faderift | OPEN: Cloudreach Event

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

It's a silly thing to be embarrassed over, and Hermione resolves to forget all about it, especially if she ever wants to look Korrin in the eye again. Luckily, the other woman stands well more than a head taller than her, so she has a perfectly viable excuse to avoid eye contact if she really wants to. Which she shouldn't. Because it's just silly.

"Come on," she grunts, doing her best to help tug Korrin up to her feet. Once she's standing, Hermione wraps an arm around her waist as well as she can, doing her best to keep the both of them upright. "Where do you usually sleep? If it's too far, I'll just take you to the healing tents instead."

It's more effort than she'd like, remaining upright while her head is swimming, but with Hermione's help she's at least able to manage that. She sighs, knowing she should head to the healing tents but not really wanting to. "It's farther than I can probably manage, or that I'd put you through without help. Healing tents, it is. I don't suppse you know any spells that get spirits to shut up?"

As soon as Korrin mentions that it's further than she can manage, Hermione is already gently nudging her in the direction of the healing tents, having grabbed her bag up off the floor and being mindless of the occasional plants that fall out of it. "With the way my magic has been acting, I'd really rather not try my hand at any healing spells unless things get desperate. For now, I can get you settled and see if there are any ready-made potions or tonics that will help you feel a little better so you can rest."

"Fair enough. If this goes on much longer, I might be willing to risk it anyway, but we'll see what happens. If there's anything there that knock me straight out, that would still be a boon. Those tents are going to be crowded...not just with sick people, but spirits checking us out." The noise alone might be enough to prevent rest, without powerful medicine to counter it.

"It won't last much longer," she promises, though she can't really say how true that might or might not be. "We'll get you lying down - on your side, preferably; it wouldn't do for you to be on your back and risk getting sick and choking - and before you doze off again I'll find something that can make you rest a little easier. Trust me."

Trust me. Says the girl who can hardly walk in a straight line or figure out where she's going. Who told Skyhold to be so big, anyway?

"On my side and I'll end up goring pillows, but...worth it." Korrin usually tries to avoid any damage her horns might do, but honestly at this point, she's well past caring. Pillows can be replaced, anyway.

She frowns a little, taking note of Hermione even though her haze. "You could use some rest, too. Don't forget."

"Well, on your stomach wouldn't be particularly comfortable or effective, so I'll owe the healers a pillow or two. I can live with that."

Hermione can be painfully stubborn when the situation calls for it - or even when it doesn't call for it, really - and so she only shakes her head, carefully making a turn and hoping that Korrin will let her know if they're accidentally going the wrong way. "I'll be fine. I've spent months camping out in damp weather; I like to think I've built up an immunity to most things by now."

Relying on Korrin for directions is probably not the safer bet, at the moment. The mental fog isn't going away, and she's barely able to keep upright and talking, let alone anything else. "I've spent my whole life on the road, so I know what you mean. I thought I was immune to everything by now, and I probably am...for normal stuff, not this Fade-tainted bullshit. It's something completely different."

She frowns, rubbing her temple. "I even ran into a dwarf would could see them. A dwarf. They don't dream, don't have anything to do with spirits or the Fade. Whatever the fuck is going on, it doesn't discriminate."

"Dwarfs don't dream?" Hermione asks, frowning a bit. Because clearly, that's the most important thing at the moment, when she's just barely managing to cart around a friend who happens to be about twice her size.

"That sounds so sad. It must make things particularly scary for them, then."

"Nope, not at all. That must be tied into why they can't be mages either, since all that's connected to the Fade. And yeah, Rachette -I think it was Rachette- seemed pretty freaked out. Demons emerging from rifts is one thing, but suddenly seeing them like this has to be a whole new level of weird."

Mention of demons has her frowning sharply all over again. "That explains the fear demon I saw, lingering near dwarven merchants stuck here because of this. Probably leeching off them like all the other kinds do when they find people they like."

Having been mostly stuck in either the library or the healing tents and listening to all sorts of babbling as she fetched things for the ill, Hermione peers up at Korrin curiously, frowning a little. "Fear demon? Do you mean a real one, or...."

She doesn't want to use the word hallucination, since that would imply that she thinks Korrin mad, but it's worth asking after, she thinks.

"A real one. I'm not hallucinating, not unless everyone else afflicted is hallucinating the exact same things. But that'd be a huge stretch, wouldn't it? Seeing and hearing the same spirits and demons everywhere."

Korrin pauses and frowns, glancing around. "Are we going the wrong way?" Don't trust her screwed up sense of direction, Hermione. The healing tents aren't that far off.

"Mass hallucinations aren't unheard of," she offers, mostly because she doesn't want to deal with the possibility of there being demons on the loose. As it is, she's already jumpy, looking around dark corners and occasionally slowing a bit to make sure there's nothing hiding in the darkness. It's ridiculous, really, considering that she's had enough experience with demons to know that most of them aren't exactly the sort to lie in wait when they could just as easily attack, but she's not exactly in her most logical mindset at the moment.

She stops entirely at Korrin's question, pausing to look around. "I don't think so?" Granted, the fact that Hermione's asking means that she can't necessarily be trusted, especially when she continues on in a different direction when she starts walking again, carefully maneuvering Korrin the whole while. "Though I suppose this way might be shorter...."

"Mass hallucinations...sounds fun." Sarcasm aside, Korrin relaxes a bit as Hermione seems to know what she's doing. Perhaps the Vashoth shouldn't be quite so lax in that regard, but it's hard to trust her own judgement right now. Anyone else's has to be better, right?

"Sounds good to me. Anything to cut short all this stumbling around like way too much qunari hooch has been had. If I have to be like that, I at least want to earn it."

"Considering that they're usually accompanied by mass hysteria, I wouldn't think so," Hermione counters, dimly wondering if that's going to be the case here, and if Skyhold was going to be filled with panicking Qunari and templars alike.

"I know some people take whisky or some such thing for a cold, but I'd worry that you'd be more likely to tear your stomach to pieces, at this point. Just let me know if you need to stop and I'll get you somewhere reasonably dry for a light rest."

"No, I...want to keep going. You've done a lot already and I'm not going to keep you waiting on me longer than necessary. Besides, I doubt it's going to be dry anywhere outside. Not right now...."

Korrin stubbornly tries to continue, wanting to prove to herself or Hermione or whoever passes by that she's not completely helpless. It takes all her focus and energy, but she hasn't faceplanted yet. Once they get to the tents, she'll definitely be feeling it though.

Hermione isn't exactly of a mind to be impressed by any show of stamina - or pure stubbornness - Korrin chooses to show off. She's sort of surprised she hasn't fallen herself, though when she sees what looks like the healing tents looming up ahead, she does her best to walk faster without increasing her chances of taking a tumble and taking Korrin along with her.

"I don't mind being with you," she tells her simply. "You're my friend. If you need someone to be there for you, that's what friends are for."

Korrin tries to increase her pace, though it also increases her wobbling. She's not tipping over quite yet, but in her desperation to reach an area that's not sodden, all is possible. That statement gets a genuine smile out of her, though, however weak. "Thanks, Hermione...and likewise. I know that doesn't seem to mean much right now, but I'll do whatever I can."

Korrin's beginning to feel heavier with every step Hermione takes, but it wouldn't exactly be proper manners to remark on that or to risk having her drop onto the ground as she switches sides. So she bites her lip, trying to reassert that grip around Korrin even if her arm isn't nearly long enough to wrap around her waist, resisting the urge to double her speed when chatter from the tents becomes audible.

"You don't have to do anything for me," she tells her. "Really. I just appreciate knowing you're here, and that you'll be all right before too long."

Korrin's feel are feeling heavier with each step, so this...is a problem. She tries to push past it, but that's as effective as telling her body to stop the fever. At this point, there's nothing to be done but power through it and hope she reaches a cot before collapsing.

"I will...I have to. I'm never sick, not like this. It can't last." Right?

Hermione can feel the heaviness in Korrin's steps, and she finally does speed up a little, winding both arms around the larger woman to keep her from falling face-first into the mud. "Careful," she murmurs absently. "There's a tent right here; just make it ten more steps." And maybe ten more after that; it's sort of hard to tell, really.

"A bit of rest somewhere warm and dry, and you'll be absolutely fine. You'll see."

"Ten more? ...alright...." Korrin tries counting them in her head, using it as motivation to keep going, and for most of the way it seems to work. Her steps aren't steady, but she'll keep trying, dammit. The last couple of steps are increasingly wobbly, though, and just as she steps inside the tent, her legs give out. She falls to her knees, vision blurring as she clutches her head.

"Oh!" Hermione cries out softly when Korrin's legs give out, and she stumbles slightly, falling to her knees besides her. "Korrin, are you all right? There are blankets over here; I'll get one for you." Of course, that would require that she make it to her feet, and while she makes a valiant effort, gravity just isn't on her side. Between her light-headedness and the exhaustion from having helped someone Korrin's size all the way here, Hermione ends up falling onto her side, taking slow, deep breaths.

"Or we could just lie here. That's fine, too."

"...okay. Sounds good. Let's do that." Korrin would apologize profusely, but her head's swimming far too much at the moment, so there's no room for mortification. As it is, healers notice them and help Hermione up first, tackling the easier-moved one of the pair. Korrin they don't try to move until another joins them, better able to prop her up for those last few steps over to a coat.

Hermione had been supposed to help Korrin, and she reaches out a hand, making a small sound of protest when she's pulled away. She shakes her heads, insisting to the healers that she's fine, just tired, and they seem to believe her well enough to stop fussing over her as they get Korrin settled. Once she's settled on a cot, Hermione perches herself close besides her, reaching out for her hand.

"Just rest," she tells her gently. "I'll make sure they take care of you."

OPEN: Cloudreach Event

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