THE ANTIVAN CROWS SEND THEIR REGARDS

[ombranera]

"No one fails the Crows and lives"

Plotting post! If you're taking part swing in here.

For too long the Crows have suffered the mark on their reputation of having one of their own not only fail in his assigned mission, but turn back on them to kill those they sent to rectify the mistake. That this elven traitor without rank has gone so far as to kill several masters of house Arainai while still bearing the name and cut down Grandmasters is beyond their ability to bear. The Inquisition has provided safe refuge for Zevran, but no longer. They are taking the Ombra Nera back. SEQUENCE OF EVENTS Crow Agents swarm Zevran in force while he's in a relatively isolated location, grab him, poison Merrick, and make away with their prize. They cart him to a sequence of safehouses/camps leading in a trail North to a stronghold at the Antivan border. Signs of a struggle as well as Merrick's poisoned body are left behind as clues. Interested/informed parties put two and two together and assemble a team to go after the Crows. Scraps of encoded correspondence can be found at each abandoned camp. The Stronghold itself has twenty some odd Crows (five of which are blood mages) keeping vigil, Team intercepts correspondence implying a Grandmaster or masters of the _______ Talon is due to arrive. Storm the keep, kill the Crows, get Zev out. SURPRISE FLESH GOLEM MINIBOSS Roadtrip back to Emprise du Lion / Skyhold PROFIT! Let's Establish Kill all Crows vs Capture and Interrogate a few. How to get in the stronghold? How to get out again with Zevran? Stick it out for the Flesh Golem or Bail? Loot and search the stronghold for deets on Crow Business or Salt and Burn the whole damn lot?

Comments

[arlathvhen]

Beleth will vote to kill all the Crows, they're trained to withstand all kinds of torture, so she doesn't see the point in giving them the satisfaction of watching them struggle and fail to get information. She wants them all very, very dead.

She'll also want to search the stronghold for deets to make sure that if there is anyone else who had even a small part in this that they are also very, very dead. Then burn it.

She will be perfectly willing to listen to other ideas regarding this, but her suggestion will be that they split into two teams. One team will consist of the heavy hitters, the people who will attract a lot of attention: The warriors and Korrin will be her recommendation for this team. This team will stage an attack that isn't straight up direct, but something more along what the Crows will be expecting.

Then, the rogues (TF will count bc he's a sneaky little butt) and Anders Detlef will try to sneak on in through another means while the Crows are suitably distracted. Their main task will be not to engage unless necessary, but to grab Zevran and extract him from the stronghold, which is why she wants Anders on that team, so he can start working on keeping Zevran alive ASAP.

Once Zevran is out and safe, then they can work on the whole killing people very, very dead bit.

As for the Flesh Golem...Beleth would prefer to just get it out of the way as quick as possible, even if it's not dead, because it's not a real Crow and therefore doesn't need to be murdered as a matter of principle.

[arlathvhen]

Also, as far as the two teams went, she'll offer the possibility of alternate ways to divide them up--Or at least, switch a person or two around. Having a rogue or Fate for the main assault might be useful, having a warrior to deal with some of the inevitable fighting when the rogue team sneaks in could help. But that would also risk that the rogue team is not at optimal sneakiness.

The only person that is imperative to be on the sneaky team would be Anders, since he's going to be important for keeping Zevran alive once they grab him.

TEAMS

[arlathvhen]

OKAY REGARDING TEAMS since it seems like most people are going to be leaning that way.

Team Mayhem will do a little bit of sneaking, so that it looks like they are making a rescue attempt, and not just putting on a show.

It will at some point be discussed that there is some shuffling and that Alistair goes with the sneaky team. He's not particularly sneaky but he's also not a giant qunari. He also has the advantage of being close with Zevran, which may help out, depending on the state that he's in. This will leave the mayhem team short one person. Beleth, as an archer who can make things explode, would be most suited to joining mayhem, since she is not particularly adept at melee. Iron Bull will point this point and get her to actually agree after some hemming and hawing. Pouting may follow, but she'll do it.

SO it looks like the teams will be:
mayem: iron bull, taas, korrin, and beleth
sneaky: araceli, twisted fate, alistair, and anders

NOTE: This is still totally up for discussion, nothing is set in stone yet. I'm not trying to be like 'This is how it is so deal with it', just trying to put down where it looks like everything is leaning.

MAAAAAYHEM

[gatheringstorm]

A qunari horde will definitely attract attention!

[arlathvhen]

She promises that it's not just because they're qunari, okay. They're all just very good and flashy fighters.

[byblow]

whispers thank you

[quietblade]

• I'm sorry did you want any alive? Taas is still hacking the last one to little pieces.

• Someone else plan this, he's just there to kill shit and get Zev out. Just aim him in the right direction and let loose.

• Same. Someone better snap him out of the fighting, too.

• Kill it! (Unless they run into it after finding Zev, the he'll vote to bail with the elf.)

• Both? Both.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin will do her best to snap him out of it as need be! I figure they'll be on the same team, since when is she ever sneaky.

[quietblade]

oh good, she's got barriers to protect herself with it it takes a moment for him to stop XD

[qunari]

ahahaha I'm just thinking if he happened to take a few swings at Bull while still in kill!mode

totally an accident.

totally.

[quietblade]

oh man it's quite possible he would if Bull got too close after they finished killing everything and he hadn't calmed down yet.

Berserker state doesn't come with an off switch (well, it does in game), and Bull is technically an enemy...

[qunari]

I'd be down for a few swings before Korrin steps in.

[quietblade]

[arlathvhen]

Beleth is going to let the other qunari deal with getting Taas to come down and keeping her distance because she is small and he is big but after she's sure it won't get her squashed she'll come over and pat his hand or try to comfort him a little.

[gatheringstorm]

Let's capture--ahahahahaha, no. Korrin wants them all very dead.

Korrin will go with Beleth's idea on getting in/out, not having a better option at the time. (Unless I come up with one when I have more caffeine.)

As for the Flesh Golem, kill it unless they already have Zevran, then whatever.

Loot if they have the time and THEN salt and burn it all down. You bring Korrin, that place isn't going to last.

[wickedchase]

♠ Twisted Fate votes to keep a Crow or two to interrogate. If they have to kill them all, he'll sigh but comply. Information is useful, you guys.

♠ He suggests being sneaky. Then he realizes who he's with and might volunteer to scout the area via his shapeshifting. Barging in without a clue seems like a poor idea. After that, he will (begrudgingly) agree with Beleth about splitting off into two teams to cover more ground. It's true, he is a sneaky butt.

♠ Bail on the Flesh Golem! Fate is a fan of retreats. Let's do that and not fight gross things.

♠ Loot and search. Fate loves looting and information. Can we NOT squander this opportunity?

[byblow]

• Alistair is not a fan of killing incapacitated people and would prefer anyone who's not actively putting up a fight anymore to be given a chance to make a deal or be taken for info and maybe talked into turning their lives around, because that worked out so well last time, but he's also mad as hell and not going to get in the way if other people would rather just kill them. Plus they might all go down fighting. But if anyone doesn't! Or is only knocked out and it becomes a matter of slitting or not slitting throats! He likes mercy.

• Also will be grumpy about any plan that delays his opportunity to personally with his own eyes confirm that Zevran isn't dead, but the sneaky thing is smart, probably should do that, grumble grumble.

• ETA: If it would help in any way for him to knock on the door in Warden armor since people don't like killing them + he's someone the Crows might expect to try coming and to make a brief fake attempt at just talking to them/threatening to conscript Zevran/etc. to get their guard down then he could do that, but he's a very bad liar so it's not actually a good idea.

• Kill the golem so it doesn't hurt anyone else later, nobody wants that on their hands right, but also send Zevran and """Detlef""" and people ahead to safety instead of delaying.

• Search then burn and write "FUCK YOUUUUU" with the ashes. Not really. Maybe not really.

[arlathvhen]

Beleth will try to strongly argue against him knocking on the door without any backup at all because that seems like a very good way to get very killed and she will make sad faces at him if need be.

[byblow]

People don't kill Wardens, except Loghain and Howe, it's really rude!!!!

But he wouldn't be attached to the idea, either, it's just an idea in case we need them to open the door instead of being able to bust straight through it.

[qunari]

• Keeping people alive to question how they got into Skyhold might help prevent future instances of shit like this going down, which Bull is very much for. Anyone who surrenders should be taken in, rules of combat and all. Anyone else? He's got no problem with killing.

• Splitting their efforts seems the best idea. Bull will happily cause a great amount of chaos in the front to draw the Crows attention. With the prerequisite amount of sneaking to make it look like they're trying not to be caught, obviously.

• Bull will stay behind with Alistair to handle the Flesh Golem if everyone else wants to olly-out with Zevran. That shit doesn't need to be left roaming around.

• Pillage THEN burn. Very important to remember going in that order.

[foxsays]

Araceli would be in favour of keeping some of them alive, much for the same reasons as Bull and Twisted Fate: information is valuable, even if the Crows aren't going to attack again, others might.

Because she's better at sneaking around, she would be more than happy to continue to do that. Splitting up worked well in the Mire rescuing scouts and she's got the experience to be able to climb up anywhere to get a better vantage point for reporting back.

Yeah she's small and squishy she'll fight regular stuff but fuck this flesh golem shit.

gunshot gunshot gunshot cash register noise

for those left behind?

[samahl]

Okay so I know the majority of this post is about the actual fighting and getting back of the hot Antivan elf, but I just also wanted to establish what had been discussed regarding Merrick and his poisoning. Merrick is going to be out cold and Candy and I were thinking it'd be nice to have a place to establish that and let people worry about it? Either I can make a post for you, or if you're planning on having a single plot post it could be a top comment thread in there?

Basically the idea is that we had worked out on plurk was that Sam (the puppy!mage) will find Merrick and cart him to safety, contacting Cyril over the sending crystal to let him know what was happening. I'm not sure if this is what triggers people figuring out that the Crows have taken Zevran or if they just find Merrick after the commotion has been discovered and they just didn't find Merrick right away? Or if you had another idea for that?

Let me know what you think!

[ombranera]

I'll be putting up a subthread for Merrick's discovery, it'll be tied into people sorting out something has gone down and depending on how they choose to pursue investigation (checking him over and going 'shit that's a crow technique' vs looking over the crime scene such as it is) it'll kick off the 'well shit, crows happened'

[samahl]

Okay! That makes sense as far as the investigation part!

Once Merrick is carted off to a healer and has to deal with getting the poison out of his system, Candy and I were thinking of establishing a "people worried about Merrick" kind of thread too. Is that something you'd also want as a subthread?

[ombranera]

That might need to be it's own log, I think.

[samahl]

Okay! That is what I was thinking too. I just didn't want to make a log that should have been in the plot post so I thought I'd ask first.

[ombranera]

Much appreciated! If you need any other details lemme know. I'm happy to give them.

[samahl]

Will do! Thanks!

[arlathvhen]

Question regarding the 'Worry about Merrick' thread, will that be able to be before everyone leaves? If not, Beleth will probably just talk to Cyril over sending crytal (which we can just inbox) and ask him to keep her updated and promise she will Make Them Pay

[samahl]

I would actually like a least a brief interaction with Beleth before she goes? So we can have it open to both?

[arlathvhen]

I'd love to do that, maybe just make the span start from shortly after Merrick gets found and stabilized? It depends on the time frame between shit getting discovered and shit going down.

[el_tybs]

*tumbles in*

Yo, saw my name (and nickname?). What's up? Am I having Sam find Merrick?

[samahl]

I think there's going to be a whole investigation part? So it would would depend on that thread I think?

[el_tybs]

Sounds fine to me *gets some popcorn*

[justice_is_blond]

I'M SO LATE I'M SORRY

-Detlef votes to kill all the Crows, every last one of them, because it's just. And also it means there's no chance of him going blue and glowy to get vengeance on prisoners after, because that's definitely a risk.

-Definitely down with Anders being on Team Sneaky, though I wouldn't mind him needing to utterly obliterate a dude before they get to Zevran and all of his focus is on healing.

-Blow a hole in the wall to escape He totally has no opinion on escape just cover him so he can keep Zevran alive, dudes.

-Anders would vote fighting the flesh golem no matter when they run into it, because Justice would vote that way - if they don't take it out, other people who are uninvolved are likely to pay.

-He doesn't care about looting or burning, because by that point he'll be focused on healing.