i love dying and being dead

[exequy]

Hello! I'm putting together a plot almost entirely for the sake telenovela-level drama, for everybody. The basic summary of the plot is: a team of people sent on official business will be abducted and taken beyond enemy lines. They'll be able to escape, but they'll be deep in enemy territory, without sending crystals or supplies, and they'll have to make their way back to friendly territory alone.

In the meantime, their captors will be terrified of losing their jobs/heads and will use their belongings and uniforms plus some spare dead bodies to convince their bosses—and a mole who's secretly reporting to the Inquisition—that they killed them all rather than losing them. This news will be sent back to the Gallows, giving everyone there good cause to believe their friends are truly and completely dead.

The escapees will then get to crash their own memorial. It'll be great.

There are two things you can potentially sign up for.

1. CAPTIVE: Characters who will be captured and believed dead. A few notes:

WHO: Anyone. The intended mission, before they're betrayed and abducted, will be one that requires diplomats, researchers, guards/combatants, people to do menial labor, etc., so pretty much anyone can have an excuse to be sent there. Except people who haven't actually officially joined up and thus are never sent anywhere. (P.S., they should join.) Also: no mages who have intact and identifiable phylacteries that would confirm they were still alive, no people with powers or abilities you’re going to tell me would make them impossible to capture, and no people who could circumvent the long walk back or otherwise ruin everything for everyone else.

WHEN: Those who are captured will be gone from May/Bloomingtide 18-28, or thereabouts, and they won't be able to participate in anything else during that time. No crystal posts, no plots, no nothin'. Unless it's backdated! Then whatever.

WHAT: I'll provide a log that includes a basic outline of the journey back, but it won't be GMed, and everyone can make their own mini-adventures along the way. They'll be covering a lot of ground, camping, lying their way through civilized areas, maybe going underground and having to eat nug, all of that, so hopefully there will be plenty of room for you to come up with some fun stuff to do during the week and a half you aren't allowed to do anything else.

AND ABOUT THEIR STUFF: The captives will lose basically all of their belongings. Clothes, weapons, valuables, sending crystals, etc. All gone. So if you don't want something to be gone forever—or at least until you come up with your own separate epic quest to have your character recover their ancestral sword from the Venatori who took it, or whatever—have them leave their important things at home for some reason. Maybe the sword needed repairs.

The only exceptions to this are small items, like rings or necklaces. Two or three of those items can be delivered back to the Gallows as proof that everyone has died, and others can be dropped, lost, or discarded during the abduction, as long as they're things that are small enough the captors wouldn't notice them or think they were worth picking up, and later found during the rescue attempt.

Obviously they'll get new crystals when they get back.

2. RESCUE ATTEMPT: Since the people back home wouldn't just give up, a team of people will try to track the captives and bring them back. They'll be able to make some progress tracking everyone and getting past enemy lines, but they'll be contacted and then met midway by the mole, who will tell them they're FAILURES and provide them some physical evidence that their friends are super dead.

At that point, they're required to go home. If your character would refuse to believe anyone is dead and insist on pressing forward to look for them, then they need to not go on this mission, because that would ruin everything.

And, 3. MEMORIAL: You don't have to sign up for this. It will be OTA.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[exequy]

yo.

[coquettish_trees]

Amount of time in between return of failed rescue attempt and memorial service?

[cyclic]

hello some questions re: rifters involved in the plot! on either side.

- are they gone long enough or far enough away for the shards to be more painful
- if yes does it make a big difference if there are 2+ rifters instead of one

just making sure i don't miss an opportunity to complain if there is one thank you very much

SIGN UP: CAPTIVES

[exequy]

If you want your character to be captured and presumed dead, sign up here. One character per player only, but there's no overall cap at the moment! If sign ups turn completely unmanageable or something, I might have to revisit that, and in that case I'll let everyone know first. But barring that, everyone who signs up is in. The deadline to tell me you want to go is May 15.

<b>Character:</b> <b>Belonging Notes:</b> If your character has a small but distinctive belonging, like a ring, amulet, pocketable knickknack, etc., that would work as proof of their identity, and you don't mind me using it, let me know what it is. <b>Ability Notes:</b> If your character has some sort of special ability that will either make it very hard for them to be captured or will be very useful in the attempt to get back—like hypothetically if they could just teleport everyone home or something—let me know here so I can either figure out a way to nerf them or tell you that they can't go because they'll ruin everything. <b>Other Notes:</b> Anything else you think is important!

[hornswoggle]

Character: john silver
Belonging Notes: john has an assortment of jewelry: several silver rings, a silver pendant on a leather strap. they can take their pick. also notable: his crutch, but i assume he'd manage to hold onto that. any of these items are very distinctive to anyone who knows him. he has a Look.
Ability Notes: john's a filthy apostate, but he's very invested in keeping that on the down low, so no showy magic in front of folks. Definitely not anything that could prevent him from being captured. Might be minorly useful in keeping everyone alive on the way back in the wilderness!
Other Notes: i got nothing at the moment, just enthusiasm.

[justice_is_blond]

Character: Anders
Belonging Notes: A locket with the Howe family sigil on it, a silver wedding band, a blade in a leather sheathe with the initials A.H. on it.
Ability Notes: Is this when I tell you Anders is actually Carol Danvers in disguise and I've been secretly playing Captain Marvel this whole time so actually you're welcome, Thedas, everything is solved ever?

Oh, wait, I'm not. He's good. He'll be healy and helpy but he's not gonna be singlehandedly saving the day or something.
Other Notes: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[elegiaque]

Character: Gwenaëlle Baudin
Belonging Notes: She leaves most of her jewelry behind on ~official business~, but probably will still be wearing a distinctive geometric hair-comb set with moonstones that was made for her by Alexander Luthor that she's worn in her braids more or less ever since being given it.
Ability Notes: She has both of the anchor-shard abilities.
Other Notes: I'm so ready for this.

[libratus]

Character: Ilias Fabria
Belonging Notes: As long as they get this particular belonging back intact: a simple but distinct metal beaded bracelet with Leander's phylactery in a well-hidden compartment. Alternatively he probably carries a metal matchbox or fire striker with a cypress vine flower engraved on it.
Ability Notes: Nope just a mage.
Other Notes: Ilias does have an active phylactery, but it's not a Chantry one, so either 1) it can just not work at this range due to being questionably constructed by teenagers, or 2) if it does work, it's IC for leander to just not tell a single soul or try to help anyone in any way. If the latter seems like too much of a strain on the tone of the event though I'm fine with the former.

[aenseidhe]

Character: Iorveth
Belonging Notes: Bandanna : D Particularly one Gwen embroidered for him with some gay shit like leaves and antlers and a quill. He's been using it since like 9ish months ago, so anyone used to seeing him will know its his, and its pretty unique. Otherwise, it'll probably be normal Inquisition uniform and not his fancy swords/bow pls
Ability Notes: Just the force push shard ability and being a good stabby stabber. He can be subdued with enough people jumping on him.
Other Notes: RIP Thranduil

[doneisdone]

Character: Teren von Skraedder
Belonging Notes: She has just so many goddamn knives. Her Special Blades though are her twin stilettos, which could probably be used as evidence that they were pulled from her cold dead claws.
Ability Notes: As easily captured as a cat getting her nails trimmed, which is to say, it will take (in the metaphorical sense:) several people who tie really good knots, tranquilizers, prayer, and probably a towel.
Other Notes: just out for a jaunt in the countryside

[rathercommon]

Character:
Belonging Notes: Sentimental belongings are for the bourgeoisie.



She probably has a dagger that Lakshmi gave her that would be recognizable.
Ability Notes: Probably no important abilities! She's immune to magic, but it's not like that helps anyone but her, really.
Other Notes: Kitty does not like the outdoors and she will not like this wilderness hike.

[villieldr]

Character: Magni
Belonging Notes: Magni wears some decorative strings of bone/beads/metal and has some great owl feathers on some of her stuff as well, so those could work for sure.
Ability Notes: Mostly just being really strong and in tune with spirits and spirit warrior-y. Like maybe that could help with certain elements of breaking out like if they need a Very Strong but nothing beyond that.
Other Notes: AVVAAR OUTDOORS HURRAH

pls forgive me putting comments in the wrong place 5eva

[staysail]

Character: Darras Rivain
Belonging Notes: please bring back his big showy gold belt buckle. he's also got like 3 rings, 2 plain gold, 1 with a flashy ruby, and those can be used also. but the belt buckle is a must.
Ability Notes: nay, for he is but a simple pirate
Other Notes: make Yseult cry

signs up for my own plot

[cozen]

Character: Bastien.
Belonging Notes: Nada.
Ability Notes: Nothing plot-breaking. He might be helpful for stealing necessities and getting everyone through populated areas alive, but he’ll make up for that by only theoretically knowing how to start a campfire.
Other Notes: Nope.

[chainlightning]

Character: Merrill
Belonging Notes: How about some character-specific accessories? The Inner Eye + Sylvanwood Ring + Sylaise's Favor
Ability Notes: Mage with some Dalishy magic and blood magic. Also, Dalish, so yay wilderness.
Other Notes: Project Assistant Leader, sorry Inquisition. Also now I'm imagining the Bad Guys trying to tattoo a dead body with Merrill's vallaslin.

[heirring]

Character: Wysteria Poppell
Belonging Notes: The Naming Ring
Ability Notes: She's just not that useful, unless their captors are weak to being talked to death. Sorry everyone.
Other Notes: She's not wearing the right shoes for this.

[writteninblood]

Character: Sorrelean "Sorrel" Ashara
Belonging Notes: A small ring, made from pale hardwood, highly polished, with two tiny birds etched into it. It could be mistaken for a man's wedding ring, if it weren't so plain.
Ability Notes: He's a mage, but he's terrible, and is by no means a competent combat mage. That said, he's canny enough not to let on that he's a mage, when it's possible to do so, and not afraid to completely immolate someone at close range if he thinks it'll be sufficient distraction to let him get away.
Other Notes: i am in it for the delicious angst get wrekt adasse

Re: SIGN UP: CAPTIVES

[in_death_sacrifice]

Character: Kain Ventfort
Belonging Notes: An amulet given to him by Inessa, meant to protect his mind from outside influences.
Ability Notes: Nothing too unusual, he's a skilled fighter, but just in a standard warrior sort of way. He's got the reaver and custom dragon warrior specializations, but not even those would help him out too much here.
Other Notes: Nothing else!!

[indissection]

Character: Sidony
Belonging Notes: A slightly fancy Nevarran ring with the family sigil on it.
Ability Notes: N/A, just a surgeon.
Other Notes: o7

[hwaaaitsme]

Character: Loki of House Asgard
Belonging Notes: Loki wears a snake themed ring with a green gem on it. Non magical, he's just extra.
Ability Notes: Loki's best power for getting the hell out of dodge is shapeshifting but if a large group is captured he's not going to jump into a bird shape and bounce because that makes him very easy to shoot down if they have even one (1) archer.
Other Notes: FAKE DEATHS, YES PLEASE.

SIGN UP: RESCUE

[exequy]

If you want your character to go on the (failed) rescue attempt, you can sign up here. This is going to be capped at 5 characters, probably, just because it wouldn't really make sense for a huge number of people to go on a mostly-covert mission. The deadline to tell me you want to go is May 15.

<b>Character:</b> <b>Why They'd Be Sent:</b> Give me a reason why it would be a good idea for your character to be sent on a mission to sneak past enemy lines and attempt to recover captives, so I can justify it. It doesn't have to be a great reason! There just has to be a way for it to make some degree of sense. <b>Would They Give Up?:</b> If given physical evidence (burned clothes, bloodstained belongings, etc.) that the captives were dead, would they accept that and go home, or would they refuse to quit and continue forward? If they would refuse to quit, they can't go.

[cyclic]

Character: John Mandrake/Nathaniel
Why They'd Be Sent: Something about pretending he's more of a mage than he really is and how he has the good surveillance and stealth/silence spells and whatever, and also he's a diplomat or something. I don't know this is paper thin dON'T QUESTION ME (except do if it's super impractical and you get more qualified people signing up)
Would They Give Up?: Yes he would 10000% be ready to fridge kitty and co to further his own manpain, thank you for asking

Extra OOC Info: Dead Characters

[exequy]

FORMAT: I set it up like a meme, because there are way too many people to try to organize more than that, so do whatever you want, whenever you want. Chronology is fake and geography is for losers!

BELONGINGS: Dead characters will be escaping with literally nothing except basic clothing—they won't necessarily be down to their underwear, but they would have had any armor, outerwear, heavy boots, etc. taken away by their captors and will be left with essentially only the sort of clothing that someone would wear to lounge around the house or something.

During their escape, they'll have the opportunity to take swords and clothing from some of their captors, which they'll then have to share amongst themselves. (They won't be able to take the carts, as the horses will get spooked and run away during their escape.) From there, everyone is welcome to acquire supplies/clothing/weapons on their journey home, through whatever means—finding things on corpses in the desert, making weapons out of sticks, breaking into homes or pick-pocketing villagers, whatever.

The point of all this isn't to make anyone suffer OOC, just to make characters suffer IC and provide opportunities to RP them figuring out how to solve problems in unusual ways. So you don't need to, like, ask my permission to say that your character stole a sword or anything, if them having a sword is more fun for you. But try to avoid fully decking out your character in ways that violate the Survival RP spirit of the plot. The goal is for them to arrive back in Kirkwall hungry, filthy, and possibly injured—don't be the guy standing in the middle of that smelling like roses and eating a sandwich.

MAGIC: The manacles everyone is wearing are designed to dampen magic. They don't completely prevent it, but they do limit how much mana can be used, so that someone can e.g. start a small fire, but not create a massive fireball explosion. During or after escaping, characters are free to unlock the manacles or to not be able to do so and have to settle for breaking the chain between them, for the time being, depending on whether or not your want your character to be able to do magic. If your character would be able to do so much cool magic that they would easily solve all of the survival-RP problems everyone else is writing about/break the timeline/etc., please just leave them on.

TIMELINE: Chronology is only mostly fake. Here's a timeline. Geography is also only mostly fake; I made a map.

DAY	DEAD PEOPLE	GALLOWS/RESCUE
5.18	Kidnapped! (Point 1 on the map.)	Oblivious!
5.19	Transported into Tevinter.	Crystal silence when attempting to contact anyone.
5.20	Escape! (Point 2 on the map.)	Confirmation from Orlais that everyone has disappeared, putting together a team to go after them.
5.21	The desert sucks.	Rescue team departs early.
5.22	So much.	Investigates the area, tracking and pursuing the missing into enemy territory.
5.23	Go into the Deep Roads to avoid enemy troops. (Point 3 on the map.)	Continuing pursuit, then meeting with an Inquisition agent who provides proof everyone is totally dead.
5.24	The Deep Roads also suck.	Rescue team informs the Gallows that the captives were killed.
5.25	So so much.	Sad, probably discussing other options than giving up.
5.26	Soooo much.	Sad. Rescue team gets back.
5.27	Emerge from the Deep Roads in the Vinmarks. (Point 4 on the map.)	Sad. Memorial planning.
5.28	Arriving in Kirkwall (early morning).	Having a memorial (early morning).

QUESTIONS: If you have any questions specific to this log/dead characters, ask them here!

[chainlightning]

Would the manacles dampen blood-powered magic?

Extra OOC Info: Rescue Team

[exequy]

FORMAT: I set this one up with some open prompts too, so treat it kind of like a meme and do whatever. There's no need for anyone to coordinate a single thread anywhere! Though you're welcome to if you want.

BARON DESHAIES: It’s perfectly fine for the rescue team to suspect that something is fishy about the kidnapping story and that Baron Deshaies might have been involved or might be lying about how it happened. They just can’t do anything about it at the moment—what to do about the Baron will be decided after the return/memorial, when the captors will be able to confirm that he was complicit. If you need someone to stop your character from murdering the Baron, let me know, but keep in mind that Kostos will totally tattle about the fact that someone had to be stopped from murdering a noble on mere suspicion.

LIVIA AND THE STORY: It's also perfectly fine for the rescue team to suspect Livia is lying, but she's a trusted informant with a history of providing good information and will genuinely believe what she's telling them, so there won't be any actual evidence she's lying to them. The information that she'll relay to them is that:

The team was captured by mercenaries accompanied by a single young Venatori mage. She won't know if the Baron was involved or how they knew the team would be there.

The mercenaries successfully transported the captives into Tevinter, but when they stopped to camp, the captives apparently staged an escape attempt while most of the party had gone to a nearby village to acquire more supplies.

It was a very good escape attempt, and it must have put the Venatori mage in such fear for his life that he turned into an abomination.

They arrived to find he had killed everyone who was there, mostly via fire, including one of their own people. They eventually subdued him, but only after losing an additional man, and have brought back all of the remains they could scoop up.

The Venatori they reported back to were not pleased with their failure, and several of them were executed for it.

Notably, even facing execution and the deaths of their friends, none of them changed the story.

The hands from the bodies were taken by researchers, and the remains that were still semi-intact were burned; she took what she could without being noticed.

She'd have counted the correct number of bodies, a mix of genders and humans/elves, but due to the damage to bodies she won't have more than a few vague identifying details (some hair colors, etc.) that generally line up with the missing people.

Her information beyond that will be fairly limited, but if you need additional details for a thread or because someone else is asking your character about something specific, feel free to ask me!

ORDERS: We’re handwaving it, but before officially giving up the search, the rescue team will have informed the Division Heads and gotten their sanction to turn back. So if anyone asks if they had permission to give up, they do. But that doesn’t mean they're ~to blame~ for the decision! The Division Heads will have just agreed that they should come back after the team advised the DHs that it was hopeless, not come to the conclusion it was hopeless themselves and ordered them back against their wills, so if other people are angry that they’re giving up, don’t tell them the DHs said they had to or whatever. Unless it's IC for your character to lie. If you need someone to blame for personally making your character give up and go home before they would want to, let me know—you can almost definitely blame Kostos, I just want to talk about it first.

BELONGINGS: All of the belongings the captors listed in their sign-up forms can be discovered by your character, either at the camp in Orlais or when Livia delivers the remains to the team in Tevinter.

By the time they announce things, all of those belongings will have been recovered, so if someone asks about any of those items specifically, they should be accounted for. They might be dirty, damaged, a little melted in a way that can be fixed later, etc., but avoid saying anything is completely irreparably destroyed please! Unless you have the owner’s permission.

You’re also welcome to RP delivering them back to specific characters in person on returning to the Gallows, or whatever, if you want to do that.

TIMELINE: For reference,

DAY	DEAD PEOPLE	GALLOWS
5.18	Kidnapped! (Point 1 on the map.)	Oblivious!
5.19	Transported into Tevinter.	Crystal silence when attempting to contact anyone.
5.20	Escape! (Point 2 on the map.)	Confirmation from Orlais that everyone has disappeared, putting together a team to go after them.
5.21		Rescue team departs early.
5.22		Investigates the area, tracking and pursuing the missing into enemy territory.
5.23	Go into the Deep Roads to avoid enemy troops. (Point 3 on the map.)	Continuing pursuit, then meeting with an Inquisition agent who provides proof everyone is totally dead.
5.24		Rescue team informs the Gallows that the captives were killed.
5.25		Sad.
5.26		Sad.
5.27	Emerge from the Deep Roads in the Vinmarks. (Point 4 on the map.)	Sad.
5.28	Arriving in Kirkwall.	Having a memorial.

Extra OOC Info: Everyone Else

[exequy]

ATTITUDE: Just remember that the point of this is to let everyone really believe that their friends are dead and mourn them dramatically, without looking like idiots who gave up too soon. So if your character refuses to believe it and is angry that the search isn't being continued or whatever, that's fine! It's your/their call. But do please try to avoid Sherlock Holmesing anyone into looking like morons. If I left a huge hole somewhere, you can make fun of me OOC if you feel the need! But IC, the whole point is to make it look like they're really dead and have fun with that, so please let people have fun with it.

BELONGINGS: All of the belongings listed by the "dead" characters can/will be brought back to the Gallows prior to the memorial, so if you want your character to cry over someone's necklace and so on, they'll be able to do that once the attempted rescue team returns with it.

REVENGE: If your character wants to go a-killin' or anything like that... my general advice is to refrain. Maybe they can be making plans for a revenge killing spree but not actually have time to enact them before everyone gets back. But if they just can't be stopped because it would be so incredibly out of character for them to not immediately go find random Tevinters to murder within a week of finding out their people have died, make sure you submit separate plot requests for that, because it isn't within the scope of what I already got approved and consequences etc. would need to be handled separately.

REVENGE SPECIFICALLY ON THE BARON: Once the attempted rescue team reports back, it's perfectly acceptable for them and for anyone they talk to to think that the Orlesian Baron is hiding something and may have been involved, but there won't be solid proof of that until the dead people return and confirm it. At that point, everyone can figure out what to do about him. Nobody is allowed to ride off and kill him alone.

ADDITIONAL RESCUE EFFORTS: Don't? I mean, if your character wants to hare off into the desert alone to keep looking for them, that's fine, but they'll miss the memorial log and dramatic telenovela return from the dead. Which could be pretty funny! I guess! If they aren't there and just get an awkward crystal call about it. So if you really want people to go keep trying to find the dead, that's fine. But I'm not going to provide extra info or do any plotting for independent rescue efforts, so they won't be able to find anything useful, and they might get in trouble for running off alone into enemy territory, so maybe also consider making them start planning a private rescue expedition but not having time to actually leave before everyone turns up alive.

TIMELINE: Here is the timeline, again! Some stuff is going to be forward-dated, but for people waiting at home, the important dates are 5.19 (silence from the missing people), 5.20 (confirmation they've disappeared), 5.24 (confirmation that everyone is totally dead), and 5.27 (memorius interruptus).

DAY	DEAD PEOPLE	GALLOWS
5.18	Kidnapped! (Point 1 on the map.)	Oblivious!
5.19	Transported into Tevinter.	Crystal silence when attempting to contact anyone.
5.20	Escape! (Point 2 on the map.)	Confirmation from Orlais that everyone has disappeared, putting together a team to go after them.
5.21		Rescue team departs early.
5.22		Investigates the area, tracking and pursuing the missing into enemy territory.
5.23	Go into the Deep Roads to avoid enemy troops. (Point 3 on the map.)	Continuing pursuit, then meeting with an Inquisition agent who provides proof everyone is totally dead.
5.24		Rescue team informs the Gallows that the captives were killed.
5.25		Sad.
5.26		Sad.
5.27	Emerge from the Deep Roads in the Vinmarks. (Point 4 on the map.)	Sad.
5.28	Arriving in Kirkwall.	Having a memorial.