embracelight: (draw your last breath my friends)
Belinda Darrow [DAIMP] ([personal profile] embracelight) wrote in [community profile] therookery2016-02-19 09:11 pm

{ OPEN }

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Belinda Darrow
RECIPIENT: Open to all
WHAT: She's curious as to what this New Templar Order is all about, among other things.
WHEN: Guardian 19th
WHERE: Anyone can hear it anywhere, but she's at Skyhold.
NOTES: According to the logs, a dragon attack happened on Wintermarch 29, but the dragon fighting log happens on Guardian 28, so when Belinda asks about dragons, no one has killed any yet.


Hello, hello! I hope this is working.

[ A young woman's voice with a Starkhaven accent comes across the crystals. ]

I was supposed to think of everyone wasn't I? Well, let's see if I did it. Ehm, my name is Belinda, and I just returned from a mission for the Inquisition, so this is the first I've got to use this fancy crystal thing. It's nice, isn't it? Anyway, I saw a notice on the bulletin board that said "New Templar Order of the Inquisition" on it. What's all that about, then? Really, I've heard nothing, so I'm all ears. I'm curious whom they answer to, what their duties are, that sort of thing.

I hear there's a lot happening at Emprise du Lion right now too. Something about a load of Red Templars. And dragons. Did anyone listening to this see any dragons? I'd think it'd be quite alarming.

Also, it's been ages since I played Wicked Grace. I don't even have a deck. Anyone fancy a friendly game at the tavern tonight?
hlif: (Default)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-02-26 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Wouldn’t worry about it, as soon as the Chantry pulls their head from their collective arse then folk’ll either quit if they really can’t stand it or they’ll go back to toeing the line. Probably just want to have some fancy title to match the mage council here.

[But you know, some people like familiarity. Asher would rather his came in being remembered in the brothels and taverns for all the right reasons but different strokes for different folks.]

I was one of the ones fighting the dragons, Hivernal, nasty thing that she was.
hlif: (Default)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-02-28 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
You know that other mages out on their own do just fine, right? Like the Dalish. And my folk. Being in the community and playing a real part works wonders.

[Not that it's any of his business you know, he'll just be right here, sipping his tea.

Except the tea is whisky most likely.
]

Well that's Orlais all the time, there's a reason I'm not the one doing the talking when my company pick up work there because I'd just torch it and work with what was left after. S'pose it's the Chantry finally showing true colours at long last though.
hlif: (Default)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-02-29 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
The Avvar. You know, the ones that descended from the Alamarri. Andraste’s lot. I know that bit gets forgotten, not civilised enough for Orlais because we were big dirty hairy people. I know what it’s like here, I’m just saying that they all get on fine, doing their thing. I’ve got an apostate that’s never known a Circle and she’s never been inclined to blood magic but when they get out of the towers they all get a bit nuts, s’all I’m saying.

[Maybe don’t lock people up man, drives most people demented.]

Oh it’s a bloody scam. Look the way I see it, people are flocking to the Inquisition because they want to help but what is the Chantry doing? They’re all running around like we were up in the Emprise but we were fighting an actual dragon that decimated our camp, not wringing our hands about who should be the Divine. If they really believed they’d all march up here, ask what they could do and do something.
hlif: (Default)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-03-03 08:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[That throws Asher for a loop; usually people just treat him like a heathen (not that he minds but it’s the principle of the thing, especially when it was aimed as an insult at him so recently) and he might be more Ferelden by blood but it’s the Avvar that always accepted him, his grandfather happy enough to speak with Asher and of him, to show him as much as Asher wished to see.]

So long as you don’t talk about the Chantry. I lived that life for fifteen years and it never did a thing for me except get me thrown out the house.

[Well, the Templars more but the Chantry’s got them by the short and curlies so it doesn’t make much of a difference in his eyes.]

Look, I can understand if they took a month. But it’s been a long time since the Breach happened. What do you do when the boat you’re in is sinking and the captain died? Do you stand there arguing about who gets to be the next captain? No, you grab a bucket and you start bailing. The Circles voted for freedom so that’s what the mages are getting and I don’t really give a shit; they voted, they’re out, they don’t need Templars and if a whole load of the Templars and their boss walked out then they move on. Nothing is permanent, a lot of people could stand to pick that one up. What does an army have to do with them actually comforting people or giving them a place to sleep, giving them food and whatever healing poultices they can get, asking for actual useful donations. The Chantry only wants the Templars back so it has something to hide behind and to try to get their own way, when the Inquisition is at least making an effort.
hlif: (Default)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-03-06 10:50 am (UTC)(link)
[Look, if the Chantry were cooler about 1) him hitting on the young ladies that haven't taken their vows and 2) him making the Brothers hot under the collar then Asher would maybe have less of a beef.]

Muddled up is the mildest way of putting it I've heard so far. If people could each to their own, I would be a much happier man and I don't stick my dick in politics but that's never going to happen, not even when the Archon and the Arishok decide to get hitched and bring peace and love to the south.

[Everyone is truly happy for that disturbing mental image Asher.]

And if the Chantry decides to drag you all back?
hlif: (Default)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-03-08 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
I’ve been a mercenary since I was fifteen, you consider every option and since the Templars here can’t seem to decide who they’re throwing their weight behind? Doesn’t hurt to consider all the options. I mean it would require old women, many of whom are Orlesian, to shut up for five minutes and listen but that’s another argument.

[Look, Asher can come off dumb in person but she has no idea who he is exactly, or what he looks like. He can hedge his bets.]

Well there is. There’s always lyrium. A thirsty man’ll lap at a puddle same as a dog if you keep him high and dry long enough, I wouldn’t put anything past them if even enough of them with some clout put pressure on the Inquisition.
hlif: (it's a slanket you ignorant slut)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-03-13 10:37 am (UTC)(link)
You know I saw that growing in the Hinterlands? Above the ground. When lyrium comes from under it. Thing is, lyrium is expensive and I've got two ex-Carta shits on my roster, scarcity and necessity drive up the prices, it's what happened most places during the Blight.

[Sucks to be you Belinda. Kick the habit, free yourself.]

The Inquisition doesn't have as many allies or contacts as something this big needs, doesn't even seem to have the coin for some of the repair jobs it should be getting on with. Things might get uglier around here if the Carta decide to do a touch of profiteering or the red Templars decide to step up their game to more than just quarries.
hlif: (Default)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-03-13 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[Isn't the beeswax of all Inquisition parties equally everyone's beeswax Belinda? The Inquisition is for all remember.]

You might want to head out to Emprise du Lion and burn every last quarry to the ground. Sick bastards they are.

[Ah yes, diplomacy. The crap way of getting things done because people are too scared to just punch everyone in the face.]

You don't win wars with cakes and flowery poncy bullshit. You fight until someone wins, then you kick them in the balls and rifle through their pockets.
hlif: (Default)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-03-14 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[Since he signed up and got paid for it. And no, those eggs are all his. And for the kids in camp because some of them have never had eggs before and that's scandalous.]

They're your brothers and sisters.

[He's the official honey badger of the Inquisition, giving nary a fuck.]

We're absolutely not in a position to be given money unless we look particularly sad and hold out the begging bowls. Troops...I was talking about this to someone else but a line of soldiers all the same as one another doesn't fare well, there's nowhere near enough variety in the rank and file.
hlif: (Default)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-03-15 08:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Right...so you're a Templar. You had training, along with everyone else in training at the same time as you. You all had your weapons, you had drills, you had formations. Soldiers are the same. Different nations might fight differently but they march in formation, they form up lines of swords and shields or bow, and the differences between standing armies isn't really as big as someone might think. Ferelden has hounds too, sometimes Ash Warriors. Orlais has chevaliers. Different armour, different metal and wood for their weapons but that's what it is.

[For once, he'll actually try to explain because he does feel like a bit of a shit and he knows this life well, him and Taashath were just talking about it right after he got back from fighting a dragon out in Emprise du Lion.

There's a good reason the Inquisition is spending the coin to hire mercenaries, he'd hire a lot more of them if he were in charge and worry about kissing Orlesian arses later.
]

But at the end of the day, it's still a line of people used to fighting the same way. People can say what they like about the lack of discipline in mercenaries but I've seen armies break before when they're scattered and they realise what they're up against knows their tactics. I know how to fight with a sword and a shield, two-handed swords and axes, maces, cudgels, clubs, small knives and daggers, with my bare hands or whatever the hell I can grab. That's what makes a person dangerous. You can be decked in silverite, wearing amulets to Andraste, with an enchanted sword and shield in your hand, enough discipline in you that you'd shit it if you weren't so honourable, with enough belief in your cause or love of your country that you'd rival the sun. But if someone can see through all that and use whatever they can find to beat you bloody, they're going to win. I've lead my company for years, we've never lost a member to death or injury because we're a mixed bunch and most of us have a back-up. Sure, you can make a nice shield wall at Skyhold but it's nothing like being able to cover every angle. Maybe it's fine for little pushes out into the wilderness, but if there's a real force that might mass against us? We could break, and break badly.
hlif: (Default)

[personal profile] hlif 2016-03-17 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[Look, Asher in general doesn't think when he's going in solo but he's a damn good battlemaster in the field.]

Because she's really going to listen to a mercenary over a former Knight-Captain.