Cloudreach 9:44 Rifter Arrival

[faderifting]

WHO: New rifters & their rescuers.
WHAT: Welcome to Thedas.
WHEN: Cloudreach 10, 9:44
WHERE: Amaranthine
NOTES: This is the arrival log for all new rifters, open also to current characters who would participate in their recovery. New players can also assume everyone survives and arrives back in Kirkwall within a couple of days, but please note there will be a brief quarantine period when they won't be permitted to leave the Gallows, to get them up to speed while ensuring they're not diseased or otherwise going to kill anyone, before they're set loose on the city.

You were asleep—whether deeply or fitfully, falling unconscious for the last time in a pool of blood 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 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, bathed in the light of a flare of too-bright, greenish light you will find yourself hitting mossy cobblestones with an unforgiving smack. You're alive, and you're fine, except for 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.

Above you is a shifting, crystalline tear in reality; beyond that, gray clouds and a sea breeze, framed by the high walls surrounding the city you've landed in. There are people on the walls, some of them armored and armed, all of them briefly and collectively paralyzed by the sight below.

Don't let their terror go to your head. It's not you that has them intimidated, nor is it any of the humans (or Qunari) who are sprawled out on the ground around you, nor is it the assortment of unfamiliar—to them, not to you, perhaps to you it's very familiar—junk that's spilled out as well, most notably some flaming metallic debris and a giant wooden cross.

It's the beings that are coming out after you, almost as if in pursuit. Two are drifting, spindly things with six spidery limbs in addition to grasping skeletal arms, eager to grab hold of anyone who comes too close and fill their field of vision with swirling darkness and corner-of-the-eye glimpses of whatever frightens them. Several more most closely resemble trees, perhaps, with half-melted squids for heads—which might not sound particularly scary, fine, but their ability to dive into the ground and resurface anywhere with rasping screams helps on that front.

All of these things would like to kill you, and the people around you, and the people on the walls, and perhaps the other people screaming and scurrying into taverns and shops for cover. But you're not alone. Out of those same taverns and shops come people who do seem to know what they're doing; many are wearing a symbol that looks a bit like a hairy eyeball being pieced through by a sword, and at least a couple of them seem to know what they're doing. Almost like they've been waiting for you. In fact, exactly like they've been waiting for you.

---

AFTERWARDS, the grateful citizens of the City of Amarenthine might provide a drink, a meal, or a place to tend to wounds before everyone sets back toward Kirkwall. It's not a long trip, but one that requires boarding a ship to cross a narrow sea. It will be a rough, stormy journey, but there won't be any demons.

Comments

[gotyourselfapilot]

If Poe had understood anything she had said, he would have played along with the joke. He raises an eyebrow at her next suggestion. Perhaps that could be something too. How would they go about making them appear from the rift? There's a press of lips as he thinks on that.

"Are you going back to this LARPing thing? I don't really know what that all meant. The monsters seemed to be coming from the thing we fell out of. If they were staging something like that, they would have their own people on the other side. I'm not sure if we really want to dig for evil all that fast or soon." Poe would rather hope that the Inquisition or whoever had them wouldn't be.

There's a small chuckle. "You have something at least. All I have is the clothing on my back." Poe had found a small bag with food within. It seemed strange plus he had a necklace around his neck that was staying hidden within his shirt. "The best we can do is see where they take us. If they turn out to be bad, we try to make a run for it. If they end up being good, there's nothing but taking it as you go."

[summerfae]

Resa gives a little shrug at Poe’s suppositions, as he’s got a decent point, but there isn’t much to do about it, either way. “Yeah, you’re right. Not a lot of good sitting here and second-guessing everything. Either they’re good news, or bad news. Just gotta be prepared for either of them, I guess. Not that I exactly relish the idea of absconding off into a world I don’t know anything about.”

She eyes Poe again, this time with a smug, mischievous look in her eye. “Though I suppose I could be doing worse things with my life than running off with cute guys.” Fluttering eyelashes accompany the line, just to make sure her words were clear. “And don’t worry, I’ll protect you from any more monsters.” With her big mixing spoon, or something.

[gotyourselfapilot]

If anything, he's trying to make sense of the entire situation. It's better to do that then get frustrated over something he has no control of. Poe puts his elbow on the table while making an open hand palm gesture in the air with his index finger pointing up. As in a way of 'hold on moment' or an idea happened. "If you find yourself trapped in a cave and you only have one way to go. The entrance is blocked behind you. Do you stay at the entrance or do you continue forward?"

For a moment he's looking for an answer to a question but then at her comment. There's another slight tilt of his head with a small friendly smile. "What exactly are these worst things?" If it's thieving he won't judge. Smugglers from his world had to make a living somehow. "I would be able to handle them better if I had a weapon. Hand to hand makes it really rough."