OPEN: Justinian Rifter Arrival

[faderifting]

WHO: New rifters & helpful Inquisition volunteers
WHAT: Welcome to Thedas!
WHEN: Justinian 7
WHERE: On the outskirts of the Exalted Plains
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. Reaching this rift, as well as returning to Skyhold, will require passing carefully through the active and ongoing battlefront for the War of the Lions. Don't get stabbed.

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. There's a massive, monstrous horned giant stomping toward you, electricity crackling over its purple-gray skin, flanked by ghostly wisps of green light that rear back to hurl bursts of pure magic in your direction.

Your options for escape are limited. To one side, a river; to another, a rock formation too tall and steep to scale. But there's cover behind you in the form of a ruined home—burnt out, missing half of its walls, but still able to resist some damage—and, on the other side of the rift, people coming to help.

Comments

leifang - ota

[taijiquan]

For a moment, Leifang thinks she's fallen in the middle of a match. The cold impact and cloud of dust rising are familiar, even if her body has betrayed her lessons on how to fall. The remaining air in her lungs escape when she hits the ground on her side, and an aching hand immediately moves to console her ribs—but now her hand hurts, too.

Broken?

She thinks she's at the end of her dream and about to come to, even twitching like she's somewhere in-between... but she's still lying painfully on stone, and the bright light tearing her eyes and mind doesn't resemble anything she knows. It's uncomfortable, alarming, but she has to see and she has to stand up.

"Gah—!" Her hand resonates with great invasion, as if it has been torn open and her little muscles and bones scrambled. She holds it in a feeble attempt to ease it, but when she regains her vision, it becomes clear to her that she can't sit here for much longer.

Reclaiming a dirtied travel bag she recognizes to be hers, she scrambles to her feet and for a short moment just watches the towering monster, beast, demon approach. Despite the fear penetrating her cold to the core, Leifang even wonders if there is a chance that she could risk fighting it, what touching it could do. Because this is just a dream, isn't it?

But electricity is ever present in the air, and it feels so real, irritating her flesh and wiring her into movement anyway. Dream or not, the idea is resigned to be a stupid one. Her feet, inappropriately adorned in high heels to complement her red cheongsam, move even quicker at the threat of oncoming streams of green light. They narrowly miss her, but tingle her skin in close proximity, and she's scared of it.

But she isn't quite running. She can't stop looking. She continues to study while pacing back, decidedly towards shelter.

Others are approaching in her periphery. Tournament fighters? None she immediately recognizes—which makes sense, because this is a dream. Or it might not be. But she calls to them, anyone, "What's going on? What are these things?" and is surprised at the eloquence of her speech.

[gatheringstorm]

"Demons! If you can't fight, take cover!" Such is said by the tall (easily a foot tall than the average human male) woman with curving horns protruding from her head. With a staff in one hand and a glowing blade in the other, she might seem a bizarre sight, but there's no time for her to stop and wonder about that. Right now, there are demons which need slaying and on that end, she's more than happy to contribute. Blurring forward on waves of magic, she slices at the larger horned giant, the pride demon that needs to be taken down before it turns its attention to someone who may or may not know how to fight. At least she's keeping it distracted so if the rifter girl can help, it won't see it coming.

[taijiquan]

The sight of the horned woman jars her, but her awe vanishes as quickly as it comes when the demon before them thrashes lightning at her like a whip. Another close call.

Energized and encouraged by her reinforcement, Leifang drops her bag and makes a decision to take advantage of the distraction. Quickly she flanks the pride demon; and though her mouth is dry with apprehension, she takes a short moment to center her focus.

It's still a moment too long. An onslaught of green light rains on her back, hurting her and draining her, but she's dedicated now. In a swift and sudden movement, she circles her arm backwards and sharply delivers a powerful punch into the back of the pride demon's knee. Electricity captures her arm and stomach and throat briefly, but the demon lurches forward enough that she knows she has affected it somehow.

When it powerfully throws its arm back in retaliation, Leifang moves with the direction of the attack to lessen its blow, but she's too drained of stamina now from the other demons to follow up and redirect its force.

[gatheringstorm]

So the rifter girl can fight; good to know. Korrin flashes a brief smile of approval but can afford no more time, needing to take advantage of the pride demon while its attention is divided. For this largest, strongest foe she's constantly on the move, slicing at it with her glowing blade wherever she can before moving, never wanting it comfortable. The other demons aren't forgotten, though, and she spares a moment for them, long enough to cast Chain Lightning. It won't to anything to the pride demon, but ought to cut down on their numbers significantly.

Dodging a blow from the pride demon, Korrin backs up to get close enough to the rifter girl, then casts Barrier over them. "It won't last long. Use the protection while you have it!" And that's all she can spare before charging forward again.

[taijiquan]

"Gotcha."

With many of the peripheral demons eliminated and a sudden sense of temporary rejuvenation, Leifang is able to heed her companion's guidance. She evasively maneuvers along and around the pride demon's brutish thrashing until she relocates at its opposite side.

Strings of attacks, at least composed of weaker punches and kicks, aren't going to work on an opponent this large and sturdy, and so she makes her second singular punch count. After pulling both fists back to concentrate her strength, she launches them at their foe in an attack that normally sends her opponents sailing. In this instance, in reaching its thigh, the pride demon merely staggers in Korrin's direction.

Leifang's bloodied knuckles ring with pain as soon as the barrier disappears. She begins to shift quick glances around for any dropped weapons.

[gatheringstorm]

Staggering still works for Korrin. Taking advantage of the time afforded her, the Vashoth mage slices into that thigh, inflicting a couple of deep wounds before it has the time to turn around. When it does, however, it conjures an electric whip and lashes out. Her barrier is the only reason she's not screaming in pain, and now it's much-diminished, so she snarls and decides to renew it with another blow.

"You're going down, you piece of shit!" A few more solid hits like they've been doing, coupled with some lucky dodges, and it ought to fall. But Korrin's not getting cocky, adding to her blows by conjuring a boulder and slamming it into the demon. As before, it won't be sent flying but at least being staggered and weakened will count for something.

[taijiquan]

It seems a waste to the horned woman's efforts to step away for even a moment she renders the giant unsteady. Though she is aware of a muddied sword only short meters away, Leifang instead takes advantage of every little opening, dealing blows to the monster's legs and waist with her elbows and sore fists.

Maybe it's the reverberation of her knuckles against armored skin catching up to her, or that stupid mark flaring up again, but for a second she thinks her left hand has actually caught on fire. Leifang can try to shake the pain away, but her hand is beginning to border on useless.

"Ugh—hold on!" she calls out to her companion.

It doesn't register to her that it's the other woman who materialized the boulder, but this time she uses the distraction to prioritize obtaining that weapon. The sword lays in the direction of the house where two other women are gathered. It might belong to one of them, but neither seem to be using it, so Leifang sprints for it, heels clicking on the stone surface beneath her. It's slightly heavier than any sword she has encountered or carried herself, not that this is a time to be picky.

It feels awkward in her hand when she rushes back into the fray, but she has to make it work. All she needs to do is maintain focus.

"Have you fought one of these before?" she asks while maintaining constant movement. She hopes this person(?) has something up her sleeve.

Cosima - ota

[youwonscience]

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," Cosima is muttering to herself as her adrenal glands helpfully make sure she didn't miss the giant-ass whatever it is stomping toward her. Thanks, hypothalamus, I hadn't noticed.

She gropes around until she can lay her hands on her glasses, lost in the impact. They're mercifully intact, and she scrambles to her feet, glancing around. Cosima is fairly certain she's not still dreaming, but she doesn't really have time to think about it now because the giant is still headed for her and the handful of other people who are also getting to their feet with varying degrees of urgency. (Her hand hurts, that's... worrying, but she doesn't think it's the biggest problem for now. So to speak.)

The electricity effect is interesting, but she's less inclined to try to observe it when it's being hurled her way. She takes off for the ruined home; it's not much cover, but better than nothing at all, and she figures at least a few of the others will do the same.

[arcaneadvisor]

Owing to her travels, Morrigan knows the Exalted Plains well enough though since the start of the civil war she's taken care to the avoid them. Fortunately, when you can change your shape as you desire, flying high overhead means you go very much unnoticed especially when the air is thick with crows and ravens with the many dead left to rot where they fall.

She lands a little away from the young woman in a puff of something like purple smoke, her staff in hand; an odd looking girl to be sure but Morrigan at least is accustomed to rifters though she's never watched their arrival before.

"Hurtled into the chaos," she greets because a Witch of the Wilds can give the introduction and she should give it with some sort of style. "Aside from your hand, are you unhurt?" She glances around and behind, prepared for demons and wraiths from the rifts, and more from how thin the Veil will be here from the history of the Plains, and the recent battles.

[youwonscience]

Cosima is keyed up already, but someone arriving in a puff of purple smoke would probably startle her under much calmer circumstances too. Still, she swallows the immediate impulse to ask how the new arrival did that and answers the question.

(If this is somehow connected to Neolution, she's going to have to give Leekie more credit.)

"Don't think so - maybe some bruises, but nothing bad enough I noticed it when I was running." That could very well change when the adrenaline wears off, but no good worrying about that now. She's functional, for all Cosima is in no way a fighter.

"What the hell is that thing?" she adds, because of all her many questions, that seems the most urgent.

[arcaneadvisor]

Better a mage than a soldier; by this point the War of the Lions is ugly enough that the men and women fighting aren't likely to be friendly to new arrivals. One has to wonder if any of the rumours of rifts have truly reached them or if they've been too preoccupied with fighting their war and trying to keep themselves alive.

"You are fortunate, to be certain." Recent events mean that she does offer a smile, small and sharp, giving her a look as she glances up to the sky then back again. "As for what you speak of, tis a rift, one of many that now litter Thedas since a great tear in the Veil dividing this world and the Fade. Wherever you have come from, you have passed through one. And somewhere, you will bear a mark. Does that hurt?" She pauses again because it's a lot to take in, she knows that now from experience with rifters, from how much she's had to explain to them though there's little enough she can do for her hand, least of all here.

[youwonscience]

The smile is... vaguely reassuring, though Cosima takes a minute to parse the answer - she'd meant the creature stomping toward them rather than the the giant green rip in the sky, but now that the woman mentions it, that's also kind of worrying. She also registers the question.

"Uh, some, yeah, but I can handle it." Or the immediate throb in her hand, at least, she can handle that. She flexes it, idly, now that her attention's been drawn to it. "Do we need to be, like, running away? Or..."

[arcaneadvisor]

"If that changes, then I am afraid there is little I can do." Healing isn't really her speciality and Solas is the only one (conveniently enough) that knows much at all about how the shards function. "Your arrival is less fortunate than others - what you see about you is the midst of a civil war fought in the Exalted Plains - that terror demon and the wisps might draw walking corpses from the battles too."

Pointing her staff at the ground behind them, she lays an ice mine, ready to freeze the demon should it choose to follow them. It'll buy them time, if nothing else, since the wisps won't move so quickly or unpredictably as the demon might. "Unless you wish to strike the terror demon down? Then I suggest we make for somewhere safer with haste."

[youwonscience]

"Uh." That's a lot, and Cosima is trying to catch up, but does agree with at least one thing. "Yeah, I'm not much use at striking anything down, let's get out of here."

Between the total stranger and the 'terror demon,' Cosima will go with the total stranger.

[aceso]

Christine is far from an experienced fighter, but what she is, is a healer. And being such means she will have to come near battlefields to heal those who are injured before it's too late. Unfortunately, it often means getting caught up in the thick of it too. Such it is today, as she heads towards the rift that has just opened not far ahead. Racing forward, she extends a hand and makes a sweeping motion towards the woman running for the house. A blue glyph appears briefly under the woman's feet, before blue light washes over her: a barrier now keeping her protected from harm for its duration.

"Come on!" she calls, making for the house too. It might not be the best idea if what's left of it isn't sturdy enough to withstand a pride demon, but hopefully they can run back out quickly enough if need be.

[youwonscience]

"Whoa," Cosima says, under her breath, at the light emanating from the glyph. There will be time for questions later, though. (She hopes.) For now, she doesn't question the encouragement to keep running.

When they make the ruins of the house, she says, "Where are we?" It's maybe not the most useful question, but it's the first one she can blurt out. It's obviously not Toronto.

[aceso]

"The short answer is Thedas. The long answer is too long for right now." Christine's voice is slightly distracted, because naturally she's focusing on the pride demon slowly walking its way over.

"Do you have a weapon, or are you a mage, by chance? Or have magic?" She's come to understand that those from other worlds who possess magic don't always call themselves mages.

[youwonscience]

"Okay, uh, fair enough, and three no-s on that." She winces at the ground-shaking noise of the giant getting closer. "My skills are definitely not really aimed at giant creatures throwing lightning, or whatever it is. In general."

'Magic is real?' is also probably a conversation that's too long for right now.

"I'm not much of a runner, either, though apparently life-threatening danger is a hell of a motivator."

[aceso]

"It is lightning," she confirms, her face focused. Not much can counter a pride demon's powers, but she knows one thing that makes it vulnerable. She casts a spell that initiated fear in her target, and the pride demon immediately turns and moves the other way when hit.

"That will not last long," she says. "Stay here. Myself and the others will take it down. If Wraiths--" No, that won't do. This woman is brand new to this world. "If green floating creatures follow you here, run away."

[youwonscience]

"Um, okay, will do." Cosima is nothing but a liability in a physical fight, and staying hidden sounds like the best course of action. "...thanks," she adds, belatedly. "And sorry."

She can't imagine her rescuer is especially thrilled to find that Cosima is essentially helpless, either.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Church...is not fighting that thing, thanks. There aren't as many people in such a small space like last time on the bridge, though, so he feels safer bringing along his crossbow to bean the green spectral shits with some bolts. (Or, he would bean them with bolts if his aim wasn't comically and perpetually The Worst. Still, they're close enough to serve as a distraction, and one even bounces off the rocks a few improbable times before actually striking one in the back. He'll count that as a hit that he totally did on purpose. Because Wash isn't here to argue otherwise.)

When he's reasonably sure he won't get picked off by Tall Dark and Horny, Church makes a dash around the small battlefield, splashing through the water and already regretting it because fuck his feet are gonna be soaked on the whole trip back, and leaps over a hole in the wall of what was obviously once a house.

"Hey!" he gasps, a little breathless. Man, this is way better cover than 'some rock' or 'actually nothing'. "Sup. Um. Sucks that you're here. Really long story. Don't suppose you can fight? Like. With medieval weapons, not like...punching someone in the teeth."

[youwonscience]

"...hey," she says, and she would be startled except that on the list of "weird shit that has happened to Cosima in the last 15 minutes," this doesn't even break the top five.

"Uh, no, I decided against a minor in LARP studies." It's not a joke she expects him to get. She's just frustrated. "Dude, is that an actual crossbow?" she adds, half incredulous to find he wasn't kidding when she registers it.

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Ouch, what do I look like, some kinda nerd?" Nobody answer that, please. But he hoists up the crossbow at the question, grinning. "Hell yeah it's an actual crossbow! I'm still learning the finer points of it. Not exactly a sniper rifle, but hey, it means I don't have to run up to any of those things. Watch your head."

Which means stay down and out of sight when he pops out the doorway to let loose a couple of bolts. (Which, okay, look, let's just call it suppressing fire and call it even, okay?)

And when he pulls back to lean against the wall and cover again: "So this is all kind of a long story that's better left for when those things are more dead than not, but, cutting it short: fell out of an otherworldly portal, welcome to a D&D world called Thedas, you've got a creepy painful glowy green shard in your hand, we can make crazy otherworldly portals to demon hell open and close with them. And occasionally do other neat tricks. Crash course complete."

[youwonscience]

"Um, given that you know what D&D and LARPing is, I'm gonna declare you at least nerd-adjacent, dude." Jokes, they're a coping strategy. "As a biologist, I do feel I should note for the record organisms that have evolved to shoot lightning, while cool on paper, are extremely unlikely."

Not as if she disbelieves it; more as if she is registering a complaint.

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Well, creepy green afterlife-y places where the laws of physics don't apply that are filled with spirits and demons also are extremely unlikely, and yet..."

A bolt of magic, or perhaps the force from the pride demon's whips, or who knows what shakes the remaining walls, crumbling as they already are. He holds up his hand, a flash of green light seen through, and a small green-ish translucent wall forms above them, letting crumbling cement or stone or whatever they used to make these buildings however long ago skitter off the shield and not, say, fall on top of their heads. It disappears the second the job is done, and he shakes out his hand a little, quietly cursing.

"Anyway, look, this place isn't gonna make a whole lotta sense to science-minded people. I mean, maybe you'll think it's great to study how horny giant people evolved along with humans and elves and I swear to god dwarves. ...And I mean horny as in...they have horns, not horny as in--yeah. Like, if you can figure that out, I'm sure you'll get super famous. Or be burned at a stake? I can't honestly say."