The Effects of the Throne have worn off!

It takes some time before you can place your concern but as you approach, rotating Josephine with your stand-in cocksleeve Cassandra, your feeling of unease worsens. There seems to be an awful lot of activity on the battlements, soldiers running this way and that, you could swear there's even a trebuchet being arranged... "Oh shit." You can almost hear the creaking of the war engine as it looses a grapeshot of rocks in your caravans direction, dozens of head-sized boulders that spread out into a meteor storm of ****. "Move!" Leliana's shout alerts the rest of the caravan to the danger and everyone tries to scramble in every direction at once, accomplishing little other than to alarm the horses. "Inquisitor!" Cassandra pops free from your schlong, somehow producing a sword and shield from the carriage as she spins to confront whatever threatens you.

With a heavy sigh you raise your arm, channeling power into the mark on your hand and raising an Aegis of the Rift over yourself and the surrounding carriages. The deadly projectiles spark off the shimmering dome of power, bouncing away and striking everything but their intended target. You weren't exactly the epitome of what people imagined when they thought "Herald of Andraste" but really, the Inquisition would have died out a long time ago if it weren't for you. Ruffling the confused Pentagasts already messy hair, you dismount from your carriage to retrieve your advisors from their crude hiding places, "Leliana! Josephine!" The spymaster peers out from under a wagon and the diplomats head pops up from behind a rock. They both hurry over, Josephine trying to recover her dignity by brushing dirt from her dress. "Why are they firing on us!?" "Enemy troops must have seized the siege engines, my agents on the inside will be working to disable them." "Why didn't they disable them sooner?!"

You have a pretty good idea why they're trying to kill you but you choose not to share your insights with the squabbling ladies. The problem with setting up an infrastructure based on a magical object was that the object in question was required to keep it running. Morrigan had undoubtedly done her best to perpetuate the thrones effects when you left... at least at first. However, she was as much effected by the spell as the rest of them and when it started to dwindle she would have realized what she was doing and dropped it completely. Must have been recent, considering you'd met no assassins on the return trip.

"It doesn't matter. We have to get inside Skyhold to reestablish control. Lelianna, please tell me you've been holding out on me about secret passages into the mountain?" The redhead winces as another barrage of rocks deflect off your barrier, "I've had dwarves cutting them out since we arrived but they're nowhere near finished!" You groan wearily, "Dammit, that means we're going to have to go in the front. Vivienne!" The mage appears, as regal as ever aside from her slightly askew hat, "Inquisitor?"

"How are your barriers?"