crystal ||

[inkindled]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Matthias, on behalf of team rescue
RECIPIENT: everyone. except the dead people :,(
NOTES: info here to help you mourn accordingly. this is forward dated to 5.24 so we can make the most of this tragedy.

This is Matthias. I'm with the team that went after the missing party. They were on an assignment, looking into these elven ruins at Baron Deshaies' estate, and they--

They're dead. [He doesn't sound sad, precisely. It's the calm of someone that's gotten used to this.] We confirmed it with an Inquisition contact. Their capture from Deshaies' was purposeful but their deaths, they were-- The whole thing was the work of these mercenaries. They had a Tevinter mage with them, he was there on an assignment of his own. Somewhere on the way back, our party tried an escape. That mage, he's dead now as well, from their attempt. So they must've come close. Not that it matters now. Sometimes it's a comfort, is all.

We've made our report to the Division Heads and we're coming back, to the Gallows. We've got some of their things, that were recovered. The bodies were burned. But we thought everyone ought to know, now. Instead of waiting.

[That's the script. Matthias hesitates, and in a break from what he'd prepared to say--speaking now with more conviction, speaking in half a rush, as if he might regret what he's going to say and so has to get it all out--]

Their names were Merrill, Kitty, Anders, Sorrell, Teren, Wysteria, Bastien, Gwenaëlle [a name he's practiced saying; he stumbles on just a little], Ilias, Kain, Darras, Iorveth, John Silver, Loki, Sidony, and Magni. Saying their names, it's important. There's nothing we can do to change it or bring them back, but--they ought not to be forgotten.

Comments

[toujoursdroit]

[The Orlesian-accented voice is very even indeed.]

The mage is dead. Do we know who hired the mercenaries?

[He has the air of a man making a list.]

[exequy]

They were being taken to Minrathous. I do not know which specific Venatori made the bargain.

[ But. ]

Do you know the Baron Deshaies?

[toujoursdroit]

We've met, and I know a bit of his reputation, but I can't say he was someone to whom I paid an excess of attention.

[That is obviously going to change immediately and probably homicidally. But he still sounds calm.]

I have ideas of where to begin to find out more, but it will require some time even moving with the best speed. I've favors that I'll begin calling in.

[exequy]

We don't know that he was involved, or if he was if he was involved willingly.

[ Not that many people will cut him slack if he was blackmailed or threatened. ]

And we didn't have time to fully investigate. [ Before Tevinters start shouting at him again: ] We still hoped to find them.

[toujoursdroit]

Your priorities at the time were understandable.

[Enjoy the largest concession possible under the circumstances.]

Luckily, gathering information will be the first step in either eventuality. I presume I needn't wait for permission before quietly starting on it. Since you are on your way back at present.

[Whether the baron was willingly involved, forced into it or duped into it will likely affect how the duke proceeds, but not whether he does. And "tell the Division Heads" may or may not be code for "her husband deserves to know what I'm up to," but he suspects it will largely come out to the same thing.]

I may need to return to Orlais, but not before whatever remembrance is to be done here.

[No one has said, but one can assume.]