open | beach party, blight themed

[nextone]

WHO: Anyone, and introducing Antoine and Evka.
WHAT: Darkspawn! Bonfire! Character intros!
WHEN: Late summer.
WHERE: The Wounded Coast.
NOTES: This is a new character intro, but it's also an open mingle if you would like to use it to do your own stuff without Antoine and Evka.

As it happens: Riftwatch is home to Kirkwall's only near-enough-to-permanent resident Grey Wardens. When travelers report an incursion of darkspawn on the roads into the city, then, the City Guard doesn't exactly punt — a few short-straw drawers are available to help — but it does send a messenger to the Gallows' front gate with a clear expectation that darkspawn fall firmly within the boundaries of Riftwatch's problem.

At least the weather is nice. One of the cooler days, wind chasing away the sea's humidity and passing clouds across the sun an intervals that provide bouts of shade but don't threaten rain. The darkspawn are less active in the daylight; a small band might try something opportunistic along the winding roads of the Wounded Coast, but the real task is to stop them where they're emerging underground. The source can be tracked to a winding cave, its mouth scattered with the possessions and gutted corpses of smugglers who tried to flee the first scouting party of shrieks.

That's also where Riftwatch will find two Grey Wardens. New ones. Pretty nice ones, too. Not the mean and/or shady kind of Warden they already have.

But that's the last good news for a while, as the sun sets and the darkspawn in the Deep Roads beneath the cave make a renewed push for the surface, hurlocks and genlocks scrabbling through the crevices in the dark like deepstalkers while the shrieks who emerged before them circle back to attack from behind. They're well-coordinated and have the potential to turn numerous, but the narrowness of their entry point keeps them bottlenecked to a manageable but endless stream. Stopping them for good may involve an explosion or two.

By the time it's done and the blighted bodies have been gathered to burn, it's late enough that there's little point in trying to travel back to the city in the dark rather than building another, less disgusting fire on the beach and waiting a few hours for sunrise.

Comments

[wontknowwhen]

"Nothing too big, that we've seen. Though I suppose without direction, that's not unusual, especially in daylight." Which is a remarkably optimistic-sounding way to say probably we will after sunset, but hey. "But we heard they've been a persistent problem in the area. We were hoping to buy the locals a longer reprieve."

Which is to say, it's very nice to meet you and all, but they aren't leaving just yet.