CRYSTALS | Locked to Venatori

[extortionate]

FORM: Venatori Sending Crystal ("They're red and they're worse" - the Mods)
SENDER: Alais Amphion
RECIPIENT: Other Alamar Venatori
NOTES: Feel free to join this even if you didn't sign up, just throw a bio for your character on the OOC post.

Riftwatch landed yesterday. It’s not clear if they’ve discovered —

[ a low hum, distracted. it synchronizes with the shuddering chord behind her: urthemiel’s harp. particularly unpleasant to any mages listening. ]

— Aurelius is stranded in town. Someone needs to get him.


[ start your own threads, do whatever. log post here ]

Comments

PROFILING / MURDER

[extortionate]

If they all vanish here, the rest come looking. We could lose the site. But,

[ a pause. it isn’t not for the soporati present that she adds: ]

We could use the blood. There are at least nine — Tapsenna, Salvito, can you get eyes on them? Agger, Dalca — how do we go about this?

[overharrowed]

Are you asking how to kill someone, because that can be a very short answer.

I mean, if you want to get more creative, that's up to you.

[extortionate]

Can you share that answer with the class?

[ ok, that's mean. try again (more patiently): ]

I think we should try to take some alive. But I don't - there are a lot. We need to be smart about it, you won't help anyone dead. [ ask her again in an hour ] Aurelius saw a Qunari.

[overharrowed]

I assume "a lot" means we're outnumbered. How much? We have a number yet?

[extortionate]

Under a dozen - I need scouts to confirm, but we should assume all of them have fought before.

[ unlike their own cadre of professors. or maybe that's just her. a sigh, ]

If they brought a Templar, maybe we don't have to handle it directly. We can produce red lyrium on site.

[thereneverwas]

Under a dozen? Easy.

Which ones you want alive?

[overharrowed]

Should be easy enough to divide and conquer [easy agreement]. As long as we're smart about chokepoints and surprise, not that complicated.

[extortionate]

Spare the Anchors, if you can. I don't think we should risk leaving their mages alive, or the Qunari —

[ she mostly sounds anxious about the qunari. faintly pained: ]

— But I trust your judgment.

[exequy]

I'm on it.

[ And privately racing Salvito to get there first. ]

[laruetheday]

[ you're ON, bitch ]

[laruetheday]

Of course. I'll check back in shortly.

public -> private

[extortionate]

Thank you.

[ private: ]

Prisca, can I trust you with something? It's about Aurelius.

private

[laruetheday]

[ ohoho ]

Can you trust me? Of course you can! What's going on?

eternal

[extortionate]

I'm worried. He docks not a day after Riftwatch strolls in? It's... a big coincidence.

[ one she wouldn't bring up at all (might instead cover for) if he weren't clearly already lYiNG tO hEr ]

[laruetheday]

Coincidences happen. But I, personally, have always believed that man is too good an actor to be trusted.

[extortionate]

I guess we need liars,

[ a little too much venom in that! pull back, pull back: ]

While you're in town, can you follow up? You're good at — people. I don't want things to get muddled just because I,

[ boy she's talking fast ]

Well. It's not my area.

[laruetheday]

I think you're better at it than you think you are. But of course I'll follow up.

[extortionate]

Thank you. I don’t know what we’d do without you here.

[laruetheday]

Oh, I'm sure you'd get along somehow. [ she's feeling soooo smug right now ]

I'll be in touch in a bit.

EMERGENCY PREP

[extortionate]

If they break in, we can burn the notes. But moving the Harp in the middle of a battle? I think we all remember what happened to Carolinus,

[ any sound across its strings produces a discordance in the veil. concentrating on spells grows difficult, far too easy to lose control. ]

Do we let them have it, or destroy it? If it all goes, you know. Badly. We all need to agree.

[ at least the we's that matter. ]

[allthatgleamsisgold]

Destroy it. We'd be dead either way if it comes to that, and I doubt his eminence would be happy the artifact were to fall into enemy hands.

[extortionate]

If we're dead anyway, what he wants doesn't matter.

[ that's a dangerous thing to say. in the chamber, her mouth pulls taut. ]

I think you're right - it just seems like a waste. All those months tracking it down,

[ julian's work was no small part of the search ]

[allthatgleamsisgold]

Mind your words.

[A deep breath and a sigh.]

Whether our souls go to the Fade or dissipate into the ether in death - should it be the latter, and we fail the magister whose singular goal is to enter the Fade - or worse - empower his enemies...?

Well. I would prefer my potential eternity free of torment. Wouldn't you?

[elegiaque]

None of us put in the work to hand a victory to Riftwatch. If we fail, we make sure they do, too.

[extortionate]

[ this is the problem with working for a cult. you can't just say: i don't believe we go anywhere, i don't know if he'll succeed; if he succeeds he won't remember us. you can't only be here because the work seemed interesting, and your paper wasn't going anywhere, and most of the time you don't want your parents tortured -

unsurprising, maybe, that aurelius knows the right button to push. (she has always been competitive) ]

It'd be easiest to collapse the cavern from the inside. Other ideas?

[elegiaque]

( atta girl. )

Is there a way to play off — oh, that's beneath me — tell me, can the Harp itself be prompted to destruction? A chain reaction.

[extortionate]

[ a groan for the pun: ]

I'm not sure. We could, mmhm - deactivate the barrier, or maybe overchannel it?

[ she's thinking aloud. lusko will have a better answer. ]

That would get the strings going. We could at least use that to disrupt some glyphs. A bomb and trigger.

[allthatgleamsisgold]

That seems workable. Let's hope it doesn't come to it.

[elegiaque]

If we could make that before la bon voisine clocks me personally. I've kept the Orlesians off my back too long in Kirkwall to dick it here.

[overharrowed]

I can get there, probably, where are you specifically?

[elegiaque]

Apothecary, upstairs. "Quality check" will only last so long.

[overharrowed]

Dashing rescue on its way.

I assume if you could climb out a window, you'd have done that. [Just barely pitched up into a question.]

[extortionate]

[elegiaque]

( with the faintest trace of annoyed amusement, ) There's that fine strategic mind we don't keep you around for. Yes, if I could have done that, I'd have done it.

[overharrowed]

Look, sometimes it's important to ask the obvious question. On my way.