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.

SUBJECT: Thoris Ferron
PARTICIPANTS: Bastien, Vega Arany
CLASSIFICATION: Public (with access to Scouting Division files)
DATE FILED: Kingsway
STATUS: Complete
SUMMARY: Bastien and Vega convinced recent Venatori convert Magister Thoris Ferron of the merits of their cause. With murder and blackmail.

REPORT:

Scoutmaster,

Things did not go entirely as planned, but Ferron has agreed to assist us. Some duress was involved. She will have to watched for the usual signs of becoming a triple agent. Maybe if she does we can find something new to blackmail her with and make her a quadruple agent. But at that point I would have to hope she crossed us again because I have never met a quintuple agent and I would like to.

If we do not want to experiment with layers of agent, I have two suggestions offhand. One is finding her a Seheron Sharp-Shinned Sea Hawk egg after all. Your pirate might be in a better position to have an eye out for one than the rest of us. The other is arranging to transfer her allegiance to the Lucerni, who might be able to present themselves as a sympathetic alternative to both the cult and the cruel blackmailers.

Cheers,

Bastien

NEXT STEPS: Make use of her. Maybe shore up her support into something less reliant on threats. Maybe get double or triple crossed sometime.

NOTES & LINKS: OOC info, preliminary conversation, aspirational log.

Hello, everyone. I have a little project—I think it might serve us to have some agreed-upon replies to hard questions. Say someone asks you what is a rifter. Or they ask if it is true we once housed the mage Anders. The kind of thing where a wrong answer might cause us some trouble.

We will not settle on the right answers today. That will a longer conversation with the Diplomacy Division, I think. If you had a very clever answer that impressed someone very much, you are welcome to share it, of course, but right now I really want to know what difficult questions you have been asked while you are working, or while you are out in the city, or when your mother writes to you worried about the company you are keeping—although it does seem like most of us are not being written to by any mothers.

Separate question, if you have a living parent who writes to you, say so.

SUBJECT: Book hunt!
PARTICIPANTS: Octavius Vedici, Bastien
CLASSIFICATION: Public
DATE FILED: Cloudreach 9:50
STATUS: Complete
SUMMARY: To assist with the hunt for additional gates to the Black City, Octavius and Bastien went to Orlais to track down a text pertaining to Razikale that had been covertly passed between Southern academics. They recovered the book from the home of the late Col Thiers, who'd passed away with it in his possession.

REPORT: The report is tucked inside the front cover of the book in question–a first edition Caecilius on Razikale–when it's handed over.

Provost,

All fairly simple! We spoke to Mlle Fioranati and Mlle Lucrèce Langlois first. Both were helpful but had limited information. Mlle Langlois pointed us to Lord Chiquart Boisselot, who gave up Mm Regina Azaïs, who was able to point us to her friend M Col Thiers. M Thiers has unfortunately passed away and left his estate in some kind of legal tangle, so there was no way for us to ask politely for the book without involving solicitors. But since he should never have had such a heretical scandalous book in the first place, his heirs (whoever they are when the dust settles) probably will not notice it missing. If anyone does notice it will only be after they have sorted through his library, so we should have, let's say, a year before it might become an issue. The library was very full and very disorganizd. Lucky for us our new friend has such a nose for sniffing out ancient Tevinter texts.

I also picked up some letters exchanged between M Thiers and various contacts in the time after the book came into his possession. Nothing jumped out to me as useful, but I brought them along anyway, in case someone better versed in the subject at hand might notice something I didn't.

— Bastien

NEXT STEPS: Someone ought to read the book probably.

NOTES & LINKS: Log, original assignment.