the worst, chapping any skin exposed to it. And even her layers can't block the chill that cuts straight through.

"I cannot imagine our enemy had an easier time coming down here, especially if they wore their armor underneath."

"Probably not but I imagine the red lyrium might help to block some of the chill out especially with the more mutated ones," she mutters with a sharp frown behind her scarf. Ciri can remember the intense heat running through her veins during the fight with Samson as the red dust leeched its way into her cuts and wounds.

"At least that's what I figure since it's so... weirdly hot." It reminds her of blood trapped in crystal, warm and thumping along.

"It is," she agrees. As someone who is researching it (in moderation, of course) and has fought Red Templars before, she's familiar with it.

"But even so, there are different degrees of degradation. Though I doubt the ones who are still human looking envy the monsters for not being cold."

"Can you be so sure?" It's asked very quietly, barely audible over the sound of the wind.

"It doesn't help matters that they are now moving into less pleasant territory by infecting darkspawn with the shite."

Christine turns her gaze towards Ciri, thinking she heard what the woman said, though the wind tried to carry it away. "Not completely, no. But I have seen how Red Templars look at those who have mutated worse. There is fear in their eyes, either of being attacked, or losing their minds altogether and becoming like them."

The idea that darkspawn could change from the red lyrium has her stomach turning and she swallows down the desire to gag behind her scarf.

"Let us hope the effects are not what we would expect, and darkspawn grow even stronger from it."

Having traveled around for the majority of his life, Merrick is accustomed to many different kinds of weather. Even so, these conditions are exceptionally extreme, and he keeps Pel's knitted hood and scarf tight around his head as they travel. He tries to scout ahead as far as he can, scaling the terrain fleet-footed and light, and hunts whatever he can find in the barren wasteland.

As time wears on he starts to get colder, too small and thin and too under-dressed to weather the harsh conditions. He pushes on, but the more the wind picks up the closer he gets to passing out. He keeps it to himself, but he staggers a bit while he's scouting, almost engulfed by the large snowdrifts. This is no place for an elf.

As it turns out, the Sunless Lands are rather aptly named; at this time of year, there are only five hours of daylight. The region is bitterly, dangerously cold, especially when the sun goes down. Surviving the nights will require combinations of industrious snow-cave digging, magic, and spooning.

Luckily they do not have to spend all of their short daylight hours digging away at their snow homes. Signs of human life dot the landscape and it is likely that they might come across formerly build snow caves, fire pits or even the odd body or two. It might be good to make use of these caves or any supplies they come across because the night is dark and bloody cold.

Although there is no sight of their targets does not mean the group will not run into signs of life in their travels. In fact, creatures that call this land home do not seem the least bit disturbed and continue about their routines.

The primary signs of life will be creatures that look like fennecs, only larger and all white. They'll emerge at dawn and dusk and be skittish but nonaggressive. They hunt equally white rodents that the team will not find unless they dig or unintentionally disturb their under-ice burrows. The team may also encounter enormous cousins to Thedas' bear population -- larger even than the Great Bears of the Dales -- which, again, are white, with visible fangs and a lot more interest in trying to eat humans than the fennecs.

Which might just make things a little difficult but at least a fight or two could get some blood pumping.

Yael's sense of self-preservation was there, thank you very much, she just...didn't always think it through. So here she was, several yards away from the main camp during one of the rare windless periods. She was crouched in the snow, trying to tempt a fox closer with a small scrap of food. She was holding it out and waiting patiently while the fox watched her nervously. She'd at least convinced it not to run away yet. That was something.

"Good way to get bit."

He knows better than to approach, less wary of spooking the wildlife than he is spooking Yael. She seems the sort to startle easy, from what he's seen.

So, obviously, best choice to shove out here with them on this mission. He's not gonna question it, not his place to, but seriously?

"Or a friend," she answered. The thing had been moving like it was going to come toward her, but it had frozen in place again when Bull appeared, watching him to see if he would make any aggressive moves.

And yes, Yael was easily scared. But she was perfectly capable of shooting a bow while terrified, and it wasn't like her ability to make rational decisions was anything to write home about to begin with. Other people came along for that.

Five days after setting out (and sleeping far too close to one another), the Inquisition team will find the edge of a broad canyon. At the bottom of it, a sizeable number of Corypheus' forces -- primarily Red Templars, but a few Venatori and glassy-eyed Warden mages among them -- will have taken up residence and begun construction of a new mining operation, with enough heat-emitting red lyrium already growing in the cliffside to make the canyon livable in the cold.

With upwards of sixty men, the force is too large for a small team to take on without essentially committing suicide, and the only way down is to scale the icy wall of the canyon where Corypheus' men have build in ladders and scaffolds, which would put the team in full view of those below. Getting in and out to search for papers or plans to grab (encrypted, largely) may be possible under cover of darkness, if they think it's worth the risk of potentially alerting the enemy to their awareness of the mining site.

After surveying the situation in the canyon below, Christine looks to the others. They've come this far only to find a force much too large to fight on their own. But after coming all this way through barely hospitable land, they can't go away empty handed, can they? Shutting down this operation is impossible unless they send a much larger force, but surely there's something they can do now to undermine this operation before retreating.

"Thoughts? There must be more we can do that simply report back that they are here."

"There is no way down without being seen, unless we go at night, and are very careful," Geneviève points out, a frown on her face.

"Without any guarantee we will even find anything down there that wouldn't be uncovered with a greater force? Suicide is a word that comes to mind." Generally speaking she doesn't like leaving empty-handed either, but sometimes scouting means exactly this, leaving without snooping so that it's possible to return later and actually successfully kill things.

"And that is without whatever danger being so close to so much red lyrium might cause."

Ciri mutters her words faintly with her gaze focused on the view she has through her spyglass. There is far, far too many men here. What has her most concerned is the appearance of Warden mages among the group after having been hidden away for so long for purposes unknown.

"Unfortunately in the time it takes for us to get back with a decent force might be too late," she says, continuing to peer through the spyglass with a frown. "We might be able to learn something from up here though. Possibly figure out why they've suddenly brought the bound Warden mages out of hiding."

Yael was on her stomach at the edge of the canyon, laying flat and peering down into it. "We might be able to get down with a distraction," she said over her shoulder. "And possibly some camouflage. I can set off explosions to draw attention and men and I don't even really have to be there." She had long enough fuses with her that she could stagger the blasts. "I could even drop something right down into the canyon but I don't think that would help us get down. It might break them up a little, though, make them leave to search for me?"

"Second you do that, they're gonna get real paranoid. They'll pack things up and burn down what they can't carry the second they think someone's onto them here."

This from Bull, who'd been observing from some distance back. No sense pushing forward to try and get a look down there with three sets of perfectly good eyes taking things in nearer to the edge. One more eye isn't going to be much help.

But sussing out a plan? That he can do. Just give him a minute to consider.

Crossing her arms, Christine moves a little back from the cliff edge and the closest observers.

"He's right. A distraction would be easier were the location not so hard to reach and this place not so inhospitable. Even if we did succeed in infiltrating, our escape would be across a barren land of white. They would be able to see us in the distance and track us all the easier." After all, the tracked the enemy here in the first place, didn't they?

"I do not suppose you can read lips through your spyglass?" she asks Ciri. Other than risking lives to go down there and grab evidence, all Christine can think to do is figure out what they're saying.

"And unlike us, they have that red lyrium pushing them. They'd be capable of marching for longer period of times and at a faster rate than us." Ciri frowns, twisting her spyglass and enlarging her view slightly. Seeing the number present, she cannot help the sound she makes and sighing. "We'd be fish in a barrel for them."

Pulling away from her spyglass, she glances to the others before returning her focus to the figures at the bottom of the cavern with a roll of her shoulders.

"I could but it might be difficult depending on the party considering a lot have their faces covered from the elements."

"Fair enough," Yael agreed, still on her belly. "But I don't want to go down there without doing something first, so I think probably we're just going to have to leave."

She sat up, looking contemplative. "I don't suppose anyone has something we can draw with?" she asked. "We could at least get the layout of the camp, maybe? Would that be useful?" she asked, looking with wide eyes at the nearest person who might validate her.

"I can try to get down there," Merrick says suddenly.

He's been silently watching, gauging the area and the distance he could potentially manage to sneak down. It would be risky, but he's made a career out of stalking through the shadows-- this shouldn't be too tough, he thinks.

Her eyebrows lift in surprise and she looks between the elf and the cliff's edge. Obviously it's not impossible to get down there, as the Red Templars did with all their supplies, but it doesn't seem like a path that screams "inconspicuous."

"I do not doubt your skills as a scout, but have you ever moved unseen down terrain such as this before?" She's kind of hoping they can talk him out of this, because it does seem impossible to get down and back unseen.

"I'm with him," Ciri says just as suddenly looking away from her spyglass.

"We already hold the advantage given they don't know we're here. If we wait until nightfall, we'll be climb down without being seen if we stick to the edges." She rolls her shoulders, stepping back. "Hitting the tents along the edge would the only thing we could probably do without exposing ourselves too much but it might result in gaining something."

She'd honestly prefer to try and grab one of the Warden mages but that would be asking for too much of a miracle.

"What does that do for us, though?" Yael asked, still sitting on the ground near the edge. "It seems like an awful lot of risk to take for not much reward. It would take longer to get back up if you were spotted, and you'd be exposed for all that time. It seems like..." She trailed off, needing a moment to organize all her thoughts. It was getting jumbly in there, and a kind of low-key nervousness was creeping up, but she knew it was important to speak up if she saw someone about to do something stupid. "It seems like you're grasping for something to do because you don't want to do nothing, but sometimes nothing is the best thing."

"Maker knows I would usually be the first to agree and I would but then I noticed the mages."

Not many but some which is more than she has seen since Weisshaupt burned to the ground.

"For almost an entire year we haven't been able to find them. They've kept them locked away for something and hidden away but they bring them out here, why? This isn't nothing." Still, she sighs. "But we're a democratic sort, and can put it to vote. If nothing else, we can take notes on their routine and report back on what, if anything, might get brought out of these mining sights along with their numbers."

Being a mage herself, Christine feels that she should know why the Warden mages were brought here, but she really can't come up with a reason for it. They were used by the Venatori to raise a demon army, so what is their connection now to mining red lyrium? As someone studying red lyrium, Christine knows how dangerous it is to be around it, so she can't account for this, unless it's part of an experiment. Mages burn off lyrium before they can become addicted, unlike Templars. Maybe they want to see if the red lyrium makes spells more powerful? But it's such a weak theory that she doesn't voice it aloud.

"I too would like to know why the mages are a part of this," she says. "But the chances of stumbling across the answer from spying on them without being caught are slim." People already in on a plan are unlikely to sit around discussing what is already known.

"If we are voting, my vote is to record what little we can from here and head back. It is too dangerous to send anyone down to spy. If one is caught, we are all caught, and there will be no one to report back."

"I won't be caught," says Merrick irritably. "I can't speak for the rest of you. It should just be me."

He's already impatient. This is one of those times where he has to bite down and work with other people, though, so he crushes the impulse to just start heading down there by himself.

Progress.

"Um...well, we definite...I mean, we probably definitely shouldn't send anyone on their own, maybe," Yael said. That was progress of her own, managing to assert her opinion against resistance, even with all the hedging. (It helped that Merrick was an elf and elves weren't too scary.) "Because then if something does go wrong you're on your own without any backup and that's not good either."

"None of you can do it without being noticed," Merrick insists, quite frustrated. "Least of all you."

He realizes that was a lot meaner than he'd thought it sounded, and clears his throat, ears hot. "No offense."

Yael frowned thunderously. "I'm as sneaky as you are, and you're rude," she informed him, but she was aware they were getting off-topic. She glanced over her shoulder, into the canyon, then slid forward a few feet until she could stand up without becoming visible over the edge, tired of sitting in the snow.

WAR TABLE: the sunless lands

TRAVEL

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sorry about the wait!

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CAMP

TROUBLE

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BIGGER TROUBLE

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