[CLOSED] SAFE HARBOR

[katabasis]

WHO: Edgard, Gwenaëlle, Glimmer, Holden, Abby, Derrica, Darras, Gabranth, Flint
WHAT: Destroying the defenses blocking entrance to Val Chevin's harbor.
WHEN: Now
WHERE: Val Chevin
NOTES: Thrills, chills and spills; please cw in your subject lines if applicable.

Intelligence deciphered thanks to a a signal book recovered from a Venatori agent abroad has revealed that the entrance to Val Chevin's harbor is guarded by a series of buoyant underwater traps which, when sufficiently jostled on their tethers, will activate and release an explosion of elemental magic designed to destroy any unregulated shipping. If there's to be any hope of ever approaching the city by sea, these defenses must be punctured.

Fortunately, there is a point playing very narrowly in Rftwatch's favor. The beauty of Val Chevin's harbor, and the feature which makes it so desirable as both a trading port and shipyard, is its deep waters. This has historically made Val Chevin difficult to effectively block. You would have to sink a considerable amount of stacked detritus at the harbor's entrance to interfere with the passage of most trading vessels. This means that breaking a few ships on Tevinter's mines and letting the flotsam go where it will is unlikely to cause more problems than it solves.

—Which all sounds very pretty on paper. In practice, the prospect is unbelievably dangerous given the bare facts: someone is going to have to sail those ships into those mines.

But that's the very last problem anyone has to worry about. Before getting to a potentially explosive, fiery death, Riftwatch has to actually get close enough to the traps to effectively trip them.

Three poorly conditioned Antivan merchant ships—acquired by Riftwatch in recent trade—have been hastily restored to appear as active trading vessels. They've retained their Antivan colors and heraldry. When the Walrus, Riftwatch's resident combat-equipped (pirate) ship, is seen chasing them into Val Chevin's harbor, it will appear to anyone watching as if they are a convoy of desperate merchant sailors attempting to escape being captured or destroyed only to tragically run headlong into the harbor's defenses.

In a further effort to disguise the ruse, the three merchant ships each have a few special passengers: a few dozen corpses retained from the recent skeleton war in the Gallows who, now that they've been more or less stripped of their red lyrium, will make for convincing proof of casualties to anyone poking around in the aftermath.

With all this in mind, Flint has assigned the following duties:

FORWARD SCOUTS - Holden and Edgard, riding a griffons. They will approach Val Chevin at sunset, a few hours prior to the arrival of the convoy. Their orders are to attempt to observe and report the placement of the underwater mines and note any additional defenses which may interfere with the efforts. They must approach from the South. Should they be spotted or attacked by defenses from the city (the probability seems high), they must be seen fleeing toward the Orlesian army encampment. Once night falls, they can skedaddle back to the Walrus by griffon and rejoin the convoy.

CAPTAINS - Darras, Derrica, and Gwenaëlle. Each of the three merchant ships will need to be sailed directly into the minefield at night. While it's not particularly technically work (and each ship will have a minimum crew of to assist in the initial travel), Darras, Derrica, and Gwenaëlle will be responsible for ensuring each ship makes the correct final approach before bailing at the last possible moment.

CREW - Glimmer, Abby, and Gabranth will each be assigned as seconds and support to the aforementioned captains. They'll be responsible for overseeing the effective evacuation of the three sacrificial ships and helping with any last minute course correction. Should something catastrophic happen and a captain be unable to do their job, they're responsible for guaranteeing their assigned ships successfully trips a mine.

RESCUE EFFORTS & DEFENSIVE MANEUVERS - Everyone, but Holden and Edgard can utilize their griffons once the pyrotechnics die down and there's no risk of being illuminated by an explosion. There will be a brief period where the Walrus may stray in range of the city's defenses (think: ballistas and magic) during the recovery efforts. While the Walrus will do its best to stay long enough to fetch everyone back, but if someone wants to be dramatically assumed dead and left behind only to wash up on the coast and end up in the care of the Orlesian Army, now's your opportunity.

In true Riftwatch fashion, nothing can be completely simple. Mapping underwater traps and sailing in the dark is an inherently risky business that's as much luck as skill. Despite their best efforts and through no real fault of their own (though feel free to have your characters feel guilty if you want to), whichever ship Abby ends up on will suffer a glancing blow by an unexpected mine on the way into the harbor. It won't be enough to destroy the ship, which risks exposing the whole charade. Steering the ship into a second mine or guaranteeing it is in some way sabotaged by other means before it drifts further into the harbor will require some derring-do from both her and her assigned captain (and anyone else who might somehow be in a position to scramble to assist them).


(ooc: Feel free to thread as much or as little of the action/your assignments as you like. The general intent is to give everyone a smorgasbord of prompts to pick from and enough detail/guidance to color your play with rather than make anyone feel shackled to their tasks. Think of this as a party mingle log, except instead of dancing and witty repartee it's explosions and the threat of drowning. For this reasons, assignments and pairings have been left purposefully vague.

If you have any questions, want any additional information or want me to inflict crew to captain match-ups on you then, please hit me up in the questions thread below. Otherwise, feel encouraged to make up details and complications. The only requirements are that they don't blow the cover story and that all three ships successfully end up mine'd.)

Comments

[sparklequeen]

Glimmer has no fear of heights. Being able to teleport yourself to safety on instinct since you were a kid takes that healthy fear right out of you, after all. She scrambles up the rigging, moving faster than she thought she ever could. The months of training and work here in Thedas have taken off some of the baby fat she still had and filled her out with firmer muscle. It's good. As she sets her foot into one line, it snaps and she has to cling tightly to the other ropes for a moment before she can set herself back to climbing.

She manages to set her hands on the first line and begins to lash it back into place, trying her best to remember the knots she'd learned back during the summer.

Easier to do it then, with the sun shining and without the cutting autumn seabreeze.

[archademode]

It is impressive, her effort. More so than much of Riftwatch, he thinks. The fearlessness displayed. The surety in her efforts. If fate favors them, the task will be done in mere moments, and they'll have safely leapt to the smaller craft they'd left behind.

And then a nearby ship strikes its first mine.

The sound is near-concussive, waves riding sidelong as a gust of vicious wind slams hard into the sails and all its attached rigging: her fingers are still to the ropes— to keep the worst from striking her, Gabranth yanks back against the line with every ounce of strength he can spare, friction burning at the edges of his gloves. The ship is rocking sideways, the ocean furious rather than calm. Against the slickness of that deck, his footing slips only by centimeters.

But he cannot keep it held like this for long.

[sparklequeen]

"Fuck, Glimmer says as the vessel is rocked by wind and swell and she almost misses her footing. She manages to cling to the line she's tying and sways far outwards for a moment before she can haul herself back in, heart pounding. She finishes the knot and tugs at it to make sure it's secure before reaching out to the next line and starting the process of lashing it in place. This one is more hurried and she manages to get it done much faster in spite of shaking, cold fingers and rising anxiety. She looks downwards at the deck which seems so very small and distant and dark. There. The line is in place and the ship will go on.

"GO!" She yells down at the deck and begins to clamber downwards, still struggling to find her footing on the maddeningly unstable vessel. If she's not careful, she might well miss a step...

[archademode]

Go, she says, and in that moment there’s a split second decision to be made: to listen to her (sensible) urging, ensuring that only one of them might be immediately lost in the rush to disembark, knowing full well what the potential damage two deaths might do to Riftwatch’s already meager assets—

Or remain. And see her through to safety as best as can be managed, rather than leaving her behind with no more than a handful of seconds at most before deathly impact. The ship is on course. It will meet its goal with or without them.

They are not deep friends. They know so much and so little of one another. Allies in name and deed, yet the line between that and companion stretches long. He has no true reason to stay.

But he does.

Arms outstretched should she fall. Waiting to shelter her should the worst come to pass—

Which it then does.

The detonation violent, breaking across the bow of the ship, shattering it instantly and rippling the rest of the boat with violent aftershocks.

[sparklequeen]

She can teleport again, but it's so inexact compared to what it used to be--and if she misses, her choices are the frigid sea or the doomed ship. The instinct to simply do it is strong but she resists. Scrambles down the line as fast as she can go, the deck coming closer and closer and it becomes less a postage stamp and more of a firm reality as she finally thinks she might make it--

The world shatters and she finds herself flung from the rigging into open space. She has never been afraid of heights. She has never feared falling. There's a startled sound as she tumbles into open air. She twists a little to look down at Gabranth and the swiftly approaching deck. On instinct she stretches out an arm and there's a twist of reality and a flurry of light and sparkles and she appears practically on top of Gabranth, slamming into him as the ship begins to shake itself apart.