OPEN LOG: Establishing a Base in Kirkwall

[faderifting]

WHO: Many People
WHAT: Cleaning up Kirkwall
WHEN: Cloudreach 1-21
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: This log post is for characters who go early to Kirkwall to assist in preparing it for the rest of those assigned there. We strongly encourage IC discussion of things left to character discretion—someone should definitely do a crystal post to discuss what to do with the personal belongings left behind in the Gallows or what new form the statues should take!

Kirkwall once lived on the edge of the Tevinter Imperium and was home to nearly a million slaves. Stolen from elven lands or shipped from across the sea, all slaves fed the Imperium's unquenchable thirst for expansion. They worked in massive quarries and sweltering foundries that produced stone and steel for the Empire.

The city's complicated past is not easy to forget, history having earmarked many corners of the stone city. A ship approaching the harbor spots the city's namesake: an imposing black wall. It is visible for miles, and carved into the cliff side are a pantheon of vile guardians representing the Old Gods. Over the years, the Chantry has effaced many of these profane sentinels, but it will take many more years to erase them all.

Also carved into the cliff is a channel that permits ships into the city's interior. Flanking the channel are two massive bronze statues—the Twins of Kirkwall. The statues have a practical use. Kirkwall sits next to the narrowest point of the Waking Sea, and a massive chain net can be erected between the statues and the lighthouse, closing off the only narrow navigable lane. This stranglehold on sea traffic is jealously guarded by the ever-changing rulers of the city as the net trolls taxes, tolls, and extortions in from the sea.

—From In Pursuit of Knowledge: The Travels of a Chantry Scholar, by Brother Genitivi

---

Establishing a presence in Kirkwall is a delicate matter. First, there's Provisional Viscount Bran Cavin—a man so used to batting back friendly offers of entirely harmless occupation of the battered city-state that his first three responses to the Inquisition's leadership appeared to be slightly personalized form letters. Proving that the Inquisition is here to work and not to conquer will be a process. The first step in that process is the second reason the move is delicate: the only building the Provisional Viscount is willing to part with is the Gallows, left quarantined and unoccupied since Knight-Commander Meredith Stannard's famous crystallization into red lyrium in the courtyard. The Gallows have since overgrown with red lyrium. If anyone is going to live and work there, there's a lot of work to do.

↠ Cloudreach 1-3: The Journey There
↠ Cloudreach 3-4: Arrival
↠ Cloudreach 4-14: Haunted
↠ Cloudreach 14-21: Spring Cleaning

Comments

[kartereo]

Waver hadn't meant to stare at the camera in Prompto's hands. If anything, he mostly meant to haul his ass through Lowtown and get back to the Gallows, and the ship proper before nightfall.

But seeing familiar technology was jarring in a way that felt foolish. He would never stare at a camera back home, and damn Thedas for making it into a novelty now.

He wanted to know how the thing was still operating here, if it was digital or film, and a million other questions beside

So Waver settled on a response that reflected his exact level of knowledge.

"Nothing good, I imagine."

[crowncitizen]

He hates how jumpy he's been lately, but this place just does it to him. Prompto tries to pass off nearly leaping out of his skin as nothing, nodding and rubbing the back of his head. Totally cool, nothing happening here...

"Yeah, buildings don't set on fire or get caved in for happy reasons. Looks like something fell on this one."

[kartereo]

Waver follows Prompto's eyes to the building in question, then nods in agreement.

"Most likely. Is the district proving to be an interesting subject for photographs at least?"

[crowncitizen]

"If 'really sad and depressing' counts as interesting, then yeah."

He pauses, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Wait, you know what this is? Are you a Rifter, too?"

[kartereo]

Throwing aside the prelude to what he wanted to dig into, Waver nodded in affirmation.

"Yes and yes to both questions. I do have to ask though, is that thing running on film or digital?"

[crowncitizen]

"Man, it's nice to talk to someone else who knows what this is." At his question, he smiles and says, "Film. Not my usual choice, but given that this place doesn't have electricity, it works out for the best."

[kartereo]

"I would have thought the batteries would survive for a bit in a digital," Waver admitted. But the sheer novelty of using film cameras again put a little grin on his face.

"How're you planning to develop it then?"

[crowncitizen]

"Yeah, for a time. But once they ran out, it would have been useless." And it would have left it unable to be developed, with no computers around.

"When I got dumped here, I had a bag with the needed chemicals to develop it. Just need a dark room and a way to print the photos."

[kartereo]

"True enough. But won't the same hold true for running out of film?"

Waver was old enough to remember when all photography was done on film, which was one of the reasons the question was foremost in his mind.

"Huh. Have you found any suitable environments for that dark room yet?"

[crowncitizen]

"Yeah, but I can conserve that. Or I'm trying to, for the most part. Hopefully I can figure out a substitute in the meantime." Or just some way to make it here. How, he has no idea just yet, but honestly, he has bigger concerns at the moment.

"Found a closet or two in those Gallows that might work. The lack of electricity actually helps here: no lights to worry about accidentally turning on or whatever." He's done that once or twice... "It's just a matter of claiming one and getting to work."

[kartereo]

"Hm," Waver said thoughtfully. It was an interesting puzzle, actually, and something worth spending time figuring out. "I guess the best place to start with would be to figure out if glass negatives could be made, and if not, fiddle around from there." That would require chemicals though. Lots of them. "Getting the chemical for exposures would be the other thing though."

But a dark room, that sounded damn useful. "I could help with the set up, if you'd like."

[crowncitizen]

"I've got you covered with the chemicals. I don't have them with me, but I had a bag of 'em when I came through the rift." The more he thinks about it, the stranger it all is. But he can't complain. "It's just figuring out the negatives. And then printing."

He perks up at the offer. "Really? I'd appreciate it. Right now, I'm just taking pictures, and trying to find a good dark room. Probably a storage closet somewhere, no window. If they let me have one, that is."

[kartereo]

"Sometimes I think the rifts know more than we think they do and let us bring the important things." It wouldn't be surprising if that was true, at least. "But you do have options, and that's excellent."

But options weren't worth anything without a proper work room. "I'd imagine that having some kind of basin or tub might help? Goodness knows I've seen enough storage closets and the sort in helping clean the Gallows out."

[crowncitizen]

"It's kind of freaky. My own camera got transformed into this one - or something - and somehow it created film and chemicals from nowhere. I mean, something else has to be going on with those Rifts, right?" Most portals don't create objects out of thin air like that.

"A plastic container, large enough for the film and chemicals to be put in would be ideal, but since plastic's not a thing here, the cleanest steel or metal drum I can find would be best." That's the tricky part, too: cleanliness. Even a bit of dirt could ruin a negative, given the chance.

[kartereo]

"It makes more sense for something to be going on with them than not. That much is painfully obvious, especially with your experience." Waver frowned, filing the information away. "But finding a stable rift to study seems an impossible thing to do."

Waver nodded at the needs, frowning as he considered what might be available. "It'd help if the metal was non-reactive as well." But if smithing was up to that particular standard in Thedas, Waver had no idea. His guess said likely not. "Do you imagine porcelain might work instead?"

[crowncitizen]

"Yeah, I've heard about people wanting to study the rifts. I get it, but it seems like a... kind of a bad idea waiting to happen?" Like, the kind where people get killed or are set on fire or something.

Prompto considers it for a moment. He's no expert in this aspect of things, but he tries to work out what he does know in his head. "It might, if the chemicals don't stain it too much? Risky though. That stuff breaks easy. I don't know how many porcelain cups of my mom's I broke over the years."

[kartereo]

"A lot of scientific studies have that air to them, I feel," he said with an easy sort of shrug. "There has to be some level of risk to get results."

Which, speaking of science. "Well, it'd be something to explore at the very least. Terra cotta might be another possibility. But both are equally breakable." But cheap to replace. "The only other option might be glass. Which continues on the breaking theme."

[crowncitizen]

"I think I'll have to run the risk of it breaking, I guess. Any metal would risk contamination." He will never take plastic for granted ever again. "And I don't have a lot of money, so probably whatever's cheap, too."

[kartereo]

"I've seen a few pottery stalls at the market closest to the gallows," he offered helpfully. "You'll probably want to start there I suspect."