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

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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

[crowncitizen]

Prompto only hears the lid slam into the demon, and he only hears it screech in distress - or maybe just annoyance, who would like being hit by a lid like that. Whatever's going on, he can't see at the moment, but he crawls away when he feels the demon lift off of him even the tiniest fraction.

The good news is, he breaks free, the terror demon more focused on the mortal yelling and charging at him. Bad news is, his weapons went flying who knows where when he got hit, so he's left with nothing but his fists. "Crap. Crap crap crap, where did...?"

He finds one in the distance, and makes a run to grab it.

[wontforgetyou]

So far, so good. Prompto's free, and the terror demon is - well, okay, so it's more annoyed than hurt, but it's also quite nicely focused on Jamie, which is exactly what he wants right now. That's not to say it's not dangerous, mind, and it viciously swipes at him with both a talon-tipped hand and a barbed tail as it leaps forward. He manages to twist to one side to avoid the blow from the hand, but the tail strikes his leg - not as badly as it might have if he hadn't been dodging, but still hard enough that it brings out a hiss of pain on his end.

However, he can still move, and that's the important thing. Undaunted, he jumps at it, using what's left of his momentum to bringing up his arm and strike, the dirk slicing along its side and leaving a rather nasty-looking score along its side. So long as he can keep its attention firmly focused on him, Prompto should be able to make it to that sword - and to that end, he darts away again, trying to draw the creature back and away from where the weapon'd wound up after being knocked free, adding in some taunts for good measure.

"Take that, you overgrown twig! Let's see how you like being the one that's sliced up, eh?"