closed.

[propulsion]

WHO: Ellis, Lukas, Mhavos Dalat, Tony Stark Rhodes-Potts
WHAT: Do you remember finding those obscure drawn maps in Dragon Age: Inquisition of waterfalls and shit and getting very angry attempting to decipher them? Yeah.
WHEN: Harvestmere.
WHERE: On the way to and within the Planasene Forest.
NOTES: They anticipate at most three nights of camping, with some supplies to stretch that if somehow necessary, but likely no one wants to waste more time than that on this. Warnings TBA but probably not.

It's the bottom of the barrel as far as Riftwatch priorities are concerned, but eventually, someone has to check it off the list. It is a map and a report on its circumstances, found and compiled who knows how long ago, and by map and report-- the childish drawing of a mountainous range with arrows and circles and an X marking the spot, along with the barely legible half-assed note along with it, only barely count as either thing.

But here they are.

The map is not a bird's eye view depiction of rivers and roads and territories as expected of maps, but drawn from a ground-level perspective, presumably, and will likely only make any sense once they get there.

The report describes something about a researcher, Bernardo Kesoro, having taken a hermitage in the foothills of the Planasene Forest, and the map that was found on his unfortunate rotting corpse. It speculates as to the likelihood of valuables to be found at this location, and the frustration they personally had in attempting to decipher the map themselves before giving up. They suppose: rare texts, alchemy supplies, a cache of gold, or perhaps nothing at all.

Maybe someone will have better luck than they.

Maybe these are those someones.

Comments

camping!!

[tensive]

"I was under the impression they were roughly the same thing."

The forest is beautiful. Part of that beauty is the quiet that even Tony's frequent attempts can't completely fill. Aside from their voices, it's oppressively silent. It'll be louder when darkness really settles in, when all of the noisy insects and nocturnal birds and small mammals come to life, but for now it's just them, the distant shuffling of their companions, and the crackling of the fire.

The reply's followed by a short, contemplative pause. Then Lukas reaches into the coat he's yet to take off, reaching past a briefly visible hilt latched to the inside (steel, dull, and apparently bladeless) before producing a small flask. Whiskey, serviceable if not particularly exciting. He offers to pass it off without comment, unsure if that was even a real question or just more pointless noise. Tony makes a lot of pointless noise.

[propulsion]

This first part gets a non-committal sound out of Tony, continuing to press hands to eyes for another protracted moment before dropping his arms again, blinking away fireworks.

Raises an eyebrow, then, as deflection from Lukas turns to action, Tony pivoting attention to him. There's half a beat before he takes the offer, flask raised on its journey inwards in a gesture of thanks. He takes a swig without hesitation -- when in the Free Marches -- and offers it back.

"Thanks," he says. "It's a something relaxant. Where does good whiskey come from in--" Wonderland, Narnia, Oz "--Thedas, anyway?"

squints at booze on wiki

[tensive]

"Mackay's. But the Storm Coast, generally." The flask's casually pocketed as he speaks, judiciously passing on a drink himself. Except he's the one who brought it in the first place, so — quotes on judiciously, maybe.

Pointless small talk after a day full of endless wandering and endless debate over where to wander next doesn't hold much appeal, and normally he'd be tempted to let it die there. It's what he would do if it weren't for the conspicuous blue light emanating from beneath Tony's shirt.

"That isn't rift magic, is it?"

Phrased like a question, sounds like an observation. His demeanor doesn't change with the topic. Easygoing would be a misnomer; reserved or calm, definitely. Curious, if you're really paying attention.

[propulsion]

Tony's expression does a small thing when the whiskey is immediately stowed away -- c'mon, man -- but Lukas is spared follow-up grilling around the state of booze in Thedas that even very good fan wikis wouldn't be able to answer when he. Goes and diverts the conversation out of small talk, into something else.

"Nope," he says, after a couple seconds spent in silent consideration. "Well-- so, that depends on how you define rift magic. Or magic," and his hands do some of the talking for him, "in general, which I'm still having kind of a hard time with, linguistically. What you guys call magic, we'd consider observable phenomena and then call it some'n else. And what we call magic, it's more like-- phenomenon we hadn't gotten around to observing."

Does that track? ask Tony's hands, which drop back down to rest on his knees. "Anyway, this is something sorta different. Came with me from my world. Doesn't have much in common with rifts save for coming through one."