MOD PLOT ↠ The Soldiers of the Demon Charged

[faderifting]

WHO: Everyone!
WHAT: Striking closer to home.
WHEN: Justinian through Solace
WHERE: The Western/Central Free Marches
NOTES: OOC post. Please use appropriate content warnings in your comment subject lines.

WEEK ONE: THE COLLAPSE OF HASMAL

Recently in Hasmal, growing outrage from native Hasmalis over the swelling number of Tevinter refugees within and outside the city has led to a series of smaller violent incidents that went largely unanswered by local authorities, leading to additional targeting of more established Tevinter communities within the city and the makeshift fortification and arming of the camps outside. In the last week or so, after a period of simmering tensions, the situation in Hasmal has boiled over into violent riots. Reports out of the city conflict about what finally caused the rapid escalation, how bad things got, and whose fault they were. But they agree that it very quickly became a dangerous situation that the city authorities utterly failed to bring under control. Fires burned in some quarters of the city and deadly clashes between factions forced uninvolved citizens to barricade themselves in their homes. Some city leaders urged calm and peace while others encouraged supporters to seize the moment and fight for the upper hand. The Grand Vizier was nowhere to be seen. Somehow, amidst the chaos, the gates were opened and in marched the Tevinter army.

The violence, and then even more Tevinter's arrival—supposedly to help restore peace to the city, though it's unclear whether that has actually happened—has caused many to flee the city, particularly the refugee community who had fled from Tevinter once already. With nothing but the Tevinter desert of the Silent Plains to the north, most either jumped ship down the Minanter or came south across the river into Tantervale territory and Wildervale, with some now arriving in Kirkwall with their tales of chaos in the western-most March.

Also, Commander Flint and Scoutmaster Yseult are missing, having gone to meet a contact coming across the Minanter from Tevinter some days ago. They ought to be returning, but neither has been in contact since. In their absence, Ambassador Rutyer and Provost Stark will be running Riftwatch, and can direct Scouting and Forces as they see fit and delegate authority for those operations as necessary.

UNKNOWNS

This is a fast-moving situation, with events clearly already running well ahead of news. With limited resources at hand, intelligence networks in the previously quiet Free Marches have been somewhat neglected by the Inquisition and Riftwatch both. Much remains unclear, subject of wild rumor and conflicting reports from the few sources in the area:

There are stories that the Grand Vizier Rekam Antoninus, ruler of Hasmal, is either complicit in the Tevinter takeover or in league with refugees to try to bring down the city's nobility. There are rumors he has fled the city, or even that he's dead by a half-dozen different hands.

There are similarly conflicting reports about other Hasmal city leaders, with some said to have been encouraging the various factions involved in the riots, trying without success to calm the situation, or using the situation to advance their own interests in one way or another. It's likely that at least a few were cooperating to some extent with Tevinter, though exact numbers and identities can't be known right now.

The size of the Tevinter force in Hasmal isn't yet clear, as the numbers reported by those who fled the city at their arrival range from "most of the Tevinter army" to "five times the size of the entire Tevinter army."

All reports at this point are coming from people who have fled Hasmal, so there's essentially no reliable information about what the situation is like inside the city since Tevinter moved in.

RIFTWATCH'S WORK

As soon as word begins trickling in, Riftwatch will begin sending parties north to investigate the situation. Anyone with a relevant skill or two might be assigned to venture out to:

• AERIAL SURVEILLANCE: Use griffons for aerial surveillance of the region between Kirkwall and Hasmal, to watch for any further movement of the Tevinter army. Using sending crystals, they'll also be able to send back reports of the routes any large groups of refugees seem to be taking. And they'll be charged with assessing the roads and terrain between Kirkwall and Hasmal, identifying the routes an army could take to reach further South and what chokepoints—bridges, narrow passages, castles and fortresses with defenses that might hold—could be exploited to slow them down. (The distance from Kirkwall to Hasmal is too great for the griffons to be flying back and forth every day; aerial teams will be gone for several days at a time, and in the meantime staying on the property of a druffalo farmer in Wildervale or in wilderness camps of their own making.)


• ASSIST TRAVELLERS: Intercept people fleeing Hasmal—to assist them, when necessary, but also to get as much information from them as possible to try to separate rumors from first-hand accounts or find consistencies between stories that might point toward truths. Many of these people will be refugees twice over, already having fled from Tevinter in the wake of Corypheus' takeover, so some may have relevant information about Tevinter as well. And there is always the possibility that some loyal to Tevinter and the Venatori are disguised among the refugees, so they'll need to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.


• ASSIST TOWNSFOLK: Meet with the Countess of Wildervale and local leaders of smaller towns and villages. Those south of Wildervale may need to be alerted about the waves of travelers they're about to see, while those north of Wildervale will have been reached by refugees before Riftwatch and may be overwhelmed by the sudden swell of visitors and potential long-term residents. Some of those fleeing Hasmal may be settling into these villages for the long haul due to exhaustion or a lack of resources, while many others are terrified of Tevinter at their heels and want to go further south to put at least one major city between them and Hasmal. It's a valid fear, so in addition to discussing the refugee situation and how many more people the villages can viably feed and house, Riftwatch teams will need to help assess their defenses and escape routes if the invasion pushes further south, ideally without causing a panic.

Meanwhile, in Kirkwall, those who aren't suited to fieldwork or who are between trips out of the city will:

• ATTEND MEETINGS: The Viscount, Kirkwall's nobility, and City Guard representatives in Viscount's Keep will be meeting for long hours to discuss whether or not Kirkwall will be able to accept refugees (and to what extent) and the city's defenses and fortifications. Riftwatch won't have any formal say in these decisions, but its representatives may be able to provide information as it becomes available and maybe sneak some opinions in there as well.


• READY LOOKOUT TOWERS: Assist the city with transporting supplies to and chasing bandits out of rarely-used guard towers in the Vinmarks.


• ORGANIZE RIFTWATCH'S EFFORTS: Amass, organize, and disseminate the information being relayed back from the teams in the field—for example, making sure the Riftwatch teams advising refugees on which villages and cities will be able to take them in aren't directing them all to the same place and causing it to become overwhelmed.

There are also a few specific missions that will be assigned to those with suitable skills at the end of the week. Based on the available information, teams will be sent to Hasmal and to Tantervale to accomplish the following:

• HASMAL AERIAL SURVEILLANCE: The Hasmal team will travel by griffon to conduct fly-over surveillance of the city and the territory to the north and west, to try to gather information about the Tevinter forces. From griffonback, the team may occasionally spot Tevinter scouting parties or small clusters of soldiers that can be picked off or harassed, whether from the air or by landing to confront them.


• HASMAL GROUND SURVEILLANCE: The griffon team will also be carrying passengers, a small team who they will have to stealthily drop into Hasmal so that they can spend two days gathering information about the situation in the city itself before they're picked up by the griffons once again.


• TANTERVALE OUTREACH: The Tantervale team will try to meet with Tantervale's leadership to coordinate defense and relief efforts. They'll travel by horseback (griffons would only remind folks how weird Riftwatch is) and work through diplomatic channels and court backchannels to try to gain an audience with the Lady Chancellor and/or her ministers and persuade them of the benefits of working together.

These missions will be interrupted by the red lyrium dragon, which will first arrive over Hasmal just as the griffon riders are collecting their spy passengers for departure. The dragon will chase the griffons off before continuing on to Tantervale, where the team in the city will be forced to flee its attack and escape from the city.



WEEKS TWO & THREE: THE RUIN OF TANTERVALE

After the news of Tevinter's takeover of Hasmal, its closest neighbor, Tantervale, is calling a muster of whatever fighting-age men are left in its territory. Most of Tantervale's soldiers have previously joined the Exalted March, leaving the city-state only lightly defended. Whoever remains is ordered to arm themselves and meet outside the city within the week to protect against the threat of Tevinter incursion, or possibly even to threaten to join any supposed 'peacekeeping' force in Hasmal. The exact plan is unknown, but the citizens of Tantervale—known across Thedas for their religious zeal—appear eager to answer the call to defend their home and any fellow devotees of the Chantry from the dangerous northern heretics.

But in the end, how many they manage to attract to this makeshift defensive force hardly matters. The gathered host is powerless to stop the sudden, devastating attack of the corrupted high dragon. The huge, red-lyrium-infected beast—known to be under the command of Corypheus for some years now, but rarely seen since it perched triumphant atop the Archon's palace in Minrathous 3 years ago—emerges above Hasmal before flying the short distance east to Tantervale and laying waste to that city.

Simultaneously, confused reports are reaching Riftwatch from both Orlais and Ferelden, indicating an array of calamities: scattered across both countries, several small villages and their fields were recently set aflame, an important bridge over the Drakon River destroyed in Ferelden, a noble family and their entire staff found hanging evenly spaced from rafters in their estate not far from Halamshiral.

UNKNOWNS

Riftwatch agents present at Hasmal and Tantervale during the early stages of the dragon attack witness its beginning, but as they have to run for their lives, little is immediately known about its outcome. Given the destruction they did see, it's believed that Tantervale was a massacre, resulting in many, many deaths and much of the city destroyed by fire and corruption. A wave of people have now joined the stragglers from Hasmal fleeing south, but how many of them actually managed to escape the city of Tantervale itself as opposed to its surrounding countryside is unknown, and among those who survived, many begin to show signs of darkspawn corruption on the road.

Per the reports coming from the South, the leaders in both Ferelden and Orlais initially respond as if being invaded before realizing that the incidents were not the beginning of a larger military push. It will take some time for it to become clear that all of these events happened on the same day as the assault on Tantervale, mostly by individual actors.

RIFTWATCH'S WORK

Most of the work Riftwatch was doing in Week 1 will continue in Weeks 2 and 3, while pivoting or expanding to include dealing with the situation in Tantervale as well:

• ASSIST TRAVELERS & TOWNSFOLK: The attack on Tantervale will essentially double the number of new refugees fleeing south, testing the work Riftwatch did in Week 1 and greatly increasing the strain on communities in Wildervale. Some they may be able to persuade to make do and accommodate more fellow Marchers, while others will reach the end of either their supplies or their patience or both, and Riftwatch agents will need to help calm tensions and find alternatives.


• SHORE UP DEFENSES: Efforts to shore up defenses in the region will ratchet up, and Riftwatch agents will be called on to do things like help train emergency village militias, build makeshift defenses, and provide advice on what to do in case of dragon attack.

For those in Kirkwall:

• ASSIST ARRIVING REFUGEES: Pressure on Kirkwall itself will increase as the first refugees arrive at the city and an even greater number look likely to do so in the near future. Kirkwall has a fairly fraught recent history with refugees from a crisis—the influx of Blight refugees from Ferelden caused a nativist backlash that went on for years. In this case, the locals will be somewhat more friendly because the refugees are their fellow Marchers, as well as slightly more frightened because this crisis isn't happening across a sea. But there will still be a fairly tepidly charitable response to the needs of incoming people, and those escaping Hasmal who are clearly of Tevinter origin will have an especially difficult time. Riftwatch's help will be needed in connecting the new arrivals with those who are willing to help them and aiding in the construction of some temporary structures and camps for those without other means of housing themselves.


• PREPARE FOR THE WORST: Riftwatch will be called upon by the Viscount's office to work with the City Guard to review Kirkwall's defenses, work on emergency upgrades, help man observation posts further afield to provide early warning of any imminent attack. For the time being, a regular rotation of Riftwatch members will be sent to keep watch at some of the further towers, since their sending crystals will allow them to pass along more information more quickly than the warning fires. There will also be a lot of discussion about how to handle a dragon attack--with the expectation that Riftwatch will take a lead role in defending against any such attack.

Elsewhere, Riftwatch will send teams to:

• STARKHAVEN: Believed to be the most likely next target for assault other than Kirkwall. Riftwatch will send a team to meet with current leadership to offer to provide mage support against a potential dragon attack, coordination of defensive efforts, and to learn how Starkhaven plans to handle Tantervale refugees.


• OSTWICK, MARKHAM, HERCINIA, ANSBURG, & WYCOME: Too far to have been directly affected yet. Riftwatch will send representatives to court to try to meet with leaders to discuss coordinating efforts across the region for mutual defense against Tevinter, encouraging them to raise soldiers, shore up defenses, and take in refugees.


• FERELDEN & ORLAIS: By the end of Week 3 it will be clear that what happened in Orlais and Ferelden is likely a diversionary tactic, meant to compel them to keep their attention at home rather than throwing too much of their weight behind assisting the Free Marches, but a few people will be sent to investigate the sites of some attacks for any evidence of how they were coordinated and to be sure further attacks aren't impending.

(OOC Note: For attacks in Ferelden and Orlais and for small villages around Hasmal and Tantervale, you're welcome to invent the names of these places and invent details of what exactly happened without checking in with us. If your character is from one of these areas, you're also welcome to say their hometowns or places they're familiar with were affected, as long as: (1) it isn't a place big enough to be on the canon map of Thedas and (2) if someone else's character is coincidentally from the same place, you check with them first.)



WEEKS FOUR & FIVE: THE MARCH ON STARKHAVEN

The situation in the Free Marches continues to deteriorate rapidly. With Tantervale now more rubble than city, nothing substantial stands between the Tevinter force in Hasmal and either Kirkwall, home of Riftwatch, or Starkhaven, the cultural and financial heart of the Marches. An advance on one or both of those cities is believed to be the next logical step, but nobody knows for sure which it's going to be or whether it's going to come in the form of an attack by dragon or just ("just") an army.

Reports from the Riftwatch teams in and over Hasmal at the end of Week 1 spotted signs of that army readying to move, and further griffon reconnaissance during Weeks 2 and 3 confirmed that with Tantervale out of the way the army is now moving quickly. Their path is clearly pointed east toward Starkhaven. Like Tantervale, Starkhaven is lightly-defended, much of its forces—along with its ruler, Prince Sebastian Vael—in Orlais with the Exalted March.

Help from elsewhere is unlikely to arrive in time. Those Marches who might have been best positioned to support Starkhaven in its time of need find themselves with problems of their own, as coastal communities in Ostwick and Hercinia suffer a rash of brutal and unusually well-organized pirate attacks. The port towns of Torbay and Ogwell near Ostwick and Noli near Hercinia take the brunt of it, sacked and burned by marauders. There are several attacks on shipping reported as well, with prizes taken from normally safe waters where the Waking Sea meets the Amaranthine. Both city-states have increased naval patrols and are now on alert, but they're looking outwards, not inland.

UNKNOWNS

How quickly reinforcements will arrive. Agents and Inquisition contacts in Orlais report that the Exalted March is now aware, and that there are urgent debates among the commanders about how to react. Prince Sebastian Vael is thought to be planning to return imminently, but precisely how long that will take—and how many men he will bring with him—remains unknown.

RIFTWATCH'S WORK

• SLOWING THE ADVANCE: Riftwatch will do its best to slow the enemy advance and buy Starkhaven time to prepare. Without the numbers to engage the host directly, teams will instead be tasked with making the journey as difficult as possible by creating obstacles along the way: think rockslides, blown bridges, washed out roads, felled trees clogging the river, sabotaged boats and wagons, and so forth. Traps or small guerrilla-style attacks may be laid at some of these points, but with strict orders not to risk it unless conditions allow Riftwatch the advantage to attack swiftly and then escape again. The goal is to harass and pick off low-hanging fruit, not get caught up in an unwinnable battle.


• PREPARING STARKHAVEN: Preventing an attack on Starkhaven seems impossible, but Riftwatch can at least help the city prepare for it. At this point a siege is the best option, but it will mean being (or at least looking) strong enough to withstand an initial assault. Top priorities are:
  
  • Reinforcing city defenses. These efforts were already underway by Week 2, but will become far more urgent, and leaders will be much more eager to hear from Riftwatch anything they know about the enemy forces.
  
  
  • Stocking the city. This includes bringing in supplies to prepare for the siege they now hope comes, whether by wagon or boat or griffon, and Riftwatch may even be asked to help negotiate with merchants and farmers to get deals done and goods delivered faster if possible.
  
  
  • Bolstering numbers. They need all the fighting manpower they can get, so Riftwatch will be helping recruit by explaining the situation, the context of the war, and encouraging anyone able to fight to help, and then transporting them from the countryside to the city walls as fast as possible. Bringing in fighting men means more mouths to feed, so Riftwatch will also be asked to help ferry vulnerable people out of the city to safety in other Marches. At first this effort will focus on the young and old with political importance, but it will be expanded (if Riftwatch pushes and also if they work fast enough to make it feasible) to include young and old of all classes.
  
  
  • Helping keep the peace and avoid a panic. Between the news of the on-coming army, the rash of high-profile assassinations (see below) and the horrific fate of Tantervale, the people of Starkhaven are understandably on edge. The mood in the city is one of barely suppressed terror, and city officials are anxious to avoid any incidents that might light a spark and distract from necessary preparations. Riftwatch will be asked to assist the guard in patrolling public areas where people tend to gather and help defuse situations, from breaking up brawls and preventing theft and hoarding of supplies to chasing off an obnoxious crier who won't stop stirring up fears with his vivid tales of how he received his scar at the hands of the vicious, unstoppable Tevinters.


• PROTECTING THE COUNTRYSIDE: The enemy journey through the Marches isn't as orderly as it was in Orlais. Parties of enemy soldiers and mages are veering south (occasionally north, into the strip of Marches before the Antivan border, but mostly south) across the river to attack travelers, sack villages, burn farms, and generally cause chaos. This will also involve periodic dragon attacks in the regions between Hasmal, Wildervale, and Starkhaven. These attacks are sudden and brief, hitting random locations, causing death and damage, and leaving as quickly as they arrived. Riftwatch agents traveling through the region for any purpose will need to be on guard, and teams will also be tasked to help patrol the countryside and major roads to protect against enemy attacks. Some teams may be stationed in towns and villages for days at a time, ready to respond to any reports of enemy attacks nearby and coordinate via crystal.

And in the midst of this work, there will be some additional specific missions:

• STARKHAVEN ASSASSIN: An assassin is stalking the streets of Starkhaven. Four prominent citizens have been murdered in the past two weeks, including two high-ranking guard captains, a celebrated knight who won the Grand Tourney not long ago, and Lord Kennech, a frontrunner to replace Lord Greer as regent. The murders have been brazen and bloody, not identical but each marked with the sigil of a prominent family drawn in blood, the first (over Lord Kennech) being the symbol of House Harimann, now most famous for having arranged the murders of Prince Sebastian Vael's family in a coup attempt in 9:31. The other houses referenced similarly have prominent betrayals and power-grabs in their history. No one is quite sure what any of it means, but it has certainly set the city even further on edge and has suspicions between members of the ruling class nearing a high. As a neutral party, Riftwatch will be asked to help provide security for potential targets.


• DRAGON TRACKING: Corypheus' dragon has rarely been sighted very far from him, and its presence in the Free Marches raises the possibility that he's somewhere nearby. A few different small teams on griffon- and horseback will attempt to track it to where it's resting between its excursions to terrorize the countryside, with the hope that Corypheus is there and this may present an opportunity to confront him directly with fewer fortifications.


• FIREBOMBING THE ARMY: As the army nears Starkhaven, another griffon-based team will make one last push to slow them down. The evening before they inevitably reach the city, the team will fly over their camp with mages, Antivan Fire grenades and breakable flasks of oil, and anything else they can come up with to rain literal fire on the Tevinter camps.

WEEK SIX: FALLING ACTION

The Tevinter force finally arrives at Starkhaven. After all the work to delay the enemy and speed preparations, the city is ready to hold fast against them at least until Prince Sebastian can return from Orlais with the army and (they hope) the Exalted March in tow. The Tevinter force, clearly still hoping to take the city before those reinforcements arrive, sets up camp as if for a siege but then launches a pre-dawn attack in hope of breaching the gates. This is repelled, but periodic assault (mostly magical) on the city walls continues—thus far with little effect.

Now that the enemy has arrived at Starkhaven, there isn't much more Riftwatch can do to help directly. The force is still too large for them to take on, and while they can get away with some limited griffon stealth missions in and out of the city, the large-scale operations of previous weeks are no longer possible. Prince Sebastian and the fastest part of his forces will arrive by the end of the week, and he will then take the lead in determining how to defend Starkhaven. He'll be happy to talk to Riftwatch about what they've seen and done in the interim and will be grateful for their efforts on behalf of his city. But there's a lot for him to figure out at present, and coordinating the type of smaller-scale work Riftwatch is best suited for isn't top of his agenda at the moment. Essentially, he'll be in touch.

RIFTWATCH'S WORK

All agents in and around Starkhaven are pulled back just ahead of the Tevinter force's arrival, along with any last group of vulnerable citizens they're able to get out. Riftwatch will continue to put more focus than it previously had on the Free Marches, with increased patrols and surveillance, and will keep an eye on the refugee situation as things develop. The enemy presence in the Marches will continue to cause trouble, with occasional parties of soldiers and mages marauding, posing new hazards closer to home than before that will periodically require Riftwatch's attention. And the situation in Starkhaven will continue to develop and may require more assistance in the future. But otherwise, it's more or less back to business as usual for now, just with a new set of issues added to the pile.

Comments

ota, pt1.

[tender]

WEEK ONE / VINMARKS

At a certain point, the tower can be see at a distance. Each one they've visited thus far has been just a little dingy, a little bit in need of repair full stop, nevermind the occupants needing to be evicted.

Swaying in the saddle, Derrica twists around to look back and ask, "Do you think it's bandits in this one, or just crows?"

Just. As if their entire scuffle with bandits in the first tower hadn't been made harder by screaming birds.

WEEK TWO / REFUGEES

All these people fleeing their homes. It's hard to see, even knowing it's the right thing. But as clusters of people come forth in drips and drabs, preparing to wind their way towards Kirkwall, the kind of help they solicit from Derrica begins to range from strapping parcels down securely onto their mules or holding crying children or—

"Can you fix a wagon wheel?" is the question she's posing now, grimacing slightly. Derrica cannot fix a wagon wheel. Surely there's someone, but no one seems to know if the wheelwright is already gone or if Aston had fled the night before, as he's just as near a wheelwright so in a pinch—

And so on. Derrica's heard three variations on such stories so far this morning.

WEEK THREE / THE WORST

The dragon had been present in Nevarra, but Derrica hadn't seen it then, preoccupied with the dead attempting to murder them.

This time she saw the creature swoop low and belch fire all along a row of houses before she'd turned and fled along with the last dregs of townsfolk that had been left.

Now, with the dragon gone, there's nothing to do but try and mop up what's left. Which means expending her strength on healing, in whichever form is most welcome.

"Sit down," is brisk, her voice tight with worry. "Let me see whatever is hurting most."

Maybe she can't heal every single thing, but she can staunch the most severe, and bandage the rest.

WILDCARD

[ feel free to wildcard me with any of your hearts desires during this timeframe, or slide into my DMs to ask for a specific starter. ]

week 2.

[littlemissfutility]

As far as Beth can tell, the question's directed at her - it's been her and Derrica helping out in this part of town, mostly - and the first response she has to offer is a wide-eyed stare. She's spent the last twenty minutes baby-sitting three children whose mother promised she wouldn't be long; the oldest one's keeping the middle one entertained with some kind of clapping game, and Beth's been holding the baby and trying not to think of Judith.

Crap, can she fix a wagon wheel? It can't be that hard, right? They just need it to keep going for a day or two, and then there'll be people in Kirkwall who can really keep it together. If someone had invented duct tape here, it'd take, like, thirty seconds.

(This entire crisis has really made her miss duct tape.)

"How do people usually fix wagon wheels?" she asks, shifting the baby in her arms so he can't grab her ponytail and start eating it. "Like...do we look for some nails, or?"

[tender]

The children are sweet. Derrica grants them a sweeping smile, before refocusing on the matter at hand.

"I don't know," she answers, though Beth's question clarifies at least part of this. Between them, neither knows exactly how to fix a wagon wheel. "When I left the family was debating over what could be done, but..."

The statement trails into a shrug.

"It didn't look too badly broken. I just can't tell what it needs to be secure on the axel."

Are those the right words? Maybe. Derrica's experience in repair centers entirely around ships. Wagons are an outlier.

[littlemissfutility]

Axles, Beth remembers vaguely from tractors and cars. Not that she'd ever known much about them - they're the rod that connects the wheels, right? Shawn or Maggie'd know. But there's only one Greene here right now, and it's the one who was never very interested in farming equipment.

Maybe someone else in the crowd would have an idea, but everyone's busy getting their own stuff ready to go. She and Derrica are the only ones who can really help.

"Is it close by?" she asks, glancing back at the kids clapping their hands together where they're sitting in the dust. The older one, the girl, has to be ten or eleven, but her brother's closer to five, if Beth's guesses are accurate. "I don't wanna leave them alone."

Within eyeshot, maybe - or maybe she can herd them along with her and make the girl hold her baby sister while she and Derrica figure out the wheel.

[tender]

Following Beth's gaze, Derrica considers the dusty little hands, the curls standing on end. Too small to help fix an axel, at any rate.

"It's right—"

Derrica turns, points through the milling passerbys. It's not so far off, not really.

"But Beth, if you can't, it's alright. There's still people around to ask."

Theoretically. The wagonwright has already fled.

[littlemissfutility]

"I know," she says immediately. If I can't, I can't. Playing a computer game about traveling in covered wagons, back in elementary school, didn't actually teach her anything about repairing a real wagon. "But we gotta try, right?"

Which means gathering up the children--c'mon, we're gonna go help somebody, when your mom comes back, we'll still be able to see her--and herding them toward the broken wagon. It doesn't have to be perfect, Beth tells herself. They just need it to keep rolling for a day or two. Like hot-wiring a car and hoping for the best, but lower-tech.

The broken wheel is obvious, the wagon sagging towards it. Beth hands the baby to his big sister and crouches down to look closer. "Did it used to have something here?" she asks, poking at the hole at the center of the wheel. The other wheel on this side has some kind of...something?...through the part of the wheel all the spokes connect to.

[tender]

It's too bad the makers of dubiously educational games for elementary school children didn't prioritize wagon repair. Does anyone have twelve dollars for supplies?

But instead, it's up to Derrica and Beth. At Beth's prodding, Derrica crouches by the wheel to examine the indicated center. Yes, there is a piece of metal that should fit into that center space where the spokes meet. Derrica runs her fingers along the space, coming up dusty and grit-stung, then looks a little despairingly at the road stretched behind them.

"I think it must," she agrees. "And if it fell off, it will be hard to find."

Maybe. They do have several children at their beck and call.

week 3

[sohighandwild]

"If you fix the ankle, I can walk off the rest." Not that she wouldn't love Derrica to erase fully her sore muscles, bruises and blisters, but her turned ankle is the only item on the list that would make her a liability to the evacuation. She settles herself on a mostly flat rock to one side of the road, left ankle out in front. She's relatively sure it's just a sprain, but it hurts plenty.

It doesn't hurt so much, however, that she can't consider Derrica's general affect. "You alright?" she asks, while they're there. She doesn't seem injured, but that's not entirely what Ket is asking.

[tender]

A distracted smile in answer, wobbling slightly at the end.

"I was already out when it happened," she says, which is extremely good fortune but doesn't feel like it in the midst of so many injured people. "Just—"

Tired? Worried? Scared? All of the above? Derrica shakes her head.

"You should let me see the burns. It'll be bad if they get infected."

[sohighandwild]

"Only if you're sure your energy's not needed elsewhere. None of them are larger than a coin, I can clean them without magic if I need to." She, too, hadn't been in Tantervale proper, and she's inclined to be aware she got off lightly.

Assuming that her remark doesn't actually deter Derrica, however, she moves to present the places where the heat caught her, mostly the backs of her arms and legs. It had felt like standing too close to a giant oven, a sensation she's unlikely to forget anytime soon.

"I'd heard he had a dragon, but I'd never seen it before."

[tender]

"I saw it from a distance in Nevarra City," Derrica says. Her hands are very gentle over scorched skin, swelling and reddened and too delicate to touch.

Dairsmuid is lingering in the back of her mind. There is a great difference between what she can do here that she was not able to do then. She draws in a deep breath, sets a hand lightly over the center of Ket's back.

"You're lucky," she says, more softly. "Take a breath for me, alright?"

In all their conversations, Derrica has never had occasion to ask Ket what she thinks of mages. And maybe, a healer is benign enough not to raise any concerns. But it's still worth giving her a moment to brace herself before drawing a wash of power forth from the Fade, and directing the chill of it down into Ket's body to ease the damage left by dragon flame.

[sohighandwild]

Ket obediently takes a breath, slow as she can manage while still relatively full of adrenaline. If she has any negative feelings about mages, there's no hint of it here.

"Maker, that feels better," she says, instead, as the magic does its work. "This sort of thing is why I always volunteer for the scouting missions that involve eavesdropping at fancy parties," she adds, an attempt to lighten the mood without fully ignoring the grim tone of the situation.

She watches Derrica's hands, pain eased enough that she can direct interest toward something else. Still light: "I don't suppose you've considered a life of stealing from the rich after this is all over. You would be wildly useful on a crew. Or so I hear, obviously, I am innocent of all charges."

holden / starkhaven, week 6

[tender]

Starkhaven is not reduced to rubble. Or it has not yet been reduced to rubble, Tevene forces deterred by the arrival of Prince Sebastian and the first trickle of his army.

They are dismissed. All of them. Even Derrica, a healer who might have been kept on hand. Whether or not she would have stayed is another matter, but not one she has to consider. Instead, she joins the rest of Riftwatch winding their way back towards Kirkwall.

She has kept the horse loaned to her. It's a handsome creature, white and dappled gray along it's hindquarters. And it's on this horse that she draws up alongside Holden on the road, reaching across to catch his elbow.

"I thought you were here," she says first, swaying in the saddle, over to him and then back upright one his attention is drawn to her. "Are you alright?"

[acreage]

It's no victory, but it's not a loss either. At this point, that's probably about as good as it gets.

He's less lost in his thoughts as Derrica approaches, as in serious danger of falling asleep astride his own black horse. He'd be sore as hell afterwards, but that's pretty much a given at this point. He hasn't done his body any favors the last month or so; but at least the bad leg's less of an issue on horseback.

"Is anyone?" is as much answer as a question in and of itself, as he looks to Derrica. She doesn't seem too poorly off, which is a relief.

[tender]

Light pressure and a slight pull on the reins guides her closer, keeps her and her mare alongside Holden as they follow the road.

"Most people seem to be in one piece, but it wasn't easy to keep them that way. I'm going to need to sleep for a week," Derrica says, because it's easiest, because all the ways she's weighted down with the events of the past week aren't how she wants to begin the conversation.

But even this isn't a completely true statement. If they return to Kirkwall and the Commander is still missing, if the Scoutmaster hasn't sent word, then surely they'll have to turn their attention to that. Rest will wait.

Not that she cares to say as much to Holden.

"You look like you could use some rest," comes softer. "Were you hurt?"

[acreage]

"You deserve at least two," he says with a flicker of a smile.

No, it's hard to imagine they'll have much time to rest when they return. There's also still the question of helping settle the refugees who remain around and within Kirkwall, keeping the peace that's bound to be strained, the question of keeping the city safe and supplied with the enemy so much closer at hand. But he also knows how invaluable Derrica is, how much help she's brought to everyone she can, without and without magic. He doesn't have to have seen it to know, because he knows her.

"In Tantervale," he admits, after a pause. It feels less damning to admit to an older wound, or maybe the weight of recent disapproval makes him more forthcoming. "But not here."

[tender]

Tantervale. Only a few weeks ago, though it feels like longer.

And surely the drawn look on his face is not solely due to a new injury. Does she look as exhausted as Holden? Part of her thinks it can't be helped, but—

"You should let me look at it," she says, offering rather than scolding, expression creasing with concern. "Are you in pain?"

Holden is capable, Derrica knows. But he is also the type of person to care for everyone but himself. And when they've all been stretched so thin, healers and medics included—

[acreage]

She wears it better than he does, he would say; but there's unquestionably a weariness about her, a sense that she possibly hasn't slept for a week.

"If you need the rest, it'll keep," he says, which is not a no, and also significantly politer than when he expressed the same sentiment to Richard a few weeks ago. Maybe there actually is something to be said for Jim's self-imposed ethical obligation to wait.

[tender]

No, it's not really a no.

And Derrica understands the sentiment behind it, the fact that Holden would say no. Likely has said no, to other healers who were not so inclined to press, or not equipped to press in a way that Holden would have accepted.

"Let me help?" she says, resolved in the decision. "I'll be alright."

As she speaks, she draws back on the reins, steering her own horse towards the shoulder of the road with the expectation that Holden will follow along with her.

[acreage]

He trusts Derrica to know her own limits, is the thing. And maybe after she had to bring him back from the state he was in after that ill-fated mission in Ostwick, it's hard to justify turning her down now.

Or maybe it's just that it's hard to say no to Derrica, especially when he knows she won't want to accept that answer.

So he does follow, twitches the reins and murmurs something to the horse as they make for the bank of green grass. It's likely that Derrica will be able to tell the trouble, if she's watching, as soon as he makes to dismount. He clearly favors a stronger leg, the other stiffer and less inclined to take his weight.

[tender]

There's no judgement for a healer having left the work half-done. Derrica's been falling back on such tactics, stretching her stamina as far as it can to patch, rather than restore. Keeping people from death has taken precedence over completely erasing an injury, and Derrica has not objected to any part of the approach.

But there's still a twinge of dismay watching Holden navigate the dismount. She shifts her own weight in the saddle, murmuring soothingly to her mount before swinging down from the saddle.

"Let's sit. I want to make sure the bone is set right."

If she'd known it was Richard who did the initial patching, it would have eased her mind. But without any idea, she has a particular set of things to concern herself with, and first among them is the idea that the bones are misaligned.

[acreage]

"I don't think," he says, finally getting himself onto the ground with both feet, "Silas would appreciate you talking about his work that way."

Because his first instinct had been to say it is; but maybe he's self-aware enough to realize that Derrica might not be inclined to take him at his word, and that she probably has reason to. Nevertheless, he moves to sit a few paces away as requested, legs stretched out before him.

[tender]

A slight wrinkle of confusion in reference to the unfamiliar name. But she doesn't find it too inexplicable; Holden isn't wrong in assuming most healers working over the past few weeks have a passing familiarity with each other. If she can't place the name immediately, it isn't enough for her to question further.

"I think Silas and I would both like to avoid having to break your leg to repair any mistakes," she says instead, kneeling beside him. "Would you tell me what happened?"

Very gently, Derrica runs her hands over his leg, assessing the lingering damage. Maybe a better healer would have been able to simple cast the spell and set everything back as it should. But Derrica has always relied on her hands, and she won't chance any deviation from her usual approach when it's Holden she's healing.

[acreage]

"I would too, believe me."

The setting it had been miserable enough, but a re-break would be worse. He keeps still as he can, familiar by now with the way Derrica works. She'll find the healing job halfway done, maybe a little more than that. Better than he'd be faring with natural healing, but not without pain and some swelling.

He's quiet for a time, then says, "There was a lot of collapsing rubble. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Which isn't how Astarion would tell the story, incidentally. But he isn't here to disagree.

[tender]

It's a complete enough account for the moment. Derrica certainly finds it plausible. There had been plenty of people who managed to emerge from Tantervale bearing similar stories of how their injuries came to be.

She does pause, two hands over swelling muscle, to look at him. They both must know how easily Holden might have died. He must have been lucky.

"Was it worse than just your leg?" Derrica questions, settling on what feels both very important to know and useless in the moment. It's just a delay. She has a sense of what needs to be mended, just needs to draw down the power to do it and cast the spell, but she just—

Irrationally, she needs to know such things. Needs to decide how relieved she is that he's here, with only a lingering pain in his leg to be mended