Disclaimer: Bioware own everything, I own nothing. No profit made, lots of fun had.
Authors notes: My first Dragon Age fic and I've probably taken all kinds of terrible liberties with the universe canon (I hope it enjoyed it too). But there's not *nearly* enough mHawke whump-h/c fic out there and I wanted one. And instant magical healing on tap isn't very fun for that, so our heroes aren't that lucky...
Hawke
"Tell me we did not climb down to this stinking fish cave to deal to a group of scum who have already finished one another off" Fenris muttered as we made our way inland along the tunnel that, while dry once it had climbed above the waterline did have a lingering odour of seaweed. It had been a chance tip-off from Isabela, who'd glimpsed a Tevinter ship that had been creeping along the coast for a few weeks moored and transferring its wretched human cargo. The cave was an ideal location, its entrance far enough down the cliff to be hidden underwater at all but nearly low tide.
"No we climbed down for our health, it's the sea air. Perhaps we'll meet a family of giant spiders here on a holiday" Anders baited. Fenris growled a response in Tevinter, Varric muttered something exasperated in dwarven, and I sighed. Like dealing with scrapping siblings except I couldn't lock one of them in a cupboard. And here I'd thought dealing with slavers was a simple enough job that everyone could focus on and go home happy. Giant spiders were sounding better and better. And I hate giant spiders.
Finding the first bodies at least meant that everyone shut up and woke up. Three bodies, two slavers and one of their captives, an elf. Nothing to say who she was except for an intricately woven woolen wrist cuff. Gently I took it; perhaps someone in the alienage would recognise it and get word to her family. Not a mage, thank the Maker; I did not want that argument started again about who oppressed who the most. Nobody deserved to die like this, or to lose someone like this. Why did I bring them together on a job? Because I was shorthanded; it happened. Maybe I could pay them to work together…
"Hawke" A little way ahead just before the next curve in the tunnel Varric was crouching over a pile of rubble, frowning. "Anything worthwhile?" I asked. He gestured to the pile "That remind you of anything?" I looked. Big rock, trails of little rocks.
"Like what Elka threw up on the carpet last week but with rocks?" He gave me a look, and then frowned at the rocks again, absently running one hand along Bianca's stock meaning he was trying to remember something.
"What am I looking for?" I asked. Varric almost seemed worried, generally not a good sign. He shook his head "Something at the back of my mind. Not sure. What happened to the bodies?"
My turn to frown. "They're pretty torn up but not by blades. Animals of some sort maybe, but it's not clear what. Looks like they were running from something though" The rock floor of the passage was dotted with dark stains that marked the tunnel ahead.
Varric stood up as the others joined us "Yeah, something. I have a bad feeling about this".
"Well maybe we'll find whatever it is around the next corner and all your questions will be answered. Aren't you lucky?"
Several turns and several corpses later Varric came back from scouting ahead to say the tunnel emptied out into a cavern, looked like the slavers' main base but there was no sign of movement. We went in cautiously. The cavern was a lump you could have fitted into the main hall of the Chantry a couple of times over. Big enough for a very big spider. I notice these things. And we all noticed the bodies. Three slavers lay amongst a tumble of crates and gear; they'd been working out of here for a while. On the other side of the cavern were more bodies. Bodies chained to each other and to heavy wooden posts driven into the ground. Five, scattered amongst the rubble that lay in piles across the cavern and around the posts.
"Stoneshit" from Varric; followed by something else in dwarven that didn't sound complimentary. He darted ahead to the posts; we were all moving that way, scanning the cavern as we went but it seemed like we were the only living things. Would I ever get used to cleaning out places like this? I hoped not. Varric leant over something in the rubble briefly then looked up, definitely worried. Not good. "Stay out of the rocks!" he snapped "They're not just- they're people. Were anyway" Bianca was out as he moved towards us "Hawke we need to leave. Now" At that moment Fenris snapped alert "We are being watched" In an instant we were loaded for bear.
"Stay out in the open; you get near the walls you won't have a chance to see them coming" Varric was rapidly scanning the shadows as we made for the tunnel in a loose defensive knot.
"Movement at the entrance" Fenris stated at the same time that something flickered in the darkness at the far end of the cavern, near a pile of rocks that might once have been another tunnel.
"Varric what are we facing?"
"Something not supposed to be here, shouldn't even be down below. 'Stone shifters' you could call the; like living rock but when they're still you could walk right past them and see nothing but stone. They carry a, a taint. Those piles of rock? That's pretty much what you get when you're through eating and they're through dying. The poor bastards that died in that passage were the lucky ones". There was movement surrounding us around the cave's edge, and then we got our first look. It looked almost man-shaped, roughly hacked from stone, though it crouched awkwardly on hands and feet as it shuffled forward.
"This would be the point where you tell us what happened to the unlucky ones wouldn't it" Varric's ghost tale was rudely interrupted as they rushed us.
If the Maker was kind that was the only one that had started out human. What I sent flying under my shield could have been dog, wolf, who knew.
"How do we kill them?" I shouted; Fenris sent several more flying, I could hear the crack of magic and Bianca's hum.
"Heat, cold and a lot of punch. I might actually pay for some lava right now; you have to blow these things to gravel. Hit them when they're moving or you'll be hitting a golem with a wet nug!" And thank you for that image Varric. And easier said than done, having stalled us they were proving bloody good at harassing in twos and threes to allow one to strike. And they were fast; even tracking them when they froze in the shadows you'd swear there was nothing but rock there.
"Focus your fire" I ordered Varric and Anders. "Fenris, let's keep the rest of them busy". We could play bait-and-ambush as well. Briefly I wished for Elka's ability to cause mayhem but even she couldn't chew stone. Slowly we set about grinding them down, and I do mean grind. Scatter, move, cover a gap in the defenses, scatter them again until my shield felt like it weighed as much Kirkwall's Twins; the walls seemed to ripple everywhere you looked until you weren't sure if it was real or imagined. Mostly by Varric's heaviest crossbow bolts and the mountain's worth of frost bolts Anders had sent flying maybe half the creatures lay shattered and spread across the cavern floor when the rest seemed to pull back for a moment. It seemed like the polite time to leave.
"Fall back to the tunnel!" and that was what seemed like half the wall by our exit collapsed, some piling across the mouth, and some moving towards us.
Oh nug piss and demons, was there a single cave in the Free Marches that did not contain a large-creature-with-too-many-legs? Even as it moved and Fenris sprang forwards to meet it "You will face me!" snarled in challenge the rest of them charged. Scatter, move, scatter, move and here we go again. Anders stepped forward to send out a sweeping wall of ice and I grabbed the instant to glance at Fenris; if he could keep it off our backs long enough to finish the rest of them we might just get out of this. The monster lunged, slamming a forelimb down a split second after the elf's avoiding roll took him closer to the partial cover offered by the slavers' piles of equipment; and then what had seemed like a cloth lump uncoiled itself from on top of a pile of crates at Fenris' open back. No time for anything else; I slipped my arm free of my shield's straps and slung it in a flat spin, crashing into the thing moments before it landed. Fenris slid away, avoiding the shield as his sword came up and then something punched into my ribs like a golem's fist. Staggering I clubbed at it as it scrabbled for holds on the edge of my breastplate and jaws snapped at my face, its weight as it thrashed sent us both down. I buried my sword between its jaws, trying for enough leverage to roll it off; it jerked a forelimb and a stone spike slid in between plate and chain and ribs. Pain, hot and sharp. With a yell I wrenched free from underneath it, scrambling back just as a bolt from Anders froze the thing in place. Right; focused fire. Clear the rest back Hawke; still got a sword. Why was it so hard to stand? I fumbled for one of Anders' flasks and felt the cool rush that meant healing magic and usually less pain; not this time. Blurrily I heard Varric shouting my name as he stepped in to put a heavy bolt in to the shifter at point blank range, shattering it to icy chunks. Then his face was in front of mine, his eyes worried. Heat chewing its way across my ribs. I got as far as "poison…claws..." before the world became heavy, grey and pain.