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

[zombra]

Tessa is no stranger to running from things that want to kill her, but she's also determined to finish this one off. She slams her gun into it like a baseball player up to bat trying to hit a home run -- again and again as it screeches in pain. When its body finally crumbles to the ground and it stops making noise, Tessa continues beating on it, as if it represents every zombie back home that she couldn't kill and had to run from.

It's not a good look, getting so wrapped up in smashing its stupid monster face into the dirt that she's unaware of her surroundings anymore. Chalk it up to the trauma of her world's collapsed society and every day being a quest for survival.

[gotyourselfapilot]

As Tessa slams the gun into the creature, Poe watches as it goes down without a problem. The whole ordeal wasn't easy and he cautiously watches the other for a moment. She's beating on the creature that's already dead. There didn't need to be an overkill. He didn't know what she had been previously through before coming here.

He takes a few steps forward while reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. However, Poe stays a few inches away and he's alert hoping that if she were to come after him, he would be ready for it. "I think you got him. We should probably get moving. I'm Poe Dameron."

Might as well take the opportunity to give his name before they end up having to take care of another demon.

[zombra]

Not touching her is a wise course of action, because she jumps in alarm when he speaks, coming down from her moment of being lost in a rage. She blinks as if clearing a fog from her mind and realizes how stupid is was of her to lose her cool like that. She could have been jumped from behind. Once again she's being too reliant on others. Mike would yell at her for it if he was here right now.

Why isn't he here right now? There's precious little time to ponder it, however. Pushing sweaty hair out of her face, she replies, "Yeah, sorry. Tessa MacKenzie. Let's go."

Only where do they go? Now that she has a moment to breathe and see where they are, it looks like an old fashioned city; like the kind you see in Europe. Not that Tessa's ever been, but she's seen pictures and videos. The citizens are pretty much freaking out and being unhelpful, so where are they supposed to go for safety? Her eyes latch on to the green... thing in the sky, shifting and crackling with energy. Lifting her hand, Tessa stares down at the green light coming from her palm. What does it mean? Does it have to do with that thing in the sky? Is that why they're both green?

"What is that thing?"

[gotyourselfapilot]

He jumps back not wanting to get smacked by anything that she may have been holding still. Poe knew better than to get close when blinding rage happens. But he'll try to pull them out from the thickest of fogs or anxious feelings they could be having.

"It's okay, given we have no idea where were are or what situation we came from. That thing deserved what it got."

The surroundings of the city seemed not all that different from his time on D'Qar or what he knows about Takodana. The city itself is made from stone and the forest was green. The thing in the sky couldn't be missed as they finally came to explore further. Poe squints trying to make out the things dropping out of it. Were things dropping out from it? He couldn't really tell. His own shard in his is glowing. But he doesn't notice his right away but hers.

"What does it mean? Do you think they're connected in some way?"

Poe glances down toward his hand before up at the green twirling cloud in the sky.

[zombra]

"I mean, they gotta be, right? They're both green, and I sure didn't have this weird light in my hand before coming here." She starts to lift her hand up higher, contemplating it. "Is it a part of that thing? Like maybe it broke off? That thing's giving off light, so that could be it."

Suddenly she feels a strange sensation coming from her hand alongside the pain. It's like something wants to turn her hand towards the rift, or like magnets being drawn together. Her forehead wrinkling in thought, Tessa lifts her hand up higher until it catches the attention of the rift and her hand snaps up as far as it can reach, the green light streaming out and attaching to the rift like a lasso.

"Whoa! No, no, no," she says, almost like she's scolding her hand for its behavior.

[gotyourselfapilot]

Poe brings up his hands up in front of him while opening his mouth a little. "Are you really basing things by colors? It doesn't seem to be wrong. I didn't as well, I'm more curious as to when it appeared." He's not too worried over what it's doing for the moment. The shard hurt within his palm but he didn't flench. "Broke off from what? The thing in the sky doesn't look as if it was this completely. I'm not exactly sure when it appeared."

Falling from the sky, landing on the ground and having the branch land right on top of him. There was a lot going on plus the immediate threat of the demons. Poe takes a step back while watching Tessa's hand go right for the rift.

"This is more believable that they could be linked together. Do you feel different?"

[zombra]

"Yeah! It hurts like hell!" she replies, right hand grabbing at her left wrist to try and wrench her hand free. Around them, others with the green light in their hands turn their palms up towards the rift. Not all of them, because plenty are still fighting the monsters, but enough seem to know what they're doing here.

"What the--" she begins to say, but the rift starts making noise and she feels like something is gearing up to happen. After a few tense seconds of louder noise, the rift makes a weird explosion type sound and her hand is released. Around them, monsters stop in their tracks, dazed by the occurrence, though the rift still remains in the sky.

"They're like, paralyzed?" Which isn't the right word because the squid heads are all still standing, but she doesn't have the brainpower to think it through right now. "Hit 'em!" That she can reason out well enough.

[gotyourselfapilot]

Poe sees a squid head coming their way which he draws his attention to that while looking still at the others around them. So the rift and the shards do something. It's purely seeming to be as if it were magic.

"What do you think all of that meant?" The rift making noise was strange enough. Poe couldn't quite believe what was happening. The monsters stopping in their tracks was helpful, a good advantage for those that understood what was really happening.

"Maybe the loud noise confused them." Poe gives a shrug while going up to the closet squid head and punches them. He hopes that it goes towards Tessa so she could get the last swing in.

[zombra]

"No idea, but it's doing something." And that's good enough for her. Later, she'll have to ask what the hell that was all about, but for now they have demons to kill. She swings hard at the squid's head with her gun, noticing it starting to move as she does so. Because of that, she doesn't hit the angle she'd like, but it still connects, sending the thing crashing to the ground.

"It doesn't last long," she says to Poe. "The confusion."

[gotyourselfapilot]

"We need a bit of luck." Poe had been trying to keep up with everything. There's a lot to take in. The green rift, the shards, the demons. The battle between everyone happening on the ground. He kept away from any other demons that had been close to them. As he notices the squid head moving shortly after, they did get lucky with Tessa still hitting the thing.

"How about that? We can't depend on that happening again. Is your gun going to be able to handle more hits?" Mostly he's going to find the next best thing to use as a weapon if needed. Everyone else needed theirs to fight and he was no swordsman.

[zombra]

"Not a lot more. Good thing we're not the only ones fighting these things, huh?" Tessa has no shame about taking cover and letting others handle it if she's not able to. She may lash out and go into a blind rage when her blood's pumping and adrenaline is coursing through her, but she was never a soldier and knows she can't go all 'action movie star' on these things. At some point, her gun is going to break completely.

But around them, people haven't been idle. These monsters are getting killed, whether by melee weapons, or blasts of magic. That's something else Tessa needs to come to terms with, but not right now. There's a call for "Rifters" (whatever that means) to point their anchors at the rift, and around them green beams of light attach to the weird green thing in the sky. Tessa makes a face, not really wanting to do this again, and she looks to Poe.

"You gonna do it too?" Because if he's in, she'll do it.