Thinking back on it, Blackpowder Promise (Act 1) was a hilariously dumb quest.
So this merchant Javaris assumes without even bothering to ask that a military leader is going to just sell a powerful new weapon his country has a complete monopoly on? Because that’s totally a good idea that any government would agree to.
During my first run, I thought this sounded stupid, especially since Javaris made no reference to any explicit deals or promises with the Arishok beforehand. He just insists without giving any reason that if they kill some mercenaries, the qunari will be ready to deal. Again, why would the Arishok sell the one weapon that gives his country an edge in its centuries-long war with Tevinter to a foreigner? I agreed to the quest just to see what would happen (and also because money)… and wow, would you look at that, the Arishok gave an immediate flat “No.”
I mean, imagine if some guy hired mercenaries to shoot criminals hassling Americans and was just… shocked that the US government still refused to let him buy nukes.
ETA: Okay, to be fair, there are non-military uses of gunpowder (and Javaris mostly talks about using it for mining rather than warfare), but it’s still goofy not to even consider why the Arishok wouldn’t be too keen on sharing military tech
