INTEREST CHECK: if you want me, just whistle.

[elegiaque]

𝔦𝔣 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔴𝔞𝔫𝔱 𝔪𝔢, 𝔧𝔲𝔰𝔱 𝔴𝔥𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔩𝔢

WHAT
As new housing options become available for those affiliated with the Inquisition, Lady Vauquelin (along with the Duke de Coucy, and Morrigan's Kieran) will be relocating to a Hightown home where she will make her base. At roughly the same time, an increase in missing elves from the Kirkwall alienage will be becoming noticeable to anyone who cares to notice - though, who cares to notice some more missing elves, right? Certainly not Gwenaëlle, noted asshole; but increasingly suspicious behaviour of her Hightown neighbour will draw her attention, eventually requiring the aid of the Inquisition in investigating the increasingly likely prospect that the man next door is a Tevinter slaver acting as a spy for Corypheus. The ideal outcome? His living capture, a boon to the Inquisition and a PR opportunity to prove that they will work thoughtfully and methodically and without upending Kirkwall.

So try not to upend Kirkwall in the process.

See THIS POST for the full introductory breakdown and signups. Signups to investigate missing elves are CLOSED; signups to investigate shady Hightown dudes are still open.

CHECKING IN
HELLO THERE, LET'S BRAINSTORM. I'm checking in to see if there's still interest in continuing this plot and what would best enable people to do so! The way I've set it up is aimed at people figuring out what they want to do & how their characters will proceed, and I can provide information and assistance based on that; how it moves forward depends on what people choose to pursue and how they proceed.

If you're still interested, what would you like from me in order to move forward? What appeals to you about the plot, what works for you, what would you like your characters to do? Let us brainstorm.

THAT'S A LOT OF COMMENTS, WHAT'S THE HAPS

QUICK LOOK:

team yakety stealth (ellana, yngvi) pursue suspicious individuals to gather intelligence.

team kindergarten cop (myr, kit, sina) rescue some abandoned children, what the fuck happened here.

team the watch books (wren) will begin hightown adventures.

to be added to as plans firm up.

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

Rumors, pretty please! He's done some noticing considering he does some healing basically everywhere except Hightown, but I don't know where to go with that notice.

[elegiaque]

What would his likely IC route be? Like, would he approach people to ask about it? Would he want to observe more? Does he have any ties to the area that might make him think he could expect someone to talk to him?

[inagutterson]

Still here for this, Yngvi's using one of his Inquisition missions to let him investigate things and he's very well-acquainted with the dodgier parts of Kirkwall and the alienage. Can get into Hightown too considering he visits Gwen and knows Carta shortcuts anyway.

[elegiaque]

Yngvi's probably got the most reach of characters we have involved, I think >)

[sulena]

still very much interested! saoirse has been keeping an ear to the alienage and the elves in darktown, which is now including elven servants to hightown nobles because she's gotta know how the people feel about that sweet blood magic forest!!!

basically, she's been trying trust through her actions in helping around the alienage, running errands + baby sitting to get in on that good elf gossip

[elegiaque]

awww yiss. specifically with regard to hightown servants, rumors saoirse in particular could have picked up would include rumblings about wariness around job postings - nothing solid, but maybe somebody's friend heard that their cousin had been talking about one before they went missing, kind of thing.

[limier]

i'm still in, someone's probably been asking moderately nosy questions of the servants about how they've all been settling in (which i'm sure is earning just tons of goodwill with people paid well not to gossip who are worried about being fired)

i know the hightown stuff was going to come in a little later, so if it's time to start pursuing that or you'd prefer to wait on it, just lmk. -b she's probably heard dick-all about missing elves and is unlikely to unless yngvi or saoirse mention it.

[elegiaque]

gwen's staff is gently stressed to fuck bc a. they're getting pretty generous pay but b. she's been moody and high maintenance and has generally seemed ready to fire half of them at any moment for inconsequential preference things about how the house gets run. as of this publication no one has actually been fired, and a couple of them have figured out how she prefers certain things to be done, but that process has not involved any 'being told', so that's fun. so that's the bulk of her household staff murmurings, no one explicitly complaining but everyone a little bit on edge.

BUT SINCE IT'S BEEN A MONTH BASICALLY, she's had the house a while, she's settling in, some of them might have mentioned that the odd comings and goings wrt the Inquisition don't draw as much attention when her neighbour is in and out at all hours, too, merchants, you know, having things delivered and whatnot, probably trade secrets is why it's so late, but also someone saw gwen trying to see over the wall out one of the upstairs windows.

[limier]

briefly debates the merits of sending a letter to ask the main household how they do it, decides she'd rather not burn their CR to the ground and salt the ashes, probably tries to corner yva at some point to be like so.......is this normal or..........

but gwen bitch you're gonna fall out a window!! quietly makes inquiries about what merchant mostly sells, along with other hightown notables, under the guise of looking solicit donations for the chantry memorial-garden-forest. this is like 50% of the actual goal, anyway. the other half is "if she falls out of the window will someone notice and call for a healer"

@everyone - if anyone wants a hightown adventure, hmu and they can go on one together

[elegiaque]

inquiring with yva will tell her (mostly in the gaps between what she says and the blatant attempts to cover it up with Being Superior To All This and Loyal To Her Lady) that yva had never met gwen or been around her prior to being yanked from chambermaiding to replace the deceased mistress baudin and has very little insight into what "normal" is for her due to the fact it's basically been nonstop upheaval of one kind or another since she arrived, and gwen has been blatantly and purposefully shutting her out past the absolute bare minimum of her job. a lot of the things she'd expected to be doing, gwen doesn't want her around for.

HOWEVER, as a chambermaid she answered to mistress baudin until the housekeeper was sent to replace the first lady's maid (katell, an elf, now works for the inquisition), and is the source of some of the quiet corrections to how things are being done.

ALSO DEFINITELY HAVE A HIGHTOWN ADVENTURE, i think it'd be good to start poking that bear.

[mythalenaste]

Interested!

[elegiaque]

Cool! Let me know what ideas you have :]

[mythalenaste]

That's a placeholder for now, I will definitely contribute later.

[elegiaque]

Sweet. I recommend checking out the original post + the sign ups to see what people have in mind so far.

[ragweed]

Kit would also go the rumors route, though he doesn't have any ties to Hightown specifically. He does spend a fair amount of time bumming around Lowtown and, once his leg is healed up a bit more, will probably venture down into Darktown some more.

[serannas]

So far Ellana has discussed missing elves with Thranduil, Saoirse, and Yngvi. (My poor spellchecker is weeping right now.) I see we can move on to Hightown stuff. Personally, Ellana doesn't really have a reason to go to Hightown, but if perhaps she hears through the grapevine that elf servants are talking about their missing friends or people in Hightown who may have taken a suspicious interest in elves, she'll swoop in, quite literally. She's been slowly working her way into this whole spying thing, and can both sit around on rooftops/merchant stalls/statues as a tiny bird, or can use her specialization which is basically stealth magic to hide in the shadows and eavesdrop. Would any of that bear fruit?

[elegiaque]

The Hightown and alienage investigations are going to be separate and simultaneous rather than a progression of each other - Kate's projected she'll probably be back mid August, so there's no rush, Thranduil is gonna be our point man in position who realises they're connected and marries it together. I think though we could do something with Ellana's stealth magic in getting her and maybe Yngvi a lead to pursue wih Suspicious Individuals. EVERYONE GETS ADVENTURES.

[elegiaque]

I think we can definitely roll in some Darktown stuff - its totally fine if he's participating in the alienage side rather than the Hightown right now, we don't need those to crossover yet. Our point folks for the alienage are Thranduil and Yngvi - I am guessing it'll depend on how his interaction with Yngvi shakes out re: which of them it would be best to aim at coordinating him with.

[serannas]

Cool! I'm coordinating with Mhairi about when Ellana and Yngvi can do that. Most likely in August once he's feeling up to it since Ellana is mostly free after the start of the month.

[elegiaque]

That sounds awesome. When you guys are ready, let's work some details out and see what we can fold into it for some plot progress c:

Yngvi and Wren and Thranduil are gonna be our respective points, so I will try and get everybody navigating around one or more of those.

[eolasemah]

slides in here

I'd like Sina to be involved with this as well, namely with getting elves to safety and recovering the missing. I mentioned in the old thread that she would broker amnesty for them within Clans Dahlasanor/Ashara and possibly utilize their help in gathering recon etc. \o/

[ragweed]

Yeah I think that's probably right. Okay I'll make a note of this for going forward.

[elegiaque]

Head's up they may not actually recover any elves - it'll be quite a way down the track if it happens

[eolasemah]

okiedoke-- she'd still be able to help hunt for them and talk to people in the alienage, etc!

[elegiaque]

Yeah definitely! I just didn't want you to get too attached to an end result.