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.

[gatheringstorm]

Rifters and their shards will always have Korrin's sympathy, especially when said shards are new and painful. That's a conversation that will have to wait, though, given their present company. The huge, hulking demon is not going to give them the chance to do anything else but focus on it, as is demonstrated when she's forced to dodge a blow. "Too many times to count! Keep moving, don't let its whips get you--"

She renews the barrier for her companion, then whirls her staff and the air in the demons immediate vicinity suddenly chills. Korrin wasn't able to freeze it in place like she wanted, but the spell slows the pride demon down significantly. She'll take what she can get.

[taijiquan]

"Figured," Leifang inaudibly says through clenched teeth while leaping out of the way from a said whip. Briefly, while the horned woman casts her spell, Leifang catches her breath before running back in.

The sword feels awkward and unnatural in her hands, but it's necessary. She uses the demon's slow maneuvering to her advantage by capitalizing quickly on its openings with her blade, and relentlessly, until the very last second when the spell wears off and she is forced back.

"Just die already!" she urges it with exasperation and a flushed face.

[gatheringstorm]

That gets a smirk out of Korrin, who couldn't agree more that exasperated utterance. It's good to see someone with spirit, who doesn't flee from the demon even though she could hardly be blamed for doing so. And she'll say as much once it's dead. For now, the creatures has to be her focus, and she takes advantage of the rifter backing up to trigger an explosion beneath the creature. Set ablaze, it howls and lashes out, but Korrin manages to dodge its blows. It's definitely faltering, so if they can keep up the trend....