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

[girlinthebox]

He's afraid. It radiates off of him and sinks into her, cold wet pellets like the rain falling outside. It's cold, but not cold enough to be a comfort, and she can barely lift her head she's so exhausted from the illness.

But she can hunch down into that corner, her eyes resting fearfully on a spot just beyond his shoulder. "...don't let it touch you..." she whispers, eyes round and too-large with alarm.

[onlyhymns]

"What?" Cade asks, and looks over his shoulder to see nothing-- why does this keep happening? He's been getting stranger looks than usual, and none of them seem the typical wariness or judgment. They're never really looking at him, but it's somehow more unnerving.

"...please," he says in the same hushed tone, and holds up his hands to show her where they are. He slowly moves them toward her, giving her plenty of opportunity to escape or push him back if she doesn't want to be touched. The demon, in the meantime, is almost leaning on him, giving the appearance of grasping onto his body despite its being incorporeal. As with before, he has no awareness of it.

[girlinthebox]

"There, it's there, it's clinging with claws, tangled in tendrils. Feeding on fear, fiend." She all but hisses at it as Cade comes closer, but it's clear that it's not him she has issue with. She's not looking at him at all.

If she had more energy, she might try to drive it away. As it is, all she can do is glare, before another wave of dizziness has her going limp against the stone. No, leave him alone!

[onlyhymns]

He feels like he's going to throw up as he stoops to slide his hands under River's prone form, then lifts her. She's impossibly light, and his heart lurches at how small she is, so easy to pick up. Frightened. Defenseless. It would be so easy for someone to...
No. He squeezes his eyes closed and begins to walk toward the door, feeling strangely weighted, his mouth dry and his heart pounding. The healing tents were packed, the entire hold is chaos right now, but he has to get her somewhere safe.
..Nerva.
His Tranquil escort strolls after them as Cade makes a beeline for the keep. He'll bring her to Nerva's room, and Nerva will know what to do. She'll keep her safe.

The fear demons flank them on all sides, weightlessly gripping Cade by the arms, the chest, the neck. If they were corporeal, it would be impossible to see River through them.

[keeperofmagi]

She was just leaving her room, carefully checking the sword at her side. She was warm - too warm - but otherwise the illness had not affected her. Not enough for her to keep from her duties.

There was only one demon, that followed her. A rage demon, far larger than it should be, standing right behind her at any time, nearly dwarfing her. There was something else, something small - a spirit, not a demon - that kept a further distance, but whenever anyone tried to look at it, it darted back and away.

Loyalty, perhaps.

Or Love.

She heard Cade before she saw him, carrying River, and she immediately leapt forward, concerned. "I'll take her," She immediately said, because though she didn't understand Cade completely, she knew how he withdrew from touch. She didn't need to see the Fear Demons to suspect that he was incredibly unhappy with the situation. "Open my door, and strip the blanket off the bed. Then go get a bucket of water and a cloth. Now."

[girlinthebox]

She's not still, twisting and turning in his arms, however weakly. They're too close and all around, too many of them, and their presence is overwhelming. Fear's icy grip closes in tight and yet does nothing to dispel the sweat of her fever, and all she can do is murmur in a low, hurried voice as she keeps her eyes open.

Can't sleep, not with them so close. Too many to fight off, too strong from the vibrations they can feel through the Veil.

[onlyhymns]

The more River struggles, the worse Cade feels, and by the time he reaches Nerva he barely waits for her to speak before thrusting the girl into her arms. He gives a full-body shudder once unencumbered, then nods quickly and, hands going up to press against the sides of his head, goes into Nerva's room, does as she bade him, and then leaves again to do the rest.

[keeperofmagi]

Nerva takes a good firm hold of the girl, waiting until Cade runs off again to carry her into the room and lay her down on the cot.

"River, can you hear me?" She murmured to her, frowning as she touched River's forehead.

[girlinthebox]

She swallows hard, eyes shifting dazedly from Nerva, to the looming rage demon at her shoulder. No. It's in check, it can't hurt them, can't reach through and touch...

Focus.

Her eyes slide shut. "The curtain's back. Can't pull it shut again. They keep looking in," she mutters, fingers grasping for Nerva's.

[keeperofmagi]

"Hush," Nerva murmured, her brows furrowed deeply as she leaned over, gently running fingers across her forehead, brushing the sweat from it.

"You're ill, River. Maybe people are. That is all that it is, there is no one watching you."

No one, and nothing, save the huge Rage demon, heaving with need, curled over them.

[girlinthebox]

"Whispering, ripples in the pond, but they stay where they're meant to. Can't reach through and touch but they won't be quiet. They won't stay unseen," she insists in broken whispering, her face scrunching tight as the demon looms nearer.

"Hearing, feeling, seeking what it needs to feed, to feel. Full. But never fulfilled."

[keeperofmagi]

Nerva's throat went dry as she carefully ran her fingers through River's hair, doing her best to soothe her.

Demons.

River was speaking of demons.

She knew it, and yet she couldn't acknowledge it. Couldn't confirm it. Because to do so would be to break their tenuous fantasy, the denial of truth that they both fully understood. She would have to face the danger that River was in - that River put the rest of Skyhold in. And she would not do that.

So instead she shook her head. "No, River. They are dreams, only. Fever dreams. You are safe. I am here."

[girlinthebox]

"Pressing fingers to glass, peering through. They see them now. Waiting, watching, but they were always there..."

It isn't just her seeing the spirits anymore. Anyone afflicted is starting to get glimpses of what she always sees, and for her? It is as if the door has been blown open. They can't walk through, but they're too close. Too difficult to turn away.

[onlyhymns]

Cade returns a few minutes later with the requested bucket and cloth, the water sloshing occasionally over the rim in his haste.
He and his demonic entourage hurry in to crouch next to Nerva, where he immediately sets to the task of dunking the cloth and wringing it out, preparing it to be a cold compress.

[keeperofmagi]

The words were making her skin crawl, and she had to check herself before she instinctively looked over her shoulder. At the last second, however, she was saved by Cade, and looked immensely relieved when he appeared.

"Thank you, Cade," She shifted over to give him more space. "There must be something we can give her to bring down the fever."

[onlyhymns]

Cade nodded silently to Nerva as he pressed the damp cloth against River's forehead, his face strained with fear and worry as he observed once again how pale she was, how feverish.

"...maybe willow bark," he suggested quietly, just resting the cloth there, afraid to touch her any more than he already was, "that can help a fever, I think."

[girlinthebox]

At least she falls quiet when the cold towel touches to her skin, save a faint whine of discomfort. There was barely enough strength in her to squirm, but the effect is immediate. Rather than focus on the figures dancing around them her eyes fall shut, lips parting in a weak inward breath.

"Nnn..."