faderift | THE SEAS SHALL RISE & DEVOUR, Part I

THE SEAS SHALL RISE & DEVOUR, Part I

WHO: Any Inquisition members + all rifters
WHAT: A semi-involuntary tropical island vacation
WHEN: Kingsway 20 onward
WHERE: The sea and an island east of Rivain
NOTES: OOC post.

I. THE JOURNEY

Two ships depart from Kirkwall on the morning tide, sturdy vessels crewed by veteran sailors--but a mere skeleton crew, as it turns out, or so a few of them would have you believe. They're prone to assigning tasks to anyone who happens not to look busy, shoving ropes into hands without a care for station or experience, barking out instructions and expecting to be obeyed. With plenty of work to do the journey seems quick, and besides the unexpected chores it's otherwise smooth sailing through the Waking Sea. Some claim to've spotted the Windline Marcher one night, but it could just as easily have been clouds on the horizon, and that's it for excitement until the ships round the island of Brandel's Reach and out into open ocean, the ever-present coastline finally falling away behind.

The sky is bigger out there and the waves are too, especially when a storm strikes a few days out, dark clouds and driving rain sending any inexperienced sailors below decks to wait it out. The worst of it being the pitch of the ship rolling up and crashing down the massive waves, and the way the hold fills with the stench of people being sick. But the next morning dawns calm and clear and with no lasting damage done.

The group is bound for a desert island, drawn on maps with a big deep cove like a bite chomped out the side it, and a narrow channel through the surrounding reefs to reach it. That's the only moment of true tension on the voyage: as soundings are taken every few feet and the helmsmen adjust and readjust in response, carefully threading the needle to avoid running aground on ship-killing banks of sharp coral.

Both ships make it, and anchor offshore in the bay in the sheltering lee of a cliff, safe from future storms. The first party ashore reports back that Qunari are present in the area, but while they've displayed a palpable wariness, hostility does not seem their aim today, and they retreat back up to the hills above the beach as Inquisition forces arrive. Anyone able-bodied is tasked with assisting in unloading, and those less hale with helping the quartermaster's assistants track the process to make sure nothing goes astray between hold and shore.

Camp is to be a collection of tents: large ones beneath which makeshift facilities for cooking, eating, and working are set up, and many small ones designed to hold 2-4 Inquisition agents. They're still hammering stakes into the sand and tying off ropes to the sturdier palms when a shout goes up, though anyone present who possesses an anchor shard will not need to be told: a rift has opened nearby, a couple hundred yards out into the bay, a knot of shapes splashing about it. Better hope the rifters can swim.

II. ARRIVAL

Rifters

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.

In this world, when the afterimage left by a flare of too-bright, greenish light fades, you will find yourself at sea. Not metaphorically (though perhaps that too) but literally: dropped into what is unmistakably the ocean, from the salt in your mouth and the incessant slosh of waves into your face, the squawk of gulls circling overhead. You had better start treading water.

Thankfully, if you can keep your head above the waves long enough to make a quick inspection, it turns out that land is in sight, only a few hundred yards off. Unfortunately, between you and it is a strange slash of greenish light. It sticks up out of the water but seems to continue beneath as well, turning the otherwise-turquoise waters the same pale greenish shade of a man gone seasick. The cluster of demons emerging from the rift are tall, spindly stick-things with too many eyes who flail about like stickbugs dropped in pond, but use the long reach of their arms to attack. Some are hunched and hooded with no eyes at all, their shrouds sodden and draped in seaweed. Others are mere wisps of greenish light that float easily over the surface. While you might get the impression they are as surprised as you to find themselves in the drink, any humor that might bring is probably outweighed by how angry it seems to make them.

If that were not enough to contend with, there is also the narrow splinter of light the same sickly green as whatever brought you here that now glows out of the palm of your left hand. It aches, a bone-deep pain that gnaws even through all the distractions. But there is some good news: from the beach over yonder boats are launching. Perhaps they'll save you.

Rescue

As if rescuing rifters from drowning and demons weren't hard enough work, all the commotion in the water inevitably draws the attention of the local predators. But what arrives isn't the usual eel or ray or even a shark: it's something much bigger and much...redder?

Slinking through the water comes the flash of a fin and the glint of a scaly back, so quick and sinuous it's hard to say how many of the sea serpents there are. As wide around as the circle of a man's arms, with snapping jaws lined with an unnatural number of curving teeth, but what should be smooth snakey curves are instead jagged with the jut of brilliant red crystals that catch the light and make the sea seem to be already splattered with blood. They're studded all over its body, making any even glancing blow carry twice the danger: there's not just the stunning force of the strike to worry about or the possibility of being coiled in a crushing grip, but also being sliced and gored by red lyrium.

And the serpents aren't alone. While all eyes are on the churning water and the incredible sight of demons battling it out with sea monsters (because everything in that water is fair game to the beasts, not just the Inquisition), one sailor is suddenly plucked out his boat and carried screaming down into the depths by a great, crystal-encrusted tentacle. Cleansing runes are effective, but the monsters are canny enough to avoid capture, falling back into deeper water before attacking again. The arrival of a red lyrium-tainted kraken is just about the final straw for the ship's crew, and after seeing the monsters come dangerously close to cleverly flipping one of the longboats, they insist that the Inquisition row back for shore.

If flight is hard to stomach, consider it a tactical retreat: in shallower water the great bulks of the monsters become a liability, thrashing about among the rocks as they try to give chase. Escape back to the beach is possible, and surely the safer course, but it may be possible to lure one of the sea serpents into a tide pool or to beach itself up on the sands. The rest continue to prowl the bay, visible circling the ships at anchor and making any return impossible for the time being.

III. STRANDED

Once everyone is safely on land and out of the monsters' reach—after any wounds have been seen to, with particular attention given to any that may have been exposed to red lyrium—it's obvious that there's no way to leave for the time being. There isn't much to do but to try to make the most of things and try to accomplish what you came here for.

Some of the team will be tasked with continuing to set up camp. Now that the stay might be longer than a single night, it needs to be a little sturdier. The beach and cove are protected from harsh winds and exposure by a half-circle of rocky cliffs, and the Qunari communicate in grunts and one-word answers that large predators make sleeping in the jungle itself a bad idea. They've only been here a few days (that much can be gleaned despite their reticence), but some of the untamed jungle has been cut through to make clear paths to fresh water and fruit sources.

Penetrating the rest of the island is slow, difficult work—though magic may make it easier. The goal is near the top of the formerly volcanic peak in the island's center, but hacking through the growth to create a path may abruptly become a waste of time when it gives way to a steep drop-off or an equally steep incline and forces everyone to double back and try another route. If there was ever a clear road to the top, it's gone now, grown over during centuries of abandonment. But there are signs of past habitation: the lower portions of the island are spotted with crumbling ruins, chunks of moss-coated wall rising out of the forest floor, the occasional pillar looming up amongst the trees. Some have architecture and faded murals that are distinctly elven. Others, more recent, are clearly human, including a statue of Andraste in the center of a clearing. Others are harder to identify.

The predators the Qunari were trying to warn everyone about turn out to be real--they're large, jet-black cats about the size of a height of a mabari but longer, with short manes, near-scaley skin, and horns almost like the Qunari's. And before anyone gets any ideas about keeping one, they're fiercely territorial—always likely to try to eat your face, but doubly so if you come near their adorable kittens. Feeding them may buy a moment or two for escape, but nothing is going to win them over.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Uh oh," Ellana says, because if Skadi goes into the water, that will be another person they'll have to fish out. Despite that, the Avvar woman is really throwing her all into this fight and Ellana wonders if she's strong enough to hold Skadi back if she starts to teeter over the edge of the boat.

"Okay, I'll shoot at its body! You keep working on its tentacles." With Ellana's longer range, she can hit the body, which is a much bigger target than these tentacles are. However, the body keeps ducking back underwater, making it harder to hit consistently.

"On it! If you've got that shielding magic, now's the time!" Defensive tactics aren't really Skadi's style, but she's thinking more in terms of Ellana's own safety. Having some kind of buffer might prove vital against that exposure to that red lyrium substance, anyway. Giving as much room as she can get away with while they're both on a boat, she enthusiastically swings at the next tentacle, the frost rune on her blade giving her a little more of an edge. Hakkon's Valor is certainly getting good use today, and then some.

While she cleaves part of that tentacle clean off, its wild thrashing afterward nearly knocks her right off the boat. Only getting her footing at the last moment prevents a disaster. "Lady's bits, you'll pay for that!"

Ellana doesn't need to be told twice. She lays a barrier down over them and continues the fight, though her heart leaps into her throat when Skadi nearly goes over.

"Careful!" she exclaims, though it's really just a natural reaction and Ellana knows there's only so much a person can do to be careful when battling a sea monster on a boat.

"Argh, this thing! I can't tell if it's all one creature or not." Still, she fires at it whenever she sees the large mass that makes up its body lift up out of the water.

"Nor can I, dammit!" They'd need to back up in order to have a chance to seeing more without risking themselves and their boat, but Skadi's loathe to suggest that when she's hoping a few more strikes of her blade will cleave enough tentacles to stop slapping them around with.

Although that's not all she can do. "Duck!" She doesn't explain why, but it becomes obvious in a moment. The fade energies she's gathered around her surge and then are expelled in a purple-hued blast. The nearest tentacles writhe in pain.

It's not much warning, but Ellana ducks forward in the boat, staff pressed to the floor of it. And a good thing she does, because she feels a rush of air blow out past her that's strong enough it makes her gasp in surprise.

"What was that?" she asks, craning her head to see if it's all right to get back up again.

"Something the gods taught me!" The purple flames swept past and no more arise, at least for now, though Skadi remains active. She smirks at the tentacle stump she'd just created, though more surge from the water, prompting a growl and a swig of her distinctive blade. A couple try to grab on to the edge of the boat, either to bring it closer or capsize it right then and there, prompting the Avvar woman to start chopping away.

The gods? Ellana will have to ask about it all later. It sounds exciting. For now, she gets back into the fight, spearing a tentacle with her staff blade and kicking it back off again. Her head turns to look around them, noting the distinctive green glow of the rifters as they're pulled into boats.

"Do you see anymore rifters? If not, we need to close this rift and pull back to shore!"

Skadi mutters a string of profanities under her breath and lifts her palm. She stares at her shard with distaste, really not wanting to use it, but not seeing much of a choice. "I need others to close it, right? Never tried on my own, but I can still stun them."

Internally wincing at how it'll feel when it connects with the rift, Skadi grits her teeth and lifts her palm up to face it. She was hoping to avoid this, but that's just not going to happen, so might as well get it over with.

"I think if you start, others will follow." They have to. The others will tell the rifters what to do. Though Ellana can't blame Skadi for swearing about it. From everything she's heard, it sounds like it hurts quite a bit.

"Right. Time to be a trendsetter!" Pain matters less to Skadi than the fact that she doesn't want to somehow make the shard worse; can interacting with rifts and the like do that? It's not something she's wanted to discover, but there's not much choice. So, she directs her palm at the rift and braces herself for when the light in her palm flares, connecting with the tear in the Veil.

Ellana has seen this before and has wished she knew better how to help them. She only knows what she's seen and been told. Galadriel had seemed to understand what to do well, so Ellana repeats her words here.

"You have to somehow grip it from the inside, and pull the rift inside out, if that makes sense."

"Pull the rift inside out--it doesn't but--Lady, I'll give anything a try!" She grits her teeth, hating that surge of energy that has her whole body tingling. It's nearly enough to yank her hand away, no matter the cost. Nothing good can come of this, right? But a moment later, there's a popping sound and the nearby demonic forces are stunned while the rift is temporarily dormant. It won't last, of course, but it's something.

"Good!" Ellana exclaims before turning her attention to the weakened demons and renewing the attack. Sadly, the disrupted rift has no effect on the red lyrium sea creatures, but one issue at a time. The most dangerous demons are the ones she focuses on, as they're the ones who can overturn the boat if they get too close. But after only a few simple attacks, the stun wears off and the demons are free to attack once more. Honestly, this is getting old.

It is getting old, that's for damn sure. Skadi doesn't just have her sword and fade-abilities to rely on, and she reaches for her belt, picking out a bomb and taking aim before chucking it at as much mass as she can get. The resulting explosion takes out a couple of demons, so she repeats that attack. Between them and others nearby, the demons are whittled down enough where they stand a chance of sealing the rift...even though the red lyrium beasts are still present to be contended with. Slicing another demon, Skadi squints as the area floods with green light. Seeing beams of energy from other shards as they connected with the rift perks her up, and she grins.

"Cover me, and I'll see if we can finish this!" It's worth it to deal with the sensation again, if it means closing the damn thing once and for all.

This is the part that sends Ellana's heart racing. For some reason, she always wonders if this time the rift won't close, but will expand further. Maybe it will be like that time they all fell into the Fade. But she sets down a barrier over Skadi and works on hitting the demons making their way for the boat.

"I've got you!"

It feels wrong to have a mage cover her rather than the other way around, just as it does to have the glow in her palm and the tingle up her arm. But there's no time to dwell on the wrongness of it all, rather focus on what can be fixed. So she holds her hand up to the rift again, wincing as green light arces from her palm toward it, and that hum of tension continues to build...right until there's a shattering sound accompanying it, and the rift is finally closed.

Skadi breaths hard after that, strained in a way she's never felt before. "Time to leave!"

She doesn't have to tell Ellana twice. With the final closing of the rift, Ellana sets down her staff and picks up an oar with both hands.

"Can you get the other one?" She is but a tiny elf, but she'll help where she can.

"Aye!" Skadi will refrain from saying more, as time is of the essence. Ignoring the tingling sensation in her palm, she grabs the oar and starts rowing, just as she sees...something large...beneath the surface near them. Time to row faster.

Ellana is really just focused on rowing in time with Skadi so they don't end up going in a circle, and that means when the kraken surfaces, she's completely shocked, hands gripping the oar so tight her hands ache.

"Faster!" she yells, trying to increase the pace so they can hopefully get out of this thing's range.

"I'm going as fast as I can, believe me!" There's a strong temptation to stop rowing and just turn around to slice at the damned thing, but Skadi has a feeling that even if she made it, the elven mage definitely wouldn't. Not about to have someone else's death on her hands, she grits her teeth and redoubles her efforts, even as the water becomes choppier thanks to the feisty kraken. Maybe there'd be time to throw a--no, keep rowing.

Row, row, row their boat, terrified towards the beach. Ellana is breathing hard, body quickly soaked from the water splashed into their boat. But she keeps going, working hard because her muscles are no where near as defined as Skadi's and she can't let herself be the weak link here. She needs to pull her weight. Do more than her own weight, really. At one point, the kraken slams down into the water and a wave lifts up their boat, causing Ellana to let out a screech. There's no telling in the moment whether this wave will overturn their boat, or merely push them forward towards the shore.

When that happens, Skadi tries to steady the boat but the wave is powerful even for her. She feels herself go over the edge, managing just barely to cling to it in time so she doesn't sink. If the same happens to Ellana, she'll reach over to grab her before the elf woman can get swept away.

Ellana's grip on the oar can't save her as she goes over, and a hand reaches out to grab her staff before it's lost forever at the sea floor. Putting it on her back, she then kicks and pushes her arms through the water to keep afloat, and Skadi helps her stay that way as she tries to focus on what's next. Can they turn the boat back over, or merely cling to its edge? How close is the sea monster? Are they about to be eaten? Do krakens eat people?

"Can we swim to shore from here?" she asks, the sea spray preventing her from seeing the beach clearly.

"Maybe you can, but I don't trust my luck! Hold on, I'm going to try to flip it back over!" Not terribly interested in learning to swim under pressure and with a huge sword strapped to her back, the Avvar woman is instead going to trust in her strength and give a great heave, planning on turning that boat back upright before the tentacles reach them.

Ellana treads water, trying to stay alert to their surroundings. She briefly lifts a hand to place a barrier over them, but isn't sure how much magic she'll be able to perform here. Maybe she can energize the boat? It's worth a try. Focusing on it, ripples of energy appear in the air and with Skadi already doing most of the hard work, Ellana helps tip it back the right way.

"Great! Get in!" She can tread water a bit longer.

THE SEAS SHALL RISE & DEVOUR, Part I

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