This is Warden Serra. As of this month, I will be stepping down from my position as project leader for the Rifts and the Veil. I remain a project member and will make myself available for questions or assistance, as need be. It's my hope that another will replace me soon and continue the work that needs to be done.

To that end...if you are the new bearer of an anchor, please take the survey available at the project's office on the six floor of the central tower, room B. The more information I can make available to the new project lead, the better. If you have updates to share, those would be also be welcome.

( There is a pause before the broadcast begins, one that stretches a little too long not to be awkward, before a rasping voice can be heard, tempered with a strong Ukrainian accent. )

Knock knock.

[Ignis clears his throat before he starts, almost as a polite acknowledgment that he's there -
despite it being through crystal communication.]

I would like to start by extending my gratitude in all that the Inquisition has done to protect and bring comfort to me and my friend. You have all been very encouraging and a credit to Thedas as a whole - which helps to bring me to the request I had in mind now.

I want to learn more about Thedas. I'd love to discuss your history, countries, customs, and all of those little things that help make your world unique and interesting. As it stands, so many of you have come forward to share your views and stories already. For that, I am very appreciative.

I was hoping I might take a stab at your library as well, but for obvious reasons, I cannot read the volumes housed there on my own. Of course, I would simply rope Prompto into helping me, but he has his own duties and desires to tend to. I was thinking that we might be able to find some volunteers willing to help me. To, uh, read to me.

[He pauses then, letting the request stand by itself.]

That failing, I always want to hear more stories. If you are willing to share, please tell me what are some of your favorite holidays or other cultural cornerstones of your country? Or even traditions your family had? Or historical stories? Anything that you'd like. I wish to have a broader sense of your world.

[ Gareth is here and he sounds positively cheerful. Uh oh. ]

Hey, guys. Guess who's the brand new archivist for this circus ring?

[ His voice drops conspiratorially. ]

It's me. I'm the new archivist. Surprise!

[ And back to a regular voice: ]

What that means is that I'll be keeping track of all of the various valuable things the Inquisition doesn't want getting lost into the abyss. Books, equipment, artifacts, things we've found on our missions, the severed arms of shardbearers, people's vengeful and enraged dead great-aunts...

You know, the usual kinds of things we drag in here.

So if a project needs Andraste's Sacred Tears or whatever, and you want to know if we have it, just some ask me and I'll pull out my great big Book Of What Shit We Have Laying Around, and take a looksee. I'll also be in charge of making sure the library is nice and organized and books that are taken are returned in a timely manner. And I have a list of everyone who has books checked out right now, so.

You can't see it, but I'm pointing at my eyes, and pointing at you. I know where you sleep.

Moving on! My job only entails the things we already have, not acquiring more, so don't complain to me about the terrible selection of books. I'm aware, trust me. You all should've seen it a decade ago. Knight-Commander Meredith banned all the jokebooks because she hated us laughing. Then after the infamous Edith's Fruit Tarts incident, she banned cookbooks, too. Which was actually fair, because it's not like any of us could cook.

[ He might be bullshitting. He might be serious. Only a select few people know, and hopefully they'll willing to not spill the beans. ]

--Anyway! Direct your requests for more books to...someone else. Who is not me.

Thanks.

This is Colin the shopkeep. Now that two separate crises are under control, I have something I want to bring to your attention because I know how good-hearted and generous all of you are, as demonstrated all last month.

It's Darktown. I've been helping Anders in his clinic there, and...I thought I'd seen poverty before. I thought I'd lived it. I thought my family was poor when I was a kid because we didn't have much. We shared a wall with our neighbors and there were seven of us living in two tiny rooms. Sometimes we didn't eat well, but we never starved. Our roof leaked sometimes, but we could fix it and be dry after that. We had a roof and walls and clothes and food. After the, um, the war started a few years back, I went hungry for a while, but my teeth weren't falling out.

People in Darktown don't have walls or a roof. You'd think living under Hightown would mean they have at least a roof, but they don't. On the seaward side, people are exposed to everything--cold, rain, snow, everything. And the muck that leaks down from Hightown is some of the worst stuff you'll ever smell. Most people down there can't work, or can't find work, and they have to live down there with their families because they can't afford rent in Lowtown. They spend day in and day out wading through filth trying to find coins people dropped through grates. That means their feet are constantly wet and cold, and that's bad even in summer. I treated feet what were soaked and pale and cracking, skin sloughing off and frozen in some places. Some of them have to take a cot in the clinic till they get warm and dry, but it'll only happen again after they've left, and on and on till they lose their feet.

And they don't have food, not really. Sometimes they'll get lucky and catch rats or pigeons or seagulls, but otherwise it's whatever they can find what was thrown away or dropped. And yes, their teeth are falling out, some of them. They have scurvy, they have rickets, they can't breathe for the chokedamp. Sometimes you find people who suffocated to death without anyone there to help. By the time a healer gets there, it's too late. And magical healing can't do anything about the damp and the cold and the hunger. It can't cure scurvy or rickets, or fleas and lice, and it's not very useful against frostbite.

If they try to go up to Hightown they'll just be arrested, or worse, escorted back. Everyone thinks they're thieves and carry diseases. There's nowhere for them and nobody wants to help them. And you can see in their eyes that they know that. They have these...hollow, vacant looks. They've given up. They're broken.

I think that this is the kind of thing the Inquisition is meant for, and we need to address it. These people need food, clothing, and shelter. It needs to make a real difference and not just look good. And seeing as we all have different experiences and different expertises--is that the right word?--we all must have something to bring to the table. So I wanted to discuss all of this with all of you and maybe together we can come up with some ideas we can bring to our leaders. So what can we do about Darktown? What are some possible solutions to these problems?

[OOC: for the sake of organization, I'm putting in a few top-levels under which people can make comments about specific concerns. Anything that doesn't fall under these, or any suggestions to improve the overall state of poverty in Darktown, you can make your own top-level for. Threadjack, go crazy, y'all know the drill.]

[The first sound is a shaky breath that he wishes he'd managed to take before activating the crystal.]

I think there is a fair chance blood is key to this plague, at least with the Rifters.

[A short beat.]

My notes indicate that a Rifter drank blood from the suspected first patient, [he sounds vaguely confused but continues anyway,] well after the matter started, and the effects as the former described them were reminiscent of lyrium,. The blood itself was a pale, luminescent blue. Solas reported recently that the plague involves sweating blood out the skin, which was concerning but not immediately so because the sweat is blue.

...But this morning an injured Rifter came to me, bleeding. Her blood looks somewhere in between what we consider normal and the described blue. Rifter blood might be changing. And we need to know more about blood.

[He takes a slow breath this time, deliberately, centering his thoughts.]

I am not saying that we need to use blood magic to look into this further. I don't know that we can, because I'm not aware of us having any blood mages here.

I am saying that some long-held lines might need to be toed if we are to look into this angle as either her body is making blood incorrectly, or it is being changed by something after it's made. We also could use knowing if this is happening to more of the Rifters, preferably if it is happening to most, which means if any Rifters will volunteer to have a small cut made, it could help.

It could also help to know if this is happening to Templars as well, but again, volunteers.

[Just because Templars have forced mages down and taken their blood for actual blood magic doesn't mean the favor will be returned, and he might have phylacteries on the brain. There's one more short pause.]

I welcome any additional thoughts on this. If there are volunteers, I am in the infirmary currently and will mainly be there for...

[His breath catches.]

...the foreseeable future.

Evening, Inquisition.

[Myr actually sounds tired, which means he's exhausted enough not to cover it up.]

I'll spare you the preamble--something's going on and you're either affected by it or not. We ought to put together a list of who's got it and what's happening to them so we have a better picture of this thing--before, mm. ...All right, no befores. [No sense upsetting anyone with speculation.] Just--we oughta.

I'd offer myself for making the list but both my scribes've come down with the thing--but if you want to tell me what you know I can remember it until someone can take it down from me.

[A long stretch of dead air, followed by the sound of somebody startling out of a doze.]

...oh. And if you're looking after someone with th'--whatever-it-is--remember to look after yourselves, will you?

Might make sense to come up with some kind of--rotations, or something, to make sure no one's going to burn out. Don't know what that'd entail but it's a--it's an idea.

( The voice that speaks first is soft, controlled, polite. The Herian standard, basically. She could be talking about the necessity of carefully filing paperwork, rather than a birthday party. )

Inquisition, a good many of you are familiar with Enchanter Ceallach. At her behest, ( that sounds just faintly dry, ) I would like to invite you to a celebration of her birthday. Her birthday is on the thirtieth of this month, and the party on the final eve of this year. You are all most welcome.

( :| so welcome )

And many of you are also familiar with Knight-Enchanter Amsel. ( And this voice is much more bright, almost giggling as she obviously leans in over a certain someone’s shoulder. ) Equally, at my behest, I would like to invite you to a celebration of our birthdays. Her birthday is on the second of the first month in our new year, so this party is as much for me as it is for my little sister.

( Said filled to the brim with love and sunshine.

However, gentle listener, if you felt that disgusted noises were trademarked to Nevarrans, how wrong you were. The problem is that the knightly sort are, by Herian’s standards, far too dignified to make disgusted noises, so there is just a period of intense, suffering silence, before her dignity is nevertheless compromised by: )

It’s only four days. ( Four days that she will never escape. Four days that weigh upon her very soul. ) My haggard, elderly companion also cheats at hide and seek.

( Justice. Is this the most absurd Herian has ever been in public? Probably. There’s a faintly mutinous air to it. Mutinous severity. )

My sweet, but naive, baby sister is only upset because she always found first. By everyone. Even the goats in the alienage could find her hiding spots.

( What is even happening anymore? Is this the same flower-crown weaving Saoirse that sings to birds? You can even imagine her pulling on Herian’s cheek as she speaks which is accurate because she absolutely is and with a smile.

And Herian is having to use every inch of her control not to get Saoirse in a headlock. That would be unseemly, and excessive, and yet…. so tempting. )

The celebration, ( “celebration” sounding like a torturous word to speak aloud, which possibly has something to do with Saoirse pulling at her face, even as she tries to regain her dignity, ) will be in the Hanged Man. Please do not hesitate to advise us of any questions you might have, and please remember to exercise due caution, that you are not nursing painful headaches at the Firstday Feast.

( A moment of pause and then… there she goes. She’s going to try and get Saoirse in a headlock anyway, now with the element of surprise.

And speaking of surprise that yelp, and some word muffled in that funny language they speak, is full of surprise. It might be a moment before either respond. )

Inquisition, while aiding with a rift, I was nearly brained by a box that fell out of it. Curious as to what nearly shuffled me off this mortal coil, I took a look inside, and there I discovered something...fascinating. Truly, I can tell these must be from another world, for I have never seen such a thing, nor imagined it existed.

And I'm willing to share, with those bold enough to take the risk. I personally recommend those with heart conditions turning this crystal off now. Inquisition, I give you..............

[ And over the crystal, the sound of a cartoon cow moo can be heard. ]

They're slippers. Shaped like animals. And they make noises like animals.

[ Some shuffling noises, then a few more cartoon animal noises--a dog barking, a cat meowing. ]

There's a bunch them, with a bunch of different animals. So I'm sure you can see the problem: I only have two feet. I figured I'd let other people take their pick. No payment required, except your happy smiles, and possibly coming to my room in them and stomping around if the folks next door don't learn to keep it down.

Myr, I set aside a pair of bees for you already. Kostos, I have a pair of owls. I hope that's appropriately thematic enough for you, I couldn't find any skulls. Nell, I have a pair of lions that are very ferocious. Fereldens: There are enough dogs to go around, don't worry.

There's only one pair of cow slippers, and those are mine, sorry. There's also exactly one pair of ordinary slippers that don't make animal noises, if you want to be boring.

[ He doesn't bother to mention that those slippers don't make animal noises, but they do make horribly obnoxious squeaky noises. ]