Veilfire flickered and illuminated the walls as the party of the Inquisitor, Sera, Vivienne, and Cassandra stepped carefully through the ruin. The Inquisitor's hand flickered a green in the dark, while her other hand carried the torch, leading them.
Scouts had found the strange elven ruin just a few miles to the east of Skyhold, and upon duly reporting it, Inquisitor Dawn Trevelyan couldn't wait to investigate. The party was gathered and made their way. A veilfire torch made itself useful in the pitch black; none of the party could see a thing, save for Sera, who possessed the eyes of an elf to see in the dark.
Dully, she glanced around the room absentmindedly as their leader searched the walls for runes, squinting at the walls. Vivienne and Cassandra warily kept a lookout, though outside of the torch's effects, the they were blind as bats in the darkness. Eventually, Vivienne let out a huff and raised her staff. With a flash, the room was illuminated by magical white light. The others shielder their eyes at the sudden light, then began adjusting by repeatedly blinking.
The room was open, wall crumbling stone, with various elvhen barrels littered against the wall. An elven artifact was against the back, ready to be activated to strengthen the Veil. At the other far side was a strange orb that did was remarkably intact, looking as though it was made with pure obsidian. It was shiny in the light. The Inquisitor stopped her search for runes and approached the orb, cocking her head to the side.
"What's this?" she asked aloud. "I've never seen an elven artifact like this one. Looks more like a decorative garden piece you'd buy in Val Royeaux."
Vivienne maintained a distance from it, giving it a distasteful glare. "Inquisitor, do you feel the magical energy emanating from it? It's far more than just something that looks like an expensive garden decoration."
"Well, don't touch it." Sera snapped. "It's giving me the creeps. Thing's not right."
The Inquisitor rolled her eyes. "You say that about pretty much every magical artifact of every kind we happen to run across." she pointed out. Sera shrugged.
"That's because they're all creepy. Don't go poking."
"Be wary, Inquisitor," Cassandra warned, "if you want to bring it back to Skyhold to study, we should have specialists come back here to remove it safely. I don't know what will happen if any of us were to touch it."
Dawn nodded. "Agreed. I'll go to the war table once we get back and send out our agents to retrieve it. Until our mages deem it safe, let's not touch it." She glanced around. "I'd like to take another look around for possible runes on the wall with the veilfire. Vivienne, would you mind activating the other artifact to strengthen the veil, please? Maker knows Solas will not be happy if we leave without doing that. Cassandra, can you look in the barrels for anything of interest? Sera, you can look around or stand here to keep an eye on the orb."
Vivienne turned on her heel to go to it while Dawn went to the other wall with her torch, investigating the walls. She grinned when the sound of magic warbled at the sight of a green rune on the wall. Pulling out a paper from her pack and charcoal, she began to trace the symbols. Cassandra was back at the other wall, peeking into elvhen barrels, occasionally putting items of interest in a small bag at her side.
Sera boredly paced back and forth by the artifact, impatiently waiting for the others to get done so they could leave the ruins of elfy bullshit. It was old, elfy, full of magic; all things Sera didn't want to think about or be around.
"I'll be done in a minute," Dawn reassured without looking up from her tracing, "just a moment longer, Sera."
Sera huffed. The artifact Vivienne was working on came to life with a green field around it, flickering and working. Vivienne smiled. "Do take your time, my dear. We are in no rush."
"Ugh! You aren't, I am." Sera protested. The court enchanter scoffed.
"My dear, you should consider shutting your mouth. It's important to take our time and look for anything that could help in our fight against Corypheus."
"Why would anything in here, a ruddy old temple, have anything that we haven't already found ten times over in the other places we had to go through?" Sera growled impatiently, pacing speeding up. Vivienne was about to open her mouth to retort when she spied an open crack that one could slip on if they ran in the old floor. Sera's pacing picking up could lead her to trip on it.
"Sera, watch your step, there's-"
Sera's foot caught in the hole, and she stumbled, about to crash into the floor. Her arms swung around, flapping, trying to regain her balance. "Eek!" she cried, and unintentionally her hand smacked into the orb in her attempt to stay upright. A bolt of pain shot through her as her hand stuck to the orb. Sera let out a gasp, panicking, desperately trying to pull her hand off of the orb as she fell to her knees. "Help!" she yelped, "I'm stuck!"
The other women dropped what they were doing, rushing to Sera's aid. Vivienne reached her first, and the moment she laid hands on the rogue to pull her off, the same electric bolt of pain hit her. Vivienne gasped, suddenly feeling as though she was not in her own body, detached from it. Sera cried out as the same sensation hit her, dazed. It lasted only a moment before both women went limp, crashing to the floor like ragdolls, vision fading to black.
Dawn was second to get to their sides. Without thinking, she put a hand on Vivienne briefly before recoiling, for fear the same would happen to her, wide eyed. She breathed a sigh of very brief relief when she remained conscious, unaffected. Cassandra knelt down with her over them. Dawn put her hands back on them, checking for vital signs and pulses. Both were warm, breathing, and their pulses intact, albeit low.
"They're alright," Dawn judged, "just unconscious."
"What happened to them?" Cassandra asked, turning Sera over, who had fallen on her face. Dawn shook her head.
"I don't know. I've never encountered this magic before. I can't feel any magic coming from the orb any longer; I think they absorbed what was in it." She stood up and approached the artifact, reaching a finger towards it.
"Don't!" Cassandra yelled, wide-eyed. Dawn ignored her and touched it briefly.
"It's cold." she announced. "We should take them and it back and see what effects it's had on them. If anything bad happened, maybe we can find out how and reverse it."
Cassandra groaned. "I would have appreciated it if you didn't risk touching it. Maker only knows what it did to them; I don't want you risking it happening to you."
"I'm fine. Worse things can happen." the Inquisitor replied ever-so-calmly, gingerly picking up the artifact and placing it gently within her rucksack at her side with her tracing of the rune. Cassandra gave a disgusted groan and picked up Vivienne carefully. Dawn turned around and moved to pick up Sera. She was suddenly grateful that she had become a Knight-Enchanter; the exercise had made her strong enough to pick up and carry the elf.
The Lady Seeker and Inquisitor moved out of the ruins quickly, rushing to their horses outside to return to Skyhold as fast as they could. All the while they prayed nothing terrible had afflicted their companions, and that whatever effects that the artifact wrought could be reversed by Solas or Dagna.