The Beast Within
Summary: Corrine Hawke receives a letter from an anonymous sender in regards of extra coin that she could make if she helped solve an issue. Following the letter's directions, she and her group come across an abandoned fortress that has whithered yet stood strong for over a decade. It seems ordinary... or so they thought. The moment they enter, the doors are locked behind them and they encounter ghosts, demons, and a strange beast that they cannot identify... worse of all, their weapons and the mages' powers are gone! However, what she and the others find will be twice as astonishing as they thought.
A/N: So... I've been thinking and I've decided to write a horror story for this Halloween! Since I loved the Haunted quest in Dragon Age II, I kind of took some inspiration from there and decided to roll along with it. This story takes place around Act 1 and my Hawke is a rogue, so Bethany is alive. There are three OCs for this story: Alisa Hawke, the youngest of the Hawke siblings, is 13 years old, and is a skilled rogue; Lilith, one of the numerous Witches of the Wilds, daughter of Flemeth, younger sister of Morrigan, and a mage; and Jasmine Narani, Seeker of the Chantry, so she works alongside Cassandra, is 20, has fought alongside the Hero of Ferelden during the Blight at age ten, and is a seasoned warrior. There are also f!HawkexFenris moments in this story because I like Fenris. Believe me, I tried branching out, but it feels uncomfortable not romancing Fenris. There will be short chapters because I would really like to keep this story short. Also, the entire cast will be in the group instead of four. Hope you don't mind the change in dynamic. Last thing to note, my Hawke is in between Helpful/Diplomatic and Sarcastic/Humorous, but some dialogue points at her being a humorous person. There will be rare times where she's aggressive. Review!
1
CASSANDRA: Stop right there! What do you mean by "a strange letter"?
Inside a dark room was Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast along with Seeker Jasmine Narani, who were interrogating the dwarf, Varric, about his adventures/mishaps with the Champion of Kirkwall, Corrine Hawke. As far as the interrogation was going, Varric betted that he would be out by nightfall, but given how much Cassandra liked to jump in whenever he told the story, it was coming to a day before he could finish. Meanwhile, Jasmine played the role of "good cop", usually pulling Cassandra away from Varric if she was becoming too hostile, both verbally and physically. The young Rivaini/Antivan seemed to know how to deal with the raging Nevarran older woman.
Varric sighed in slight irritation as he began to explain a piece of the story he was trying to tell. Maker bite his tongue to refrain him from calling Cassandra out of her name for not knowing how to act civilized. He met bandits and raiders with more civilized mannerisms than her and that was saying something.
VARRIC: What I mean Seeker is that I did not know who sent the letter and neither did Corrine. It was sent to her from an unknown sender and they were talking about paying.
Before Cassandra could ask another question, Jasmine gently grabbed her by the arm, causing the woman to turn her attention to the girl.
JASMINE: Where did this letter send you? Is it the one that sent you all to that abandoned fortress in Lastion?
Cassandra's eyes widened the moment her partner mentioned those words and turned back to Varric with a rather serious expression on her face, not that Varric hadn't got used to it. He'd be surprised if Cassandra cracked a smile.
CASSANDRA: The Lastion Fortress? Is that where the letter sent you, dwarf?
Cassandra had one more time to call Varric a dwarf and he was about to unleash Bianca on her and the temptation grew stronger as he thought about it.
VARRIC: Yeah. The letter Corrine received sent us to the Lastion Fortress and trust me, it was not pretty.
Jasmine arched a brow the moment Varric breathed the words "Lastion Fortress" from his mouth.
JASMINE: "Lastion Fortress"... Wait a minute. I've read something like that in one of your books. It was said to be haunted by ghosts and some unknown beast. Apparently, the fortress used to be a Grey Warden outpost in the Free Marches until all of the Wardens were slaughtered by an unknown beast. Many believed it was an Archdemon, but the Blight was too early for an Archdemon to appear. That letter sent you there?
Jasmine directed innocent yet curious eyes over to Varric that stood in sharp contrast to the seriousness in Cassandra's eyes. Varric let out a sigh and folded back into the chair he was sitting in, taking a moment to scratch his head.
VARRIC: I'll say it like this, Jazzy, what we found there was beyond horrifying. I still have trouble sleeping just thinking about it.
VARRIC: The letter sent to Corrine was from an unknown sender. It was asking for her assistance in solving an issue in Lastion, which is located in the Free Marches, but was worth a week's voyage from Kirkwall. Corrine and her sisters, Bethany and Alisa, gathered everyone into the Hanged Man to discuss the letter. It didn't say specifically what was the issue, but the person who sent it was offering some serious coin and we knew we needed it for the expedition. We took a ship to Lastion. It was a pretty smooth sail and everyone wasn't stuck in the hold, but Merrill was increasingly nauseous the whole time. Anyway, we finally reached Lastion and it seemed like a nice place. Our first order of business before starting the quest was finding the person who sent the letter. Eventually, we reached to the mayor of Lastion, Mayor Julius Tremmon, who had sent the letter and he told us that the issue was revolving around Lastion Fortress. He didn't tell us much, but we assumed it had to deal with bandits, raiders, or slavers taking refuge in there and committing crimes that the mayor had no control in stopping himself. But once we made it to the Fortress, we would learn a dark secret and experience something dreadfully horrifying.
Outside the village of Lastion during nightfall were Corrine, Varric, and Fenris, who were waiting for the others to retrieve whatever kind of items and weapons they could before journeying out to the fortress. They had stopped to meet Mayor Julius Tremmon, who seemed like a nice and generous man, especially considering that he was offering fifteen sovereign if the group could solve the case for him. As far as they knew, there was some disturbance within an abandoned fortress known as Lastion Fortress. The group knew very little about the fortress, but had to believe that the mayor was having trouble with bandits who had apparently taken refuge within it. The trio had already bought new weapons, except for Varric, who prefered to keep using his crossbow, Bianca. Fenris spun his sword with the tip making a little hole on the dirt ground and Corrine was checking the new daggers she brought. They were of Rivaini make as noted by their design and she was able to enchant the daggers with a lightning and fire rune in each dagger.
Soon after, Aveline emerged from the store with a brand new shield strapped on her back and a sword that was sheathed in the scabbard attached to her waist-band. The guard captain proceeded to look around before she spotted the others waiting at the gate in front of the village. She approached them while swatting away a few pesky mosquitoes that were very hungry for blood.
AVELINE: I swear this village is infested with these little bastards!
One certain mosquito couldn't understand when it's prey was trying to get it to fly away, so out of annoyance, she crushed the insect by clapping her two hands together. Once she parted them from each other, the mosquito's crushed body fell from her palm and made a crucial landing to the dirt ground. A groan of aggravation exited from her mouth.
AVELINE: Ugh! Anyway, do you know where this fortress is? What are we expecting?
The three shrugged their shoulders, but offered only a little of information to Aveline.
CORRINE: I don't know, but I assume it's bandits or slavers that have taken refuge in the fortress to continue their crimes.
FENRIS: Regardless, we need to stop them, but if they are slavers, I ask that we show them no mercy.
Corrine turned to Fenris and nodded in agreement.
CORRINE: Be sure to use that "fisting" technique of yours as well.
Fenris cocked a smile and nodded in agreement while Varric chuckled at Corrine's humorous reply.
VARRIC: Yep. This quest should help pay for the expedition once we get back, but we're going to need more. How much money do we have on us, Corrine?
Corrine looked down at Varric.
CORRINE: 20 sovereign. Adding that to the 15 we may get, that will be 35 sovereign total. We need 15 more, but I believe we'll be at a progressing pace.
VARRIC: Yeah. Not too many thieves and bandits that we kill have that much money.
AVELINE: What about defenses?
CORRINE: If they're bandits, they probably have the fortress heavily fortitified. We may need to analyze them before attacking though. If they're numbers are high, we'll be outmatched.
Corrine proceeded to brush back a lock of her curly black hair that had the nerve to fall directly in front of her face.
FENRIS: If these are slavers, no doubt they're Tevinter magisters. If so, then they may have prepared magical defenses. Some may even be summoning demons or using blood magic. Either way, they'll be tougher if our speculations prove to be slavers.
VARRIC: In short, we just need to be ready for any damn thing.
Aveline nodded in acknowledged as she allowed the information to sink in her mind.
AVELINE: Understood. Now all we have to do is wait for the others before leaving.
VARRIC: Speaking of which, what is taking them so long? They should be out of there by now.
Eventually, Corrine's sisters, Anders, Sebastian, and Lilith had emerged from the store with new weapons in their arsenal. Corrine couldn't help but to find it strange as to how the Chantry is opposed to apostasy, yet merchants are able to sell mage-related equipment such as staffs and robes. However, she had to consider it luck that the mages of the group found anything at all.
ANDERS: Sorry it took us so long. We were trying to find weapons that suited to our needs.
BETHANY: Plus, the manager of the store was quite... pushy.
Corrine looked at the group and noticed that Merrill and Isabela were not among them.
CORRINE: Um... care to explain the hold up with Isabela and Merrill?
The group nodded with annoyed looks on their faces and Corrine let out a sigh.
LILITH: Isabela found out that the daggers she wanted costed four sovereign. She has six, but still doesn't want to pay that much. So as we speak, she is trying to "persuade" the manager of the store into lowering the price for her.
The witch proceeded to brush off a pesky mosquito that was flying around her ankle-length black skirt and fixed her black fingerless-gloves, tightening them with the strap she had wrapped around on the wrists. Unlike Morrigan, Lilith had raven-black hair that fell past her shoulder and wore black eyeshadow.
A rather irritated sigh escaped Aveline's lips.
AVELINE: I dared not ask what she plans to do.
VARRIC: But what about Daisy? Why is she still in there?
ALISA: Merrill had found an ice staff that she thought would be useful, but she's watching Isabela's "work" at hand. I believe her exact words were, "Go on without me. I want to see the trick behind this flirting."
Alisa proceeded to remove her purple hood to allow her black hair, which was styled in a mid-ponytail, to breath.
Merrill was a sweet girl, for a blood mage, but she was also incredibly naive. There's no telling what kind of lewd and lurid material that the Rivaini pirate has been teaching the Dalish elf.
The group all sighed as they waited for Isabela and Merrill to exit from the store. After thirty minutes had passed, they heard the store door open and saw Isabela and Merrill, with brand new weapons, exit. However, before they could call on them, they noticed that Isabela and Merrill had already caught sight of them and were actually running to them in a state of frantic. A loud voice boomed inside of the store, along with a few choices of language that Corrine would never say around her mother.
The group all looked confused as the two ran to them.
ISABELA: Don't just stand there! Run!
They all looked at each other with confused expressions on their face and glanced back at Isabela.
ANDERS: What? What did you-?
Before Anders could finish, another figure emerged from the store, only shorter and older. It was the manager of the store they were shopping in... with a livid expression painted on his face and a staff that channeled high electrical energy from the shaft to the tip placed firmly and tighting at the grip of his palms.
Unable to drum up exactly what had transpired in the store for Isabela and Merrill to run out with the manager, who was a mage, chasing after them, they took off into the woods as Isabela and Merrill sprinted to them. Corrine looked over her shoulder to see the manager stopping by the gate as he proceeded to shoot lightning bolts directly at them!
CORRINE: Lilith! Behind us!
Lilith turned her head back to notice the incoming lightning bolt speeding its way towards their direction. In a matter of seconds, with just a flick of the wrist, Lilith expelled a strong force of magical energy that exuded the shape of a barrier that kept its form as they still ran. The bolt eventually reached them, but the barrier absorbed the damage, sparring everyone who was targeted.
The manager shot four more bolts at the group until they disappeared in the forest. They eventually came to a halt once they were certain that they were far away from the mad mage and Lilith dispersed the barrier to rest her mana usage. After catching their breath since they were sprinting for dear life itself, everyone turned to Isabela with a look of astonishment being clear on their faces.
VARRIC: Andraste's ass, Rivaini! What did you and Daisy do to get the manager of the store to chase and attack us?
SEBASTIAN: I can't believe he was a mage! That was too close!
AVELINE: Yes, but Isabela, what did you do specifically?
Isabela gave herself a moment to catch her breath before she could gain the strength to speak again. After that minute, she stood up straight and explained her story.
ISABELA: I was trying to get that damn manager to reduce the price of these daggers to two sovereign!
FENRIS: I take it you made a suggestive approach?
Isabela nodded.
ISABELA: You know me. Anyway, he still wouldn't budge. I tried enticing him with positions I could do and some techniques.
AVELINE: Spare us the details.
The comment was rewarded with an irritated glare from Isabela before she continued.
ISABELA: He still wouldn't oblige, so I decided to... borrow them.
As she finally caught her breath, Corrine directed oblivious eyes directly at Isabela.
CORRINE: That's a fancy way of saying you stole those daggers!
Isabela shook her head.
ISABELA: I did not steal them! I told him that I was borrowing them and that I was going to give them back afterwards! He threatened us and brought out his staff. I panicked and knocked the staff out of his hands, grabbed Merrill by the wrist, and ran out of the store!
MERRILL: It was bracing! We were being chased for stealing! Wasn't that exciting?!
BETHANY: Preferably, I rather not have that much excitement in my life. I thought he was going to electrocute us!
CORRINE: By the way, nice move on the barrier, Lilith.
Corrine directed her attention to Lilith and gave her a small bump on the shoulder. In return, the witch smiled as she tried to fix her long, raven-black hair.
LILITH: 'Twas nothing, but thanks.
The group gave themselves a moment to focus in on the true objective that they were supposed to do. Once they did, Corrine pulled out a map that the mayor gave her of the lands and examined it quite closely. Alisa scooched in to her older sister to have a look herself, resting her arms on her shoulders.
CORRINE: Let's see... according to the map, the fortress should be just south of where we are.
FENRIS: Then that's where we go. Hopefully, we won't get anymore surprises like that.
CORRINE: I just hope the surprise is more pleasant than an angry mage chasing after you for stealing.
After pinpointing the exact location of the fortress and preparing themselves for whatever would happen, especially if an angry mage would chase them again, they headed south towards the forest.
For most of the journey, the woods were quiet and relatively peaceful. It was quite a walk, much longer than they had anticipated, but they had not run into any trouble, which was good considering that they needed whatever stamina or mana they could possibly use in case they would be attacked. Fifteen more minutes had passed after the first thirty and things were still quiet. No presence of people, no Dalish elves settling in, and no animals; just the forest itself. Rarely, a special kind of demon known as sylvans, which took the form of trees, would inhabit a forest and attacked any known passenger, at least that's what Anders told them when discussing his journey with the Hero of Ferelden and meeting Velanna. But for some reason, the forest was quiet... too quiet.
The silence was starting to become a little unnerving the deeper the party had journeyed into the forest. In fact, the air around them had grown slightly colder and the heaviness of silence grew heavier. Something was not right.
ALISA: Wait! Something's not right.
Everyone stopped the moment Alisa spoke and looked at the young child.
CORRINE: What? Complaining about the lack of frogs? I thought you would be happy to be in a forest with no frogs.
Alisa glanced back at her sister with a smirk on her face.
ALISA: Trust me, I'm not complaining about the lack of frogs. Personally, I prefer if I never ran into one.
Alisa looked around the forest and moved a few inches from the party, examining the trees. She turned back with an unnerved look on her face.
ALISA: It's just this forest... it's quiet.
Varric shrugged.
VARRIC: Okay. So we're in a quiet forest? What's wrong with that?
Alisa shook her head.
ALISA: Not just that, Varric. Have you noticed that ever since we walked into this forest, we have not seen any animals? Or people for that matter?
ANDERS: What do you mean?
ALISA: What I mean is that this is unnatural. Even if a forest wasn't heavily populated with wildlife, there would be a few animals running around, not that I'm complaining about the lack of frogs. But even the sound of a cricket's chirp is practically non-existent and it's nightfall and the wind is blowing, but there's no sound coming from it. Plus, if we're dealing with bandits or slavers, a few stragglers would be walking around trying to pick off any trespassers, but I haven't seen a group.
They quickly caught on to what Alisa was saying and had to agree with her. Something about this forest was not normal at all. As Alisa stated, if they were dealing with bandits, raiders, or slavers, there would at least be a few groups of them searching the forest for trespassers, yet they have not come across one. As for the wildlife, their failed existence was also in question. No normal forest would be empty of wildlife; even if they did not see an animal, they would at least hear one. But as it goes, there was nothing. The forest was as silence as a Chantry during service.
The intense silence started to make the group increasingly uncomfortable.
BETHANY: Maybe the people at the fortress are just guarding it. Maybe their manning defenses in case trespassers get too close.
Fenris turned to Bethany and shook his head.
FENRIS: No. No normal group of bandits, raiders, or slavers would ever have all their men gathered up in one place, especially if they were defending it. If they were defending the fortress, they would send groups to venture out here to check for trespassers, such as us. Alisa is right. This forest is off.
Everyone looked around the forest with uneased looks on their faces. The dead silence grew heavier and heavier and the moon shined bright in the sky until a roll of thunder was heard in the distance.
VARRIC: I think a storm is coming.
CORRINE: We should continue to look for the fortress and find somewhere to camp out afterwards.
Everyone nodded their heads in the agreement and continued their walk through the forest. As they did, the storm clouds came in quicker than they had anticipated as lightning strikes from the sky flashed like fire. Small drops of rain poured from the sky, but were far too light to be considered heavy rain.
As they got deeper into the forest, they felt a strange sensation the moment they walked past the oak tree on their left and look around in confusion.
AVELINE: Did anyone feel that?
SEBASTIAN: Yes. What was that?
Anders shook his head.
ANDERS: I don't know, but... it felt as if I just walked right through something.
That was exactly the feeling that everyone had once they passed the oak tree. Things were starting to get a little too abnormal to fathom. There was no wildlife in the forest, not even insects, there were no groups of bandits or slavers checking around for trespassers, and now they felt some strange sensation as they walked further in. What is going on here?
MERRILL: Do you think there's an explanation for all of this? Because this is getting a little unnerving.
Corrine turned to Alisa, who was still looking around the forest in confusion and called her name.
CORRINE: Alisa. You said that no normal forest would be vacant of wildlife. Is it possible that the bandits or slavers were hunting for food and found them?
Alisa shrugged her shoulders.
ALISA: Maybe, but that doesn't explain why there are no animals around. Even bears, especially great bears, and druffalos don't get taken down that easily. If they did, it doesn't explain why there are no insects. Most forests have a heavy population of mosquitoes and you would usually hear a cricket at night. What else is that there are no animal footprints in this forest. Something is very off.
CORRINE: Do you think that the people we're finding have all retreated back to the fortress?
Alisa shook her head.
ALISA: No. It would be pretty foolish. Most bandits prepare themselves in case a horde were to show, but not by staying in one place. The same technique works amongst the Dalish.
This time, Merrill intervened.
MERRILL: It's true. Some of our hunters would usually leave the camp to hunt for food or check for trespassers. We never came across a large group of humans, but our Keeper would send a few and leave the rest to defend the camp. She said it would be risky to have all of our hunters in the camp.
ALISA: So it does not explain why would these people would do something like it.
CORRINE: What about that strange feeling we all had? Can you explain that?
ALISA: I think it was something magical. If so, then it may mean that we're dealing slavers.
Corrine turned to Fenris.
CORRINE: Fenris, you've had experienced with magisters? Is what Alisa saying possible?
Fenris nodded.
FENRIS: Probably, but whenever Danarius needed me to help defend whatever he was going to take, the barrier he and the other magisters would cast would repel any enemies unless they were able to break it down. If we did walk through a barrier, then why didn't it repel us?
LILITH: Wait. My sister, Morrigan, mentioned something similar to this in her days with the Hero of Ferelden. She said that she and the Hero were helping Dalish elves who were being targeted by a lycanthropy curse from werewolves in the Brecilian Forest. When they were in the forest, she and the others walked past a barrier and it brought them back to the exact place that they were before.
MERRILL: I've heard about that. The clan had to stay at our position until we heard word of the curse being lifted. We did not want to make risks.
FENRIS: So are you saying we are dealing werewolves or the barrier we passed was constructed to bring us back to where we were before?
Lilith shook her head as she looked around, noticing that their surroundings were not completely different from before.
LILITH: 'Tis not likely. 'Tis a different area in the forest that we are standing in. If something like what happened to Morrigan is happening to us, we would be in the same place from where we traveled earlier. But our surroundings don't even look remotely similar. Look, there were no deathroots around here.
Lilith proceeded to point to a deathroot plant sprouting from its position on the ground, which trailed over to a few more that sat neatly around a maple tree, forming a perfect circle. A few more deathroots were spotted as the group trailed them further within. Things were really starting to not comprehend and for once, the group found themselves feeling awfully nervous.
CORRINE: We should continue on ahead. If that was a magical barrier we just passed, then maybe that means we are facing against Tevinter slavers. Let's move.
Everyone nodded in agreement and followed behind Corrine as she led them deeper into the woods, unaware of the menacing eyes that loomed amongst the trees that snarled with every footstep further the group made into the forest.