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

"Is the Inquisition that different? For all the talk of a common cause, the people still have ideas on what is and should be right and wrong. It may be one banner, but it's not hard to see the fault lines between different factions. And some people still believe in the word and spirit of the Chantry's laws. These are the legions of the faithful, after all. Not everyone may share those beliefs, but the Inquisition is Andrastian in its heart and soul, and it is through religion that magic is warned against. And for those who would argue otherwise, even the Dalish don't allow for too many mages in one space."

Kallian shakes her head.
"There's a lot of fear on both sides. Some is justified, some is not, but fear robs people of being sensible sometimes."

A ghost of a smile.
"You're sweet to offer, though, Jamie. But you should worry more about getting better."

"Och, I'm fine," he says, stubbornly.

Okay, so maybe he's seeing things, but given it's Hope and Kallian can confirm that he's not actually hallucinating everything, he's fine. A wee bit warm, maybe, but fine. That same stubbornness makes him determined to make his point, though, and he winds up gesturing as he talks, waggling his finger to punctuate his words.

"And aye, maybe there's people who are afraid of mages -- or rifters, for that matter. That doesn't mean that there aren't folk here who've gotten past that, who've seen that we're not something to be afraid of. Lots of them. And a lot of them who are your friends, Kallian. I'm not saying that it's not sensible to watch out for yourself, but you needn't live in fear. Especially when you've got us to help watch your back. Think even your spirit friend can agree with that."

"You have to be careful listening to Hope. Her words are sweet, but not at all based in reality. The world we live in is not the same as hers and... she doesn't always understand that fact."

She eyes Jamie worriedly.
"You're not well, Jamie. How long since you last rested?"

"Aye, well, maybe so. But I'm thinking there might be a reason why she's decided to help you."

There has to be, he thinks. Otherwise she'd have wound up with one of the other spirits, like Compassion or Determination or whatever ones there were out there. Trying to think how just how many spirits there are is giving him a bit of a headache, though, and he moves to pinch the brow of his nose before her question gets him to startle and drop his hand back to his side just a little bit too quickly.

"Ah, I got some sleep in the garden not too long ago." He doesn't remember how long ago, but there was some there, he was sure of it. "I'm fine, Kallian, really."

"In the mud? Oh, Jamie..." She shakes her head. "Have you at least had the chance to get cleaned up?"

That gets his mouth tugging off to one side, his chin lifting just a touch defiantly at the same time.

"Hey, I'm no wee McL- er, a ragamuffin. I'd not slept in the mud, just helped someone who was. And I went down to the hot springs after, I'll have you know."

Not that had helped much in getting him to feel better, but at least it'd gotten the mud off of him.

"So I'm perfectly fine. Just a wee bit warm, that's all."

OPEN: Cloudreach Event

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject