Open: Waking Nightmares in Skyhold (reaction log)

[faderifting]

WHO: Characters in Skyhold
WHAT: Before, during, and after the eruption and attack of an Abomination in Skyhold.
WHEN: Haring 11
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Please note that the actual subduing of the Abomination is being completed by mission volunteers. Use this log as a means to react to this event otherwise. You are welcome to be attacked by or attempt to attack the monster yourself, but please refrain from doing anything that would permanently affect it or interfere with the volunteers' plans.

It's so late that it's early when the Abomination begins its path of terror between the gardens and the main hall. It seems intent on heading for Skyhold's heart itself, a continual slow drag weighted down by the way it, for whatever reason, drags the body of a young made woman behind it, by the ankle. Seven foot tall, a twisted monstrousity of human and monster, made of tattered mage robes, bony protrusions, claws, and teeth. Behind it, it leaves a trail of smearing blood and gore over dirt, grass, rock, as well as blackened scorch marks.

It can be distracted, diverted, whether by mere movement or direct attack. It wields magical fire in inelegant gusts of flame, but is just as likely to lash out physically, impossibly strong, fingers twisted into giant claws, or make grabs and attempt to sink fangs into flesh. Always, it will return to where it last dropped the corpse, and make for the main hall.

Eventually, an explosion of flame and broken stone will destroy the connecting entryway between the gardens and the hall, under the onslaught of the Abomination's magic. A deep roar reverberates through the bones of the castle, inviting one and all to join in.

Comments

[amygdalae]

[Not the one he meant? Then what, precisely, did he mean? Bruce mulls over it for a moment, but then he's distracted by the crashing sound of wood and stone from outside.

He turns his gaze out back into the gardens, seeing the trail of destruction that it's left in its wake, so many people dead or hurt. It reminds him too much of the flashes of memory he sees in his own head during the times when he's transformed. All this pain, all this destruction... for what? It doesn't make sense at all.]

I need to-- [He tries to get up once more, knowing that he's nowhere near recovered enough to move so soon, but not caring anyway. Somebody like him doesn't matter. What matters is the people here, and the one who's trapped and lost. All of them can still be saved, somehow, surely. He just needed to find out how.]

[colecomfort]

[It's a concept that Cole is struggling a little to grasp himself. But if so much of life, or death, lacks sense, then isn't the only thing that really matters—

Bruce is standing, or trying to, despite the pain, and Cole understands. He managed to get Bruce out of the way long enough to save him a greater measure of suffering. Perhaps that's enough for now. After all, more people are getting hurt out there.]

Don't take on too much. He may want to protect you. [The words of caution come to him unbidden. A warning that would sound strange to anyone else.]

There will be more injured. [That's where Cole, personally, will start. Assisting the injured in getting to safe places. Most will find themselves by what remains of the healing tents or in some other sheltered place, with no memory of how they were moved.

He vanishes, and Bruce is left to his own devices.]