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

[bookish_lioness]

She still has questions, especially in terms of how magic can work so differently when it was all just energy, regardless of whether or not it was filtered through the Fade. But instead, she only shakes her head, wearily mentioning, "Sentience is a power in its own right. Stifling it is still wrong."

Her arguments are usually much more eloquent, but for now she's just trying to keep her head together, despite the fact that it seems to be actively attempting to rip itself in half. And while she would ordinarily appreciate a hug, accepting a hug from a man she barely knows while lying in front of a fire and not wholly in control of her faculties sounds like a bad idea all around. Feeling his hand on hers, though? She can accept that, and she looks over at him as she grips his hand gently, offering a weak smile.

"Do you think I'm being silly?"

[el_tybs]

Sentience. She had a point with that, but that was still hard to argue. Demons and spirits were sentient and just letting them do as they liked wasn't always an option. Frustrating for sure.

"I don't think you're being silly. Thedas works one way and you're used to another. There are many things with magic that I'm having to relearn actually since I was taught in the Circle which has different views and teachings than those who aren't part of the Chantry." It made deciding what was right or wrong a bit more difficult.

"I do think you should try and get some rest though." He can see that Hermione was struggling a bit with some of the conversation, as if she couldn't get some thoughts in order. "Just for a bit."

[bookish_lioness]

If Hermione weren't so tired, she'd be willing to speak further on this topic, at least insofar as a rifter can really understand any of it. But as it is, it's become a struggle just to keep her eyes open.

At his words, she finally allows herself to lean towards him, her temple just barely grazing his shoulder. "I am resting," she murmurs. "I'm just... talking while I'm doing it."

[el_tybs]

At feeling Hermione lean against him, Sam gives a sigh and allows himself to close his eyes again, quietly listening to the fire and anything she might continue to say. "Mmm-hmmm," he replies, past arguing at that point.

Unless Hermione made any sudden movements or loud noises, Sam slowly drifted further towards sleep, feeling the Fade already calling for him.