FIRSTFALL RIFTER ARRIVAL

[faderifting]

WHO: New rifters & their rescuers
WHAT: People fall out of a rift and get attacked by stuff, as usual.
WHEN: Firstfall/November 14
WHERE: Somewhere a ways off the Imperial Highway between Cumberland and Nevarra City
NOTES: This arrival log is open to all. Solas was able to alert the Inquisition to the general area where the new rifters would be arriving so people can pick them up. Rifters can then either continue on with the main Inquisition caravan to Nevarra City or be escorted back to Kirkwall.

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 landing with a wet smack. There is no avoiding the mud: this rift has opened up in the center of some unfortunate farmer's field, and all his hard work plowing and manuring has now been ruined, first by the rain that has churned it into a thick and especially fragrant muck and then by the arrival the rift itself, splitting the air mid-field and making it impossible to safely plant. And now, of course, there's you as well, tumbling out of the Fade and into the shin-deep mud.

The cluster of demons emerging from the rift seem at odds with the setting, strange stark shapes in this empty space, standing out against the grey sky. Some are tall, spindly stick-things with too many eyes who seem like they should tumble down the hill in a tangle of limbs but instead sink into the snow to anchor themselves and use the long reach of their arms to attack. Some are hunched and hooded with no eyes at all, others mere wisps of greenish light that float over the icy ground. None look friendly or familiar. Also unfamiliar is 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.

All around is more fields, except for an abandoned farmhouse a ways off, beside a windbreak of spindly trees topping a low ridge before the next stretch of pasture. As you find your feet, you may catch sight of a handful of figures in the distance, exiting the farmhouse and hurrying away over the hill. If anyone ventures to the farmhouse, they will find the remains of a camp, and may be able to locate a dropped notebook or what looks like pieces of some unknown scientific instrument, apparently broken in the rush to leave.

Comments

[tar_minyatur]

[ Elros blinks at him, nonplussed ]

Vaire's tapestries are that specific?

[utulien_aure]

What-

[Not important, and it's not like he hadn't guessed it anyway. He catches himself and shakes his head.]

No. He's told me about you.

[A beat.]

Well, it was more that he babbled about you a bit nonsensically. But I knew you existed.

[tar_minyatur]

That Stinker! He always told me the Halls were solitary! Then again, I suppose he wanted to be left alone. Failed as usual, I see.

[ But there's a very fond set to him, despite the harshness of the words ]

[utulien_aure]

[Well, Elros had Maedhros pegged pretty well, there was something to be said for that.]

My cousin rarely leaves my side these days, true. But tell me, child, do these lands look like the Halls of Mandos to you?

[tar_minyatur]

Well, it's true I expected it to be less... demon infested. Also, I'm not supposed to be here at all I mean seriously, that was the point!

[utulien_aure]

This isn't the Halls.

[He shakes his head, abruptly wishing he'd pressed Maedhros a little more with this part of the story.]

This is Thedas, a world apart from Arda. You've traveled here through a breach in the world the natives call a Rift. Unless you happened to travel here at the moment of your death or from the Halls, there is no reason to believe yourself to be dead.

And why wouldn't you be in the Halls if you were?

[tar_minyatur]

Oh good, or I'd have had to yell at Namo.

[ He shoots a surprised look at Fingon ]

I chose to be human, of course. Who wants to stick around forever? I'd rather move on and away from all the drama.

[utulien_aure]

[Confused] The last time I checked, one's nature wasn't something one could choose.

[Though, he recalls distantly, some of the wildest rumors out of Doriath had said something of that sort about that land's princess... but without Finrod and Nargothrond to confirm, everything about Thingol's realm passed through Rumor's tongue a thousand times...]

[tar_minyatur]

Well, normally no, but apparently Fate and Destiny and blah blah, Big Debt Owed to your Family, and being peredhel and all, and they told us choose. So I did.

[ Shrug.

Just the smallest hint of guilt ]

My brother is still angry with me.

[utulien_aure]

[A look of sympathy at that.] Brothers are always complicated. Especially when you differ from each other.

[He shakes his head.] But I'm afraid you've gone quite beyond me, so would you mind starting this story over?

[A mite sheepishly] Perhaps with your name, as you already know mine? Russandol never actually mentioned it.

[tar_minyatur]

Trust him not to be able to tell a story properly.

[ Elros snorts and then grins ]

I'm Elros Earendillion. On your side of the family I'm Idril's grandson - she married Tuor, son of Huor. My mother was Elwing of Doriath, Luthien's granddaughter, so I'm peredhel from both sides of the family. I have a twin brother - Elrond. Maedhros and Maglor kidnapped us when we were... six? Yeah, about that. They sent us to Erennion Gil-galad when we were in our thirties.

[utulien_aure]

He's a bit ridiculous.

[Fingon agrees, with fond exasperation. Then he shoots a sharp look at Elros.]

You- Itarille's grandson? Huor's great-grandson?

[Wait, Huor has a son? Hurin's boy he remembers, but he doesn't remember that bit of news...]

I knew you were Sindarin. And he told me what he did in Doriath, and in Sirion. [Sighing] It doesn't actually change anything, I suppose, but he never mentioned you were kin.

[tar_minyatur]

Aye, that's right. I forget you would probably have known Huor personally.

I'm only part Sindarin! And part everything else... Elrond worked it out once, but we apparently would outrank Erennion, if not for the female descent part. Part of the reason I chose mortality, in truth, all those conflicting bloodlines, ugh. Let the Crowns go to people who actually want them. Men are much simpler. For now, anyway! By the time we complicate things, I'll probably be dead and it won't be my problem.

[utulien_aure]

I know his brother better, but yes.

You're talking about Artaher's boy? [His face stiffens. He'd suspected, of course, but it's tacit confirmation that Turgon's hidden city hadn't kept him safe after all.]

Then you would be. It's a shame, Itarille would make a better High Queen than most of the family could dream of being.

Are you sure it's elves who are too complicated, and not just the ones you're related to?

[tar_minyatur]

Mmhmm.

[ He sees the look and winces ] Aaaaaaaand you didn't know about Gondolin's Fall, I take it. Damnit Maedhros.

I dunno about that, as she took Grandfather Tuor and sailed West long before I was born, but I'll take your word for it.

[ He looks at him flatly ] I'm related to just about all of you though. [ He ticks them off on his fingers ] Noldor and Vanyar through Grandmother Idril, Sindar and Teleri and for all I know Silvan through Grandmother Elwing, heck I'm related to the Maia. At least with the Men I can just say I'm of the House of Hador, as the blood ties to the Beornings and Haladin are quite distant.

[utulien_aure]

He was in a state when we arrived. [Fingon explains wearily.] And busy telling me all the reasons I should run and never look back. I felt the details could wait until he seemed more stable.

She did? [That...doesn't sound very likely to work, really. But it's not the craziest thing he's been hearing about home recently, so there's probably nothing wrong with hoping for the best.]

I meant that you're related to all the royal lines. I can't speak for all of the rest, but the average Noldorin family isn't quite as convoluted as we Finweans are.

[tar_minyatur]

He's always been in a state as long as I've known him, although it does sound like he's gotten worse. [ Elros pulls a face ]

Aye - I don't know if she succeeded, of course. But grandfather Tuor was Ulmo's special messenger, so they thought that maybe that might give them some wriggle room. Our family have been close to Ulmo since.

[ The face gets worse ] I dunno, I suppose royals are more complicated by nature, but I am not entirely convinced.

[utulien_aure]

[He's silent for a moment.] He's worse than he was the last time I saw him. By a great deal, I think... but then, he hasn't really been well in a long time.

Of course you don't. But that's not unpromising, and Turgon was a favorite of some of the Valar as well. If anyone could manage the journey, it sounds as though they might.

[At least, that's what he's going to keep telling himself.]

Not by nature. But when there are so many people relying on you, there's more at stake if you're wrong. And, of course, all your arguments take place in public.

[tar_minyatur]

He was never well when I knew him, although he went to great efforts to seem so, when he thought we were paying attention, him and Maglor both.

[ Elros wrinkles his nose ] Ugh yeah, don't remind me about that bit. It's nice that Numenor is still new enough that no one protests when I help them till the fields and build the homes. I'm not looking forwards to the 'sitting on the throne being gawked at' part.

[utulien_aure]

[Ruefully] He's been doing that from almost the moment he could stand after Thrangorodrim. And Maglor has had his difficulties as well.

[Probably Elros knows that better than Fingon does. But still, it's a hard thing to speak of, even to someone else with long experience with the Feanorians.]

You could simply not build a throne. [Fingon had spent as much of his reign on horseback as possible, but apparently that was a policy with mixed results.] Give them some other symbol of power, and maybe your successors will feel that they have to follow your example.

[tar_minyatur]

Having not known them then, I am afraid I can't tell you if they've gotten worse, in that regards. But...

[ He frowns ]

When I was a child... Maedhros was... visibly not well, when you actually sat down and thought about it. Too thin. He only really came alive on the battlefield, or... sometimes, with us. Oh he put on a good show, but... especially when you compared him to other people...

Maglor was better, but ... he'd go through phases where... he'd lock himself in his room and only Maedhros could get him out. They'd fight, sometimes, always in Quenya so we couldn't understand them, although they stopped doing that around us when they realised we had learnt enough to be able to know what they were speaking of. Maedhros would usually take a patrol and ride out after that, be gone for ages and ages and ages, and only come home when he was exhausted.

[ He shakes his head and turns to other topics gladly ]

Too late for that, I'm afraid - they rather insisted on building me one. At least I can beg off it for now, though.

[utulien_aure]

[He listens to Elros' story with a grim expression on his face. It's not really surprising, of course. But it hurts, nonetheless, to hear what his cousins' lives had become.]

I am sorry you had to see that. [He tells Elros.] What you describe... it is not a situation a child should have been in.

[Still, he supposes, it could have been worse. His cousins, whatever their faults, love children. Maedhros loves the twins; he would bet Maglor did as well. And the child they raised is clearly confident and capable.

Turning to different subjects is better for everyone, really.]

Ceremonial occasions only?

[tar_minyatur]

It was as it was. [ Elros shrugs ] It wasn't ideal but they did their best for us.

[ He nods ]

That's what I told them. Oh, and I suppose I'll have to hear cases there too, but right now everyone is too tired to be causing trouble.

[utulien_aure]

I don't doubt that. He loves you, [a brief, dry smile at that] that was clear even if nothing else was.

[A small laugh.]

Now what is that like? Maybe you did make the better choice after all!

[tar_minyatur]

He'd better.

[ Elros grins ]

At the moment I'm mostly too tired to care! Tilling fields and building homes is harder work than it looks!