[Closed] [Join Us, Brothers And Sisters...]

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WHO: Nathaniel Hawke, Bethany Hawke, and the Wardens of Skyhold
WHAT: Two more Wardens come to the fold, with news to share.
WHEN: 22nd of Wintermarch
WHERE: The Front Gates of Skyhold
NOTES: Warnings for Warden Awesomeness.

The sun had dipped down behind the mountains, when the two shadowy figures emerged at the edge of the soldier's camp. Cloaked and hooded, they avoided the camp fires and the quiet conversations and chatter of the soldiers, instead slipping through to head towards the main gates. As they approached, it was clear that one of the figures was taller than the other, and the smaller one carried a staff. A very ... distinctive staff.

The guards were well trained, so they did not pull swords until the figures had entered the dim torchlight where they could see them more clearly. One of them stepped forward, his voice firm, "Stand, and identify yourself."

There was definite pause to the taller of the two figures, as he seemed to draw back. Looking at all of the guards, measuring his chances in either taking them out or get past them. The smaller figure reached up, lifting up a small gloved hand to put on the taller one's shoulder. A soft feminine voice sounded from within her hood. "It's all right. We're safe here."

The taller figure seemed to look into the hooded female's face, still obscured, and then nodded once. The smaller figure nodded in turn, before she stepped forward and pulled her hood away from her face, flipping back her cloak slightly. The guards stared at her, then down to the griffon standard on her shoulder, the red scarf with a distinct design on it, then back up to the woman's warm brown eyes. She held herself upright, with no fear or shame, as she stated firmly.

"I am Warden Bethany Hawke, with Senior Warden Nathaniel Howe. We bring news to our fellow Wardens, whomever made it here. Call for them." She paused, then stated a little more kindly, "Immediately, please."

Comments

[pinprick]

Ah. Alistair. Nathaniel gives him a nod. Not friends, but Nathaniel knows him well enough to have believed he wouldn't go along with Clarel, at least.

"He doesn't need to know how pale and tired he looks, so lay off the man," he grumbles at the girls. "Maker. Were you both raised in a barn?"

He approaches Alistair to offer a handshake.

"Good to see you, ser. The Wardens are gathering in Adamant Fortress. Last we could tell, Erimond was in the Western Approach with a few of them. We couldn't get close enough to know what he was doing."

[byblow]

The hugs Alistair accepts with dignity; the fussing, less so, with a nose wrinkle and sheepish look aside. "The Inquisition has tents," he says. "If you want a bed you have to fight for it."

Or be nobility. Or share. He has been sleeping in one, most nights, himself, but he knows he looks exhausted anyway. The look he gives Nathaniel is a little grateful, but not overly grateful—grateful in a manly way, to match the manly handshaking.

Gathering everyone might be a tall order. Scipio and Rafael will probably only come if there's food. But it's a nice aspiration.

"Erimond?" he echoes. He'd heard something about someone, something something Tevinter, but the name is unfamiliar. "The Inquisition sent scouts to Griffon Wing Keep. The Wardens were burning a lot of bodies." What follows is a valiant attempt at not sounding too angry at their hosts. "But they can't spare the forces right now."

[unbrokenoath]

"I don't even know all of who's here. What should I do? Go fetch an ogre to wrestle in and see who runs to it and who runs away?" She raised an eyebrow at Bethany, trying to think of just how they might do that. The sending crystals would work, if she knew who was who. Maybe put up an announcement?

"There were no barns in Denerim, I was raised in a bar. It's basically the same thing, just missing an n." Is her reply to Nathaniel's chiding on her fussing, still pulling her lip as she contemplates the task of fetching the Wardens. His news, however, strikes all other thoughts from her head, and she turns to scowl in contemplation at this new development. Adamant Fortress, huh? That meant that they were digging in.

"I'll fight for a bed for you, Alistair." She said it offhandedly, still focused on the news Nathaniel had shared. "Pick one out and I'll wrestle it open."

She focused, however, when Alistair gave more grim news. The scowl set on her face deepened, and she hunched up, temper flaring at the idea that the Inquisition had brushed off the Wardens to do what--? Go build snowmen in Emprise? A half dozen responses surge on her tongue, from demanding to speak to whoever's in charge around here, to announcing that if the Inquisition doesn't care, they can go take care of this themselves. But her temper has improved, slightly, since she was young, and she grinds her teeth as she reminds herself that threatening to dangle someone over the ramparts until they helped the Wardens would not, in fact, be helpful.

"Maker's balls, when it rains, it pours." Is what she says instead. "And we're sitting in a hut with some mighty shitty thatching." If being a Warden didn't work out after all of this, she could always go into poetry. "I guess the first thing that I'd like to figure out is who here is the most senior Warden. I know it's not really the time to worry about ranks..." She sighed, rubbing her neck. "...But we should all meet up, like Bethany said, and it'd be nice to have someone sort of in charge, at least."

She casts an appraising glance at Alistair at this. Well, he's certainly the most senior of the four of them...

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"Oh, let's not make this place more interesting than it already is ... " Bethany murmured, as she stepped in closer, so that they wouldn't be overheard any more than they should be. "They can be informed in due time, I suppose."

She folded her hands together in front of her, giving Nathaniel a wry look as he knew very well where she was raised, and who helped raise her. "Showing concern over someone isn't being raised in a barn, Nathaniel. Most people call it sympathy."

One eyebrow raised at Kaisa, and she sighed again. Knowing her, she probably would. At Alistair's news, however, her lips pressed into a frown. She looked around to the four of them, before stating simply, "I am sure they would not ignore a threat like this to our people -- and they simply haven't gotten enough intelligence. Perhaps what we bring will help them realize the depth of this particular threat to Thedas."

A quiet nod, "And we are going to need to organize, to see where our numbers are at and what we all bring to the table." As she also did not want to say what they were all thinking - that they would have to go to get their people on their own.

[pinprick]

"Livius Erimond, Ser. He's Tevinter, magister I think, and no Warden. He seems to be giving orders as much as Clarel. He broke off from the main force with a small Warden force and headed for the Western Approach. If the Wardens are burning bodies there..."

Nathaniel rubs a temple.

"I'm not going to try to put that one together. Not till I've had a bath and a shave."

[byblow]

Alistair waves off the offer to find him a bed, and soon thereafter holds up both hands in front of his chest and shakes his head, eyebrows raised, not particularly alarmed but definitely communicating no way. He's not in charge. "Warden Kaidan is here, from Weisshaupt," Alistair says. "He's in charge."

Except when Alistair decides he isn't. That's another story.

"They have enough intelligence to know we're desperate, but they have other problems. We're on the list," he tells Bethany. Resentful, but he'll resent it less when he sees Emprise and the half-starved villagers in cages. "Erimond—there are Tevinters here. Decent ones. We, ah, put one of them through the Joining a few weeks ago. He might know more about who we're dealing with."

[unbrokenoath]

"Warden Kaidan," Kaisa repeats, eyes glancing off to the side as she shuffles around her memory to see if the name produces anything. A few vague things, nothing to make a real definitive decision on the man's character. But if he's in charge, than he's in charge, and Kaisa will just be glad to call the matter settled. "Does he have one of those sending crystal things? I'd like to report in with him."

She's looking far less thrilled with the knowledge that Tevinter is sticking their grubby hands into this Warden pie, and she's about to say as much when Alistair announces that he'd gone and put a Tevinter through the Joining. She stares at him with the same surprise that would befit a declaration that a nug had joined their ranks.

"You had a Vint join us? Well, if he passed the Joining then he passed, I suppose. Maker's ass, this is a lot of shit to take in. Burning bodies and being on a Maker-damned waiting list while we cross our fingers and toes that there isn't a Blight happening right under our noses and all the other Wardens are just--" She sighed again. And once more, for good measure.

"--It is what it is. The Wardens have dealt with bigger messes." She straightens up, crossing her arms. Standing around whining won't do any good. "We'll get all of this figured out. Not going to let a fucking magister and some thick-headed Orlesians ruin an organization that's been around a thousand years." She thinks it's been a thousand years. That sounds about right. She'll look at a calendar later.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany raised an eyebrow at Alistair, because yes, that was a very speedy answer to the question of who was in charge, before she shifted her attention back to Kaisa. The mention of Tevinter made her own mouth pucker, but she was going to hold her tongue until she had met the fellow. She'd learned a long time ago not to judge people until she actually talking to him.

She glanced over at Nathaniel, her lips quirking. "Agreed. Food and bath, and then we can start sorting out all of this."

She looked around at the others, "As for what we're doing ... I know Nathaniel has some ideas."