MOD EVENT: WINTERMARCH WINTER MARCH

[faderifting]

WHO: Anyone & Everyone
WHAT: Winter adventures as Riftwatch heads up into the Vinmark Mountains to do some work for (Provisional) Viscount Bran of Kirkwall
WHEN: Throughout Wintermarch and early Guardian
WHERE: Vinmark Mountains
NOTES: OOC post

Still-Provisional Viscount Bran has received a number of requests for aid from communities in the Vinmark mountains outside Kirkwall. He wants to keep them happy so that they continue to pay taxes to Kirkwall and don't become problematically independent or allied with some other state. But he also doesn't want to deal with this shit, and the City Guard isn't really equipped to go tromp around the mountains in the winter. So he has asked Riftwatch to deal with this, casting it as a shared danger (if any communities were to break away, they'd be more vulnerable to enemy collaboration, or hampering travel through the passes, and things like that) but if necessary will imply that Riftwatch's refusal would weigh unfavorably against the decision to allow them to remain in the Gallows for free.

This work isn't done at the exclusion of all else--other normal (and especially high-priority) work continues. Any work that isn't especially time-sensitive may be postponed, and otherwise agents will simply have to forfeit their free time and fit this work in on top of their other responsibilities. Something for people to complain about while they're tromping through the snow.

It's not a long trip back and forth to the Gallows, so people can come and go if they want, but Bran has also agreed to allow Riftwatch the use of the Viscount's hunting lodge, a rustic mountain retreat traditionally used for hunting parties, which happens to be in a roughly central location. As Viscount Bran is both Provisional and profoundly not the sort of man who holds hunting parties, the lodge has gone unused for some years now, and Riftwatch is bringing in its own supplies and a skeleton support staff to man the place for the duration. Those traveling up in the first group will have to help escort supply wagons through snowy, muddy mountain roads, unloading casks and crates into the cellar, and pitch in cleaning, making minor repairs, and generally getting the building set up after a decade of neglect.

The lodge is organized around a central hall with a massive fireplace, and a small library and study that will be used as offices shared between those visiting. Up the grand wood stair is a mezzanine level that looks down on the hall and leads to three corridors, each with a couple rooms. Rooms will be shared by groups of 2-4 people, the exception being the two suites generally reserved for the viscount and his wife, which will now be assigned to whichever of the Division Heads are in residence (and if there are more than two at a time, then to whichever Division Heads win a coin toss or something). Each room has basic furnishings, heavy and rustic, and its own fireplace. Bathing facilities are communal, provided by natural hot springs pools. While these are outdoors, there is a roof, and there is also a small springhouse alongside for changing, as well as a separate sauna.

The stables contain a number of sleighs in varying states of repair, which can be signed out for use. They're often the best way to get around this area in winter, and can be pulled by a team of Vinmark Goats, a big-horned shaggy breed of unusually massive mountain goats that are often used in place of ponies in this part of the world. The Viscount had a herd of them, which has since run more or less wild on his land and will need to be rounded back up for use.

There are a few communities with different problems, spread out some ways apart through the mountains:

• ICE RIFT: The village of Erith has been plagued by shades and despair demons, which can be traced to a rift that has opened under the thick mid-winter ice of the frozen lake just outside town. Trying to get at it from above would mean cutting into the ice and fighting off demons while underwater and very likely freezing to death in minutes. So instead they'll need to traverse the ice caves beneath the lake to reach it, which will be complicated by the nature of shades, which leech off the energy of the livings' psyche, causing confusion, fatigue, and fear.
  
  
• SNOWMONSTERS: Cragfield has been cut off by an infestation of what's only been described as "snowmonsters," that have been harrying travelers around the village or anyone who strays too far from the edge of town. They will prove to be some unknown variation of giant, even more aggressive, though a bit smaller and nearly covered in white hair. They have some resistance to magic, especially ice magic, and one seems capable of using ice magic, if crudely. They can be tracked through the forest and picked off a few at a time, or traced back to one of their lairs, usually in a cave or tucked into a rock formation.
  
  
• THE GRIPPE: Galssop has sent an urgent request for healers to help combat a particularly virulent strain of the illness many in Kirkwall are suffering. Most of the town has fallen victim to it, including their only healer, leaving the rest without care. Complicating matters, reaching the town in winter (especially while transporting supplies) requires traveling up the frozen Wye river, using skates and iceboats. The villagers there will be wary of magical healing, and Bran as urged trying to use non-magical means of healing first if possible, though he and the sick will ultimately come round to the necessity of using some magic rather than see dozens die.
  
  
• THE GRINCH: Lerwick's trouble is a young man who recently inherited Touraigle, the fortress above the village, and who firmly believes that Lerwick is also his inheritance. When the Mayor of Lerwick refused to enforce Lord Bertrand's taxes, the lord's guards ransacked the town, helping themselves to most of its winter stores, among other things. Riftwatch diplomats have been asked to help entreat the lord to be reasonable and return what he took. But the road up to the castle has been blocked by a combination of overzealous defenses and weather, forcing all visitors to climb a treacherous hill of downed trees covered in ice and the occasional, possibly-frozen (if they're lucky), booby trap.

In addition to these specific issues, Rift Watchers can expect to encounter the usual Vinmark winter hazards: unpredictable weather, hungry animals, bad roads, scarcities, and so forth. Once news of their presence in the mountains gets around, they may be asked to take on similar small problems for others, like dealing with wildlife issues, helping search for a missing child, rescuing a hunting party trapped by a minor avalanche, etc. There are also basic chores to keep the lodge running that will always need extra hands, like chopping firewood, hunting down dinner, safeguarding supplies on their way to and from Kirkwall, and so on.

Comments

[propulsion]

"Croquet game on the-- oh, so she's inventing hockey."

And Tony resumes picking up the splintered pieces of wood scattered around. "Which is a ridiculous game, invented by a ridiculous people, so that tracks. Good for her. You planning on getting roped?"

[heorte]

Hockey, okay, sure.

"I've learned I can't plan for Wysteria," is Ellis' very diplomatic answer.

But it's true. Tony and Wysteria bypass most his usual excuses and seem to genuinely want him around, if only to carry things and hit demons. Escape evades him. (Or worse, he's stopped trying to escape, which is a truly worrisome state of affairs.)

"I wanted to ask you a favor, while we're here," Ellis continues, with the threat of hockey looming over his head. "If the two of you consider going off to conduct some experiments, you bring me. The beasts the villagers complain of don't scare easily."

Sure, there are other people capable of using a sword, but Ellis certainly can't let his nerds take risks with some lesser defender as an escort.

[propulsion]

"Like--"

Tony straightens up, now turning to actually face Ellis for the first time since he arrived, all the best to show off his skeptical eyebrow raise. "Besides the demons that get slingshot out a rift every time we try to mess with one."

Which should tee off some implication that they either don't need Ellis or don't need specifically Ellis, but instead he says, swiftly, "Sure. I can do you that favour. Why?"

Standing in place and holding his kindling, Tony's focus sharpens on Ellis, now narrow with suspicion. "There some kind of reason you don't want me and Ms Thing alone together? Because let me tell you now, you read that dynamic all wrong."

opens this tag, guffaws again

[heorte]

"I don't have any opinion on that dynamic," Ellis says patiently.

Though Wysteria did nearly choke to death denying there was anything happening, which was either very convincing or utterly damning. Ellis hasn't decided whether or not he wants to pursue the conversation.

"I don't mean anything by it, least of all that you should be chaperoned," he continues, bending to lift a log and balance it at an ideal angle to be split. "But I would like to be on hand, considering there's more to worry about in this climate than I think either of you are accustomed."

[propulsion]

"Well, that's very sweet of you."

He sounds somehow like he is both teasing as well as sincere, returning to his task of picking up random pieces of jagged wood. "Because I assume you're not looking for a paycheck. I haven't had a personal security guy for-- well. If we're counting Thedas time, probably a year."

What are they even talking about. Sometimes, the immense stupidity of his current predicament is incredible, and he's spent all day in this fugue. Talking in vague turns about Happy to the knight gallant over here isn't helping.

"What's out there, anyway, that's got your jimmies rustled?"

[heorte]

Before he answers, Ellis hefts his ax and brings it down to split the log. It sticks slightly, just enough to be an annoyance, and as he forms an answer he works the ax free for a second blow.

"The beasts the villagers have been complaining about are hard to kill, and they're aggressive. They don't need much provocation to set their sights on interlopers."

Which is one problem, separate from the elements and other inconveniences of being in the woods in the freezing cold.

"It's not like the usual conditions of your experiments," he finishes, tossing the halved log towards the wood pile. "Demons at least we have gotten used to."

But familiarity hasn't stopped Ellis from looking extremely aggrieved whenever Tony or Wysteria gets too close to them.