I'm not sure if peace talks fueled by copious amounts of red wine is a horrible idea, or a great one.
Leliana, being a former bard with extensive experience in navigating court intrigue, has taken care of most of the details already. Our invitation was secured with the help of Duke Gaspard, a noble who was in line to become emperor before Celene outplayed him and secured the title for herself. Gaspard still has the support of the Orlesian military though, including the famed order of knights known as the Chevaliers, and there's been a little civil war going on since Celene became empress. Complicating things is an elven rebellion lead by a woman named Briala who may also be a former lover of Celene's. The duke believes that walking into the ball with the Inquisitor at his side will destabilize the empress' court, which is already experiencing some difficulties, and improve his chances of ascending to the throne. Leliana has also secured invitations for a small group of soldiers and her own agents, to be brought in a few at a time so they can effectively pose as guests. She's not sure which group the assassin will be hiding with, but she knows that Briala will be attending as an elven ambassador to engage in peace negotiations with Celene and Gaspard, so we may want to start there.
Torquemada is allowed to bring companions as her guests too, and we go with Blackwall since Grey Wardens are popular in Orlais, Varric because we want an archer and Sera would be a huge liability, and Vivienne because she still holds an Orlesian court position and could be incredibly useful here. She's not, however, allowed to go in with her weapons and armor so we're provided with a number of fancy red outfits inspired by the Nutcracker ballet. The getup looks slightly ridiculous on our skinny elven lady, and the Orlesian nobles assembled outside the Winter Palace immediately take notice. Before we've even had a chance to talk to anyone, the court disapproves of us due to unjust prejudice against elves and their inability to pull off an outfit with golden shoulder pads.
Sorry, I'm not taking that advice from a guy who's dressed like Grounder from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
We greet Duke Gaspard as well, who is eager to make an entrance and echoes Leliana's suspicions about Ambassador Briala. We assure him that we're eager to find out what's going on at this gathering, which he finds somewhat unsettling but we proceed into the Winter Palace's vestibule, where we're met by our own ambassador, Josephine. She reminds us before we enter the ballroom that the nobles will be scrutinizing us when we greet Empress Celene and we'll probably feel more comfortable when we're fighting demons in the Fade again. No pressure, then... thanks, Josie. Sure enough, all eyes are on us when we walk into the ballroom with Duke Gaspard and a herald begins listing the many honorific titles of Torquemada and her companions. Eventually, we reach the empress and Duke Gaspard address her first, telling her to spare him the small talk so they can proceed with the negotiations. Celene says they'll start when all the guests have been attended to, and turns to Torquemada. Our elf politely greets her and gushes about the beauty of the traditionally elven land of Halamshiral when prompted. The court is pleasantly surprised by our skill in brown-nosing.
Leliana finds us as we part ways with the empress, saying we're doing well enough so far, but she has more bad news for us. We continue the conversation in the vestibule, where she says that Celene has brought her mage adviser with her as well. This position in the Orlesian court used to be meaningless, but the woman who currently occupies it is dangerous. Leliana tells us she's dealt with this woman in the past and knows her to be ruthless. There's no sign of her yet though, so Leliana will gather more information while we try to snoop around the Winter Palace and figure out who brought a Tevinter assassin to the party. This brings us to a side garden where we find three of Celene's ladies in waiting, who inform us that despite the fact that we came here with Gaspard, the empress will be more than happy to align with the Inquisition if we expose the duke's crimes. We tell them we'll consider it, but it's not long before we discover that they're not exaggerating. Behind a locked door in the apartments above the garden, we find a suspicious letter from the duke about the servant's quarters. We also hear a bell tolling from the ballroom, calling the attendees to come and dance, so we decide to head that way and talk to Leliana again.
We hardly recognized her, given the fact that she's wearing proper clothing.
As we approach the door to the ballroom, however, we hear a familiar voice and turn to see Celene's mage advisor: Morrigan, the Witch of the Wilds from Dragon Age: Origins. She knows we've been poking around in the palace and is also aware that the empress is in danger tonight. Morrigan says Celene is safe enough for now, but she should return to her side to make sure she stays that way. She encourages us to keep looking though, and hands us the key to the servant's quarters. I guess the dancing will have to wait. We head to the lower level of the palace, where we rendezvous with Blackwall, Varric and Vivienne, and change into our more comfortable combat attire.
We find that some of the elves who came down here were killed by an unknown assailant. Proceeding further into the quarters, we find the body of one of the personal attendants of a member of the council of Orlesian nobles. A dagger is still lodged is his torso, which bears the crest of the De Chalons family... Duke Gaspard's family. Before we can return to the ballroom with this information, however, we're attacked as well and we're unsurprised to see that the shadowy killers are Venatori agents. We make quick work out of most of them, but their leader is taken down by a dagger thrown by someone who's not part of our group. Ambassador Briala steps out of the shadows and says it seems we beat her to the chance for revenge for the deaths of her elven spies. She takes the opportunity to say that she won't be surprised if we become involved in the peace negotiations and suggests that her elven spy network would be very helpful to the Inquisition if we support her.
Briala, if diplomacy means stabbing Venatori to death, I'm the most diplomatic person you've ever met.
By the time we're done in the servant's quarters, a bell is tolling to call attendees to dance once again but luckily, this means we're fashionably late. We proceed to the ballroom, hoping to find one of our advisers, but we're met instead by Duchess Florianne de Chalons, Duke Gaspard's sister. She organized the party, and she has valuable information to share about the negotiations but invites us to the dance floor to discuss it. Torquemada probably knows about as much about Orlesian dance as she does about nuclear physics, but we accept the offer regardless. On the dance floor, the duchess confirms what we already know and says her brother has snuck mercenaries into the Winter Palace. She also probes us for information about the Inquisition's goals but we remain as vague as possible because we don't trust anyone at this ball just yet. As the dance ends, she tells us we should search the palace gardens for Gaspard's hired men. Josephine says she's impressed, and the court was as well, which is surprising since Torquemada made that dance up as she went along.
We finally have the chance to share information with Leliana and to our surprise, she responds that our ultimate goal at this ball is to ensure that Orlais is still strong when it's over. If that means Gaspard becomes emperor, that would be an acceptable outcome. Cullen even says it's an outcome he'd prefer since it would guarantee the support of the Chevaliers for the Inquisition. Torquemada's not ready to let Corypheus' agent kill Celene though, nor is she convinced that Gaspard's not working with the Venatori. Sure, Gaspard secured our invitation but that may have just been part of a plot to get the Inquisitor killed, too. Hopefully, we'll find out more information when we go to the palace gardens.
Someone must be victorous, eh? ...Okay, I pick Corypheus. He'll never see that coming.
One thing is certain: the palace gardens are full of Venatori agents laying in wait, too. Torquemada is happy to take the opportunity to eliminate more of Corypheus' assassins, especially when she comes to an apartment with an elf woman inside, who is about to be stabbed by another masked intruder. The Inquisitor runs forward and kicks him out of an open window, then checks on the elf. Sure enough, she's one of Briala's spies but she's not too happy with her ambassador. In fact, she's convinced Briala tried to get her killed by sending her here because she's one of few elves who know that not only was she Celene's lover, she also stayed loyal to Celene even while the empress was sending soldiers into alienages to put down rebels. We make a note of that and tell her to get to safety. Our group then proceeds to the main area of the gardens to find not only a large group of Venatori agents, but a fade rift and the Orlesian noble who brought them here.
This is because you didn't like how I danced with you, isn't it? Lady, I think you're overreacting.
It turns out, we suspected the wrong De Chalons. It's not Duke Gaspard but Duchess Florianne who appears on a balcony to boast about how well her trap worked. We give her one chance to abandon Corypheus' cause, but she directs the Venatori to kill us and bring her our hand instead. Apparently, the duchess hasn't been paying attention to all the other dead Venatori we've left throughout the palace. They get overpowered by Torquemada and her companions, the rift is sealed and we look around the room to find that there is, in fact, a mercenary here and somehow he's still alive. He's in disbelief about demons in the palace and says Gaspard never mentioned this when he hired him. So, it turns out Florianne wasn't lying about that much. Seeing how this contract has gone to hell, the mercenary captain says he'll be more than happy to testify against Gaspard for the Inquisition.
We know Florianne is headed back to the ballroom to put her plan into motion, so Torquemada hurries back to put a stop to it. Josephine approaches us as we enter, clearly dismayed by the fact that we haven't bothered to change out of our bloody armor and back into our formal outfit. We tell her we need to have another chat with the duchess, which Josephine isn't too sure about, but the court has been sufficiently charmed by Torquemada's surprising amount of social grace. In front of the assembled crowd, including Empress Celene, we loudly tell Duchess Florianne that her archers failed to kill us, so regretfully she'll be unable to kill the empress now. Florianne, stricken either by guilt or severe embarrassment, can do nothing but stammer in her defense and Empress Celene has her guards haul the duchess away. Torquemada politely suggests to the empress that we continue this conversation in a more private setting.
Sorry, Grounder. Your robot chicken buddy Scratch isn't going to help you out of this one.
A short time later, Torquemada meets with Celene, Briala and Gaspard on a secluded balcony. The Duke immediately denies any knowledge or involvement with his sister's plot and accuses Briala of knowing about it. We point out the hired mercenaries, the slain elven servants and a De Chalons knife in the gut of some poor page in the basement. Celene says that's more than enough to declare him an enemy of the state. Gaspard's pursuit of the throne is officially over. As for Briala, Torquemada decides to tell Celene that she was influential in exposing Gaspard's crimes. The empress decides that she will forgive Briala's crimes against Orlais in leading the elven rebels, but says that Briala will have to live in exile from now on. That probably won't get us access to her spy network, but we're not sure we want her as an ally anyway.
With Celene's judgments rendered, Torquemada appears alongside the empress as she announces to the crowd that the civil war is over and Orlais is united again. She pledges her support to the Inquisition and asks if we'd like to address the crowd. Torquemada tells the nobles that her goal is peace for all of Thedas and welcomes Orlais' help in accomplishing it. The nobles cheer for the Inquisitor and their empress, and we decide to find somewhere quieter for a while. Morrigan finds us again though, and informs us that Celene has decided to appoint an official representative to the Inquisition: her. We ask how she feels about that and she says that it's the empress' decision, and she'll abide by it. Since this is Morrigan we're talking to, we're pretty sure she's telling us at least one lie here. However, we welcome her to the Inquisition and tell her we'll see her in Skyhold.
You're going to hang around Skyhold in your skimpy outfit, right? ...Yes? Okay then, welcome to the Inquisition.
Back in our fortress, Josephine tells us she's impressed by our success at the Winter Palace, stating that some nobles who dislike Celene have renounced us but we have more than made up for their loss. There's a new complication that has arisen from our popularity, however. Now that the Chantry has warmed up to the Inquisition, they are pressuring us to send Leliana and Cassandra to Val Royeaux to decide on a new Divine. The two of them were literally Justinia's left-hand and right-hand advisers, respectively, and their presence is requested not just to decide on a new Divine. Both of their names are being considered to actually become the new Divine. Josephine says that the matter will have to continue to wait though, because Cullen has drawn up attack plans now that we have the support of the Orlesian army....
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