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

• 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!

To Riftwatch leadership,

It is to our understanding that Riftwatch harbors several soldiers of the Templar Order, and it is in an official capacity that we alert you to a recent development in our efforts to reorganize.

Concerning the departure of several sects and individuals from the Templar Order since the disaster at the conclave, Knight-Vigilant Aubin Héroux hereby issues an ultimatum to those who have not yet returned to the Chantry’s fold: they may either re-pledge themselves to the Order’s service and return immediately, or forfeit its protection.

“Protection” in this case encompasses that which shields a working Templar from civilian rule of law, pursuit and persecution by rebel magi, or any consequence of wartime actions performed in the service of the Order.

Furthermore, any Templar who continues to abjure his duty is henceforth to be considered a deserter and, in the name of justice, his dossier and whereabouts may be granted to any organization of magi upon request.

In the event of a Templar bearing an anchor shard, they are given leave to remain with Riftwatch until the situation’s resolution, under the condition that they publicly make known their loyalty to the Order and intent to return to their duties.

In Andraste’s name,

Knight-Divine Lorenco Sarmiento II