BREACH VALESKA'S WATCH

[faderifting]

WHO: Hercules, Ellana, Melys, Scipio, & Kaisa
WHAT: Checking on an old Deep Roads entrance to make sure everything is fine. Everything is not fine.
WHEN: Guardian 15
WHERE: Emprise du Lion - Valeska's Watch
NOTES: Closed quest log, featuring death and darkspawn.

For centuries, Valeska's Watch has been perpetually occupied by Grey Wardens who guard an entrance to the Deep Roads, which was used for the darkspawns' large-scale invasion of Orlais during the Third Blight. The Wardens collapsed the tunnel, but because of its size, concerns lingered that darkspawn would find a way through. The outpost was constructed on top of it so that the Wardens could, as the name implies, keep watch. Now, the Grey Wardens' withdrawal to the West has left Valeska's Watch empty and the entrance unguarded.

Comments

THE MAIN DOORS (Hercules, Ellana, Melys)

[faderifting]

From outside the outpost, Hercules should sense the presence of darkspawn well before the door is opened. There aren't many of them, at least. Able to sense Hercules in return, they will meet the group nearly as soon as the door has been opened: two genlocks leading the charge out of the darkness, two hurlock archers behind them.

There's no light inside, no braziers left burning in the months since the Wardens departed, except for a torch carried by one of the hurlocks and dropped to the ground so it can fire arrows. It's enough light to glint off the armor of defeated foes, hung on wooden stakes and lining the corridor like trophies.

The genlocks will make an attempt at dodging Hercules and attacking Ellana and Melys directly: they know they're dangerous merely by proximity, and they'll try to use it, making suicidal presses forward to reach them.

The shriek accompanying them cannot sneak up on Hercules, but it will certainly try.

As the group fights its way forward, the two archers will attempt to retreat to the main chamber without letting them close. The further in they press, the stronger the smell of cave-stale air and distant rot will become.

THE WATCH TOWER (Kaisa, Scipio)

[faderifting]

The tower at Valeska's Watch is pretty unimpressive for a famous Warden stronghold. It looks like a standard watchtower, and it climbs like a standard watchtower, roughly hewn stone making obvious holds and promising an easy ascent for the practiced climber. But the stone is freezing cold and in places icy, turning what should be simple into a more dangerous part of the endeavor. At the top is a window, shutters barred from the inside, that intrepid (former!)thieves should be able to make quick work of.

A spiral staircase winds down further than the tower is tall, into the hidden underground and toward the Deep Roads entrance the Watch guards. The stones worn in the center from centuries of feet and the stair is narrow, designed to be defensible by as few men as possible. But it seems it may take more than one, as a corpse lies dead on the stairs, a knife jabbed through the back of mage robes too generic to be Warden-issue.

Past that unfortunate fellow, Scipio and Kaisa will immediately sense darkspawn, and so the darkspawn will sense them in turn. A genlock and a hurlock crowd into the stairs to block their path, prepared for battle despite the close quarters.

Surviving and continuing down the stair will bring them into the main chamber of the Watch, a long musty room with vaulted ceilings pierced by tree roots, griffon statues as tall as two men, and a great iron-banded door flanked by guttering torches. Their teammates should already be waiting.

THE CENTRAL CHAMBERS (Everyone)

[faderifting]

When Hercules, Melys, and Ellana handle the hurlocks and make it to the inner chamber, they find themselves greeted by dark and stillness. They'll need to find sources of light--the hurlock's dropped torch, unlit braziers on the wall, Ellana's staff--but when they do, even the fog hanging in the air will seem heavy and unmoving.

At the head of the chamber is a Joining chalice, empty and unremarkable; on either side of the table before it, however, there are six scattered bodies, none in Warden armor. Four are dead with no obvious signs of trauma; two had their throats cut; all are mages, if they're examined closely enough to note their robes, staves, or spellbooks. In better days the bodies would have been tended to properly rather than left behind on the floor. Someone left in a hurry.

Scipio and Kaisa will arrive through a door at the top of the stairs behind the Joining site, near the large, barred doors that block--should block--the Deep Roads entrance that the outpost was designed to guard. The doors have been forced open already, one side damaged so badly that they can't be closed again, and beyond there's faint and distant light.

The light is emanating from beneath what used to be the floor, a seal constructed over the Deep Roads tunnel beneath Valeska's Watch. It's gone now. The Wardens in the group will be able to sense darkspawn nearby, but retreating quickly. The drop down into the tunnel is short enough to jump down, carefully, and climb back up with the aid of a fairly small length of rope; even from the level above, however, it will be clear that the once-collapsed tunnel has been substantially cleared and left wide open. It will take more help--explosives, masonry--to seal the entrance again.