open: mabari crawl.

[cozen]

WHO: Open (with a closed starter)
WHAT: A team takes dog sleds into Ferelden's snowy southern reaches to procure an antidote to poison. So: a Balto knock-off and a game-canon body heat meme.
WHEN: Haring 9:46 (pre-dream plot, so no need to take it into account)
WHERE: Southern Ferelden
NOTES: OOC post. There's a closed starter for people who signed up to talk to the herbalist, but otherwise this is open to anyone, make-your-own-adventure style.

The team's journey takes them from Winter's Breath, in the southern foothills of the Frostback Mountains, to the even-more-southern foothills, just north of where the map they've been given fades into ambiguity and a few depictions of enormous, cold-hardy beasts that may or may not truly exist. There's a smaller village there—Talon Point, named for a jagged rock formation in the surrounding mountains, under the protection of the Bann of Winter's Breath—that serves as a waypoint for traders and travelers to and from Orlais during the few months a year the mountains are traversable and the rest of the year as a conduit for trade with the Avvar and Chasind.

Other than the map, their guides are the dogs themselves. The lead dog for each sled team comes from a locally-bred line of particularly fluffy mabari. They're clever and communicative—albeit a bit less affectionate and more stubborn with these strangers than with their currently-absent masters—and used to making this journey. They know the way to Talon Point; it's a cold, snowy journey that requires making camp in the woods at least once, but otherwise, it's a straightforward trip.

The local accommodations are not much to speak of. With the inn shut up for the winter, the only place anyone can offer them to sleep is a barn. But it does provide a place to come back to, between bouts of splitting up to seek out the herbalist, who lives to the west and further up the mountains, or fanning out to the east to gather eshimeric. It's a reddish lichen that can be found growing in small quantities in the cracks and crevices of rocks, if they aren't covered in snow or if the snow is knocked away. Scraping together enough to allow for one dose and one do-over will take several days of dedicated searching.

The landscape they're searching is inhospitable, to put it lightly: deep canyons with narrow paths carved into their walls just asking for someone to nearly fall off the edge, pockets of dense woods that are difficult to traverse and easy to get lost in, expanses of barren land with no shelter from the wind at all, and frozen rivers and lakes which, of course, may not fully support the weight of someone trying to cross them. The sparse wildlife is mostly typical of the region, but now and then there's something—maybe a wolf, maybe a rabbit—that's unusually aggressive and still showing lingering signs of the blight.

Comments

how dare!

[muckspout]

Edgard gasps as if he's been slapped, hand to his chest. He continues waving the scarf.

"This scarf was a gift from a friend! It is a very good scarf!"

He lowers the scarf and shrugs losing the scandalized tone.

"Do not know how it was made. But, if you don't breathe special, then I am doing something wrong because it isn't the scarf."

[positioning]

"Yes, perhaps you are breathing wrong," Aleksei agrees smoothly. "Have you some affliction? If it is very embarrassing you need not tell me."

Somewhere behind them, the cow lows and shuffles towards the side of the stall. Aleksei's gaze slides to the beast, then back, all concern.

"Do you know, my friend, I once saw a man whose nose had been eaten off by the cold? What a sad thing, I said, for he had a very handsome nose. Surely you do not want to come to such a tragedy?"

[muckspout]

Edgard's eyes widen and he covers his nose with a mittened hand. When he responds, it is very nasal.

"No, I do not. Nor am I afflicted." He attempts to wrap the scarf again, one handed while still covering his nose. He makes a choking noise and tries to loosen it with his nose-hand when he realizes he has wrapped the arm to his face. He sighs frustrated and undoes the scarf again.

"Not good at breathing and not good at scarves." He says sadly, attempting to wrap it around his head, neck, and face for the third time. He turns to the cow behind them. "I bet you know how." She lows back. Clearly, she does.