WAR TABLE: the sunless lands

[ichaer]

WHO: Ciri, Christine, the Iron Bull, Genevieve, Merrick, & Yael
WHAT: Following Samson’s movements with his templar team prior to being intercepted, and intel gathered regarding thwarted red-lyrium smuggling operations in Antiva, a group heads into uncharted territory following a lead. Also: it's cold as dicks.
WHEN: /waves hands vaguely
WHERE: Far, far south past Orlais' charted borders
NOTES: Nothing currently, will update as needed.

Comments

[aceso]

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.

[ichaer]

"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."

[leadseasy]

"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.

[dalishious]

"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.

[aceso]

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.

[ichaer]

"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.

[leadseasy]

"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."

[ichaer]

"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."

[aceso]

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."

[dalishious]

"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.

[leadseasy]

"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."

[dalishious]

"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."

[leadseasy]

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.