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]

"I'm very skilled at screaming loudly to summon help," was the response, meant to be reassuring but quite possibly the opposite. Waver paused, taking a long drag of his cigarette before continuing. "But in all seriousness, yes. Working in pairs is pretty much required at this point, I only branched off to make sure I was heading to the right place."

Taking a final glance around, Waver tsked. "If we're going to get you out though, we should start moving now. The air's tense, and that's usually a prologue to nastier shenanigans."

[quietblade]

Taas chuckles at that and then starts moving, happy to get out of there. Even he could feel some of the pressure, and he didn't have a magical bone in his entire body. "I should buy you a drink after this. Teach you another game."

If they got out of here without bruises. Taas can't hear the creaking or the whispers, but he can see the shadows moving and it is making him tensed. Things didn't want them here, and he can't blame them.

It was a building of death.

[kartereo]

"Much obliged," Waver replies with a curt nod. His eyes shift around for another moment, and to his right, he catches something out of the corner of his eye. It moves backwards though, as does a whisper that he can't quite catch.

There's no betting that the spirits here know they're moving out, but part of Waver hopes that that is the case.

He takes a few further steps down, just as a door to his immediate right slams shut. Waver grits his teeth, and addresses the noise directly.

"For fuck's sake, we're going. Wait five seconds."

[quietblade]

The warrior can't quite help the chuckle as the door slams shut. It's equal amounts nervous and amused, honestly. "At least it closed the door. Don't use the privies around here, some spirit might decide to slam the door open."

That had been a bit awkward.

[kartereo]

Waver's eyebrows rose up slightly, and he tried to hide a smile. "Speaking from experience are we?"

It hadn't happened to him yet, but now it felt inevitable. Either way, it was something else to keep in mind. Waver breathed out, watching the air condense from his breath, then evaporate. Behind them the door creeks open again, and Waver rolls his eyes.

"Impatient, aren't they?"