Lyria had rescued the Viscount's son, helped a group of apostates flee the circle and templar supervision, and had found out more information regarding missing women in the city.
She had many things to do later that night, but before then she planned to tie up a few loose ends around the coast. The mine's operator had sought assistance regarding his workers refusing to work at the Bone Pits, and there was the magistrate who was searching for a fugitive in some nearby ruins.
Lyria had kept the magistrate waiting long enough; it was time to go and retrieve a fugitive.
She approached the ruins that Magistrate had marked on her map and introduced herself to the men waiting outside. Apparently the fugitive was inside and they could spare no more men; the beasts inside the ruin had taken too many, and he'd be surprised it the fugitive himself hadn't been eaten yet.
An elf approached and demanded that the fugitive inside pay for his crimes and be killed like the many he had killed. Lyria apologised, but she had to bring the fugitive back to Kirkwall alive. The courts would deal with him.
That displeased the elf greatly. The monster inside those ruins had taken his daughter in there and had murdered her! He demanded retribution.
Lyria felt for the elf, but the magistrate's orders were what they were.
The ruins were dwarvish in nature, buried deep within the mountainside. There were raiders hiding from the guard in one section which Lyria quickly dealt with, and giant spiders descended from everywhere else. So many giant spiders. Lyria had never before seen so many giant spiders!
She rather did not like them.
Further into the ruins, they came across a young elf girl — the girl the man outside had been screaming over. She was still alive! The girl tried to protect the man who had taken her: Kelder. He didn't know what he was doing. He had a demon inside of him!
Lyria did not believe it. This was the work of a man, not a demon. She told the girl to run back the way they had come and find the entrance, and her father. He would be out there waiting.
In the next room was the man, the murderer, the one the magistrate wanted returned.
It turned out that he wanted him returned for good reason... the magistrate was this man's father. That's why nothing had really been done about this man and why the murders had been allowed to go on for so long. He tried to tell Lyria that the demons made him do it. That he went to the Circle and sought help for his demons but they told him that he had none! That he was simply mad.
Lyria agreed with their assessment. This man was mad. He begged her to kill him; he was just going to keep murdering! The magistrate was not going to stop him, no one could stop him!
Annoyed by this man and his constant talk of imaginary demons, trivialising mages who actually had to contend with real demons, Lyria stopped him. She slit his throat with her pocket dagger, turned away, and left his corpse to rot on the ruins floor.
Back outside, the elves were overjoyed to be with one another once more. The man's daughter was alive, and the murderer had been taken care of! No one else had ever done so much for the city elves. He was so grateful.
The awaiting guardsman told Lyria that she was mad for daring to defy the magistrate, shook his head, and walked off to report to his superiors.
Lyria would deal with the magistrate later. As far as she was concerned, she had done the right thing and she had a guard-captain-in-training to back her up.
With the fugitive situation dealt with, it was off to the Bone Pit to see why the Fereldens had stopped working the mines.
It soon became quite evident why the Fereldens had stopped working the mines.
Dragons.
A lot of dragons.
Lyria and her group fought a near never-ending stream of the beasts. They were in every cavern. In every corridor. In every crevice!
Finally they burst into a side chamber in the mines and found a very scared man. He had been there when the dragons had broken through but had got turned around when trying to escape. He hoped the others had managed to escape.
He warned Lyria that there was a big dragon — a ginormous dragon! — just ahead and not to go that way, he had been laying low for days now.
Thanking them profusely for the rescue, he ran through the cleared mine... and Lyria and her group went the way he had explicitly told them not to go, to have a look at the big dragon, and hoped that it wasn't a witch-dragon.
Turned out that it was a rather large dragon. It was no witch-dragon but it was a dragon all the same. A very angry one at that. As soon as they rounded the corner and came face to face with it, it screeched a very rage-filled screech and raced at them.
With little time to ready themselves, they fought the beast all the while racing circles around it so that it couldn't get at them.
Thankfully, they succeeded and the beast was dead. The Bone Pits was now free of dragon, and, indeed held more bones in it now.
Returning to Kirkwall, Lyria braved delivering the news to the magistrate that she had to kill the fugitive. He had already known, of course, as the guards that were to escort him back to the city had told him. He was very displeased and threatened to kick her out of the city.
Not too worried about the magistrate's threats, Lyria then returned to the mine operator and informed him that it was now safe for the Fereldens to return to work. That there had been dragons — a lot of dragons — but it was all clear now.
Impressed with her fortitude and ability, he asked if she would consider becoming a partner in the mine. He would run the day-to-day, and she would keep it safe. Plus since she was Ferelden herself, the workers would appreciate it.
Lyria agreed. But only for the workers. And she supposed that the extra money would be nice, too.
She found the Ferelden miners outside the tavern in Lowtown, drunk as anything after their encounter with the dragons, including the one she had rescued.
Informing them all that she was their new boss, they happily agreed to get back to work. It would be nice working for one of their own and surely she would treat them fairly.
Of course she would, she said, and off they went back to the mines. To operate equipment while under the influence. Ahh, good times.
Since they were outside the tavern, Lyria thought that now was good a time as any to stop by for a drink and count her coins. Surely she had enough now to help fund Bartrand's expedition.
However, before they could order any drinks, Isabela stopped them. She had a job for Lyria, if she wanted some more coin, which of course she did.
Isabela directed Lyria to go upstairs to speak with a man who'd had some cargo stolen.
Apparently this man was once a raider but he had since been trying to get on the straight and narrow... he was trying to do things legitimately, but now he was being targeted for his change of heart. His cargo should be on the docks and they were marked very clearly with flowery Orlesian symbols. If Lyria could find them and liberate them, he would pay well.
Lyria didn't really need the job, but what was one more thing before the day was over? Who else was going to help this man? She noted down the details of the cargo and dragged her group away from booze and revelry and towards the docks and stench of fish.
She talked to a few people, but only one had any knowledge... and of course she had to bribe him to obtain that knowledge. There was a warehouse on the other side of the docks and the assistant to the harbour-master just so happened to see cargo in there with fancy Orlesian script.
Of course, however, outside of the warehouse were a bunch of goons. But she managed to convince them that there was a fire on the other side of the docks and they needed all hands on deck to get the flames out before it could consume everyone's stuff!
They ran off, and Lyria and her group headed inside the warehouse.
After investigating the warehouse, they finally stumbled across the cargo the man had lost. Opening up the crate, though, was a dangerous endeavour. As Lyria took off the lid of the crate to make sure they had the right one, Anders quickly warned her away.
The crate was full of poison.
"Legitimate" indeed.
Lyria returned to the man and questioned him about the poison.
It turned out this his version of legitimacy meant trading through legitimate channels regardless of the goods. He was just the seller; whatever the buyer did with his product was their business and not his.
Lyria couldn't argue with that. She told him where he could find his cargo and he gratefully paid her the promised coins.
Now that all had been settled for the day, Lyria finally got her drink. And it was a celebratory drink! For she now had 70 golden coins on her person and in order to help fund the expedition, she only needed 50.
She had done quite well. Now, hopefully the expedition would go well too and they would all be rich and wealthy and would no longer have to rely on Uncle Gamlen's "hospitality" in Lowtown.
They would talk to Bartrand on the morrow, for now though, a few more drinks was in order and then she would finally see what that Chantry sister wanted. Surely it couldn't be anything too absurd, and, of course, they needed to stop by the brothel to talk about the missing templar-recruits.
That shouldn't be too much trouble and they would be in the deep roads, exploring and treasure hunting, within the week!
Until next time! 😊🐲⚔️