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

the fourth night;

[chainlightning]

Merrill was lost.

It wasn't exactly surprising - Merrill was navigationally challenged outside of the forest and the wilds. That's always been true. It's a bit alarming, though. She's in a strange place and her friends are disappearing, and Merrill did not want to be next. She maybe should have thought it through before venturing out alone to try and find them, but she- hadn't. She had given Galadriel and Solas the day, but when neither returned and she could find no trace of them...

Well, then Merrill went looking.

The shapes of the carpentry loomed in the dark and turned her further around. Logically, Merrill was pretty sure that she had an idea of where she was. How to get back to where she was meant to be, though? That was beyond her - and besides, Galadriel and Solas certainly weren't where they were meant to be. Staff in hand and feet bare, Merrill shivered and clutched at the amulet around her neck. Superstitious, but the stories said that Sylaise had taught the elves fire; perhaps she would find some warmth or some light, so long as she clung to the necklace named for her.

[laurenande]

Merrill moves through the Abbey like a bumble-bee trapped inside a wide hall, darting and turning around in ways that are not traceable by mere mortal men. She finds her way from the Main Hall quickly enough, turning up stairs and around corners, until she arrives in a long hall full of doors. It is a building very similar to the dormitories they are housed in during their stay, but very still and very quiet.

[chainlightning]

Perhaps there are other people sleeping in these rooms? Maybe they're reserved for the Brothers and Sisters of the Chantry, or for wealthy patrons, or... well, in any case, maybe someone is in them. It seems her best bet for getting un-lost, and so Merrill releases her necklace long enough to knock firmly on the first door.

"Hello? I'm sorry, I've gotten a bit lost."

[laurenande]

Merrill makes it down five doors before she finds one that opens as she knocks. This is not to say that someone opens it for her, they don't, but the door itself swings open as she raps it with her knuckles. The door opens under her touch and, all at once, the hallway is flooded with a blessedly warm cloud of steam.

Once the steam clears, Merrill can see inside--mostly. If she looks around the hanging linens.

The room inside is hot and muggy and filled with metal and wooden vats. There are fires going in many places and, running between them all, is a young lady of around sixteen years. She has a round, bright face, brown eyes, and wears her hair covered by a span of white fabric. Her hands are pinkish red and it extends to her elbows. Her shirtsleeves are rolled up just above.

[chainlightning]

"Oh, thank goodness," Merrill sighs, pushing the door open more fully and stepping around the linens. It looks like laundry, and Merrill can handle laundry. She stays back so as not to frighten the girl - she knows that, if she were a sixteen-year-old Dalish girl alone in the woods, the sudden appearance of an unexpected Chantry sister would have frightened her.

"I'm sorry to interrupt- my name is Merrill, I'm here with the Inquisition. I'm afraid I got a bit lost while looking for some of my friends."

She doesn't move past that, doesn't want to dirty any clean linens or frighten the girl- but she doesn't want to go back in the hall, either.

[laurenande]

Farther within the room, and the longer Merrill lingers here, the welcome comfort of the embracing warmth that is so rare in this abbey takes a turn for the oppressive. The air is permeated with the scent of coarse lye soap that threatens stinging eyes and burning nostrils to anyone who has not yet grown as used to it as the young woman currently absorbed in determinedly stirring one of the immense vats with a wooden paddle seems to be.

So intent on her work is she that she hardly notices she is not alone until Merrill has stepped quite near her. She flusters briefly, emitting the kind of wide-eyed squeak one might when suddenly presented with a mouse, but it quickly turns to a broad genuine smile that is every bit as warm as the steam-filled chamber when Merrill introduces herself as being part of the Inquisition's entourage. She ducks her covered head in greeting, wiping her hands on her apron a little self-consciously.

“That's quite all right! Um, no one has been through here,” she says, looking as if she wished very much she could say otherwise and be of help, “But, if you tell me where you are looking to go, I, um...” her smile turns apologetic, “I may not be able to help with that either. I only just recently got here myself, you see, but I'll do my very best to direct you!”

[chainlightning]

That's a pretty good reaction, all things considered. The air is warm and the lye stings, but Merrill is just relieved that she's found a person in her lost wanderings. This girl seems quite nice, too, and Merrill smiles back at her.

"Well, they're not in the dormitories - er, the other ones, not these ones or the ones out in the woods - which is where I'll have to go back to, at some point. But I'd really like to find them first."

She rubs at the back of her neck, a bit self-consciously. She would say she's worrying for nothing, but- no. She remembers the strange feelings in the garden all too well.

"You just got here recently yourself, though? Are you a new Chantry Sister?" She can't imagine a pilgrim being up this late doing the laundry, but she also doesn't exactly know much about Chantries in the first place.

[laurenande]

She purses her lips slightly in quite serious thought, obviously trying to place the different dormitories as Merrill names them, her dark gaze intent in the desire to be of help. There hadn't really been a question in there yet, and so she remains a little unsure until she's asked about her arrival.

"Oh, no," she shakes her head quickly, her face blossoming into a smile. The cadence of her speech speeds slightly with exuberance, "I'm still just a Lay Sister. That is, I felt called to serve the Chantry and the Maker's Bride, but I've not become a full Sister yet. I hope to, someday. Although that's not why I came originally. I came as a pilgrim with my little brother Gwydion—he had an awful pneumonia. I... I was so very sure he would die of it." Her hands twist in her apron, doe-like eyes filling with remembered fear. "But we made it," here she shines again just as quickly as her face had fallen, with the kind of light that only emanates from the faithful who have had their faith utterly confirmed; have seen miracles, "and the Revered Mother—may she forever walk beside us—blessed him the very next day, and he ran into my arms laughing and rosy-cheeked as if he hadn't ever been so pale and small and weak as he was.

"I knew right then that I had to be a part of the joy and healing they work here, even if it was just a small one, and so—" she covers her mouth suddenly with a small gasp, looking terribly embarrassed, "Oh! Here you are lost and looking for your friends and I'm prattling on. Forgive me! Do, um... do you think they might be out looking for you too? There are many of us who are up late who might have seen them. You might ask Brother Morely. I know he isn't the friendliest, but he's a very good man, and he always seems to be around and about keeping the candles lit."

[chainlightning]

"Oh! Oh, good- I'm so glad for you and your brother!" Merrill beams at her, waving away her concerns with one hand. "No, no; I asked you." She hasn't heard as much about the healing here, the 'miracles'; she has been occupied with the missing and the oppressive nature of the air, feeding into the idea that here is a place she does not belong.

'May she forever walk beside us' was a new sort of saying, though. It sounded a bit of a bad thing to happen, in truth, but perhaps it was a Chantry thing.

"Well, one's been missing for... um..." How long has it been? Merrill frowns and rubs at her forehead. "Excuse me, I just- I'm not sure how long, I suppose. She was here the first night... and then it all sort of... it doesn't quite stick." It almost, she realizes with a sickening lurch, feels like she may not have noticed at all if she were not so close to Galadriel. She had only recognized Solas's absence because the room was so empty, and she didn't know if he was truly missing.

Her hand rubs over her face, briefly pinching the bridge of her nose. "She's a Rifter, and an elf. My adoptive mother, of sorts, since I left my clan. I, erm- I'm a bit nervous about asking people, because of..." Merrill lifts her fingers, gesturing toward her vallaslin. "Inquisition or not, I know what I am."

[laurenande]

The young woman looks relieved, bright again as Merrill absolves her, and then immediately concerned that her friend and adoptive mother had been missing for so long.

"For days? Goodness! That is worrying. The abbey isn't so large that she ought to have gone missing in it without someone having seen her... especially since she is an honored guest and a rifter." There is perceptible awe at the last, even as her face pinches into a thoughtful and worried frown, "Do you think... maybe she went down to the village? Without... saying anything?" Even as the young woman asks the question, her face marks her entirely unconfident in the sound of it.

"I wish I could be of more help, Miss Merrill," she finally capitulates. It's obvious from the way she nibbles at her lip and looks genuinely distraught that she really and truly does. "If by some chance your mother comes by, I'll be sure to tell her you're looking for her and very worried. And... please don't be nervous to ask anyone else you might find during your search. You mustn't worry about your... um..." she slightly abashedly makes the same gesture that Merrill had, although towards her own face. "Every pilgrim who has come here has always been accepted with open arms."