open: something grabs ahold of me tightly

[faderifting]

WHO: Inquisition Forces
WHAT: Inquisition forces cross the mountains into Orlais to deal with Emprise du Lion
WHEN: Wintermarch 25 onward
WHERE: EMPRISE DU LION
NOTES: This is a mingle-style log for the Inquisition camps, local tavern, and general/open Inquisition work, etc.

This time they hike down to the west, but the trip through the mountains is no easier. The snow is heaped up about the road where wagons have pushed it aside, stomped into slippery pack beneath the feet and hooves that have gone before. Of the main track it is ankle deep at best and in places it drifts, waist-deep on a tall man and enough to bury a dwarf who hasn't come prepared with snowshoes. Everywhere the wind howls, biting cold, and the sky hangs low, a pale flat grey that makes it difficult to judge distances. Those who know winter weather call it a snow sky, and near-daily squalls prove them right.

They set up camp in Sahrnia, across the broad expanse of frozen river that has trapped the villagers here upstream. Tents pop up in rows and in the shells of tumbled-down buildings, fires blazing and thawing the ground to mud. When the supply wagons roll in they re-open the local tavern, brightly lit with flaking paint on the walls that might once have been colorful and patterned tiles on the floor that seems to swim like an optical illusion after too many glasses of the cheap red wine that fills the cellars.

Even deadlier reds hold the hills: Red Templar sightings have been frequent and it is said they are operating in several locations in the region in significant force. Some of these men and women have become hulking, crystalline beasts. Many others are in the earlier stages of corruption: red-veined and -eyed, aggressive and superhumanly strong, but still visibly human and coherent if spoken to. Red lyrium is even easier to find, jutting out of the ground or cliffsides, filling caves-- the Tower of Bone, a fortress that has stood for centuries, now threatens to split from the inside out. The area's wildlife was none too friendly before, but now the wolves and bears have begun to be corrupted by the lyrium and many will attack on sight, without provocation. (The snofleurs that bumble harmlessly around the river seem unaffected.)

Everywhere there are ruins: broken bridges, crumbling colosseums, and the great hulking mass of Suledin's Keep tucked between the distant hills. Scouts reported that Red Templars hold it as well.

RIFTER ARRIVAL - SAHRNIA - THE HILLS - TOWER CAMP - A HANDY MAP

Comments

[ungovernable]

( the woman who waited up for him as she did doesn't get to throw stones about his probably keeping tabs on her behaviour, and at any rate, he's not doing it so he can give earnest lectures unlike some mal reynoldses of her acquaintance. she gives him a beatific smile in lieu of an actual answer-- )

I deserve every detail, and you will get none until I have them.

[liberalum]

[ Dorian settles up on his elbows as if with the intent to loom over her by several short inches. ]

Vishante kaffas, [ is delivered calmly, as opposed to when he usually curses in Tevene, which tends to be the hissing that a snakish sounding language prefers. But no, factually delivered, and he adds; ] You'll get nothing from me with that attitude.

[ungovernable]

Dorian!

( --a protest, and then relenting in a way that manages to be artfully slight, as if she might at any moment glance up from beneath her lashes to check his reaction.

she doesn't. this isn't amateur hour. )

It was before Skyhold. But now he's here. I will pull your moustache if you don't tell.

[liberalum]

I will tell, [ he pledges, and not just to protect facial hair that has suffered enough abuses for one evening.

Eyes hooded, he peers at her down the length of his nose. ]

If it was before Skyhold, I'll presume it's not a Templar. Please tell me it isn't That Man.

[ By now, Benevenuta knows that That Man is Malcolm Reynolds. ]

[ungovernable]

( the face she pulls is answer enough, or ought to be, but she feels compelled to verbally deny such a scurrilous accusation-- )

I never. It was a Grey Warden. Now,

( with a determined push at his shoulder that doesn't do much, given that she doesn't bother trying to sit up to do it, )

details.

[liberalum]

[ Still slouched back against his elbows, Dorian's hands lift in a gesture of what am I supposed to do with that.

Very sarcastic; ]

Alright. It was a Qunari.

[ungovernable]

Dorian,

this is very important,

( with her most solemn expression. it's very solemn, she has worked on it, it is a work of art. solemnity, a study. a delicate bouquet of seriousness. no mischief whatsoever to be found. )

Did you ride the bull?

[liberalum]

[ His mustache twitches. So nearly a smile.

Dorian slides to settle back down again, resigned, finally, hands folded on his stomach. His spirit does not quite match hers, even if he isn't without humour. Remembering too recent memories not so much with fondness as with discomfort. ]

No. [ But before she can kick up about detail-- ] He said, not this time.

[ungovernable]

( she settles on her side, propping up now on an elbow as if they're trading places, fluid - she has an ease developing with dorian that a lover would struggle to compete with, and thinks it very good. )

Then, ( eyerows rising, ) there will be another time?

[liberalum]

The possibility exist, within the vast array of infinite variable that makes up reality as we know it,

[ he informs the tent ceiling. More seriously; ]

Not if I've any sense, and before you say a thing, it's been known to happen.

[ungovernable]

( benevenuta closes her mouth.

after a few moments of studiously not judgmental silence, )

Warden Hercules Hansen. And I robbed him, but that was wholly unrelated, and I returned his knife and all of the coin when he arrived in Skyhold. Adelaide,

( thoughtfully, )

has not yet asked me why I so urgently required the return of said knife at just that moment, but I suspect she is only laying in wait.

[liberalum]

[ Dorian only looks towards her once she starts talking again, raising an eyebrow again at the name -- the slightly distant look in his eye connoting trying to set it to face, failing, making a note to do so later -- and then his brow creasing at the middle as this little tale goes on. ]

Wholly unrelated?

[ That sounds fake. ]

[ungovernable]

Well, I didn't have to sleep with him to do it,

( in tone of being terribly reasonable. it is impressive, how rational she makes things sound, when they aren't. )

And I would have regardless.

[liberalum]

Just a silver lining to the whole robbery bit.

[ His smile is crooked, more sincere at his eyes, which have lines, and sparkle with mirth. ]

And now he's here, knife and coin restored, but not his dignity. Nor, dare I say it, his heart.

[ungovernable]

His hear--

( benevenuta doesn't even complete the word, flinging herself dramatically over - one plait swings wildly, catching dorian in the chin - and burying her face in the bedroll. what a thing to say to a person.

slightly muffled, mortified, )

I am sure that isn't what I was touching, Dorian.

[liberalum]

[ Fuck sake, although getting swatted by a dense plait doesn't warrant verbal protest, nose wrinkling, too amused to be annoyed.

He barks a laugh at her next comment, delighted. ]

If you say so. And have you embarked on further touching since he so inserted himself back into your life?

[ungovernable]

I absolutely have not.

( so emphatic! the lady doth protest slightly too much; it isn't as if she hasn't considered. she has, and in equal measure considered how embarrassing it would be to get shot down by hercules 'too old and reasonable for your noblewoman nonsense' hansen. if you get tossed back by a grey warden when no one else is around, did it even happen?

yes. and when a tree falls in the woods, lots of other things besides people have ears, you know. )

...I have a Wintersend gift for his mabari.