open: we built this circle on rock and roll

[exequy]

WHO: Open (mostly), targeted toward people who care about mage problems but anybody's welcome.
WHAT: Looting a Circle, fighting some scavengers, and arguing about the ethics of falsifying records of abuse.
WHEN: Cloudreach
WHERE: Markham
NOTES: This is a sliver of a couple bigger schemes, including a plan to publicize mage mistreatment (which will double as an anti-Gertruda Divine-influencing plot) and a plan to hide some Circle valuables from the Chantry, but your character doesn't have to be aware of those plans to participate in this! They can just be along to help fight bandits and carry heavy stuff. ETA: In some places this log says Ostwick, rather than Markham, because I'm dumb. Ignore them.

Calling an outbreak of enchantment-related deaths and mysterious incidents in Markham convenient would be horribly insensitive to the various burn victims and vanished druffalo involved, but, you know. It is. All of the arguments about whether or not to make formal request for permission to secure the Circle's contents, when it's already their stuff, and if Ostwick says no it might mean the Inquisition won't give them leave to go—those arguments were all for nothing. Markham's response is, essentially, Please do. Hooray!

Comments

SCAVENGERS

[exequy]

Hooray, until they get there and face the reason for that easy yes. The ruin of the Circle, still standing, a burnt-out husk of a fortress rising up from a rocky overlook in the Vinmarks outside of Markham, is no longer abandoned. The bandits and mercenary outcasts responsible for the proliferation of flaming swords and vaporized livestock in the countryside have taken up permanent residence, and at the sight of carts and Inquisition colors on the approach, they dig in for the war's smallest siege. They have the walls, the high ground, storage rooms full of enchanted weapons and magebane and artifacts that they're like forty percent sure how to use, and—because this is Thedas—an unreasonable degree of determination to hold their ground.

ooc | Make your own sub-top-levels for combat adventures, including any magic artifact nonsense you want, as long as it's plausible given canon enchantment/magic limits. Members of The Mob can be killed, convinced to run away, or captured alive, whatever you want.

SEARCH & SLEEPOVER

[exequy]

It takes the better part of twenty-four hours, but when the last of the scavengers have been run out, run through, or run up to Ostwick to enjoy the pleasures of the Free Marcher justice system, the fortress is left empty and silent, mostly. There are still the rats, and the spiders, and the occasional distant noise that might be a restless spirit. But it's empty enough to set up camp in the library—literally camp, bedrolls and all, strewn around the massive fireplace that serves as the room's centerpiece and the party's cookfire. No one's going to stop anyone who wants to go sleep in some probably-dead mage's old bed instead, but given the aforementioned rats, spiders, and spirits, it's not the cleverest idea to go alone.

In the morning there's porridge, then a full day of scavenging through the remains, puzzling over magically locked doors and impassable hallways, sorting dangerous debris that requires careful destruction from mundane debris that can be thrown into the growing bonfire outside, dealing with enormous insect nests that have been constructed in the wardrobes in the last five years or possessed skeletons that stagger unexpectedly out of the dark, and loading anything of value onto the carts and wagons outside.

By the time the work is done, it's too late to travel, so everyone gets a second night of campfire stories and a second morning of porridge.

ooc | Do your own sub-top-levels for whatever interests you! Make up whatever magic puzzle locks and obstacles you want, within reason. If you want your character to personally find and keep anything that would qualify as an AC reward, make sure you do that before running off with it.

COUNCIL OF LIARS (SEMI-CLOSED)

[exequy]

It takes some planning, some significant looks, and some head gestures, but it works: when the group breaks for lunch, a certain segment winds up upstairs, alone in the Knight-Commander's office with boxes of notes and records kept by her and the First Enchanter, stretching back five years before the rebellion.

An apprentice named Patrick lost library privileges for a week because he drew genitalia in one of the books. Antona, age eight, was confined to her room for a day after she bit Anton, age fourteen, because he'd stolen her name. Ser Pace was assigned to the night watch after teaching several apprentices dirty jokes. Enchanter Richart set fire to Senior Enchanter Agnes' research notes because he believed she had stolen his ideas and was being forced to recreate them for her. Ser Bodobert was late for his post a tenth time in one month and assigned sprints across the Templar barracks.

Et cetera.

After five minutes of flipping through documents, Kostos announces, "This is bullshit."

ooc | This part of the log is closed to characters who would reasonably be trusted and included in this discussion, but basically anyone who won’t rat them out can be there. Also content warning for discussion of abuse, probably.