OPEN: Cloudreach Event

[faderifting]

WHO: Anyone at Skyhold
WHAT: Cloudreach showers bring weird shit.
WHEN: Cloudreach 15 onward
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: For information about the illness, its effects, and its cure, please make sure to also read the OOC Post.

This high in the mountains, snowstorms are to be expected. But this one is large and lingering, hanging over the valley and the fortress for days. In Skyhold, with its eternal spring, the snow becomes rain before it hits the ground, leaving inhabitants and visitors to wade through puddles and mud in the courtyards. In the valley, snow and ice accumulate under cloud cover—and worse, when the clouds finally thin, a whole winter's accumulation of snow begins to melt in the sunlight.

Within a day, the ground is sodden and mucky enough to give the survivors of the Fallow Mire (or Ferelden in general) unpleasant flashbacks, and those who live in tents are issued additional hastily-constructed wooden pallets to raise their floors above the mud. It is worse outside the fortress: streams and rivers have overflowed their banks, rapids run twice as fast as normal, and flash flooding has made even road travel treacherous.

On Cloudreach 17 a mudslide buries the pass into Skyhold from the west, and on the 19th a sheet of snow loosened from a mountainside collapses into the shadowed passage from the east. An Inquisition supply caravan is caught in the latter, scattering wagons and goods across the hillside and leaving a dozen people and horses in need of rescue and medical care.

Healers may find themselves stretched thin, as in addition to the usual rash of blisters and sniffles that come from days of rain and flooding, an illness begins to sweep through Skyhold's ranks from around the 16th onward. It's marked first by climbing fever, then by flashes at the edges of vision—green light and jagged formations that aren't there, beings of light and shadow gathering around people or clustering in corners—and distant voices, coherent for brief moments if you're quiet and still and not trying too hard to listen.

Comments

[unharrowed]

Vasran is one of the many who have relented to being tended to. When she is awake enough to see who has come to care for her, she might notice that their own eyes seem glassy or their temples dotted with sweat, but she does no more than notice it. Everyone is struggling these days, to some degree. If they can bear the work...

Her eyes are half-closed when Kallian approaches, and Vasran hears Hope first, whispering that all this is temporary.

Vasran lets out a small scoff. "What good does that do us now?" she murmurs, opening her eyes further.

[kallian_endris]

"Be careful listening to her. She says what she thinks you want to hear, with no regard for what is and isn't truth," Kallian remarks.

"How are you feeling, though? Do you have any pain? Is there anything you would like me to get for you?" she offers, gently dabbing a cool rag over her fellow elf's brow.

[unharrowed]

The spirit isn't exactly wrong, Vasran thinks. Everything is temporary, sooner or later.

As for pain: "Only a parched throat. I'm not even sure I could hold down water at the moment, though."

She squints at the other's face. A large part of it is covered, but she recognizes the eyes. And the lack of tattoos.

"I've seen you around Skyhold. Never said hello. It's — good, though, seeing other elves from the city."

[kallian_endris]

Kallian nods.
"Born and raised in Denerim's alienage. But I admit being surprised myself at how many Dalish are here. They seem like good people, though."

She pauses, considering the other woman's accent.
"Are... you Fereldan too?"

Kallian brings over a small skin of water and offers it to Vasran.
"It's not much, but you're welcome to try just a little water... See if it helps..."

[unharrowed]

She accepts only a small swallow of water — not wanting to risk much, but too thirsty and over-hot not to risk a little.

"Ferelden — yes. I was at Kinloch Hold." Still a point of pride, after all this time, after the damage wrought by the rebellion.

[kallian_endris]

"Kinloch Hold?" The name makes Kallian shudder. "So... you're a mage, then, yourself?"

[unharrowed]

Vasran swallows a second time, willing her stomach to settle.

"Yup." Not exactly in a mood to be wordy at the moment. "And, you..." She wrinkles her brow, trying to reconcile born and raised in the alienage with how blithely the other elf had spoken about spirits.

[kallian_endris]

Kallian sighed. The truth was right there. Obvious, even unspoken. Especially with Hope hanging over her shoulder like she was. There was no point in denial.

"Privately trained outside of the Circle. So... Yes. A free mage. Or an apostate. However you want to look at it." Her eyes were downcast, but there was a stubborn set to her chin.

"Just doing the best I can to help."

[unharrowed]

The look on Vasran's face turned more wary. Privately trained. Free mage. She'd never heard it described like that.

When the other elf looked up again, however, she swallowed, schooling her features back into an expression of passive, uncomfortable nausea. It wasn't hard.

"Of course." If she tried to do anything magical, Vasran might object — but she'd only offered her water. No harm done, and no need to refuse the help being given. "Thank you..."

She trailed off, prompting for a name.

[kallian_endris]

Kalli noticed the other elf's wariness, and grimaced to herself beneath her makeshift mask. Of course a Circle mage wouldn't trust an apostate, even if they shared a race and a country.

"Oh! Ah... Kallian. Sorry."

She sifted through a rack of supplies.
"I have some elfroot tincture... Tastes ghastly, but it might aid your fever, if you want..."

[unharrowed]

"Vasran," she offered in turn, and nodded at the offer of the tincture, lifting a hand to accept it.

She would thank Kallian again, when all was said and done, apostate or no.

[kallian_endris]

"It is nice to meet you," she says kindly, and gives her the dose.

"...would you like some water to help get the taste out of your mouth? I know it's awful..."

[unharrowed]

"Mmf." She grimaced at the taste while she forced herself to swallow, not trusting her ability to answer verbally just yet. Only once she had chased the tincture with a sip of water did she say: "Thank you."