faderift | I have moved and I've kept on moving, proved the points that I needed proving

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I have moved and I've kept on moving, proved the points that I needed proving

WHO: Pel Ashara, Morrigan, Salem Ghilain, Katniss Everdeen, Mal Reynolds, Sam Gareth, Merrill, Sina Dahlasanor (via sending crystals)
WHAT: Studying elven ruins in the Hinterlands
WHEN: End of Wintermarch
WHERE: The Hinterlands
NOTES: Some fighting, altogether Indiana Joneslike archaeology. Meaning it's not really archaeology, it's just fighting and mystical weird ancient places.

Starters below. Or make your own WILDCARD!

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Another nod and Merrill frowns slightly, looking around the chamber. "I imagine they would have had guards stationed here, making sure no one interfered with the dreamers, but that wouldn't necessarily stop a really determined demon. Still, there had to be some way..."

The artifact further in, but it's not as though they know that -- or as though Merrill has even really noticed it, distracted as she'd been by the murals.

"More magic, potentially. Wards around the dreamers. And I'd imagine most of them had experience with spirits already, enough that possession seemed less likely."

Katniss pressed her lips together, then she started to snap her fingers. "What about along the walls, or around the altar? There could be more Veilfire runes that act like, I don't know, barrier spells or something?"

She really has no idea how runes work -- but it seems like it would be something that would make things .... more defensible.

"Or even spells that they cast, yes! Or even regular runes, though those may have been taken from here or scratched out."

It's been a long time since this place, whatever it was, was used for its intended purpose. Merrill looks back up at the murals. "Maybe they were even part of the art."

"We need to get more veilfire." Katniss stated firmly, before handing Merrill over the torch she is holding. "I'll be back. See if you can find anything that looks like it might hold a deeper pattern."

There's a bit of fumbling with the torch, but Merrill gets a grip on it and goes to start inspecting the old art further. So much of it seems out of place, clearly not elven; very interesting, of course, but not what they're looking for.

Which means, when Katniss comes back, she's mostly just scowling at the stone and waving the torch at it as if that will reveal a secret.

Katniss returns with the weird magical fire that is not ... actually fire, and offers out the veilfire torch to Merrill. "Here, let's trade, and start scanning the walls."

Trading also takes a bit of finagling; the torches are rather large and bulky, especially the veilfire torch. Once she has it in hand, it's time to lift it up and start looking.

"Let's see..."

Katniss nearly had her eyebrows singed off by magical fire, but they managed it well enough. She held up her torch, so Merill could better read with her own.

"Do you think we can find like, another Veilfire rune? Or maybe just some hidden script?"

"Maybe. Or at least traces of them, but so many have come through here and it's not as though most have respected our people's culture." Most recently the mages fighting the templars, the signs of magic and ritual fresh but not elven, but before them? Dozens, if not hundreds, of others.

"There are those crumbling bits in the middle of the floor, there; it could have been an arch once, proclaiming something or with protective runes on it. Now? Nothing but dust."

"It's true. The Tevinters, the Avvars, and of course, my fellow Fereldans." She sighed as she peered closer at the walls with her.

"What about the ground itself?" She said, sweeping her boot along the dust covered stone floor, seeing if she could find anything down there.

"Maybe. Hopefully not any traps, because then we've likely triggered some on accident." Which- means they haven't noticed, but maybe that just makes the traps that much better. Still, Merrill crouches down, casting the light from the Veilfire across the stone.

"There's no traps." Katniss stated with firm conviction. There was a reason she was here, after all. She swept her gaze around with the torch, before she tilted her head at where Sam and the ... rather frightening Morrigan were.

"What's that thing, Merrill?"

Merrill takes that at face value, with a chipper "oh, good!" before casting her gaze the same way. There's a slight frown as she looks, and then she rocks up onto the balls of her feet, trying to get a better one.

"I'm not- entirely sure. Though Morrigan may tell me, if we don't get a chance to look at it."

Katniss smirked in turn, before she looked at the device again. She glanced over at Merrill, then back at the device.

"We ... can always go over there and look?"

There's her own glance, and then, after a moment of thought, a nod. Why not go and look? That's what they're here to do, after all.

"Yes, let's. I'm sure they'll tell us if we need to move."

Katniss nodded, before she started moving towards Sam and Morrigan, to peer at the strange device they seemed to be bent over.

Following with the Veilfire, there's a soft gasp as she gets a better look at the device. It's old, very old; maybe one of the few original pieces from this place.

"What? What is it?" Katniss whispered, not trying to disturb Merrill's inspection but intensely curious.

"Old." Which- is not an answer, she knows, but it is very old. Old enough to excite her, at least. "There's power in it, something a mage could likely bring out, though I'm not sure what it would do. But it's very, very old -- potentially from the time of our People."

"Oh." A pause, "Ooooooh." She breathed out for a moment, before she looked over at Merrill, reaching one eyebrow. "...should we go over and ask them if we can poke at it?"

Another pause, and then a nod as Merrill pulls up some confidence. This place makes her feel small, young, and as if she's surrounded by ghosts -- but this is what she does. "Yes. I mean, we probably shouldn't set it off on accident, but there's no harm in looking."

"All right." Katniss lifted her torch, and moved towards the object. Not getting in the other two's way, just yet, standing back just far enough so she could get a real look. If Merrill found it even more fascinating this close - she'd poke Sam so they could get a peek.

She's practically vibrating with excitement, really. It's a wonderful artifact, even if no one is quite sure what it does -- perhaps because of that. "Look at how round the edges are. It's perfect."

"It's like a globe ... " Katniss murmured. She had seen such a thing - not this of course, but just globes at the Redcliffe markets. "Do you think they know how to turn it on?"

"Magic, most likely," Merrill says -- she's a bit biased, but it's an ancient elven artifact. Why wouldn't it be magic? "I think Morrigan likely suspects, at least, but maybe she's wary of doing it here? Just in case something strange happens."

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now that i've recently done this mission /coughs

Re: now that i've recently done this mission /coughs

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