[CLOSED]

[katabasis]

WHO: Crossing the Crossroads and Venatori Gone Wild Teams + Division Heads
WHAT: Teams return and report their findings; a plan is devised to undermine a Venatori plot.
WHEN: Mid-Solace
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: Action spam, no tag order. There's no such thing as getting here late, but we'll be moving at as much of a clip as we're able.

[In the falling darkness, it takes all of the half dozen torches about the room to light the great ironwood war table. A separate plate of candles has been placed right at the center of the table over a nonessential patch of the Waking Sea in hopes of diluting the shadows cast by those assembled about it, the low yellow flames painting the markers being placed on the table now with stark, hard edges.]

Let's begin with what we know.

Comments

[sarcophage]

[Leander's quill is doing much the same. He's calm, all but expressionless, and still looking down at his book as he interjects,]

Try to answer as though not all of us were there at the time, please and thank you.

[dirth]

Pleasant.

[ Which, surely, isn't something that they wanted to hear from him, but Solas says it all the same, something warm and tight echoing inside him before he breathes out. ]

It reminded me very much of things I had seen in dreams, of memories long since gone.

[ Absolutely not helpful, whatsoever, but he doesn't care. ]

[katabasis]

[Flint fixes him with a thin, irritated look. Deadpan:]

If words fail you, I'd be more than happy to produce paper and slate for you to draw it with.

[writteninblood]

[Sorrel looks upward and resists, with great effort, making a face. Part of him wants to congratulate Solas, because he no more wants to march an army into that sacred place than any right-thinking person does.

On the other hand, there's not much anyone can do to prevent it happening. Now's not the time to resist; that time was earlier, when they were actually there. The only thing they can do now is help control the inevitable damage]

It's a large space, mostly pale stone, with big pillars and water. There's a hole in the roof, letting sunlight in. I couldn't draw you a map, we only had a glance before we had to deal with the people trying to kill us, but I can say that the minute you step out, you're exposed. There isn't any cover, or we'd have used it;if it weren't for Solas' quick barrier, we'd be coming back with a few extra holes nobody needed.

[rowancrowned]

Why not both? ( thranduil says, easily. ) Send elves by the eluvians with the supplies, since they ( listen to that! ) have ease of the Crossroads and will be unbothered by the varterral, while the rest of our forces come by the slower path. At the exit, they could retreat to the meeting point, or we might wait to bring them in until we have secured the position.

( after a beat: ) It is a shame we could not capture one of those Dalish.

[sarcophage]

[They, indeed.]

There will be Venatori as well. Our group encountered a [he refuses to say butt-monkey] Venatori runner in the Arbor Wilds—one of twenty or so—and from the information he volunteered, [totally voluntary and without any crying,] it seems they were looking for the temple you've just described. He called them ruins, [he adds, with a thin smile.] Once they've found it, a larger company of Venatori will be summoned there—and I suppose if we're lucky the Dalish will at least thin them out for us in advance.

In any case, it sounds like this temple holds something of considerable value to Corypheus.

[katabasis]

If we don't know the exact location of the temple, any force we send through the Wilds will have no alternative but to track the path left by the Venatori. If they're sensible, they'll have left eyes to monitor exactly those trails. It would all but throw away any element of surprise, if we ever had it in the first place.

[And twenty runners alone is hardly an inconsiderable number.]

Do we know anything else about the Venatori's push into the wilds? Perhaps something mentioned to Baron Arnoul de Loutain in passing.

[sarcophage]

Mm, nothing from him. The Venatori passing through his holding managed to convince him with their "perfect Antivan accents". [The air quotes are there in spirit, if not physically.] The problem is the Baron Arcenaux. We discovered evidence of correspondence, romantic and otherwise, between one of his children and a party in Tevinter, [some of which he now removes from the pages of his notebook and places on the table before it. As an aside,] If anyone's interested in rolling their eyes for exercise, you can find these later in the project office.

The Baron himself claims to have been unaware, but he knew enough to try hiding it before we arrived. The son's being retrieved from his convenient holiday now.

[Of the suspicion that young Arcenaux is an apostate, he says nothing; it's irrelevant. (If the Circles still stood, and if would bring an advantage, he might.)]

In terms of strategy, it's just what the runner gave us. That and his, [a pause to inhale, as though he's personally beleaguered by the memory of an idiot,] feverish, and repeated, insistence that everyone would be slaughtered by dryads. But the Venatori aren't accustomed to forest travel, so they're very easy to follow; we found one of their provisional camps easily.

[exsecutus]

Unless you take the angle that they wanted us to find their provisional camp, easily. And then we have to assume that they're easy to follow when they want to be. And difficult when they want to be in turn.

[So says Nikos. He's put himself in as back a corner as he can manage, crumpled and unimpressed. Only now that the letters have come out does he manage to rouse, watching them like a sullen hawk as Leander waves them around. So sullen he doesn't bother to unfold his arms.]

Be stupid to assume that they're not onto us. We gave their runner over to the Inquisition. He was a little prick, likely his loss won't be mourned--but when he doesn't return, he will be missed. Then again, they might assume the dryads got him at last. If they're as superstitious as he is.

[That part is almost amusing, and a good enough point to settle back on.]

[katabasis]

As much as I'd like to assume our enemies are all as smart as posts, I somehow doubt we're so fortunate.

[He makes a gesture after the letters. As they're passed hand to hand about the perimeter of the table:]

We should commit our force to the Crossroads. I understand your reasoning, Provost, but cutting through the Wilds is no easy task. At least anyone we find between the eluvians is likely to be just as worn through as our people, and we've risk less detection there.

[dirth]

The Venatori will be the issue. The elves that we met will not be.

[ Solas sounds determined about that, lifting his head. He does not look at some of the people gathered - he does not have the time for them - but there's a sense of something knowing about him. ]

They are not Dalish. I may be able to speak with them properly, should we need to make use of the Crossroads without fear of their ire or their anger.

[ Is he willing to explain how he knows they are not Dalish? Not particularly, but he's sure that someone (Thranduil) will understand him, especially with the note of excitement that prickles in his tone. ]

I hope we can all agree the Venatori are the most pressing issue, not the elves.

[rowancrowned]

( he gestures carelessly, ceding the point to flint. )

They are, but the elves complicate matters. There is no reason to fight both the elves and the Venatori. ( calmly. ) Is the issue their aggression or your command of the language?

[dirth]

The issue is not my command of the language.

[ Bro. How dare you. ]

I am fluent. They simply do not trust outsiders - and likely for good reason.