Chapter Text
DREAMING - As the woman fades out, your hand towards hers, you feel yourself somewhere *else*.
FLINCH - An ache. A flash. Something is *wrong*.
LOOTER - There is a strong, commanding step approaching.
CODEX - Presumably, it is attached to a person. A person who commands.
IMPETÉRRITO - A person who probably wants you to answer them. Which would probably mean waking up.
HEART- ...Wake up? When did you fall asleep?
- Wake up.
- [Seudónimo - Formidable 13] Keep dreaming.
- [Dreaming - Impossible 20] Remember what happened.
-2 Something is wrong
-1 Where is she?
CHECK FAILURE
SEUDÓNIMO [Formidable: Failure] - The cold and damp of the place you're in makes it impossible to stay unconscious for longer. It's as if the whole place is designed to be as uncomfortable as possible. One would almost think they never actually *meant* for people to sleep here.
BODY - You are most likely in a dungeon.
CODEX [Trivial: Success] - They don't generally mean for people for sleep there.
- Wake up.
- [Dreaming - Impossible 20] Remember what happened.
-1 Where is she?
CHECK FAILURE
DREAMING [Impossible: Failure] - There's... nothing. The woman, the hand, the *things* chasing you... and then it stops.
ANCHOR - IT IS STOPPED.
WICKED GRACE [Heroic: Failure] - MAKER, what the *fuck* is that!?
COMMANDING STEPPER - "Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now."
- Wake up.
- [Locked] Remember what happened.
COMMANDER - You heroically lift your head up towards the person ready to kill you, a little more awake now that there's a bit of zest in the matter.
CODEX - What do they want to kill you for *this* time?
LOOTER - A pair of women stand before you. One of them is hooded, more suggestion than person in the dim light. The other is the owner of the commanding steps, built strong enough to cleave a man in two with few swings, a dark scowl crossing her fine features. Two scars adorn it, but it is her gaze alone that keeps you in place. Well- that, and the four people with swords out surrounding you.
FLINCH - Yeah, those guys aren't very reassuring either.
SEEKER [Medium: Success] - The face of a woman who *will* get her answers.
COMMANDING STEPPER - "The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead. Except for you."
WICKED GRACE - Oh, fuck.
CODEX - Well, at least it's not just about the horns this time.
- What do you mean everyone’s dead?”
- You think I’m responsible.”
- (Stay silent).
- [Seeker - Challenging 12] What does she want from you?
CHECK SUCCESS
SEEKER [Challenging: Success] - This woman is battling between soul-ending grief and fury. She wants the truth. She wants someone to blame.
VALO-KAS - She wants it to *make sense*.
SEEKER - And she will have nothing but the truth from you. And her fellow will make *sure* of that.
YOU - “What do you mean everyone’s dead?”
COMMANDING STEPPER - She ignores you. “Then explain *this*.” She grabs your arm roughly, and your hand flashes- green light *inside* it, somehow.
BODY - Well, that’s not me.
WAR TABLE [Formidable: Success]- Could that be the newcomer?
Task gained: Figure out what’s up with the hand.
- “I can’t.”
- (Start screaming) “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?”
YOU - “I can’t.”
COMMANDING STEPPER - "What do you mean you *can’t*?"
TIES- She thinks you’re being stubborn.
SEEKER - If you were, at least it would give her something to pursue.
- Tell the truth.
- [Seudónimo - Challenging 12] Lie to her.
YOU - "I don’t know what that is, or how it got there."
COMMANDING STEPPER - Her face twists. “You’re lying!”
WICKED GRACE - Sister, I *wish* we were lying. At least it would be a better excuse than this.
COMMANDING STEPPER - She grabs you, careless of your weight- even in your under armor leathers, it’s significant- with a snarl ready on her face. Her shadowed companion intervenes.
MYSTERIOUS HOODED FIGURE - "We need her, Cassandra."
CASSANDRA - She drops you like a sack of flour.
- “Ow.”
- “Whatever you think I did, I’m innocent.”
- “I don’t understand.”
- “So what happens now?”
- “I can’t believe it. All those people… dead.”
YOU - “Ow.”
TIES - Neither of them seem to care. You really didn’t expect anything different, but it’s nice to express a complaint while you still can.
- “Ow.”
- “Whatever you think I did, I’m innocent.”
- “I don’t understand.”
- “So what happens now?”
- “I can’t believe it. All those people… dead.”
YOU - “So what happens now?”
MYSTERIOUS HOODED FIGURE - “Do you remember what happened? How this began?”
WAR TABLE - The memory’s still there, what remains of it.
YOU - “I remember running. Things were chasing me, and then… a woman?”
MYSTERIOUS HOODED FIGURE - “A woman?”
TIES [Formidable: Failure] - She’s made of shadow and secrets. There’s nothing you can tell from her- not what she wants you to say, not what she *doesn’t* want you to say. Not what she’ll kill you for saying.
YOU - “She reached out to me, but then…”
DREAMING - Darkness.
CASSANDRA - She looks towards her companion with a familiarity that betrays long companionship. “Go to the forward camp, Leliana. I will take her to the rift.”
LELIANA - She walks away, unhurried.
LOOTER - And entirely soundless.
SEEKER - The curiosity burns at your tongue. Or maybe that’s something to do with the weird medicine taste in your mouth.
YOU - “What *did* happen?”
CASSANDRA - “It will be easier to show you.”
LOOTER - The manacles fall away with her key, but the ropes are equally inescapable. Unless you’re willing to risk dislocating a couple joints.
YOU - That doesn’t sound pleasant.
BODY - It isn’t.
CASSANDRA - She leads you outside without much concern for any attack you could launch at her back. Understandably, given that she would probably love the excuse.
PASODOBLE - It wouldn’t be *impossible* to attack her, or at least start running. But staying out of reach would be at best very, very unlikely.
ANCHOR - SO IT BEGINS.
THE SKY - The light outside blinds you momentarily- even though nobody would call the weather pleasant or sunny, it’s still too much for your eyes, used to the dark of the dungeon as they are.
THE SKY – There is a blinding, *wrong* tear in the fabric of reality, or maybe just the sky, hanging over the place you dimly remember the Conclave being held.
CASSANDRA - We call it “The Breach.” It’s a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour. It’s not the only such rift. Just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the Conclave.
FLINCH - Well, if that’s not just delightful.
TIES - The people must be panicking.
HEART - *You’re* already panicking. There’s a fucking hole in the sky!
YOU - “An explosion can do that?”
CASSANDRA - “This one did. Unless we act, the Breach may grow until it swallows the world.”
VALO-KAS [Challenging: Success] - Miles and miles away, Kaariss rests his hands on his knives. His pack lies before him, mostly made. He fingers the odd one out- a smaller one, meant to be hidden as a last resort. There’s a small songbird engraved at the bottom, and he traces it before stashing it away.
VALO-KAS – Katoh mutters a prayer to a god she doesn’t entirely believe in, staring up at the sky. The green is all the more unnerving in its ever-so-slight movement, and she knows sleep will not come tonight. It rarely does, even when the world isn’t *literally* falling apart.
VALO-KAS – Even further, Tashun Adaar checks again on her wives, sleepless with more than the usual nightmares. Her scarred lips ache- phantom pain or fear, she doesn’t know. The empty room at the end of the hall itches at her. She hopes her children are safe. But all she can do for them is hope.
THE SKY - The open hole in the world flashes, the glint of a knife in the night.
ANCHOR- A TEAR. A TATTERED LIE OF HOPE, BROKEN AGAIN.
BODY - Your knees give out on you- you fall to the floor clutching your hand, feeling your nerves, your bones, *everything* burn like acid.
- Scream.
- [Wicked Grace - Heroic 15] Don’t scream.
-2 Weird fucking hand
CHECK FAILURE
WICKED GRACE [Heroic: Failure] - You try to clench your teeth around the sound, but the scream escapes you all the same.
CASSANDRA - “Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads… and it is killing you. It may be the key to stopping this, but there isn’t much time.”
FLINCH - Oh, great! And we’re dying now! We’re dying more than before!
WAR TABLE - The big hole in the sky doesn’t look exactly *stoppable* from where you are.
COMMANDER - But if not you, then who?
- “You say it *may* be the key… to doing what?”
- “You still think I did this? To myself?”
- (Breathe deeply) “I understand.”
- “So if I do what you want, will I live through it?”
- “So I don’t really have a choice about this.”
YOU - “You say it *may* be the key… to doing what?”
CASSANDRA - “Closing the Breach. Whether that’s possible is something we shall discover shortly. It is our only chance, however. And yours.”
CODEX - It’s not like there’s a manual. ‘How to Fix That Massive Hole in the Sky For Dummies’.
- “You say it *may* be the key… to doing what?”
- “You still think I did this? To myself?”
- (Breathe deeply) “I understand.”
- “So if I do what you want, will I live through it?”
- “So I don’t really have a choice about this.”
YOU - “You still think I did this? To myself?”
CASSANDRA - “Not intentionally. Something clearly went wrong.”
BODY - No, *clearly* we all wanted this weird light freak intruding on our business.
TIES [Medium: Success] - Somehow, you feel like that might have offended the part of your brain that seems to be housing the strange, pulsating light on your hand.
YOU - “And if I’m not responsible?”
CASSANDRA - “Someone is, and you are our only suspect. You wish to prove your innocence? This is the only way.”
SEEKER - Ah, false fallacies, our old enemy.
- “You say it *may* be the key… to doing what?”
- “You still think I did this? To myself?”
- (Breathe deeply) “I understand.”
- “So if I do what you want, will I live through it?”
- “So I don’t really have a choice about this.”
YOU - You catch your breath and exhale as slowly as you can. “I understand.”
CASSANDRA - “Then…?”
YOU - “I’ll do what I can. Whatever it takes.”
Task gained: Close the Breach
WAR TABLE - No way out but through.
PASODOBLE - Your steps are steady as you cross the camp- no stray rock or branch will fall you while you can’t even catch yourself, tied up as you still are.
LOOTER - The people around stare at you, eyes dark. A few look tempted to spit in your direction, but something- either the person at your side or the fear of retaliation- stops them.
CASSANDRA - “They have decided your guilt. They need it. The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, head of the Chantry. The conclave was hers. It was a chance for peace between mages and templars. She brought their leaders together.“
CODEX - An admirable attempt at a resolution. If it worked, she would have made the Chantry rise to new heights- the end of a conflict as worn as theirs is no small feat.
CASSANDRA - “Now they are dead.”
CASSANDRA - She strolls forward, acknowledging the soldiers at the sides of the gates, who hurry to let her - and by extension, you- through.
CASSANDRA - “We lash out, like the sky. But we must think beyond ourselves, as she did. Until the Breach is sealed.”
PASODOBLE [Medium: Success] - You almost stumble as she stops abruptly and turns around, withdrawing a knife from her hip.
FLINCH - She’s going to kill us! Why did she even go through the trouble of bringing us here!?
WEAPON HAND - Your hands are stuck in front of you. You could headbutt her- but who knows if that will stun her enough? Her sword is at her hip.
WAR TABLE [Trivial: Success] - If her sword is at her hip, why is she going to kill us with a *knife*?
CASSANDRA - “There will be a trial. I can promise no more.” She cuts your ropes with the knife and sheathes it away.
WAR TABLE - At least you will not be led like a lamb to slaughter.
CASSANDRA - “Come. It is not far.”
YOU - “Where are you taking me?”
CASSANDRA - She doesn’t offer you the knife, or any other weapon either. “Your mark must be tested on something smaller than the breach.”