faderifting: (Default)
Fade Rift Mods ([personal profile] faderifting) wrote in [community profile] faderift2020-08-22 07:56 pm

MOD PLOT ↠ A THOUSAND WRONGS

WHO: Everyone!
WHAT: Assisting with the aftermath of occupation
WHEN: August through Kingsway
WHERE: Field of Ghislain
NOTES: OOC post. Please use appropriate content warnings in your comment subject lines as needed.




The Fields of Ghislain are, as the name suggests, broad open plains, more flat than not, more grass than trees. There are famous orchards around Arlesans at the southern end, but they fade into grassland and farm land, wide fields of wheat and corn separating quiet farming villages and the occasional bustling market town, the even more occasional country estate.

High summer here has always meant long hot days, dusty roads, and preparations for the harvest. Now it also means recovery from the sudden end to the area's year-and-a-half of occupation by the forces of Corypheus. On first glance, the area appears to have escaped relatively unscathed. There are a few burnt villages here and there, a few new rifts, and the scarred valley where the Battle of Ghislain took place, but there are also crops growing strong in the fields and markets open for business, people going about their lives.

On closer inspection, there's more work to be done. The immediate threats are obvious: an unusual number of rifts and the general thinning of the Veil they signal, small bands of enemies—including bands of darkspawn with red lyrium growths—still marauding through the region, isolated patches of red lyrium to be destroyed and Blight to be contained.

Most places have at least one building that's been destroyed by fire or force, some practically essential—a grain store, an infirmary, a watch tower—some invaluable in other ways—a chantry, a mayor's office, a monument to heroic ancestors. Some places showed more resistance than others, and there whole neighborhoods or even entire villages have been gutted by fire and the ruins shoved over like block towers. Some survivors fled and now return to pick through the debris, while others remained, living in shanties in the ashes waiting for a chance to rebuild. Despite the crops ripening in the fields there are signs of malnutrition in many places as well, stories of crops confiscated to feed the invading troops and only meager rations returned, worse off even than those affected by shortages elsewhere in Orlais.

And it's not just the material that the enemy has taken or destroyed. Every decent-sized village has its missing, people who were arrested and taken away in wagons or simply vanished one day out of the blue. Where there was resistance there were executions to discourage it, and while the inhabitants have already taken down and buried the displayed bodies, there are a few places where there is no one left to do so, or where magic placed remains out of reach but always in sight.

There are opportunities too: the enemy lived and worked here for 18 months. They did their best to cover their tracks when they left, but it was a hasty and unexpected withdrawal, and there is a wealth of information to collect and work through. There are houses they occupied that haven't been entirely cleaned out, papers only half-burned in an abandoned office, a storeroom in an outpost basement they forgot to empty. And there are the people who have been forced to live and work alongside them all this time to be spoken with, the names they've learned and the conversations they've overheard, the training exercises held on their village greens, all to be teased out and taken down.

One abandoned operation commands particular attention: the site that Riftwatch—then the Inquisition—observed on the eve of the Battle might be a shrine to the Old God Dumat. At the time this was a newly-discovered ruin and little could be discerned for certain, but during their occupation the Venatori have undertaken massive excavations. They've uncovered not just a shrine but a significant temple complex, much of it underground. Exploration of the lowest levels will be handled by a particular team, but there is more to see and do besides. The warren of ruins and the remains of the camp outside them must be searched for clues as to the Venatori's purpose here, and a preliminary study made of the site's contents. There are also the slaves who did the back-breaking labor of digging out the complex and now need assistance. Many are locals, who simply need a ride back to their homes. Others the Venatori brought with them from Tevinter, and they will need to be interviewed and local communities persuaded to take them in.

It is an unimaginable amount of work, but Riftwatch isn't doing it alone. The Inquisition still has a large number of noncombatants, many of whom have been sent to help with outreach and rebuilding in particular. The Exalted March, too, has plenty of volunteers that aren't exactly fit for the front lines. There is enough ground to cover for everyone, but there will be times when Riftwatch agents will be working with—or at least alongside—those from the Inquisition and the Exalted March, and orders are clear that they are to maintain good working relations and not start any trouble.

In between all of this there will be long rides by horse or cart from this village to that one over dirt tracks with cicadas buzzing in the sun, sweltering afternoons broken up by sudden, drenching thunderstorms, warm evenings playing pétanque on the green with the locals over a pint of cider. There will be as many wary as grateful, but hopefully by the end of the summer Riftwatch can tip that balance a little bit.

galvanising: (081)

[personal profile] galvanising 2020-08-28 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ Nell's laugh is immediate and delighted, head tipped back and everything. ]

I should've been more specific about six what. Oh well. Men, boars, what's the difference anyway.
wythersake: (pic#14248230)

[personal profile] wythersake 2020-08-28 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
You can trade one for bacon.

[ he pats its nose before clambering down. ]
galvanising: (031)

[personal profile] galvanising 2020-09-02 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
True, nobody'd pay bacon for most men. Present company excluded, of course.

[ She hops up from the large, intensely-upholstered chair she'd flopped into on arrival. ]

Shall we see if this place's wine cellar survived?
wythersake: (Default)

[personal profile] wythersake 2020-09-06 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
Knight-Enchanter, [ already halfway out the door ] I thought you'd never ask.

[ and some time later when it's been requisitioned / wheedled / thieved and he's pouring them two absurd horn goblets]

I don't think I've been drunk all year. We ought to make it count.
galvanising: (091)

[personal profile] galvanising 2020-09-11 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
What a horrifying fact. [ says Nell, now lounging sideways in an oversized leather armchair she insisted on dragging from the hearth over to the Orlesian doors where the breeze is ] We definitely ought. What the fuck have you been doing all year that you haven't gotten drunk even once?
wythersake: (pic#14248230)

[personal profile] wythersake 2020-09-18 10:58 am (UTC)(link)
[ His head lolls back, dramatic, to pass her the goblet. ]

Absolutely nothing of value, [ If she's got the chair, he's got the bed, draped over the end with one arm flopped loose. ] I'm beginning to think it correlates.

Will it be horrifically childish to propose a game, or only terribly so?
galvanising: (094)

[personal profile] galvanising 2020-09-19 06:26 am (UTC)(link)
Oh only terribly, I'm sure. And it would hardly be in keeping with the spirit of the place [ the lodge? Orlais? Thedas? ] if we weren't a little terrible. What did you have in mind?
wythersake: (Default)

SIX YEARS LATER

[personal profile] wythersake 2020-10-10 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
And that — [ several drinks and rounds of truth or truth ("there's less standing up") later ] — Is why we can never go to Lascelles.

Alright. [ two hands out, one perilously close to spilling ] Left or right question?
galvanising: (012)

[personal profile] galvanising 2020-10-11 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds worth it to me.

[ Nell kicks her feet up where they hang over the arm of the chair. ]

Lllleft!
wythersake: (pic#14005867)

[personal profile] wythersake 2020-10-11 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
Would you sooner fuck Lukas, or Rowntree?
galvanising: (040)

[personal profile] galvanising 2020-10-11 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
[ She laughs, head tipped back and everything. ]

Lukas and I might kill each other. But that could be fun. Do you think Rowntree's the sort that's repressed all the time, or only out of bed?
wythersake: (pic#14005866)

[personal profile] wythersake 2020-10-11 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
I picture a great — [ hand gestures ] — Eruption, and then his face —

[ chin stuck out, utter severity ]
galvanising: (060)

[personal profile] galvanising 2020-10-11 04:20 am (UTC)(link)
[ It takes her longer to reel the laughter back in this time. ] That's the only way I'll be able to think of him now.

Would you rather Flint or Silver?
wythersake: (pic#14005859)

[personal profile] wythersake 2020-10-11 04:26 am (UTC)(link)
Madame, that's your father.
galvanising: (084)

[personal profile] galvanising 2020-10-11 04:29 am (UTC)(link)
I just want him to be happy.
wythersake: (Default)

[personal profile] wythersake 2020-10-11 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
Do you suppose that's why?

[ why flint is like this. ]

Is Mssr. Silver only better at faking it?
galvanising: (033)

[personal profile] galvanising 2020-10-11 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
Probably. Anyone who spends that much time with Flint has got to be just as miserable and calculating.

Does that effect your choice?
wythersake: (pic#14248230)

[personal profile] wythersake 2020-10-11 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
Maker, no. The Commander has an entire song of eating men.
galvanising: (064)

[personal profile] galvanising 2020-10-11 12:46 pm (UTC)(link)
It could be a euphemism.
wythersake: (Default)

[personal profile] wythersake 2020-10-11 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[ cheerfully: ]

You're a euphemism.