faderift | CLOSED | Minrathous Rescue Operation

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CLOSED | Minrathous Rescue Operation

WHO: Team 1 (Coupe, Benedict, Colin, Malcolm, Nikos, Six, Yseult), Team 2 (Anders, Arohaerd, Marcoulf, Myr) and Captives (Adalia, Gareth, Inessa, Kain, Max)
WHAT: Rescuing the captives
WHEN: Nowish
WHERE: Minrathous, Tevinter
NOTES: Probably violence? It is what it says on the tin idk

Below is an OOC overview of the entire plan as a whole, including both the parts that Team 1 planned in their discussion, and an explanation of a couple unexpected obstacles the teams will encounter along the way. We're providing this rundown to help make sure everyone's on the same page OOC about what the plan is, who's been assigned to do what, what order things are happening in, and the big picture of how it goes, while hopefully still leaving plenty of room for people to decide in RP the details of how specific tasks are accomplished. We have again provided a question comment at the top for any OOC questions related to this post.

Preliminary orders from Coupe:

Team 1 is led by Coupe, Team 2 is led by Anders
To minimize the risk of crystals falling into enemy hands, only a few will be brought. On Team 1, Wren will have one, along with Nikos and Malcolm. They can be passed between characters IC if needed. Team 2 will have a single crystal. Everyone will have strict orders to destroy the crystals if there seems to be a chance it might be captured.
All members of Team 1 would be issued a vial with a very small amount of the Archon's blood, to be used to enter and exit the secret passages. Because the amount is very limited, they each must be careful to limit their comings and goings, and may have to share vials if someone runs out.
Malcolm, Nikos, and Yseult would have received orders from Coupe to kill the Inquisition captives if they cannot be extracted. The others would not be informed of this.
In general, the teams will have been reminded that the one and only goal of this mission is to get the captives out. They're not here to carve a path of wholesale slaughter but they're also not here to worry about the lives of those who get in the way of that mission. Do what needs to be done, no more and no less.

Members of both Team 1 and Team 2 will be smuggled into Tevinter by sea, and dropped off on the peninsula north of Minrathous. They'll have to sneakily hike to the catacomb entrance in the High Reaches and then travel underground into the city. This will require clearing an intentionally blocked passage between the natural caves and the city catacombs, and being very careful once beneath the city to identify and avoid magical alarm spells.

Once beneath the palace, the teams will split up. Team 2 will continue on to the point beneath the tower they intend to collapse, and will remain underground making preparations to blow the underground supports beneath the tower as soon as word comes. Their job will involve waiting a while and hiding from the occasional patrol, the last of which will arrive at an unfortunate moment and need to be taken captive or killed. They'll also be spied upon by a couple young catacomb-dwelling urchins, who seem too shifty to be trusted to keep their mouths shut even if paid. They'll likewise need to be captured or killed.

Team 1 will sneak up into the palace, emerging in a rarely-used back storeroom. Some will be disguised as servants, others as party goers, but they will discover on arrival (via overhearing a convenient conversation between passing kitchen staff) that the new Archon has issued an eccentric last-minute decree: all guests at his event will wear his two favorite colors: orange and green. This will require the team to get their hands on new disguises ASAP, most likely by bribing servants to steal their masters' clothing for them or to give up their own, or by choosing soft targets among those in attendance who can be quickly lured away from the group and robbed of their clothes.

Once the team is properly (if unflatteringly) outfitted, they'll join the party. Malcolm and Yseult will identify and target the two Head Guards, with Malcolm handling the one with the lyrium tattooed hand (who proves to be a mage), and Yseult acquiring the enchanted key. Colin, Benedict, and Wren will mingle among those in attendance in their roles either as servers or guests and gather information while keeping an eye out for unexpected threats. Six and Nikos will test whether the archon's blood can open the secret passage doors. It can, and Nikos will head into the passages to pursue his secret assassination mission.

Once the key and the dude with the hand have been obtained, Malcolm, Yseult, Six, and Colin will head down into the dungeons, handle the guards there, and open the door to the Special Prisoners section. Because of earlier delays in the catacombs, the passage out of the dungeon will by now be starting to fill with seawater. They'll find the Inquisition prisoners (Inessa and Max held separately from the rest) along with a handful of other prisoners. They'll get their own people free and decide whether to free the others or not. Benedict and Wren will either join them or remain at the party as lookouts.

Nikos, in his exploration, will have discovered two things: first, that the secret passages are not unused as Radonis had expected, which he'll discover when he encounters someone exiting the new Archon's bedroom into the passages. Second, the archon's bedroom is roomy and now empty and likely to remain that way since the Archon is off giving a speech, so it provides a good spot for the team to regroup and prepare for the escape.

The dungeon team and the rescued captives will be forced to swim through the last two chambers on their way out of the dungeon, with the final chamber entirely filled by the time they get to it, and extremely dark. Anyone who can't swim well will have to be ferried through by those who can. The nearest exit from the submerged room is the gate into the secret passages, which will need to be unlocked with both the Archon's blood and a normal key or lockpick before anyone can get out.

Once they've all made their soggy way into the passages, everyone will meet in the Archon's apartment, where they'll have to regroup and figure out how to either look less soaking wet or explain why they are + disguise the prisoners. Everyone will then head back into the secret passages and exit at various points throughout the palace in twos and threes to avoid drawing attention by traveling as a big group. At this point, Team 2 will be ordered via crystal to trigger the explosion.

When the ground shakes and the tower suddenly begins to collapse, the party crowd will, as predicted, freak the hell out and run for the exits, forcing their way past the confused guard. The team will blend in with the fleeing guests and slip out, hijack a noble's big fancy gondola, and make their escape.

Team 2 will have to book it through the catacombs as that section collapses, and make their way to a cliffside exit along the coast identified by the Archon, where the gondola will pick them up. They'll then all sail this boat further across open water and carrying a much heavier load than it's really built for to the smuggler's cove where they were dropped off, where they'll scuttle the gondola, get picked up, and sail back to Kirkwall. Mission accomplished, good job team, etc.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The dungeons are built into a system of natural sea caves. There's always some amount of water in the bottom, and so they're traversed and connected by a series of drawbridges and catwalks. The cells for normal prisoners partially flood when the tide comes in, forcing occupants to stand on small raised areas in one corner as the rest of the cell floods to waist height. There are a number of chambers to get through before reaching the door to the Special Prisoners section.

There will be a number of guards to deal with along the way, some mages, some not. There are also four other prisoners in the special section, separated from the PC prisoners. They will ask to be released also, with some pleading and others offering rewards, some both. PCs will have to decide whether to release them or not.

There will be some limited amount of time to try to do basic triage healing of the captives, but they'll need to move as quickly as possible to avoid even more chambers fill completely with water before they make it out. ]

[ Six doesn't hesitate when she makes her way into the prisoner's room. She's aware of there being other people - she can see them, just as much as she can hear them asking for her aid - and she knows she'll come to them soon, but there is something far more important to her right now. The defenceless will receive their aid from her once Adalia is safe, and not before; her heart is screaming at her to find her sister before anything else might happen to her, before someone swoops in and rips the prisoners from their hands.

Nothing is going to stop her, not guards, not water, not the Inquisition. She doesn't care as long as she can have Adalia safe.

When she finds her sister there's no hesitation; she practically sprints to her sister's side, dropping to her knees without any hesitation, slipping down and shrugging off her pack and putting her sword to one side. Her only interest is in making sure that Adalia is alright, that she is alive, and her fingers brush over her cheek, damp and sticky with sweat, before moving to her neck to check her pulse. Normal enough, she thinks, and that gives her some relief.

The binding marks on her wrist do not, however, and Six's jaw tenses before she reaches, drawing her sister into her arms. ]

Adalia. I'm here. [ And then, in the Elvish Six hates but knows Adalia loves - ] You're safe.

❰ adalia hadn't known whether to expect rescue.

oh, she was sure the inquisition wouldn't leave four of its agents to the venatori — certainly not wardens, not a rifter they couldn't be sure wouldn't be bound into their service — but rescue wasn't necessarily the only option, there. the nightingale was apparently fond of assassins as the solution to all of life's little problems, there was no real strategic reason to mount a rescue when assassinations would be so much easier.

of course she tried not to dwell on that possibility, and tried even more to remind herself that the inquisition wasn't some faceless terror, it was her colleagues and her friends and her sister and someone would try to get them all back. sometimes it was easier than others, but she tried.

even so, when rescue actually comes, for a moment adalia can't believe it. six appears, and adalia rouses from a fitful, shallow sleep to stare into her sister's face, brows furrowed and gaze unsure. ❱

Six? ❰ her voice is small and rougher than usual, though with emotion or damage it's not really clear. her hands land unsteadily on six's shoulders, as if nervous that if she exerts any pressure six will just disappear. ❱ You came. You came? You're here?

[ There is nothing that would have stopped Six.

She knows that. She knew it the moment she heard rumour that Adalia was taken, that the Venatori had her. There was nothing in the world that would've kept Six from coming to find her, from tearing down the walls and destroying anyone who dared stand in her way. No one in the Inquisition would stop her and she had been on the edge of desperation for days now. She's not sure how best to put that into words; she's not sure if it even needs saying.

Her sister is not in the best way and she knows it. Six hadn't been aware of how Corypheus and his people might treat his prisoners, but she had expected something on the edge of death. This is better, but not by much. It's a margin of horror against horror, and Six knows that she has to make sure that Adalia is alright first.

Hands reaching out, Six moves closer, lifting her fingers to brush over Adalia's hair, her cheeks. She's quick to check her over, to note anything that might be broken or bleeding out, and she shifts, drawing the other girl against her body, letting her lean against the strength of her weight. ]

Of course I came. I would be nowhere else. [ It'd be easy to try and lift Adalia into her arms, but she has to make sure nothing is broken first. ] Can you move?

❰ she can have one moment. one moment to allow herself to truly feel the relief rushing through her, to acknowledge the fear and pain and uncertainty she's been feeling for weeks, to tremble and tear up and breathe out shakily —

one moment, and then adalia closes her eyes, digs her fingertips into six's shoulders, and shuts it all out again. they're not out of the woods yet. she doesn't get to feel anything until all of them are safe. ❱

Easily enough. I broke my arm trying to escape the first week, but it doesn't impact my movement.

❰ one arm is held against adalia's torso in a dirty sling, hardly tended to beyond preventing infection and ensuring her continued usefulness. that was the venatori watchword, their only concern — could their captives be useful, could gareth be flipped, could she be bound, and the only consideration any of them really got was in service of their usefulness. her shard hand was intact, after all, so a broken arm was less a problem than a boon — harder to cast if she couldn't move her arm easily, and she'd demonstrated her willingness to lash out early on in their experiments in the gardens. ❱

[ As far as Six is concerned, no one is going to tear the two of them apart as long as she is here. She needs to have time to make sure that her sister is alright, that the two of them can be assured that they're both alive, breathing and together. She had never felt a terror like this - not since Adrian's death, seeing his body fall and crumple in front of her. That kind of fear...

It haunts you.

Let her grip all she wants, Six thinks. Let her chain me with her hands. I will not break. ]

I will bind it. If I had my magic... [ Her healing magic would surely have managed this, but she doesn't have it. Her fingers reach for the amulet of Sarenrae, but... ] It does not matter. I will take care of it.

[ Take care of you. Clearly, the Venatori had done nothing but strap them down, which is to be expected. Shifting, Six holds Adalia for a moment, loathe to let go of her even to relax the touch to her, afraid of what might happen if that isn't there, if she's not feeling Adalia against her. It would be like losing her all over again. ]

Just... In a moment.

I. Enter the Dungeon (closed to Team 1 people heading to the dungeons, single group thread)

[ Yseult has acquired the key, Malcolm has alerted them that he has the lyrium tattoo situation under control, Six and Colin have been informed they're ready to move, and all four have made their way to the hall leading down to the dungeon. Around the corner, two guards flank the entrance to the dungeons. They're a classic mis-match: one a dwarf and the other an extremely tall and very lanky human, both clad in the new dress uniforms chosen for the party: similar to the usual guard attire but purple, even their mail shirts and plate pauldrons made from purple metal.

Yseult is waiting when the others arrive. ]

There are two at the end of the hall, we'll need to approach openly but handle them quietly. Which of you is best in close quarters?

II. Freeing the Prisoners (open, multiple threads)

[ Once they've dispatched the guards in the outer areas of the dungeon and unlocked the doors to the special section, there's still the matter of finding the cells with Inquisition prisoners and getting those unlocked. Thankfully, security had been concentrated on that main door, so the cells themselves possess mundane locks, problematic only for being well-made and a little tricky. Yseult's necklace, a fan of dangling silver bars of various sizes that went a lot better with the non-orange dress, actually conceals a set of picks, and as soon as the cells with the Inquisition agents in them are identified she sets about working the locks open, one by one. ]

Are any of you injured? [ she asks as she works, crouched before the cell gate with a spare pick between her teeth ] We'll need to be able to move quickly to escape. The water's already risen out there.

[ As for the non-Inquisition prisoners, Yseult makes no move to open their cells, returning the picks to their place on the chain around her neck once the captives they came for are free. ]

III. Exit the Dungeon (open, single group thread?)

[ Water splashes beneath their feet as they dash along the narrow bridges that connect the various caves that make up the dungeon. Even in these furthest rooms the tide has already washed in high enough to lap at ankles, and it only grows deeper as they go. Yseult has her skirts lifted in one hand to make slogging through knee-high water easier, but there's nothing for it as the water in the next room reaches waist height and shows no sign of stopping, the distant rush of it pouring through passages in the rock echoing eerily in the otherwise-still rooms. It's still walkable for now, but clearly will only get worse ahead.

Yseult turns to look at the rest of the group, especially the prisoners. ]

Can you all swim?

[Inessa, as one of those who is definitely on the shorter side, is watching the rising waters with increasing dread. She automatically straightens, not that it will make much of a difference.]

I can keep myself afloat...I think. It has never been put to the test quite like this.

[The rising waters should bother Kain more at the moment than they do, but his mind is worlds away. He's trudging along automatically, much like the living dead, just following orders. He doesn't feel too safe, yet, despite the rescuers doing all they can to reassure them. They're not out of here, yet. At least the healing has done enough for him to keep him moving along. It's a start, and better than nothing, but there have been a few times he's thought they might be better off abandoning him. But they've come all this way. He cannot ignore that fact.]

I'll... I'll do what I can.

[He'd been taught the basics, but, hm, when was the last time he'd ever swum? It's not a pursuit he'd done much of, unfortunately. Put him on a horse, and he's beyond capable, but toss him in the sea? He's not so skilled there. But he has no choice, so he'll do what he must.]

[The tide has been a concern of his from the start. But this? Sweet Andraste and blessed Maker above, this is a little much. Splashing about had been fine. Puddles, the constant water lapping at their feet. That's fine.

The rising water, though. Is a problem. If they're fast enough, if they can outrun the tide--but the higher it is, the slower going it is. It's when it gets about waist high that the demon in his brain sets off several alarms, panic tightening in his chest. It's only going to get higher, and then they'll need to swim.

This is already too high. He already finds it hard to breathe, and the water is just going to steal the rest of it away, and he's going to die here. He feels it thrumming in his blood and vibrating in his bones and he almost misses the question entirely. If he looks pale, surely that's just the lighting. If he looks tightly wound and having a bad time, well, it's a bad time, and they need to move. If he looks on the verge of tears, that's because of the damp, the wetness. Surely that's all.

Not having a stroke of panic. He's fine. He just feels like he's two seconds from turning around and going back to the cells. The water is rising. The rush of water in the distance is a loud ringing in his ears. Maybe that's his heart. Distantly, he knows that he has to help these people make it out alive. (Or die trying, if they can't make it.) But that also feels far away. At the very least, a prayer falls from his lips.]

I cannot see the path. Perhaps there is only abyss. Trembling, I step forward, In darkness enveloped.

[ Well that's. Not encouraging. Yseult looks from Inessa to Kain, backpedaling just for a pace or two down the bridge as she looks at him, at the rest of them. A glance at Malcolm that lingers, concerned, and then sets it aside for a moment. Back to Kain. ]

And what can you do? I need all of you to be very honest with me about your ability, so that those who need help get it before they have a problem. The water is coming in too fast, we won't be able to walk the whole way. I'm a strong swimmer, but I can only help you if I know you need it.

[ Malcolm's prayer is maybe good, maybe bad. She knows the next verse and almost says it for him, nudges him along, but first things first. ]

Seeker. Can you swim?

THE DUNGEONS | Team 1 + Prisoners

reunion. closed to adalia.

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III

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Closed to Kain

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