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CLOSED | the perfect stormrider.
WHO: Erik Stephens, Gabranth, Diana, Benedict, Edgard, Tiffany, Dick & Jone.
WHAT: The Gang Fights A Dragon.
WHEN: Cloudreach.
WHERE: The Thenuviet estate on the Exalted Planes.
NOTES: if something looks wonky or is misspelled, please know I’m typing this on mobile & have mercy.
WHAT: The Gang Fights A Dragon.
WHEN: Cloudreach.
WHERE: The Thenuviet estate on the Exalted Planes.
NOTES: if something looks wonky or is misspelled, please know I’m typing this on mobile & have mercy.
GETTING THERE isn’t a short journey, and they’re hardly traveling in comfort. Most of the horses are carrying equipment, armor, weaponry, and anything else those volunteered for this expedition thought to include. And there’s camping equiptment. Anyone who said the travel overland involved staying at inns was lying. Inns are notoriously stuffed with murderers, anyway.
Every night, there’s a campfire and food. Sometimes it’s fresh caught, but if it is, Jone certainly didn’t catch it. Just as likely that it’s rations, salt pork and jerky and whatever dried fruits and nuts Riftwatch can spare.
There’s a STOP AT A BATHHOUSE in the town near the Thenuviet estate, however. It’s stupid, they’re just going to dirty themselves up later, but presentation is important to these people.
Surely all of you brought fancy dress and masks, because IT’S TIME TO SCHMOOZE. There’s a small party of Orlesians dressed to their finest, having a cozy little soirée on the edge of a cliff. Literally on the edge. Don’t indulge too much in the fine wines and cheeses, because there’s a dragon waiting, but for now? It’s never a bad idea to look good in front of rich people of influence. At least, not these days.
Eventually, it’s time to move forward, which means PREPARING FOR BATTLE. Climbing down the cliff is easy stuff, if you’re good with rope or have basic upper body strength. But now is probably the time to set up any traps, get in good positions... because it’s not long before the party on the cliff above begins to cheer.
...Because a few dead swine are unceremoniously kicked off the cliff to fall into the ravine now filled with you and yours.
The cheers from the cliff face only increase as loud thrashing, howling sounds start and become increasingly closer. How long have they been feeding the dragon like this?
But then it’s DRAGON KILLING TIME. You probably know how that goes. Stormriders are huge, dark scaled, and shoot thunder instead of fire. This one is angry you’ve interrupted lunch time.
AFTERWARD, it’s time to heal, take a breath, poke around the dragon bits for fancy heirlooms, and climb back up that cliff.
no subject
[His stare lingers on her armor as if evaluating it— perhaps wondering if in some respect they might be alike, regardless of the differences between worlds. But then of course it’s rude in fair company to stare so openly, even with a helmet devoid of expression; the moment he recognizes his own curiosity for what it his, his attention shifts away once more, settling instead on the distant passing of nobility wreathed in feathers enough to provide the whole of riftwatch with finer places to rest their heads.
They look like birds, but he'll not say it.]
no subject
Do you appreciate the opportunity to choose now, or is it uncomfortable?
no subject
There is an ease to be found in the surety of service. A world made simple by order alone.
[A knowing pause, before, with some small amount of care:] ...but such things cannot be clung to forever.
no subject
I'm a Seeker of Truth. Our lives are about service--taking orders, protecting the Chantry. In the lines of the Chant of Light, there's order to be found. In the direction of the Order, there's order. Then you get outside, in the real world-- [She gestures around them--the Orlesians in their feathers, the other members of Riftwatch (as varied and as motley a crew as they come), the dragon and the cliff and the countryside around them.] Nothing makes sense, at first.
I miss it, sometimes. Knowing exactly what to do.
no subject
[The Chantry he understands, of course. Its purpose, the service it provides in teaching and perhaps— most poignantly— the control it holds over the broader span of Thedas itself. But her title...]
Can you not return to your Order? [Is she so mired here in the real world, as she herself put it?]
no subject
[She looks down. The eye of the Seekers is on her breastplate, a sigil done in thin beaten gold. Carefully, Tiffany touches it, the way she might touch a talisman.]
I will someday return. My work right now is with Riftwatch. I was sent to offer assistance, and to send word to my Order about what happens here. Still following orders, but there's autonomy to it. I'm never truly alone, but it is lonelier.
no subject
[There's something there, really. Something he cannot impart or offer in the midst of a gathering like this, when so much depends on the matter of masks and obscurity.
Best he say nothing of Judge Magisters— or himself.]
If there is anything I can offer you to ease the pain of it, know that I’ll see it done.
no subject
[It might be an idle offer, but Tiffany doesn't read that. They've only formally met on this mission. She still feels a flicker of familiarity, something that she couldn't put into words. If he knows the feeling she's described, she can likely say the same in reverse. A particular kinship makes for a kind of comfort.]
I feel that we have a duty to watch out for one another within Riftwatch. We've come together in a particular way, not all of us by our own will. Supporting one another, internally, is the least we can do. But beyond that duty, I'll offer the same to you. If there's anything I can do for you, I'll gladly do it.
no subject
[A beat, the weight of that admission hovering there between them.]
It is a selfish desire of mine, to want to see you returned to yours all the better for having been away.
[And with that, he shifts, clearing his throat in order to once more dismiss any and all undesired significance that might yet linger in the air.] I've taken too much of your time, I fear. You will no doubt be missed by those in attendance.