#vigilskept

You can find her in a holding cell nearby and talk to her, she’s hostile at first assuming you’re just the umpteenth person here to hurl abuse at her directly, but will calm down if you clarify you’re just here to talk (though you could also be really rude to her and she will refuse to keep talking to you, making the recruitment impossible). She tells you everything that happened and asks if you can help her get out, tells you that she knows basic combat skills and can be useful, considering you and your friends look like mercenaries.

You can suggest to pick the lock outright, but she will actually shoot this down saying that you’ll become an enemy of Denerim, the only other option is the Rite of Conscription.

Vulture accepts and you do your whole spiel at the city guard, who have no choice but to let you. Once you’re out after Quite a lot of protest from Denerim citizens she takes you aside and thanks you but tells you that she won’t actually be obeying the Rite of Conscription, she only made you believe that as it was the only way to get out of execution. She apologizes for deceiving you but is firm about her decision, saying that it’s an understandable thing to do for survival. She still offers to tag along as thanks, just not as a Grey Warden.

You can agree and let her join without issue which nets you some approval, let her join but express your dismay which nets no approval, threaten her to join you or else which nets disapproval, blow her off and she will just leave or you can become hostile and kill her if you want to be a really big meaniehead.

Denerim is usually seen as an endgame place so there will probably be a quest leading you there in the earlygame so you can get her. Maybe talk of the execution has reached the people in Lothering, as the crime that warranted it is unprecedented, and considering Sten is recruitable it may naturally lead the player to assume you can recruit the mysterious criminal too!

-What would their personal quest look like?

Hmmm it’s probably a smaller self-contained quest that involves her hearing about the Purge following what happened at the wedding, and you talking her through the anger and guilt of letting this happen. She knows she shouldn’t come back yet, but she wants to oh so badly.

The next step after this is actually going to the Alienage (though she won’t outright ask you too), you’ll find her almost ready to fold the city guard denying entry in half and have to hold her back, then when the story finally opens it up you go inside and do Unrest at the Alienage. She will have things to say throughout so i imagine it just counts as being her companion quest.

Like when you do the City Elf origin Cyrion will be the interactable captive in the slavers cages, and if you choose to accept the slavers deal she will immediately turn hostile to you and you’re forced to kill her before you get the permanent bonus.

Then at the end if her approval is low she will choose to stay home to support her hurting community and you lose her forever (just for fun) but if it’s medium or high she will tell you that she gave you her word and is going to finish this with you, saying goodbye to her family and promising that she’ll be back.

-How would their approval raise? What would make it drop?

Helping less fortunate people in any way would give you a little approval, if those people are elves you gain more.

If there’s an NPC you can give money to because they need it and you refuse (even if kindly) you gain disapproval, but get approval if you give anything (even coppers).

There’s no disapproval if you kindly or neutrally tell someone you can’t help them, but if you’re outright rude or cruel there will be a good amount of disapproval, double that if it’s elves.

On the contrary, if you’re mean and rude to asshole nobility you’ll get some approval, but if being mean or rude involves family (like not giving that noblewoman the locket from her brother) it will give disapproval instead.

Sometimes she will also give approval for a good joke. For fun.

Generally she’s kind of just generically nice, nothing too crazy.

-Approval Greetings: Low/Medium/High/Romanced

Low:

-“Leave me alone, Shem.” (Human only) -“I didn’t know you needed a flat-ears council.” (Dalish only) -“Great, what now?” -“(Exasperated sigh)”

Medium:

-“What is it?” -“Hm?” -“Anything you need?”

High:

-“Everything alright?” -“Good news i hope?” (joking tone) -“Have you been taking breaks, Warden?”

She’s unromanceable

-What would their iconic lines be?

I don’t think anything in the world can top “Like dogs, Shianni” and the warden wasn’t even there for that one. Though maybe if you have low approval she will go “can i get you a ladder, so you can get off my back?” To you because that’s funny.

-Do they have location specific dialogue?

-(approaching Chantry) “As a child i always wondered how they could spare the expenses for the Chantry buildings while leaving us with rotting huts. I think they just enjoy how flammable they are.” -(Lake Calenhad Docks) “Really? An inn? Out here? Do they make a sport of taunting mages or what?” -(Circle Tower) “(angrily muttering) Little pansies waiting for them to finish each other off instead of actually doing their job.. (normal volume) hey, we’re saving them, right? I don’t care what they did, they don’t deserve to die like this.” -(Frostback Mountains) “(shivers) I think i understand why the dwarves stay underground now..” -(Orzammar) “Andraste’s ass…” -(Brecilian Outskirts) “..Do you think they prefer i stay outside?” -(Redcliffe Village) “Quite the scenic place, i’d stay for a while if there wasn’t a crisis going on.” -(Redcliffe Castle) “(talking to herself) Oh Vulture tag along with the Grey Wardens it’ll surely be a normal time not filled with walking corpses (if Dalish elves recruited) rhyming trees (if Dwarves recruited) and Darkspawn abominations!” -(Denerim) “(deadpan) Ah, i almost missed the judgmental stares.” -(outside Gnawed Noble) “Do we have to go inside?” -(inside Gnawed Noble) “You’ll have to hold me back from starting a fight.” -(inside The Pearl) “I guess everyone has their needs, just leave me out of it.” -(inside Alienage) “..This is wrong, come on.” -(inside Abandoned Orphanage) “(long silence) Let’s see if we can find anything left to bury.” -(inside Run-Down Apartments) “I used to play here with other children, let me take point. There’s quite a few hiding spots.” -(inside Tevinter Warehouse) “(shouting) Come out and face us! I promise to make sure your death is long and painful!”

-What would their party banters look like?

I haven’t actually written any Vulture banters so here are a few off the top of my head gomen..

Vulture: Leliana, you’re a bard, right? Do you know many ballads? Leliana: I do, in fact. Why? Are you interested? Vulture: You could say that. What’s the most exciting one you know? Leliana: Oh! Well, that one would have to be reserved for when we’re in camp.

Sten: You missed a spot. Vulture: Ugh, i really need to get better at shaving myself.

-What would their preferred gifts be?

(Copied from an older ask)

Vhenadahl leaf - A well-preserved leaf from the Vhenadahl tree located inside the Denerim Alienage.

Adaia’s boots / Fang - self explanatory, plot items

High quality sewing kit - Includes all the essentials for repairing clothing and other fabrics.

Straight razor - While not particularly fancy looking, it’s clear this high quality razor has been providing the user with a clean shave for years now.

Alienage wine - the name is deceptive, as Alienage wine is usually acquired through elven servants smuggling bottles out of a nobles estate. Bottles shared with others are watered down to make them last longer, but those used to the taste tend to enjoy it.

-Reaction if they are told about Morrigan’s Ritual

I’m unsure if this means being told about the ritual in general or trying to be convinced to do it? Since i think it only works on Wardens i’ll do the former.

Vulture will look at you with stunned silence for a second before hesitantly asking if this is safe for the child. If you affirm it is then she will nod and think for a moment, before saying “Well i trust her intentions, but i don’t think she should be alone while pregnant. Please go after her, even if just to check in. It’s the least you can do.”

If the Warden isn’t certain about the child's safety themselves she will get mad and ask how the Warden could just go along with that without knowing for certain, and instead tells them to check in on Morrigan after she leaves for the child’s safety instead of hers.

-Reaction if they are told about the fate of the Warden

A solemn shake of the head and a declaration that the world always seems to enjoy unfairly punishing those that actually step up to do the right thing. Vulture then says that she will make sure her journey with them won’t be forgotten, and that she’ll be sure to fight back against any misinformation that dare spread.

-Their farewell lines

“Well that certainly was a journey, wasn’t it? I’ll be honest with you, i didn’t expect to ever get out of that cage, nor did i expect to accompany the bloody Hero of Ferelden. How does that title feel on you, by the way?”

“In any case, i would be lying if i said i envied you. Tell you what, if you ever tire of playing the hero you should swing by the Alienage. My cousins are a riot and my father makes a great stew. I’d like to catch up over a meal sometime with my friend [lastname], not some kind of hero. Sounds good?”

-What does their Epilogue slide say?

Having kept to her word and paid her due, Vulture returns to her home in the Alienage more than a few stories richer. She’s accepted back warmly and helps her community rebuild after all they’ve been through this Blight.

[king/queen] [Alistair/Anora] also formally pardons her crimes for her role in ending the Fifth Blight. This decision, however, is not very popular among Denerim’s citizens, and tensions between them and the Alienage grows ever higher.

-Where are they during Inquisition? What would their War Table mission say? Would they be the Warden contact instead of Stroud/Alistair/Loghain?

Home! This woman is taking care of her community, which incidentally has also earned her the title of Hahren. Her war table mission would be reaching out in good faith, hoping that the Inquisition could help the Alienage recover from a rift opening up as the [king/queen] is too busy with Redcliffe to be concerned about the elves.

Josephine would be for convincing a few Banns to do it in their stead with promise of increased standing with the Fereldan royalty for their contribution, Leliana would be for sending a small delegate and installing a few spies inside the Alienage as payment so they have an ear in Denerim, and Cullen thinks the Inquisition isn’t here to fix every small community affected by the Breach and advocates denying the request.

It does not feel like much a victory, leastways not in the streets of Denerim - she's witnessed more than one fight for survival in the alleys and backstreets they've frequented since they arrived, and yet still, apparently, there are people with the time and luxury to while away their hours in toil over food that could barely fill a mouth, let alone a starving belly.

Still, the storefronts in the market draw her eye nonetheless - they are designed to do as much, with their sugar-spun castles and golden marchpane mice, with their golden-baked pie-crusts and pale, airy meringues. Despite her dismissal, they make her mouth water. They draw her eye, and she cannot disguise the temptation that crosses her face whenever they pass a propped-open doorway. Once she'd thought the scent of fresh-baked bread a luxury, but this… this is a temptation beyond imagining. If Connor's desire demon had conjured her a table of such sweetness, she would have been glutting herself without a second thought of the danger.

But of course, she cannot tell Leliana this. She has her pride, after all. So she averts her gaze, does not allow herself to linger, to unpick the scents of blackberry and almond and cherry, to let herself be tempted and tantalised until she is drawn irresistibly to the source of the smells and devours them like an animal, until jam drips from her face like a child or an animal. Such indignity is unthinkable.

So she does not look, she does not even think, and she has nearly allowed herself to forget entirely by the time Leliana slopes into her room with the barest of knocks for the sake of decency.

"Have a care," she cautions her, "You might have seen more than you wished."

"Are you the expert on my wishes then, Morrigan?" Leliana retorts, with a mocking curve to her lips. "Perhaps I was hoping for a peek beneath your robes, not that they hide much."

"My mother would put your eyes out for such impertinence," Morrigan says, mildly, but does not move to do the same, which Leliana clearly takes as permission to remain. She crosses to her bed, sprawls across it uninvited, loose-limbed, the leather of her breeches clinging to her legs so that they might as well be bare.

"Will it cheer you to know I brought you a present?" Leliana teases. "Something to sweeten your temper, and maybe even your tongue."

"You truly do believe in miracles," Morrigan sniffs, but takes the proffered pot - thin clay, unglazed, given away by street vendors with a thousand dishes to sell, to be smashed in the gutter or returned for pennies later. Unusually, it is lidded, a bow around the small handle-

"I said it was a gift for a lady," Leliana grins, an impish dimple appearing at the corner of her mouth. "The confectioneur had specific opinions on how such a gift should be given."

"Oh?" She looses the ribbon with one hand, winds the satin around her wrist - such waste, in this city, that something so fine could be given away in snippets and scraps - and lifts the lid of the jar. The air within is crisp and chill compared to the sticky city-summer heat, and scented with- "Strawberries?"

"You ate most of the ones we found on the road," Leliana says, still smirking. "I thought they might prove an apt introduction to the finer parts of city life."

"I found the strawberries we ate on the road," Morrigan reminds her, but plucks one up by the stem. They are coated in something glossy, brown, and utterly unfamiliar to her eyes. "What covers them? Some bard's poison?"

Leliana laughs at that. "No, silly! It is chocolate - brought all the way from Seheron. It is all the rage in Val Royeux."

"Choc-o-lot." She sounds the word out, tastes it on her tongue before she tastes the thing itself. "A strange word."

"A Qunari word, allegedly. I wonder if Sten ate it for breakfast, before he came over the sea."

It is impossible to imagine Sten pinching the stem of these delicate fruits between his massive fingers, but they fit in Leliana's dainty hands well enough as she plucks one up and presses it between her lips.

The taste is- the taste is like nothing she's ever tried before, dark and rich and heady as a warm summer night, with hints of bitterness and cream warring for dominance before the brightness of the berry bursts across her tongue and mingles with them. It is the most perfect thing she's ever tasted, and in the moment, she loses herself to the flavour, to the pleasure of it, and the sound she lets out is-

Well, it brings a blush to both their cheeks, and at that point, what else can she do to brazen it out but lick the rest of the chocolate from Leliana's fingers, and pin her down to capture her squeals within her own mouth?

"So, what do you think of sweets?" Leliana will ask, much later.

I sent our new friends your way, along with Neve Gallus. She’s good—in more ways than one. I don’t know how you found her, but stick with her. I think it’ll be worth your while. And hers. (And next time I’m up your way, can I borrow her again?)

I don’t like how easy it was for Solas to get around us again. It’s not just that he knows us. It’s that he knows he can play cards we can’t counter. This was a setup. He took people who needed help and, instead of helping them, he dangled them in front of us like bait. He knows who we are—but I don’t think we know who he is. Not anymore. The Solas I knew would have been ashamed. The Solas I knew would have been furious to think of some ancient elven god using people like that. I guess maybe he doesn’t think of himself that way, but every day that goes by makes it harder to tell the difference.

Keep an eye out for me, and keep safe. I’ve got a new kid on the job—someone Solas won’t be expecting—and a lead in Minrathous that might get us somewhere. I don’t know what Solas will do next time we get close. All I know is, I can’t fail again.

Look after Mae for me. Not that she needs it.