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

Bethany gives Kain a 'Come on seriously?' look over her shoulder but then she's focusing on making sure their boat stays in one place. As soon as they've got it into place and they are both moving to help the sailors and their own people, Bethany answers the statement.

"Do you know how many hundreds of miles this ocean is?"

A hand, raising up with Force magic, pressing the sailor up and into Kain's waiting grip, before she turns and sends a blast of ice towards a corrupted sea creature.

"Damn, I didn't count for the demons climbing ...."

"Too long, if you asked me!" Kain shouts, as he pulls the sailor up, the whole motion much easier when aided by that Force magic. A demon is hot on the man's tracks, though, and coming straight at Kain. He lifts his sword and gives a forward thrust to jab it straight into the demon. The creature shrieks in rage as Kain drives the sword deeper, not about to let go.

After a few moments of struggle, the demon's movements slow and stop. Kain yanks his sword free in time to face yet another one, from the other direction. "Apparently they can... they're getting around just fine out here..." Who knew they'd be able to fight like this, in the middle of the water?

Kain turns his focus to the next demon. He can't do as much moving around as he normally does, but he can use his ring of pain skill just fine while in one place, anyway.

"I didn't create the oceans!" She couldn't help but laugh - in the fact of all this it was either laugh or cry and she decided to do it the Hawke way. She spins around to send fire at the demon in front of Kain, and twist around to blast the one behind her with a freezing Cone of Cold. She slams her staff in the creature afterwards, shattering it.

She is all right standing in one place - she's a mage and she can take them all out. However, she has realized they were going to have to build a path of ice all the way to the shore, if they were going to save lives.

"Can you cover me?"

Kain is quick to duck out of the way of her attacks, well accustomed to fighting alongside mages, at this point. He watches the demon disintegrate, already focusing on the ones incoming behind it. This could get worse, fast. Getting others to safety really needs to be their priority...

"I certainly can!" He follows up with a War Cry, taunting the demons, drawing their attention. He'll take care of what's here. It should buy her time with what she's planning. "Come on... come at me!" He follows up by activating Ring of Pain, ready to fight with all he has... ready to keep that cover going. He strikes out at the first demon, hitting it hard with repeated blows.

She steps away from him, and from her hands and her staff, she begins to build a bridge of ice across the water and to the shore, strengthening it with each wave of ice, making it strong enough to withstand the creatures big and small. Her teeth gritted - she could not even spare a glance back at Kain as she made the land bridge with every last bit of her reserve magical energy. She would be downing lyrium for the rest of the battle, as quickly as she could.

Kain keeps on shouting periodically, to draw the demons toward him, making sure to recapture their attention if any seem ready to look elsewhere. He's taking a few hits now, as one by one the demons charge at him. But that's... exactly according to plan. The more they strike him, the stronger he's getting, and the better his own attacks.

"You're going to regret coming into this world!" He shouts as he gives an especially fierce downstab to one of them. He glances quickly toward Bethany every so often, just to see how far she's coming along. He can keep this up for a good while, at least...

Bethany heaves out a breath - a little further - and there! An ice bridge, across the water and as close to the shore as she can get it. She starts yelling towards those in the boats, yelling to those who are being thrown into the water.

"Go! Go! Make for the bridge!"

"Move!" Kain adds, as he takes up a position to fend off the demons, gesturing for the others to start moving past him toward the bridge. As they start scrambling toward the ice bridge, Kain stands his ground, sword swinging heavily through the air and stabbing at the demons around him. He can keep this up for as long as they need.

Bethany stepped closer to Kain, dropping a shield over them both as she tugged him over towards the bridge himself. "Move yourself! Come on!"

Right, at this point, the others have made it across well enough, it's time to run or miss his opportunity all together. Kain glances behind him, then nods, seeing that they've got everyone across. Then he takes off at a run as Bethany is indicating, practically leaping ahead with long strides as he hurries to make it across.

Bethany yanked up her staff and ran after Kain, muttering to herself as she felt the bridge vibrate underneath them.

"Get off the bridge, get off the bridge, get off the bridge!"

Get off the bridge. Kain is thinking something similar as he's rushing along, knowing that their time is limited. He feels the ground shaking, feels it starting to crack as he's still got some small distance to go. He pushes himself to run harder, feeling his body hitting its limits.

And then- there!!! He makes it to a spot where he can jump for the solid ground, running into as far of a leap as he can make. As he pushes from the ground, he feels it crack and split beneath him, as it's starting to do all over. Got to hurry. As he lands, he falls into a roll, but wastes no time in getting back up. "Bethany!"

He's ready to help, if she needs it, hoping she'll have enough time to get across completely as well.

Bethany is running full tilt herself - and thanks the Maker that she's wearing battle-armor and not simple mage's robes. There would be no way she would have been able to clear the bridge without it. Even then, she's flailing the last few feet, jumping towards Kain with the hope he'll be able to catch her.

"Kain!"

And of course, the ice is cracking behind her. Good

The ice is cracking so much, he can hear it, loud and clear, an ominous sound. Kain is ready for her, turning back, moving forward just enough to be in a good position to catch her. He spreads his arms out as she jumps, ready for her.

Bethany made sure to spread herself wide so she didn't smack Kain right in the jaw, breaking the both of them. Arms went around him, holding on tight as the ice cracked and fell into the sea behind them.

She gaped, looking behind her.

"... it is never boring around here, is it?"

Kain watches as that ice sinks down into the water, submerged completely within moments. He catches his breath a little, relieved they'd made it across, even if barely. That sense of relief is only just sinking in.

"It certainly isn't. But... we made it. Mission accomplished."

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THE SEAS SHALL RISE & DEVOUR, Part I

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