faderift | DRAKONIS RIFTER ARRIVAL

Entry tags:

DRAKONIS RIFTER ARRIVAL

WHO: New rifters
WHAT: People fall out of a rift, get attacked, and discover that they are trapped and alone.
WHEN: Drakonis 10
WHERE: A snowy pit.
NOTES: This month, the arrival log is CLOSED to new rifters only. Don't worry, there will be chances for everyone else to meet (and help!) them soon.

I. ARRIVAL

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. At least in some worlds.

In this world, you wake with a jolt when you hit the ground, soft for an instant and then bone-jarringly hard. You've landed in a pile of loose snow, beneath which is more snow, frozen solid, and all around you are walls of more snow, tinted by the shifting green gash in the air. There are other people finding their feet after a similarly sprawling arrival, and then emerging from the rift in your wake are a number of hunched, greyish creatures in tattered robes that shuffle about, keeping their distance as they send sharp spikes of ice flying toward you.

They're accompanied by floating beings with too many insect-like arms, and creatures that seem to emerge from the ground like plumes of magma, their fire causing the walls to drip and turning the ground beneath your feet treacherously slick. There is also one giant scarecrow, nearly twenty feet tall, and with giant scalpel blades for arms. It is dressed in a tuxedo, a fine bolo tie, and a cowboy hat, and accompanied by five normal-sized scarecrows in matching suits and hats. Needless to say, they are not friendly either. There are many of you, but even more enemies.

If that all weren't enough there's also a narrow splinter of light in the same sickly green as whatever brought you here, now glowing out of the palm of your left hand. It aches, a bone-deep pain that gnaws even through all the distractions, and seems to call your attention back to the rift.

II. TRAPPED

After the first few waves of demons are defeated (there will be no more scarecrows), there will be a lull long enough to regroup and take stock of surroundings. You appear to be at the bottom of a deep crevasse, the walls stretching high above your heads. The space is only about 20 feet wide at its center, but nearly fifty yards long, tapering narrower at the ends, with the rift located near the southern end. There is no exit, no cracks or tunnels leading away, and no hand or footholds in the sheer walls. There are some animal bones scattered about, but no evidence of other living creatures. There is also no evidence of other people, here or above you.

Luckily, the rift has spilled out a great deal of crap along with you and all the demons. There is a gigantic cake several feet tall half-smushed into one wall, its ten tiers delicately decorated all in white fondant, with whorling patterns and flowers made of frosting. Each layer is a different flavor, ranging from the mundane (chocolate, vanilla, carrot) to the bizarre (strawberry & pickle, spicy lemon olive, red velvet mackerel). There are also some actual mackerel, a heap of live fish having spilled through the rift and scattered about the crevasse during the battle, along with bundles of dried (but now soggy) cornstalks.

You can see a narrow patch of sky above and sunlight does filter down to you, for the few hours of the day that there is any sunlight at all. Given the reflection off all the snow and ice, during those daylight hours it is pleasantly bright, though tinted a bit blue (and green by the rift). Unfortunately, daylight only lasts about eight hours, and it is frequently cloudy, which leaves the crevasse dimly lit, as if in a perpetual dusk. At night it will be utterly pitch black except for the rift's eerie glow. It's also very cold, with temperatures remaining below freezing during the day and well below at night.

III. LOST

Whether with magic or creative ice-pick improvisation, scaling the walls of the crevasse is not impossible—but there is minimal reward for the effort. Fully exposed to the wind, it's colder on the surface than in the crevasse, and on the third day there's a whiteout blizzard that reduces visibility to twenty feet for hours. Even when the weather is clear, though, there's not much to see. The land above is a wasteland of ice, snow, and wind, without visible vegetation or landmarks other than monotonous gentle hills. The only disruption to the landscape in any direction is about a hundred yards north of the rift, where spots of color and piles of snow mark what is, on closer inspection, an abandoned camp.

Whoever was there before built low walls out of packed snow to block some of the wind and dug enough snow caves to sleep a dozen people, though a few have since caved in. There's no food—there was food, before, but overturned crates and animal tracks suggest the area is not as devoid of life as it looks—but there are thick fur blankets and sets of boots or outerwear. More than a dozen, in a variety of different sizes. Almost like they were expecting poorly-clothed company.

Maybe someone was coming for you. Maybe they'll be back. Or maybe not.

[ ooc | The rift will continue to spit out demons at semi-regular intervals. After the rifters defeat the first couple waves of demons, the pace of these reinforcements will slow—instead of a few minutes, it may be a few hours until the next batch comes. It is possible for your characters to close the rift themselves, but because they have no idea what they're doing it will require trial and error to figure out how, and all (or near enough) of them working together to succeed. This should take at least two days to manage.

Other than the stuff described in the post and the inventories everyone arrived with (as approved in your apps; please don't suddenly remember some other useful things in your characters' pockets) there is nothing in the crevasse except snow, ice, rock, and animal bones. But don't worry, we promise we're not leaving your characters all to die. Your characters have arrived in the Sunless Lands, and the Inquisition is on its way. When the mod plot post goes up this coming week, it will include a prompt to rescue all of you. Until that time, please refrain from RPing elsewhere in the game and enjoy this exclusive opportunity to bond with your rift-mates.

Your characters will be alone for approximately five days IC. Please keep them from wandering off too far, since that will make it implausible for the Inquisition to find and rescue them and then you won't get to play in the game. If they would insist on trying, you're welcome to use adverse weather, ice collapsing into other caves beneath them, or whatever other natural obstacles necessary to stall their progress. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, so far no one else that seems to have experienced the same changes Chance has. That's usually how his luck goes, though. So he shrugs it off for now. It's an issue he'll have to address later.

"If this isn't our world, will the stars match any any of us recognize?" He asks. "I'm not sure how much help the stars would be for finding a way out of here..."

Newt feels as though his head might fling from right between his shoulders as he follows the conversation, the way it seems to bounce across all of them that are currently in this predicament.

"It couldn't hurt to examine our surroundings," he says. "To try and see if there's anything we can make use of, beyond kindling."

"I suspect we'll need to look for additional food," he points out.

"Toril! Yes. Faerun or thereabouts..." Alacruun replies with a little smile, "But I've been traveling-"

Well, reminiscing about 'home' can come later. They have more important things to worry about. Like navigating by the stars apparently. He pulls a face and glances skyward.

"Even if we could see them and navigate by them, we don't know which direction to go in. We could be wandering further into the wastes, for all we know."

"They're right, the skies won't help us." The stars - they'll won't be any help if this is a different world, and given none of them seem to know the same world, he's expecting it is. Can they even assume the sun rises in the east and sets in the west here? Who knows. "We'll have to use the camp site to gain bearing if we venture out. "

Pulling up the wood he'd been carving at to keep himself busy, he shows the others that he's whittled a small pile of stakes - markers to lead the way back once they explore out. They're thin, small things, that didn't take much more than a couple planks from the crates.

He also doesn't miss Helena near growling at the horned boy, and had it been someone who hadn't become somewhat familiar to him, the immediate aggression against something nonhuman might've bothered him. But Helena is just odd by nature, it seems. Iorveth holds out a piece of broken crate siding and one of the knives he'd been carving with to her. Hush, booboo, the bard's harmless. Help him craft things to take your mind off it. Now, answering Newt's comments - "Foraging isn't a likely option in this environment, but the furs must have come from somewhere. We should form a hunting party."

"I don't know if hunting will work...I mean look at this place, no trees, no life, nothing. If we knew where a body of water was we may be able to at least get food. I don't suppose anyone has any skills to help us find things? A Locate spell or something?"

Jang looks around the odd party. A lot of people dressed strangely, and a lot of strange people. At least one magic user, someone who at least heard of America, and another one who claimed he had a tail before.

"I can try something with my magic, but I can't guarantee it will work," Newt offers tentatively to Jane. "My magic isn't as reliable here as it was back home. Sometimes my spells backfire. And using magic takes a toll, I've notice."

"But I steady creatures," he adds. "And I don't think it would hurt to put together some sort of group to at least make an attempt at better understanding our surroundings, see if we can't find anything to eat."

Jang nodds at Newt. "Alright. I can come with you. My gun is working fine, and my magic is...sort of working." Jang pulls out her rifle and begins going over the mechanics, making sure the melted snow isn't causing any problems.

"I've just got one box of ammo though, and we may need to conserve it if this place is lacking in the tech to make more."

Edited 2018-03-13 02:24 (UTC)

A horned boy who'd been a different sort of horned noy, and people offering up magical abilities left right and centre. Also, at least one dragon. D'Artagnan has never seen a dragon before, but it's clear that's what it is. This place is monsters and magic and it absolutely cannot be real. He rubs his eyes.

He needs to get back to Paris.

"We should split up," he says, eager to do something productive. At least if they're moving, it'll feel like some progress is being made, even if they don't have any better answers. "There's enough of us to search the area and make a signal fire. We can use the camp as a base. Just make sure both teams have enough fighters, considering the welcome we've gotten."

The look she gives Iorveth is wide eyed and she picks up the piece of wood and the knife, turning both over in her hands before very awkwardly starting to whittle.

“Splitting up in wilderness can be a fast way to die,” Helena finally says, “snow can change fast. We might not find way back, even with markers.”

Matter of fact, rather than concerned.

Edited 2018-03-13 00:39 (UTC)

"I can find my way back from near anywhere. It's a talent, least my Daddy claims it is," Dolores adds and casts a glance at the others and the woman who had offered up a gun.

"I know a bit about trackin in the snow...so long as we travel in the daylight I can keep track of where we been and where we're headed." She shifts and sets a hand on the pouch at her hip. "Can't say I'm a good shot, though. I'd welcome some...heartier accompanyment should we go wanderin."

“If we have enough good trackers,” Helena shrugs. “If my Sestra is going with someone else and is lost, I slit throats.”

Helpful, Helena.

Edited (thanks phone ) 2018-03-13 00:45 (UTC)

"I would prefer to stay closer to camp myself," Alacruun shrugs, "Wilderness navigation is not my strong suit. All of this snow and ice looks the same to me..."

And truthfully, he'd rather save his own skin.

Sarah gives her sister an exasperated and yet weirdly fond look and puts a hand on her shoulder. "Hey. Nobody is slitting throats." This is both setting a firm rule for Helena and an attempt to ease everyone else's nerves. She isn't particularly thrilled with the idea of going off into the snowy wilderness, anyway. "I'll hang out and burn shit."

"I'll stay back as well." Chance shrugs." I'm not doing so well on my feet, so I think I'm better use here. I can help if anyone gets injured, at least?" He hates feeling useless, he's usually not so much. But if he's learned anything from all his travels, it's where he needs to fit himself in properly.

"I have experience tracking, though, admittedly, more magical creatures than any we can reasonably expect to eat," Newt admits.

"I think it might help, give us something to focus on," he says. "A way to keep busy and warm, if nothing else."

The woman with the blonde hair mentions something about slitting throats, and Newt doesn't think she's joking. He blinks at her, paling a bit as he shifts in his seat.

"I don't think slitting throats will be necessary."

"I'm a good tracker," Aro says, looking thoughtfully around at the others. He glances at Iessa and finds her looking back at him, already willing. He smiles at her and folds his arms. "We'll join the scout team. I'm used to finding my way through the wilds, and Iessa here can fly. I have magic, too. We'd like to help."

The dragon lets out a little trill of agreement and briefly stretches her wings. Fly was probably the most important part of that statement for her.

"As am I." It's something of a specialty, which is why he'd originally planned to go out alone, but having a few more present wouldn't hurt. Iorveth makes no comment nor does he seem surprised by Helena's claim to slit throats. Seems fair, honestly. "We won't lose anyone, so long as no one does anything stupid."

A pointed look around the room. He's sure at least half of you are capable of it. Stay in the group, don't launch yourself at unknown things, don't be a little bitch.

"The chicken runs at a decent pace as well." The lime green horse chicken mount, he means. which is pecking at some ice somewhere to the side. Like an idiot.

"I'm more your non-magical healer. Good with animals?" Not the most helpful skill outside of charming distressed pets, seems like.

She chews the inside of her cheek. "Probably want to make sure the people burning stuff and the people exploring all have someone knocking about who can at least help patch up an injury in each group, yeah?"

"If we're the only ones that can help with mending, I can go with the explorers." He shrugs. "I may not be best on my feet right now, but I'll do what I can to help." He takes note of her ability with animals though. So far, Aeg rests warmly in his pocket, but he's not sure how long that'll last if they're out here for too much longer.

"I can heal people up, my magic seems to be doing ok, provided I have some luck. Way easier than back home, it's like the Manitous here have never even seen poker."

Jang re-holsters her rifle and starts absentmindedly playing with a deck of cards, shuffling it, cutting and reforming it with one hand. "We should go sooner rather than later though. Sun is gonna go down at some point, and going into that wasteland at dark is a great way to die."

"If worse comes to worse, we can always eat the bird," Alacruun points out matter-of-factly, "So don't go too far. Then again, we've also got plenty of fish and a very strange cake, so I doubt we'll need to resort to that anytime soon..."

These portals were strange, apparently. Then again, wild magic has been known to turn people into potted plants on occasion, so he can't be too surprised. He rolls one large shoulder with a slight frown.

"...I suppose those of us staying here should see about renovating the camp to make it more hospitable."

Ugh. He hates doing physical labor. Especially when he's stuck as a humanoid.

Alex scritches the chin of the koala joey whose head just poked out of her coat, pursing her lips a little as she thinks.

"Hold up, mates. Maybe anything we can do at base camp we do today. Any roamin', I reckon we set out heaps early, a little before dawn. That way we get the most daylight, less chance of getting stuck wanderin' about in the dark."

"I agree," Newt nods from where he sits, his gaze falling to the little joey in Alex's coat, smiling at the sight. "If we leave early enough, that should give us plenty of time to explore. We probably shouldn't wander too far. Just from a quick glance, there doesn't seem to be anywhere else to go for shelter for miles around."

Probably more than that, truthfully, but Newt's hazarding the best guess he can, at this point.

"I have my wand, and using the spell to light up the dark tends to work better than others, I've found," he says. "So if we need to go and round up others after dark, we have that option."

Sarah looks at the wand with a very "wtf? are you guys seeing this too?" expression, but she doesn't go so far as to comment on it out loud. Everything happening to her here is weird as shit; magic wands shouldn't even be on her list right now.

"Yeah, let's try and keep that from being necessary."

Helena looks at her twin, and nods her agreement with Sarah's expression. Yes, is devil work. Yes, is very concerning.
Reassuringly, though, she pats Sarah's knee. It's an awkward motion, slightly unfamiliar, but she's pleased.

(no subject)

aenseidhe - 2018-03-14 02:03 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

mousquetaire - 2018-03-31 23:25 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only