or are you emblems of truth?

[heorte]

WHO: Ellis, Ellie, Abby, Vanya, Marcus, Strange
WHAT: Road trip into the Hunterhorns.
WHEN: Cloudreach
WHERE: Hunterhorn Mountains
NOTES: Trying to find a Warden in a mountain range.

THE JOURNEY

Seeking a camp in the Hunterhorns is—

Difficult. To say the least.

In the eyrie, in the midst of saddling the griffins and strapping supply-laden saddlebags into place, Ellis had unfurled the map and spanned the likely places a hidden contingent might be found. It had not looked like such a formidable stretch of mountain range to search, bracketed by Ellis' thumbs.

In practice, it is weaving through high peaks, bundled against cold. It is alternating between dipping low to examine traces that may be tracks or signs of a past camp, and soaring high to avoid less than hospitable wildlife or weave through jagged peaks. It is painstaking work, seeking a trail within even this narrow strip of range.

Each night, they must descend. Find a ledge upon which the griffons can land without scrabbling for purchase and nearly toppling. Hope for a cave that might house them, or a flat ridge upon which the griffons can roost while they sleep in the saddle.

And in the morning, they must do it all over again.

THE CAMP

But eventually, the search ends.

Not in retreat, but in a small camp, cleverly hidden. We'd rather not be spotted by air, their leader says, a self-possessed, serious woman who introduces herself as Mila. She studies each of them intently, lingers on the griffon embossed on Ellis' breastplate.

Yes, they are permitted to stay. And to talk, mingle among the dozen or so Wardens within this camp. Ellis vanishes, first into a tent with Mila, and then later, when campfires are lit and a cask of wine is cracked open in a kind of welcome, into a second tent with a tall, dark-haired man, for a time.

The Wardens around the fire are pleasant enough. They answer questions. They speak frankly, if carefully. Some defer to Mila. Some prefer to speak in tandem with a partner. Some sigh through their recitation. But most speak of the same things when explaining what drove them away from their fellows in Weisshaupt—

Questions that piled up and up, with few answers. Some speak of Adamant and the binding of mage Wardens to demons, and how many of those mages died of it. Or how many of those mages disappeared into Tevinter to be treated and never returned. Some object to the use of darkspawn and demons by Corypheus' army, murmur darkly about the rumor that Corypheus is a darkspawn himself. Some worry after red lyrium, and the new strain of darkspawn that have been reported as fused with the substance. Many speak of their distrust of Tevinter.

One, Reynald, speaks of something wholly new, absent from Riftwatch's records until now: he was tasked once with guarding a portion of the Deep Roads along with an entire contingent of Tevene Wardens. Venatori mages came and went, he explains. He saw nothing of what took place, but he heard darkspawn, and the jangle of chains, and red lyrium had been maneuvered out past the Wardens in near-overflowing carts.

What have they been doing? This is a topic the Wardens speak more freely about.

Setting up a pipeline, they explain. A pipeline to help Wardens, and any others who oppose the Tevinter regime or draw the ire of the new authorities in the Anderfels escape, and join them in the mountains.

They're trying to spread word, they say. They want it to be known that the Wardens are heading in the wrong direction, following bad ideas into worse outcomes. But this is not going so smoothly, because they are still Wardens, and they are occupied with protecting local villages from increased darkspawn activity in the western Anderfels. They have contacts in Hossberg, and in Weisshaupt, and in other towns and cities, and they travel when they can to grow their network and spread word, but they are only a small company, and all this takes time. Sometimes they do not have any time at all.

We aren't leaving, Mila will inform them the next morning. But now you know where we are.

A send-off, of a kind: Mila's decisive answer to an unasked question and the implication of parting on friendly terms before shooing them onto griffon-back and out of their camp.

Comments

also camping

[notathreat]

They meet with the Wardens, with Ellis' people. They seem decent enough, though Ellie can't say she grasps all of the intricacies behind why they're all the way the fuck out here, and why Ellis is with Riftwatch, and not them.

Sometimes it's not important to know everything, down to the last detail.

Ellie wends her way to Ellis' side, leaning one shoulder against the mountain wall, putting it to her back to look out at the camp.

"Did you find what you wanted?"

It sounds like a genuine question, rather than an urging to turn back. This feels... unfinished.

[heorte]

"I think so."

What had he been looking for?

He had put the thought to the Commander in terms of what may or may not be useful, the necessity of knowing rather than operating on Ellis' interpretation of rumors. Hearing their intentions now, it is—

A relief, yes. But all else becomes complicated in its wake.

It's a thought that could simply be left there, but having some sense of Ellie, her curiosity and interest, he tacks on, "They are serving our order as best they know how, from a disadvantaged position. I was worried we'd chased a rumor, and would have to go back empty-handed."

That he'd led them to chase a rumor into the mountains. Having to relay that to the Commander would have been difficult, for the waste of resources as well as for the vanishing potential for hope.

"What is your impression of it?"

[notathreat]

"Mostly the same," Ellie admits, chewing on the inside of one cheek.

"I wish they'd help us more directly, but I mean. I get why they want to stay out here. But maybe if they can't help us, we can at least help them."

Ellie levels a look back at Ellis, tilting her head. "Riftwatch isn't the only thing that matters when it comes to taking down Corypheus, or helping people. Maybe we can start there."

[heorte]

A flex of expression that could pass for a smile. Ellie is a rifter, so were Ellis to say They are Wardens the joke may not land.

He is an outlier, in some ways. It isn't surprising to him that even this little group, for all the ways they are breaking apart, are determined to operate as they have chosen: separate and focused on the edicts Wardens have upheld for millenia.

"There?" is a prompt, creating space in which Ellie might say a little more.

There snags somewhere different for Ellis, maybe. Thinking of how they might chase one loose thread that is beyond the reach of this camp, but aware that it runs slightly counter to Riftwatch's day to day.

[notathreat]

"Helping them. So they can help people."

Ellie shifts her weight from foot to foot, her arms still crossed over her middle. She hesitates, then looks up at Ellis again.

"And... there's something else. That stuff Reynald was saying. About the red lyrium, and the deep roads. And the darkspawn. I dunno if you remember when we went to Orzammar? But I think Vanya and I saw what he was talking about, when we were in the Deep Roads. I remember there were lots of carvings, a giant red crystal, and darkspawn in cages. There were dwarves with red lyrium armor. They chased us."

She shakes her head. "I think we need to ask him if he remembers anything else about that operation. It was one of my first missions, so I mostly didn't know what was going on. I don't know if it's connected."