player plot: the horror of sarrux's pass

[aberratic]

WHO: Caius, Gwen, Hermione, Jayce, Ness, Siorus, Stephen, Vanya (sumptus, elegiaque, reparo, pathlit, aberratic, wildered, portalling, wearyallalone)
WHAT: The Horrors Cometh
WHEN: Beginning of Harvestmere (October)
WHERE: Sarrux's Pass, outside Wycome
NOTES: OOC post here. TWs for body horror, NPC death, ghost town/apocalypse vibes, children in upsetting situations, and general horror stuff.

Characters

CAIUS

GWENAËLLE

HERMIONE

JAYCE

NESS

SIORUS

STEPHEN

VANYA

The residents of Sarrux's Pass, a small village tucked into the mountains of the Free Marches, have long held that their settlement used to be a bustling trade city where dwarves were as plentiful as humans and they had constant contact between the surface and the Deep Roads. These were assumed by the surrounding cities to be nothing more than fanciful legends for decades, but any long-time resident swore it was the truth, lost to time and "monsters in the deep."

Residents were finally vindicated a few months ago when an earthquake caused a landslide in the surrounding mountains, revealing a long-lost outlet from the Deep Roads. At first, residents of the pass were apprehensive, all too aware of the dangers posed by such an opening, but the longer they went without Darkspawn spilling from the entrance, the more eager they became to investigate.

Eventually, the bravest among them began to enter the Roads, in search of ore and artifacts. They were vindicated again, finding both, and Sarrux's Pass quickly became a magnet for treasure hunters, Lords of Fortune, historians, archaeologists, and anyone in search of a quick buck. Even in the face of the Venatori invasion of the Marches, the promise of fame and riches drew handfuls of people seeking their fortunes to the Pass. News from the area was steady, and filled with discoveries and success stories—as well as the brawls, backstabbing, and even the occasional murder that comes with any good gold rush town.

It's been a few months since the reveal of the Deep Roads entrance. News from Sarrux's Pass has slowed to a trickle, then a drip, and now, in the past weeks, nothing. The last message to make it out of the village three weeks ago said simply: "We weren't just right about the dwarves." The parchment was stained with an unidentifiable liquid—not water, not blood—which smelled of the sea.

Riftwatch has been tasked with investigating the village, with three goals: find out what happened to the residents, recover whatever valuables they can from the Deep Roads, and, if necessary, close the entrance again. There may be Venatori in the area, or Darkspawn, or territorial prospectors—without contact with the village, there's no way of knowing what Riftwatch may discover. © tessisamess

Comments

power up time for ye mages; cw: body horror

[sumptus]

Bodies crash around him -- Gwenaëlle, the brothers, flashes of purple magic and a sharp, salty tang at the back of his throat. His limbs feel at once heavy and electric, the air thick with rot even he can sense, and there are so many darkspawn. Too many to escape, too many to fight with swords and knives alone -- but that isn't all they have.

Four mages. One ancient pool of lyrium. The hum of magic so intense it rattles the teeth. Power is power is power-- for anyone with the skill to weild it, and Caius has done nothing with the last nail-scraping decade of his life if not become that.

Between scuffling feet, he drops down to the stone floor and begins to draw, at first in grime and black blood spatter, then in thickening brine scooped from the pool itself. His nails stretch out long and dark as they work over the stone, fingers blackening as skin cracks and flakes like old wood in the firepit, and he wonders -- watching bones snap and fuse into new shapes, spikes growing like agonizing roots from elbow -- if he's screaming. If he'll simply rend apart before he can finish.

But he doesn't. Muscle memory carries him through swimming vision to close the circle of glyphs and point it in three directions -- Tavane, Granger, and Strange.

Magic surges-- wild, raw, wrong. Once a narrow stream pulled through a pin hole in the Fade, now a rusted tap broken open, tainted magic flushing refuse from the depths. What mutations have warped the other three magic-users may spike, their spells may spiral past the edges of their control, but it works.

Not for long. And not if they can't point it in a useful direction.

[reparo]

She doesn't get the appeal of lyrium, why mages in Thedas go insane over it, why they act as if it's some arcane battery for their power.

Her magic is her magic, and wherever it is that she draws it from seems to work as a pool of its own design. The wand (not stick) channels it, her verbal spells aim it, and it is reliable. What is lyrium to a Rifter? What is a shiny rock to a witch?

And then, Sarroux Pass. Deep underground, swarmed by darkspawn and trying to rescue their allies (friends), she finally gets it.

Caius channels raw Fade into the spellcasters, and it hits Hermione just as a hurlock knocks her on her back and comes in for a debilitating blow, massive arms raised. She raises her hands up defensively, wand clutched in the right one, and then -

Power is power is power is

This

Power?

Is this power?

It surges through her, in the blink of an eye, and shoots one uninterrupted, concentrated line of fire that pierces a hole through the hurlock and sends it flinging back against a wall, then arcs from him to a smaller darkspawn.

Hermione is still screaming from the first incendio on lyrium steroids, but she's not going to miss an opportunity to eliminate threats faster. Spells are being used, and Caius' channeling is helping.