CLOSED: My How the Turns Tables

[katabasis]

WHO: Ellis, Richard v1.0, Glimmer, Abby, Edgard, Vanya, Richard v2.0, Fenris
WHAT: Riftwatch agents raid a Venatori survey encampment with the intent to capture a researcher or two in the hopes that they'll be able to glean information regarding Corypheus' plans for the Gates.
WHEN: Now-ish; whenever that makes sense.
WHERE: Northwest of Starkhaven, the Free Marches
NOTES: OOC information is available HERE at the sign-ups post. The objective/points pool spreadsheet with relevant instructions is located HERE and should be open to editing. Please include any necessary content warnings in your subject lines.

THE BRIEF
In addition to a mercilessly succinct in-person briefing, a copy of the following orders are also filed:

For Immediate Dispatch,

Selected members of Forces and Project Sashamiri are to proceed by griffon-back to the last known location of the Venatori survey group. Rough coordinates provided, may be readily corroborated by Fenris and Abby. You are to seek out their current position, and assess from a reasonable vantage the details and current state of their work.

Once your evaluation is complete, you are to make your way into the camp and there capture as many Venatori scholars (or similar) as you're able. Destruction of Venatori forces, equipment, and interests is preferable where possible.* Should it prove tactically advantageous, those with anchors are permitted to open rifts and are given license to leave them unsealed should closing them in relative security be implausible.

*In the margin, in Julius’s handwriting: In the case of any notes or diagrams, acquisition would be even better, but of course if there’s any doubt of success, destruction is a viable secondary option.

Captured Venatori agents are to be pressed for information relating to the Gates, including but not limited to: Corypheus' intentions, their number, their function, how they are activated, and suspected locations. Once their intelligence has been exhausted, you are given leave to tend to any captives in such a way as you believe befits their continued value to Riftwatch or her allies.

-J. Flint

If you do open any rifts and notice any odd phenomenon, please do try to remember to jot down any useful observations when you get a chance. Likewise, if you see any strange artifacts and are not able to retrieve them, notes (or sketches?) of them would be very much appreciated. Good luck.

- Julius

THE RAID
The targeted Venatori encampment is pitched in a scrubby, lightly wooded area above a ravine located Northwest of Starkhaven. The camp, which consists of the usual pitched tents and pack animal picket lines, seems to be the base of operations for an minor excavation effort occuring in the ravine itself. Careful observation, stealthy investigation, or the general chaos of the melee may reveal the following details:

• The camp sits alongside around a roughly built dam which is currently serving to divert the flow of a very minor tributary of the Minanter from the ravine into a muddy man-made spillway. This seems to have been done in order to lower the water level in the ravine and allow the researchers access to a small ruin there.
  
• Based on the state of the work in the ravine and the activity of the camp, it seems the researchers are primarily focused on recovering artifacts from the dig site. The spillway channel is being used to sift through materials brought up from the ravine. Trays of cleaned material are arranged on portable work tables under canopies, and a small collection of either field researchers or enslaved labor (hard to say which) are studiously picking through them.
  
• The camp's inhabitants consist primarily of Tevinter researchers (which may or may not be mages), some nondescript labor force (which may or may not be enslaved), and a subset of well-armed Tevinter soldiers (which also may or may not be mages and/or enslaved). There are enough people around that a straightforward assault into and out of the camp seems unlikely, but they're scattered enough between the various points of interest that diversions or stealth may be fruitful.
  
• During the day, the camp's inhabitants are scattered between their various work stations. At night, everyone beds down in their various tents or on bed rolls around low fires excepting the soldiers, who keep a watch rotation over the camp, and two bored sentries armed with signal horns posted at the ravine dig.
  
• The draft animals on the perimeter picket line consist mostly of stocky mules, fuzzy Free Marches horses, and two beefy druffalo. A fancy dracolisk is picketed separately within the camp itself.

Now comes the hard part.

Comments

[heorte]

Yes.

He is here.

Here, observing Abby's hand at his knee. Aware of the pressure and weight of it without registering her touch beyond having seen her put out her hand.

"Nothing."

What else could he say? Ellis hardly knows, even under the best of circumstances.

"I need to get back into my armor."

[armd]

"No, you don't."

And not just because she's not even sure she could get it on him considering the straps have been sliced at the breastplate. Fuck, it'd probably be a sensory goddamn nightmare for him, to get trapped inside something so heavy. "I'm getting you back to the others; I'll come back for it."

Apparently you can say what you need, but you may or may not actually get it.

[heorte]

"No."

Because Abby isn't the only one who can deny here.

"Help me," is for the wreck of his tunic, the quilted gambeson. The blood is still damp, tacky to the touch. But Ellis is conscious of his body, observing it from some remove, and aware of all these scars, new and old. Of the tattoo. Of how exposed he is, cracked out of his armor and sat in the dirt this way. If he's to be put back in front of everyone else here, he needs—

To contain himself. To present some kind of normalcy.

"Where's my mace?"

Probably on the ground, where he dropped it, Ellis is realizing. The thought comes slowly, logic catching up with the piecemeal approaching to winding himself back together, resigning himself to being here. Present.

[armd]

"Where you fell?" She had it at some point, dropped it for the blood letting and then it got lost in the confusion. But, "Richard's got it." Probably. Abby understands why he's asking for it but it should be the last concern, placed well after himself, his body, his well-being.

Frustration finally sparks just right against the confusion, catching, "If I put you back in that shit," the armor, "are you telling me you can walk in it without hurting yourself?"

Because if he can, fine, but if preserving his pride is going to come at a cost, she's not doing it. She saved his life, it'd be antithetical to turn around now and cause him pain.

[heorte]

It is not Abby's fault.

Ellis has to stop and remind himself of this. There is a tinny ringing in his ears, and the clawing fight to remain in his skin is ongoing. The steadiness of his breath is hard-won, and he focuses on it now to keep from snapping at her.

She couldn't have known. None of this is her fault.

"I need to look the part."

Like himself. Like nothing had happened. Maybe there are only three who had seen, but that's no reason to give anyone else cause to ask questions.

"It's only the breastplate. I'll explain the fastenings to you."

[armd]

They're both as stubborn as each other but on a battlefield; somebody has to bend. Abby won't go quiet. She stares Ellis down and clenches her jaw, but she says, "Fine." Clipped, resigned. Whatever. "Show me what to do."

The breastplate is as beautiful as it is weighted. Isn't he fragile after being resurrected? She can't imagine what Richard would say if he were here, if he would tell Ellis he was being unreasonable, or if he would shut up and help. It doesn't matter. He isn't here.

Abby holds the metal up to his chest, to be tightened on.