[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

[okayimin]

"All good, everybody's patched and the worst are getting shoved into infirmary beds whether they like it or not." She begins a surprisingly coordinated juggling act of pouring a tea with a strong herbal fragrance into one of the cups and holding it out to Sidony. "Here, tea. Arbor blessing and deep mushroom, helps with fatigue. We'll have a few hours before we need to do bandage changes."

[indissection]

"That's the best place for them," Sidony agrees, nodding her head. She does glance at the tea a little nervously for a moment before she takes it, leaning forward and smelling it carefully. "No time for a nap, then?"

[okayimin]

She huffs, almost a laugh, "Reckon you can try. We'll hit the point where we have more hands than work sooner or later, but I don't expect to be able to get up again once I stop moving properly." She shrugs and manages not to drop her tea service at the same time. "I don't envy any of you that dream."

[indissection]

"No, I imagine we might want to get our rest as soon as we possibly can." Sidony sighs, leaning back and rubbing at her eyes gently. "I should see if Byerly is around, or... Someone. Anyone, I imagine."

[okayimin]

Her eyebrows arch, "You should see to getting some rest. I'll find him if you're worried about him, but we're not gonna be in any better state if you spend the down time running ragged."

[indissection]

"I'm sure he can take care of himself," she lies, frowning. Byerly is the most likely to get himself into trouble, but... She breathes out and sighs. "If you see him...?"

[okayimin]

"Even if he can't, we got plenty who can do it for him, but if I see 'im I'll kick 'im over your way." She points sternly to the tea, "Drink your tea, Surgeon."

[indissection]

"Thank you, truly." The smile she offers is faint, but she manages it all the same. "Look, I'm drinking. See?" She sips from the cup carefully.

[okayimin]

She'd hardly hold it against her if Sidony didn't smile at all. Sawbones' own is a dry, little thing. "Thank you."

Whether it's for drinking the tea with minimal fuss or her work in general... Probably both.