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

"I don't even like the Wardens and I ended up wading through their camp to see him. Can't say I didn't train a little extra hard when he was gone." Which is probably the closest she's likely to get at the moment to express her actual concern. "And he's got that same stupidity, or determination if you will, as you. It's not always about being stronger." Sometimes it's about being faster. Or more agile. Or smarter and cleverer.

"At least I'm not the only one who did that... I was hoping we could return, see about getting him out of there..." It's definitely the way Kain expresses concern as well. Getting angry and doing something, taking some action, is preferable to his other way of handling things, which is to brood. Better to focus on something productive.

"Unfortunately, he does. I can sympathize all too well." Had he been in Herc's position, he'd have made the same call, no question. So he does understand why he'd done what he had. "Hm... well... I see what you mean. Strength comes in more forms than physical strength..."

She glances over her shoulder and up at him. "Are you sure you're even gonna be able to make it up the stairs?" It's only a half-joke. She's feeling five kinds of out of sorts, but at least she hasn't been trying to stab spirits who don't seem to really be there in the pouring rain and mud.

"Strength is relative anyway. Even if I could lop off demon heads with a greatsword, I'm not about to pick up a sword bigger than I am and run around with it."

"Of course I'll make it up!" Maybe. Possibly. Kain had been forcing himself to keep going out there, but now that he's finally stopped, the weariness is sinking in even further. It's going to be more of a challenge than he'd have thought.

"Of course, and it..." Ugh, excuse him while he pauses to catch his breath, holding his head just a moment. "...it's more than mere strength, I realize that. Discipline and training, these are just as important when it comes to mastering any technique..." Even someone who's a natural at it undoubtedly has to keep at it to stay in shape.

"I'm not gonna be your servant maid," she continues almost like she's not listening to him, "but whenever you're slumped in whatever warm seat you'll slump into, I'll make sure someone gets you a drink and a bite to eat."

She also says it like she's not sick herself, but at least she isn't swinging at scary spirits in the middle of a massive storm. "I'll drag you inside if you need," she eventually says, watching his slow deterioration. And makes it sound like a threat, honestly.

“Nor do I expect you to be… but... “ Sigh, he has a hard time getting it out, so he looks aside toward nothing in particular. There’s the faint outline of a spirit not too far off, which soon enough vanishes from sight… that figures. “Thank you. Right now that sounds… better than good.”

“Please no dragging…” Well, ha, he’ll see how long that lasts, because he’s finding it harder to put one foot in front of the other. Likewise for staying upright. He stumbles, then, nearly falling over as he reaches toward her to steady himself. “I’m fine, I just misstepped in all of this mud…”

She's at just the right kind of height (or...lack of height) to put a hand on for steadying, and she doesn't mind swooping in to be just that. "Almost there. Don't focus on the spirits, just focus on one foot in front of the other."

"Ah... thank you." Kain may feel all out of sorts and weakened, a bit of a blow to the manly ego, but he knows well enough when to be appreciative. Despite how he feels about the whole situation. Ow. He tears his eyes away from the couple of spirits that are distracting him... which only makes it worse, but when he looks more directly toward them, they vanish. "Seems to work better when I stare directly at them... strange as it seems..."

He can see the building up ahead fortunately. Just a few more steps to go.

"Might trip or slip and end up down for good, though," she points out. "Sometimes you don't have to focus on them. Sometimes it's just...focus. At least, that kind of seems to be the case so far." But to keep their spirits up, she's simply got to poke fun at him more. "So when you knock yourself straight into a wall for paying too much attention to your Fade friends instead of where you're going, I'll be telling the healers who'll carry your sorry ass in exactly as much. They'll tut in that really dismissive, patronizing way."

"Just focus... I think..." He groans a little but, feeling a sudden ache and chill, the fever definitely has gotten worse, more noticeable now that he's not trying to be tough and fight. "...I think I get what you mean. But I definitely don't intend to let it come to that... I'm afraid the healers are on to me too much as it is." He knows Anders is on to his ways, anyway, and probably more of them. It's just like being home in a way.

"Maybe next time find a dummy or a partner to spar with instead of...these." She can't suppress a shudder. But it could be from the rain. Or the fever. Or both! They make it through the massive archway into the hall, out of the rain. There are plenty of people huddled up, looking tired, aching, scared, miserable. It does love company after all.

"There, better already. At least it isn't snow. We'd be buried."

"Well... they seemed like good targets at the time." The moment he's somewhere out of the rain, some cover, Kain breathes a sigh of relief. He hadn't realized just how awful it had all felt until just now. He ends up placing a hand against a wall to steady himself, to keep balance. Ugh. The fever really seems to have spread too, from the look of it. He can see similar signs in the others, and as he glances at Rachette he's not so sure she's been spared either.

"Much better. It figures that all of this would happen at once." Dreadful weather and an illness on top of that. Just. Great. "I only hope it passes soon."

OPEN: Cloudreach Event

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