Team: Miriam, Dick, Nikolai, Erik, and Edgard

Notes: You can RP whatever aspect of this is most interesting to you—action sequences, group debates about what to do, talking about what happened in the aftermath, etc. Whatever you decide, make sure someone on the team posts a report to the Rookery comm by June 30, 2021 at the latest. These reports can count toward the new improvements plot rewards, so you're also free to decide as a group which one of the rewards you want it to count toward, but the person who actually writes and posts the report is the only one who can submit it for reward credit and so has final say.

Plot Info: The team will be escorted by Sharper Gwilid, a grizzled older fellow who's taciturn but not hostile, to be introduced to Orzammar's arsenal of golems. In the years since Paragon Branka rediscovered the Anvil of the Void, the thaig has significantly increased the number of golems in its military. Gwilid won't give an exact number—state secret!—but he'll be showing them a twenty-golem section that can apparently be spared from patrolling the Deep Roads or helping with heavy lifting to instead stand in two rows and chill. They're even a little dusty.

Gwilid will put some of the golems through their paces in demonstration: lifting and throwing very heavy things, inviting the team to stand in their proximity while they slam the ground hard enough to knock them down. They'll also be permitted to try the control rods themselves, if they'd like to do so.

They're there to get an understanding of what golems are good for, how many of them it would take to make a difference on the front, etc., so they'll be able to negotiate sensibly about it if sending golems to assist with the war becomes possible. To that end, it will be obvious Gwilid is trying to make them look particularly impressive—but also that they are very impressive.

Another Shaper named Molvena will show up with some scrolls and information about their contributions to Orzammar's security, mostly braggy stuff about how they helped defeat this many darkspawn here and saved warriors following a cave-in there. They'll do a deep, nerdy dive with the team into:

• The scenarios where golems are most useful. In addition to their obvious use in bolstering forces on the ground, they're extremely useful for treks through deserts—they can do the work of several cart animals without any need for water or food. Historically, when golems were used on the surface by Tevinter, they were also used at least once to march across a sea floor unseen and emerge on a beach that should have been impossible to reach.
  
  
• Their minimal upkeep needs. No food, no water. They do require shelter from the elements if they're going to be inactive for long periods of time, and when they're not seeing regular use putting them through some paces on a weekly basis to keep their joints from getting crusty is advisable.
  
  
• How many golems can be controlled in concert by a single rod. Twenty. Fewer is generally recommended during anything more complicated than a forward march, however, since they will move exactly as they're instructed, and if they all need to be doing different things, it can quickly become too much for one person to keep track of.
  
  
• Any other questions the team has, which you're welcome to ask us here if you need answers.

Toward the end of this demonstration, however: DISASTER. There will be an uproar about thieves in a nearby building where all the golem-related documents are kept, causing Gwilid to run off to help. Molvena will stay behind and use a control rod to activate some of the golems. It will soon become obvious that she's using them to cause chaos and help the thieves escape rather than stop them. Molvena will explain to the team (quickly) how golems are made. Each one is a living dwarf who was painfully lyrium-sealed in armor and is still to some degree alive, but loses free will under the control rods. The documents are proof of the process by which they're made—and of the fact that Casteless dwarves are being persuaded to secretly volunteer in exchange for promises that a 'charitable organization' will make sure their families are given resources for a fresh start on the surface. These families are not told the truth, but instead led to believe that their loved one died, and frequently not given anything at all. They plan to publicize this information so people can stop agreeing to the process without full knowledge of what they're getting into.

The team will have a choice between assisting in stopping the thieves (which can involve taking control of some golems themselves if necessary) or focusing on evading the golems/surviving/etc. and letting them escape. Molvena will be arrested either way. She'll politely thank the team on her way out for attending the demonstration. (In the aftermath, if they're curious, the team will be able to find out that their visit and the demonstration is what left security gaps the thieves could exploit.)

With their new knowledge, the team will have to report to Flint to discuss whether or not Riftwatch should even be trying to secure the use of golems, likely encouraging the production of more of them. Whatever Riftwatch ultimately decides, however, letting the thieves escape is likely to result in a scandal within Orzammar and fewer being made overall.