Some days it seems like everyone in Kirkwall needs killing, either done for them or to them. In Lowtown and Darktown, you mostly get the latter. In Hightown, with the Viscount's Keep and the Chantry and the Merchant's Guild, it's about an even mix. In the Gallows, just across the narrow bite the Waking Sea has carved into the cliffs Kirkwall nestles in, the templars and mages mostly handle their own affairs. If she doesn't want to try to weed out the unsavory from the actively evil in Lowtown, the chanter's board will usually have at least a few postings that are not overtly malicious if you get there early enough in the morning.

She arrives before dawn, sword and Mabari hound in tow. She scans the various offers for some obviously just mission.

A handsome young man emerges from within the Chantry, a piece of paper he's clearly intent on posting to the board in hand. He's followed by an older woman in the robes of a grand cleric.

     "Sebastian!" she says. "Stop this madness." He ignores her and starts pinning his posting up. "The Chantry cannot condone revenge, Sebastian."

"It is my right, my duty, to show these assassins there is nowhere in the Free Marches to hide!" His accent is the thick brogue of native Marcher nobility, not the slurring imported Orlesian more common among the upper class in this city.

     "This is murder."

She places a hand on his shoulder and he shakes her roughly off. "No. What happened to my family was murder." He strides away. The cleric stands for a moment, sighing at his retreating back, before heading into the Chantry.

The grand cleric must not feel very strongly about her convictions if she doesn't intend to remove the post. A shame.

Mercy reads the post. It might be horrible, in which case she'll look for something less so. Still, assassins should face justice, and the city government appears to be quite awful at meting out justice these days.

A grave crime was committed against all free-thinking men and women in the Free Marches in the fifth month of 9:32 Dragon. The ruling Vael family of Starkhaven was brutally murdered, down to the youngest babe in arms. This massacre was carried out by the Flint Mercenary Company. I hereby offer a bounty on the head of each soldier of the Flint Company in the Kirkwall vicinity.

--Prince Sebastian Vael of Starkhaven

Hm.

On the one hand, murder is evil, and killing everyone in the Flint Mercenary Company will hardly bring back the Vaels. On the other hand, a crime is a crime, and if the existing powers are not capable of forcing criminals to face the consequences of their actions, then someone must. On the third hand, past experience has led her to believe that her moral calculus leaves much to be desired, and she is less certain of her conclusions than she once was. 

On the fourth hand, when Teryn Loghain left his king to die, and when no one in his command would dare oppose him, that was cowardice, not virtue. When no sword but her own was available to execute Arl Howe, who ordered her family killed - his allies, his friends, down to their children and grandchildren - it was cruel that she be made to do it, but it was necessary that it be done. If she had not slain him, then no other would have. He would have gone on destroying lives for another twenty or thirty years, growing fat off of the fruits of his vile ways. And so it is necessary to be willing to oppose real evil, even when one is uncertain about one's own moral standing.

She makes up her mind to find these mercenaries, to determine whether they need to be killed, and, if so, to kill them.

As she is not a mage, simply forming a solid intent does not cause the world to shape itself around her. She could just wander, aimlessly, and hope to stumble across the mercenaries, or she could embark on a more directed search of the city and its environs. Someone in Kirkwall must have seen something or know something that would help her, or there may be a camp along the coast she could scout out.