MOD POST ↠ April Event

[faderifting]

EVENT INFORMATION

For the next few days, Skyhold will be experiencing poor weather and a mysterious illness. There's an event log for this here. This post is for questions for us as well as plotting amongst yourselves.

About the Weather

It's shitty.

About the "Illness"

CAUSE: The "illness" is, in fact, being caused by an underground artifact dislodged by rising pressure in the water table… thing… We're not geologists, guys, we're just trying to give you something fun. So there's an ancient artifact lodged in the bottom of the hot springs now because of the weather and reasons. Work with us.

EFFECT: In addition to a rising fever, the primary effect of exposure is essentially an ability to see/hear through the Veil to the raw Fade. The Veil is not thinned and there is no increased risk of rifts or possession; those sensitive to thinness in the Veil will be able to confirm as much. Mages, rifters, and dwarves will experience the same effects as everyone else. Affected characters will see or hear things primarily when they are not attempting to do so. "Zoning out," for example, might allow a character to absently listen to spirits for a decent length of time, while attempting to focus on what they are saying will muffle or silence them.

In practice, this may allow characters to glimpse spirits that cluster around or observe particular people; to hear snippets of what spirits say to one another or themselves; or to catch similar glimpses and phrases from the dreams of people sleeping in their vicinity. Again, these are only brief snippets, and most of what people observe should be difficult to understand or only hint at what is going on.

The effects will subside no more than three days after a character's last exposure to contaminated water, or less if you'd like.

RESOLUTION: Someone needs to deduce that the water is the problem, and then someone needs to go get the thing, which is, in fact, a very old dwarven skeleton and the skeletal remains of his or her armor. Retrieving it will require diving in hot water—super fun. Multiple people are welcome to be involved in both the deduction and the recovery. Once recovered, the bones and armor will need to be handed over to the Inquisition for safekeeping.

OPTING OUT: Those who bathe or drink from water sourced from the hot springs beneath Skyhold after the rains will be affected, though the degree is up to you. If you want to opt out entirely, have your character coincidentally avoid baths and drink from water collected prior to the event until it's sorted out that the water source is the problem.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[faderifting]

General questions for us go here.

[perseverances]

question regarding the illness. How quickly do symptoms begin to show? And once symptoms do begin to show, how quickly does it progress?

[stabsbooks]

What kinds of things might the spirits be saying? Cole-like...stuff?

[eviscerates]

THIS ISN'T THAT GENERAL TBH I AM SORRY

but is there anything strange that Ruby could smell around the water, with her enhanced wolfy senses, to help with deduction things?

related: would the veil stuff going on mean that those with enhanced other senses might be impacted in ways beyond hearing?

[iknowlove]

Sooooo not so general kind of specific buuuuuuut...

What's this going to do to Terra? Is she going to be like... extra connected to spirits? Are people going to turn corners and see her sitting and having casual conversations with them? Or are things just going to proceed as normal.

Re: QUESTIONS

[sunshinethroughgrey]

So ... would any of them be able to see the glowing spirit that looked like Andraste/The Divine?

Re: QUESTIONS

[failedfirst]

So does boiling the water beforehand do anything or since it's a magical artifact are people still gonna get sick?

[justice_is_blond]

Will this have any effect on the Tranquil?

wrong account but

[pinprick]

Would Pel's research into Veilfire/the Veil help provide any perspective on the deduction side of things? It's a long shot, but I figure I should ask.

[obi_wanmanshow]

Would meditation, which typically involves a lot of zoning out, more or less, allow for an easier time observing the phenomenon of the fade denizens?

DEDUCTION PLOTTING

[faderifting]

Want your character to help figure out what's causing the weird illness? Plot amongst yourselves here. There are no official sign-ups and it won't be GMed—everyone who wants to help will hopefully be able to do so, but we will step in to organize if it becomes necessary.

WRONG ACCOUNT BUT

[ombranera]

Illnesses/magical spirit sickness is totally Adelaide's jam and working out what is wrong and how to fix it would be a lot of fun, she's a little used to spirit weirdness and working on plague cures in general so this would be of a lot of interest to her.

[eviscerates]

Here with Ruby!!! in their world they have Lake Nostos which is a magical lake blah blah special properties blah blah it might help her start get cogs going that the water is the problem? She's familiar with Weird Magical Shit in general so she'd be inclined to leaning in that direction, I think :|a

OH especially with it giving people a tie to the fade they didn't have before, because Nostos whole thing is returning something that was once lost, so it might be what sparks her line of thinking

[laurenande]

Galadriel's jam is weird ancient magic laced water nonsense. Eclectic, I know, but if someone needs help confirming where the problem originates, she can definitely lend a hand.

Alternately if anyone wants reassurance that they won't be possessed/the veil isn't thinning, Galadriel can provide that too.


(Hiccup is largely useless in any/every situation but he will gladly gripe that it's probably something in the water if anyone would rather go that route. He will be very complainy.)

Re: DEDUCTION PLOTTING

[failedfirst]

Velanna is veil sensitive, so she'll be able to tell that something is not right and will probably want to help.

I do however intend for her to also get sick so she'll be extra crabby while also trying to scooby doo mystery shit.

Re: DEDUCTION PLOTTING

[sandsofhell]

I am so up for Walker getting sick and awful things happen to him.

That being said, I also think this would be a fantastic opportunity for Walker, and other Rifters that arrived modern day Earth, to come up with some sort of water treatment/sewage system (since I don't think there is one) for Skyhold. Instead of just drinking whatever's in the ground as you do.

[ancarrow]

A lot of Eirlys' experience is with dealing with epidemics in her alienage and finding the source of the outbreak, so while she wouldn't have much experience in the magical/spirit side of it (but would love to learn, if anyone's willing to teach her!) she will be all over finding the root cause of the sickness, with the water being one of the things she'd check as routine.

[keeperofmagi]

wrong account but I feel like even if Solas figured it out he wouldn't be that bothered by just... letting people hear spirits for a while... but if he gets asked to he'll probably help

[seesobserves]

Sherlock is not here for your Fade shenanigans (no matter how much spirits are suddenly impinging on his mind palace. rood), but he is here for your Why Are Non-Mages Even Experiencing This

wrong account

[eolasemah]

I just want Cade to be part of the extraction team because that seems like exactly the sort of thing he would be sent to do

RECOVERY PLOTTING

[faderifting]

Want your character to help pull the skeleton and armor out of the springs? Plot amongst yourselves here. There are no official sign-ups and it won't be GMed—everyone who wants to help will hopefully be able to do so, but we will step in organize if it becomes necessary.

[arachnophobe]

Alejandro will definitely be interested in having a look at the armor, so he may actually want to be involved in helping pull that shit out.

Re: RECOVERY PLOTTING

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Wrong journal obviously but I would like to have James go on recovery?

[make_my_mark]

Recovery of an artifact you say? Pick, Lara, oh please, oh please. 8D

[nonsibi]

me I want to go spelunking and spring diving to get some torn trousers valuable armor artifact or whatever