open.

[exequy]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Nell & Kostos
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Mages, mages, mages
WHEN: Nowish
NOTES: Related to the phylactery plot: previous OOC post, new OOC post.

Someone has collected some number of phylacteries. Some of you may have noticed. [ Hello is for babies and the elderly. Kostos sounds perfectly calm about this, in the sense that he nearly always sounds calm and it doesn’t actually mean a damn thing. ] They are, or were posing as, Seekers. We don’t know where they went or what they want.

We know they're somewhere south of Nevarra, [ Nell adds, rolling her eyes both at Kostos's delivery and at the idea that 'south of Nevarra' is in any way a helpful detail. She also sounds calm, but less flat than Kostos, more deliberate. ] And that they've spent the last few months traveling about visiting as many places phylacteries were stored as possible. The fact that they know where so many of those are suggests they're probably real Seekers, or high-ranking Templars. We know they have mages with them, to cast the spells that have been affecting us. It's likely at least a half-dozen people, maybe more. Somewhere secure--they wouldn't want to be having to move this many vials around often and risk breaking. But we've lost the trail, and it's not much to go on.

If anyone knows something, this would be a very good time to say so.

Comments

[circleprodigy]

...yes, I had noticed. [Her tone is dry but also genuinely at the end of her rope. Anyone who's been to her floor in the central tower has undoubtedly noticed what that fireball did to her office.]

What can you tell us about their trail? Do you have any notion of where they might be headed to next?

[exequy]

Does lost the trail mean something different in—wherever?

[ Ferelden? The Southern Marches? They sound vaguely enough the same that he can’t, under the current stress, be bothered to figure out which it is.

And he’s a jerk, sorry. ]

[circleprodigy]

[Sigh.]

I meant, what can you tell us about their trail before you lost it?

[exequy]

[ SIGHS BACK. ]

Without finding the Chantries in charge of every cache of phylacteries and questioining the people overseeing them, we cannot draw a map. We know someone took some from Nevarra at the end of Haring and told the Sister who met with them that they were going, as nell said, South. That was very shortly before this began. Judging by everyone who is affected here and at Skyhold, they made a number of similar stops before then.

[ipseite]

( The sound of hands sifting through papers— )

We are aware of a rise of heightened anti-mage sentiments in northern Ferelden, recently—propaganda pamphlets being passed out amongst the rural communities. The authors have not yet been ( run down ) identified, but the locale may not be coincidental to your investigation.

[galvanising]

Did something happen there to prompt it? Or just out of the blue?

[ipseite]

We would quite like to know the answer. If I had one, I could tell you whether or not the matters were related—I can only speculate.

[galvanising]

Farmers with pamphlets is a far cry from a coordinated campaign to steal and use phylacteries, [ Nell says, skeptical, more aggressively than is polite or fair. There is a pause and a sigh, tired, frustrated. ] I apologize. I appreciate the information; it's better than any other lead we have to go on. Could you learn more from the Fereldan crown, or can our own scouts be spared to investigate?

[winterwinds]

I admittedly don't know much about the tracking spells used for phylacteries, is it at all possible to... um, do a reverse search? Use the person themselves to locate their phylactery?

[galvanising]

Not that we know of, though it's not like we can just ask a blood mage, and that's what it would likely take. But blood mages can't track people by their blood, so I doubt it.

If anyone had devised another way I think we would've heard about it by now, but if you've ideas, by all means.

[winterwinds]

[ She sighs. ] I don't, I'm sorry. Tracking isn't really my area of expertise.

[galvanising]

Nor mine, unfortunately. Any knowledge I had there we've already exhausted. But since we're grasping at straws anyway, if you have any thoughts on who, why, where, do feel free to shout out. Was yours taken? Do you know where from?

private to Nell;

[faithlikeaseed]

I've hold of my own phylactery and I know the spells for making one, if that would be any use in working out how to track them.

private

[galvanising]

[ There is a pause, even once the message begins, as if she hit the button and then still found herself not quite prepared. Her voice is tight, and tightly controlled. ]

You've made them?

[tactical_alert]

I would wager Templars. They would be more...intimately familiar with the whereabouts of phylacteries. And, as far as anyone is aware, the vast majority of the Seekers have fallen off the face of the damned map.

But either way, it makes them a great and grave danger to everyone, especially mages. South of Nevarra--there's only so far to go before they hit the sea or Orlais. While it's possible they have tried to seek refuge in or through Orlais, that seems...unwise unless they take a long way around, and then they'd hit the marshes. Could it be they are in fact closer than we think? Hiding in the Planasene, perhaps?

[galvanising]

Your average Templar isn't necessarily going to know where they're stored, and certainly isn't going to know where a half-dozen other Circles stored theirs. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that I think we're dealing with people with access to more information than a run-of-the-mill knight, and nobody had greater access than Seekers. The fact that they've vanished until now isn't really a point in their favor, in my book.

[ But as he said, either way. ]

They could be anywhere. We can't rule anything out except perhaps the Gallows. [ Perhaps. ] Do you have any reason to think they might be in the Planasene? Are there sites there they could use?

[tactical_alert]

[He gives a hollow chuckle.] Believe me, I have no fondness left for those that left.

[Fuck 'em, in other words. It just makes it all the more urgent for him to get involved if it truly is the case. And if it's not? If it's Templars, but ones with much more knowledge than they ought to have? Then it's his duty to get involved.]

There's nothing in the forest that I'm aware of to act as a secure hideout, though it's close enough that we could send scouts without much worry to make sure. Merely, 'south of Nevarra' is...quite a lot of landscape to cover.

My worry, then, is that a small amount of people, devoted to their cause however unjust, in theory at one point loyal to the Chantry in some way, being holed up somewhere safe--why not a chantry? There are so many, wherever you look, from the smallest of ramshackle towns to the grandest cities.

But until there's a genuine way to track them... I'd suggest the nose of a hound if we could narrow the area down any further.

[exequy]

Templars do have that smell.

[ It’s not actually a bad smell, at all, and one mages probably share when they rely on lyrium often enough, but he sounds vaguely disdainful about it anyway. ]

[galvanising]

I wouldn't rule out a Chantry, but they'd be more exposed there. The town would see them coming and going. They seem to've taken some pains to be discreet about their movements, so I'm not sure that fits.

I know hounds can track specific men, but we've nothing of theirs to give them the scent from. They can follow a trail of blood, but could they track a specific person's blood? Certainly not as long as it's in the vial, I assume?

[judgemewhole]

It cannot be Templars ... at least high ranking ones. Most of them are dead. I am one of perhaps two or three Knight-Commanders left. Everyone above me had been at the Conclave. Except - well.

[galvanising]

"It can't possibly be Templars," says the Templar. Very convincing.

[judgemewhole]

[Insert trademark Norrington eyeroll.]

No high-ranking Templar. Those under the influence of red lyrium would, of course, have more than enough reason and resources to have their hands on them.

private;

[limier]

Is there reason to believe this targeted at Inquisition mages, or have you any sign those outside have been affected?

[ it's not much help in tracking them down. but it might say something about how closely to watch their personnel lists. the main trouble's in keeping any eyes on people who have several years' good reason to vanish. ]

private

[galvanising]

Hard to say. Most mages that survived are with the Inquisition, and the others are few enough and well-enough hidden that I don't think we'd necessarily hear if they were affected.

[limier]

One is as the other, I suppose.

[ for now. they can better define a motive when lightning stops ripping around their courtyards. ]

Madame de Cedoux's report is little to go upon, but it is not without merit; the North is half crag. Defensible, and easy to escape notice. They might have had more luck moving over water.

[ barring pirates, dragons, coastal giants, and rebels lurking in dinghies. but it's a long-ass stretch of land, and there might not even be reason to hide. the tap-tap-tap of fingers. ]

Are you capable to travel?

[ not alone. probably someone whose blood isn't in a jar should be there. probably they should have some real information first, too. ]