Needless to say, Doctor Strange is thrilled to visit the Grand Necropolis. So when the opportunity arises to answer the summons and help close a rift here, of course he says yes: his head is on a swivel walking through the empty streets, admiring the architecture, for the first time behaving as his closest thing to a tourist. He talks the ear off one of their Mortalitasi mage allies, bordering on an interrogation — what are your best methods for exorcising the dead? are you allowed to explain how you bind them? what’s with the talking skulls and would it be possible to visit one? — so he might need a colleague to please come haul him away before he says something alarming.
Eventually escorted deeper and deeper into the Necropolis itself, their Mourn Watch guide Hezenkoss leads the way, a rattling cage-lift descending to the lowest levels and even the doctor has the sense to be quiet as they enter this grim, revered space. As they wend their way to the cut-off corridor, battle ensues: mages’ fire lighting up the crypt’s darkness, living skeletons clawing their way out of the depths. A possessed corpse, jaw half-ripped off and tendons dangling, comes lunging only for the sorcerer’s gleaming golden shield of magic to suddenly materialise between your face and its teeth. “You alright?” he asks, remarkably chill about all the necromancy. [spookyscaryskeletons.mp3 intensifies]
In all his work, however, the Head Healer hasn’t been much involved in closing rifts — so when it comes to this particularly large one, Strange finds himself struggling. He sinks to one knee, pain ratcheting up his arm, pulsing like a heavy heartbeat embedded in his hand. If you have an anchor, you should pool your efforts together. If you don’t, he could use the help simply to stand.
val royeaux.
He doesn’t mind Val Royeaux, especially when roaming academic circles: returning to Orlais with some correspondence, some supplies and notes from the Research division, following up with contacts from the Riftwatch Cultural Exposition. Lady Clothilde Bonheur, cousin to the Dean of Lydes, has a soft spot for the doctor, so whenever he runs into her at parties, he’s walking the knife-sharp edge of courting her scientific patronage but without leading her on; he sometimes needs an excuse to escape conversation if it starts turning towards talk of wine or dinner.
When she asks him to attend a lecture as a favour to her brother, Professor Thierri Bonheur, Strange gamely complies and brings a colleague or two. Which leads to a lecture hall and a demonstration on experimental botany, a cluster of Orlesian scholars presenting on Fade-touched plantlife and the possible applications for rapid growth. But when Bonheur proudly exposes a sample to a runestone,
the plant explodes into motion, growing fast and furious and punching through the table. People are shrieking, chairs toppled over backwards, gigantic vines growing through the wall. Some tendrils have smashed through the window, seeking sunlight: thick and flourishing and quite literally coiling around Strange as one of the nearest spectators and swallowing him up, yanked into the mass of plant-growth by his leg. There’s a furious buzz of outrage as the audience scatters, Bonheur defending himself (“You have to admit that it worked!”).
In the meantime, the doctor needs some help getting out.
Another evening, he answers the summons to the Baroness de Dreux’s biannual Mid-Summer Mummery and enters the ball to find it filled with stone spires, aggrieved dancers trapped on the ceiling. Some elven servants are trying to reach up to catch them as they jump, but can’t reach. Strange cranes his head to look up at the reversed gravity.
“Huh,” he says, eloquently.
wildcard.
( just wing something at me or hmu @ quadrille on plurk/discord if you wanna brainstorm! happy to do bespoke starters, and i can easily have him present at one of the other locations. )
stephen strange | research
Needless to say, Doctor Strange is thrilled to visit the Grand Necropolis. So when the opportunity arises to answer the summons and help close a rift here, of course he says yes: his head is on a swivel walking through the empty streets, admiring the architecture, for the first time behaving as his closest thing to a tourist. He talks the ear off one of their Mortalitasi mage allies, bordering on an interrogation — what are your best methods for exorcising the dead? are you allowed to explain how you bind them? what’s with the talking skulls and would it be possible to visit one? — so he might need a colleague to please come haul him away before he says something alarming.
Eventually escorted deeper and deeper into the Necropolis itself, their Mourn Watch guide Hezenkoss leads the way, a rattling cage-lift descending to the lowest levels and even the doctor has the sense to be quiet as they enter this grim, revered space. As they wend their way to the cut-off corridor, battle ensues: mages’ fire lighting up the crypt’s darkness, living skeletons clawing their way out of the depths. A possessed corpse, jaw half-ripped off and tendons dangling, comes lunging only for the sorcerer’s gleaming golden shield of magic to suddenly materialise between your face and its teeth. “You alright?” he asks, remarkably chill about all the necromancy. [spookyscaryskeletons.mp3 intensifies]
In all his work, however, the Head Healer hasn’t been much involved in closing rifts — so when it comes to this particularly large one, Strange finds himself struggling. He sinks to one knee, pain ratcheting up his arm, pulsing like a heavy heartbeat embedded in his hand. If you have an anchor, you should pool your efforts together. If you don’t, he could use the help simply to stand.
He doesn’t mind Val Royeaux, especially when roaming academic circles: returning to Orlais with some correspondence, some supplies and notes from the Research division, following up with contacts from the Riftwatch Cultural Exposition. Lady Clothilde Bonheur, cousin to the Dean of Lydes, has a soft spot for the doctor, so whenever he runs into her at parties, he’s walking the knife-sharp edge of courting her scientific patronage but without leading her on; he sometimes needs an excuse to escape conversation if it starts turning towards talk of wine or dinner.
When she asks him to attend a lecture as a favour to her brother, Professor Thierri Bonheur, Strange gamely complies and brings a colleague or two. Which leads to a lecture hall and a demonstration on experimental botany, a cluster of Orlesian scholars presenting on Fade-touched plantlife and the possible applications for rapid growth. But when Bonheur proudly exposes a sample to a runestone,
the plant explodes into motion, growing fast and furious and punching through the table. People are shrieking, chairs toppled over backwards, gigantic vines growing through the wall. Some tendrils have smashed through the window, seeking sunlight: thick and flourishing and quite literally coiling around Strange as one of the nearest spectators and swallowing him up, yanked into the mass of plant-growth by his leg. There’s a furious buzz of outrage as the audience scatters, Bonheur defending himself (“You have to admit that it worked!”).
In the meantime, the doctor needs some help getting out.
Another evening, he answers the summons to the Baroness de Dreux’s biannual Mid-Summer Mummery and enters the ball to find it filled with stone spires, aggrieved dancers trapped on the ceiling. Some elven servants are trying to reach up to catch them as they jump, but can’t reach. Strange cranes his head to look up at the reversed gravity.
“Huh,” he says, eloquently.
( just wing something at me or hmu @ quadrille on plurk/discord if you wanna brainstorm! happy to do bespoke starters, and i can easily have him present at one of the other locations. )