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

[salvatore_underfoot]

"You're cut off?" That's sad, in a way. Isn't it? Losing his connection to the Fade would be like losing a part of himself. He glances up when Gam does, but of course sees nothing, and feels silly for doing so. "Is ... Are those the spirits' names?"

[maladgogo]

"I always got Damballah at my ear, in my head. 's part of the deal, he gets to watch the world through my eyes. But I can't feel 'im no more. It's like...sheddin' a skin you always fuckin' had, n' senses is duller for it. 'cept the one that knows where the green shit is, that's a new one to me." Gam runs a hand up the back of his neck under his dreads, nodding thoughtfully. "'s right. Damballah's the All-father, n' his wife's Ayida-Weddo. They lookin' out f' me n' mine. 's what this shit means." He pulls the scarf around his neck up, then tugs the leathers of the basic scout uniform out away from his chest to show the snakes twined together. They are connected to a larger design, but he would have to take off the top of the uniform entirely to show that as well.

[salvatore_underfoot]

He tries to keep up, though the names are unfamiliar, and he has a little trouble envisioning what Gam means by in my head and watching the world through his eyes. It seemed like communing, but maybe more intimate.

"Green shit?" His lips quirk. "Is that the rifts? You can sense them?" He hasn't spoken to many rifters, and not about their marks or what they can do. Was that a Gam thing or a rifter thing?

He leans forward to see the snakes, and leans back once he's got an idea of what he's looking at. "Is it just a symbol, or does it have any properties?"

[maladgogo]

Guy might have explained, given the bewildered look on Sal's face, but he's a bit amused by the questions.

"Yeah. Like a tinglin' sorta heat on bare skin. Like if ya bare ass was to this fire here for a lil' too long n' started burnin' just a lil' bit, but from different directions. Like that one I helped miss Korrin with, that was the one itchin' at me most. Then there's one waaay off that way," he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "N' there's a couple others can't get a real accurate bead on from here, gotta keep movin' to pin 'em down. Like a radar, sorta thing."

So a combination of the Gam thing and the Rifter thing, probably.

After pulling his clothes straight again, he runs a hand over his arm. "Sorta? It's symbolic'a my ties to my patron, but the ink n' symbols make that tie a lil' more literal. Papa gave me to Damballah, n' this acts like a homin' beacon sorta thing. Makes it so only I'm gettin' the full affects'a Damballah or Ogoun's presence."