[CLOSED] SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE

[katabasis]

WHO: Tertia, Derrica, Redvers, Stephen Strange, Viktor, & Jayce
WHAT: Riftwatch delivers support and supplies to the People of the Silent Plains
WHEN: Early Kingsway
WHERE: The Silent Plains and the Hundred Pillars, the Tevinter Imperium
NOTES: OOC Info; please include content warnings in your subject lines if applicable.

In the last days before Kingsway, a new face appears in the Gallows. Toma Cassel, hailing from Rivain, is in his late forties and has an unhurried air that sits at odds with a wiry, almost too-slim frame. If not for the sword and various armor fragments that communicate his once-association with the Templar Order, he might be an aging field hand or the lean kind of dock worker. He's straight forward about his presence here in Kirkwall—Riftwatch seems to have its head on the most straight, and he'd like to help where he can.

Four days later, a formal escort is assembled to see Cassel, a collection of (cheap but reasonably effective) weaponry scraped out of the Gallows' armory, some basic first aid supplies, and a stock of Research Division-devised supplies such as alchemical hand bombs, artificer's trap components, and Fade-touched poisons delivered safely across the Imperium's border where they might aid the People of the Silent Plains—a rebel faction lurking in the wilds of the Tevinter composed primarily of ex-enslaved.

The passage by griffon into Tevinter is uneventful, studded with a few nights of camping. Guided by Tertia, who is herself a member of the People, Riftwatch eventually successfully links up with a band of approximately twenty ex-enslaved rebels in the rolling, largely treeless plains which abuts Tevinter's southern border.

The group they meet is a mix of elves and humans, albeit (unsurprisingly) primarily the former. They're fairly ragtag—their equipment and supplies have largely been scavenged off Tevinter and Anders soldiers they've killed, or from raiding supply caravans on the roads. Given their cobbled together appearance, it's somewhat surprising that they're as organized and effective as they are. They've based their system of leadership off of Nocen Sea pirates (Tertia's not the only Flint and Silver fangirl in this group), with their general and lieutenant having been elected by general acclaim among their fellow rebels, and with anyone possessing the right to call a vote to oust or affirm those positions as they see fit.

Their current general is Irene, an elven woman in her 40s with shorn hair and sinewy muscle, a rigorous attentiveness that is kind but not nice, and a reputation for being a wanted criminal (having murdered her master). She keeps the People—of which these twenty are only a fraction—nomadic and mobile. They seem to have no permanent base, and part of the reason they've been as effective as they are is that they've perfected the ability to disappear and survive in the inhospitable landscape of the Silent Plains for long stretches of time.

Though guarded, Tertia has consistently written to the People about Riftwatch's decency and so they'll get plenty of benefit of the doubt. Hardcore survivalists, demonstrations of hospitality and comfort are lean and sparing. There is no anti-mage sentiment here; mages are so common in Tevinter that the People consider their enemy the magisters more than they do any mage. It speaks to the frank sensibility at play—an instinct that Riftwatch is playing to by delivering people and supplies geared to assisting their work of killing slavers and robbing supplies being moved to and from the occupied Marches.

During their time with the People, Riftwatch will be responsible for anything from helping to scramble together a training program for the People's less than martially adept members, hunting the lithe ruminants that populate the plain in order to make up for all these additional mouths to feed, repairing, improving and adapting equipment, and running the People's armorer through the various items that Riftwatch is providing. This is in part a diplomatic effort, and building relationships and trust is as important as handing over an armful of swords.

To that end, when news of a Tevinter military caravan passing through Hasmal and into Tevinter by way of a passage through the Hundred Pillar foothills reaches the temporary encampment, it's critical that Riftwatch join in the effort to overthrow the caravan. They'll be accompanied Cassel and roughly 10 members of the People's group, the most prominent of which are Salonae, a human woman in her late thirties with a wide mouth, a quick laugh, and a murderous knife, and Eryx, a young elven mage in his early twenties whose good looks and youthful sense of melodramatic ennui are both amplified by the scar that splits his forehead.

The caravan proves to be a long string of what appears to be loot from the war front, being escorted by what at first appears to be a debilitating number of Tevinter soldiers. But the People (and Riftwatch) have the landscape, a cache of new equipment and supplies, and the element of surprise on their side. With a little luck, it's just possible that they might find themselves on the winning side of the fight, and thus uncover the caravan's precious cargo.

Comments

open.

[portalling]

Strange finds ways to keep busy. He can’t hunt for food, and he doesn’t have the engineering know-how for the bombs and traps, and so he lets his compatriots explain those.

Instead, he’s primarily here as another mage and as a mundane healer to help a population run ragged after so much time living rough with few supplies. He helps bind sprained ankles, advises on infection, and shows them how to use supplies from the Research Expo to bind broken bones in casts (plaster! it’s great!). For eventual combat training, he pitches in with staff fighting, reproducing the drills he’d once learned at the temple in Kamar-Taj. It’s not a sword, but mages overwhelmingly use staves, so it’ll be handy regardless. He’ll offer Riftwatch some sparring as well; they can work off some energy by hitting each other with sticks, or simply watch and assess the People’s progress together.

Mostly, however, he spends his days with an elderly mage healer named Isca. The group can often see the two of them in intense conversation, hands gesticulating wildly, alternating who’s interrogating whom. Afterwards, Strange can be found sitting on a log and sifting through a pile of notes, trying to put the handwritten pages in some form of order, shuffling and rearranging them and muttering to himself.

And then, eventually: the nighttime raid. It’s a quicker clash than Starkhaven, and this time, unlike Granitefell, Tevinter has the trap closing shut around them. Strange joins the fray carrying a fiery axe summoned up from spirit energy, and he occasionally sends a blast of telekinesis at the soldiers. Partway through the fight, a gout of flame suddenly goes up in the undergrowth near him, a roar of fire lighting up the darkness. He finds himself having to move away from the heat; finds the shape of a compatriot where they were knocked down in the dirt, and reaches out to help haul them up.

“Are you alright?” he asks.

( Or feel free to wildcard! Normal Camping Stuff on the way to Tevinter also an option. )