While the population of Crucible is not robust, there are plenty of other survivors to be found. All named NPCs can be interacted with, appear in network posts, and can inboxed but engagement may be limited. Threaded interactions may be resolved summary style.
Characters may accrue positive or negative reputation with npcs based on personal interactions, public behavior, and hearsay. Shifts in reputation might open up player characters to unique plotting opportunities and consequences.
In-depth threads, interactions, and plots using named NPCs might require the a favor earned from bonus activity.
Feel free to inbox any named NPC like a normal text thread using this post by denoting the NPC name and the interaction style (network, in person, etc)
eaters of sin
The so-called Sin Eaters are long-term residents of the Lonely Fortress and are so named by their preference to indulge in creature comforts to keep their servitors at bay.
Siegfried
The Kindred Scholar
RoleRecord keeping
TemperamentFriendly/Arrogant
Location(s)Library
A demonologist who has been exiled in the Crucible for a significant period of time compared to the others. He is invested studying the Crucible and their purpose within it. As the elder, he is somewhat the de facto voice of leadership among the fortress residents.
Edvin
The Lamenting Baron
Role:Steward
Temperament:Evasive/Haughty
Location(s):Tower Study
A melancholic noble who has lived within the Lonely Fortress for some time. He somewhat oversees (or mostly complains) over stewardship duties around the keep and organizes dinner parties. Mostly yells at people to clean up after themselves.
Mathilde
The Rottflower Prophet
Role:Herbalist/Healer
Temperament:Direct/Kind
Location(s):Greenhouse
A woods witch that cultivates an exotic herb garden collected from egregore-tainted flora. She serves as the spiritual guide and healer to fortress residents, often spearheading experimental rituals to try and bring equilibrium to the egregore.
Romilly
The Sorrow-eater
Role:Companion
Temperament:Friendly/Nurturing
Location(s):Velvet Parlor
A low-born entertainer who apprentices with Mathilde as a healer. She provides council and physical comfort to residents, believing that only love can beat out the darkness that prevails over all exiles. She treats the egregore like an entity to be worshiped, lovingly referring to it as Gregor.
yorick
The Gatekeeper
Role:Lift Operator
Temperament:Friendly/Snarky
Location(s):Lift station, front gate, ramparts.
A cheeky bard that manages the exit ways of the fortress. He knows the keep, the undercroft, and surrounding areas better than the back of his hand. Collects secrets and trinkets, but don't you dare call him a thief. Sometimes provides the musical entertainment to fortress gatherings.
( she brings siegfried "supper" one night, a familiar act for a girl who had a father that tucked himself away to work his grief aside, after losing his wife and the children who would have been worthy issue. but she also brings a fresh pot of tea, too, for them both to share.
most of her affairs she has gotten into order, but one thing remains which brienne is still chewing over.
of the veteran sin eaters, brienne has found herself most comfortable with siegfried, who is patient and kind. romilly is far too lovely and graceful for brienne to feel at ease around her, despite all her assistance with brienne's largest request for a sept. and mathilde... brienne has heard of woods witches, wise beyond her own comprehension and therefore deserving of respect and fear. she finds herself anxious but eager to ask of mathilde plenty of questions:
have any of them offered themselves to the briar lord?
how public must it all be?
will they call another meeting to tell everyone what she's done?
and the last which she must fight out: if she is yet maiden, will that offer a better result as well?
she has nothing to offer yorick this time for her request, but asks to teach him two songs: her father's favorite, an old love song about the seashore which sits well in her throat and makes her cry. and a mainlander song, about a beautiful maid, and the fool who was a knight. (or, perhaps, the knight who was a fool...)
but now she is closing in on the ritual with only a few days to go. and despite listening and watching, she seems to have come up with only a muddy account of what led them to this choice. she needs to know what it is that happened to agnete. )
Her loss troubles many, I know. Did that man kill her, this Louis? Everyone seems to want his blood in payment. But I cannot see whether it is justice or vengeance.
[ Mathilde is more than welcome to any questions Brienne has to ask. She will welcome her into her solar, which is full of plants and herbs both native to the Crucible and elsewhere. Despite the frigid winter ravaging the landscape, the woods witch's garden is warm and humid with no visible means as to how she keeps the frost from destroying her plants.
She'll sit the girl down and offer her some tea to calm her nerves to answer her questions: ]
(have any of them offered themselves to the briar lord?)
Mathilde will break this news the same way she did with Steve and inform Brienne that the rest of the veteran exiles in the fortress except for Yorick have offered themselves to the Briar lord at least once.
She will confirm she has given herself to the Briar Lord twice and will show Brienne the deep pitted scar in her chest to prove it. She will also explain that not all return, but some do and that they will feel different if they do. She explains this carefully as to not instill too much hope or fear in Brienne's decision to move forward.
(how public must it all be?)
Mathilde will explain in the past they would treat things with ceremony because they want to do all they can to honor each other for the sacrifice they're about to give, but this practice is more a custom desired by the exiles involved and is not necessary to the pact itself.
She will menton if Brienne does not want anyone else present, arrangements can be made to distract the rest of the exiles and ensure that she enters the chapel alone.
(will they call another meeting to tell everyone what she's done?)
Yes, they will need to inform the exiles of the decision eventually but can wait until after it's done. Mathilde will ask if there is any message Brienne would like to leave if she intends on pursuing this alone and ensures that she will pass it along to her companions.
(if she is yet maiden, will that offer a better result as well?)
Mathilde explains that virginal purity has nothing to do with the pact and will not yield any different result than if she or Romilly volunteered themselves.
Once Mathilde has answered all of Brienne's questions (and offered more information than she even knew to look for), she sites quietly for a time to mull them over. The sight of Mathilde so bared to her makes her blush, and so does the fact that the exiles prefer to do it all together.
But, ultimately, Brienne is doing this in the hopes that her friends and companions won't have to suffer any more. So she agrees to do the meeting and the ritual in the usual way, with respect to the sacrifices that have come before hers. It's obviously not what she prefers, but she is a mulishly stubborn girl, even with regard to her own desires.
She made the choice, and she will not shy from it.
Yorick is pleased to be taught new songs. He will speak nothing of what she's offered to do unless she brings it up herself, otherwise will focus on learning the songs with her.
The following days and nights, he can be heard practicing and playing them during his patrols along the ramparts and in the parlors after dinner.
She definitely doesn't bring it up, no thank you. But she can be seen trailing at a distance when she hears him practicing, and sometimes there's a quiet voice alongside his as she quietly sings along to herself.
[ Siegfried is thankful for the meal. He stumbles over various books and scrolls piled around his table to make room for them both. As predicted, he is often absent or takes his plate from supper with him back to his study in the library tower, as noted by a stack of plates offloaded near the hearth meaning to be brought back down to the kitchen.
When asked about Louis, Siegfried takes a tired huff and sinks back in his chair. ]
Aye, a troubled situation that is, my dear. What happened to Agnete was a tragic thing. Had Louis had blood on his hands, he would no longer reside within these walls. Alas, the circumstances aren't so black and white.
[ He mulls, elbows resting along the arms of his chair, fingers lacing together before him to make himself a conduit for philosophizing. ]
No lone person is responsible for the eclipse and often none are damned for causing it. We all suffer here in our own ways and the Crucible sees us punished for it. Edvin's desire to condemn one man's failed ambitions for it is more vengeance than justice. He wasn't the only one who wanted to keep Agnete's servitor alive, but he became the loudest and least willing to heed the warnings of others.
In the end, that poor girl suffered and died needlessly for the neglect given, and his actions endangered the lives of several others knowingly and without hesitation — an act that no doubt sent us along the crossroads we've come to on the morrow.
[ His fingers unlace as he shifts forward again with a mild shrug, picking his cup of tea up to settle back in with him. ]
Some might see the idea of his sacrifice to be justice, so that he may not become catalyst of such imbalance again.
( this strikes close to her heart. it sounds like the same choice she made when her lady wight was within blade-swinging distance, and the same reason she thinks jaime averts his attention from her now. the same mistake she made when cellar, steve, and she climbed down into agnete's pit. )
I have seen one servitor. It belonged to Steve. I did pity it, at first. I thought there was someone in need, though he warned me that they deceive well.
( it isn't she that can give absolution to any that made this mistake with agnete, but she thinks she can understand. her hand lifts to rub absently at her collarbone, up against the narrowest part of her thick throat. the marks from her rope are faint, but sometimes it feels as if she's dancing with the tree once again. )
For the lack of caution and care, my dear. From what I was told, the exorcism they performed was about as delicate as ripping out a barbed arrow embedded deep into flesh — a raw severance between servitor and exile. No wards, no protections, no gentleness to preserve the body.
[ He pauses to scratch his mustache as he recalls what transpired some weeks ago.]
No such feat had been done before here, you see, for exorcisms are often too violent for the host to survive. Like with the barbed arrow, there are safer ways to remove it. This was not done, no....no.
[He shakes his head solemnly. ]
What he did was toss that poor young man into the pit with a starving monster as fodder. From what I can tell, it was his brother's anguish that forced the beast to abandon its host and move by the way of the spirit, for it could not climb out of its hole to reach him.
( for a few moments she sits with all of this. actually, no, she shifts and tops off his tea, just for something to do with her hands. nervous, she causes a little spill that the saucer catches most of.
it's okay, she's got a good solid sleeve to sop it up with. )
The Prince cares deeply for his family.
( if it had been her sibling... well, she actually can't say how she might feel. hey wait. )
To reach him? Do you mean to say the servitor was drawn to Prince Aemond's despair?
Aye, tis the nature of servitors we've seen, [ he answers as he casually waves off her attempts to clean up ] All they know is their hunger. It hungered after Agnete's despair, tracked her down through the fog to our very gates, and latched itself to her. When hers was consumed, it rampaged to further feed on the despair of others.
It'd been stuck in that pit for a fortnight nearly, by my estimation, starved and desperate itself. When Prince Aemond struggled to save his brother, its own hunger would seem to have provoked the pursuit.
( she doesn't even clock her error, our big dumb sweet girl. there's one thing remaining she hasn't asked after, and she isn't sure she wants to. after a time of contemplative silence, she decides it is as anything else: something to be faced and accepted. )
The Briar Lord said sacrifices are, ( deep breath: ) consumed?
Ah. [Telling, how the old man pauses and then nods.]
Absorb is perhaps a more apt word, which may being of less or more comfort. The body is not desecrated in a barbaric way, no...no. Blood and body becomes nourishment for the bramble to grow, not unlike any other who have their customs of burying their dead in the dirt.
Instant, I can assure, and you will not bear witness to it.
( he says desecrated, and her hand lifts for only a breath to her face, passing over her cheek. her mind, both relieved and agitated, drifts a bit. )
We bury our dead, in Westeros. Though, on Tarth it is different than the mainlander way.
( something is un-stoppered, now. )
Women don't participate in the burial usually, but I suppose you must know my father is not a man who suffers tradition for its sake alone. ( it couldn't possibly be that he had a soft spot for his only remaining ugly child. ) I was too young to attend my sisters' burials, and my mother's after. But I threw the dirt onto my brother, though I was not old enough to take up a shovel with the men. I remember laughing at the procession, and then...
( she was too young to really understand, but a part of her knew. she finishes lamely, because apparently all the veteran exiles get her awkward rambles oops! )
Ah, [ Siegfried pauses as he tries to wrap his brain around the point she was trying to make. If she was trying to make. ]
Well, [ he pauses and takes off his reading glasses a moment to stifle an itch in the corner of his eye. ] Customs here are quite different, given the often lack of a body. Even those interred in the crypts will be taken when the Egregore is restored. Agnete had always requested her things to be cremated, and thus Mathilde put on such a show with a pyre in her wake, as she did not wish to return.
However, should it be yer desire, we may inter yer belongings either in a custom of your realm or in such a case the Briar Lord does not leave ye in death. I do not recommend to bury it, for these lands are always due to change.
( there are tales that tarth once used pyres, and sent those who passed out into the summer sea on them. but even as she considers the option, brienne discards it. too flashy.
she frowns. )
Is that your choice as well?
( she doesn't think so. he is always surrounded by books, by the sharing and continuation of the thing she thinks he values over all else. brienne pegs siegfried for interment of some kind. )
Pyre? [ He lets out a dry chuckle. ] No, no...there is so much here left to be uncovered I cannot bear to part myself from it just yet.
[ His pile of books, his ages of research spilling all over his study, Siegfried is going nowhere willingly so soon. ]
Should I take such a turn, my hope would be they lock this room up in wait for my inevitable return! [ He huffs shuffling in his chair. ] I am a Sin Eater through and through, I know here is where I belong and here is where I will return as the gods an deovils will it.
Mayhaps the gods and devils would not stand in your way, ser.
( separated from his work, she can imagine his spirit might bend all of itself to returning again. brienne forgets to cover her crooked teeth when she grins, and laughs quietly. )
I myself would not dare, thought I confess it all seems beyond my ken.
Aye, it is much above my own, truths be told. In my own home, I knew deovils better than the back of my hand. Here, its as easy as learning a dead language. Fascinating, what power seems to lie locked within these pages...
[ His finger taps idly at the corner of the table as he mulls over what lies between them. ]
Knowledge is valuable in my lands, the pursuit of it is regarded the highest order of things. We all start beyond what is ken and it is by will and will alone do we ascend.
You remind me of my father's maester. He knew all manner of facts about history and the workings of the world.
( a professional nerd! it is only half a lie, this admiration: she didn't like learning from him and he didn't like teaching a girl who had so many questions. siegfried is patient, though. mayhaps she will not be mocked and shooed away. )
I am no scholar, I speak not dead languages, but when my father would find himself tied in knots over a solution sometimes I could pry him from his solar for a walk, or even a ride about the hills.
( pry is doing a lot of work here. few things are so gentle among stormlanders, even the island-born. )
It shook loose his thoughts, to speak them aloud. What troubles you, now?
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papa can you hear me~ +summary leading up to the ch iii tithe
most of her affairs she has gotten into order, but one thing remains which brienne is still chewing over.
of the veteran sin eaters, brienne has found herself most comfortable with siegfried, who is patient and kind. romilly is far too lovely and graceful for brienne to feel at ease around her, despite all her assistance with brienne's largest request for a sept. and mathilde... brienne has heard of woods witches, wise beyond her own comprehension and therefore deserving of respect and fear. she finds herself anxious but eager to ask of mathilde plenty of questions:
she has nothing to offer yorick this time for her request, but asks to teach him two songs: her father's favorite, an old love song about the seashore which sits well in her throat and makes her cry. and a mainlander song, about a beautiful maid, and the fool who was a knight. (or, perhaps, the knight who was a fool...)
but now she is closing in on the ritual with only a few days to go. and despite listening and watching, she seems to have come up with only a muddy account of what led them to this choice. she needs to know what it is that happened to agnete. )
Her loss troubles many, I know. Did that man kill her, this Louis? Everyone seems to want his blood in payment. But I cannot see whether it is justice or vengeance.
im going to answer these per npc, mathilde first.
She'll sit the girl down and offer her some tea to calm her nerves to answer her questions: ]
(have any of them offered themselves to the briar lord?)
Mathilde will break this news the same way she did with Steve and inform Brienne that the rest of the veteran exiles in the fortress except for Yorick have offered themselves to the Briar lord at least once.
She will confirm she has given herself to the Briar Lord twice and will show Brienne the deep pitted scar in her chest to prove it. She will also explain that not all return, but some do and that they will feel different if they do. She explains this carefully as to not instill too much hope or fear in Brienne's decision to move forward.
(how public must it all be?)
Mathilde will explain in the past they would treat things with ceremony because they want to do all they can to honor each other for the sacrifice they're about to give, but this practice is more a custom desired by the exiles involved and is not necessary to the pact itself.
She will menton if Brienne does not want anyone else present, arrangements can be made to distract the rest of the exiles and ensure that she enters the chapel alone.
(will they call another meeting to tell everyone what she's done?)
Yes, they will need to inform the exiles of the decision eventually but can wait until after it's done. Mathilde will ask if there is any message Brienne would like to leave if she intends on pursuing this alone and ensures that she will pass it along to her companions.
(if she is yet maiden, will that offer a better result as well?)
Mathilde explains that virginal purity has nothing to do with the pact and will not yield any different result than if she or Romilly volunteered themselves.
<333
But, ultimately, Brienne is doing this in the hopes that her friends and companions won't have to suffer any more. So she agrees to do the meeting and the ritual in the usual way, with respect to the sacrifices that have come before hers. It's obviously not what she prefers, but she is a mulishly stubborn girl, even with regard to her own desires.
She made the choice, and she will not shy from it.
yorick.
The following days and nights, he can be heard practicing and playing them during his patrols along the ramparts and in the parlors after dinner.
no subject
siegfried.
When asked about Louis, Siegfried takes a tired huff and sinks back in his chair. ]
Aye, a troubled situation that is, my dear. What happened to Agnete was a tragic thing. Had Louis had blood on his hands, he would no longer reside within these walls. Alas, the circumstances aren't so black and white.
[ He mulls, elbows resting along the arms of his chair, fingers lacing together before him to make himself a conduit for philosophizing. ]
No lone person is responsible for the eclipse and often none are damned for causing it. We all suffer here in our own ways and the Crucible sees us punished for it. Edvin's desire to condemn one man's failed ambitions for it is more vengeance than justice. He wasn't the only one who wanted to keep Agnete's servitor alive, but he became the loudest and least willing to heed the warnings of others.
In the end, that poor girl suffered and died needlessly for the neglect given, and his actions endangered the lives of several others knowingly and without hesitation — an act that no doubt sent us along the crossroads we've come to on the morrow.
[ His fingers unlace as he shifts forward again with a mild shrug, picking his cup of tea up to settle back in with him. ]
Some might see the idea of his sacrifice to be justice, so that he may not become catalyst of such imbalance again.
no subject
I have seen one servitor. It belonged to Steve. I did pity it, at first. I thought there was someone in need, though he warned me that they deceive well.
( it isn't she that can give absolution to any that made this mistake with agnete, but she thinks she can understand. her hand lifts to rub absently at her collarbone, up against the narrowest part of her thick throat. the marks from her rope are faint, but sometimes it feels as if she's dancing with the tree once again. )
When you speak of neglect...?
no subject
[ He pauses to scratch his mustache as he recalls what transpired some weeks ago.]
No such feat had been done before here, you see, for exorcisms are often too violent for the host to survive. Like with the barbed arrow, there are safer ways to remove it. This was not done, no....no.
[He shakes his head solemnly. ]
What he did was toss that poor young man into the pit with a starving monster as fodder. From what I can tell, it was his brother's anguish that forced the beast to abandon its host and move by the way of the spirit, for it could not climb out of its hole to reach him.
no subject
it's okay, she's got a good solid sleeve to sop it up with. )
The Prince cares deeply for his family.
( if it had been her sibling... well, she actually can't say how she might feel. hey wait. )
To reach him? Do you mean to say the servitor was drawn to Prince Aemond's despair?
no subject
It'd been stuck in that pit for a fortnight nearly, by my estimation, starved and desperate itself. When Prince Aemond struggled to save his brother, its own hunger would seem to have provoked the pursuit.
no subject
I wish your friend had not suffered so before her death. Though I did not know her, I am glad to know she had so many who loved her.
( even if it didn't save her in the end. maybe that makes it all the more important. )
And who will keep her memory.
no subject
Agnete had remarked that release from this place would be a blessing, even one found in death. To her respect, it is my wish that she has found peace.
no subject
( she doesn't even clock her error, our big dumb sweet girl. there's one thing remaining she hasn't asked after, and she isn't sure she wants to. after a time of contemplative silence, she decides it is as anything else: something to be faced and accepted. )
The Briar Lord said sacrifices are, ( deep breath: ) consumed?
no subject
Absorb is perhaps a more apt word, which may being of less or more comfort. The body is not desecrated in a barbaric way, no...no. Blood and body becomes nourishment for the bramble to grow, not unlike any other who have their customs of burying their dead in the dirt.
Instant, I can assure, and you will not bear witness to it.
no subject
We bury our dead, in Westeros. Though, on Tarth it is different than the mainlander way.
( something is un-stoppered, now. )
Women don't participate in the burial usually, but I suppose you must know my father is not a man who suffers tradition for its sake alone. ( it couldn't possibly be that he had a soft spot for his only remaining ugly child. ) I was too young to attend my sisters' burials, and my mother's after. But I threw the dirt onto my brother, though I was not old enough to take up a shovel with the men. I remember laughing at the procession, and then...
( she was too young to really understand, but a part of her knew. she finishes lamely, because apparently all the veteran exiles get her awkward rambles oops! )
Then it was done.
no subject
Well, [ he pauses and takes off his reading glasses a moment to stifle an itch in the corner of his eye. ] Customs here are quite different, given the often lack of a body. Even those interred in the crypts will be taken when the Egregore is restored. Agnete had always requested her things to be cremated, and thus Mathilde put on such a show with a pyre in her wake, as she did not wish to return.
However, should it be yer desire, we may inter yer belongings either in a custom of your realm or in such a case the Briar Lord does not leave ye in death. I do not recommend to bury it, for these lands are always due to change.
no subject
( there are tales that tarth once used pyres, and sent those who passed out into the summer sea on them. but even as she considers the option, brienne discards it. too flashy.
she frowns. )
Is that your choice as well?
( she doesn't think so. he is always surrounded by books, by the sharing and continuation of the thing she thinks he values over all else. brienne pegs siegfried for interment of some kind. )
no subject
[ His pile of books, his ages of research spilling all over his study, Siegfried is going nowhere willingly so soon. ]
Should I take such a turn, my hope would be they lock this room up in wait for my inevitable return! [ He huffs shuffling in his chair. ] I am a Sin Eater through and through, I know here is where I belong and here is where I will return as the gods an deovils will it.
no subject
( separated from his work, she can imagine his spirit might bend all of itself to returning again. brienne forgets to cover her crooked teeth when she grins, and laughs quietly. )
I myself would not dare, thought I confess it all seems beyond my ken.
no subject
[ His finger taps idly at the corner of the table as he mulls over what lies between them. ]
Knowledge is valuable in my lands, the pursuit of it is regarded the highest order of things. We all start beyond what is ken and it is by will and will alone do we ascend.
no subject
( a professional nerd! it is only half a lie, this admiration: she didn't like learning from him and he didn't like teaching a girl who had so many questions. siegfried is patient, though. mayhaps she will not be mocked and shooed away. )
I am no scholar, I speak not dead languages, but when my father would find himself tied in knots over a solution sometimes I could pry him from his solar for a walk, or even a ride about the hills.
( pry is doing a lot of work here. few things are so gentle among stormlanders, even the island-born. )
It shook loose his thoughts, to speak them aloud. What troubles you, now?