[closed] outrun, outlast

[doneisdone]

WHO: Teren, Anders, Nate, Alistair, Wren, Jang
WHAT: seeking an errant Wardenmom (again), fighting the whole Anderfels
WHEN: on the way back from Tevinter
WHERE: southwestern Nevarra/the front line of the invasion
NOTES: probable violence

Several months ago, Teren took off at a gallop from the Grand Tourney in Wycome and has not been seen or heard from since. At least, that is, until a strange misfired crystal message erupted into the Inquisition's ears in the middle of one night, a familiar cry that was abruptly cut off and silent again. She has been otherwise unreachable, and it has most likely been intentional. Those who know Teren know how she can be.

The last people with whom she spoke were Alistair and Anders, not long after leaving. Perhaps it's fortunate that they know the most of her history, and know what reasons she might have had for bearing west upon news of the invasion. For this reason, on the way back from their intrepid Tevinter rescues, the party splits to move south of Perendale and check up on a little fishing village called Pike.

Predictably, the signs of Anderfel occupation are everywhere. Flags, camps posted around the town, and the ramshackle buildings themselves full to the brim with soldiers and civilians trying to keep up with the explosion of activity, working themselves to the bone to keep themselves and their families safe.
Those who have been here before will notice a conspicuous change: the Skraedder's hovel, while still there, bears no sign of its elderly elven resident. The sign is broken on its hinges, and the place seems to have been overrun by soldiers, one of whom gives the party a funny look as he stumbles drunkenly out the front door and takes a piss on the wall. At least it's outside.

Finding out what happened to Teren's mother is likely the key to finding Teren, if either of them are still alive.

[one thread please!]

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

Everything feels cold. And it's not just the ice forming on his fingertips as he takes position behind Alistair, prepared for... well, he's not particularly sure what. The man has to live long enough to show them who they killed, but beyond that? All bets are off for what they've done here. Unless she's alive, somehow.

"Show us." Maybe there's still a chance.

[limier]

"No one,"

Left. She turns to shake her head at Nathaniel — forewarning, her shoulders rather block the little doorway — expression grim: No one left alive. He’s welcome to follow her inside (though their pockets don’t reveal anything worth the effort of turning out), or trapise back to ground level,

As she does shortly, down through charnel, to catch words from the window: The admission’s as blunt as it ought to be horrifying. Nothing falls in her stomach, there’s no creep in her veins, and that’s...

That shouldn’t be the case. Perhaps she’s spent on anger for the month, or it just seems all a little too unreal. Sudden.

(Relief? That they won’t be blamed of this, that there are more pressing threats than suspicious foreigners? Who can bloody say. There will be time for feeling later, or its absence. No use reflecting of it now.)

"Curses travel." An excuse given often enough. Old times. A glance back to Jang. A canteen unhooked, passed over. She won’t be reclaiming it; Maker knows what venom's left on the man’s lips. "Where did they get it? Be quick."

Better to follow a live man. They need to go.

[whiskeyandbrimstone]

Jang takes the canteen, eyes not leaving her game played over the man's chest, and she hands it over to him, flipping another card up and placing it, red on black, in sequence. Anyone can see the magic being used, and someone who is actually paying attention would note that he's not getting better, just...holding steady.

"I can't hold this back forever, so drink, tell us what we need to know, and I'll stay here while you offer up your last words to whatever higher power you want to tell them to. But be quick."

[pinprick]

Nathaniel does not follow Coupe back downstairs, instead stooping over one of the soldiers' bodies. Obviously there was vomiting--not a useful thing to know, particularly, given how many poisons cause it. That the soldiers died quickly is a better indicator. He picks up one of the bottles, inspecting for any residue first on the outside before uncorking it. That is where he finds what he is looking for. On the bottom side of the cork and inside around the lip of the bottle, a dark and slimy remnant of an incredibly potent poison. It is difficult to make and expensive to buy. No common townsman could have laid this trap.

Careful not to touch any of it, he corks the bottle and puts it back where he found it. Silent. And without shifting his weight, he stays upstairs and listens. If the newcomer downstairs has friends who are joining him, having one more enemy than he knows about will be an advantage if it comes to blows.

[doneisdone]

"We--" begins the healthy man, but the one on the floor croaks out, "--no-- body." He coughs, takes a sip of water, and spits it right back out with a wash of blood. "Didn't--"...
He's interrupted by more coughing, more blood. It spatters on Jang, the man gasping for breath as the poison battles her magic.

"They shot her down," the remaining soldier says, ghost-white as he watches his comrade die, "on the edge of the woods, after she'd slit a man's throat. I wasn't there, only..." The man in Jang's arms falls limp, succumbing.
"...the shot was fatal," the soldier whispers, "I heard it so. There's no way she could've lived." He raises his head to meet the eyes of anyone still listening, clearly spooked. "There were poisonings and things, murders, vermin outbreaks and they all stopped after they got her." Until now, at least.

[pinprick]

Now that the man is dying, Nathaniel comes down the stairs.

“This is from a very concentrated version of Soldier’s Bane,” he says quietly. “It was smeared inside the bottles. This was Teren for sure.”

[justice_is_blond]

Edge of the woods. He's not going to think about anything else that the man's said. Teren or her mother or both are in the woods and it's probably Teren because he knows how good she is with knives and Nate's saying Teren too. Anders' face is blank.

"Is that the end of your usefulness to us?" he asks in a flat voice to the healthy one. They're all murderers here. Probably. He doesn't know all that much about Jang, but the natives all are, so he's really not concerned with pretending they're going to spare this man's life. They can't risk him telling others that they're here.

[byblow]

Alistair nods toward Nathaniel—relieved to be wrong, instead of his usual unsurprised but mildly annoyed by it. They could both still be alive. Which is much better than this fellow is going to be in a few minutes.

He'll do it, if it needs doing. But in the meantime he's going to go back into the house and start lugging bodies down the stairs, nodding hello to Jang on the way if he passes her. Whether the corpses of an invading army deserves the respect of being lit on fire is immaterial; he doesn't want any possessed bodies wandering around Teren's mother's house.

And arranging them into some ominous straight line in front of the house before burning them is really the least they can do, in her honor.