[OPEN] holes in the sky, pierced by the fire

[eolasemah]

WHO: Everyone who's around!
WHAT: A rift has opened in Skyhold. We have to deal with it.
WHEN: The last day of Wintermarch
WHERE: In the courtyard, between the tavern and the dungeon.
NOTES: I will be posting periodically to let you know the results of what your dudes are doing! If you need clarification or want to ask me something, PM me on this account.

It’s a dismal, rainy evening, with Skyhold at the mercy of one of the many winter storms that passes through the Frostbacks. Most of the keep’s denizens have shut themselves inside to sit by a warm fire, have a drink, even go to bed early rather than face the freezing rain and the wind.

The tavern windows are aglow with light and merriment, but in the open area just behind it comes a different kind of glow: flames bursting to life and then dissipating, as a solitary elf in an oilskin cloak practices her fire spells in the relative safety of the rain.

It’s no secret that Sina has been isolating herself as of late, though her mood has taken an even more pointed downturn in the last few days. Her movements as she works are increasingly erratic, frustrated even, as there are times when she casts a serviceable fireball, and others when barely a spark leaves her hands. As she grows angrier, her energy depletes, and she’s barely resting between casts.

Perhaps it is because of this that what happens next occurs at all. In a burst of anguish and fury, Sina wrenches her hands forward, drawing from whatever reserves she has left—and then her shard reacts.

In an explosion of neon green that knocks Sina flat on her back, a rift erupts into the gloomy sky. It crackles and hums insidiously, its strange electricity causing every shard belonging to every Rifter in the vicinity to suddenly spit and pop in recognition.
No doubt drawn to the new opening in the Fade, the dark form of a despair demon slithers from the rift, takes stock of its surroundings, and slowly begins to approach the prone form of the fool that freed it. Moments later, it is followed by several spindly green terror demons, and at last the hulking inferno that comprises a rage demon.

Comments

Fight the demon!

[eolasemah]

Although not immediately on the offensive, the demons will attack mortals who approach and interfere with their exploration.
[OOC note: after you’ve posted in, I will secretly assign you a number and randomize specific demon attacks.]

Do the Rifter thing!

[eolasemah]

You know what you have to do. And if you don’t, you better figure it out, because this giant hole in the sky ain’t closin’ itself.

Help Sina!

[eolasemah]

Sina is conscious but that’s about as good as can be said for her. With the constant pulsing and bursting of her shard in response to the rift, she is curled up and clawing at her chest and throat, mouth open wide but taking no breath as she struggles to make her lungs work. She’s not going to last long.

Watch from afar!

[eolasemah]

Everything is visible from the tavern windows, so I mean... why give up a good seat? (this is a wildcard, do what you like!)

[mythalenaste]

She's on the other side of the courtyard, but Pel comes sprinting, snatching up a random staff someone had leaning against a wall along the way. The staff swings as she arrives, ice spewing from it toward the rage demon as her feet anchor to the ground in a fighting stance.

[aintwejust]

Know what Mal didn't wanna deal with today? His hand light'n up like it's some kinda magic. Know what Mal's deal'n with today?

His foutu hand glow'n like it's foutu magic! And then there are demons and Jayne go'n crazyballs off to one side try'nta eat 'em and Mal. Mal just screws the glaive blade onto the head of his spear and heads out, palm flex'n, try'n to figure out how in the void he's supposet'a close that thing with this thing in his hand.

"...tell me someone knows how this shit works."

[nadasharillen]

Nahariel is crossing the threshold of Skyhold to join a caravan bound for Emprise, hood of her own cloak raised against the damp chill, when the rift blazes to life in the courtyard.

Her head snaps back, eyes staring, transfixed as if the sickly light it shed were a spear through her heart. Rift. The courtyard. Sina.

Suddenly everything she carried was on the ground, her feet scrabbling in the churned, freezing mud in a desperate bid for speed. Her hood dropped back as the hunter sprinted directly into the wind, the cold rain plastering strands of dark hair to her cheeks. Rounding the turn into the courtyard, her foot slipped beneath her, sending her hard to her knees on the muddy stone. Even as she bared her teeth in pain, she spent no thought on it. She could see the courtyard now, and her rapidly dilating pupils were filled with demons. Demons, and the crumpled form of her beloved First.

A noise tore out of her throat that was not unlike the screeches of the dark creatures themselves, and then she was running again. In such an animal fear was she that her hands made themselves claws, forgetting entirely the blades at her belt.

This was how, with a second shriek, the dark-skinned hunter's body slammed fully into the demon of despair that approached Siuona Dahlasanor.

[el_tybs]

He was tired from the trip but eager to see certain faces, so the first place he starts to head is the tavern rather then his room. At least that had been the idea until the flash of green and pulsing of spirit energy exploding not too far off.

"Wha-"

His reaction is immediate, yanking his staff from his back as he runs to the source. There's someone on the ground, but before he can consider getting closer a sickly green circle of energy appears under his feet. He's lucky to at least get a barrier off before the demon comes crashing up through the portal, sending him sprawling to the ground. "Shit..."

[fleurdesel]

The veil's a funny thing to most mages. It's there. It serves it's purpose, keeping magic and spirits and demons on the other side. In Skyhold it's never felt particularly thin save around the odd shards the Rifters carry, that Sina carries. To have the veil tear in a rift feels- sounds- even tastes strange in the air to Adelaide; though she's never been around them long enough to document the phenomena.

Then suddenly there's a shriek, a snap of some wild, unknowable power- and demons. Ozone in the air, acrid and ashen, and demons. Adelaide scrambles for the courtyard to see what's happened, where the light is coming from, harried and horrified as she shoves her way past those fleeing the chaos-

Crumpled below the rift, Sina. Struggling with a demon, Nahariel.

Adelaide sprints, calling Compassion like a guiding song to raise barriers around the downed mage, around herself, around Nahariel with a gesture and a word as she skids through the chaos closer to the young Dalish. "Sina!"

[eolasemah]

Sina, naturally, doesn't react. She's barely aware of what's happening, too busy drowning on dry land. Between her abnormally racing heart and her useless lungs, her chest feels like it will explode, and her mind contains nothing but wordless panic.

The despair demon is alarmed by being crashed into, and it whirls on Nahariel right as Adelaide throws up her barrier. It shrieks, blasting the three with frigid air, all of which is blessedly shielded, as it vaults itself away from them and into the fray with the others.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Church does not know what he has to do. All he knows is the stupid bit of magical hell demon portal rift in his hand is acting up in a fucked up way, and, oh, there's chaos going on out there somewhere at the- the tavern? Ugh, what the fuck.

So of course, stupid him has to go and check it out like a dumbass. Aaaaand there's some demons and a tear in shit and he still can't work his fucking crossbow. What the fuck? Should he just leave it to the people who know what they're doing?? Generally speaking he's never been surrounded by people who know what they're doing, so this is weird to him that it's a viable option.

Maybe more people were gonna come falling out like he did into the swamp. That'd be cool.

[nadasharillen]

Beside herself as she was, Nari felt neither the change in the air around her as Adelaide's barrier gathered around her, nor the blast of bone-chilling cold--although the latter was more due to the barrier. As the thing swings away from them in an unnerving arc, the hunter whips around to see if any other demons threaten Sina.

None.

She spins back towards her crumpled clansister, slips halfway there, and finishes the rest of the distance in a grasping crawl, her heart pounding between her ears louder even than the electric crackle of the Rift.

"Sina!" she repeats. Fear makes her voice low and hoarse. Urgent. Is she wounded? Had she been too late? Nari reaches out a hand to touch her shoulder, eyes growing wider, even more panicked at her glazed look, the gulps of nothing she takes like a fish on land.

And the shard... The damned shard was alight with power, crackles of light dancing across Sina's thin chest.

But no blood. No blood.

But it didn't matter. The wound was something she couldn't bandage. No no no no.

"No... NO!"

She looks over her shoulder at the crackle, the fight, and screams--the agonized sound ripping through the air roughly.

"CLOSE IT!"

[kremdelacreme]

Bad things happened sometimes. A lot, all at once, compounding until everything seems to be snowballing uncontrollably. He had heard about what had happened between Sina and Pel, how tense things had gotten, and he was pretty much aware of the kinds of things that could happen to mages under enough stress. So this sort of thing wasn't really unprecedented, in his opinion.

It was still something of a disaster though, and before people could really start to panic, one comfortable-looking Charger in a thick pair of breeches and a tunic and little else had run out of the tavern, shouting and gesturing for some of his men to start keeping people back. Crowd control would be key here to keep people from getting hurt. Krem himself beat a wide path around the courtyard to draw a sword from the training area. The demon don't seem to be attacking yet, but he still keeps them in his sights as he keeps his distance.

"Mages, keep your eyes on the rest," he ordered; should the demons attack, there would need to be barriers thrown up in a hurry.

[fleurdesel]

"Move-" Adelaide takes the window they are given, the brief lull in the demonic attack to scramble that much closer, staff abandoned far behind. Everything she'd ever feared of the shard come alive. A rift, demons, and death- if she does not get her hands on Sina soon. No blood, no breath, and the latter is far more her concern than anything else. "I need to see her-"

[eolasemah]

No sooner have the words left Krem's mouth when a portal forms beneath Rocky and a terror demon erupts from within, knocking him off his feet and into Skinner.

Re: Fight the demon!

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"... Maker." The stein in Bethany's hand slipped free as the green fire took to the sky, and demons started coming out one by one, bowling over those who were already out there, and then there was a small figure lying beneath it.

Years of terrible things had Bethany running out the door into the cold wet night, dragging fire with her as she looked to defend those who were trying to get their feet back underneath them, and those who were already standing to do battle.

[nadasharillen]

She hears the feet and the command before she sees who gives it. For a brief moment, Adelaide is confronted with a snarling Dalish hellion in a ready crouch, the green light of the Rift glimmering along a wicked looking dagger clutched in a white-knuckled grip.

Nahariel is halfway into a vicious lunging strike before recognition fills her dilated eyes, and she pulls back instantly, quickly reversing her grip to turn the point away from the approaching mage.

"Adelaide--! She can't breathe!"

[fleurdesel]

"Nahariel- you need to move." A dagger and danger between her and her patient- she does not have time to calm the huntress when Sina lies gasping behind. Sense returns, thank the Maker, and she's given room to crouch next to that thin frame, that glowing beacon of he fade's power.

"Keep us covered-" Demons are fickle things, they may return at any moment. Pulling Compassion's power about her like a cloak Adelaide pours it into Sina's chest- hands hovering over that crackling shard.

[nadasharillen]

The hunter hesitated for the space of a breath, eyes darting back and forth between the two mages. But she knew Adelaide. No-nonsense, firm, kind, a teacher. A healer.

A shem'len. Her brain supplied, but she tamped it down fiercely, replacing the word: Sina's only hope.

Decision made and action taken, Nahariel's demeanor changed from that of a hunted animal to the hunter. Her back straightened. She nodded seriously, and then flipped her dagger around to the front again, drawing its twin as she did so, turning to hold the line.

[apostasia]

Cool in that this clusterfuck already involves a despair demon, at any rate - Martel hasn't drawn his sword at all when he strides with purpose toward ...Mal, first, grasping him by the wrist and dragging him toward Church without so much as a by your leave. He is brisk and businesslike about it, tracking the progress of the demons and sharp with the awareness that he is going to have to simply accept he can't do everything at once, and leave those who aren't grappling with the rift itself to their work.

It pains him to do almost as much as the shard of rift magic trying to rip his arm apart.

"Together," he says, brooking no argument, gripping Church's wrist the way he'd caught Mal's, lifting all of their hands and aiming them toward the rift with purpose; staggering, when they link.

Fucking hell.

[eolasemah]

The demons are, at least temporarily, occupied with those actively fighting them. That may change! [STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE]

Sina takes a sudden, violent gasp of breath, her body surging to life as Adelaide's spirit magic pours into her. She coughs several times, then wheezes again, a burst from her shard jolting her in a seizure-like motion, her head falling back against the dirt. Her senses are screaming; drowning, she's drowning in a green electric ocean. Her heart lurches and stops, starts again erratically, under too much stress between the power of the shard and the lack of oxygen to keep doing its job properly.

[eolasemah]

There's a strange, unearthly thrumming sound as the rift and their shards connect like magnets, a stream of vivid green energy bridging the gap between them. It hums and builds until it feels as though their hands will shred, and then an explosion of energy releases them all.

For all that, the rift is still there.

[fleurdesel]

No, no- not like this. Not like this. "Breathe-"

Too much power between the shard and the rift- they need to move her further away but with the demons surrounding them it isn't possible. Adelaide doubles over the domed barrier between them and the tear in the veil- hoping it might do something, anything to save her.

Compassion sings and screams, coiling closer to Adelaide's skin as she pours more power into Sina. Forcing her lungs to breathe, her heart to beat, the pain of the shard's crackling wrath away. Too much to mind and she must do this right. Sina cannot die. Not like this. "Breathe-"

[eolasemah]

It works, at least for a moment or so. Sina heaves in another breath, sighs it out, heaves in another-- her eyelids begin to flutter open, and then the rifters make their attempt.

She has a split-second to scream as her body lurches unnaturally, her chest forward and connected to a beam of green light that leads directly to the rift. It thrums loudly, building energy, and then, like the others, it bursts with enough force to knock back not only her, but probably Adelaide too.

When Sina hits the ground again, her head lolls to one side, and she is still. Sickeningly, the shard continues to crackle and spit in her otherwise silent chest.

[aintwejust]

"Who the shit are you?" Not that it stops him from following along, Jayne bounding forward at a whistle to attack the nearest demon and buy them a little more time to deal with this shiny green thing that's tear'n up the foutu sky and mak'n his foutu hand ache likea sonovabitch. That he's gett'n dragged along by said pained hand is not somth'n he wants happening- LESS when it start's spitt'n and flar'n up like a damn barrel of gaatlok. Usually that stuff goes boom.

He don't want his hand to go boom!

"Ce que la merde est cette merde?!" It hurts MORE at the crackle of power, bands of light linking their hands with somth'n under the rift what he can't see and the bones of his hand are fit to melt and he don't wanna explode thank you! He staggers back at the blast, yanking his hand free of the asshole's grip to cradle it to his chest.

"What the SHIT is wrong with you?!"