[OPEN] FROM RIFTWATCH WITH LOVE: PART ONE

[unshut]

WHO: Everyone and anyone
WHAT: An abomination redecorates the Gallows.
WHEN: Early August
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: Part One of FROM RIFTWATCH WITH LOVE. Will include some violence, some general chaos, and some light murderin'.

There is a man in a worn traveling cloak. He is dark haired, with sharp features dominated by a dark horizontal scar near his hairline, and later someone will describe him as having been soft spoken when he asked for directions.

But something in the Gallows' dining hall, with its unreliable population for the midday meal, must catch under his skin; he's found his voice again by the time he steps up onto one of the benches.

"Is this all of you?"

Someone nearby tells him to get his boots off the furniture, so the man climbs higher onto the table and is louder the second time: "Is this really all you are? A few people in a tower on an island?"

Heads are coming up. As his voice rises, he produces an envelope from his pocket.

"Do you think this is funny? Playing at being something, and telling people you can make a difference to them? You were supposed to be helping, but you're all just sitting here! Don't touch me"—to someone encouraging him to get off the fucking table—"You were meant to be helping us. You promised you would, and I told her I believed you!"

Hands are reaching for him. No, really, get off the table. You can explain what's wrong once you're down; you're with friends— The man jerks his arm free, snarling, "Don't touch me! You're nothing!" A stronger hand finds him then and begins pulling him struggling down. With a wrenched cry of, "Livia!" the man slips from the table.

A column of fire pours upward out of him like molten heat from a crack in the earth. It bursts so high that it scorches a circle on the dining hall ceiling, and burns so suddenly hot that it sends those nearest to him recoiling backward as their clothes catch. The fire licks again in random directions, in chaotic fits and starts of light and heat, and the thing that rises up again in the mage's place isn't really a man at all.

The rage abomination will ravage its way through the dining hall and prodigious Gallows kitchens, then out into the courtyard beyond leaving considerable destruction in its wake until finally brought down by Leander. In the charred aftermath, the following can be recovered from among the mage's belongings: a leather corded bracelet with a green bead woven in it (too small for anything but the smallest wrist), a functioning phylactery, and a letter from "Riftwatch" which implies a history of correspondence and familiarly refers to the recipient by name, 'Felix.' An investigation of Riftwatch's files will reveal the log of having received a message from a similar Felix, No Lastname six months earlier. The message itself is nowhere to be found among the Gallows records.

The recovered letter assures Felix that all will be well, and includes instructions to wait in the woods above the crossroads of a small Wildervale village.

'Help will be on its way. Good luck, and safe travels.'

Comments

[assistente]

Out of the corner of his eye, Salvio sees her running, a small shape that is getting larger. Still so much smaller than the abomination, which swipes toward her, and its roar is so loud and so furious that his chest seizes.

But she's running for him, for the safety of the barrier, and Salvio lifts another in front of her as the abomination's burning hand reaches for her, with flames that form fingers, leaking black smoke as they cut through the air. The barrier shimmers, and holds, and she has more time to run.

He wants to yell something encouraging. He doesn't want to spare the breath. Nothing comes to mind anyways.

[mereandrastianism]

Under the circumstances, it's difficult to know what might even count as encouraging. Betrys can hardly think at all, let alone take in new information from her surroundings. All she's got to go on are the sounds of the abomination behind her and anything that might get in the way of her path ahead.

She stumbles a few yards from Salvio's barrier and only then notices the shimmer around her. There's no time to think of it, though, amidst the rubble, or of the fact that this is the closest she's ever been to magic, the purposeful kind.

Panting, she starts scrambling back to her feet and immediately sinks down again with a sharp little noise--her ankle, Maker, she's turned her ankle, and it won't hold. And the abomination roars, utterly inhuman, too close, and my faith sustains me; I shall not fear the legion, I shall not fear the legion, I shall not fear-- She starts crawling on hands and knees, without time to think of anything but surviving this.

[windyvoice]

The wind kicks up, a sharp, strong lash of air between Betrys and the abomination before a scrawny teen skids up and hurls a rock at the thing.

"Hey! Hey, this way dumbass!" Jenny Lou shouts, pelting the creature with more rocks, "Come on, fucker, pick on somebody your own size!" She stays, shouting and waving, dancing out of attack range, but keeping the focus on her, trying to draw it away.

[assistente]

"Oh, fuck," Salvio says in a thin voice. Teenagers.

He lets the barrier drop for a half second so he can throw another one up, stronger, less harried. His larger one is gone too. This will be the only one for now, cupped around Betrys on the ground. One thing at a time. Salvio is now exposed, but he has taken off running anyways, to reach Betrys.

The abomination roars, its mouth a maw of flames. It strikes out for Jenny Lou. The rocks pelt its club arm, sizzling upon impact before they sink in, like she's chucking pebbles into a lava stream.

Salvio throws her a worried look as he crouches down beside Betrys. The shield is shimmering over their heads, rippling light. "Come," he says, tightly, "your-- can you stand?"

Not so distant, the abomination roars again, barreling its way toward Jenny Lou. Salvio gives it a nervous glance, calculating its speed, the distance between the three points: him and Betrys, the abomination, the child jumping up and down and throwing rocks.

[mereandrastianism]

"With assistence," she says, her voice made brittle. She feels not unlike the wall the abomination--is that what it is? it certainly looks like a reasonable comparison to the monstrous stories she's heard--burst through, crumbling and half-dust already. In this moment, she must not go to pieces. I shall weather the storm. I shall weather the storm. I shall endure. What you have created--

But this will be easier than crawling, and later, she'll decide it's rather more dignified. With Salvio's hands at the ready, Betrys gets her good leg beneath her and pushes herself up, her skirts thrown over one arm. She can stand, provided she doesn't put weight on her ankle.

Behind her, there's shouting. There's a howl like the skies are splitting apart, something inhuman and so loud it feels at though it might topple the Gallows entirely. But Betrys can't do more than hop forward, leaning against Salvio, her cheek mashing into his shoulder as she tries to navigate the mess of the courtyard.

[windyvoice]

Jenny Lou's shouting continues as she spins on her heel and barrels away from the approaching monster in turn, light and fast, heels skidding just a little as she rounds a corner.

She appears again if the monster seems to falter, more rocks in hand. More yelling.

[assistente]

Somewhat sturdier than the energy he gives off, Salvio takes on her weight without much effort. Navigating the debris in the courtyard while managing a limping woman in a dress is somewhat more difficult, a bit like some strange three-dimensional puzzle. Add the frenetic image of Jenny Lou running like hell in the background, and it becomes more difficult still. Salvio keeps shooting her looks as he leads Betrys along, watching for the young girl to take some strike, and he is too far away to help, his barrier already pulling on his strength--

"Keep on," he says to Betrys, in as steady a tone as he can manage, "we are nearly clear--" The abomination roars as it turns toward them, but then Jenny Lou is back popping out from around the corner with more rocks, and its roar turns toward her instead. Salvio swears under his breath. He has to look away; Betrys is his concern for the moment.

There is a door just a few feet from them, leading to a small passageway, a narrow staircase--Salvio knows the Gallows so well, he is already tracking their escape in his mind. But Jenny Lou, what will she do?