The party finally enters the temple to meet the source of all these troubles. Lawren’s Grey Warden senses inform the party that the very tall, very slim man before them is in fact a Darkspawn of some sort; the being’s subsequent transformation into a massive dragon after some banter reveals it’s true nature.

A battle ensues, leaving the party triumphant. At death, the creature returns to a half-breed form. The Old God from the Temple Below, who has watched in silence, approaches and returns the book the party had thought hidden to Arvaarad. He explains it as the Journal of Halcyon and that it can be used to awaken something called the Harbingers. It can be used to rouse Archdemons and other beings that appear as dragons to normal mortals. He tells the party to be wary and watchful since He expects more individuals to come for it in the due passage of time.

Outside the Temple, those of the enemy who could flee are found to have done so. The Qunari slaves still alive remain and enter into discussions on how to destroy the Temple with the remaining Qunlat. The Saarebas, after drawing quick sketches of the corpse and the Temple interior, goes out to join in the planning while leaving the Templar to collect the remaining Lyrium to do something constructive with it.

The Arvaarad then locks the book and distributes the keys to the three humans, one to each, to guard henceforth. The party then parts, each returning to the nation they call home…

/FIN

The Arvaraad infiltrates the camp posing as an elven slave while the rest of the party picks off scout troops to make the Tevinter anxious, hoping to pull away enough of the main force to make a shot at the leadership possible. A note in Qunlat is left near the ranking Qunari slave in the hopes that the slaves can be swayed toward helping foment disruptions..

When the Tevinter begin to fortify instead of following as hoped, The Arvaraad departs and returns to tell the rest of the the party what they are doing.

Then the party spends the session trying to make a plan. Because gamers.

Heading towards the Tevinter camp when a scout is spotted. Hijinks ensue where we take down the scout’s horse, they hide in a tree, Lawren goes in after them and gets promptly kicked out. Upon realizing she is in a hopeless situation the scout attempts to kill herself, is held at death’s door by Cayda long enough to get information that Septimus and his “Master” are here.

Arvaraad heads out to scout the situation ahead, dodging scouting parties and coming across the camp, discovering roughly 100 Tevinter, with another 150 slaves. The source of their Gaatlok is discovered to be over two dozen Qunari slaves, some of which have been lobotomized. There are already several stores of gaatlok around the camp as well. At the center of the camp, the Tevinter are rebuilding a gran cathedral designed for the Old Gods. The Arvaraad returns to the party and explains the situation. The party begins to come up with a plan. Though it takes some time a plan is formulated.

The party splits up (always a good decision), with the Arvaarad heading back towards the Tevinter camp in the guise of a slave to stir up dissent among the slaves and prepare the way while the rest of the party attempts to draw out the main force of the Tevinter so they can then sneak past them to assault the camp. Lawren and an enemy scout group pass one another like ships in the night and the party is found by a small scouting party and combat commences. Fight is going poorly for scouts so they attempt to flee in different directions. The scouts are stopped quickly and put down. The party prepares for the next stage of their plan.

Despite much anxiety on the matter and excessive planning, the party manages to cross the Tevinter border with no troubles. They make their way toward the last ruin, finding themselves in one of the old battles of the second Exalted March.

Along the way, Holdbeast Steve suddenly makes a fuss and draws Lova (and the rest of the party out of sheer curiosity) off toward a tomb. The markings indicate it is the Silent Bird hold territory, Lova’s own Clan.

Within a few feet of entrance, it becomes clear that either the Fade has torn or someone has been naughty in this tomb. Several bodies rise up and come at the party, flashing sharp, pointy teeth. They get beaten down in short order and soon the party wins into the central chamber. Lova, as the ‘heiress’, agrees to let the party take what gear they would, except for a stone bow which she lays claim to.

The list includes:
-A Sword
-The Stone Bow
-A pair of daggers
-Armor of a leatherlike persuasion
-A shield with the heraldry of the Legion of the Dead

The party enters the temple and Lova activates her Spirit Warrior technique, creating a weird effect on the walls. As the party travels, they come across two incredibly mangled corpses, promising not so much fun times ahead. Path spirals deeper into the temple, and eventually the party comes across a small party of three Tevinter, the last survivors of their attempt to take this place. There is an awkward pause as neither side is entirely certain if we should be murdering each other or the creature that inhabits the temple. Vints choose first and decide to try to kill us. Combat is had (The GM rolls 23 stunt points that are flanked by 1’s and thus miss). Just as the combat is coming to a close, the Vint mage is grabbed by something and disappears into the shadows outside of the torches and explodes thanks to Walking Bomb, there is a horrible screeching noise. Shortly after the last of the Vints are cleaned up and a torch is tossed down the path where the mage disappeared, all that is seen are little chunks of Tevinter.

The party continues down, going deep into the bowels of the earth before finally coming to a large atrium with a pair of doors on the other side, a shrine in the middle, and one of the fish people. Fish person speaks in common (and is probably possessed by its evil god or something). It explains how the book opens “The Path” that will lead to ruination. Doesn’t answer a whole lot about the situation besides that, and stating with complete confidence that the temple will be able to stop any from stealing the last key. Faced with potentially opening a Doomsday book, the party decides against attempting to gain the final key and take the fish person/ancient deity at its word. The party leaves, sealing the way behind us and prepares to march against the Tevinter on their home turf.

The party makes contact with the rest of the fish person’s colony. They are able to determine that three boats worth of Tevinter had gone off to what is apparently a pyramidal structure on an island in the lake. They also indicate that some guardians are in the way but can’t or won’t describe it. Their laughter on the subject of the Tevinter who had gone that way was not exactly assuring, nor was the prayers that were said over the party as they prepared to sail out after.

Being heroic and foolish, naturally the party went anyway.

Around the time that they spot wreckage and the floating corpses of obviously partially eaten Tevinter, they learn what the Guardians are. Known to the two qunari as Aban Ataashi, three very-large-but-not-as-big-as-they-could-be sea serpents rise up out of the water and begin trying to snatch party members from the boat to crush and drown them. Through a combination of frenzied rowing and delay tactics, the party manages to get to a safe area near the island, closely tailed by an ever increasing number of the creatures.

On the beach, they find bodies of both Tevinter and fishmen and two boats. The party climbs up the step-sided pyramid and finds a dark entryway and begin to head through…

Going down the underground river, come to a small encampment with Tevinter soldiers there. Party picks a fight against some hardy Tevinter soldiers and kills them (tough fight). Exploring the camp we see more dead Tevinter and a lot of dead fishmen. One is still alive! Cayda tends to the fishman’s wounds to stabilize him. Try rudimentary conversation but it only speaks Ancient Tevinter. Manage to discover there are 20 more Vints down here. Nothing else of interest in the camp. We bring the fishman with us to the boats to bring him back to his people. Go back to the boats and continue down the river.

River winds downwards to a vast underwater lake where the fishman leaves us, Lawren spots the fishman’s trail and we attempt to follow that.

Upon returning to the Inn, the ladies turn over their presents and then learn that Ben has actually known where the lost mage was the whole time and, having decided that the group is at least not actively going to murder the man, leads them to him. He recognizes the ring at once; the Blighted Ring of the Pendaghasts. Ben then directs Lawren to conscript Firbolg, his friend, to protect him from rebuttal for departure. Once this is arranged, Firbolg offers his advice: It is all but impossible to redeem the ring, but it is entirely possible to craft a fake and enchant it to seem like the true ring long enough to fool the Carta for at least a few days.

While the party waits for that to be accomplished, they hear of a force of Tevinter north of the city and decide to investigate more fully. They find the camp but no sign of the people, even scouts. Made suspicious by this fact, the party decides to investigate the area and find a place which had been blasted open. Once inside, they find their first bodies: two fallen scouts and an odd creature covered in slime and rags, wielding an ancient Tevinter dagger. Further in, they find all of the classic signs of a Dragon temple but one unlike those they had seen before: It had eight dragons. Moreover, instead of being entirely abandoned, the eighth dragon had been actively defaced. An altar in the main chamber bears the words in Ancient Tevinter, “Hail to Tobek, Dragon of the Deep.”

A lever opens a path to a room with a massive hole. Fifty feet below, the remnants of old boats float in a slow-moving stream. The boats, when Mavi goes down to investigate, are made of a strange material that is between wood and stone yet which is light enough to maneuver. After carefully tying off their climbing rope what is hopefully well out of reach of the mysterious creatures, the party loads into boats and sets off down the river…

The group heads off to the Circle and inquires after someone to help disenchant the cursed ring without destroying it. Unfortunately, the Circle’s expert, someone named Firbolg, has gone missing. The Circle pairs them up with one of their Templars, Ben, and they begin to ask questions.

A search of the missing man’s quarters reveals a note about his research having gone badly and his need to flee before being made Tranquil. Questioning the mans lab-mate, Dax, results in very little to go on. The girls descend into Lowtown, trying to find the missing mage amongst the seedy. They fail, but they do succeed in finding a lot of useful new toys.

The boys, meanwhile, sit in Hightown and enjoy a beverage over a rather tense discussion as Lawren attempts to explain to Ben just how such a disparate group ended up together…and why he shouldn’t just turn them over to the Templar Police as heretics and apostates. Fortunately, Lawren distracts the man with talks of Tevinter and keeps the peace…for now.

After spending a day trying to find the ruins, since they haven’t found the dwarves, the party is soon found by them instead. The dwarf (and his heavily armed friends) offers a trade: the ring for information he has discovered about a freshly-arrived group of Tevinter who are searching for ruins.

The party sets out to look for any signs of the sort of disasters that the ring tends to bring and shortly finds one in the form of a house that has inexplicably collapsed on itself. After some work, they burst in and find a few dead persons and a stairwell down into the basement. A scream draws them down just in time to see a pair of undead killing a man. The Revenant and the Arcane Horror are cut down in short order. After a bit of poking around, the group finds a trapdoor which leads into the undercity.

A bloodtrail through the stone leads to a closed door, behind which is an elf, a Crow. He gives back the ring without an argument, stating he and his were hired under false pretenses and he has no further wish to associate with the thing.

The party is thus left with the ring and the choice…to turn over the ring to the Carta or to try and destroy the evil item.

The party spent some time tracking down Steve. He is eventually found with a coquettish lady bird (or at least presumed female, no one’s judging!). Lova is mixed in her reaction; Steve’s return is to be rejoiced about, but his new ‘friend’ despises her, leading to some awkwardness.

The group splits, sending off the Qunari to meet with their people, whom they have discovered are in residence in reasonable numbers. The humans, sent off to learn the whereabouts of their erstwhile Dwarven employer, fail miserably. Mavi sets off to make up for their failings and learns that their target is Carta. Though he can’t be found, merely the fact he is sought is sure to get him looking for the party in turn…

The next few days pass in peace, much to the parties collective surprise. They arrive in Cumberland and, after reflecting a bit in their glories and fame, set about the business of returning the ring. The receiving dwarf is mightily confused but receives the ring with a promise to tell Gorrim it was delivered.

Within moments of leaving, the building the hapless dwarf in was soon immolated. Cayda evacuated the poor doomed fool while the rest of the party searched for the box the dwarf had put the ring in, only to find it empty and partially exploded from the outside. The dwarf, as he dies says “Damn Crows”.

Now aware of the identity of the killers, the group decides that it behooves them to return to Gorrim and tell him all about what had happened. Since the village of Markath is on the way, the party can easily* stop on the way.

Travel is swift, untroubled, and suspicious. Upon arrival, however, the party realizes that Gorrim has left eastward. Grumbling , the party arrives at Kirkwall. Shortly after entering the city, however, Steve disappears. Lova proceeds to panic and bribe urchins to bring her ‘white birds’, which goes exactly as well as one would expect; the Qunari’s comfort fails spectacularly. In recompense, Mavi spends some time asking about after leads trying to track down any hint of where the mighty Hold Ptarmigan has gone. Her efforts with the same children goes rather better and, after getting them to understand what a ptarmagin looks like and the party soon tramps off toward the second-nearest tavern.

On the road betwixt Kirkwall and Val Royeaux, not far from Cumberland, the party comes across a group of wagons that appear to be in some sort of distress. The persons belonging to the wagons are of Ravaini lineage, which enables Cayda to ease their distrust enough to learn what troubles them. Their mage, their Storyteller, was found dead and desicated, despite being a fairly young man. Worse, the dead man is wearing a very familiar ring; the missing Pentaghast ring .

After a bit of discussion, the Saarebas convinces the traders to surrender the ring so that they can travel on without it’s curse hanging over their heads. The party, after a bit of discussion, decide that the best thing to do is to take the ring on to Cumberland and give it over to the person who had wanted it in the first place.

Leaving the traders to perform their funeral rites, the party moves on as far as they can before dark falls. The first nights are fine but the when they are still two days out, the Shade attacks. The Arvaarad, on watch, is too slow to avoid the first attack but wakes the rest. The party dissipates the creature swiftly enough, though Lova is able to determine that that the force still remains in the ring and will doubtless return. The party gets what sleep they can and then prepares to resume their efforts to make the city once again…

Delving deeper into the maze, the party soon realizes that the original plan of ‘always go right’ is not going to suffice; the maze, which is clearly mystical, shifts them without any regard for the laws of space and time. The Fade draws nearer, making the Qunari deeply uneasy (and the subsequent ‘discussion’ about spirits making the Avvar deeply offended).

A few turns of the maze later, the party encounters a woman being attacked by three creatures which appear to be made out of fire. The woman’s vague resemblance to Roselle draws Lawren into the fight, sending Mavi and Lova in after him. Cayda, meanwhile, recognizes the ‘woman’ as a desire demon and stays out of the fracas entirely, judging that magic in a demon-filled locale isn’t wise.

The three fire demons die easily, leaving the ‘woman’, Lawren at first approaches her as if she was who he thought her to be, but her inability to answer questions that Roselle should know proved that she wasn’t what she seemed. Her ruse blown, the desire demon attacks. She manages to turn Lawren against the party, leading him to slice Lova a bit before the rest of the group destroys the demon.

Several more turns along, the party comes to a large room, centered by a massive, Tevinter-rune carved tree. The Saarebas makes short work of the puzzle therein and the party passes through a newly-unlocked door to find a set of stairs that lead up to a small altar against a blank wall. On the altar are carved the words ‘the blood of the holy’. Mavi, with what can only be described as smugness, produces a vial of dragonling blood from her pouch and dribbles some on the orb. To her great disappointment, nothing happens. Lawren, however, has his own ideas and, as soon as the party acquiesces to his request to step back because what he is trying might be dangerous, sneakily drips some of his own blood onto the altar, which immediately opens the sphere. Within lies another key, which is swiftly used by Cayda to unlock the third lock.

The map, when examined, shows the next destination: the outskirts of Kirkwall.

In which David Bowie makes an appearance

Kilina doesn’t bother the party with more Grey Warden business so we grab our supplies and head off to the ruins. Ruins are all messed up, mostly open to the air and in obvious disrepair. Ancient bloodstains abound and there’s a skeletal hand sticking out of a wall. There’s a lever (of course), which gets pulled and the wall with the skeleton hand lifts up! 30 skeletons in a closed off room are revealed, a quick examination reveals the bodies are roughly 100 years old, and are wearing Orlesian and Tevinter garb. Arvaraad examines the Tevinter script and discovers this is a temple to the Dragon God of Chaos, Zazikel. There is also an alter with a button.

We manage to stop Lova from pressing the button long enough to put a big rock in the way to make certain that when we press the button the wall won’t close and lock us in. Press the button and the wall closes (called it!) but is caught by the rock. A path down opens in the floor as well and we take the stairs down. Stairs go down forever, leading to a huge cavern which is lit up by mechanical whatsits that went off when we pressed the button. We see a labyrinth that we are approaching. When we get to the bottom of the stairs there is an alter to the dragon god for people to pray at before entering the labyrinth. None of us do this because we don’t worship dragons like weird people, so we enter the labyrinth. Lova tries to climb over the walls, but faces resistance. Something is blocking her from climbing over. We decide to take the “always go right” combined with “marking our direction” approach. Our reward for this ingenious plan is an Arcane Horror to the face, which we murder.

As the party prepares to go off in search of the ancestral ruins, they are stopped by the arrival of the Grey Warden Kilina. Her offer to allow them to Join is expiring, and Lawren is forced to choose. He reaffirms his decision and receives his first instruction: attain a vial of Darkspawn blood. Not just any blood will do, however…the blood of a powerful being must be brought as well as that from a mere Genlock or Hurlock.

Conveniently enough, there is a hidden entrance into the Deep Roads within reasonable travelling range. Inconveniently, it lies in the exact opposite direction from the ruins where they had hoped to snatch the highly-coveted key.

The party swiftly marches off and finds the location from the map easily enough. A cavern leads them downward into the bared arms and teeth of a band of Hurlock with their blighted wolf companions. They were dispatched rather quickly and made their way deeper to encounter a much more interesting foe: An Ogre and it’s two Genlock companions.

These went down only slightly more painfully and, triumphant, the party returns and leave Lawren to the questionable attentions of the Warden.

His Joining consists of a cocktail of blood and lyrium, taken in secret away from his companions. He survives the ritual and, some hours later, returns to the rest, unchanged on the outside at least…

After succeeding in slaying the Wyvern and failing to see any sign whatsoever of Roselle, the party returns back to Val Royeaux to claim the victory for Lawren’s family. No sign of Roselle was seen on the way or heard of upon return and so, after returning and reporting victory to Lawren’s aunt, the party departs for his ancestral estate to use it as a base for seeking out the nearby temple where they hope to find the next key.

Once there, as Lawren asks around about visitors, the two Qunari dug into his family records. The pair soon find records of Lawren’s grandfather who had left the previous record. They find that he had enjoyed a long and somewhat tumultuous life, having been both an ambassador to Tevinter and, in subsequent years, chosen for the Wardens only to turn them down in the end.

More interesting than this discovery, however, is an old writ from Emperor Freyan of the Storm Age. This writ charged the Rolain family with the oversight and protection of the ruin in question (as well as all other ruins in their territory), a writ which the modern family appears to have been ignorant of and/or ignoring. Moreover, shortly after that date, all signs of that ruin were cleansed from the records in a notable fashion.

The party meets Roselle and her people the next morning as plan. Her party is not quite as diverse, being mostly human (Orlaisian and Ferelden) with a Daelish archer among them. The Qunari make short work of distressing the poor Mage, Marden, within minutes by staring at him intently without much notice paid to the other two. A brief discussion of ‘keepers’ and references to Cayda’s growing stave collection serve to forever alienate the mage.

The rumors place the wyvern some distance away, leaving the group with a choice of how to reach the area, southeast of Verchiel. Still rich with Tourney winnings, the party secures a ferry ride across the Waking Sea toward the old road near Lydes. The trip proves blissfully dull and the party and their mounts arrive on the far coast none the worse for wear.

Travel overland goes somewhat well, though the party learns shortly that someone matching the description of Julien, Roselle’s roguish companion, has been seen here for a few days prior. Further bad news makes itself known as the party moves onward, only to learn that someone is trailing them for unknown purposes. Small towns along the way confirm their direction and soon enough they find their quarry…along and amidst traps by an unknown party.

The party soon realizes the wyvern has circled and was now stalking them. They used this to pick an ambush point. During the skirmish that followed, Lova draws upon her people’s path and brings forth a spirit of Valor to join her in battle, allowing for a swift and explosive end to the beast. Before it’s death it manages to bite and poison Lova but the party’s preparations ensure that the inconvenience is minor.

Just as the cleanup begins, however, Marden staggers toward them. The reason for his untimely demise is soon made clear as a Shriek and two Hurlocks follow him over the rise.
In an event that would prove in time to be the source of much internal, and potentially loud and vocal, debate, Cayda’s magic slips her control for the first time since her first spark of power. Lawren suffers the spell meant for their enemy and Mavi, for the first time since becoming Arvaarad, is forced to use the Saarebas’ control rod.

Through the supporting efforts of his comrades, Lawren is able in time to throw off the wracking affects of the magic. An argument ensues between Mavi and Lova over the Saarebas’ condition, an argument which does little if anything to console Cayda when she is able to control herself once more. After several minutes of terse exchange about the understanding of magic and, more specifically, the signs of an Abomination aborning, the party collects themselves enough to go searching for the rest of the ill-fated Marden’s party.

Not far distant, the group finds what remains of the mage and the elven archer. Only Roselle is missing, and larger-than-human tracks lead on and away…

After several weeks of travel from the ruins, the party arrives in Val Royeaux. Lawren’s family is quick to learn of his arrival and a summons from his Aunt comes in short order. After the briefest of pleasantries and some mistakes by a certain Avvar, Lawren learns that he has been chosen to defend the family lands from a neighboring family by means of a duel. His opponent is to be a woman named Roselle, a friend from childhood.

When Lawren and Roselle met, however, she was quick to propose a non-standard, and probably non-lethal, alternative to the traditional duel; a wyvern hunt, her companions against his, with the first to slay the beast the victor. After brief contemplation and the barest agreement from the party, Lawren agreed. After learning all they could of the creature they would fight, they purchased antidotes for the venom and prepared to march out first thing the next morning.

The party, with the Saarebas exhausted, mystically-speaking, decides to rest and attempt to catch the foe unawares in the night. Though unmolested, the party feels itself under watch and confirms this fact when, upon awakening, they find the enemy well underway again.

As the party travels, however, the Qunari ponder their destination and, between them, come to the conclusion that the Tevinter must be headed to a ruin nearby. After trailing them to the ruin they pause and send Mavi in to scout. She sees what seem like surprisingly-unshambling-for-undead zombies and returns to the party to share what she’d seen: That they had, apparently, wiped out the Tevinter and were looking to kill a few more.

The party, after killing the Darkspawn with relative ease, follow the hapless Tevinter inside. The temple soon proves to be old and full of idolatry for the Old Gods. A stair, which had once been hidden beneath the altar, lies open. It leads to the reliquary, in which an altar holds something in a glass jar.

In front of the jar, the party find Claudia and a handful of guards, one of whom has a flailing Darkspawn on a collar. After a brief exchange of unpleasantries, the party and the Tevinter fall into lethal combat. Claudia and Cayda exchange a salvo of walking bombs (which Cayda won) while her raised undead and soldiers go after the rest. After the Magister exploded, her remaining guards fled, leaving the party to recapture the Darkspawn and crush the few remaining skeletons before surveying the room’s contents.

Amidst Claudia’s remains is a large locket with a key that fits the Qunaris’ book! Another, similar key sits besides parchment under glass on the altar at the room’s center. The text is in Orlesian, an older form, but too rolled together to read. After a bit of study, the group works out that the Darkspawn is somehow key and literally lob the bleeding creature at the warded globe’s direction. It’s blood shatters the globe and the party reclaims the prizes.

Lawren reads the note, realizing to his amazement that it was drafted by his own great-grandfather. It says, simply, “Never again, you Tevinter bastards.”

Meanwhile the Qun quickly unlock two of the padlocks on their mysterious book, leaving it still held closed by two keys.

As they explore the remains further, they find a mystical map. Five locations are marked, with the party’s location being one of them. The known lyrium repository has a marker and two other spots, Orlais and Kirkwall, gleam faintly. The final spot, in Ferelden, is dim.

Given that one of their number comes from Orlais ,the party agrees to venture to that location first.

The next day, after a supply run, the party manages to trace the departing Tevinter from two gates; one, the main body, headed north. The other, smaller group, went north-east. Anticipating that vengeance followed the lesser number, the party set out in that direction. Though starting later, the party was mounted whereas the Tevinter are not.

As the party catches up, they come across a party left arears to try and slow or stop them. Six lancers put up a good showing but the party rolls through them with relative ease. An hour or so later they come across a second band, this one far more dangerous than the first. Though fewer in number, this group includes a man as heavily armed and armored as Lova, with whom he quickly closes and participates in a duel of champions. Many blows were struck and much blood was spilled, yet in the end the party once again proved victorious.

With Shesalla’s words to spurt them away from their revels, the party departs posthaste toward the last known headquarters of the Bleakwatch. Mavi, entering to scout, finds the place in a state not ill befitting an abattoir, with bodyparts and blood scattered throughout. Massive numbers were clearly involved but no Tevinter seem to have fallen inside.

While the party are looking about, they hear the sounds of movement outside. A quick reconnoiter shows that there are approximately fifty Tevinter soldiers surrounding the building, demanding the party lay down their arms and surrender. The party refuses, the choice made easier based on the sudden arrival of the Kal-Sharokian dwarves. Their leader, Lyulf Azahary, seems delighted to have had the chance for a good fight and to assist what he considers ‘one of the few allies they have’.

Among the dead the party does not find Claudia, whom had revealed herself to be behind the attempted trap. More than half of the attackers lived to flee, leaving a dozen and a half dead on the street.

With nothing more pressing to do, the party, along with their Dwarven companions, did the logical thing and returned to the party and freely flowing alcohol…

Lova, in her first quarterfinal match, has the misfortune of fighting the Lord of Kal-Sharok. He soundly defeats her, a trend that continues until he takes the match and is crowned the Champion for this year’s Tourney.

The party, though not victors, are nonetheless heroes. For preventing the massive explosion planned by the Culd of the Last Moon, Lord Aerenthal praises the party and bestows the rewards he promised. The Warden, Kilina, offers the chance to Join the order, an offer which Lawren, after much thought, accepts. Wealth, fine armors, and the praise of all the land flow over the companions, ensuring that when they choose to depart it will be in a markedly better state than how they arrived.

As they celebrate at one of many parties, Shesella staggers to Mavi and, gasping out her last breath, manages to warn her that the Tevinters had seized the Lyrium and utterly destroyed the Bleakwatch in the process…

Lova, as one of the final sixty-four in the Grand Tourney, has her first match and declares for the blood of the Avvar. She fights an Antivaan named Beliran who fights for the Lost and is victorious. Other notables to pass the initial semi-final include a chevallier and a member of the Legion of the Damned

Midday the Dwarves get into a fight. Fisticuffs only at first turns into flying axes and the lord of the Orzammar dwarves dies in the scuffle, which comes down to Kal-Sharok blaming the Orzammar dwarves because one of their Smiths, Eldrik, had been found slain. Lova is able to draw their attention and stop the fighting for a time. After Mavi points out the possibility that the Tourney may be cancelled and their lost Hammer forever taken from their grasp if such antics continue, the fighting ends, leaving Cayda to patch up the wounded before all return to their drinks and their spectating.

The next day brings the next round of combat and finds Lova matched against a Chevallier. Today Lova fights for the honor of all warriors while her opponent fights for something he names in Orlesian, which Lawren pompously refuses to translate. The fight is brutal and short and Lova wins again, though this time her opponent does not retire nearly so graciously.

During the celebrations, Clara the barmaid tells Mavi that she had been visited by Paulie. She said he had acted very strangely and warned her against attending the finals, though he would not say why. Clara clarified that Paulie is apparently now living in the tent city and Mavi told her not to worry, she would track Paulie down before the end. With the rest of the party in tow, Mavi spends the evening looking for Paulie and manage to find him, sitting and rocking and mumbling to himself. Just as they were able to calm them, he was suddenly exploded by a very familiar spell.

Combat with very familiar cultists and a less familiar Blood Mage ensued, resulting in six corpses and one captive mage. When questioned, she revealed the stadium had been stuffed full of what they considered sufficient gaatlok to kill the entire populace of observers. She mentioned the ‘Last Moon’ and how this act would bring thousands to their banner.

With everything learned, the party decided to ‘gift’ the mage to the dwarves of Kal-Sharok. In gratitude (and a massive desire not to be blown to bits before reclaiming their hammer) the dwarves as well as the local guards were able to search the stands and find over 20 locations of crates full of gaatlok in the scaffolding. The two Qunari, who had sacrificed their share of the gold for the ‘honor’ of assisting with the destruction before everyone went off to rest before the final day of the tourney…

{{Level up to 6}}

The Grand Tourney continues apace and the party proves to be surprisingly proficient at side events. Lawren proves victorious in the archery tournament and Mavi wins the throwing contest.

As minor victories are celebrated, the party turns in only to be woken rather abruptly in the wee hours by the house guard of House Aerenthal, the house of Rainer Aerenthal, sponsor of the tourney. He, and a guest Kilina, a Grey Warden, are concerned with the ritual murders happening throughout the city near the river. Kilina, having survived an assassination attempt, was able to identify the cult as Followers of the Last Moon, a group who worship one of the Tevinter Old Gods.

Little is known about the Cult, save that they are escalating. They are purported to follow Lusacan, god of Night and not as of yet altered to an Archdemon. Victims thus far include dockworkers, a watch patrol, a unit of the Aerenthal house guard patrol, an Orzammar dwarf, and all of the investigators sent out to date.

On the way back from the meeting, the party is suddenly ambushed by crossbowmen. Though they had numbers, they lacked skill and soon fell, their bodies revealed them to be tongueless and tattooed with a crescent moon…

During the middle days of the tourney, events are disrupted by the sounds of a vast explosion away from the contest grounds. Upon investing, the two Qunari members of the party quickly identify the distinctive scent of Gaatlok at the site of an exploded inn. Oktav Vogl, the owner, is missing and was the last person seen in the secondary kitchen, which is where the explosion originated from.

Questioning a barmaid named Carla soon revealed that Vogl had been in an argument with a member of the staff he had fired, a human named Paulie.

The captive elf having given up nothing of use, the party soon returned their thoughts to competition in stead of the hunt for Lyrium.

The Grand Tourney proved too taxing for any but Lova, though in other events the party was more fortunate. Laren and Lova qualified well in the archer’s tourney and Blue qualified in the throwing tourney.

In the evening, Kal-Sharok arrives and there is almost a street brawl to rival West Side Story between them and Orzammar. Lord Lyulf Azaharg of Kal Sharok and his people demand the right to compete. In the ensuing hubub, Laren manages to stop most of the fighting while Blue urges those around her to allow the new arrivals to fight. This earns both Qunari the displeasure of Lord Quennar and Lord Kynrick of Orzammar but does earn the personal thanks of the rival leader.

The party, in an attempt to get invited to the party where Blane will be present, sets out back to the fancy bar. They listen carefully to the people there and identify the habits of one Jemimah Ropper, an Orlesian noblewoman. Lawren makes her acquaintance and, through the promise of three undisclosed favors, manages to procure three invitations.

Leaving a very upset Lova behind, the three who actually know how to dress up for parties head out. Things go well for the first few hours but then Lawren spies Blane heading out of the main ballroom. He follows him down, with Blue behind him, and finds Blane and three others. Lawren manages to survive the first rush and successfully retreats up the stairs, just in time for Cayda, who has heard Blue scream, to arrive and turn one of the guards chasing Lawren into a walking bomb. The door is slammed shut as an elven servant tries (and fails) to stealth stab the Saarebas. The elf is knocked out even as the poor fool behind the door explodes.

Miraculously, none of the other guests seem to note anything amiss. Through the artful use of the ‘My friend is drunk’ method, the three manage to depart with the servant in tow. Lawren, needing to change his clothes, returns to the inn only to find Lova (and Steve) gone. The Qunari, meanwhile, head off with the elf toward the abandoned warehouse from the lyrium observation prior…

Having learned the Bleakwatch is mostly full of elves, Blue goes to the local Alienage to learn what she can about the group. The locals are happy to share with a fellow elf that Shesella leads the group and that they have something to do with Lyrium. Also of interest is murmurs about something big about to happen involving a dwarf…..

Since the party has the information of forthcoming lyrium purchases, they set of with the intent to make an exchange (hopefully) of information for the captive. Unfortunately, a poor choice of words ends with the captive dead. Shesella, however, is perfectly happy to talk about the reason she’s vexed. Someone named Blane, a disgraced Chevallier, is involved in cutting the Bleakwatch out of the lyrium supply.

As plans are being made to give over the first location as a gesture of good faith, a lyrium-addicted former Templar busts rudely into the discussion. In an act of mercy/self-defense-/good PR, the party immediately springs into action to take the offender out.

Several days pass and the party meets with Shesella at the agreed location to hear how the raid had gone. They learn that things were a bit messy but productive. It is clear that Blane is the person to get to stop this all and so they gather the data they can about him. Shesalla is happy to reveal that Blane is often in the company of a Lady Sennova, a local noble. The good lady is planning a party and the group begins to plan a way to get Lawren, at least, invited…

After Blue makes peaceful contact with some Tevinter soldiers, learning Claudia will compete in the Tournament, the party decides to try the Chantry board again to find a gainful way to pass the time. Finding the missing person is still in fact missing, they head into the poorer side of the Dwarven quarter and learn that a dwarven girl, Kenedra, has been kidnapped by other Dwarves.

Blue is able to learn from the local downtrodden the base of the gang in question, the Bleakwatch.

The players then lose the last of their attention span and thus ends the session.

A meeting with Orta reveals a Lyrium exchange about to transpire. Blue, as the team scout, sets off to listen in. The transaction takes place between the Carta and a group of five Tevinter mages (plus Slaves) lead by a woman named Claudia. Six carts worth of lyrium are exchanged for a massive chest of gold.

The carts lead the party out of town and to a rather large camp of Tevinter. Blue manages to slip into the command tent unseen and hears someone tortured, with the unfortunate victim crying out for mercy from Lord Septimus.

Attempts were made to recruit the chantry. Perhaps because of Laurent’s tone, perhaps because there is a chantry informant, or perhaps because of pure bad luck, the lay brother refused to assist.