The Heart of Darkness DLC

## Synopsis

Takes place in 9:42 Dragon, Inquisition act 3. Mercè, Albert and Val are recruited into a Sellwynne Industries expedition for a newly discovered continent to the east.

## Not So OST

“Dark Tides” - Atonement, Halo 4 OST

“RUN” - Radio 1, Half life 2 OST

“Mouthless Whispers” Among the Sef (Righteous II), Colin Stetson

“Where I Once Stood”, Rusted Angels, The Frontier OST, Everett Fischer

“Here be Monsters”, Falling, The Frontier OST, DasKuchenMann.

“The Pyramid Watches”, Fallout New Vegas OST, Cover by The Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra

## Sessions

### Session 1: Fine print

The whole thing starts as it usually does, few months earlier inside a nightmare. One of Merce's where her baby turned into black goo which started spilling everywhere. Valywen, a Dalish elf wondered into this dream to find her, she offered to help, but Merce didnt take decided to drown in it instead.

Few months later Albert was being a loner, until his corporal had him and other recruits spar with the mages, the spar was very short as soldiers in close quarters had a bit of an advantage on mages with no armour. Then Cullen showed up looking for the finest recruits to send on a mission thats important but not *too* important and corporal Moose selected Albert and Valywen who spared with him.

Meanwhile in Rivain Merce was living a high life in her rebuilt guild of "people who are just borrowing things", with Thorfinn working for her as a doorman and Sandor Sallador being her accountant. Her day got worse when she got a letter from Sellwynne inviting her on an expedition to the new continent east, she asked Thorfinn to burn it but then took him with her to see the speech deciding to go in the end with Sandor being in charge of the baby and the pets.

Our adventurers met on the docks briefly as they all ignored whatever Sellwynne was saying. Valywen and Merce's eyes met as they recognised each other though Merce couldn't quite recall from when. Corporal Moose then talked with the captain of the expedition and signed some contract that sold his soul to Sellwynne, Fs in the chat for him. Merce and Thorfinn went out to eat and Valywen and Albert went "shopping". But because they were short on cash instead of shopping they tricked the shopkeeps that they already paid, Valywen made them forget that they didnt pay. Its okay. They only stole from Sellwynne's shops. They legitimately bought some food from people not affiliated with him.

Merce recognising Valywen offered her and Albert to stay at her place for cheap, and they accepted and the full party returned to the "I'm just borrowing this" guild. They put their stuff in their rooms and chatted a little. Valywen sensed strange magic coming from Merce's office and a weakened veil which she told her about. Merce obviously not telling he anything. They chatted a little, Merce asked Val if she'd see her before then remembered the dream. Albert and Valywen told some of their stories then Val went to sleep in order to give Sellwynne a nightmare. Merce asked Thorfinn to guard her office being suspicious of Val who after haunting Sellwynne did try and investigate the strange magic but found it didnt leave any presence in the fade. She also checked what caused the thin veil which happened to be the massacre of the guild years prior.

Meanwhile Albert decided to go out for a drink, where he was bothered by some rough individuals who called him an "Orlesian pretty boy". At first he ignored them like a mature individual even giving them some of the junk he's never used. But then after a drink he decided to pick a fight with them. It ended as one would expect with Albert running away beaten up and bleeding. He woke Van up to get some of the potions they "borrowed" together then went to bed with his ego more beaten than his body.

Next morning they got some to eat. Val half-heartedly comforted Abert about being beaten up and they went to the docks. Over there Merce having burned down her invitation had some issues getting in, after pulling a Karen and then when that failed forging an invitation, she decided to just sneak aboard which she managed with ease. Though when trying to climb up on the upper deck she slipped and fell into the water. Albert and Val helped her up by throwing down a rope which she used to climb up.

Up on the deck Merce was faced with 2 things she hated the most. Elara and Sellwynne's logo. She chatted with her and got Dario's sword back, they agreed that Sellwynne is a cunt and left things as they were for now. Merce then asked Val if she could make people forget things for her and she agreed mentioning her power is quite limited, she didnt need Val for this however as the dwarf builder on the ship was very glad to tell her where to get paint to deface Sellwynne's logo. And so with their goals set before them the ship sailed on.

### Session 2: One small step for elf, one giant leap for Merce fucking over the system

So with everyone sailing on Merce's first step in her plan to make the expedition less of a torture was to gather barnacles to make paint from. After dangling Finn off the side of the ship she got the barnicles she needed and made paint in some free time. She then at night snuck into Roberto's room where she edited some documents. Valywen made sure to keep giving Sellwynne nightmares. Next morning Roberto called Merce into his room and they got the whole thing sorted with Roberto noticing the documents were already changed afterwards. Merce then started conspiring with Valywen as she noticed that all the names got strange notes next to them. After chatting with the other elven mage aboard Sana Valywen confirmed Merce's suspicion that everyone on her is someone Sellwynne wants gone. Also Finn said "How do you do fellow elves" to albert and Val, just needed to put that in somewhere

Meanwhile Merce went downstairs and got drunk with Elara as they talked on how Dario killed Elara's wife and how Elara killed Dario in the same way, drunk out of her mind she told the story of what happened in Rivain which Valywen didnt really believe any of it and just entertained her politely walking away after a bit. After another uneventful day the party hatched a plan to break into the mysterious storeroom that was locked for some reason. Unfortunately Merce was unable to break in so the next plan was to get a key. But Roberto locked his office so having nothing else to do they turned in to sleep.

Next morning Valywen pulled a pro thief move and walked into Roberto's office, talked him up a little and snatched the key to his office right from his desk. She didnt even need to make him forget. That night Merce and Val were able to sneak in, get the key to the store room, find Moose's contract which Val absorbed into her mind, look through some other papers tho they didnt find anything of importance. They then snuck into the storeroom to find only more food and water. Disappointing. They ended the night with Merce drawing a penis in place of Sellwynne's logo with the paint she made few days prior. Then for the remaining 30 or so days nothing much happened though after running out of rations Valywen resorted to fishing to avoid eating the Shem food. Also Merce kept making paint and defacing the logo through the whole trip.

### Session 3: The one where Merce fucking murders Roberto

As the ship landed by the coast of the new continent Valywen tossed a small effigy of Mythal she had Torsta make, making Mythal and with her the Dalish technically the first ones to arrive on the island officially. The party let Val name the outpost "Mythal's landng" without any input from anyone else. Merce slipped and hit her head sending her back a few millenia to the time where the elves were actually the first ones to arrive, tho in that case it was in the name of Elgar'nan.

They only took a few steps before some weird monsters with lyrium teeth attacked them. Val bravely ran away while Finn got terribly injured, while Merce and albert fought off the besties themselves. In spite of his injuries Finn did kill 2 of them while Albert cut one in half. Score for the city elf boys. They rested a bit. Val did some more fishing and the party left Finn in care of Sana who treated his injuries. Then they head out to scout.

First the 2 elves and the drunk aunt took south and found a beach, some deer and a cave with molten lyrium and more of the lyrium teeth monsters. It wasnt pleasant, there was also a bridge which led to the bigger lyrium teeth crawly Albert and Mere also got very sick at camp, they suspected it was the lyrium. They went back to camp to resupply and check on people and the outpost grew over the day they've been away. Merce found Finn healed but sick. And Val noticed some of the other people looked sick too. After resupplying/fishing the party went off to explore some more.

They found a sinky lake full of sulphur and a river going through it, nearby was a ruin with a hermit who was stockpiling fruit for the past 70 years. He was a part of captain Jack Hammer's crew left behind, after 70 years he grew crazy and still thought it was 8:70 Blessed and that his captain was going to get him. Merce traded a lyrium sword he found for a bottle for rum. They also collected some of the fruit the hermit was collecting for possible rations.

After some more exploring they almost died to a mimic clearing that acted a bit like a venus trap, and at camp Merce and Albert continued feeling sick while only issues Val was having was that the spirits in the fade were being very unhelpful. They went back to camp and everyone was sick. Well everyone except Sana, Val and Roberto. They discussed this odd coincidence and found that Sana just like Val didnt eat any of the Sellwynne brand food. And it so happened that Roberto had some of his own food and water locked inside a special room on the ship. So the party told everyone they trusted that and schemed to what to do next. Val decided to try interrogating him in her dreams but it didnt work. That night they gathered thinking of destroying the food supplies, but since Vals fade plan didnt work they went to his office to ask in person. They snuck in, found some interesting documents, then interrogated Roberto who was very unhelpful saying that they did indeed poison the food and then he went on about some heart of darkness and his birth right because his pirate dad found the pyramid before with Jack Hammer. Merce decided he wasnt going to be of any more use so she stabbed him in the throat and then carried his body to the cave with all the lyrium and dropped him down to the molten lyrium bellow.

### Session 4: The Gang commits a War Crime

Next morning Elara let everyone know Roberto was murdered much to Mercè's dismay. She declared the independence of Mythal's landing and told the people who didnt want to stay that they can go back to the mainland if they want to. Obviously the party was amongst the ones wanting to leave so they begun preparing for the long journey. Albert got lost in the woods for an entire day trying to hunt, Mercè and Val found him delirious asking for few more hours to hunt something. Val noticed some tracks coming from a fox statue and some of the statue's droppings. Albert hit it with an axe and it started bleeding. So Val hit it with stonefist and Albert got his hunt for the day. Back in the settlement Torsta made them a boat and a stone bow which Val asked for. She thought it would have been wooden so she gave it to Albert.

The party then set out in the direction of the pyramid. After crossing the river Mercè passed out again having another vision of Helion and the Commander chatting about ancient elven stuff. They made camp and Mercè tried talking to Helion who told her to not go to the creepy pyramid. Val in the fade offended some spirits so much they started ignoring her more, and another night she went in the direction of the pyramid in the fade which definitely made her want to avoid it. She also sensed some of the ancient elves guarding it. After camp the party decided to go in the direction of Sellwynne's camp instead. While on the way there they came across 2 people escaping from there. Who told them about a captured elven guardian of this place and some engine they were using in their factory to cut down the forest and get to the pyramid. The gang decided to scout out and see if they could stop them from using that engine.

They easily snuck into the factory dressed as guards, Albert lied his way past the guards and workers making them get away then announced on the intercom that there was an attack and that everyone should get away. This actually brought even more guards but Mercè told Valywen that there was no other way and to blow the whole place up. Just as usual (as proven before by Cassandra Goth) all it took was one arcane lance to turn the factory into a crater. People should really stop using a volatile material thats prone to randomly blowing up at the slightest touch to power things. Yes. Val pulled the trigger. But Mercè gave the order and Sellwynne was the one who didnt put in any health and safety precautions in the first place so who's the real villain? After the factory exploded the overseer stormed out of her tent and recognised Albert as she was "a drug addict he met in Gwarren" according to him. Val "arrested" Albert and the overseer just left. They rescued the ancient elf executor from the tent and told him they'll handle the boy who had his clothes, the one that the party came across near Sellwynne's camp.

They reunited with the 2 escapees and returned back to Mythal's landing, on the way stopping to pay respects to the dead hermit atop the rotten fruit pile, they found some foreboding markings on the wall about "the heart", "the monster", and "the mother". On the way back Val too some time in the fade to send Sellwynne camp's Overseer a message in the fade telling her to get out of this continent and tell everyone on the mainland its cursed and that everyone died. Back at the settlement Mercè introduced the 2 to Elara, and Valywen warned people of the elven guards who managed to kill countless Sellwynne industries guards. They also noticed Sana was gone and in her dreams Val saw him heading to the pyramid not stopping to sleep or anything.

### Session 5: The Second Seal

The party rest up and start the journey towards the pyramid on the hunt for Sana. Along the way they come across the burned remains of what totally isn't a dead body. They're ambushed before they get too close but since Mercè has an ancient elven priest in her head she manage to talk her way through. They meet up with the leader of the Executioners, an elf named E1. She mentions that they've already captured an intruder and asks the party to deal with them.

The intruder turns out to be Purrt. She spills the beans almost immediately, because she's incompetent. She's a part of a "New" Organization, that's "much better" than the original organization lead by the lady in pink. Now the leader is called "The Lady in Yellow" and sent Purrt or "Ms Brown" to gain entrance to the pyramid. She failed.

The party push her off the ledge and she breaks her neck on the ground below. After committing another murder, they head into the pyramid on the hunt for Sana. Val smears her blood on the door and lock the door behind them. They head down and down into the disorientating space inside the pyramid, eventually they start hearing a steady heartbeat and Mercè doesn't see any signs of anyone having come this far down. Helion says that they should really not head any further down and Mercè/Helion agree. Albert insists on heading further down towards the heart and a fight breaks out. They manage to resolve it peacefully but not before some blood is spilled.

They head outside and stand guard for a few days with no sign of Sana and they're eventually forced to head back to Mythals landing. Mercè says goodbye to Fin who choses to remain on the continent and they all board the ship back to Rivain. When they come back to Thedas, they say goodbye to eachother and head in different directions. Val and Albert are put on trial but Anahada doesn't really care and just forgives them. The two of them are charged with community service and are put as babysitters. Mercè heads back to the guild and meets her pets and child and a very tired Sandor. He immediately takes a vacation and Mercè goes to open her sarcophagus as per Helions instructions. She opens it up and discovers that its empty, a hallucination of Helion appears and pushes her into it and closes it behind her.

Meanwhile back at the pyramid, Sana has somehow made his way inside. They take off their costume to reveal that Sana was actually Nasa all along. She makes contact with Ghilan'ain and uses Elgar'naans foci to open the inner door to the heart of darkness.