Work Text:
Inquisitor,
First off, don’t let Varric tell you lies, the explosion wasn’t that big. I know he has a way with words, but he’s also a notorious liar and exaggerator. He makes a living at it afterall.
I know you’re on the road and want to make sure things are being taken care of in your absence. I don’t want you worrying about things here when you have the whole world to save (no pressure though…). So when I say I have things under control here, despite what Varric will report back to you, you should believe me.
Remember: I’m your trusted Arcanist. Varric’s a professional liar.
Trust me, Harritt doesn’t let me bring half of the fun things I’d like to down here to the Undercroft. He has this silly rule about no “volatile substances” and having a “safe working environment”. Which is completely unfair because I’ve proven time and time again to know what I’m doing! I assure you, I can’t get into that much trouble here.
So maybe I come in sometimes at night when he’s not around so I can experiment a little.
So maybe I should wait until there’s daylight and I can see what I’m doing better.
But I seriously doubt having the area well-lit would have prevented that whole thing with the uncontrollable growth... Who knew blood lotus could expand so much! My research said it would get bigger, sure, but no one could have predicted how it would absorb the heat from the forge and cause that chain reaction! That could have happened to anyone.
I admit, it’s a good thing that waterfall is right there. Easy to put out that fire. I mean, I’m not the first person to cause a fire down here. Harritt works with the forge all the time. Sure, his fire stays where he wants it to, but he’s only working with plain old metal. I’m working with more useful things. (Not to discount his work, of course. Plain old sword blades are useful in their way. If boring.)
But wouldn’t you rather have a sword that not only slices, but burns? And with no runes to fiddle with! Imagine being on the battlefield and having a portable Antivan Fire on your blade, not stuck to whatever point on the ground you happened to chuck it at! That’s all I was trying to do.
All of this is to say, that, well, the prototype isn’t ready yet. Harritt’s been keeping a closer eye on what I bring into our shared workspace lately and that’s slowed my progress. I had hoped to send the first batch for you to try out instead of this note explaining that the undercroft is still here, despite the rumors. In fact, it’s quite a bit larger than the last time you stopped in. We had been meaning to tear down that wall and expand eventually, right? Well now we don’t have to, the explosion unexpected reaction took care of that for us.
Good luck on your adventures until you return. And remember: Varric’s exaggerating. I’ll get rid of the scorch marks in the Great Hall before you even get back. You’ll never even know they were there. You will need to buy some new heraldry though… Sorry about that.
-Dagna
~A crude drawing of Sera lifting Dagna over her head and fleeing the undercroft while flaming blood lotuses with legs chase after them is scribbled at the bottom of the note along with the words “Rescuing Widdle”~