faderift | OPEN: Cloudreach Event

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Unfortunately, that didn't help matters much. If anything, it served to make his confusion that much more pointed, and this time he wound up making a full circle as he turned around in place, something that made him feel just a touch dizzy. Maybe he shouldn't do that again. Once he stopped moving that felt a little better, though, and he was able to refocus on the other man.

"They all look like they're moving normally to me."

Except maybe those ones that he kept seeing out of the corner of his eyes, but those couldn't be real. Given how warm he was feeling right now, he was probably imagining them. It wouldn't be the first time...and if Maxwell was seeing something like that too, then maybe there was a reason why he didn't seem to care that he was sitting in the mud.

"Look, are you feeling alright? You don't look so good. Maybe we should go to the healers."

"I..." The wrinkle in his brow deepened, even so simple a thought difficult for him, the pounding in his head, the sharp flashes of light, blocking out all else. "I feel... I don't know." He shook his head as if to try and clear it. "It's so warm..."

"Right."

He took a few steps forward, moving to Maxwell's side and starting to bend over. As he did so, his head swam, and he had to close his eyes for a moment, but then he determinedly pushed the dizziness aside and reached out for the other man, meaning to at least get him up and out of the mud if at all possible.

"Sounds to me like you've that fever that's going around, but I'm no healer. Come on, man, we need to get you up if nothing else. Sitting around in mud'll not do anyone any good."

"...Fever..."

Maxwell came up slowly, his body leaden and refusing to move the way he wanted it to, even with the man's assistance. When he finally managed to find his feet, he swayed uncertainly and clutched at the man's shoulder for balance.

He had to take a moment, eyes squeezed shut.

"I haven't-- I haven't even been around the ill...."

"You've not?"

That wasn't good, and he's hard pressed to keep that from showing in his expression even as he slips an arm around Maxwell's side to steady him, ignoring the heat radiating from the other man. He was starting to feel that way himself, so if it was something contagious, either it worked really quickly or he'd already been exposed. Either way, he was alright enough for the moment that he wasn't going to worry about that - at least not until he was able to get Maxwell somewhere where he could lie down and not be covered in mud.

"Look, maybe it's not my business, but you're barely able to stand right now. If you've not been around anyone who's sick and you're like this, then this thing is worse than we thought. I'll help you get where you want to go, but you might want to at least let someone know what's going on."

Maxwell wobbled, but with Jamie under his arm he managed to stay upright and allowed himself to be steered without a fight.

"I don't--" His brow furrowed, and he shook his head. "I don't have anyone to tell. They won't let us speak to Gavin... there's no one else."

He was grateful that Maxwell was willing to let him help, and for now he started moving them in the general direction of the healer's tents, mostly because he wasn't sure where else to go. Worst case if he got told to go in another direction, he'd see about switching things up at that point. The statement from Maxwell was a surprise, though, and even though he didn't stop what he was doing, his eyebrows wound up arching up high enough that they disappeared into his bangs briefly.

"Aye, well, I'd meant one of the healers, but...they're still not letting you speak to Gavin? Why?"

"No one can." Maxwell's mouth twisted into a deep frown as he waved along with Jamie, eyes glassy as they stared flatly ahead. "He's still in the dark...."

"You mean they've not let him out yet?"

He'd heard about what had happened - or well, some of it, anyway. But he'd assumed that by now he would've been freed, something that caused a frown to cross his face as well.

"That doesn't make any sense. Why keep him in there this long?"

"I promised," Maxwell murmured, a response that made perfect sense to him in his current state. "I promised... but he's still in there."

It didn't make as much sense to Jamie, at least right away, and there was a moment when he went to open his mouth to say as much. But then he realized that the fever might have had something to do with what Maxwell was saying, and he thought better of it. Instead he continued to steer Maxwell towards the tents, trying to resist the urge to hurry the man along as the first of them came into view.

"Right. We'll just have to get him out of there, then. First things first, though, we'll need to come up with a plan, and that'll work better when you're feeling more like yourself again. Come on, we're almost there. We can see who's around to lend you a hand."

For a moment, Maxwell's face remained twisted, pained, and seemed like he might continue... then his expression eased, slightly, slowly. As much as it could for the fevered tint of his cheeks and the glassy look in his eyes.

He nodded slowly.

"Yes... yes. I don't know what to do-- and I can't think...."

He trailed off and allowed himself to be led, half-dragged, to the healing tents.

Maxwell wasn't alone there, at least. Thinking wasn't anything Jamie was too keen on right now either, and he knew that even if he tried he wasn't going to be able to manage anything like a plan. Getting to the tent was about the only thing he was certain he could manage, and even then it took all his concentration.

Eventually, though, they reached the tents and Jamie steered Maxwell towards the first empty cot he could see, still making sure to support him just in case he needed it.

"Here, why don't you lie down for a bit, and I'll see about getting one of the healers over here. And then I can check back with you later and we can see coming up with a way to help Gavin."

As if he'd expended all the energy he'd had on trying to make Jamie understand, Maxwell put no further fight nor argument. When they reached the cot, he dropped down onto it like a sack of soiled laundry - just as sweat stained, just as energetic.

The only sound he made was low and soft, something torn between a groan and sigh as Jamie turned away and the shades moved in again, green and uncertain.

Whispering and shifting, in and out.

OPEN: Cloudreach Event

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