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

[judgemewhole]

He looks at the hand on his shoulder, and while he does not shrug it off, he does give her a faintly bemused smile. "I have heard that before." He gives her a piercing look, "It seems strangely sentimental, for someone I have never seen show ... a great deal of sentiment."

Which meant the lieutenant who had said it to her - had her respect. Hard earned, that.

He looks to the cliffs again, "This road was never meant to be easy, true." But honestly, what road ever was?

He straightened, a little, brushing their shoulders together, "Speaking of the harder path - you still wanted to see Samson, yes?"

[limier]

Her eyebrows lift lightly in answer.

There are many things that she could say, that she doesn't. Of the origins of idealism, of all the reasons that you find to shed it. She has been a knight near twenty-five years in the Chantry's political center, she has risen without blood or connections; she has done things that to any other purpose, she would name reprehensible.

Sentiment has been a liability. A vulnerability to go unexpressed. You don't kill a child, and go home and feel good about your choices. You don't weep, when you know that you'd do it again.

(You don't survive an Annulment and accord any easy respect to rank.)

Instead: "Emile Courwin," Le limier originale. "A good man."

And rotting out of his fucking skull for it. She shakes her head.

"We have spoken — the immediate matter has been seen to. However, it would be prudent to establish some rapport. I should not be averse to a shared discussion."

If nothing else, it may show her a little of how they both react under pressure.

[judgemewhole]

He meets her gaze for long and silent moment, before one corner of his mouth twists. Uh-huh. Well, he will give it to one's mentor. They tend to empty one of doubts, of prejudices and sometimes, even of the coldness that can grow around one's faith.

As she had said, being a Templar was no easy task, and those who survived were not the weak of heart or of mind. "He sounds it."

He is sincere in that compliment.

Both eyebrows arch at that, "Is there any reason to build rapport with a known manipulative monster? Outside of having him spout more blasphemies in hopes that I will strike him and give him an opportunity to escape."

[limier]

How silently frustrating, to have this conversation, over again. Reed too had balked of the notion, and she accords him a far greater pragmatism.

"Information," Bluntly. "It is a matter of ends and means."

Samson's an asset, or the Inquisition wouldn’t be propping him up still. Doubtful that they'll chance his transfer to Kirkwall, but the same principle shall inevitably be extended of others.

(I have as much reason to loathe him, She wishes at times to hiss, a jealous little guardian of her own grief. I have as much reason as you,)

She could push Anders off this boat. She could see the Spire's ghost brought to answer for its crimes. But they need the healers, the wardens; they need the Seekers' approval, and she'll not chance them now.

There will always be those they'd sooner leave bleeding. That doesn't make it the smart play.

"Do you fear such opportunities shall present themselves?"

Calm, neutral; but there's no softness to the inquiry. It's not Samson's desire to escape she asks after (self-evident), but Norrington's temper. He doesn't cow easily. That's well enough — save that it allows him to be baited.

[judgemewhole]

James glanced sideways at her, and huffed out a breath. "Of course it is ... "

He waved his hand a little, his voice coming in as wearied once more, "No need to explain to me. He is a tool be used until he cannot be used anymore." Like the rest of us.

He'd rather like to see her push Anders off this boat. Probably less with Cole - but then again James had a fairly better understanding of spirits than he used to. Yet he understands what is at stake.

Unlike her, though, he can at least show he doesn't like the concessions that have to be made against their souls.

Now there was another huff of breath, but this one holds a touch of contempt, "He left me with a scar on my neck, not on my soul. He's just a puppet for his monster-master - why would I give him more importance than he is worth?"

It is clear, he feels nothing but contempt for his former brother. Baiting was not something that Samson was going to be able to get by Norrington.

[limier]

A short nod. Something of the stillness in her expression eases once more, unneeded.

"Good." She'll not push it further. That he can contain himself is one less worry for the plate. "I have spoken with Reed; his present impression of our relations are... favourable."

Her mouth twists wry, and Wren casts him a knowing look. She knows nothing of any history between them, doesn't need to; the Seeker's expression had been telling enough.

Reed's an asshole. It's why they get along. Without the bonds of a mutual purpose, of fraternity, she isn't certain she and Norrington would.

"Best for us all that it remain so. If there is aught I may do to ease this transition, know that you need only ask."

[judgemewhole]

He nods at her in turn, before his expression shifts into something slightly more wry in turn, before he puts his gaze back on the water. He's not entirely certain they would get along either - she doesn't believe in any of this and it makes it hard to relate to her as a Templar.

Yet here they are.

"If I need the assistance, I will let you know. Right now the most I could ask of you is to take Cade out again. Being with you seems to have done the lad some good."