Open: Waking Nightmares in Skyhold (reaction log)

[faderifting]

WHO: Characters in Skyhold
WHAT: Before, during, and after the eruption and attack of an Abomination in Skyhold.
WHEN: Haring 11
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Please note that the actual subduing of the Abomination is being completed by mission volunteers. Use this log as a means to react to this event otherwise. You are welcome to be attacked by or attempt to attack the monster yourself, but please refrain from doing anything that would permanently affect it or interfere with the volunteers' plans.

It's so late that it's early when the Abomination begins its path of terror between the gardens and the main hall. It seems intent on heading for Skyhold's heart itself, a continual slow drag weighted down by the way it, for whatever reason, drags the body of a young made woman behind it, by the ankle. Seven foot tall, a twisted monstrousity of human and monster, made of tattered mage robes, bony protrusions, claws, and teeth. Behind it, it leaves a trail of smearing blood and gore over dirt, grass, rock, as well as blackened scorch marks.

It can be distracted, diverted, whether by mere movement or direct attack. It wields magical fire in inelegant gusts of flame, but is just as likely to lash out physically, impossibly strong, fingers twisted into giant claws, or make grabs and attempt to sink fangs into flesh. Always, it will return to where it last dropped the corpse, and make for the main hall.

Eventually, an explosion of flame and broken stone will destroy the connecting entryway between the gardens and the hall, under the onslaught of the Abomination's magic. A deep roar reverberates through the bones of the castle, inviting one and all to join in.

Comments

[eolasemah]

It had been another night of limited sleep for Sina, and she was in her usual haunt, sitting in the gazebo with a blanket around her shoulders and a cup of tea between her thin hands as she meditated and waited for the sun to rise. She had done this many times now, and probably would many more, but she was jolted out of her reverie by a sound unlike any she'd ever heard.

Staring in mute horror, she watched the thing form, out of-- who was that, did she know them?. Her steaming mug crashed to the stone ground as the creature twist and writhe and glow from its host, the shard in her chest seeming to pull uncomfortably in the abomination's direction. She struggled to pull breath into her lungs, one hand clutched to herself in abject panic. Then it looked at her.

She shrieked.

[It would presumably not be too long after that the volunteers arrive and do their thing. Sina remains in the gardens throughout, though she hides behind one of the gazebo pillars and casts a barrier around herself so she won't get hit with their business.

She is still there long after it's over, curled up and petrified.]

[nadasharillen]

Nahariel snapped awake, rolled from her bedding, and scrambled to her feet at a run. She was halfway to the garden before she realized she was only wearing thin breeches and an undershirt, and she'd only grabbed one knife.

That high, shrill sound of terror. She'd know it anywhere.

Sina!

Bare feet pounded on the ground, her strides like a halla fleeing flames. A stray rock bit into her careless feet on the stairs, caused a snarling stumble; the huntress half slammed into the wall at the top of them, turned for the garden and then the stench, like hitting another wall. Death.

She'd smelled it enough times, but not like this. The sickly sweet of rot, and the acrid tang of magic overlaying it, the combination enough to make her gag. Bile rose in her throat, and she spat, not caring that she was inside. Something was very wrong.

That something was standing in the hall, staring through to the garden. Nahariel had never seen one before, but she knew what it was immediately.

Era'harel. An Abomination. A demon of the Fade made flesh. No, not made. Had taken. The tower of twisted flesh and bone had once been a mortal soul. A mage, lost, through grief, or rage, or desire, had lost control. Had taken the tainted gifts of some twisted spirit from beyond the veil. She suddenly knew why Keeper Thalia had been so careful, so dilligent, with Sina's tutelage.

And then she saw the body it dragged, and her ears filled with noise, the metal taste of fear blossoming in her mouth. No, was it--but it was different, bigger. Not her clan-sister. The sudden wash of relief gave the hunter enough clarity to think. She couldn't kill it, but perhaps...

She was readying her only knife to throw, when it turned and began to lumber away from the garden, toward the hall. She entertained the notion of heroics, fully knowing it would kill if anything got between it and whatever goal the demon had, but dismissed it with a brief pang of guilt. There were others. Soldiers. Her clan had only one First. And so she slunk past behind it, picking up speed once her feet hit grass, darting looks over her shoulder and whispering urgently.

"Sina? Sina!"

[eolasemah]

Sina didn't shout back to her, but her remaining presence in the garden after the creature's departure was indicated by the eerie flickering of green light against the wall of the dark courtyard. She was slumped against the gazebo, unconscious but alive, her mark spitting with a faint electrical sound. A tangle of roots and branches surrounded her in a protective shield, undoubtedly her own effort, and perhaps the reason she hadn't been able to calm the shard in time.

[nadasharillen]

Nahariel had been grateful for the shard in her clan-sister's chest precisely once: now, as the glow led her to the cluster of vegetation curled protectively around the young woman. She reached out, touched her, but got no reaction.

"Sina! Siuona!" she hissed, reaching out again to check for a pulse beneath her chin. She was rewarded with a faint beat--just unconscious then. A quick glance showed no blood, or char. She'd gotten away safely. Nari breathed a sigh of relief, then narrowed her eyes as the shard crackled like an open Rift.

Fenedhis.

Was it safer for the two of them to stay here? What if the shard called the abomination back? It hadn't attacked before, so perhaps it had some other purpose in mind. Or should she try to move her, carry her back to the healer's tents... but that would take them past the creature again. Perhaps Nari could scale the garden walls, but she wasn't sure she could with Sina on her back--slight as the First was.

No, they'd stay here.

She moved across the gazebo, crouched on the balls of her feet with her back against the pillar directly opposite Sina's. This way, she could see everything, and if Sina woke up, she'd see she wasn't alone.

And then she waited.

[dreadinquisitor]

He was asleep, tucked in his usual corner of the garden when it began. A scream and a roar, both, and the earth-shuddering explosion. One moment he was in the depths of a dream, the next he was wide awake in a nightmare.

Twisting out of his bedroll, Maxwell scrabbled back from the burning brush around him, kicking dirt toward the flames. He grabbed for his boots with one hand, his bow and quiver with the other. He dragged all three on items on as quickly as he could, even as his head was swiveling, trying to determine just what was happening.

He'd never seen a possession. Didn't immediately believe that the tower of bone and muscle and rage tearing it's way through the stonework and into the castle had even once been a person.

He gaped at it for a moment - long enough for it break through and for others to move in on it - then the heat of a growing fire caught his attention again. He stamped on it before it could catch to the fabric of his pants. Then without another thought he was heading for the well at the center of the garden.

"We need to get these fires out!" he called to anyone nearby who might be able to help. "Before we lose everything!"

[eolasemah]

When the barrier of branches around Sina began to withdraw for lack of magic, her eyelids fluttered, her brow furrowing at the sound of a man yelling. She opened her eyes and abruptly gasped for breath, her right hand slamming onto her chest and glowing white, her usual means of keeping the shard's magic at bay.
"Nari," she said, her voice thin, and her left hand reached out to grasp for her clan sister's. She seemed about to say something else, but reflected on the wall in front of her was a different kind of light mingled with her own: the ominous yellow flicker of flame. "Fire," she said, and coughed in the way of one attempting to open up more room to breathe rather than to clear her lungs of anything. "Who's shouting?"

[nadasharillen]

Nari crawled quickly across the intervening space to grasp the reaching hand and squeeze. It was meant as a comfort, but relief warred with trepidation in her eyes. "Sina. Thank the Creators. It's--" she frowned, peered out to see a man she didn't know running for the well, "--I don't know. A human man. But..." she looked again, at the glowing from the direction of the hall. Too big for candles. The smell was starting to waft, and her heart pounded to scent it.

--it had eaten the grasses, filled the air. Licked from the ground, reaching, again and again until finally it reached the aravel. Screaming, there was--

She shook her head to clear it. "Will you be okay here? I'm going to help him."

[eolasemah]

Sina nodded, and tried to smile, but her fear was too great. She gave Nari's hand a squeeze and then brought her own back towards her, resting it on her diaphragm and trying to even out her breathing.

[dreadinquisitor]

What they needed, Maxwell realized quickly - other than more hands - were more buckets. There were three, stacked neatly, against the stone ring of the well, but that wasn't going to be nearly enough to form any sort of chain to the farther corners of the garden.

Running was going to be the name of the game tonight.

Hooking one quickly to the rope, he dropped into the dark depths below and began to haul it back up. Hoping there might be someone to help by the time he's gotten raised again.

[nadasharillen]

There was--and she was holding a fourth bucket.

"I'd left one by the beds earlier. I'm Nahariel. Keep pulling, I'll run them in, see if I can grab anyone else. We get tired, we switch, aye?"

It was only sort of a question, because as soon as she'd finished asking, she'd already yanked the full bucket from the hook, replaced it with the one she'd been holding, and started to run--sloshing slightly--towards the threatening glow of flame in the hall.

[dreadinquisitor]

He didn't question, didn't argue. He only nodded and shouted after her, "be careful!" even as he was loosing the rope through his hand and letting the bucket drop. Maker only knew what the abomination had left in its wake, or how far it had gotten.

Down and up again, he grabbed the second bucket off the hook and reached for the third.

"Anybody with hands, if you can!" he called again to the dark, just in case there was anyone else in a state to help.