faderifting | War Table

THE WAR TABLE

Operations

Characters may not participate in more than one war table operation at a time.
Sign-ups are first come, first served. After the minimum number of characters is reached, we'll wait approximately 48 hours to allow additional sign-ups before closing the operation and giving participants the necessary information.
Travel time for operations outside of Skyhold can and should be OOCly condensed/handwaved for the sake of not RPing weeks upon weeks of roadside camping, but you're welcome to set scenes along the way as well.
Operations will not be GMed, but we're always happy to answer questions or provide additional details as requested.
If you would like to suggest a war table operation--if your character is doing something other people should probably notice and investigate, their relatives are causing trouble, etc.--let us know on the Plot Request page.

Ferelden

The Secrets of Andraste: The team that investigated the ruins beneath and beyond the Temple of Sacred Ashes returned with ancient texts and artifacts. Adequately cataloging and translating these finds could help the Inquisition recover some of the political ground it has lost with the Chantry since the Herald's death. The texts, unfortunately, are written in an ancient runic script that no one in the Inquisition can fully translate. One scholar suggests that they are Alamarri, and the closest links are likely to be found among the Chasind Wilders. This operation requires four to six characters who will be absent from Skyhold for at least ten days. Those chosen will be told to equip for a fight but to try not to start one.

Orlais

The Chantry Remains: The Chantry's scattered condemnations of the Inquisition ceased--or at least ceased being publicly trumpeted--for a respectful period after the Herald's death, but the accusations of heresy and calls for the organization's disbandment have renewed. This operation requires three to five characters, with preference given to those who will not be immediately branded heretics as soon as they show their faces or open their mouths, who will be absent from Skyhold for at least five days.

Skyhold

Investigate Lyrium Theft: Small amounts of lyrium have been disappearing from the Inquisition's stores with enough regularity that it can no longer be considered a coincidence, and the Inquisition is looking into the problem. Those asked to help will need to be capable of discretion. This operation requires three to four characters who will need to remain in Skyhold for the seven days during the investigation.

INFO REQUESTS

If your character is investigating, experimenting, researching, normal-searching, organizing, exploring, polling, or anything along those general lines and you'd like mod input about what the results would be, ask us here! There's no form for this, just let us know what they're up to and what your question is and we'll get back to you. While requests and replies will generally be unscreened, please make sure to check whether results are IC public knowledge before assuming that your character is aware of them.

PLOT REQUESTS & IDEAS

We strongly encourage player plots, quests, missions, adventures and so on, especially ones that grow out of PC action. We are also always open to ideas if players have something in mind but feel for some reason that they can't run a prospective plot themselves. So that requests and answers can be screened, please use the form on the Plot Request page.

—NAVIGATION↠

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Scout Emprise du Lion: Ser Michel de Chevin has brought the Inquisition news of strange Templars conducting mining operations in Emprise du Lion. The Inquisition is sending a small group of low-profile scouts to investigate the area and report back so the Inquisition will know what to expect before sending more forces. This operation requires 3-7 characters who will be gone for at least three weeks If Emprise du Lion is chosen as the next region, the scouts will be asked to remain there until Inquisition forces arrive rather than return to Skyhold. Characters are not required to be scouts in order to participate, but they will be expected to attract as little attention as possible.

Participants: Christine Delacroix, Merrick Ashara, Samouel Gareth, Korrin Ataash, Kain Highwind, Katniss Everdeen, Cremisius Aclassi

This group will initially travel with those doing the Scout the Western Approach operation, but the group will split in two after leaving the Frostbacks. Using Ser Michel's information, they will be advised to set up camp near Sahrnia, and will be instructed to pose as merchants and hunters rather than Inquisition forces until the situation has been assessed.

Emprise du Lion is a snowy, mountainous region, with a river that has been frozen solid. The locals are increasingly desperate, and now many of their number are missing. The scouts' best bets will be pretending to hunt--and in some cases actually hunting--in the wilderness beyond the village to get closer to the mines and Templar encampments. They will have been advised to look for signs of a demon as well. As they explore, they'll discover:

Suledin Keep, an old elven fortress, currently overrun by Red Templars. Getting too close without being noticed will be difficult, but at night the more agile of the scouts will be able to successfully sneak around the back of the Keep and scale walls or peer through gaps into the interior. Should they do so, they will catch glimpses of giants. They may also observe the Templars deferring to a man in plain clothes.
An extensive red lyrium mining operation to the south, heavily guarded, with villagers being held in cages.
An old Grey Warden outpost--Valeska's Watch, famously built on top of the darkspawns' primary entrance to the surface after the Third Blight so it could be perpetually guarded--with a locked door and no signs of activity.
A lot of snow.
So much snow.
Dragons in the distance.

Some of the captive villagers on the outskirts of the mining operation will be reachable at night. They will not know what the Templars are doing but will report that other villagers have been taken and never returned. Several cages will contain the bodies of those who have died from exposure in addition to living captives. Whether or not to free any of the captive villagers who are accessible on the outskirts will be up to the scouts, but doing so more than once is likely to alert the Templars that someone is watching and working against them and may have longterm consequences for the Inquisition's efforts in the region. Freeing those in the heart of the mining operation would, at this point, be a suicide mission.

Day to day, characters will need to contend with cold, aggressive wolves, and a few demon-producing rifts. They may also tangle with one or two red lyrium-corrupted Templars if they're discovered snooping too close to the mining operation. If so, it would be advisable to make their deaths look natural rather than potentially put the others on alert.

The group will be tasked with sketching maps and reporting its findings back to the Inquisition. They're welcome to communicate with Skyhold and individual characters via their sending crystals, whether to relate what they are seeing or to keep themselves entertained during slow periods, and they will not be asked to keep anything they discover a secret. Meaning: please disseminate this information!

ICly, the characters cannot leave before Haring 5, when the majority of the Inquisition's forces will have returned from the Fallow Mire and had time to regroup. OOCly, you may begin before or after December 5 and back- or forward-date accordingly.

Edited 2015-11-29 18:45 (UTC)

Will Krem be able to bring any of his men with him? (The stealthier ones, at least. The ones experienced in scouting, recon, maybe sabotage.) He can easily head out on his own, but having men to send ahead to estimate numbers of red templars or locations of dragons may come in handy for his party.

In general, the teams for any war table operation are meant to be as small as described and the tasks are meant to be performed by PCs. Since there would be no fair way for us to allow you to bring NPCs but not allow others to do the same, which could make the numbers for any given operation balloon, we'd have to say no.

However! We actually recently decided to add a few (3) NPCs to the larger scouting teams. The purpose of these NPCs will be to give players people to kill off if they want to underscore how dangerous something is or to otherwise have at their disposal. If your group is okay with one or two of the team's three allotted NPCs being Chargers, that's fine with us. But in turn you would have to be okay with allowing other players to control them and possibly kill them like traditional NPCs without needing your permission or input.

Understood, and that is completely reasonable. I just ask because it's likely that Krem would at least bring along a couple of his men to act either as a rear guard or reinforcements or generally be helpful while he's out and about with his party.

In addition to the player characters, you can choose to have up to three NPCs participate in this scouting mission. NPCs must be Inquisition members (or hired help) and cannot have any skills or information that would be remarkable for your run-of-the-mill Inquisition scout. The purpose of these NPCs is mostly to give you someone to kill off. (:D) They can also do grunt work (e.g., if it would be stupid not to leave someone behind to keep watch but no players want their characters to stand there twiddling thumbs) and advise characters who aren't used to scouting or stealth on any basic skills they may be lacking.

Whether you use the NPCs, what their names and personalities are, and what happens to them is up to the group.

Hi Mods!

I think we're all going undercover as merchants, guards, hunters, etc. on this so we don't attract attention. As such it would look weird for our mages to be carrying their staves with them. Is it possible that rather then a full sized staff the mages can have a short staff or some sort of foci on them to help with spellcasting and such?

Thanks!

Sorry for the delay! Mages can use shorter staves, staves that look like walking sticks, etc., as long as they're made of staff material, and with the understanding that shorter staves will do a proportionally poorer job of funneling magic.

Figured as much. Just wanted to make sure before going off on that assumption.

Thank you!

Do we already know that the ruins are the Warden Fortress Valeska's Watch, or would it be required for us to have someone research about it?

What/approximately where Valeska's Watch is is common historical knowledge! If characters are unsure the villagers will be able to tell them about it.

Thank you! Wasn't sure this was something we had to scout then figure that out for the main forces or if it was already known. Cool

War Table

SCOUT EMPRISE DU LION

QUESTION

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ADDENDUM

QUESTION

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Valeska's Watch Question

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