MISSION: BETTER DEAD THAN RED

[degenere]

WHO: Vanya, Valentine, Ellie, Adrasteia, and Thranduil
WHAT: The gang heads into the Deep Roads with a team of dwarven scholars and scientists to survey the extent of red lyrium spread in the mines and install cleansing runes. It all goes exactly according to plan and they don't crash through the floor and get lost and find new enemies.
WHEN: Now
WHERE: Orzammar
NOTES: OOC post

Comments

RUNNING AWAY

[degenere]

The impossible cavern is behind them, but the floor of the tunnel does not have a comforting rise. They are running flat, retreating from the dwarves in the red-glowing armor and the darkspawn, whose guttural cries chase after them, distorted by echoes, bounced weirdly around that glassy floor, the massive columns that they have left behind.

Their dwarven guards have taken the lead, leaving Riftwatch's team to bring up the rear. The bobbing torchlight throws strange shadows on the walls, turning the delicate carvings nightmarish. They call to mind the sharp shapes of the red lyrium that had been so thick on the dwarves and the bronto.

They pass beyond the massive doors. Any moment now they will find higher ground. Any moment now they will find their way back to the tunnels that they left behind. A short sharp shout comes up the carved tunnel, the barked command of one of the armored dwarves they're fleeing from.

Val still has his sketchbook in his hand. He had gotten it out to begin to draw what they were seeing, the endless darkness of the high ceiling, the jeweled mosaics, the runes, the floor so polished it was like a lake in winter. He doesn't have his pencil. He grips the book tight to his chest as he whips a look over his shoulder.

"They follow," he calls out, though of course everyone will know that. "Can we outrun them? Will we, is perhaps the better question--"

[wearyallalone]

Vanya is at the rear of the Riftwatch contingent, throwing glances back regularly as they retreat. "Better to try it than not," he replies, a bit dry, but he doesn't really have the focus to take Val's question amiss (or any particular way). "We need to keep moving; even if we can't outrun them outright, we might find an obstacle to put between us and them if we keep going."

He ruefully remembers telling someone a few days earlier how uneventful his day had been. He can regret that later if they make it through this.

[kantikoy]

The Warden of the group steps aside, pressing herself into the wall with her back to the carvings, and allows others to run past her long enough to set a magical fire trap into the floor behind Vanya; she claps the man on the arm as he passes and immediately follows him, casting a protective shield over the party (just in case the fire trap is triggered before they're all clear of its range). "Don't see us having much of a choice unless we want to be in one of those fancy carved cages." Adrasteia does not, and thus. Let's keep moving, shall we?

"Why did they have darkspawn?" She asks under her breath.

[notathreat]

Ellie, vastly used to outrunning things and wearing no armor, is near the head of the group and keeps slowing to make sure they're covered, periodically aiming back with her bow and keeping their dwarven escort in sight when she can.

"Assholes are wearing heavy armor," she shoots back, waving them through a corridor, stopping to cover Adrasteia as she casts, from a few steps beyond her. "They'll get tired before we do, if we keep booking it."

Her arrows won't do too much with that armor in the way, but with a mage on tow and Ellie's aim, they can get creative.

It means she's close enough to catch the Warden's mutter. She answers in a normal voice, spurring herself to movement again.

"Probably fucking studying them or something," she answers, her tone first hard, but then edging on hateful. "Or security. Knew a gang one time that kept shit like that tied up- set 'em free on intruders."

[degenere]

The dwarves aren't looking to make sure Riftwatch is with them (at least, not in this present moment), so it's a good thing Ellie is. Of course this isn't what Val is currently thinking. He is too busy looking thoughtful even as he rushes into the next length of the tunnel. Fire traps, barriers, it's all very fine, yes. The unknown of what they have left behind is what is calling to Val.

"To study would be one thing. One must make a study. To use in such a manner? I am not surprised. But," almost a cry, "such a room that was! We must find a way to return to it. There was so much within, I had hardly the time to note it all! That is what ought to be studied!"