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.