faderift | Player Plot: Sulevin Blade Quest

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Player Plot: Sulevin Blade Quest

WHO: Ellana Ashara, Galadriel, Merrill, Korrin Ataash, James Kirk, Samouel Gareth
WHAT: Tracking down the Sulevin Blade
WHEN: January 13th/Wintermarch 13th
WHERE: the Dales
NOTES: OOC Post

[ OOC: The plot starts with the first phase below in the comments section. Everybody tag into that one. There doesn't need to be a tag order; just hop in whenever. If we go maybe two full days with no tags, I'll try to hustle things along unless I was the last tagger, of course. When we reach a point that looks good to start the next phase, I'll post it as a new comment and close the previous thread. I'm pretty sure you can go ahead a track the whole entry without a paid account, and this way it'll be less confusing if we stick to one section at a time.

At certain points, I'll leave an ooc note asking for you to roll a d20 or to make some sort of choice so I can tailor the thread to your character. If anything's confusing or you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me via PM or a private plurk to

lavellan. :D ]

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The location is close by. Ellana knows it is from what she's seen in the mirror. The only problem is she never saw the entrance to the place; only the area it's located in. So unfortunately they'll have to comb the area to find some sort of door, gate, steps down into a ruin, something. She relates this to the group and they start to search. But suddenly a voice pierces the air, shrill and panicked.

"Ma halani!"

Ellana takes up her staff immediately, looking to the others. "Someone needs help!" It's probably clear from the panic in the person's voice, but Ellana knows it for sure because the words were said in elven. Suddenly an elf appears at the top of a nearby boulder and slides down, losing her balance at the bottom and tumbling forward in a somersault. She rolls back up to her feet, bow in hand to give the group a wide eyed, startled look, hand reaching for an arrow until she spots the vallaslin on Ellana's and Merrill's faces.

"They're after me," she says breathlessly, before a man's voice yells out, "Catch her!" and three men appear at the top of the boulder. Seeing the group gives them pause, but a shared look between them is all they need before they're jumping down to engage in a fight, their swords drawn.

Korrin hangs back while the elf woman appears, at least until those three men appear. Narrowing her eyes, she thinks fast and casts a Barrier over everyone before activating her spirit blade. Blurring forward, the Vashoth woman hopes to knock at least one of them over but regardless begins swinging as soon as the nearest one is within reach.

How did they always manage to find trouble as soon as they came to a new place? A question for another time seeing that they were now under attack. Seeing as Korrin had already put barriers up, Sam focuses on putting up an aura to help with their offensive and defensive abilities.

Kirk had started when the initial shout came, at first believe it might be some kind of trap. But then, low and behold, a real woman fell over the side, and very real men were after her. From the tone of voice and the weapons, it wasn't for good reasons. Kirk readied his staff, feeling the tingle of what he knew now to be magic on his skin ever so faintly. He guessed either Sam or Korrin had done something, which was enough for him as he charged in.

"Pick on someone your own size!" he barked at them, raising his sharded fist and firing a bolt of energy from it at the nearest of the men.

The battle was underway as abruptly as the young elf had appeared. Magic flowed like water across the battlefield as Korrin, Sam, and Kirk engaged. Oddly, Galadriel did not turn to magic as the combat began. Armed with her spear, the elf charged forward in Korrin's wake. The first man was thrown as Korrin came upon him, Kirk's blast honed true on the second, though how injured either of them were, she could not say. Galadriel swept and locked blades with the third before he could raise it aloft to strike--he was stunned a moment, but that was often true of men who were charged by so eclectic and formidable a force as their group.

They're in the Dales and a Dalish needs help against humans. That sounds pretty historically accurate. Merrill too grabbed her staff as soon as the shout pierced the air, and she moves now to try and get between the terrified elf and her pursuers, at least until the archer can catch her breath and find a better stance. Chain Lightning bursts forth, crackling as it arcs to hit their latest foes. As close as they are, Merrill is fairly confident that she can hit all three of them, unless they have some sort of trick up their sleeves.

Luckily for Merrill -- and the rest of the group -- these men have no fancy tricks up their sleeves. They only carry swords and as they engage in the fight, it's clear they hadn't prepared for a battle. They're all in light armor with no helmets and with such a small number it seems they either became separated from their group, or are scouts out to collect something.

And it's very clear they aren't used to fighting mages. They have no shields to block these magical attacks and Merrill's lightning strikes all three, leaving them frozen and vulnerable. They're all injured from Korrin, Jim, and Galadriel descending upon them, and now they can't fight back. The elf they were chasing has an arrow nocked and ready to go, but she doesn't have a clear shot on any of them, so she waits. Ellana easily follows up on Merrill's spell with another round of chain lightning just as the men are about to come out of their paralyzed state.

One more blow to each man should finish him off.

Korrin doesn't waste any time. These men have nothing to match their might, and evidently aren't going to surrender. Best make it quick and get it over with. Conjuring a boulder from the Fade, she sends it soaring at her target and slamming into him with a sickening thud. Not seeing him move after that, she glances over to the others to see if they need help, but not really expecting that they will. Everyone here is more than capable, after all.

"Keep one of them alive!" Kirk barked, hoping that the others would hear and at least try. He wanted to try questioning these men, or at least one. There could be a larger force they were attached to, and knowing such information ahead of time could be useful. He didn't want to say aloud that he didn't really approve of killing them, but it wasn't like the men had been planning to leave them alive either, he was sure.

He swung his staff, aiming for his opponent's head. With them being paralyzed, it's a little like shooting fish in a barrel, but he doesn't precisely feel about it. Actually, he doesn't.

It really isn't a fair fight for the three men considering the odds they were against, but it was hard to feel too sorry for them since they decided to charge them head on. Still seeing a rock from the Fade appear and crush one of the men in mid air does have Sam cringing slightly.

Seeing another one fall to a strike to the head from Kirk, Sam stops concentrating on his spell - not that the others really needed it at this point, and lowers his weapon but doesn't put it away. It would be smart to try and extract some information from one of them, like why they were chasing the elf.

Galadriel gives some pause as she regards the stunned human before her. She considers killing him, he was engaged in the hunting of an elf after all, but her first instinct has rarely ever been violence. Rather than impaling him as his sword loses its bite against her blade, Galadriel heeds Kirk's cry and instead twists and sweeps the man's legs from beneath him. He collapses as his compatriots fall and is promptly pinned by the butt of Galadriel's spear against the pit of his neck.

"This one lives yet," Galadriel calls back to the others and glances sidelong at the elven woman they had rescued.

Keeping one alive to ask questions makes sense, Merrill supposes, but she's still not entirely certain it's a good idea. She's also not entirely certain that their new elven companion will agree. Still, she calls up roots to wrap around the limbs of the man pinned by Galadriel, to keep him more firmly in place and unable to grasp at anything too stabby.

Their new elven companion definitely doesn't agree, walking forward with her bowstring still pulled back, eyes narrowed in anger. The other two men are dead, but the last lies under the tree roots, groaning and gasping.

"Why should he live?" she asks, voice laced with anger and her arrow aimed at his head.

"We should question what they were doing out here," Ellana begins, but the man huffs out a pained laugh and tries turning his head to spit at Galadriel's feet. Unfortunately for him, most ends up on his chin, but he doesn't seem to care.

"I will tell you nothing, so you may as well kill me," he sneers, his accent marking him as Orlesian, which considering they're in the Dales isn't very surprising.

"All you need to know is they wanted the location of my clan's camp, and I wasn't going to tell them, so they tried to grab me," the elf replies, clearly impatient to end his life.

"Why did you want the location?" Ellana asks, feeling a chill at the thought of humans showing interest in the Dalish. Usually -- at least outside of the Inquisition -- that never means anything good.

The man sticks to his declaration, and clamps his mouth tightly shut, refusing to say anymore. The elf, clearly having had enough, lets out a growl of frustration, though she does lower her bow.

"What all these deserters from the shem war want! They want to take back the Dales. They probably want to raze our camp and steal our supplies. Fenedhis lasa! Can I kill him now?"

Again, the man says nothing to either confirm or deny this story and Ellana is pretty sure that their small group of six probably shouldn't try to follow up on this in case they run across a group of fifty deserters. She really can't see a reason to send him back to his group, but she looks to the others. "What do you think?"

As someone neither elf nor human, Korrin hangs back during the exchange. She doesn't want to speak over those with a more personal stake in this matter, though the elven woman has her sympathy and the Orlesian her suspicion. Given the past between elves and humans, especially given that this is the Dales, she has little reason to think he didn't mean them harm in some fashion. His lack of an answer is as good as confirmation.

As Ellana looks to her, she frowns and shakes her head. "He was among those who attacked us first, and now he won't tell us anything. So why should we bother with him? She's probably right, I can't see any good coming out of this."

The roots tighten, Merrill narrowing her eyes. Whatever these people want isn't ideal. Two are already dead, which means they'll have to face the consequences either way. Merrill takes a step forward, staff in hand, to look down at him.

"You know you're speaking with members of the Inquisition, right? You know that you attacked first, right?"

There's a slight huff and Merrill glances back toward the others.

"We can't let him go, either way."

Kirk's man was out, which had left only the one tangled in the roots. His stomach twisted as the man spoke, and it wasn't hard to translate the fear and anger in the elven woman's voice even if he couldn't understand the Dalish language. From the way the man was talking, he didn't particularly think she was lying.

He didn't want to have to kill these men, but he couldn't argue that the others were right about not leaving them behind either. They could bring more men and their little party wasn't equipped to take on a full company. Not to mention he wasn't terribly sympathic towards them in the first place. Still, it never sat well with him to take a life, no matter the necessity.

"If we kill them, we need to hide the bodies," he reminded everyone. "Anyone good enough with magic to make a pit and seal it back up? We'd want their compatriots to think they've wandered off. It will buy time."

He tilted his head at the man, standing slightly over him.

"Though if you've deserted once already, that may not come as a surprise. Either way, no evidence and quiet." Lord knows the lightning was loud and bright enough to have drawn attention already. They were probably on a clock, but damn if he knew how many minutes. His grip tightened on his staff.

"I'm going to go keep watch the way they came," he said, leaving the final decision to them as he worked back towards where the men and the girl had come down from.

Sam sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose before rubbing at his eyes tiredly. Deserters from the Orlesian civil war? This isn't the first location they've been to where citizens of the country were suffering, but in this case they were taking advantage of others in the area.

He's quiet for a time, hanging back a bit as well, listening to what everyone has to say, though mostly he's staying clear of their new 'friend' with the bow seeing as she was pretty worked up about 'shems' at the moment.

"I don't think we should kill him. Yet," he says finally speaking up, scratching the side of his neck as he continues to consider some things. "I'm sure we can get him to talk with the right... persuasion." They could get inventive and probably scare him into saying something. At that Sam looks away from the man and looks to the rest of the group, as well as keeping a tab on where Kirk was heading off to.

"We're going to have to. His group doesn't know we're out here, so even if we hide the bodies the group will probably think the Dalish out here did it." Even if they were already after the camp the humans might do a lot worse thinking they were under attack - because how dare. "We don't have to do anything head on, but if we know where the main force is we could distract them or sabotage some of their things."

Ellana wishes she could say she was torn on the issue. Usually she's easily persuaded by both sides of an issue. But being Dalish and knowing this man was after the camp makes her want to cut and run. The "cut" part being to cut off his life and bury all evidence. And the running part being where they get into the ruin and back out without trouble.

"Merrill could probably do that easily," she murmurs. "Keeper magic and all." Meaning it was closely tied to the earth and the earth would accommodate Merrill's needs for a quick body disposal. She frowns at Sam's suggestion, again looking at things from the Dalish perspective. They're a small force and around humans who have proven themselves to be hostile, Ellana's solution is to avoid, avoid, avoid.

But there is one way of knowing just what their choices are here, isn't there? "He doesn't need persuading. He doesn't even have to speak at all." And with that she turns her calculating gaze to her powerful, tall elf friend.

"Galadriel? Could you get some information out of him?"

Galadriel glances sidelong at Ellana but makes no objection. The man at her feet is better restrained by Merrill's vines than her own hold and she draws her staff back as she regards him. For a moment there is naught but silence and, abruptly, the trapped human pales in terror. He maintains his vow of silence but it is a near thing.

"He is but a scout. His forces are a day's hard travel from here, far too distant to pose an immediate threat," she says and breaks the stillness of the scene. The human and he sags in silent relief as Galadriel turns her gaze on the elf who has only just joined them.

"Your camp shall remain hidden," she adds and looks at the group on whole,"As shall we, so long as he remains unable to alert them."

...well. That display was something and for once, it's not something Korrin's going to say aloud. Eyes on their captive rather than Galadriel, Korrin frowns thoughtfully and crosses her arms as she listens to the information gathered. The news is better than expected, but these forces could still pose an issue.

"Good to know. I'll be with Kirk, do what you want."

Content to leave the man's fate to others, she moves to catch up with him. Her long strides will have her catching up quickly even without use of Fade Step. Spotting him up ahead, she quickens her pace so that she doesn't have to shout to be heard. "He's just a lone scout. We shouldn't expect any immediate trouble, at least. Seeing anything interesting?"

Kirk didn't respond to Korrin right away, his eyes on Galadriel, brows knitted in what might register as anger. His grip on his staff was hard, mouth set in an equally sharp line. But he doesn't say anything, not right now. He can read a room as well as the next man, and they didn't need to be derailed over an arguement at the moment.

Slowly he turned back to his original purpose, shaking his head. "Nothing of interest. They've probably run a ways from their own encampment and right now they wouldn't have fires going, so we can't spot it from a distance. But I don't hear or see a large group coming our way either and the birds aren't quiet, so we've got some time. Probably not much. We should move on, quickly."

He isn't expecting anyone to agree with him, but seeing the face that Ellana makes has him frowning as well and crossing his arms, fully expecting her to say something against it. His mindset was different then hers, but ultimately he was trying to think what they could do to help the Dalish in the area. What he ends up hearing though has the mage frowning in confusion instead. "What-?"

Sam isn't sure exactly what is going on, but whatever it was he could certainly see the effects and feel it at some level. Perhaps it was Fortitude feeling it and in turn giving him an odd sinking feeling in his stomach. Regardless it was obvious that Galadriel had done something, pulled information out in some way.

He did not like it.

Clearly unsettled Sam stands a bit straighter, leans just a bit slightly back, but doesn't move. Not right away at least. There's a moment where it looks like he's going to say something but ends up biting his tongue and walks off towards where Korrin and Kirk had went off to.

Edited 2017-01-23 06:20 (UTC)

"I can hide them," Merrill agrees, though it's quiet. She is watching all of this with one hand tight on her staff. The reactions are telling, and Merrill isn't currently sure if they're more to Galadriel's power or to the death of the scout.

Either way, she figures that if they really wanted him to stay alive, they wouldn't have walked away.

She turns toward the Dalish woman who had been running away from the man and his group and gives her a slight nod. "With information gained, I think it's up to you and your clan to decide his fate. Not us. I can't speak for all of us here, either, but- that's my thought on it. I can put him to sleep also, if you'd like."

Nellas chats a little about her clan on the way. It's all familiar to Ellana, and probably Merrill too. Disease, hunger, outrunning shems while the clan just tries to carve out a life for themselves somewhere they can call home. But soon she stops and points ahead where they can see the start of a stone step. She'll go no closer and looks a little paler just looking in that direction.

"I need to return to my clan now. Ma serannas again." And then she slips back the way she came, silent as can be.

As they approach, they'll be able to tell right away that something is wrong. This ancient ruin that has scared away people for centuries for having a creepy feeling to it has a pair of front doors that were recently opened. It's easy to see the vines surrounding it have been pulled and cut away, but the plants aren't dead yet. Ellana looks to the group, a worried crease between her brows.

"Someone's in there. Or was."

But they've come all this way and Ellana isn't going to turn away now. She approaches the doors and steels herself for what might be on the other side. She feels no magic coming from the doors, but places down a barrier over as many of them as she can before she pushes open one door. It creaks loudly and she winces before scanning the entryway. It's dark; the only light being that which is streaming in from the doorway, but she thinks she sees a dim orange light in the distance. Yet as soon as she focuses on it, it's gone. Is her mind playing tricks on her? Is it the spirits Nellas mentioned? She isn't sure.

Walking further in, she sees the entrance is a small, square room with three archways leading to additional rooms: one in front of them, one to the left, and one to the right. Time to explore.

[ ooc: I need everyone to do two things: first claim a direction to go: ahead, left, right. Second, roll a d20 (here or by any method you want), and then put the direction (it's okay to pair up on directions if they're all picked) and number in your subject header. I know I didn't give a lot to go on yet, so feel free to write as short a tag as you want in response. ]

Well this sure is a thing. The humans and Vashoth take off, while the elves remain behind. Maybe they all had looked at Galadriel as just another rifter, but the elves see something different when they look at her: she's a representation of all they've lost. Their empire, immortality, most of their culture -- all gone. But Galadriel (and Thranduil for that matter) walk among them looking like the Creators themselves. And why would the elves fear the Creators?

Even the elf woman they saved looks more impressed than scared. "How did you--" She stops herself and shakes her head. "You know, I don't even want to know. Serves him right." She has the information to protect her clan, and she's more than ready to decide his fate. Whether or not the shems want to argue it doesn't matter to her, and she draws back her bowstring once more, smirking at the man.

"Why would I want him asleep for this?" She releases an arrow into his jugular and the impact jerks his head to one side, a gurgling sound coming from him as blood fills his mouth. Ellana cringes just slightly and looks up at the elf, rather than the man.

"Will you return to your clan now...?" The pause is so the woman can introduce herself.

"Nellas," she answers quickly. "And yes, I will, though I think I should repay you somehow for saving me. You can't come with me--" Here she jerks her head towards the group of non-elves that has walked away. "But I could maybe gift you with something?"

"Actually," Ellana says, expression brightening, "we could use your help. We're looking for an entrance to an elven ruin in this area. It's pretty overgrown, but has steps leading down and two large outer doors." At least that's what she saw in Galadriel's mirror. "Do you know of it?"

Nellas's eyes widen a little and she loops her bow across her chest. "I do, but we never go there. Our clan's elders say the spirits are angry, and keep everyone away." Still, she knows these people did her a service and she crosses her arms, gaze dropping to the ground. "I'll take you as close as I dare. Within sight of the steps. But I can't go further, all right?"

"Yes, that would be perfect! Ma serannas."

Now Merrill can get the bodies underground and they can group back up to head that way.

[ ooc: this concludes phase one! go ahead and start phase two here. ]

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Page 1 of 5

Player Plot: Sulevin Blade Quest

{ PHASE ONE } I need a hero

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{ PHASE TWO } Piece by piece, undress you from your history

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