faderift | OPEN: Bloomingtide Rifter Arrival

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OPEN: Bloomingtide Rifter Arrival

WHO: New rifters & helpful Inquisition volunteers
WHAT: Welcome to Thedas!
WHEN: Bloomingtide 7
WHERE: The Imperial Highway near Sulcher's Pass
NOTES: This log is slightly backdated, so it's safe to assume safe arrival at Skyhold and begin RPing there as soon as you're ready OOC. It is open to any characters who would have volunteered to go welcome the rifters, whose arrival sites can now be predicted, thank you Solas.

You were asleep—deeply or fitfully, for the last time or just resting your eyes for a moment—and then you were not. And wherever you were was not, anymore, replaced by nothing but the sensation of falling, tumbling into endless, bottomless nothing. If this were still a dream, you would wake before you hit the ground. You can't die in a dream, they say. In some worlds.

But there's no waking here, just a flare of green-white light and a jarring impact onto cold dirt and long grass. When your breath returns and the light's after-image fades from your eyes you will find yourself lying flat on stone, squinting up into sunlight and a shifting, blinding green tear in reality.

You are also not as you were: in the palm of your left hand there glows a narrow splinter of light the same sickly green as whatever brought you here. It aches, a bone-deep pain that gnaws even through all the distractions. Like the fact that you're being attacked. Surrounding you and the rift through which you arrived are five massive beings made of fire and molten, veiny flesh, rearing back to throw flames at anything that breathes. But mind your step, getting out of their way: the stone beneath you is the ruin of the Imperial Highway, elevated high enough that dropping off either side or the crumbled gap ahead will not be much more survivable than the fire.

Luckily, you are not on your own. Around you others are rising from the ground, equally confused, with the same green lights flaring from their hands. And help is already here—prepared, this time, unsurprised by your appearance, with armor and a few extra weapons to hand off if you've come empty-handed.

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Anders watches him step away and turns his attention to the last nearby one, the one on fire and staggering, and ends its struggle. There's nothing of mercy to the blow, arcane energies closing around it and crushing it entirely. It's a demon. It deserves no mercy, and it will know no mercy.

It collapses and turns to ash. Anders steps forward and kicks some of the ash aside, trying to see if any of it is of decent quality for, well, anything. Not this one. No matter. There will be plenty more demons, and they're currently stocked enough.

"So," he says once he's close to the Outsider again. "Welcome to Thedas? This, the spilling of demons from a rift, is unfortunately not very rare anymore. It may be something you'll need to get used to."

The act of looting catches his attention, not so much because of the action but because of the target. Would there be anything left? Curious. He makes a note to look into them further, but for now, the man is talking again.

"I have always been fond of the interesting and unexpected, at least." He looks around at their surroundings; it's the first time he's had a moment to really look, as he was thrust into combat immediately. "Do others often fall out of the rifts with the demons?"

"Before a few months ago? No. Not at all. Of late? Yes. There's no telling how many or how often; it's easy to think that the arrivals are widespread, and more than the Inquisition has seen." His voice is grim as he puts his staff back into its holster. "We've... Mm. Maybe somewhere around thirty at Skyhold? It's hard to tell when people go on assignment. But one was recently talking about another disappearing, which is an issue. Whether it was someone wanting to get away and have a new life, or something more sinister, I don't know."

Anders shakes his head. "Though you're likely in for a lot of scrutiny, which means chances of you vanishing are slim. I'm not sure if that's comfort or not."

"No way of telling, or no way that has been found?" Have people tried? He wonders. Still, thirty at Skyhold -- which he imagines is a hold, as the name suggests -- and an unknown amount in the world at large? That is a rather large amount.

The knife is offered back to Anders, hilt first. Not stealing, not stabbing. "I imagine that also depends on the kind of scrutiny."

Anders shrugs as he takes the knife and slips it back into his boot. "No way that has been found. There's an elf by the name of Solas who has been doing some research into it and I believe he's some leads. I'd ask him more questions. Healing takes up most of my time, so I've not delved into it, but if you find answers, I'd be interested in them as well."

He looks around, visually confirming that there aren't any serious injuries he needs to be seeing to, before turning back to the Outsider.

"You don't look mortal, and you're open about being part of the Fa--Void. That, to many, will say spirit or demon, and since you're not using a virtue for a name, there's a chance you'll get lumped in with the latter. There are some who deal in the wrong sort of absolutes with the Inquisition. You may find yourself watched at all times, at least for a while, and you may find yourself harassed. I can't... I can't exactly promise a respite from it, but I don't think you're a demon," Justice isn't so quick to agree there, "so if you wanted to come by the lower camp sometimes, when it gets to be a little much, you're likely to find me there. The Grey Warden camp."

Himself, Cole, River, the former two at least aren't entirely human anymore, and he's not sure about the latter. The Outsider hasn't tried to make any offers or bargains, so Anders will give him a chance to show that he's no demon, but simply one of the people who aren't altogether normal.

Solas. The Outsider nods slightly; he will remember the name. And this man is a healer -- he will remember that, too.

"Based on my many observations, I believe not lying would be the best course of action. People tend to be much more angry when you're found out as opposed to simply being upset about the truth in the first place." He has no way of knowing that Anders experienced this recently, but it certainly happened all the time in Dunwall. "They will think what they will, I imagine. I will defend myself if needed, but otherwise, let them watch."

Maybe it would be good for them. Maybe they'd even learn something. He doubts it, but perhaps.

"And the Grey Wardens are...?"

If The Outsider is watching, he'll see a flash of wry amusement and agreement cross Anders' face before it's gone. It wasn't like Anders could have come in under his own name, but he can't argue that it did anger more than a few.

"The Grey Wardens are an organization that fights the Darkspawn." A beat, and now there's a smile that lingers. "The next question will be what Darkspawn are, of course. There's... Maker, this is going to take some time to really explain, so let me give you a very short summary. There's a thing called the Blight that's a corruption. It mostly just impacts living things, runs in circulatory systems, and destroys the mind, everything that the person or animal once was. Then they run about consuming whatever they can, including people, and infecting still others. Grey Wardens have sworn to hunt them down and wipe them out whenever they crop up. Which unfortunately means we wind up underground far more often than I'd like."

Short summaries will work, for now. It certainly adds to the Outsider's reading list.

"It sounds like a- plague, of sorts. Magically based, perhaps? But a plague." One that he imagines doesn't have a common cure. "And these Darkspawn are the carriers, like rats."

That makes you the rat-catcher, Anders.

"Do the Wardens often end up infected, as a result?" Haha it's funny because of what the Joining is.

"Except some keep rats as pets, and you'd never keep a Darkspawn as a pet because there's no good to be found in them at all." Rats. Why rats? Why not... roaches, or spiders, or anything that doesn't have sharp bitey teeth?

"And part of joining the Wardens involves gaining a certain immunity to the Blight, but it's not without side-effects. We'll never become Darkspawn ourselves." As long as they die instead of going too long.

Clearly you've never been bitten by a spider, Anders.

"Humans often keep dangerous pets, simply to have something to show off. It tends to backfire." Please, like no one in Thedas has locked a hurlock in their basement and charged people to see one before it broke out and ate everyone.

"They live underground, then?" Back to an earlier comment.

He sets them on fire before they get close.

"A human keep a darkspawn as a... a... No. No, no one's that..." Except there are people who are that stupid. Most of them wear Templar armor. "Okay, so I could see a Templar doing that, but most aren't that dumb. Most also don't go deep enough to find Darkspawn; it's generally when they're pouring out of the underground, yes, that the general populace tends to see them. By that time it's in numbers enough to wipe out the whole village. We go down and take out the small pockets before they've a chance to do that."

"Do they dig, as moles? And do you then go down in caves?"

He has no idea about dwarves, about the twists and turns of the Deep Roads. This is all very confusing, which makes it- rather excellent, honestly.

"Dig as moles." It's echoed for a moment as he starts to get the slightest idea as to how confusing their world must be.

"No. No, they don't." He pauses, staring past the Outsider. These people are hauled here, some of them clearly don't have underground cities, and then they have to wrap their minds around all of the conflict... Anders exhales.

"There's a people, a race, known as Dwarves. I don't... There." He nods with his chin to where a Dwarf is picking their way across the field. "Most of them live underground in large cities, though there's a fair number of surface Dwarves. The point is that there are massive roads they built, the Deep Roads, which travel underground and span the length and width of the continent. There's no way to patrol all of them, and in fact much of them have fallen into disuse and disrepair. That's what the Darkspawn use, and old abandoned areas down below."

The Outsider blinks.

For a moment, he is quiet; his mind is imagining these underground cities, painting pictures as Anders speaks. Like a sewer, but filled with splendor; like the ruins of ancient cities, but still with their own heartbeat.

A failing one, maybe, but a heartbeat.

"I would like to see them," he says at last, casting a glance down as if an opening to the Deep Roads might just be sitting there.

Now it's Anders' turn to blink.

"See them. The corrupted creatures that spread the Blight, that murder people for fun or food or boredom, that can easily overrun a village. You would like to see them." Maker's breath. "I'm not about to lead a field trip, and I'd recommend you don't try to go looking for them. Sooner or later we'll run into some. It always happens. Later is better. Please take my word on that."

Well.

"I meant the underground cities. But I suppose I would not be adverse to seeing the Darkspawn, either, if only so I know what to avoid."

It can be a long-distance viewing.

"Oh. The cities. Of course. You might speak with some of the Dwarves about visiting one. They might or might not help you; the latter is more likely. Dwarves tend to be touchy about visitors by all accounts." He's never tried to go into a Dwarf city. He's never wanted to try. The sky means far too much for him.

"And when you see the Darkspawn, you'll know. They don't look like people anymore. Twisted, changed... and then the Ogres are massive and impossible to miss."

"There are not ways without their help?" Not that he would necessarily be adverse to seeking out a dwarf -- who better to tell him of their culture, after all -- but, as with all things, he's curious. That the dwarves don't like visitors suggest that there may not be, but then how do they keep others out?

"I imagine they look different than walking corpses, though?" Darkspawn don't sound undead, exactly, but it's best to make sure.

"They might not let you in the gates. And you'd have to find the gates, too, rather than getting lost underground and wandering until you're dead. Dwarves aren't the most welcoming of outsiders to their city. And... yes. They look very different from corpses. There's certainly a decay aspect to them, but you'll know one if you see it. And you'll want to get away from it as quickly as possible, if you've no means of definitively killing it."

Unless the Outsider is very much like so many people in Thedas who charge in recklessly.

Sometimes reckless is interesting, Anders.

"And what definitively kills one?"

Please to be sharing, thanks.

"I mean definitely being strong enough to kill it and not simply maim or injure it. It's the same thing as kills other things - stab it enough times, shoot it enough times, remove its head, set it afire, and so on. But if you leave them alive they could drag themselves after you, or after any weakened target. You don't slow down Darkspawn. You end them."

He needs to write a guide, or something.

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OPEN: Bloomingtide Rifter Arrival

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