It started with Josephine approaching Ellana'ra with a wide grin and a suspiciously sweet voice.
"Oh Herald, there is this little problem we have at the Fallow Mire, and I'm very certain you could resolve it within the blink of an eye."
And so that was how Ellana'ra and her disgruntled team ended up at this gods forsaken rainy bog in the southern part of Ferelden. Josephine was not wrong. Their mission was simple – to locate the missing Inquisition soldiers. The only detail she conveniently forgot to mention was that the Fallow Mire was not only flooded with murky waters, it was flooded with murky waters with undead rising from it.
No wonder Vivienne was so delighted to give Solas the opportunity to be the accompanying mage for this quest.
"You know, darling, you should ask Solas instead. The Fallow Mire is filled with the precious ore Blue Vitriol, and he would really appreciate using the dye from this beautiful ore on his painting."
And Solas was indeed very excited when he heard about the Blue Vitriol. Apparently he had not been to the Fallow Mire before as well.
"I think I just stepped on some broken fingers in the mud… " The said elven mage's sad mumbling brought Ellana'ra back to the present. Followed by a sharp and loud voice.
"Why didn't we wait till the morning? Why do we have to come to this kind of creepy place in the middle of the night? Whyyyyy?!"
Ellana'ra counted to ten under her breath to stop herself from snapping at Sera's endless ranting. She really liked Sera and didn't want to say anything to get Sera greatly disapproves. It was already not easy to get on her good side because for some weird reasons, Sera had no good opinion of elves. Despite being an elf herself.
"Why are we running around this mire in the dark? Hey Miss Herald! Why don't you ask Mr I'm-the-smartest-elf-in-Thedas to light that eerie green torch?"
"That is called the veilfire. And I don't think it is a good idea to summon the veilfire here and now. It might attract the undead." Solas glared at Sera and replied flatly.
The next thing she knew, Blackwall shouted "CORPSE!" and ran into the water to fight off a single corpse archer. Then the next corpse archer that appeared out of the water. And then the next 10 corpse archers.
"YOU IDIOT WARDEN! THAT BIG WEIRD MAN ALREADY WARNED US NOT TO GET INTO THE DAMNED WATER!" Sera shouted at Blackwall, while killing a corpse archer with her Long Shot. "THESE THINGS ARE ATTRACTED BY MOVEMENT IN THE WATER!"
Ellana'ra sighed and joined in the fight. After killing forty-eight corpse archers and lighting the fourth beacon in the mire, the team finally found the road to the castle where the Inquisition soldiers were believed to be kept. With only one little problem. The road to the castle is swarmed with undead soldiers.
Okay. Plan B. There must be another way to the castle. Like some kind of side doors or canals…
"CHARGE!" And then Ellana'ra's thought was interrupted by Blackwall's battle cry. The warden had charged straight into the swarm of undead soldiers like a bull.
"Lethallan, there're too many corpses to fight! We should run to the castle gate!"
"Solas, I have one question that has been bugging me."
In the distance, Blackwall continued to taunt the never-ending swarm of undead with his War Cry and knock on them with his Shield Bash.
"What is it, Lethallan?"
"When you die, you become a corpse, right? So when a corpse dies, what does it become? Did they also like… double die, like again?"
Blackwall's War Cry was beginning to sound weary and hoarse. In fact, the team could hardly locate him among the swarm of undead now.
"Lethallan, that is a very profound question that I do not have the answer now." Solas nonchalantly pointed at Blackwall's direction and spoke slowly. "Perhaps we could discuss again when we're back in Haven. For now, shall we give the Warden a hand?"
Right. I can't have the only Warden in my team dying.
With arrows and ice spells, they quickly cleared the swarm around the Warden and dragged him to the castle gate. Once in the castle, they killed the Avvar leader and found the Inquisition soldiers in a locked room.
"Thank the Maker!" A few of the soldiers prayed and exclaimed.
Erm… shouldn't they thank me too?
"Herald, a moment?" Blackwall suddenly leaned in close to Ellana'ra and spoke softly.
"What is it, Blackwall?"
"There is this room on the level above, my hunch is telling me that there could be Grey Warden artifacts in it."
Ellana'ra followed the Warden up to the room. She tried the door handle. It was locked. With a smirk, she knelt down and attempted to pick the lock. The lock pick broke.
What the hell?!
She tried to pick the lock again with another lock pick. And it broke again. So did the third one and all of the six that she had on her. Flustered, she stood up and kicked the door a couple of times.
"Erm… Herald, I have already tried to bash the door."
"Let's find an axe and hack it down!"
"Herald… if you look carefully, you can find many hack marks on the door…"
"Let's set fire to the door!"
"Erm… the door looks rather… sturdy. I don't think it'll burn down so easily."
"Hahahaha… Miss Herald can't pick a lock?" Ellana'ra turned around and found Sera laughing behind her back.
"Let the expert show you how to do it!" Sera pushed Ellana'ra aside and knelt in front of the door.
A set of broken lock picks later, another flustered elf made a frustrated groan.
"Set fire to the door!"