I do not own Dragon age or any of the characters. Mahariel(Gabriel) is based off of my character in Origins so he is technically mine but all of the origin stories still belong to the game. I decided to try this story again. Plus the idea started bugging me again.

Bugs

"Warden!" A Redcliff soldier said running over. "The dwarves have been reporting a level of darkspawn equal to a blight."

"I see," Mahariel said. "If it is, we're finished. The last blight was less than four years ago. Very well. I will take a small group of Grey Wardens into the Deep Roads to investigate. You're dismissed."

The soldier bowed and left and Mahariel turned to Alistair. Mahariel had chosen to stay at Denerim to help Alistair run the country along with both Leliana and Zevran. Both of them had become Grey Wardens but Leliana had run into trouble when her Joining began. She had nearly died but Wynne had managed to slow her death. Mahariel had gone to find the Ashes of Andraste to save her but they had been taken by Brother Genitivi. Now Mahariel had no idea where it was and no way to save Leliana without it.

"I will search for Brother Genitivi," Alistair said. "You go find the darkspawn. Preferably in a giant pile of corpses."

Mahariel smiled and nodded.

"And Gabriel," Alistair called after him. "You had better come back. I don't really feel like ruling just yet."

Mahariel simply shrugged and left. So far he had basically ruled the country himself through Alistair's opinion of certain things. No one knew this of course so it was common knowledge that Alistair was in charge, even if it was partially incorrect knowledge.

Gabriel picked up Duncan's sword, which he had come to call Warden's Companion, and his own personal Dar'misu, a keepsake from his tribe. He had had it specially made from a bone he had taken from the Archdemon. It was harder and lighter than any weapon ever made but it still paled in comparison to Warden's Companion because Warden's Companion had been specially enchanted by Morrigan herself before she left to make it harder and lighter than even the Dar'misu.

Morrigan had stayed after the Archdemon had been killed for two reasons. First was that Gabriel had convinced her to stay for the celebration and second was that she wanted to tell Alistair that she was in love with him before she left. It had been Alistair that had impregnated her, despite both of them complaining because Gabriel wanted to be faithful to Leliana, to whom he was now engaged. At the party, Gabriel had, at her request, gotten Morrigan drunk so that she could talk to Alistair without being rude which, it turned out, was a defense mechanism. Once she was drunk, he had made a bet with her that she couldn't make his sword more powerful than his Dar'misu and she had. He had paid her quite handsomely for it then sent her to Alistair.

He had also gotten two Paragon Silverite runes and one Paragon Lightning rune installed. His Dar'misu had two Paragon Silverite runes and two Paragon Cold Iron runes.

Gabriel walked out of Denerim and bought a horse to ride to Orzammar. He traveled as fast as he could and reached the front gate in three days, a feat he was quite proud of. Especially since he stopped at the Warden's Keep to get three Wardens to go with him. They had managed to build up a small army of Wardens but there still were not enough to deal with a full blight. The three Gabriel took with him were all dwarves named, Nabred, Ooma, and Oghren.

Nabred was a male and had bright orange hair and beard that dragged along the ground. He didn't wear a shirt and his pants were simple leather. He carried a warhammer that was as tall as Gabriel. Ooma was Nabred's wife and wore a full set of armor from her time in the Legion of the Dead. She held a battle axe in her right hand and an enchanted knife in her left. Oghren, was the same dwarf that had helped Gabriel before but was also not. He had changed so much that Gabriel barely recognized him. He had grown his beard out more and also wore Legion of the Dead armor but didn't bother with the helmet. He carried the Faith's Edge axe he had won from Kolgrim when they first went after the Urn of Sacred Ashes. He had gone back to Felsi and they had gotten married. They had one child who they named after Gabriel, although only his last name since it was a girl, and then he had become a warden and they had both moved to the Warden's Keep.

"So Oghren," Ooma said. "How's Felsi?"

"She's fine," Oghren said. "She seems to be awfully busy taking care of Mahariel though."

"Oh," Ooma said and couldn't resist a joke. "And here I thought that it was Leliana that took care of Mahariel. He must be more of a ladies man than I thought."

"I heard that," Nabred said.

"So did I," Gabriel said turning to face them and becoming deathly serious. "I understand that it's not common knowledge but Leliana is on her deathbed after taking the initiation. Her life was prolonged by a mage and I need Andraste's Ashes to save her. If you make another joke about her, I will probably feed you to an ogre. Is that understood?"

"Yes Commander," Ooma said. "And, I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what it must be like."

"No, you can't," Gabriel said.

When they arrived at the front gate, they were instantly let in since all four were Wardens and three were dwarves. Once they were inside, they headed first to King Bhelen's Palace.

"Atrast vala my friend!" Bhelen said spreading his arms. "Welcome back. I assume you're here about the darkspawn."

"That's right," Gabriel said. "Where were they last sighted?"

"At the ruins of the Anvil of the Void," Bhelen said. "For the record, I believe you did the right thing destroying that thing. No one deserves that fate."

"I know," Gabriel said. "Which is why we should go make sure they aren't trying to put it back together. We will see you when we get back."

Bhelen nodded and the Wardens all headed for the Deep Roads and then to the Dead Trenches. When they arrived, they found an Ogre laying on the ground in the center of the bridge spanning the first trench. Its chest and stomach were ripped open and its skeleton was standing over it holding an enormous Crow Dagger in each hand.

"Did you know that was possible?" Gabriel asked.

"No," Ooma said.

"Nope," Oghren said.

"Great," Gabriel said. "Shall we?"

They all drew their weapons and charged forward. Gabriel jumped over one of the ogre skeleton's blades and removed his leg. The skeleton simply turned away from him and swung at the three dwarves but, being blind, was relying on sensing their taint and mistook them for something taller so his blade flashed over their head before Nabred smashed his leg then Oghren smashed the skeleton's skull. Ooma looked disappointed until thirty hurlocks scrambled over the sides of the bridge and charged at her. She spun and knocked ten over the side with the side of her axe then stabbed another with her dagger. Gabriel ran past her and began spinning through the darkspawn slashing them and the others joined him at a slower pace. Finally they were all dead and Gabriel sighed and looked around. The dwarves were uninjured and looked bored.

"Let's get going," Gabriel said.

They all nodded and began to run through the tunnels until they reached the location of the Anvil of the Void. The remains were gone and there was a pile of dead darkspawn half a mile high.

"That doesn't look as good as I thought it would," Oghren said.

"How wide do you think the pile is?" Ooma asked.

"At least fifty yards," Nabred said.

"What the heck could pile those bodies?" Gabriel asked.

"Who knows?" Oghren said. "Must be a big sodding mother though."

"I hope not," Gabriel said. "The last thing I want to see is a Broodmother."

The dwarves agreed and they turned to leave but Gabriel froze. He could feel something coming. It was tainted beyond the level of even an Archdemon but it wasn't a darkspawn and certainly wasn't a Grey Warden.

"Heads up!" Gabriel said drawing his weapons and spinning around.

The others did the same just as a giant, mud-colored worm rose out of the bottomless pit just past the ledge. It was about twenty feet wide with too many rows of teeth to count and a tongue that could extend from the mouth and had a mouth of its own with a single row of teeth on all sides of the inside much like the worm's teeth were on all sides.

"What is that?" Oghren asked.

"Don't look at me," Gabriel said. "I live in a forest."

"Let's figure out what it is after we kill it," Ooma said.

The worm suddenly shot forward and the tongue shot out swallowing Nabred's arm up to the elbow. Gabriel slashed the tongue off then carefully cut it off of his arm. The worm reared back and the tongue regrew then four more worms rose out of the pit. Two swung along the ground like tentacles and knocked Gabriel, Oghren, and Ooma down then all five each took hold of one of Nabred's limbs, including his head. Then all of the tongues closed their mouths and the torso fell to the ground as the worms swallowed the limbs. Gabriel jumped up with his bow and arrows and tied an explosive to the end then shot it at one of the worms. It hit and exploded sending the worm's head into the air then the rest retracted into the pit.

"We have to go!" Oghren said pulled Ooma away from Nabred as they retreated from the pit.

Just as they reached the exit, the worms returned and this time, there were hundreds. Gabriel fired fifty explosive arrows into the ceiling of the cavern and the explosions made the ceiling begin to collapse. Gabriel and the two remaining dwarves ran as fast as they could as the ceiling behind them fell. They heard the worms screaming, a loud whining sound, and the ceiling stopped falling a moment after it started. They stopped running when they reached the bridge they had left the dead skeleton on.

"Nabred's death is your fault!" Ooma screamed. "If you had just told us to run he wouldn't have died!"

"I'm sorry," Gabriel said. "I had no idea there were so many or that they could regenerate their body parts. I had no idea what it wa-"

He stopped when pain suddenly erupted through his body from his heart. It was so bad that he fell onto his rear but it was over before he hit. He held his hand over his heart and looked around.

"Are you okay?" Oghren asked.

"No!" Gabriel said jumping up and sprinting back toward Orzammar.

Oghren and Ooma both followed and within a day they had arrived. Gabriel instantly got on his horse and began to ride back to Denerim. Oghren followed but Ooma headed back to the Warden's Keep to deliver the news about Nabred's death to their daughter. After two and a half days, Gabriel reached the city gates and jumped off his horse which collapsed and died. He ran to Leliana and when he arrived, Alistair stopped him at the door.

"She's stable," Alistair said. "We almost lost her but the healers were able to save her. I found Genitivi. He's in the dungeon but he won't talk."

"I'll make him," Gabriel said and headed for the dungeon in Fort Drakon.

THE END

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