faderift | OPEN: The Nightmare's Domain

OPEN: The Nightmare's Domain

WHO: Everybody present for the effort to draw out the Nightmare.
WHAT: Oh no.
WHEN: 28-30 Bloomingtide
WHERE: THE FADE as it exists, approximately, in an incomprehensible nongeographical way, alongside the Western Approach.
NOTES: You can only participate in this plot if you signed up in advance. (Not really, this is a joke.) For driveby GM taunting or to have the debris of personal nightmares appear in the Fade sign up here. Check here for notes on crystal functionality, which will not be normal. (GIF source.)

The plan is simple enough, on paper.

Lord Livius Erimond, locked in Skyhold's dungeon since his capture, finally cracks when he learns that the Grey Wardens have moved on and no one is coming to negotiate for his release. There's no mind-control driving the sacrifices, he says, only fear. Corypheus has an arrangement with a demon to amplify it and extend the reach of the song that's driving the Wardens to desperation. Handle it, and maybe they'll see that they're being manipulated.

In practice, it's a little fuzzier. Some guesswork. Some optimism. Approximating the demon's location takes time and effort from the Fade-fluent. There's a rift nearby, but it's small, nondescript. Making it bigger, drawing attention and drawing the demon out onto solid ground where it can be fought, calls for every anchor shard on hand, mages and Templars to assist, archers and swordsmen at the ready. The Herald did it before, at the Temple of Sacred Ashes. It's feasible. Just wiggle your fingers, and--

--and the sky opens up wide, then wider, too wide, green light flooding out like water finally cresting over a bank, and the ground beneath your feet turns from sand to stone. In some places it becomes vertical. In others it stops existing at all. The rift sprawls and spiders out with almost sentient aim, encompassing everyone it can reach. It takes two seconds, maybe three.

Then it closes.

I. THE NIGHTMARE

The good news is: the Inquisition pinpointed the Nightmare's location correctly. The bad news is: the Inquisition pinpointed the Nightmare's location correctly.

So if you find a second to to wonder where you are, there are two possible answers. The first is the raw Fade, where few have trod since the ancient magisters entered the Golden City and began the Blight. The City is Black now and it hangs in the distance, always on the horizon, always visible, but never within reach. The light is sickly green and seems to come from everywhere and nowhere, creating shadows from any and all directions. What direction is up and what direction is sideways is open for debate anyway. The ground--if it can be called that when it is only sometimes below you--is dark and rough, all crags and cliffs and spires. It's wet, too, with puddles and stagnant streams wound through the rock.

The second possible answer to the question of where, and the one that might warrant even more attention than the first, is right on top of a damn demon.

The Nightmare is massive, as large as a small fort. It has a dozen legs and at least twice as many eyes; a warm, civilly sinister voice that knows your deepest and darkest fears; and a seemingly endless supply of minions. Terror demons spring out of the ground around you with creaking screams. Fearlings take the shape of your simpler phobias: here a spider, there a snake, or roaring flames, a lyrium-encrusted Templar. Fighting through the flood of demons and bringing down the Nightmare will take every sword, every staff, and several hours. Pick a leg.

And when it's over--when the Nightmare is dead and only straggling Fearlings and occasional Terrors present an immediate threat--try to figure out what's next.

II. SEARCHING

Attempts to tear a new hole in the Veil from the inside will produce no results. But those sensitive to the Fade may be able to feel something--not quite like a draft guiding you out of a cave, but there's no closer analogy in the common tongue. A faint whiff of reality, somewhere in the distance, straight away from the distant Black City. There's no sunrise or sunset, and an hour can feel like a day or feel like a minute, but time is passing, and the walk is long by any measure.

While it's in your best interest to stay with the rest of the Inquisition's forces, this region of the Fade is a twisty, treacherous thing that seems to actively conspire to separate and mislead its visitors. More Fearlings slither out of crevices to menace anyone who lingers alone or tries to sleep. There's a marshy expanse that does its best to trap feet, and a field of memorial stones with the names of visitors etched into their surfaces, each with a cause of death marked below. Everywhere you step the ground is littered with evidence of terrible dreams, worked into the landscape like they were there first and it has grown up around them. There are skeletons in the stone, rock formations that twist into the shape of gallows, lost toys underfoot, an entire home tucked down a winding path, achingly empty.

III. ESCAPE

The Nightmare is dead, but its absence creates new reasons to fear. It begins slowly, things crumbling: the edge of a stair giving way unexpectedly, a towering hunk of rock a ways off collapsing upward into the open air and reforming there. The path rearranges as it's walked and takes wanderers in different directions, leaving them to fight their ways back to the main group. It was the concentration of fear and willpower embodied in the Nightmare that held this domain of the Fade intact, and without it, there's a power vacuum to fill. The spirits drawn here are drawn by lingering fear, and warped by it.

The forms they take may not be those you're familiar with from outside the Fade--less deformed, more malleable, more insidious, the things you most or least want to see. Those who long for safety may find a gentle Desire demon willing to offer it. Those whose fears stem from insecurities may hear the whispers of lurking Envy, mimicking their voices from its hiding place, cautiously testing for a foothold. If fear only pisses you off, be prepared to face your Rage. And if you refuse to be afraid--if you have this under control, if you know you'll be all right--a smiling embodiment of Pride may appear to praise your prowess and ask you to put those skills to other uses.

Whatever form your demons take, they are distractions from the larger issue: this part of the Fade is collapsing, unstable, and not meant for creatures like you to survive in. As important as it is to face your fears, it may in the end be more important to run from them. Regroup, keep moving, take head counts. There's a rift ahead, small enough to slip through one at a time, out into the desert, with its bright sun and relatively solid ground--and however long it feels like you've been walking, days or weeks, Adamant Fortress is visible across the sand.

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[ ooc: This is a thread for whoever wants a combat scene with Ellana as she fights the Nightmare/Fearlings/Terror demons. At one point, she's going to be very badly hurt and require Sam and Kallian to save her. I'd like to keep all the action to just this one thread, so feel free to jump in whenever, and your character doesn't have to stay around Ellana the whole time! There's no tag order, just tag whenever you'd like! I'd say the thread can wrap with the Nightmare being killed and us all moving on to searching for an escape. ]

There are no words to describe the physical Fade, and there isn't enough time to sit and try to think a few up, because they've been dropped right at the Nightmare's doorstep. Ellana hadn't known what to expect when she first heard they would be fighting it, but she couldn't have ever come up with this! Towering above them, the demon looks like an impossible foe to match, but then she thinks of Felix, Alistair, Bethany, Velanna; all of the Wardens hurting because of it and she tries to shift her fear aside, twirling her staff in the air and casting her first spell against it.

Kallian has never carried a staff in all her life, and was perhaps as unlikely a warrior as ever there was one. She thought she knew demons, but to see the Nightmare looming over everything, to hear it whispering its poisonous words in her ears...

At first, she quails, the fear threatening to overwhelm her, but then... She knows Hope is near. This is the Beyond, after all. All of her power stems from this place. She does her best to focus, to let the Fade bring as much raw power to her as she can muster. Demons don't have bodies like people do, so to use her usual tools of attack is difficult, but the little healer elf is doing all she can to let loose on the beast, becoming something of a tiny terror herself.

Spotting Ellana and Kallian up ahead, Korrin casts Fade Step, blurring ahead to reach them. Upon doing so, she immediately casts Barrier before turning all her effort to the offensive. With her staff in one hand, she summons her spirit blade with the other, and charges forward to slide at whatever part of the Nightmare demon she can reach.

"Serannas!" Ellana calls out, a little too distracted to say her thanks in the King's Tongue. When Korrin launches forward, Ellana switches to use her magic on the same general area in an effort to weaken it faster. More damage done to one concentrated area seems a better idea than little wounds all over.

She starts out with fire, but soon finds that the storm spells seem to have more affect, and she switches between several different ones in that tree until she needs to wait for her mana to come back.

"Fools!" a voice rings out, seemingly coming from no where and everywhere. "You will all die in agony!"

Kallian marks the ground with glyphs, trying to hold the monster still, to harm it if it crosses them. To her friends, she grants speed.

And to the monster, she works to try and destroy it from the inside out. It's not at all like working on a person. It doesn't have organs and tissues, exactly. It's more like... she's not sure how to describe it. But it still pulses like a heartbeat, and the healer does what she can to stop it.

The speed boost causes Ellana's spellcasting to be faster, as well as her mana regeneration. She focuses on one leg, throwing everything she can at it. And just when she thinks they might be getting somewhere is when the Fearlings start to skittle out from behind rocks to assault them.

"What are those? she cries out, horrified.

Cyril didn't have time to put together his thoughts about being in the Fade when they're tossd into a fight. Then he's just happy that his arrows came through with him.

He aims one of them not, striking one of those spider shaped demons as it nears Ellana. "Is.. is the Fade usually so.... spidery?" he asks her as he keeps the arrows flying. He's completely terrified, probably not the best way to fight a Fear demon, but so talking can help keep that at bay right? So long as they don't get too distracted to fight.

"Spiders? I wish they were spiders." No, to Korrin they're something else altogether. She represses a shudder at seeing the twisted forms of abominations, trying her damned to focus for all that she has the very rare urge to flee. Abominations leave nothing behind, she knows that. She's seen that. But there's a nightmare to defeat and it's not going to do the job itself. It's time for Static Cage on the fearlings/abominations, then her blade for the great demon itself.

It's clear that these fearlings are meant to slow them down from their goal, but there are far too many for Ellana to ignore in favor of focusing on the Nightmare, and she switches to lighting them on fire. They start as spiders, but then they're suddenly huge, poisonous spiders spitting at her friends.

"Look out!" she cries, throwing a barrier down over those closest to the fearlings. It doesn't occur to her that these things only look to her eyes like they're spitting out poison. But this isn't a big enough fear. Not yet. Not if the fear can be lessened with barriers. So the next several fearings that come running out are suddenly not spiders at all, but several of the Ashara clan that had stayed back in the Free Marches. They sneer at Ellana, hissing out "Race traitor," "If you come back, we'll kill you," and "You never mattered." And now Ellana freezes in fear.

"No..."

"Ellana!"

No sooner as the last syllable of her named had been yelled there's a flash of energy as a barrier is cast around her, followed by an ethereal blue figure coming to stand beside her, shield hoisted for an attack.

Not too far off Sam jogs up from the path he had been traveling to get to this point, having finished with getting some others out of trouble. Once he gets closer, placing himself in the middle of the group Sam focuses on stretching out a Heroic Aura to help with the battle.

Ellana jolts out of her shock and does a double take at the spirit beside her before refocusing on the battle. This is what the demon wants. It's feeding off her fear and if she fails prey to that, she'll be stupidly making it stronger even as she and the others work to destroy it. She shoots a fire spell at one of the fearlings, stomach turning as it looks like she's setting one of her clan on fire, but she keeps going, spell after spell, forcing herself to ignore their taunts. The spirit beside her helps her feel safer, and that's good, because as the fearlings die, the Terror demons come out to replace them.

"Ellana, careful--don't burn yourself out!" Kalli is at her side, not that she should be one to talk. Offense spells aren't her forte, and she's been slinging them almost as fast as Ellana.

"We can do this. Maybe concentrate together..."

The static cage only lasts so long, though it effectively removes some of the fearlings. Korrin backs up, staff and blade ready. "What she says! I'll cover you." And the Vashoth mage focuses her efforts on lightning once more, unleashing a blast that arcs to those nearest. That ought to keep them busy when she comes in swinging.

With the last of the fearlings who look like Dalish burning away, Ellana prepares to face their next challenge. She's managed to stay back in battles and has had time to properly read the situation in other encounters, but everything is so chaotic here. Everything is rushing them at once and she has to manage her spells based on how much mana she has left. It's a lot to take in. A terror demon moves down through the ground and Ellana knows exactly what it's going to do.

"Demon's coming!" she shouts. "Move!" And sure enough, the telltale green glyph appears under her feet, signaling the demon is about to jump up through the ground. Thankfully she has enough mana to frost step away, and in doing so, the demon freezes immediately on coming out of the ground.

But now Ellana is separated from everyone else, which maybe isn't the best thing for her to have done. Especially when a second terror demon slips down under the ground, targeting her, she doesn't have enough mana left to move away again. Predictably, when it flies up out of the ground from underneath her, she gets knocked off her feet. Dazed, she groans and struggles to find her feet again because she has no wish to be caught vulnerable. She doesn't have enough mana left for a barrier, and as she finds her feet, her mind panics, not knowing which spell to use. She's ready to do just a basic attack, but no sooner does she have her feet firmly planted on the ground once more than the terror demon slashes its claws from the left side of her abdomen to the center. Its claws go deep, far past just skin and muscle, and Ellana lets out a strangled cry, her knees buckling before her legs collapse under her. She hits the ground hard, but the shock to her knees is nothing compared to the pain in her middle. Her light armor has done nothing to protect her, the cloth now hanging in tatters.

She loses her balance and falls completely over, half-rolled over her staff and her left arm pressing against the wound. The pain is like nothing she's ever felt before; not even the time she was attacked by wolves. Her body is shaking uncontrollably and she's sobbing from the pain and the fear that she's going to die right here and right now.

"Ellana!" Korrin turns at hearing that cry, her eyes widening in horror as she sees her friend fall from that deep wound. With little time to think, she reaches to her belt for one of the healing mist grenades made earlier and hurls it in Ellana's direction. She's no healer, so all she can do is buy her friend some time against bleeding out. Hopefully, it will be enough for their Spirit Healer allies to work with.

Determined to make it over there, Korrin blurs forward on waves of magic, her own barrier still intact. She may not be able to do more for Ellanna directly, but she can keep demonic attention away from her. The loud and flashy Vashoth has some skill in that area, her glowing blade swinging anew.

The field is utter chaos once the Terror demons appear, ripping through the ground beneath them. Normally it is easy to keep tabs on everyone in the fray, but with so many mages it isn't surprising that with all the spells being cast and more freedom of movement that he would lose sight of someone. Even Fortitude had trouble considering it was facing off against a demon on its own.

The scream of pain grabs his attention though, head turning every which way until he finds the source. "Ellana-!" She had gotten away from the group quite a distance, enough that he could not cast a barrier spell over her. Worried, but keeping calm, he casts barriers on the others before he traverses the field with a bit of magic. Once closer he is quick to throw a healing spell over Ellana's position to stem the flow of blood he can see even from this distance.

With the demons distracted he makes it the rest of the way rather quickly, dropping down to his knees next to the elf, hands already glowing as he immediately starts another healing spell, feeling out the damage with his magic.

The bottle shatters in Ellana's vicinity, and the mist covers her body, slowing the flow of blood out of her body. It doesn't heal up the wound, but it buys her time that Sam can use to his advantage. She's shaking as Sam reaches her side, a million thoughts racing through her head. She tries to speak, but the pain is clouding her ability to form words, so she can only look up at him desperately, tears rolling from her eyes.

Her arm is still firmly pressed against her side, and he'll have to move it if he wants to see. Ellana is just terrified that if she moves her arm, it's all over. Her insides will fall out and there will be nothing anyone can do. It seems fitting that the terror demon has instilled her with such terror, but right now it can't get to her or Sam. Korrin's blade has it stepping back and screeching, before it takes an ill-timed swing at her. It's not used to being the one panicking.

"Sh, it's alright, don't speak." Without words, Sam can see the panic all over her face, and while he cannot quite guess the fear, he can certainly sense that. Honestly he was a bit panicked himself, but he made sure that he didn't appear so - seeing your healer panicking didn't bode well to patients, and he always was pretty good under pressure.

He can hear the battle going on behind him, eyes darting to the side when a noise is too close, but continuing with his work, mostly since he can feel Fortitude standing behind him and standing guard just in case. Without moving Ellana's arm, just feeling out the injury with his magic, he sets about closing the wound first - she's lost a lot of blood already and didn't need to lose more.

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OPEN: The Nightmare's Domain

Ellana | fighting the Nightmare | open

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