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

[arlathvhen]

There's a lot of rumbling going on here, and combine that with the whole....rest of Klaus, and Beleth can't help but feel a spike of apprehension. Is this guy human? If she says something he doesn't like, is he going to, like. Eat her? Those are some pretty impressive incisors he's rocking.

No, surely no one would be dumb enough to do that, not when she's surrounded by her allies. Right?

...Right?

She's so preoccupied by this sudden worry that she nearly misses the question, blinking at Klaus dazedly. "Um, the Fade? Oh, it's always been--You're talking about the people falling from rifts. Of course you are. It's been about...two years, or so. I was there, at the first one. Pretty startling, really..." She's rambling. As soon as she realizes it, she clamps her mouth shut, nervously glancing at him.

[purered]

"Two years," Klaus murmured, more to himself, his green gaze still distant and fixed where he'd been spit out into the world of Thedas. "And two years before that, the Great Collapse..."

He turned the implications of that around and around in his head, his frown deepening, his forehead creasing with worry. Were the two linked? Was something much bigger at work here?

He turned to ask Beleth something else and then realized just how flustered she looked - Klaus mentally berated himself, knowing full well he needed to be better about keeping his face under control.

"Er - my apologies - I didn't mean to frighten you."

He raised both hands in a pacifying gesture.

[arlathvhen]

"Ah...? Two years ago, before that, was the Circles collapsing...? And starting the war." Beleth offers, not quite sure what he's talking about, but feeling like she ought to help him anyway. Even if he probably doesn't know what the Circles are. Or about the war. Now that she thinks about it, this is probably not very helpful.

But at least he seems to have clued in that she was just a little bit intimidated by the guy who cleared her by more than a foot. Which...probably isn't good, she should probably be better at hiding that. But. At least he's being nice about it.

"It's fine! It's fine," She assures him, raising both her hands as well. Time to deploy the 'I am adorable, don't be upset' tactic. "I'm sorry, um. I just...Sometimes things can look, um. Intimidating. From down here." She holds her hand up at her head height, with an abashed smile on her face. Sorry, she's short.

[purered]

"Ah - no - there was a catastrophe in my world known as the Great Collapse, just a little under four years ago."

He seemed more sheepish now, more aware that he was some looming figure. He was clearly weak to the cleverly employed tactic of looking like a sad puppy - Klaus had a nurturing streak a mile across and Beleth had successfully tapped into it.

"What are the 'Circles' precisely? Some manner of organization? I'm... well, I don't think you'd mean the actual geometric shape."

[arlathvhen]

“Oh, I’m sorry. That sounds...unpleasant.” She’s pretty sure they wouldn’t call it the Great Collapse if it were something that didn’t involve some kind of catastrophe. Otherwise, they should really rethink their naming conventions.

There’s a definite easing of tension, when Beleth sees that her clever ploy worked. It means that Klaus can’t be nearly as foreboding as his appearance makes him seem, and that she can probably trust him to not try to cause her injury. And she can probably get him to help her if she ever needs something from tall places. Ladders are for schmucks.

“Circles...” She clears her throat, glancing off to the side. Oh, boy. “I should preface this by letting you know that I don’t really know much about them. I’m Dalish, and Dalish don’t use them.” She indicates the green tattoos on her face.

“But Circles are...places that used to be for mages. It was, supposedly, to give them a place to learn and be protected, as well as protect ordinary people from them. And keep an eye out for maleficarum—mages who use mage to hurt people. But, it turns out,” And here, she uses a very dry voice, “giving a group of people total power over another group may have drawbacks. That may be a simplification, though. There are a vast range of opinions on them. In any case, the main body of mages got sick of things and revolted.”

After that, she shrugs. It is, as the ancient elvish proverb goes, not her circus, not her monkey.

[purered]

Klaus nodded. It wasn't the word he'd used for the majority of New York City being torn down, rearranged, and put back together while hundreds of thousands were killed. But it wasn't the last word he'd use either.

"Dalish," he repeated, dutifully committing the word to memory. Dalish meant facial tattoos. Possibly also pointy ears, though he was not about to make any personal assumptions about someone's physical traits. That would be impolite.

"Such situations, whatever the initial intentions, often lead to rampant abuse," Klaus agreed. "My world's own history is littered with such atrocities, though they never reached any magically inclined communities."

He paused, considering that wasn't entirely true.

"...Not for lack of trying at least. I imagine the situation is still precarious with only two years between now and the initial revolts...?"

[arlathvhen]

"We're elves who live apart from the rest of society," Beleth supplies, then quickly adds on, "--usually." upon realizing that it might be a bit confusing, when she's right here, in the middle of society. "The Inquisition is a...unique case. It's trying to help keep Thedas safe from disasters, and as we happen to be a part of Thedas, we're helping."

She nods when Klaus mentions it's common in his own world--curious that it doesn't effect mages, though. But then, if she's learned anything from rifters, it's that Thedas seems to be rather at the forefront of being terrible to people for various reasons.

When he asks about the situation, she can at least nod surely at that. If she did know anything, she knew that 'precarious' was a good word for the situation. "The war only ended when the Inquisition got them to call a truce, in order to deal with some of the various problems Thedas has been having." She really doesn't feel like explaining Corypheus, which requires talking about Magisters and darkspawn and all sorts of other things. "No one really knows what will happen after that."

[purered]

"If only more were so magnanimous in such dire situations," Klaus mused. "I imagine there's a lot of push and pull from all sides, with many trying to take advantage of the situation for their own personal gain?"

This was, clearly, not his first rodeo. Or even his fiftieth. He didn't know the specifics, such as names or histories - but he knew people and he knew what people were like in long-term crises. He really wished Steven were here right now.

"It's best to focus on the most pressing matters first - portals opening and bridging worlds while spewing demons seems more an immediate threat than whatever the magically inclined are capable of."

[arlathvhen]

Beleth almost laughs at Klaus' far too accurate assumption, almost says something like 'you have no idea', or something similar. After a moment of thought, she settles for looking him dead in the eye and simply says, "Yes."

It should convey her sentiments appropriately.

"We have people looking into the rifts. I'm pretty sure all we know for sure is how to close them. That is--you just wave your hand with the shard in it at the rift." She raises her left hand, and wiggles it a little. "It'll close the rift up, and no more demons. But we haven't quite figured out how to stop them from opening."

Which is. A pretty serious issue, admittedly. But she's sure the rift and veil project is doing the best they can.

[purered]

He'd hoped to have been wrong but Beleth's expression spoke worlds.

He remarked: "A wave of the hand. Goodness." It sounded a bit too easy really, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Is there any recognizable pattern to their opening? Perhaps places where there's vast quantities of mud and fertilizer?"

[arlathvhen]

Beleth can't help but laugh at that, hand going over her mouth. "Sometimes I wonder. It's rarely in pleasant places. At least you didn't get thrown into the ocean with an angry leviathan." That had been a blast.

"I think there must be something, our expert on the Fade--an elven man called Solas--has been able to accurately predict where the rifts that produce rifters will occur. But he's not here. Warden Inessa Serra might know more, she's in charge of the project that studies them."

Beleth gives a little shrug, smiling sheepishly at him. "I'm afraid I'm not much good for magical things. If you have any questions about scouting, that's more my territory."