SUBJECT: An Offer They Can Refuse
PARTICIPANTS: Wysteria, Gideon, Yevdokiya, Gabranth, and Sawbones
CLASSIFICATION: Private, leadership only
DATE FILED: backdated, after their return from Orzammar
STATUS: complete
SUMMARY: a was team sent to meet with one of the Carta's leaders, a man named Tarash, in the hopes of negotiating a deal that benefits both parties.

REPORT:

As you once placed faith in me, thus do I return that investment with interest: our work with the Carta was successful, and our efforts have yielded much in the way of agreed trade.

Itemized, received:

An oath to smuggle no red lyrium to Tevinter; any further knowledge of darkspawn with the capacity for speech; intel from their spies within Tevinter; the location of a deep roads passage hidden within Kirkwall.

We have in turn granted them:

Near exclusive lyrium patronage; returned intel, primarily from Antiva; sole right to sell pirated spoils; assurance that we will support swaying mercantile regulation in their favor; the promise we will assist in the tracking and dispatch of a thief; interference with Coterie dealings within Kirkwall; our word we will remain available as allies, should they need us in the future.

Numerous as our own assurances seem, many of these offers are fleeting and small. It will take little effort to see them done, and the fellowship and faith fostered will no doubt prove itself a far more valuable asset in the months— or perhaps years to come.

Beyond this, there is little more to be said: all members present performed their duties admirably in ensuring the Carta’s preliminary requests were met with all due discretion, and did not conduct themselves poorly during deliberations. Should you require further verification of my assessment, seek them out, and they shall tell you no differently.

-Judge Magister Gabranth

NEXT STEPS: cash in on these benefits, help chase down and assassinate a member of the Carta that stole from them and fled, and various other minor listings potentially. Lots of opportunity, no apparent loose ends, aww yeah.

NOTES & LINKS: log | spreadsheet

SUBJECT: REPORT: Better Dead than Red
PARTICIPANTS: Vanya, Valentine, Ellie, Adrasteia, and Thranduil
CLASSIFICATION: Public
DATE FILED: backdated to the return from Orzammar
STATUS: The gang heads into the Deep Roads with a team of dwarven scholars and scientists to survey the extent of red lyrium spread in the mines and install cleansing runes. It all goes exactly according to plan and they don't crash through the floor and get lost and find new enemies.

REPORT: The original assignment was to assist with the evaluation of the spread of red lyrium and the installation of cleansing runes to affected mining areas of the Deep Roads with Shaper Renca Ghoskan and Assistant Chief Miner Artem Ress and several other Orzammar scientists and scholars.

At the furthest point into the mine, the pathway beneath us collapsed and we found ourselves in ancient tunnels according to both the Shaper and Assistant Chief Miner Ress. These ancient tunnels did not immediately lead to a way back to the party we'd left behind in the mines, but to a series of tunnels with elven carvings of plant life and animals on the walls. These led to two massive doors carved into the stone and a chamber beyond which felt massive and could not all be perceived by the eye in the darkness of that vastness. On every surface, there were ancient elven carvings showing scenes that at first felt wonderful to gaze upon but as we looked gained a sense of danger and wrongness about them.

I've included a reproduction of Messr. de Foncé's artistic renderings of the rooms and some of the images we found there.

In the center of this room hung a giant red lyrium crystal, but appearing for lack of a better word dead. It was the color of dried blood and opaque and did not put any of the weight of the usual exposure to red lyrium upon any members of our group. We found another, regular-sized door with dwarven carvings in the same fine style as the elven ones. There were cages carved out of stone and in several of these were darkspawn being held.

Before we could investigate further we were rebuffed by a group of dwarves wearing red lyrium-laced armor and holding a pair of red lyrium infected brontos with them. They spoke in a dialect that the Shaper has posited may be an ancient dwarven dialect. They were well-armed and chased us from those rooms all the way back to the carved tunnels. After some work we were able to find a pathway back to known mining areas and returned having found that roughly two days passed since we'd gone missing.

NEXT STEPS: The spread of red lyrium has gone farther and perhaps had deeper roots than just the current conflict with Corypheus' forces. It is unclear what those donning the red lyrium-laced armor were doing with the darkspawn in their captivity, but it is unlikely to be anything good. We should keep in touch with Shaper Ghoskan and Assistant Chief Miner Ress about any developments to the study of red lyrium or expeditions into the passageways that were discovered.

NOTES & LINKS: IC log | OOC info