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

[doneisdone]

"Don't follow it," comes Teren's immediate answer, though she knows how reactionary and perhaps counterproductive that sounds. "It's a bloody despair demon, or something akin to one." Her eyes flit to Thranduil. "I noticed a shardbearer was missing, the other night. Didn't know about the elf." Which is to say Solas, not that they aren't both elves.
"They're both the... I don't know, mystical sort, are they not," she posits vaguely.

[shri]

She wets her lips, swallows down harshly on it. That prickle of her own need to do quite the opposite - follow it. That fear was nothing she dealt with well when there no plan to attack it. "If we go, we go together. If people are going missing, we keep each other in sight, always."

But - "we should look. Sitting here. Staying put, we will not find them, we will be picked off in turn." Mad as it was to look at all, even so.

[rowancrowned]

"I noticed Galadriel was absent, but such is her way." One woman's 'mystical' is another man's 'doesn't use the buddy system'. "Solas likely went to look for her. I believe I could retrace his steps, fetch him."

But then he would have to leave the rest of the team alone.

He takes one of his sword belts from his waist, the whole thing, sword and sheath, and holds it out. They can decide between the two of them, Teren and Lakshmi, who takes it.

"If the temperature drops, if you feel odd, if you hear odd things, retreat. Return here. Mind the candle. If you are not here in the morning, I will call the rest of the Inquisition together, and we will discuss how best to handle... all of this."

[rathercommon]

"You're going by yourself?" Kitty's face immediately creases in a disapproving scowl. "Don't be ridiculous. If they're kidnapping people - or even kidnapping elves, specifically - you're going to be just as much at risk."

[doneisdone]

Teren turns to look at the sword Thranduil holds out, quirking her brow as though to say 'are you fucking joking': perhaps Lakshmi will want it, Teren probably couldn't heft the thing to save her life. That, and only six of the blades in her possession are actually visible. She'll be okay.
"Fine," she growls at him, "though putting these damn things back in the Fade, that's what your lot is all about, isn't it?" Glancing around at all three of them, Teren raises her eyebrows. Rifters do the rift thing, right??

[shri]

She takes it, careful, and it it's clear to that she doesn't like this. "You should not go, but if you must..." Is a deep breath, the fixed look hard at him as she gingerly takes the weapon from it. It is, after all, a beautiful sword and she can appreciate that much, that she takes care to be respectful to it by way of the dip of her head. Because where Teren cannot, and she might not look so tall or broad herself, she most certainly can wield the thing.

"Do not forget your crystal to tell us where you are going. If something happens to you... we can at least know where you last were."

[rowancrowned]

"I must," he says. Solas is dear to him, and besides that, there is no need to risk four of them when it will take only one to search, and then, as he suspects, flee. No use in tripping over three others when he'll do so.

He glances at Kitty. He could give her reasons, he could explain, plea, persuade (remember the mistakes he made with Adalia) but in the end, what he said for Lakshmi is as good for her as it was for the older woman.

He has no desire to make a martyr of himself.

"I do not think the crystal will work. Retracing his steps should not prove difficult, but if I have not returned by dawn, assume the worst." To Teren: "If you found a Rift, that could explain... some of this."

[rathercommon]

Kitty's jaw clenches. Her eyes flash with anger, and her fists clench. But Thranduil's made his choice. If he's set on this, she can't make him stay with them.

"Fine," she bites out. She ought to say be safe, but she's angry, and so instead she just looks at the others. "Let's go, then. Let's take care of this."

[doneisdone]

"I-- no, I didn't," Teren stammers, and realizes that might be an important part of them banishing the demon. Oh well.
Rather than try to cover for her ignorance, she lets Thranduil go easily enough, steeling herself and slipping into the hall toward where they saw the smoke lead. She's encountered this damn thing before, she knows what she'll feel.
Hopefully.

[laurenande]

Thranduil departs quickly, moving down the hall with speed and leaves the rest of the group gathered in the Library. The candle burns strong, warming the library in a strange and calm way, but through the threshold the hallway is dim and the temperature drops off quickly.

Teren slips out first, into the darkness as Thranduil passes, and stops at the doorway the smoke had disappeared down. The room is dark and silent--there is a riot of fabric strewn about the floor. The walls are lined with overturned furniture stacked to the ceiling, all of it is covered in dust. In the center of the floor there are two heavy footprints--they are malformed and appear to have burned the wood.

[shri]

She follows after, taking the moments between to strap the sword to her waist. The prayer murmured soft in her mouth to be guarded against whatever they would find - face. Whatever that came to be. Let Lord Shiva guide them, let Lord Ram give them strength.

Her eyes fall over the room, as they step into it, moving over the apparent mess of everything in here. Not to fall on the footprints, strange as they are - horrifying as they are - but rather... to the wall. Hidden behind the furniture. Staring at it for a moment, letting them go about what they could see in it. Carefully, moving closer, her body half turned and lowered that little with it. Until she's close enough and grabbing what seemed to be directly in front of it. "Help me with this - "

To drag it away, to reveal the wall, dented behind it. The wooden pannels weak, something looks to have struck them. Her hand lifts, two fingers pressing to her lips - quiet. Moving briefly to touch them, testing the strength of the wood. Leaning in to see if it had any give. What on earth? "Get back." Is the murmur, strictly so.

Because she leans back, resting her weight on her back foot. Hand bracing to the piece of furniture next to the cleared space to steady herself. Taking the second to let the blackwater fill her, strengthen her limbs, her body, her will, make everything too loud and too quiet and then -

Smack. She kicks it, hard, sharp, with all that inhuman force behind it. Driving with the weight of her boot heel into the weak wood panel. Then again, - her whole weight behind it. Smack, smack, - hearing it crunch with each resounding strike. Until her heel struck the whole way through - smash. Hopping a second to catch her weight as her leg was stuck in the now hole in the wall.

[rathercommon]

"Oh - careful - " Kitty springs forward at once to catch her elbow and to steady her. Carefully, she helps pull Lakshmi's leg out, and then squats to look through the hole. Nothing clear beyond - and so she hooks her hand through the hole and starts yanking, pulling the wood away as best she can to clear a path.

As she does, she looks up at Lakshmi. For a moment, her brow furrows, incredulous over just how strong the woman is. But this isn't the time for that; they can discuss it later.

[laurenande]

Between Kitty and Lakshmi they clear away the wall within a few moments, revealing a small room behind this one. It is pitch dark and the air is musty--the contents left undisturbed and moldering over time. Without light it is difficult to see what the room contains, but the vague shapes within it are apparently.

There are a few chests, a bookcase, and a lectern standing in the center. It is a room large enough for all three of them to stand in it, but only just. The shelves of the bookcase are littered with oddly shaped items, some wrapped in fabric others bare. The floor has stacks of rags and odd, bulbous shapes. The chests are closed and the locks papered over.

On the lectern sits a letter. It is unreadable through the dust on the paper.

[doneisdone]

Teren shivers as they enter, eyeing the footprints on the floor and the damp clothes nearby, though she doesn't speak of them immediately because Lakshmi is kicking the wall. And then it is... abruptly not the wall. A room beyond, which makes her shiver all over again.
Stepping in after the younger women, Teren touches one of the bulbous shapes with the toe of her boot, then goes to the lectern and blows on it to clear the dust. As long as they're here, they may as well make use of the place as quickly as possible and then be gone again, lest the demon come back and catch them unguarded.

[laurenande]

The bulbous shape makes a damp squishing sound as it is pushed aside. The lectern, thankfully, makes no sounds as Teren blows across it and sends the dust flying. Once it has settled, the writing on the letter is made clear.

It is not long, a list of the contents of the room, or vague descriptions of them, and a note.

And not a piece of this shall be removed from this sealed chamber, for there are dangers here that we cannot predict and chances we cannot risk. Should anything else tumble from the rift, we shall house it thus, else seek my aid on the matter.

Take care when handling anything here, however banal it may seem. There are more than a few pieces of those demons and I dislike the look of what is left, but I dare not burn it for fear of what will happen.

Maker forgive us and Andraste watch over us all.

--Reverend Mother Odetta of Alamar

With context the shapes in the dark make far more sense. They are the remains of demons, discarded and wrapped, hidden away. There are metal bits as well, rusted swords, water rotted books with bright covers, a dull and broken lantern of strange make. It is macabre trash and it has been long sealed in this windowless room.

[doneisdone]

Teren reads it aloud, then looks at Lakshmi and Kitty like she's both very sorry and might vomit.

[rathercommon]

Kitty looks a little green, her mouth twisted into a nauseated line. Even so, she isn't daunted: she approaches one of the shapes and (eyes narrowed with disgust) examines it a little closer. Trying to see what a demon looks like.

[laurenande]

The shape Kitty nears is rounded, oblong, and has long ago soaked the parchment it is wrapped in with an oily residue. The paper shines as she investigates it, a dull greasy shine in the middling darkness of this room. Where the paper folds over, it also gaps, and in that gap there is something translucent.

The shape next to it is more suspect, long and thin and unwrapped. It has the texture of bone but is jet black. By its length it can only be a femur. Next to it there is a stack of pieces of cloth of varied texture--except if one lingers to look, they are not cloth. It is a stack of scraps of leathery skin and each piece js attached to varying amounts of flesh.

The shelves contain less viscera but the plain, solid items there are not less disconcerting, not given the company around them.

[shri]

If there is one thing that is a blessing from the wars she's fought, and living in some of the worst places the world has to offer, she can keep a straight-faced to the horror they have landed in.

But it doesn't stop her hand from gripping tightly the handle of the blade, the leather gloves she prefers to wear creaking with the effort. Swallowing down hard and switching over to a familar habit when facing such mess - the scarf she wears around her neck is tugged up, covering the lower part of her face up to her nose. The last things she needs is to smell any of it more than she has too.

"We need to find this rift before it causes -" a pause " - Kitty, don't touch it."

[doneisdone]

Teren's seen her share of gore, but never quite like this: never shut into a quiet room with a polite letter explaining its presence. She stands at the lectern with a hand curled over her mouth, perhaps to prevent herself from vomiting or shouting, keeping a close eye on Kitty's investigation.
Vile.
"Do you suppose it's only demons," she asks slowly, stepping away from the lectern and glancing around the room, looking for any hidden triggers or more weak spots, "...or perhaps just... some what they... thought were demons." Perhaps Kitty and Lakshmi are too new for this to mean anything, but Teren feels the question gnawing unexpectedly at her heart. Rifters fall out of the sky all over the world: people, strange people, but decidedly not demons.
But that doesn't mean they've never been called demons, or assumed to be, even by well-meaning sorts. Chantry sorts, like one might find at an isolated abbey on a rainswept island.