[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

ota / camping ft special guest star.

[tender]