THE ASHES UNDERNEATH HIS NAILS - PLOTTING POST

[amygdalae]

Before anything else - since more than eight peeps signed up I went to RNG the team for this, so here are the characters selected to be part of this plot! They are:

THE CHOSEN EIGHT

Hermoine Granger (bookish_lioness) Raylan Gibbs (apostafuckyou) Ciri (cintra) Adelaide Leblanc (fleurdesel)

Anders (justice_is_blond) Herian Amsel (dashing) Jim Kirk (universal_charm) Inessa Serra (circleprodigy)

If you're one of the ones mentioned above, then please read ahead for all the information that you need for what's to come!

THE ASHES UNDERNEATH HIS NAILS (PART I)

The Inquisition recently has been getting reports that the people in Fromage, a remote little village located at the outskirts of Emprise du Lion, are under a string of mysterious kidnappings and disappearances with no trace of them whatsoever. Wanting to get to the bottom of it, the Inquisition has sent a group over to investigate and uncover the cause of these strange kidnappings and/or disappearances. THE MISSION: Investigate and resolve the cause of the disappearances happening in Fromage. obligatory bruce banner gif because why not

PLOT TIMELINE Inquisition gets reports about Fromage and their request for help. Inquisition gets the characters from above and puts them into a team, sends them to investigate. The group arrives at Fromage and starts to investigate. After enough investigation, group has enough information to put together that the disappearances mostly take place along a particular route to/from the village late at night. Group goes to this particular route to investigate. INVESTIGATION LEADS TO SEEKRIT CAVE!! WOW!! SEEKRIT CAVE is guarded by RED TEMPLARS!! DOUBLE WOW!! Group deals with red remplar guards and then investigate the SEEKRIT CAVE!! TRIPLE WO--okay I'll stop I'm sorry Investigation of SEEKRIT CAVE will lead to discovery of tiny abomination child! Group decides what to do with tiny abomination child and grab whatever they find in SEEKRIT CAVE (presumably) Skedaddle back to Skyhold! \o/

MAP OF A SEEKRIT CAVE + STUFF TO NOTE (click image for bigger version w/o labels) The cave, as you can guess, will be the main focus for this plot. For the ease of the log as well as for everyone in general characters will be split into two groups of four each during the investigation of the cave (before discovering the abomination kid; all characters will be present to discuss what to do with the abomination kid) since coordinating between four people will be much easier than eight people all smashed together. NOTE: Each of the teams will be taking one side of the cave, where there are different things to find. Left team will be taking the guardrooms, morgue and cells while the right team will be rummaging through the supplies and records. Both sides will have equal things to find, so don't worry! All eight characters will eventually converge in the 'lab' where the abomination child will be at, and from there they'll make their decision on what to do with the kid. I'll put a comment below where you guys will be able to post to in order for you guys to properly confirm your teams and which side they're taking - or if you want me to make the teams, let me know there too and I'll respond with RNG'd teams + their bases to cover for everyone to refer to. NOTE 2: How this investigation is handled is going to be pretty different from usual log formats around here - I'm taking several cues from murdergames like danganroleplay, cradleproject, trustfell etc. In a nutshell the investigation is going to be heavily GM'd - characters will poke around the rooms to see what they're going to find and I'll be responding back in turn to see what they'll be finding ICly. Examples would be something like this, like this, orrrr like this! NOTE 3: WITH THAT SAID, the only parts of this I'm definitely GMing are the cave investigation as well as the kid abomination threads. The others are pretty much free for all and you guys can do whatever, but please do contact me if you need clarification for anything or if you do want me to throw a GM tag your way. STUFF TO DECIDE ON FROMAGE INVESTIGATION: Handwave it, y/n? Its not super important and I can effectively summarize it up to make things easier. Instead then I can just put up a general thread pre-route stuff and beyond where you guys can just mingle or do whatever you guys want before going off to the route to investigate. ROUTE INVESTIGATION: to lie in wait for something to happen or just charge straight in? Both ways will lead the characters to the ~seekrit cave~, but depending on what they decide to do the battle against the Red Templars might be easier/harder. SEEKRIT CAVE: Red Templars will be guarding the entrance and for the sake of simplicity during the investigation later, all guards that would be inside the cave will be outside as well. There will be battling here and it is going to be pretty fierce, so just hash out if injuries are going to be a thing and such! SEEKRIT CAVE INVESTIGATION: Destroy the records/evidence of what the group finds in the cave or bring them back to Skyhold? The hopeful outcome is to bring them back, but there's also no stopping the group from destroying them if they want to, so it'd be good to decide here as well. CHILD ABOMINATION: The biggest headache of them all. All of you have free reign on what to do with the child: let him go off on his own, kill him, bring him back to Skyhold etc. etc. The only caveat is that if the group decides to spare the child and bring him back to Skyhold, it will be required to let the four advisors know and they will need to be involved from that point forward. SUBTHREADS: My idea for the current subthreads now is: pre route shit, route shit, seekrit cave entrance shit, seekrit cave investigation (pre-kidbomiation), kidbomiation thread, way back to skyhold. If you guys want anything else in there or think something should change and stuff etc, just let me know and we can all see what works best.

OKAY that should be all the bases covered but if you still have questions and whatnot please let me know! This is my first time ever doing something like this and I want to make sure it'll be great for everyone, so don't hesitate to come up and clarify whatever you want!! Otherwise if everything is cool let's all go and kick some red templars in the ass and then go and get these characters horrified in the best/worst ways \o/.

Also a reminder that log will go up on September 1st! So mark those calendars, this is gonna be a wild ride.

TEAMS

LEFT TEAM Ciri Adelaide Leblanc Herian Amsel Inessa Serra

RIGHT TEAM Raylan Gibbs Jim Kirk Hermoine Granger Anders

Comments

QUESTIONS??

[amygdalae]

Once again I know I probably missed something so if that is the case hit me up here and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Re: QUESTIONS??

[apostafuckyou]

do we know the exact (or rough) dates of the mission or are we going to be figuring that out in the process here?

GIF SPAM

[amygdalae]

aka I suck at finding good gifs and shit so pls link me gifs that I can use for the log

pls

we all need #aesthetic

[fightingale]

— red lyrium: ONE | TWO | THREE

and if I find more that fit the #aesthtic I'll edit them in

TEAMS

[amygdalae]

WOW I ALMOST FORGOT THIS GJ SELF

respond here for team formations and what side they're going to investigate in the cave!!

Re: TEAMS

[apostafuckyou]

i am going to tentatively put raylan on right team, for records and supplies!

[ichaer]

i'm gonna throw ciri on the left team

[fleurdesel]

LEFT TEAM BEST TEAM aka adelaide will do that

[dashing]

I AM going to go with left because that is what the coin i flipped told me to do

[circleprodigy]

Inessa can be on the left team!

TEAMS

[universal_charm]

Since we have four volunteered for left already, Kirk will go on the right!

TEAMS

[bookish_lioness]

Tugging myself out of hiatus to drop Hermione on Team Records and Shit, because come on, who else would actually stop to read through every piece of paper they find and keep them organized, am I right? The boys can carry the supplies back, whatever.

[justice_is_blond]

I'm so sorry that I'm a little behind here - I'll put Anders on right side to even it out.

PLOTTING AND SHIT

[amygdalae]

lets start ruining everything--I MEAN

LET'S ALL HAVE FUN??

Herian Amsel

[dashing]

FROMAGE INVESTIGATION:
hand wave sounds really good to me, we can dive straight into the meaty stuff 8Db

ROUTE INVESTIGATION:
Herian would be all for charging in, or for part of the part charging in and giving others more time to assess risk? I think she’d be for assessing if there is a chance, but if it seems like a small window she’d be there for going straight on in.

SEEKRIT CAVE:
I am very flexible about what happens to Herian in the fight, it’d be cool to have her get some injuries up to a level of Really Bad, (especially in the line of protecting others because KNIGHTLY!!! etc etc) the only exception would be broken legs or arms, which I’d sooner avoid. She’s a Knight Enchanter so she’s very in the fray, and she actually doesn’t have a staff at this point, so her fighting is mainly spirit blade and regular blade, sometimes double wielding for True Horror.

SEEKRIT CAVE INVESTIGATION:
Bring it back to Skyhold, for sure.
Herian will also be picking up her AC rewards staff here, so just making sure no one will try to stop her from keeping it if she finds it in the Seekrit Cave O’Doom?

CHILD ABOMINATION:
I think Herian would be for sparring/trying to somehow save the child, if they can. Kids man :c if anyone were very strongly against letting the child survive she might draw her sword, depending very much on circumstances, but she’d definitely want to try and find a way to save the tiny wee abomination… that said she can be persuaded. (This will also be her first experience with red lyrium so ha ha ha.)

SUBTHREADS:
sounds like a solid list my bro


GENERAL STUFF:
This will be Herian’s first mission for the Inquisition. She’s not an overly chatty person, but neither is she rude without provocation. She’ll have her noble steed, so if anyone is injured/tired/etc she’ll offer him to them for a time. If you’d like to hash out background CR before they depart or pre-Inquisition stuff then just let me knooowwww.

Inessa Serra

[circleprodigy]

FROMAGE INVESTIGATION: Handwave it, definitely. There's so much else to focus on.

ROUTE INVESTIGATION: Inessa would definitely be in favor of assessing the situation first. Charging in is not her style.

SEEKRIT CAVE: Inessa can heal others if they get injured, and I'm open to her getting injured as well. Her combat element is ice, so expect a lot of it.

SEEKRIT CAVE INVESTIGATION: Inessa would be in favor of bringing the evidence back to Skyhold.

CHILD ABOMINATION: Inessa would definitely NOT want the child to go off on his own. She'll get panicky at the idea of bringing him back to Skyhold, but it's possible to get through to her, especially those who know her past. Killing a child isn't something she'd normally contemplate, but abominations are a very sore subject for her.

GENERAL STUFF: Inessa will have her mabari, naturally. He'll stay near her for the most part, but if anyone needs him to pull a Lassie for some reason, I can work with that.

[universal_charm]

OMELE DU FROMAGE INVESTIGATION:
Handwaving sounds perfectly fine by me!

ROUTE INVESTIGATION:
Flexible with what happens here, but ICLY Kirk would be calling for some scouting/planning and being somewhat sneaky versus straight up charging in if it can be avoided.

SEEKRIT CAVE:
Flexible here as well, and while some injuries are okay for me, I wouldn't want anything completely debilitating either. So banged up, but able to walk under his own power after getting his breath (nothing the healers can't handle, basically). He's mostly a hand-to-hand combat sort of fighter and has his staff and a knife. He's not reliably enough with anything else to use it right now.

SEEKRIT CAVE INVESTIGATION:
Kirk would be for bringing back the records for further study. Might be something important in them or relevant to something else, so no jumping the "BURN IT WITH FIRE" gun.

CHILD ABOMINATION:
Kirk would be for sparring the child and/or saving it. He would/will push hard for it, and he will probably get up in anyone's face who is immediately for killing the child. It's a kid, you know? But he would feel that way about an adult, too, soo... But if everyone else is against him, not like he can stop anyone. He will make his displeasure known though.

SUBTHREADS:
Sounds like a plan!

Re: PLOTTING AND SHIT

[apostafuckyou]

cheese: handwaving sounds good!

route: raylan is somewhat more inclined to go charging in, but will follow others' lead.

seekrit: i'm gonna go with mostly superficial damage on raylan mostly because he'll stay at range and snipe people with lightning.

seekrit investigation: raylan votes bring the records back because who knows what value they could have? they can always burn the shits at skyhold if they really want to.

abomination: raylan is for bringing it back to skyhold but he doesn't want all of them to die in the attempt? so if that seems like a possibility he might vote for the mercy kill.

subthreads: :ok_hand:

Hermione Granger

[bookish_lioness]

FROMAGE INVESTIGATION: Handwaving it seems easier, especially if nothing long-term is going to come out of it.

ROUTE INVESTIGATION: Hermione will always ICly opt to stand back and assess the situation if she has the opportunity, but she's a Gryffindor, so. Y'know. If a fight breaks out or if other people start charging in, she'll do what she can to protect her allies without hesitating.

SEEKRIT CAVE: Her combat skills still aren't what they can be, so I'm up for Hermione getting pretty badly injured if she doesn't have anyone watching her back at a given moment. A lack of easy mobility could be why she ends up stopping and reading through whatever records Team Right finds. She's light; one of the guys can cart her around while she reads.

SEEKRIT CAVE INVESTIGATION: Who would burn information?? That would be like burning a book. And even the most horrible books can prove useful someday.

CHILD ABOMINATION: No one hurts the kid while Hermione's there. She'll be very adamant about the whole thing and will do whatever she can to protect the weebomination, unless it proves violent, in which case she'll help subdue it and bring it back to Skyhold. She'll understand any trepidation about that, though, so she'll definitely volunteer to keep a close eye on it until they can figure out some way to help it.

SUBTHREADS: o/

ciri

[ichaer]

FROMAGE INVESTIGATION:

Hand waving sounds like an A+ plan so we can go ahead and jump right in everything else.

ROUTE INVESTIGATION:

Honestly, Ciri is the sort that would rush ahead because she'd hang back in the snow if the majority wanted to figure out the situation first.

SEEKRIT CAVE:

Pretty gosh darn flexible with Ciri getting beat up. She's one of the few front line fighters so I'm expecting her to suffer some pretty serious injuries while trying to keep the Reds away from those in the back line. Her style of fighting is rather dance like with lots of quick hits, dashes and flips. She's basically a Rogue with a sword and is more about exploiting the weaknesses of her opponents than pushing through with pure strength.

SEEKRIT CAVE INVESTIGATION:

The one thing she'll actually again needs to be taken back to Skyhold because OH BOY everything else is just a hideous mess.

CHILD ABOMINATION:

After the shit show that was Weisshaupt, Ciri will not be happy with the situation involving small abomination AT ALL to say the least. She will be highly against bringing the child demon back with them and will rightly get in someone's face if they think one life is worth more than risking the lives back at Skyhold. Not to mention their own lives being in danger trying to move it to another location. She would suggest quite quickly, if no other safe options presented themselves, to mercy kill the child. She would not immediately resort to violence but if she thinks for a moment that Inessa or herself is in danger, she will draw her sword.

SUBTHREADS:

Sounds like a plan because subthreads means organization and I love organization.

Anders

[justice_is_blond]

FROMAGE INVESTIGATION: Handwave it, yeah, since that would take a lot of NPC work from you.

ROUTE INVESTIGATION: Assess before heading in. It would be nice to not charge in for once.

SEEKRIT CAVE: Injuries are fine! Anders will be healing after, himself if needed, others as needed too. His strongest element is fire, but Creation is where he's most gifted so there will be barriers and rejuvenation and such aplenty. He'll also be willing to get a little stabby with the bladed end of his staff if things get too close.

SEEKRIT CAVE INVESTIGATION: Bring back the info!

CHILD ABOMINATION: Definitely arguing for bringing the child back. They have a ritual that could possibly free the kid now; how could they simply kill the child instead of taking a chance for giving him a life?

SUBTHREADS: Sounds like a plan! There may be a cat brought along, because cat needs training in combat that isn't darkspawn yet... >.>

REPORT WRITING

[dashing]

hello, mission buddies!


Given the weighty nature of the events and findings near Fromage, I figured it would make sense for one of the folks present on the mission to do a report for the Advisors and icly mention the handover of evidence to the relevant researchy/information gathery parties.

Herian has some scraps of parchment that made up a letter, too much of a close encounter with several bodies, and a piece of red lyrium in a vial that Ciri handed over, but I know there is a bunch of other evidence!

1. Do you want Herian to write up a report? (I am 100% cool with it not being Herian, if you want your character to do it, but she promised Ciri to make sure it would happen so that's an easy way to transfer the work onto her if you want)

2. Resource pooling and maybe a quick sentence or two about what your character would tell whoever was handing it in about where it was found and any deductions they made?

3. Handwavey of ic discussions and deductions via speedy ooc thought share, maybe?

Basically I am super flexible, although I suspect Herian would push for one of the mage council members (herself, Adelaide or Raylan) to be the ones that deliver the news, just because... that's how she is. OOCly, however, I'm sure different arrangements can be figured out.

Re: REPORT WRITING

[justice_is_blond]

1) Anders told Adelaide he'd make a report on the book he found, but he could pass the responsibility (though not the book itself) on to Herian or Adelaide if they say something about wanting to write the whole report. He will refuse if Raylan is the one chosen, and offer to write it himself in that event.

2) He's not handing in the book, he's going to be trying to start (likely futile) efforts to find a counter for red lyrium poisoning. He's a healer, he tried with Bartrand, it makes sense for him to now devote time and study to it. He's said some of this to Adelaide, too.

3) Handwaving makes sense!

Re: REPORT WRITING

[apostafuckyou]

1. raylan is cool with herian doing it!

2. he'd hand over the records he found and give the person his quick deductions about what they show, none of which will be surprising -- mostly, they experimented on a lot of people and most of them died. he'll go into the few details he got, also.

3. WAVES HANDS AT IT. raylan would be fairly quiet at this stage and i doubt he'd have anything to say that someone else didn't say first.

Re: REPORT WRITING

[bookish_lioness]

1. Hermione has no opinion.

2. Hermione found a journal while she was exploring and may have slipped it in her bag to take with her. She was silent upon their return, though, so it's unlikely she'd mentioned to anyone what had been in it unless someone pressed her. It's the same sort of book like the things Raylan had been looking at, so no new information, really, other than she has a slightly more advanced understanding of the physiology mentioned therein than Raylan might because she's from the ~future~ (or something like it).

3. I'm down for handwaving. Hermione also has this open log here where anyone from the group is more than welcome to approach her if they'd like, though she's definitely not going to be much for cheery discussions for a long time. Thanks, nightmare fuel.