Into the DANGER ZONE

[faderifting]

WHO: All Rifters + the 7 natives who signed up
WHAT: Searching the ruins of Haven for survivors, an Inquisition crew finds something strange. And demons. It's kind of scary that the demons aren't the strange thing.
WHEN: Third week of Harvestmere, 9:41
WHERE: Haven
NOTES: We've broken rifters and rescuers (or "rescuers") into two groups. This log has an arrival comment for each group--you can start smaller subthreads beneath those rather than try to have an eight- or nine-person log, just incorporate surrounding chaos/fighting--and a third top-level set for the whole group's journey back to Skyhold

You were asleep-- deeply or fitfully, for the last time 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, tumbling 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.

But there's no waking here, just a flare of green-white light and a jarring impact, barely softened by snow that lies a foot deep with an icy crust that cracks beneath the force of your landing. The wind is biting cold, the sun is bright, and you are not alone. Others thud to the ground nearby, as bewildered as you, and others run up who look no less confused for having their feet beneath them.

You are also not as you were: in the palm of your left hand there glows a narrow splinter of light the same sickly green as whatever brought you here. It aches, a bone-deep pain that gnaws even through all the distractions. Like that you're being attacked by monsters, some tall, spindly stick-things with too many eyes, some hunched and hooded with no eyes at all.

Welcome to Thedas!

Comments

[demonicbeauty]

Ariadne jumped down from her perch, landing neatly on her feet. She barely noticed the snow and ice, crossing over to the boy.

She liked the way he talked.

"Thank you," she told him sincerely. Perhaps he hadn't saved her life--Ariadne was a competent fighter--but he'd certainly saved her a lot of pain. And the possibility of having to reveal herself without being fully aware of her surroundings.

She shuddered to think what might have happened.

[colecomfort]

If her thanks had an effect on him, it didn't show. In truth, Cole had been thanked dozens of times by people who wouldn't remember saying the words a handful of heartbeats later. The gratitude didn't matter — only that they were still around to express it.

And to that end: "The rest are still trying to hurt us," he said, with a nod over her shoulder, toward the nearest fight.

[demonicbeauty]

Quickly, Ariadne glanced over her shoulder. There were more of them, but as she turned back, her more pressing concern became the one charging forward from the other direction.

Without any warning at all, Ariadne grabbed the stranger's shoulder and shoved him hard out of the way, throwing herself forward. A soft, metallic sound rang through the air as she spread out her talons, jamming them directly into the monster's belly.

Ariadne didn't like fighting with her talons. They were an unfair advantage, able to penetrate most materials. But her sling, she already knew, wouldn't make a difference.

With a soft hiss, she wrenched her hands apart, leaving ten long gashes through the creature's middle.