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Post Header

Use this header for public or private crystal/book posts, public notices your character hangs up around the Gallows, etc.

Report Form

Use this form to post reports after you run a plot, and make sure you use the correct tags so people can easily find previous reports on a given subject.

SUBJECT: What’s this about?
PARTICIPANTS: Who was involved?
CLASSIFICATION: Public / Private for X — to specify if anyone in Riftwatch can read it, or if only certain people can
DATE FILED: No shame in backdating
STATUS: Ongoing / Complete / Abandoned
SUMMARY: Briefly, what is this plot/report about? Stick to 2-3 sentences. E.g., "A team went to Orlais to attempt to acquire the perfect cheese. Bandits ate it before they arrived, but in exchange for killing the bandits in vengeance, the dairy owner gave them his secret recipe." Try to include the resolution, as in the example, rather than being mysterious—this is what people will use to quickly reference past events.

REPORT: The actual IC report delivered to the leadership and archived in the records. This can be as short or as long as your character would make it and should (hopefully) (if your character isn't a total slacker) include plot-relevant information, such as the cheese recipe.

NEXT STEPS: Did this mission lay the groundwork for something in the future? Are there loose ends, like a villain who escaped alive or a mystery that remains unsolved, that may need to be followed up on? Decisions that need to be made or implemented? (It’s fine if the answer to these questions is no.)

NOTES & LINKS: Any other notes, links to relevant logs or inbox threads, etc.

Entry tags:

Crystal; Is there a greeting card for this?

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Gela
RECIPIENT: All
NOTES: Discussion of events that went down at Yvoire

If your house and most of your town had been destroyed by, say — demons, corpses and a magically established barrier-dome (inhale,) what is something you could receive that may ease a bit of that discomfort?

(Officially sourcing ideas for: a little treat)

Entry tags:

Crystals or Action, choose your own adventure | Open

FORM: Sending crystal plus (see notes).
SENDER: Cosima
RECIPIENT: Rifters (others opt-in)
NOTES: Catch-all for threads about amputation (so content warning for that being discussed, though I don't expect anything too bloody). Happy to match prose or brackets, as ever. See further notes under the cut.

( Read more )

Entry tags:

crystal; why are any of you even here?

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Connor (

catathymic)
RECIPIENT: Everyone
NOTES: None!

[ it's around midday when a hesitant, distinctly fereldan voice comes over everyone's crystals. ]

Grood day, Riftwatch. My name is Connor, I'm a... guest of your organization. I have a question for... well, anyone who will answer me.

You're all here to fight Corypheus and his cultists, but there are a number of organizations, institutions, even nations arrayed against him already. You could have joined an army, or been an agent of the Maker's divine will in the Exalted March. Why did you choose Riftwatch? What brought you here, specifically?

And... I know there are those who have to stay here. You with the anchor shards, like the Herald, Maker rest her, and... Rifters.

[ still not sure you all aren't demons, honestly, but if the chantry says you're not... ]

Would you leave, if you could? Join an army, or the March? Or even just... flee to the furthest reaches of Thedas and hope the war didn't find you?

[ a long, uncomfortable pause. ]

Also. If anyone has... odd jobs. Paying, that is. Or a line on a local business in need of a temporary employee. I would appreciate any leads to that effect.

[ awkwardly, ] Thank you.

Entry tags:

hunger games;

FORM: Crystals
SENDER: Lazar
RECIPIENT: Everyone
NOTES: N/A

Who'd win in a fight? Outta everyone.

Entry tags:

closed to stephen strange + viktor.

FORM: Sending crystal.
SENDER: Madame de Cedoux
RECIPIENT: Viktor + Dr Strange
NOTES: Discussion of amputation will follow.
references: wysteria broaches it, discussing with marcus + julius, seeking medical advice.

( madame de cedoux’s voice is particular, recognisable: pleasant, measured, her accent ever so slightly off-orlais, the diction and cadence of her speech always that little bit more clipped and cut-glass than is commonplace in the halls of orlesian power. still, it is habit to begin, )

This is Madame de Cedoux,

( despite the fact they can almost certainly hear, immediately, that it is. )

I am contacting you — both — regarding the matter of future amputation of my anchor-shard, as I have previously discussed with Madame de Fonce and Dr Strange. believe it would be appropriate and, I can only assume, useful to begin planning for a prosthesis whilst I have a healthily attached limb for comparison…? It seems to me that this would dictate, somewhat, the time frame of proceeding, and— well, particularly considering recent events it seems increasingly absurd to delay the matter further.

Madame de Fonce had offered me, at one point, the lend of her own. It was not my wish, but I understand that the work done on it was particular.

Entry tags:

! report

REPORT | Forgetti Spaghetti

SUBJECT: Forgetti Plot
PARTICIPANTS: Ennaris Tavane, Julius, Clarisse la Rue, Viktor, Bastien, Isaac + Riftwatch at large
CLASSIFICATION: Public
DATE FILED: After Isaac’s return, as an addendum to whatever more official thing got said before then.
STATUS: Complete
SUMMARY: A team went to Orlais to shut down a Venatori weapons project. Though they stopped the project, a magical side effect made everyone in Riftwatch forget who they were. It mostly wore off.

REPORT:

( the first draft )

[ the first draft doesn't make it to filing. instead: ]

I honestly can’t recall.

– Enchanter Isaac, 9:51 Dragon

NEXT STEPS:

Tread carefully with time magic
Keep an eye on Western Orlais
Examine the response to the incident
Weave friendship bracelets or whatever

NOTES & LINKS: OOC Post, Network, Log, Isaac Log

Entry tags:

crystals;

FORM: Crystals
SENDER: Isaac
RECIPIENT: Y'all
NOTES: I'm not current on my log tags and you nice people will just have to deal.

In light of recent events –

[ weird way to say 'thank you for not leaving me in a swamp' but ok ]

I've compiled a list of external healers willing to work with us. They are few, and expensive, and I therefore think it also worth identifying those mages within Riftwatch able to lend emergency aid. If you've facility with regeneration or sedation, we could use the hands.

Contact me directly. I'm not naming anyone without a look at what you can do.

To wit, I'm certain it's time to call for another round of general volunteers. Whether you can stitch a wound, or care to learn, bother Strange about it. He's in charge.

[ air quotes. ]

Entry tags:

crystal.

FORM: A crystal message
SENDER: Athénaïs Tavarys
RECIPIENT: All y’all

( the voice that comes across the crystals is a woman’s, nevarran accented, likely familiar to some— maybe some more than others. she’d joined riftwatch in nevarra, following them back to kirkwall from the necropolis alongside professor volkarin; presently, she’s set herself up in the thaig, which is where she’s reaching out to the crystals from,

though it’s not only her voice audible. there’s a slightly muffled cacophony of hideous grinding sounds in the background as she opens, )

So, is someone missing an incredibly mobile teapot.

Entry tags:

Crystal.

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Cosima
RECIPIENT: In theory closed to rifters, but you know how crystals have been lately (oocly open to all)

[There's always work to do, so lazy weekend mornings aren't really a thing for Riftwatch. But you have to take breaks sometime, and the late morning with spring sunlight streaming through the window seems as good a time as any. Or so your provost thinks, evidently.]

Hey everyone. No division head business right now, just wondering. Things fall through rifts now and then. If you could pick something — inanimate object, no people or pets — to turn up from your home world, what would you pick?

Given my well-known, longstanding and committed relationship with our division microscope, I'm not gonna begrudge you something you could use for work if you lean that way. But also live a little if you want to. Like, it's definitely not practical, but man, I'd love a windsurfing board. Getting it back to Kirkwall from wherever the rift is might suck, but totally worth it.

Entry tags:

crystal.

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Bastien
RECIPIENT: Everyone
NOTES: Wild and lawless threadjacking is eternally encouraged.

Good morning. I thought I would share some updates on the state of our reputation.

The best news first: out of twenty-seven mentions in this batch of periodicals, twenty of those referenced us in passing and as if there is nothing strange about us whatsoever. That is an improvement. There was a time half of those would have added, parenthesis, an assortment of demons and heretics, close parenthesis, to make sure their readers could follow their meaning. Now we are simply Riftwatch. They expect people to know what that means — which does not mean no one thinks we are demons and heretics. Of course. But they are being reminded less frequently.

Which does unfortunately lead me to Senior Enchanter Verain, formerly of the Circle in Montsimmard, who published an essay in L'hebdomadaire about the state of Thedas in general and gave us an entire paragraph.

[ He clears his throat and takes on the distinct cadence of a Dramatic Reading. ]

These monstrous threats to our safety and security are nothing new, but I am astonished, dismayed, and confounded by our acceptance of monstrous heroes. Even among my own friends, who I once thought the pinnacle of reason, discernment, and steadfast belief in the tenants of the Chant of Light, and in fact befriended because of these qualities, there are those who are shockingly content to trust the fabric of the Veil to creatures who can be nothing but demons and people who have done nothing but enable them. It is no wonder that our dereliction of our own duty in this matter has led us to this devastating moment of truth, dangling from a precipice by grip of a single finger as the Veil and the entire order of our world unravel and rot before our eyes, but I must nevertheless maintain a desperate hope that we will rise to the occasion and not permit these self-professed saviors and secret saboteurs to deliver the killing blow.

So, [ drama over, ] if everyone could stop acting demonic in public, I would appreciate it. But I do like the part where he wants other people to do anything to help. Maybe we should invite him for dinner or something. Do any of you mages know him? Has he always mixed his metaphors?

Here, this one is better, though. Local. An anonymous gossip pamphlet floating around Hightown this week. It says, To the long list of things for which we owe Riftwatch our gratitude, we must add the facades and physiques of their membership. I find myself making excuses to wander into parts of our city I would normally never be spotted, hoping for a glimpse of young brunette ladies who could so clearly lift me above their heads if given cause — which I am happy to provide if any would like to reach out to my publisher and arrange a rendezvous — and one of my dear friends' desire to train a spyglass on the harbor and search for the dark-haired elven man in their ranks, I believe, is single-handedly keeping a local glassworker in business.

Not everyone has lost sight of what is important in the world, you see.

The rest of these are pretty dull, but I am bookmarking our mentions and filling a shelf in the library in case anyone is curious.

Entry tags:

REPORT | Love is in the air

SUBJECT: Julius identified several potential avenues for pressuring Cedric Marquette to stop working with the Venatori. Pick one or more of these individuals and see if either honey or vinegar works.

PARTICIPANTS: Julius, Gela, Isaac
CLASSIFICATION: Public
DATE FILED: Backdated pre-Forgetti
STATUS: Complete, tags potentially ongoing
SUMMARY:

The team identified two of Marquette's minor enemies, and introduced them at a party. Love – or at least revenge – blossomed. Their combined attempts to ruin his reputation will hopefully get bigger fish involved.

REPORT:

DARLING, are you Alexis Sauvageot? Because we’re supplying you with critical secrets.

LOVE BUG, are you Taletha Kell? Because you're going to destroy Marquette's reputation for us.

HONEYBEE, are you a burgeoning power couple in the pillaged treasure scene? Because I last saw you furiously entangled on the bench of a pianoforte.

MANTIDFLY, are you a closely-trusted cousin to famed dealer Philippe Girard? Because I have a letter from your personal assistant, inquiring after times to meet.

SCORPION-WASP, are you a Seneschal or Trademaster? Because you ought to go to this thing instead of me.

[ a list of meeting times is enclosed ]

NEXT STEPS:

Follow the happy couple's success or failure

Feed them any further information

Monitor Marquette's response

NOTES & LINKS: War table, Log

WINTER ALL-HANDS

FORM: In-person, but simultaneously cast over the crystals, so that we can do this in the crystal comm.
SENDER: Everyone
RECIPIENT: Everyone
NOTES: Presentation list, go ahead and add your character if you want. Timing chaos, please comment on anyone and everyone's simultaneously.

First aid demo's shirtless, yeah?

Entry tags:

crystal, closed to mages

FORM: crystal
SENDER: Benedict
RECIPIENT: mage group chat
NOTES: bl..ood magic??

How does one use a phylactery?

[BENEDICT HAS ENTERED THE CHAT]

--Isaac was on the mission with everyone we forgot for a time. He's still gone, nobody can remember where it was, but I found his phylactery.

[sometimes you do a little theft. just for pals]

Entry tags:

report | the horror of sarrux pass

SUBJECT: Sarrux Pass, a village outside Wycome
PARTICIPANTS: Caius, Gwen, Hermione, Jayce, Ness, Siorus, Stephen, Vanya
CLASSIFICATION: Public
DATE FILED: O...ctober / Harvestmere
STATUS: Complete
SUMMARY: Riftwatch discovered elven ruins containing a long-buried pool of corrupted lyrium that was causing locals to mutate beyond saving. The team experienced mutations that were temporary for Rifters but permanent for natives. They killed the locals and destroyed the ruins, but signs indicate this pool may have been only one of twelve.

REPORT:

Provost,

When it walks like the Blight and talks like the Blight, every once in a while, it isn't. But pretty close. Guess an entrance to the Deep Roads wasn't the only thing under Sarrux Pass.

We found elven ruins, Ancient or early Imperium, though exactly who built them and why isn't clear. Carvings on the walls showed a pair of elves (Ghilan'nain and maybe Anduil?) either healing or poisoning the humans and dwarves there, but none of us could agree which.

Whatever it used to be, it's poison now. Some kind of corrupted lyrium discharge, if I had to put a label on it. We found a big pool of it at the bottom of the ruins. Must have gotten into the well water, to change everybody in the village so fast. The Rifters in the group started changing too, as soon as they got near it, but the rest of us had to drink it.

See attached for details of specific transmutations of the flesh. Rifters that were exposed returned to their normal shapes at a similar rate as when exposed to raw, uncorrupted lyrium. The villagers were unrecoverable.

I bottled as much of it as I could, but the group decided the pool itself was too dangerous to be left intact. Ruins and bodies both are now buried under half the mountain, for all the good that does anybody.

The Warden is letting his people know. Considering how little we were able to bring back for study, I don't recommend sharing our samples, but it might be worth asking their expertise. Famously open and forthright, wardens.

- Porthmeus

( ATTACHED: )

NEXT STEPS:

Experiment with the corrupted lyrium samples.
Don't touch them.
Don't put them in your mouth.
Keep an eye out for the other eleven pools.
Why was #1 Halla Mom Ghilan'nain's image all over this horrible lyrium experiment anyway?? Weird!

NOTES & LINKS: OOC post, IC log, and Tevinter Nights: The Horror of Hormak summary on Dragon Age Wiki.

Entry tags:

crystal

FORM: crystal
SENDER: Barrow
RECIPIENT: Riftwatch at large
NOTES: Warning for addiction & medical chat, will update for anything else.

Good morning, Riftwatch.

[Barrow is all business, perhaps in an effort to bulldoze through what’s otherwise an uncomfortable topic:]

Just wanted to give you all fair warning that I’ll be out of commission for an… unknown duration of time— short hopefully— as I work my way off lyrium.

If you have need of anything to do with the training yard or the siege weaponry, you can speak to Jayce Talis in my stead. And I suppose if… you have any logistical questions, you can ask the head healer, Stephen Strange.

[he falls silent a moment, awkwardly unsure if more needs saying, then:]

Um. That’s all.

Entry tags:

crystal

FORM: Crystals
SENDER: Jayce Talis
RECIPIENT: All of Riftwatch
NOTES: Midday, Wintermarch. A call to testing the limits of an enchanted barrier system. Participants are encouraged to go ham on the barrier with physical and magical force (please stay clear of any boom zone), kind of like a wreck-it room but more productive. There's no separate testing log; you can handwave your character's involvement or you can thread out a scene in this post if you want to! OOC details on the barrier system are here. They'll be utilizing the full system for assessing how much damage it can take before becoming functionally useless. The recharging will be tested with two posts only to minimize strain on participants.

Simple refreshments will be provided: tea, biscuits (he made them himself!), butter and jam, sausages and a pot of mulled wine on his and Viktor's hot plate (for afterward).

Hey, it's Jayce from Research. Not to worry, this isn't about an unintentional combustion event. I'm looking for any available hands that won't mind testing the resistance force of a project intended to benefit the defenses of the Gallows. We'll need physical and magical force to mimic another siege, so... well, if you're looking to let off some steam, then this might be the perfect excuse to do so in the name of science.

Since these barriers, which are powered by lyrium, will eventually fail under enough force, I'd like to see if they can be... recharged, you know, in a pinch with magic, either from an anchor or a mage. Given how lyrium-hungry this system is, it probably won't amount to much, but we can obtain a baseline and extrapolate the data.

If you're available, let's meet outside the Gwaren outpost in forty-eight hours. Barrow, the Master of Works, will oversee us. Let us know so we can form a rough headcount. Oh, and, uh... if that time conflicts with the majority, then we'll reschedule. All right, thanks.

Entry tags:

REPORT | Straight chillin

SUBJECT: Sunless Lands Excursion
PARTICIPANTS: Isaac, Vlast, Hermione
CLASSIFICATION: Public
DATE FILED: Backdated pre-Forgetti
STATUS: Complete
SUMMARY:

A team went to the Sunless Lands to assist a fossil hunter. They found an undead red lyrium mammoth. We didn't let them keep it.

REPORT:

Firstfall, 9:50 Dragon —

Good news: We reached the site safely, and assisted with the excavation of a vast, partially-frozen creature. The researchers call it a mammoth. It resembles a very large, hairy elephant; and owns a somewhat whimsical appeal.

Bad news: The mammoth was possessed and infested with red lyrium.

Great news: We destroyed the mammoth.

Worse news: The researchers didn't like that.

Better news: Their funding source, a Mssr Regis Lyme, found the whole affair quite invigorating. He's promised to speak with our agents regarding future expeditions.

Sad news: We tracked the corruption to a fully-crystallized body within a collapsed mineshaft. Likely, a survivor of the Inquisition's initial purge. The roots, as it were, have been cleansed according to procedure.

Fantastic news: The mammoth was full of frozen worms. Some of them were nearly a foot long!

NEXT STEPS: N/A

NOTES & LINKS: Log

Entry tags:

REPORT | Mage jobs for mages - Rd 1

SUBJECT: Mage Jobs - Round 1
PARTICIPANTS: Isaac, Kostos, and a lot of other people
CLASSIFICATION: Unofficial
DATE FILED: Backdated pre-Forgetti
STATUS: Ongoing
SUMMARY:

Some Riftwatch mages are doing side jobs to advance their gross little agenda. This is what we got done in the first few months. There are more jobs available.

REPORT:

These aren't official documents, but they exist in the world, and your characters can encounter them.

A survey of spirits at former Circles and battlegrounds, with focus to Kinloch Hold and Dairsmuid.
A collection of evidence regarding the magical nature of anchor shards, and anchor-bearers.

Details under cut.

( im a cut )

NEXT STEPS:

Pursue these, do new jobs, do neither.

NOTES & LINKS:

OOC Job list
IC Announcement
Spirit Survey Log
Anchor Evidence-Gathering: Viktor, Ennaris, Mobius, Cosima, Keen, Petra, Barrow, Hermione, Vega

Entry tags:

(no subject)

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Kieran
RECIPIENT: All
NOTES: tbd

Good evening! I apologize for the late hour -

[ (all this in a pleasant Fereldan accent belonging to a young man, speaking like he's giving his excuses for being late to tea) ]

- but I'm trying to find the ferry. Am I too late for it?

[ You might be asking yourself: Who is this? How did he get hold of a crystal? Are there more members of Riftwatch who've been magically erased from the world?

Probably it's fine, though. Right? ]

Entry tags:

crystal; new phone who dis

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Ness Tavane (

aberratic, on behalf of The Forgotten (Julius, Bastien, Clarisse, Viktor (and Isaac)))
RECIPIENT: Everyone
NOTES: Player plot info! Basically: As far as everyone in the Gallows is concerned, the people Ness is talking about just straight up do not exist and never have.

[ the voice that comes over the crystal is a soft, somewhat frazzled soprano. other voices can be heard arguing behind her, but only the tones of frustration and suspicion are audible; the content of the discussion is indistinct. ]

Good afternoon, Riftwatch, this is Quartermaster Ennaris Tavane. We—that is, myself, the Seneschal, Griffon Keeper La Rue, and Messeres Bastien and Viktor, we are being barred from use of the ferry to re-enter the Gallows. Is there anyone available to vouch for us, please? We're all very tired from our return journey and have quite a lot of work to get back to.