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

[colecomfort]

"The sick are louder than the others," he admits. "Louder, but less clear. A wave rushing toward the shoreline. I can see their dreams."

It had been overwhelming at first, before he'd realized what was happening. Knowing hasn't made it any more pleasant, but at least he can prepare himself before getting close again.

To Fortitude: "I'm here because I want to be. This is where I can help."

[el_tybs]

'You want to be there?' That was different considering most spirits like themselves had no wish to go that realm. 'You had a partner before, like I and the others have now?'

Louder Cole had said. "You are usually only able to hear people's thoughts then? And those who are sick you can see dreams?" Actually weren't there cases where people were saying they were seeing images or other when near people when they slept?

[colecomfort]

"I hear their pain. Normally, dreams are different. Now, it's all part of the same thing." He shifted from one foot to the other, glancing at Fortitude. "...no. Not like that. There was a boy... but he died."

[el_tybs]

"Cole, have you noticed anything else different? Not for others, but for yourself?" He didn't think that the spirit could possibly catch or get whatever they had, but considering he was physically here... It was certainly possible. Something they needed to know for sure.

'And then you stayed...' It is a comment leading on towards a clear question that isn't quite being asked.

[colecomfort]

"This is where I can help," he repeats, but gently. It's as simple as that. He doesn't want to go back.

He crosses his arms as he thinks on Sam's question. "It's hard being close to the sick for too long. It makes me tired. But I feel better when I go away for a while." So, no. He didn't think they were going to make him sick too.

[el_tybs]

The answer seems to be enough and Fortitude simply nods and falling silent, setting himself to just watch the exchange.

He supposed Cole wouldn't get sick, but it was good to at least know if there was a possibility considering the illness connected spirits to this side in some form. "Thank you, Cole. It must be difficult for you to deal with. You don't normally see dreams, correct?"

[colecomfort]

He shakes his head. "I don't remember dreams. Not from the other side. And I don't sleep." He has an idea, however, of why this was happening now: "I'm seeing them now because they are. The windows are open, not wide, but wide enough to look through."

[el_tybs]

A cracked open window seems to be a rather accurate description for something like this. Just enough to see in/out, but not able to see everything. "There are a lot of people here... are you able to find places where you aren't disturbed by all of this?"

[colecomfort]

"Yes." He turns his head toward the window. "But I shouldn't stay away for too long."

[el_tybs]

His eyes also turn towards the window for a moment before he looks back to Cole. "You wouldn't be able to 'help' otherwise?"

[colecomfort]

His head moves. It isn't a nod, not exactly, but it has the sense of one.

"We all have work to do." Himself, Sam, and Fortitude... the two of them together. He smiles a little at the end of that, just before he vanishes.

[el_tybs]

Sam blinks when Cole just disappears right before his eyes before giving a long sigh. He's not at all surprised by the hasty departure, but it certainly still catches him off guard considering it happens right before his eyes.

Guess it was time to get back to work.