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.
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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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?