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

[thehiddenking]

"I am tired of others attempting to deprive me of simple freedoms!" of course that wasn't Oghren's fault, but Thingol's frustration was growing daily. His deep voice was a harsh growl as a piece of a statue fell, slid and nearly unbalanced him.

So much for the grace of Elves!

"My voice is my own, Dwarf; I will say what I please." he brought his blade down hard on a statue's shoulder.

[wardeneructate]

"Then I'll say as I please. I have my own sodding voice too!"

Spinning violently, he slashed at statue legs. Seriously this wasn't going to end until they finished clearing out that lyrium but at least Oghren showed good stamina for this. At least as far as continuing to fight went. That was likely the berserker in him coming out to play.

"So leave me my pleasures too!"

[thehiddenking]

"Unfortunately." Thingol sounded immensely regretful. He knocked a statue into another statue with his foot, observing their tumble curiously. How hard must they be hit before they crack?

"Your pleasures leave me nauseous." from a headache, no doubt, though the bodily functions would be enough to turn a stomach too, headache or not.

[wardeneructate]

"Guess you better learn to breathe through your mouth until they get all that red lyrium destroyed so these thing will stop moving!" Because Oghren wasn't about to stop any of his bodily functions or personality traits just because this elf found them offensive. Forget that.

Another swing of his axe sent a loud clang through the area but there was a nice scratch in the bronze now. "Now we're talking!"

[thehiddenking]

As if he would let himself become a panting mouth-breather! Not that he would be panting for a long while yet. His stamina was a match for any Dwarf's - though, frankly, it should be far better. But this world had stripped much from him; the last thing he was willing to relinquish was his dignity.

"Tis only a scratch; no one has perished from so little."

Okay so he was a little peeved he hadn't done that first. But if sheer brutality was what the doctor ordered, then, so be it. Aranrúth could take the strain. Thingol battered the statues mercilessly, imagining each one as a vessel for his enemies.

[wardeneructate]

"We're not going to perish them. Didn't you hear? We're distracting so they can break that lyrium and that's supposed to perish them."

Oghren was not about to be above throwing that at the snooty elf's face. It wasn't like he'd done anything to earn being disliked after all. The elf had decided he didn't like him from the moment they met. Uncalled for if one were to ask him!

"Going to have to lay into them hard if you want to scratch them up though!"

[thehiddenking]

"You do make a fine distraction." Thingol's tone was perfectly snooty; he had perfected it over the many years he had spent, nice and safe, behind his wife's famous (or is it infamous) Girdle.

"So be it!" he struck with all his strength now, the sound ringing like the music of the Forges. He was naught but a swirl of blue robes and silver hair for a time, but that could not last forever.

Much to his horror, he reached a point where he needed a rest. This was not natural! Glowering, he stepped back from their foes and fought to catch his breath.