Simple Gifts [Closed]

[laurenande]

WHO: Galadriel, Thranduil, Solas, Myrobalan, Merrill, Kitty, Lakshmi, Teren, Marcoulf, Jang, Obi-Wan, and Anders
WHAT: A trip to a perfectly normal Chantry in the middle of nowhere.
WHEN: Current.
WHERE: The Island of Alamar, Ferelden.
NOTES: Current warnings, to be updated: Graphic Descriptions of Gore

The Abbey on the White Cliff

Travel to the Abbey on the White Cliff is no easy matter. While it stands not far from Amaranthine, the waters between the mainland and the island shores are a wicked confluence of eddies and razor sharp rock. The rain is ever-present here and the wind moves unpredictably at the best of times. Ships of size cannot travel easily to the island of Alamar and small boats are rarely steady through the choppy water. Fortunately, as the Inquisition approaches, the world takes some pity on them and the waters seem to still and calm. The clouds linger but, at the very least, they don't open above them until they have reached the land.

The island is a grey affair, all rocks and scrub and damp. The village, an austere looking outcropping of buildings, is entirely made from the local stone and, were it not for the red clay roofing, would blend into the landscape seamlessly. Very few people have strayed into the rain to greet the Inquisition and, without the voices to echo off the stone, most sound is drowned in the lapping of waves and the heavy fall of rain. As a result of the weather and the lack of citizens, the town has the general quality of a graveyard.

The merchants who work the docks are affable enough and, after unloading their haul and securing it somewhere a bit drier, offer to take the Inquisition up to the Abbey proper. The rain slows before long and the merchants lead the Inquisition to the main roads and, let them on their way. Fortunately, the Island is not terribly large and, even walking, it will take only a few hours to arrive at the far side of it.

As the party leaves the village and the shore, the island landscape opens before them. Sloping moors give way to periodic outcroppings of rock and, against the horizon and the far end of the island, there rests a dark forest of pines. The Abbey on the White Cliff stands at the far side, at the top of the hill and overlooking the waves. The road they travel is an easy one, well worn, and the buildings come into view long before they reach them--they stand several stories tall, made of the same stone as the village. They are moss-covered and have the look of an old building that has been questionably kept--at least, from a distance.

The closer one gets to the buildings, the more obvious the additions and repairs become. Windows that have no business holding glass have had colorful windows inset to them. The doors are heavy, wooden, and new. The ironwork on the walls is polished and unworn by the rain. There are no torches lit but, once the Inquisition members have reached the doors, they open promptly.

They are greeted by a Chantry Sister with a bright smile and rosy cheeks and, without hesitation, the lot of them are welcomed into the Abbey.


OOC:

Hey guys! So I plan on aggressively GMing this one. Basically I want to run this like D&D, or as near as I can manage.

The location threads below are available for single player/two player exploration, I will be tagging you with information based on where you go or what you do, but if you want to do a bigger thread please just use the team threads at the bottom. That way if you all decide you want to check out the [INSERT LOCATION HERE] and it leads you to [DIFFERENT LOCATION] I can move you along without changing threads.

Because of your proficiencies, different characters will have advantages in different areas/while talking to different people, so groups are best. I will also be PMing your character journal periodically with any information that your character may have picked up on that nobody else would.

The NPCs are available for talking to or questioning by any number of people. Their general locations are in their thread headers so you can travel there as a crew or ask me to send them at you, if you so desire.

Feel free to do new top-levels if you guys really want, I am just here to try and make this fun.

Comments

Dormatories, Night 1

[laurenande]

The room is small with barely a space between the cots and the bed, but Galadriel has found the route through it that will permit her to pace. She is on edge, stressed to the very ends of her tolerance, and her eyes dart toward the window once every few minutes. Her expression is grim but she does not speak as she moves.

She only ceases her pacing once the others have joined her. She does not take the bed that has been offered and, instead, stands by the open window for some time.

"This is a dreadful, intolerable place."

[dirth]

Solas is worried for her, but he isn't going to be the one to put it into words. There is something about this place that makes him feel uncomfortable, makes him want to do something to fix it, to discover it, so he cannot imagine what Galadriel herself must be feeling. Her magic is different from his own, and she hasn't been herself since they had first found themselves here.

"I do not like the magic at work," he admits, finally, moving forward. He stands at her side, not as a barrier but as a support, should she need it, their intimacy obvious to anyone who looks hard enough to try and see it.

He is here to be at her side, to investigate, to learn.

[chainlightning]

"Do you feel the same magic that I do?"

Merrill can't help her question, even knowing that the others can't answer it without knowing what she feels. She misses Barkley terribly at the moment, but it's better that her little dog isn't with. Still, Merrill rubs her hands together next to a lit candle, trying to encourage more warmth in.

"It's too quiet outside of town. Like we're blanketed in something. And the garden looked so... strange, for this time of year."

[faithlikeaseed]

The last to return to their rooms, Myr's been uncommonly quiet over there on his bunk, hands laced together before him in as in an attitude of prayer. It's only when the others start speaking in earnest that he lifts his head and turns his attention back to the outside world, away from the confused roil of his own thoughts. (Quiet dread, and old fear, and new hope, bright and shining. Maker, what a gift You've given the world in this strange little abbey.)

"Everything's fruiting out of season," he offers quietly, on the subject of the garden. "Or flowering, and you'd think that would make it a lovely place to be--but there's this pall over all of it. Something's wrong here."

A pause, a slow breath in and out again. "But it isn't with the people."

[dirth]

"The people are not as well in spirit or body as they might be in mind," Solas says gently, looking a little more pensieve now. He had been to the infirmary, he had seen the people, and he had not been content with what he had discovered. The people there were suffering a series of maladies that could not be cured by his hand and it didn't seem as though the people were truly equipped to deal with it, to manage them.

He still stands guard over Galadriel, but he speaks to the rest now.

"I've not explored as much as I would have liked, but I see what more I can learn tomorrow. There must be more staff to which we can speak."

[faithlikeaseed]

He takes the words for mild rebuke, inclining his head in acknowledgment of his own ignorance on that point. "How bad is the infirmary?"

No doubt exists in his mind that the miracles the pilgrims are waiting for exist and would be granted in due time, but... Alvar had to rest between them. Any delay in treatment of the dying would tip many over the balance into dead; so many of Hasmal's initial survivors had not lived beyond their first week after the uprising. Too many wounded--too few healers.

No healers at all, here.

[dirth]

"There is disease, wounds, death. People are incredibly unwell and there is not enough treatment or understanding of their problems for them to be able to make a recovery." Solas doesn't blame the people necessarily; they do not have the same access to things that people in Kirkwall might. They are doing the best they can, but it's not quite enough.

Solas sounds frustrated, sounds on edge, but he's doing the best he can. He wants to make sure his friends are well taken care of, that they are safe, that they will not get any kind of illness, but he also has to learn the depths of this place. He has to learn what is happening so that he can help, or so that he can at least make sure there is some comfort here.

This is not a place anyone can thrive in.