We must resist

[arcaneadvisor]

WHO: Morrigan; open
WHAT: Checking in on friends, checking in on the mage and rifter situation and research. Wildcard and shapeshifter lesson discussions available!
WHEN: Post-rift opening in Skyhold onwards, basically a big catch-all
WHERE: All over Skyhold
NOTES:A few so please bear with me:
1) Morrigan is seeking out rifters since what happened to Sina, there’s a starter just for them
2) For the same reasons she’s seeking out members of the mage council
3) If you’re interested in shapeshifter lessons, there’s a handy sticky post here
4) The research Morrigan is doing is based on the Hinterlands expedition here

Library - artifact research;
Since returning from the Hinterlands, she’s devoted more time to the artifact that had returned with them, or rather to the notes that had been made about the surroundings. It makes a change to reading the book on the Veilfire runs and making her own notes from what Pel had directed her to, taking her deeper into history, into Avvar culture and Ferelden legends for a change. Each time Flemeth is mentioned she makes what might be a grimace or might be a smile.

Spread across the table are copious notes taken in the Hinterlands, including sketches of the artifact, as well as a symbol drawn on the floor in the ruin, a few more of the strange statues, the piles of bones.

Another perspective would be welcome, as would a distraction in all honesty.

Gardens;
Instead of the usual peace, Skyhold's garden is a battle.  Not a serious one to most but to the children playing Wardens and Darkspawn it's very much real, shrieking and lunging, hacking and slashing with swords.  One little boy holds Morrigan's attention more than the others; this is a rare moment of peace, when things have been on edge lately.  As it is, she's kneeling, planting the seeds she brought with her, a few she's carried around since she left the Wilds, others brought with her from Orlais and beyond.  Simple, quiet work, no devious plans some might think she has, just a break from researching out in the fresh air. 

And no, contrary to what some might have you believe, not a single one of the seeds will grow into something poisonous.

Seeking rifters;
She's met a rifter or two since she came to Skyhold, and talk of them has been everywhere but hunting them down to talk was never a priority until the rift had opened within the very walls.  Now?  Well she has theories, theories she cannot test herself but looking for them might help, and it's a different sort of magic, something new to draw her attention when not working on whatever scraps of elven lore they've uncovered thus far.

Wherever the rifters might be, she seeks them out eventually, appearing around a corner seemingly from nowhere, perhaps after a particularly intent crow or cat has watched them before disappearing.  The introduction is the same each time, for she only knows one or two in passing.

"Greetings, you may call me Morrigan.  I wonder, might you have the time to talk a while?"

Seeking the mage council;
That they've made a little Circle themselves here is still a notion that disquiets her, something that she keeps an eye on without joining in, unwilling to be held to whatever rules they've made but it wasn't just anyone who opened a rift in Skyhold.  It was a native, a native mage and when she arrived in the first instance it was after an Abomination rampaged.  It hardly helps matters that she's Dalish as well.

There are too many Templars here for her liking as it stands, unsure of what reprisals there might be.  So she waits, quiet and patient, seeking Adelaide LeBlanc in particular simply because they've spoken before but it is opinions she is after, a sense of how things truly lie.  She's lingered before, to watch, to listen, to judge silently and she never could abide things being caged.

wildcard;
[Or feel free to find Morrigan elsewhere!]

Comments

[el_tybs]

"I can't say many have. I don't suppose it's a trip that many would take and Circle mages less so, being put behind stone walls and all." His eyes slowly drift over to where the children are, their voices growing louder as they play their game, yelling about defeating the Darkspawn. A fitting game for their topic of conversation.

"Do you suppose you could show me how these draughts are made? Once the plants are ready of course. If it has healing properties and can cure Blight sickness in the dogs, it would be important to know."

[arcaneadvisor]

"That did not prevent Kinloch Hold from being drawn into it all beyond treaties promising their aid; did the story spread far? Of a mage returned from Ostagar only to turn his fellows into abominations as demons ran rampant through the tower killing or ensnaring those in their path?" Morrigan would have let the Circle fall if the choice had been hers, they had already sealed their fate by being there in the first place and doing nothing to fight it. Small wonder the council here concerns her, a Circle by another name.

There's a moment of consideration before she inclines her head in a small nod. "That I can once enough have grown to allow for it. These are old things it would behoove many to remember should they ever find themselves in the wilds and in need." And as much as research is all well and good, some will see this as a more practical demonstration of helping the Inquisition, should there be any accusations thrown her way.

[el_tybs]

"It did but not so much in that detail." Hearing that news has Sam wrinkling his nose, having imagined what that must have been like to the mages trapped. "I'm afraid in Ostwick we were kept updated, but it was still vague." More than likely to stop widespread panic if he thinks about it.

At the nod, Sam smiles slightly. "I would appreciate it and very much like that. It never hurts to know more." He knew plenty on elfroot and the other basic plants, but knowing the less well known might give them an advantage in the future.

[arcaneadvisor]

“Every sort of demon you could imagine, arcane horrors, corpses coming to life, that was before we were trapped within our own nightmares by a sloth demon. Oh and drakes. I cannot say how some drakes came to be in the tower.” As well as the strange parts of rituals they found, and the notes, the little groups of blood mages scattered about. A very strange time indeed. “Commander Cullen was stationed there in fact, at that very time though I doubt he would care to remember it.”

Cullen might not even want her bringing it up but she’s not beholden to hmi.

“If you can find a free place with little disturbance then I shall find time to show you a few things, tis a sensible attitude, one never knows where they might be sent and if you should know enough, in a pinch you can make substitutions that might be of use. And never forget, what heals can also hurt.” Mages have less need of poison but not all rogues know such arts.

[el_tybs]

At the mention of all the things that transpired at the Circle, Sam finds himself frowning, his lips curling down as she listed more and more. That sounded like an absolute hell. "The Commander was there? Truly?" He had overheard that the Commander used to be a Templar in Kirkwall, but even at Kinloch? It wasn't something he'd bring up so freely though.

His gloomy expression brightens a bit however when Morrigan agrees to teach him. He's not so much looking to make poison, but he nods either way - it could prove useful in any case to know. "There are some rooms around here that aren't in use, probably too drafty, that could possibly work," he offers.

[arcaneadvisor]

"It took me a little time to place him certainly," she admits because ten years are ten years but people talk, names come up, and what she saw was not something easily forgotten in the first place. "But twas him, though given the time that has passed and his age he must have been fairly new to his post. He survived when many others fell though he was less gracious than he might have been for the aid given."

Templars, what can you do.

Oh the sigh she heaves because when her shack in a bog was less exposed to the elements then that's a sad day indeed. "Those should suffice if the weather holds, the underforge might be suitable if the weather turns though or my rooms if I am able to secure everything."

[el_tybs]

He doesn't say anything to that. Having not been there himself or knowing the Commander nor Morrigan that well there was little to say except to take her word on it. Course he couldn't imagine what the Commander was like about years ago.

Well considering Skyhold was an old abandoned keep up until about five months ago it was pretty amazing at how well it stood up to the elements up til now, and the repairs that were ongoing were slowly getting completed. "I can offer my space as well. It's in the armory though, but they're not always working and it's warm. Not that we can't take a little cold though, right?"

[arcaneadvisor]

Time has been kind and unkind to them. That is has been kindest to Morrigan? That's not what she expected, that the world would become so much worse so quickly, that the peace wouldn't last. Too much has awoken and will not slumber again, not easily, and she would seize the chances she could find.

Starting here, quietly gathering knowledge. She has changed, it is less disagreeable to offer aid for the sake of aid and word will spread becase Leliana has her eyes and ears everywhere. Let her wonder at Morrigan's motives, she can wait patiently for now. "That should suffice, the Korcari Wilds are never warm, and my mother's idea of a home was more of a shack. The way the wind would howl in the winter. I suspect tis more difficult for some Circle mages to adapt, especially the Orlesians."

[el_tybs]

Sam shakes his head and gives a small huff of amusement. "Quite a number of them have issues with the cold, that's true." Boy that was true for a number of them, especially ones from warmer climates. "I grew up on the Coastlands myself. It was plenty cold and wet for most of the time. Winter was always interesting - cold but never as cold as it was inland."