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

[chainlightning]

"That's different." They're complementary lies, for starters. "We're doing it carefully, though. Not just scribbling things out, we're rewriting in the margins. That's- what we can do, right now."

A pause, and- "Well, we haven't been using red. It's harder to get and harder to read." But yeah, they're using a lot.

"I'll have my sending crystal on me. I'll call you if anything seems even a little wrong, okay?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Hmmm, true. Pretty much everything ever written about Marian is about how amazing she is." Bethany says this without a drop of jealousy, more musing than anything else, "Just don't get caught. I don't want you thrown in jail, like that poor scout."

She nods her head firmly, "Good -- because I'll ... well, I'll probably fall face down in the mud and have to crawl there, but I will."

[chainlightning]

"Like- what? Someone else was thrown in jail?" Guess who hadn't heard it's Merrill.

A little snort, and Merrill leans on Bethany a bit more. "You could always send someone in your place." Beat. "But not Anders."

Pause.

"Or Fenris."

A longer pause.

"Or Dax."

And an even longer pause, before-

"Do we have other friends who aren't sick?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Mmmm. Yes. That one scout -- Gavin ... Ashara? I think. He tried to free the lady Galadriel." Bethany frowned as she tried to focus, as they made their way finally out of the rain, and into the main hall.

"... Aveline? I don't think Aveline is sick." There! A person they trusted who was not sick. Bethany beamed proudly at herself.

[chainlightning]

"What?"

Merrill freezes, eyes wide.

"Gavin- why? Did he do something to a goat again?"

That is not meant to sound as inappropriate as it does.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

And now it is Bethany's turn.

"What!?"

She will now stare at you, Merrill, in faint horror.

"What in the name of the Maker did he do to a goat, Merrill?!"

[chainlightning]

With the shock out of the way, Merrill starts to actually process what was said. He tried to free Galadriel, and he was imprisoned.

Well, it makes sense. But since Galadriel shouldn't have been imprisoned in the first place, it still leaves a sour taste in her mouth.

However, goats.

"Oh- he was bringing it around to different places, that sort of thing."

Now it just sounds like he was dating the goat.

"I'm sorry, go back -- he broke into prison?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"He was - "

All right, now Bethany is just going to waver on her feet for a moment, holding on to Merrill while she processes that, then waves her hand.

"Yes - he broke into prison so he could break the Lady Galadriel out. He ... scaled down the wall. He was caught inside her cell. Now - "

She really had to try to wrap her fever-rich brain around this.

" -- why is he courting a goat?!"

[chainlightning]

They should probably sit down, but Merrill currently only has the mental processes for the conversation.

"Oh. Well. I mean, at least they found out that it's possible?"

Positives!! Yay!

"Courting- Creators, he's not courting the goat! They're just friends. He thought it would be fun."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Which is fine, because this is all Bethany has as well. She frowns at that statement.

"I'm not sure I want to know that people can break out of prison ... we've got Erimond down there. He'd better be staying put, too."

A pause.

"Oh, well, as long as he and the goat are platonic, that's fine."

Bethany frowned once more.

"... I think we need to get to the library."

[chainlightning]

"Now they can fix it, though!"

Optimism Harder, Bethany.

"Oh, yes. I mean, I'm sure the goat is very lovely, but- not his type."

She blinks, turning her head to look up toward the balconies overhead.

"That's... a bit far away, isn't it?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Well that is true. And better Gavin than Ermond."

Optimism Achieved!

"Oh, very good. I was going to be worried about the goat. I hope the goat does better."

She looked up where Merrill was looking, then frowned.

"....all right, what is closer? Varric's table?"

[chainlightning]

And that's how they ended up matchmaking a goat.

"I think so. And he won't mind us sitting there."

Unlike everyone else, who seems a bit cross that they're standing in the middle of the hall.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"All right, Varric's table it is." She steered them there, and into the path of at least five other people, who she apologized to.

Or was it one person but looked like five? Oh dear.

[chainlightning]

The table is reached and Merrill immediately does her best to just try to slump down on one of the seats. If only they had backs, but leaning forward onto the surface of the table itself works, too.

"Urgh."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

The table feels so cool against her skin and the fire is so warm on her back. She sighs, pillowing her head on her arms.

"Let's just sleep here, all right?"

[chainlightning]

"Yes."

There's a little wiggle closer to Bethany, and one hand blindly reaching for her, before- "Good night."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Two hands clasped together, before Bethany exhaled and put her head down next to Merrill's.

And promptly ... fell asleep from exhaustion.