Word spread throughout Hightown that the remaining member of the royal family of Starkhaven had returned to Kirkwall. Upon hearing this, my companions and I decided to visit the Chantry to see how Sebastian was faring after his crusade against the mercenary company that slaughtered his kin. He regrettably found no satisfaction when it came to the elimination of the Flint Company. Yet he did learn who hired the mercenaries to kill off his family and asked if we knew anything about the Harimann family. I admitted that we knew of a Lord Harimann petitioned to send aid to Ferelden during the Blight. Yet I had a hard time believing that he would turn around and hire mercenaries to end a royal line.
A part of me was relieved to hear that Sebastian did not suspect Lord Harimann of such a deceitful act. He had always known the man to be noble not just of birth but by nature as well. In fact, the Harimann family were believed to be trusted allies to his parents. Yet, when the patriarch of the family passed away, his daughter Johane took over and was known to be rather jealous of the Vael family and their prestige. While Sebastian wished for revenge, he felt he needed to better understand why her ladyship hired the mercenary company. He asked that we accompany him, for he dared not approach her on his own.
What better way to build up my reputation around Hightown?
Making sure that the law was on our side, I asked Aveline to accompany Sebastian with Varric and myself. When we arrived at the Harimann estate, we found the entrance left ajar with no guards posted. Sebastian thought it highly unusual, as Johane was known to be rather protective of her family. I found the dark atmosphere that hung in the air a bit unsettling, especially with some of the ancient artifacts that hung ominously upon the walls and banisters creating deep shadows that rose up to the high vaulted ceilings. If not for these artifacts, the lack of more intimate décor by the main entrance would have given me the impression that the family had fallen on hard times.
Many of the doors we attempted to open were either locked or, as we would later find out, blocked by furnishings that were strewn about. It made exploring the mansion difficult, though not completely impossible. Sebastian took the lead, having visited the estate on several occasions when he was a child before he was sent away to live within the Chantry. It was in a food store that we found a young woman named Flora, daughter of Johane, lingering around what appeared to be a wine keg and talking to the keg’s spout. Try as we might, we could do nothing to gain her attention as she fussed and complained about the keg not giving her more wine. This confused Sebastian some, as he never knew Flora to over-indulge with such beverages.
Exploring further in, we found her brother Brett in a room with two elven servants. The male servant held a dagger to the female servant’s throat while the nobleman spoke to them about needing more gold. He stood next to a bubbling cauldron over an open flame surrounded by piles of loose gold coins and bars. The cauldron itself was filled with molten gold that he intended to pour over the elven woman; claiming that she would become forever beautiful. Before the male servant could oblige his master, Sebastian knocked him out and freed the woman. Brett, however, did not seem to care, as he started to contemplate pouring the gold over himself instead. Much like his sister Flora, there was nothing we could do or say to get him to notice us. Each member of the family we found was completely lost in their own world.
Scattered throughout the house, we found pages of Flora’s diary that helped us piece together the events that might have led to these strange happenings. It would seem that Johane was insistent on expanding upon the mansion, hiring Imperium slaves to carve through the rocky hillside behind the estate. One day, she immediately commanded them to stop, as if the great importance of the expansion no longer mattered anymore. It was not long later that her father was acting exceedingly abnormal, flirting with Flora and the female servants to the point of being completely obscene. Flora thought that it might have had something to do with the wine he had been drinking. Yet eventually Brett too started to act rather peculiar, spacing out and completely ignoring his sister any time she tried to speak with him. On top of that, she noticed that her mother did not seem to care and spent a great deal of time trying to arrange a marriage between Flora and someone named Goran Vael, for whom Flora had no kind feelings.
We so stumbled upon Flora’s father Ruxton in one of the bedrooms with one another female elven servant. Varric and I were completely unphased by what we walked into, Aveline simply averted her gaze while Sebastian could not believe what he saw. He had always known Ruxton to be a complete prude and quickly apologized for exposing us to such unseemly acts of pleasure. It confirmed what Flora wrote about when it came to her father, and just added to the expanding list of unusual behaviors.
It was not until we found our way to the proper wine cellar that we found the slain body wearing the gear of a mercenary from the Flint Company. As we examined and looted the body, Flora, Bret, and Ruxton approached us from further inside the wine cellar; alive and delusional, but not entirely incoherent of our presence. They warned us to turn back, that there was nothing for us beyond the wine cellar. With the way they spoke, I feared that they had been possessed yet not turned into abominations. When we refused to turn away, all three of the Harimann family members dropped to the floor, fainting away as a desire demon and several shades appeared to defend the ancient entrance just beyond them. The spirits from the Fade did not survive long.
We traveled through a series of ancient passages beyond the wine cellar, into several ruins that Sebastian could not believe existed within the borders of Kirkwall. It was clear to see that the expansion to the manor had uncovered them and whatever had been imprisoned deep within was grateful for the chance to manipulate the unsuspecting family. Came upon Lady Harimann speaking with a desire demon who called herself Allure. Johane insisted that she needed more power in order to get Starkhaven to submit to her will. It sounded as though she was more than eager to trade her family for that power. The lady of the manor was taken by surprise by the sight of Sebastian, as she might not have heard that he was the lone survivor of his family’s massacre.
Sebastian could not believe anything he saw or heard in those moments. He did not understand Johane’s motives, as she had been his mother’s nearest and most trusted friend for as long as he could remember. Allure explained that the lady of the family simply wanted the obstacle to the throne removed; which so happened to be the Vael family. She then suspected that the lone survivor and even myself wished to rise up into a position of power. The suggestive nature of her voice was like a spell weaving all around us, and I knew she intended on causing the Chantry prince to doubt his own motives. Before he could voice his concerns, I attacked the demon to keep the spell from causing us more harm.
It turned out that Johane had some magical capabilities, though it was likely kept hidden from her family. We were forced to slay her and the demon in the end. Sebastian wished to return to the Chantry as soon as the deed was done, so he could pray for her ladyship’s soul. No longer possessed, Flora apologized for all that her family did against the Vael family and begged for forgiveness. It was no secret that her mother was jealous of the royal family’s position in Starkhaven and felt it all belonged to her. Flora herself had no idea that the ruins had been discovered, nor of what her mother was up to. She vowed to repay everyone for the deception and give Sebastian her full support when it came to his claim to the throne.
Later, I went to the Chantry to see how Sebastian was holding up after such revealing venture and to deliver a bow I happened upon back on the Harimann estate. He admitted that prayers could not cleanse him of Allure’s words. He felt filthy and confessed that he had been jealous of his brother and indeed wanted to be prince himself. Even though he had no direct influence on what happened with Johane’s plans, he questioned whether or not he had any right to be prince now that his brother was dead. With the doubts clouding his judgment, he felt he was not ready to lead any armies just yet. He vowed his service to me while he continued to consider his role in Starkhaven’s history. He believed that the Maker led me to him, to help him navigate the journey he found himself on. Upon looking at the bow, he was relieved and overjoyed to see that it was the one that belonged to his grandfather; a man he adored and respected above anyone else in his family. A man who wished for the quiet life within the Chantry over being a prince of Starkhaven.
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Character Storage of Adventures
This journal comprises of the trials and tribulations of my characters as I played them through a number of different video games.
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