OPEN: Bloomingtide Rifter Arrival

[faderifting]

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.

Comments

[extramural]

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.

[justice_is_blond]

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."

[extramural]

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.

[justice_is_blond]

"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."

[extramural]

"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.

[justice_is_blond]

"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.

[extramural]

Sometimes reckless is interesting, Anders.

"And what definitively kills one?"

Please to be sharing, thanks.

[justice_is_blond]

"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.