fandomhigh | How To Avoid Misadventure, Monday

"After you pick your companions," Alistair said, looking dapper and smiling a little and generally trying not to let Morrigan's presence get to him this time, "The next thing you must consider is what you pack. You can't bring everything with you, but if you find yourself in the midst of trouble, you'll need a few things to get out of it again. As it were. Weapons and armor are an obvious must, of course, but those won't make your fire at night. Or keep your feet warm."

"And whatever you chose to take, 'tis you who must carry it," Morrigan pointed out helpfully. "Pack animals can run off, be stolen, or eaten. They also require food, which is more to carry."

"So how much you do take with you should also depend on how tall you are, or how skinny," Alistair provided. "Morrigan here can't carry all that much, for instance. Of course, she's a mage--" Look at him trying to play nice here, Morrigan, "--so she can start her own fires. But that's all the kind of thing you need to keep in mind, or you're going to run into some nasty surprises." Beat. "Like pits. Trust me, you don't want to fall into any of those without having a rope on hand."

"Magic is not a toy," Morrigan reprimanded him, giving Alistair an annoyed glance. "Why waste my energy making fire when a flint will do?"

"Which is something else to keep in mind; if you expend too much energy making fires or walking, you will be ill-equipped to handle an ambush. Rest when needed, and either secure your packs tightly enough they stay on while fighting, or easy to shrug off."

"Oh, I don't know, because it might be more economical?" Alistair shot back. "It's not like we're talking about blood magic." He crossed his arms. "Anyway, so you'll need weapons. You'll need a way to make fire, you'll need rope, you'll need food and water, and of course, a change of clothes. Adventuring gets very smelly after a while, take it from me."

"'Tis your choice," she said mildly. "If I am too drained to electrocute a Darkspawn that wants you for dinner because I had to light all your fires, 'twould be a shame."

"Well, there's another one for the list of supplies on our fake adventure," Alistair said. Seriously, Morrigan? "Plenty of lyrium vials for the witch with no stamina."

"I've heard tales of Grey Warden stamina," she said sweetly. "So far, none of them seem to be true, so be sure to pack any healing or stamina potions as well."

"I don't want to talk to you about my stamina," Alistair concluded.

"A sore-spot, p'haps?" she asked, zeroing in on him like a fox that had spotted a rather delicious - and dumb - chicken.

"Go," she said, waving the children off. "Fill your packs with things from the ~~moddable~~ pile. You'll have to justify your choices to us all."

Then, of course, it was back to needling Alistair while the students worked.

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Ariel did allow some space for the things like food and some water and a cute hat and an extra change of clothes and probably about three pairs of shoes (different terrain, different shoes, right?), but she needed at least a handful of dinglehoppers, a couple of thingamabobs, and at least five whatchamacallits. In her defense, they could make for very good weapons and tool in a pinch.

Granted, they could all do what the Swiss army knife would do, too, there was one of them, and she had the benefit of some of the stuff being in cool bottles that would become useful even after they were used, and, ooh, a book, and...well, she would have liked to have a candelabra, but there wasn't one in the pile, and she figured it wouldn't fit anyway. OOh, a compass and a map and another map and...well, she didn't know what that was, but it was shiny, and so in it went.

However, one thing could be said about Ariel's packing methods: she was incredibly good at figuring out how to fit a lot of stuff into a very small bag.

"What are you doing?"

"Packing for an adventure!" Ariel announced happily, with a smile as she fitted in a book of matches, but then removed one of the maps. Hey, if she was adventuring, there was a good chance she'd find more swag, so she should probably leave a little space for new things. But the question seemed a bit...odd coming from the instructor and everything, so the smile faded into a look of concern as she looked over at Morrigan and asked, "That's the assignment, right?"

"Where is your blanket?" Morrigan asked. "A bedroll? A tanned hide to keep the rain off?"

She looked at the amount of whatchamacallits. "And what, in the name of the Fade, are those to be used for?"

Ariel shrugged a little, with a faint, proud smile at the whatchamacallits. "You know, if I get bored," she offered. "You're right, though, a bedroll's a really good idea, and, hey, if I get some string together, I can make it like another backpack, so I won't need to take up any space in my bag for it. And if it rains, well, I like the rain; believe me, I don't mind getting wet."

How To Avoid Misadventure, Monday

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