Once more unto the breach!
Chapter 12
The Deep Roads were just that. Roads that ran deep underground that used to stretch from one side of Thedas to the other. It was a lively place to be, dwarves from across Thedas moving from one thaig to the next using the roads that connected them. Now it was filled with things far worse, such as the Darkspawn and the Deepstalkers that inhabit the tunnels. It was said that ancient beings and creatures from ages past dwelled deep under the rock and that should it awaken, ruin and death would be left in its wake. Some believe that that was what the dwarves awoke, the Darkspawn.
It had been three days since they set out from Orzammar. They were currently making their way through Caradin's Cross. A road that used to connect to all the other thaigs before it feel to the Darkspawn. Luckily for them, the number of Darkspawn was greatly diminished with most of their forces making their way above ground, so the only threats were any Darkspawn left behind and the occasional Deepstalker. Following the many torches and the map they had, they quickly came across a fork with the signs above them reading in ancient dwarfish the places the two roads led. One was towards Ortan thaig, while the other was towards Cadash thaig. Taking a left, the group made their way towards Ortan thaig.
Another four days would pass before they would come across the entrance towards Ortan thaig. A small thaig by comparison to Orzammar and Kal'Shirok, but nonetheless important on their journey. Moving through the passageways, they eventually came into a massive cavern filled with the bodies of large spiders and Darkspawn, all dead.
"It would seem that the deeper we go, the more Darkspawn we encounter. Both dead and alive." Sten remarked as he looked on at the dead.
"It would stand to reason that the bulk of the horde is much further within the Deep Roads and that the further we go in, the more we'll face." Zevran said.
"Be wary though, there are far worse things in the Deep than the Darkspawn and Deepstalkers" Harry said as he drew his sword.
Moving around the bodies they continued their trek until they came across another cavern. There were also bodies of dead Darkspawn and spider, but more fresh then the ones they saw before. Hearing the sound of fighting just beyond the next turn, the group drew their weapons and with his hand lowered in a gesture to stay low and quiet, they crept up upon the corner and found about fifteen darkspawn fighting ten large spiders. Turning to the others Harry was about to tell them to lay low until the fighting stopped when he saw Oghren run headlong into the fray, shouting and swinging his axe about.
"HERE COMES OGHREN!" he cried out swinging his axe, killing a Darkspawn and spider as he did so.
'Of all the stupid things to do!' Harry thought as he and the others rushed to help out their comrade.
Casting a Fireball at a large cluster of Darkspawn that seemed to just appear, Harry then used Shadow Strike to kill one of the darkspawn that was creeping up on Oghren before continuing in a chain of Shadow Strikes to kill the rest of the darkspawn and spiders. Hearing the tell-tale sign of arrows being fired, Harry turned just in time to see a volley come straight at him. Raising his staff, he cast a Shield Dome large enough to cover himself and those with around him. Once the last arrow had bounced off his shield, Harry slammed his staff down onto the ground, letting the shield extend quickly and slamming into the spiders and Darkspawn, knocking them down.
Thrusting his staff out once again, Harry sent a Lightning Strike against the fallen Darkspawn, killing them while the rest finished off with the spiders. Seeing one of the Darkspawn alive and crawling away, Harry used Shadow Strike to quickly to it from retreating by slamming his fist in the Darkspawn's face. Kicking the creature in the stomach hard enough for it to be turned over, he kneeled down and holding his staff with his sword hand he placed his left hand on the Darkspawn's right side of their face to see if he could dominate them.
The effect on his mind was immediate. He found himself standing near a cliff edge, looking down all he could see was the unending numbers of Darkspawn all marching off towards the surface, and above them perched on top of a bridge sat the Archdemon himself, Urthemiel. The dragon then turned his giant head towards him and it almost seemed as if the Archdemon was looking straight at him.
"The Wraith has come at last." the dragon spoke, startling Harry.
"You speak." Harry said, both in awe and dread.
"Yes. I speak wraith." The dragon answered.
Suddenly he found himself standing upon a single narrow bridge, wide enough only for one person to stand upon. Staring forward was the Archdemon Urthemiel, shrouded in smoke and wisps of darkness. As the Archdemon slowly lumbered on his legs towards him, a small part of him told him to cut the connection from the Darkspawn's mind. The more dominant however said to wait this out.
"There is no light in the darkness, little wizard." The Archdemon spoke, before breathing a breath of fire.
Acting quickly, Harry sent out a Shield Dome with his staff. The fires, much like the Archdemon was corrupted in the fact that instead of the normal colour of fire, it instead was a putrid colour of purple and black. The very air around him turned foul with each passing moment. As the torrent of flame continued so to did Harry's shield, but already the attack was sapping his strength as his dome got smaller and smaller and the flames getting closer. With a grunt of exertion, Harry extended the dome's reach. Then the torrent of fire stopped.
Not allowing himself to be caught of guard, Harry continued to hold onto the shield, prepared for another wave, only to stagger back slightly, his dome holding from the sudden attack of a fireball. Another soon followed, crashing against his shield, cracking it slightly. The third followed closely after, causing Harry's shield to shatter. Taking advantage of the situation, the Archdemon sent out another wave of fire. Casting his Shield Dome again, it held out against the fire for awhile, but in his weakened state the shiled begun to shrink before collapsing entirely, leaving him defenceless and fatigued. When the fires reached him, the burn was so hot that he had to cut the connection lest his mind be destroyed.
Being thrown backwards by the intense pain, Harry fell on his back, his body smoking and his head heavy, while the Darkspawn lay on the ground dead, its body charred as if the fire actually burned it. Panting from the intense heat and the pain his body was in, Harry just stayed lying down as he replayed the memory of seeing the enormous dragon perched on the bridge with the unending army of Darkspawn marching off below him.
"Harry! Harry are you all right? What happened?" Luna exclaimed, rushing to her husband's side to try and help him.
Yet when she tried to touch him, her hand was burned from the intense heat. She gave a yelp of pain and held her hand close as she stared at Harry concerned. Groaning from a sudden pain, Harry tried to reach for his staff, but found that it was further off than he thought. Alistair, seeing what Harry was reaching for, immediately grabbed the staff and placed it in his hands. Gripping onto the staff tightly, Harry cast a Winter's Armour on himself, allowing the cold to cool his body down before passing out.
"We need to keep moving or there'll be more of them crawling in." Oghren said as he kept an eye out for anymore threats.
"Oghren's right, we need to move. At least away from the bodies and somewhere relatively safe." Zevran agreed.
"Sten can you carry him." Luna asked to which the Qunari nodded and picked Harry up while Luna took Harry's sword and staff.
"C'mon, let's see if we can find a nice place to set up camp." Alistair said, taking charge and leading them further towards Ortan thaig. "Not that there is anything nice about this place." he muttered quietly to himself.
The journey towards Ortan thaig was a short one as they seemed to only have just been outside the outskirts of the area. Moving quickly through the ruins, they stumbled upon a dwarf within one of the houses, who ran as soon as they saw him.
"After him!" Alistair exclaimed, chasing after the dwarf along with the others with Sten being a little behind as he had to carry Harry.
Catching up to the others, the first thing he noticed was that they were engaged in a fight with a large group of spiders.
"Sten! Follow the path behind us, we'll cover you!" Alistair ordered as he thrust his sword into one of the spiders open pincers.
Nodding, the Qunari jogged into the path that Alistair told him and followed it until he came into a cavern with the small dwarf that they had chased earlier hiding behind one of the rocks. Hearing the sound of footsteps, Sten drew his sword and prepared for battle, only to lower it when he saw that it was the others. Luna, seeing her husband on the ground with the Winter Armour still sustained, kneeled down next to him.
"Get some rest everybody, I'll take the first watch, while also asking our dwarf friend some questions." Alistair said as he beckoned the dwarf that had come out of hiding and began to ask him some questions as the others went about trying to get comfortable.
The sound of crackling fire and the smell of food woke him from his deep slumber. Lifting his head up slightly, Harry noticed that the Winter Armour was still in effect. With a wave of his hand, he dispelled the armour and slowly got into a sitting position, groaning as he did so. Once up, he took a look at his surroundings and noticed that he was in small cavern that was filled with soft blankets, books, stacks of paper and a few paintings. Clearly someone lived here, considering that these things were somewhat organised.
"I see our fearless leader has awaken." A voice called out.
Turning his head, Harry saw that it was Alistair who was sitting in front of the fire with a bowl in his hand. Getting up, Harry stretched his body before going over to the others and sitting down next to Luna. Taking a bowl for himself and pouring some of the stew that was brewing in the pot, he began to have his share and regain his strength.
"What happened Harry? What did you see?" Luna asked.
"I saw the unending horde of the Darkspawn. The dragon that commands them. And their march to the surface." Harry said quietly.
"So their still in the Deep Roads? That's good." Alistair said, taking a bite out of some of the bread he had.
"And how is that a good thing, boy" Oghren asked, belching as he did so.
"So long as the Archdemon is still in the Deep Roads, it allows us more time to prepare our forces." Alistair answered.
"That won't matter if the Darkspawn just keep pouring out into the surface. To even have a chance, we would need to cut them off from the rest of their reinforcements. Archdemon or no." Harry said. "Anyway, we would first have to get a king on the throne of Orzammar before we can leave. Have we gotten any new information?" he asked.
"Yeah. It seems that Branka left a lot of notes saying that she was getting closer to the Anvil." Oghren answered. "It also seems that she buried many of our house during the search."
"We better keep moving if we want reach Branka." Harry said, getting up and gathering his weapons and staff.
Clearing the area of their belongings, they left the cavern and continued on their way through Ortan thaig, killing many more spiders and Darkspawn as they did so. Crossing the bridge that led to the next area, the group made their way through what looked like the entrance to the spider's lair. Unsheathing his sword, Harry raised his staff a little higher so that he could burn through the webbing that blocked their path while also lighting the way forward. Once clear of the webs, the company made their way towards the exit of the thaig when they found a company of dwarven skeletons near the exit, one of them holding onto a large book.
Making their way to them, Harry sheathed his sword and passed his staff to Oghren to hold as he picked up the book and began to look at the final entries of it. Noticing that the book was written in dwarven, Harry began to translate what they wrote and told the others what it said.
"We who are the last of the guards of House Branka have barred the passage leading to the Dead Trenches prepare ourselves for one last battle." Harry spoke. "They have taken the bridges, and the second hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. Clicking. The sound of pincer clicking in the dark. We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out…..They are coming." Harry finished saying the last line as a sudden crash caught his attention.
Turning his head swiftly, Harry saw that it was Oghren that had caused the disturbance when he had taken closer look at some of the dwarves. His closer inspection caused the skeleton to fall to the ground causing the webbing that it was attached to come crashing down with the carcass of another armoured dwarf.
Silence reigned as everyone held their breath to hear if anything was coming to investigate the sudden disturbance. After a while everyone breathed a little easier when nothing came.
"Fool of a drunken dwarf. Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity." Harry growled out, slamming the book shut and grabbing his staff from the dwarf.
Suddenly the sound of clicking pincers could be heard from all around them. Turning around and dropping the book to the ground, Harry drew his sword and prepared for battle, as did the others. From above they came, large spiders descending from webs to feast on their flesh. As they came closer, snapping their pincers as they did so, another giant spider came down. This one truly massive. The queen and her children have come to feast.
Yelling out a war cry, Harry rushed into the fold, with Luna firing her arrows with pinpoint accuracy and skill. While Zevran was leaping above and sliding below the spiders to cut them up. Alistair was making sure to block with his shield whenever a spider tried to eat him before shoving the spider back and shoving his sword into the spider's head. Sten and Oghren waded into the bulk of the spiders and began cutting the spiders down by cutting their legs or simply stabbing them. Meanwhile he was engaging the queen in single combat, making sure to dodge any of the poisonous spit and webbing that she spat at him.
Thrusting his staff out he cast a Fireball at the queen, causing the spider to screech in pain and thrusting one of its legs at him in an effort to stab him. Dodging out of the way, Harry sliced the leg off and ran to the right side and cut them up too, causing the queen to fall. Jumping on top of the queen, Harry thrust his sword into the spider's head killing the queen and causing the other spiders to flee in terror.
After leaving Ortan thaig and resting for a while, they set out towards Bownammer which was a five day journey there. Luckily for them the amount of danger that they had to deal with was minimal and were easy to deal with. But after five days of constant walking, the group finally managed to reach the entrance to the Dead Trenches. When they entered the Dead Trenches, they came up to the edge of the cliff to look down below, and saw thousands of Darkspawn marching to the surface. Once done looking, Harry led the others down the path available to them towards the only bridge that connected the rest of the Deep Roads to Bownammer.
Upon getting closer to the bridge, they started to hear fighting. Drawing their weapons and rushing towards the bridge, the group saw a battalion pf dwarves all wearing the Legion of the Dead armour and fending off a large wave of Darkspawn.
"Sten throw me up!" Harry ordered.
Nodding, Sten grabbed hold of the back his cloak and tossed him high into the air where he proceeded to send a Fireball at the Darkspawn, causing them to scatter before using Shadow Strike to kill one of the Darkspawn. Once on the ground, Harry conjured a wall of sharp spikes of ice in front of him running the distance from one side of the bridge to the other, blocking the Darkspawn reinforcements.
Knowing that the others can handle themselves, Harry knew he had to deal with the remaining Darkspawn that was beyond the wall. Casting Stone Armour on himself and activating the fire rune on his sword, Harry used Fade Step to cross the ice wall and slice one of the Darkspawn in half. Swinging his staff, Harry got rid of the ice wall, turning it to water and sent it towards the Darkspawn, crashing into them and pushing them back. Hearing a roar from the end of the bridge, Harry saw a large ogre throw a large boulder at him.
Swinging his staff above him, he threw the boulder off its trajectory and into the marching army below, crushing some of the Darkspawn. Using Fade Step to get closer, Harry cast Lightning Storm to kill the rest of the Darkspawn. Unfortunately the lightning did nothing but enrage the ogre even more, causing it to come charging at him, head first. Using Fade Step to dodge out of the way, Harry used his staff to gather up the water and turn it into large ice spikes that were a metre long, before thrusting his staff out and sending the spikes through the ogre, killing it.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Harry turned around ready to face more Darkspawn when he saw it was just Alistair and the others as well as the Legion of the Dead. Sheathing his sword, Harry then noticed the awe and shock that accompanied their faces, except for Luna.
"Is everyone alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, we're alright. But by the Maker! You just took out an entire force of Darkspawn all by yourself!" Alistair exclaimed.
"By the Stone! You really showed them who's boss eh kid." Oghren said.
"Yes that most impressive, if I do say so myself." Zevran remarked as well.
Shaking his head, Harry then noticed one of the Legion of the Dead soldiers, most likely the one in charge, come to stand in front of him.
"Atrast Vala stranger, you have my thanks for helping us clear the bridge of the Darkspawn. My name is Kardol, commander of the Legion of Dead. We don't get many topsiders here in the Deep Roads. But even then they're always Grey Wardens. So might what I ask has brought you so far down here?" Kardol asked, introducing himself.
"We are here looking for Paragon Branka." Harry answered.
"And who put this dull idea in your head! We've got more important things to worry about in Orzammar- Ah, I see." Kardol said. "The Deep Lords in the Assembly can't make up their minds, so the pretenders need added influence. I get that right?" he asked.
"You are correct. Is there any information you can provide?" Harry asked.
"You got your work cut out for you kid. Paragon Branka is dead, anyone with sense knows this. Past our lines the Darkspawn kill everything." Kardol explained.
"Why not push your lines then?" Luna asked.
"Believe me I would gladly lead an assault through the Dead Trenches, but without an ass on the throne we have no orders." Kardol answered.
"Why not help me then. Not only would you be able to push your lines forward, but you can also reclaim Bownammer. It's not like anyone really knows that you're here, or really cares." Harry asked, trying to persuade the dwarf.
Kardol seemed to consider the offer for a few minutes before nodding his head. "Alright then. I and my men will help you find Paragon Branka."
"Thank you Kardol, for your support." Harry said before turning around and making his way towards Bownammer.
Hope you enjoyed that chapter. If you have any questions please ask. And also leave a review to tell me how i'm doing with the story. Have an awesome day!
