DIPLOMACY WAR TABLE MISSION: BURN BOOK (CLOSED)

[hornswoggle]

WHO: Athessa, Marcoulf, Teren, Colin, Edgard
WHAT: disseminating information
WHEN: Early August
WHERE: Orlais
NOTES: war table ooc post

Comments

lightning storm!!!

[sulahnan]

I met a guy who said he got struck by lightning once--

[ They've doubled up on griffons so one person can fly while the other drops the cargo, and since Chawcey would've likely eaten half the pamphlets, Athessa isn't driving. ]

--He said it fucked him up, like he could only sleep during the day or somethin'.

[ She's biding time until they reach the target. ]

[esquive]

[Clipped into the griffon's double saddle in front of her, Marcoulf is presently doing his best to fix his attention past the heaving shoulder their mount, through the congealing storm clouds and down, down, down, toward the inky dark landscape below them rather than listening to Athessa at his shoulder. He's consoling himself with his choice of backseat griffon rider based entirely on the fact that he's in front of her and so the wind whips most of her conversation elsewhere. Likely Colin and Edgard on Sunbeam a half length behind and to the left are getting an earful as they work their way through the weather.]

Frightened of the dark is more likely.

[muckspout]

[The rain is pelting down and with a crack lightning makes it look like it is day for a split second. Edgard's legs are hanging on tight on the back of a griffon. He knows the griffon's name, Sunbeam, but can't quite recall the name of the man he's riding behind. He's leaning over the bag holding the pamphlets, trying to shield them from the storm and gives the griffon a couple pats. Water streams down his face and he spits it out every few seconds. He shouts over the wind.]

Sleeping during the day doesn't sound that fucked up. Avoid a lot of people that way. Not that I'm volunteering to be struck.

[keenly]

[The rain makes it hard to see. All Colin can think to do is keep moving. Normally he wouldn't speak, but they may all die very soon, so.]

Does it count if it's magical lightning?

[muckspout]

[Edgard pulls a face at Sunbeam’s owner that he can’t see and readjusts the bow on his shoulder. He spits water with a little more strength.]

Yes, it fucking counts.

[Sunbeam deserves better. He gives her another pat]

[sulahnan]

Well the guy I met just got hit by regular lightning.

[ Marcoulf can ignore her all he wants, see if she cares. ]

And it wasn't just the sleeping, he talked about how he could smell the weather changing, and said his hair would stand on end when he got close to anything metal!

[muckspout]

[Edgard leans forward to yell back]

Oh well, you didn’t say his hair got messy! Totally fucked, you’re right!

[His own hair, caked with mud, flies into his mouth as he shouts.]

[esquive]

[doneisdone]

[doneisdone]

[Teren, on Blanche, brings up the rear. The conversation is carried back to her on the wind, and she sees no need to interrupt.]

[keenly]

[Only Edgard will feel Colin shaking with laughter.]

[sulahnan]

You ever get struck by lightning, Edgard?

[ :^) ]

[esquive]

[—is followed by a sudden, ominous rumble of thunder rattling all about them. Between his knees and against his hand on her rein, Marcoulf can feel Supreme (first name redacted because it is ridiculous and clearly doesn't suit the big animal) sharpen in sympathy to it. The griffon's head rises, ripples passing through the close knit of feathers at her neck as if through a cat's bristling hackles.

He pats her automatically between her big working shoulders and calls back:]

I think I see light.

[A few miles at best, visible in snatches between storm clouds, there are pinpricks of orange resolving in against the blank black slate of the land far below them. The innumerable campfires of an army at rest.]

aftermath

[keenly]

Once they are away and it is safe to land, they do so on a high plateau impassable by any means but flight. Colin immediately detaches his harness and Edgard's before sliding his arm across his back to support him.

"Just a few steps," he says, utterly calm. "You can use just your good leg, I've got you." He raises his voice. "Someone help Ser Teren."

[esquive]

Marcoulf's unclipped himself from the harness before they've even landed, and so is quick to kick one leg over the griffon's neck and slide down her shoulder - is at Blanche's side with the sort of lighting fast efficiency of a younger lad well-acquainted with helping people down from their mounts. He catches Teren's stirrup and offers his shoulder for support instead of a hand down.

What a bloody mess.

[sulahnan]

Athessa gives Blunder Supreme a quick once-over to check for arrows before she closes ranks with Colin to help get Edgard somewhere he can sit down. Teren's enough of a badass on her own that it's unlikely having a plucky elf trying to help is going to go over much better than a silent squire.

"Marcoulf's got Teren," she explains. "D'you want me to get the arrow out before you heal him?"

[muckspout]

Between Sunbeam's Owner and his good leg, Edgard stands mostly upright, but then his stomach churns and leans back onto the man next to him. He breathes deep and then tries again hopping ungracefully this way.

"Can't go too far." He breathes and then comprehends Athessa's words. "You know how to heal?" Perhaps there's more to this man than griffons.

[keenly]

"No," Colin says quickly to Athessa, "let me do that. Get my bag from the saddle."

He eases Edgard to the ground and gives him a reassuring smile.

"It's my job."

[sulahnan]

She gives Colin a look that says if you say so and does as she's told, also taking a moment to make sure that Sunbeam hasn't taken any hits they weren't previously aware of. All clear, she unhooks the bag from the saddle and brings it back, setting it at Colin's side and opening it for him.

[doneisdone]

Reluctant as Teren is to accept help from anyone for any reason, Marcoulf has at least proven himself Not The Worst as far as people to be helped by go. With her good arm, she allows him to help her hop down, then grips her injured arm with the arrow still in it.

"Be a good lad, break it off," she mutters to him, without getting too close to anyone healer-adjacent.

[keenly]

Quick fingers take out what he's going to need, the first being two potions. He passes one to Edgard.

"Drink all of this while I take a look at Teren." Speaking of whom, he gets up to look around for her. With two wounded and one healer, he needs to triage, and Edgard isn't about to die. Or go anywhere.

"Here," he says to Athessa, handing her a tool. "Cut off both ends with this. I'll be right back." Then he's on his feet to walk toward Teren and get a look at that arm.

[esquive]

In the shadow of Blanche's sturdy form, Marcoulf raises his hands as if to thoughtlessly indulge the request—

Then stops. The look he gives her is inscrutable in the dark. And then Colin is there, and so it is unnecessary to apologize or explain.

[sulahnan]

Oh, good, a tool. But wait—

"Both ends?!" Athessa calls after him, brows drawn low with a furrow in between. Whatever. She sighs and crouches, getting a better look at Edgard's leg. Time was she'd just snap off the head of the arrow and yank on the fletching. Of course, during that time she'd also have cut a groove in the shaft, packed it with gaatlock, and set fire to it before pulling so it'd cauterize the inside on the way out.

"Hold still." She uses the tool and its pincer-like blades to snip off the pointed end of the arrow.

[keenly]

"Both ends!" Colin calls back.

[muckspout]

"Wait!" Edgard cries alarmed. He takes a huge swig of the potion, not even bothering to ask what it is. "Careful! I'm not ready." He hisses at Athessa pushing her hands away and squirming out of her reach.

He takes another swig, draining the potion. "Alright." He says revealing his leg to her. "Do it, but tell me everything you're doing before you do it."