faderift | MOD PLOT ↠ BLAZING LIKE STAR-SHINE

WHO: All characters signed up to participate in the Battle of Ghislain
WHAT: The Inquisition faces off against the armies of Corypheus
WHEN: Covers most of the day on 11.28 (forward-dated)
WHERE: The Fields of Ghislain, Orlais
NOTES: This is Post #1, covering the battle itself and the retreat. It contains top-levels for each of the teams and an open prompt for the retreat. The OOC post with more information/explanation is HERE. If you're not sure which team your character is on, there's a LIST. POST #2 covers the aftermath of the battle.

Scouts accurately report the enemy's movements: after a slight slow-down believed to indicate that word reached the of the Allies' sudden appearance in their path, they have elected to remain on-course, and arrive almost precisely when and where they were expected. By sunset the night before they are making camp just over the rise to the northeast, easily visible from the hill, and as night falls their fires can be seen winking along the horizon, a close-packed glow.

The mood in the camp is tense, openly jittery rather than the tightly-wound nerves of the past month, but with a sense almost of relief that after so much preparation and so many weeks of anticipation, the day has finally arrived. Some corners of the camp, particularly the greener recruits and the Antivan veterans, are raucous around their campfires, singing and drinking, playful brawls breaking out, but commanders are strict about the wine rations, and even those who choose to take the edge of this way make an early night of it. A scattered handful of men attempt to quietly slip away during the night, mostly Orlesian conscripts, but a few Inquisition agents as well. Some succeed, but others are caught and imprisoned--the Inquisition's few held to be returned to Skyhold where it can be determined if they are traitors or merely cowards, the Orlesians only as long as it takes to find a tree and an audience to watch them hang and spread the cautionary tale.

It is expected that the enemy, hoping to make up for its surprise at finding the Allies prepared for their arrival, will attempt to catch them off-guard by attacking before dawn instead of waiting, as is traditional, for first light. They are all roused from their beds to form up in the dim grey as quietly as possible, moving into formation in the wet grass, a heavy morning fog lingering on the field ahead. It's cool and raw, the air still. But the ground moves: the shudder and rumble of hooves striking earth, felt before it is heard. The Orlesians raise their pikes, the front line braces, and it begins.

TEAMS 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • RETREAT
Team members can break off into smaller groups within their top-level prompts—it doesn’t need to be one 13-character thread—and the retreat is an open free-for-all.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Holy shit, that was a cool move. If the situation wasn't so balls to the wall, she'd examine how crazy the moves Lakshmi just executed was. But she can't do any heavy thinking right now, as the order has Tessa snapping to attention and pulling out her crossbow without hesitation. This is the tone of voice a person just can't ignore. It grounds her and holds her in this frozen moment of time where she lines up her shot and the elephant isn't thrashing and everything falls seamlessly into place. It's possible Tessa doesn't even breathe until after the bolt releases into the man's throat and a gurgle escapes his lips.

He's dead seconds later. With a heave, Lakshmi yanks the spear from his chest. Jerking his body with it that - without the ability to hold on, his body falls.

What she must do now is - cruel. But it is the way with elephants. The only way to get them to move, what would do the most damage to their enemy. She precariously balances, her next order is another shout. "Get ready, we're going to move."

Make the damn thing run back to its own lines. "Forgive me," is the mutter, and she reaches forward with her spear. It was pointless to strike their hide in most places. Too thick, even for a crossbow bolt. No, the one places all elephants had in common was where the footholds were around their neck. Deliberately made so to give them orders.

And she drives her spear straight into it.

The elephant screams, there is no other word for it. The shout of pain splitting the ear. Smart as men and as feeling. Immediately it rears, stumbling back onto its hind legs. Front ones arcing up as it throws its front legs. Looking to detangle and no doubt crush whatever hurt it.

But Lakshmi - miscalculates, is thrown with it. Stumbling backwards as she loses her perch. Desperately, she scrambles as she slides against the Elephants thick skin, trying to find a perch, anything to grab onto - for Tessa's hand.

The warning is met with Tessa hurrying to grab a rope to hold herself on, but then there's chaos everywhere and her eardrums may have just ruptured. Through it all, she can see the form of Lakshmi flailing and then slipping away from her.

"No!" She reaches out to grab at her body, fingers desperate for purchase against armor. She gets a hold of something, and hopes she's strong enough to hang on until Lakshmi gets settled again. If she falls and all her weight is being held by Tessa, there's no way she won't slip out of her grasp. Tessa isn't built for it.

It's a slippery moment, grasping on Tessa's hand. Too aware that it's probably too much to hold her weight, even when she is not as much as others in full plate. Instead, she takes the second slowed to do what she can to grab onto the nearest rope. Using the pendulum swing of herself to grasp.

Not that a fall from an elephant's height would kill her, but catching up to a driverless, careening war elephant, was a great deal of work. Especially when she knew that Tessa didn't know what she was doing on the thing. But mercifully once she gets a hold of the rope, she drops Tessa's hand, swinging herself around to use all her strength to pull her weight up the side.

The other elephant does its job. It goes back screaming, crashing into its own forces. Not enough to break the line, but then, no single action ever is. But it does a lot like their own beast steps away, their own forces rush in to fill the gap left when it runs. That at least gives her the second of cover to finish climbing the way back up the top.

"Holy shit! You're like a ninja!" Tessa's voice is full of relief, because if she hadn't been able to hang on, she would have carried the guilt with her for awhile, and she already carries enough of that for a lifetime.

"Aaaaaand I don't know how to drive this thing, so can you get around me to the front here?"

She laughs - and it isn't a mild thing, it's uproariously loud on a voice harsh with shouting and yelling itself dry. "I'll teach you, when the battle is over."

But she does as she's asked, scrambling over the head of the elephant to get back up by its neck. That precarious oddness to standing on the thick skin with the heavy bone below before she can swing one leg around to settle behind its ears. From there, she gets a good look, once more, to how the battle turns, shifts.

"Girl - this day isn't in our favour. We need to fall back."

"What? Seriously?" She doesn't like the sound of that, and it's hard to tell one piece of chaos from the other on the battlefield, but she'll take Lakshmi's word for it.

"Okay, maybe we can regroup?"

MOD PLOT ↠ BLAZING LIKE STAR-SHINE

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cw: poor elephants deserve battle

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* better, not battle, rip sleepy me

they deserve easy battles too though

please spare all elephants hard lives

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