Continuing into the thaig, a spider attempted to lure the group into a trap, though unfortunately for it they saw the webbing that the spider was hoping they would tangle themselves in. Leliana and Theron easily dispatched it with arrows and followed another tunnel that avoided the webs. This led them straight into Ortan Thaig where spirits of ancient dwarves and stone golems openly attacked them. Using magic and Deesh's Ghostblade the spirits were quickly quelled as the others handled the two stone golems.

When they were quelled Deesh seemed a bit annoyed, "I thought the dwarves were not able to 'touch' the Fade? What was that?"

Faren was poking the golem to make sure it didn't get back up, "Supposedly if a dwarf is 'unworthy' then their spirit was said to weaken the Stone so they get rejected by her. Didn't think those old spook stories were true."

Wynne tried to understand the situation herself, "Then perhaps there was more merit to those stories than your people would ever believe."

Daylen walked away, "Well the sooner we find Branka the sooner we can get out of these tunnels."

They burned away the webs covering a nearby chest. Continuing through the thaig they saw something moving as it was looking over a darkspawn corpse. When they tried to get closer whatever was scavenging quickly ran away, screaming, toward a tunnel.

They carefully followed the shadow to its lair only to find a hunching dwarf who was a bit fidgety as he yelled at them, "There's nothing for you here! It's mine! I've claimed it!"

Theron looked around, "Claimed it? Are you part of the clan who lived here?"

"The clan…? No. but it's still mine!" the dwarf angrily threw his arms around, "Ruck's been here for years now, and no shiny surface will take him away!"

Now Oghren understood the situation, "Bah! He's a bloody scavenger, good as sodding gone."

Ruck yelled some more at them, "Begone, you! You'll bring the dark ones back, you will! They'll crunch your bones!"

Oghren looked at Ruck's sorry state, "Word has it you can only survive down here by eating the darkspawn dead."

Kallian was a little sick at the taught when she glanced back to the darkspawn body, "Why would they do that?"

"Because of the tainted." Deesh was looking to one of the other darkspawn bodies, "He's presence mimics that of a darkspawn's, and I doubt they'd be able to see any difference."

Oghren adding, "And turns their brains to sewage."

Wynne had only sympathy for the lonely dwarf, "Poor creature! Such are the lengths to which our survival instinct drives us."

Deesh had her doubts, "Maybe for you mammals. I'd rather starve or eat my own arm."

Leliana had some sympathy though the thought of it all, "That's disgusting! I'm not certain whether to fear or pity him."

Morrigan openly mused, "Well, if you need to dispose of darkspawn bodies after the Blight…"

To which Alistair quickly stopped her from finishing, "Oh, that is a horrible, horrible suggestion."

"Really? It might solve that world hunger problem you are always fretting about."

Faren throwing his opinion in, "Well, coming from someone who lived in Dust Town, I can say that I've seen folks who'd eat their own crap before touching that."

Ruck had enough of their chatter, "It's my claim, not yours! Crunch your bones!" He purposefully snapped some wire on the cave wall that seemed to be a signal line for a group of spiders that dropped down.

There were seven of them, two of which tried to support the other five by firing poison blobs at the group. Shale blocked the spite before completely crushing a spider with the golem's mighty fist. One of the spiders tried to jump at Sten only to find Asala waiting to skewer it. Theron was starting to get used to Deesh's dragonbone bow as he and Leliana worked with Morrigan to pin a spider by its legs so Morrigan could burn the spider alive. Jigsaw was trying to jump onto a spider, but the larger spider overpowered the dog and was ready to sink its fangs but Zevran managed to throw a dagger into the spider's maw to force it off Jigsaw so Kallian could run her blades through it.

Two of Deesh's stalkers jumped out of her satchel to draw the spider's attention but even so the spider was able to keep the two and Deesh at bay. This was actually the distraction as the red stalker jumped onto the spider's abdomen and started to tear into its chitin. Now with the spider in a panic the other two stalkers jumped onto the spider, tearing at it and spitting acid into its wounds.

Oghren 'led' a charge at the two venom spitters with Alistair, Faren and the Circle mages helping him tear them apart. After disposing of those pests Deesh's stalkers pulled at one of the spiders, eating it as the white stripped one stayed as lookout until its turn to eat. The others followed Ruck into his tunnel and found the remains of a campsite that Ruck had made his home.

Oghren seemed a bit disgusted at the sight, "Looks like that bone-picker's living in Branka's old camp."

Approaching the campfire Ruck yelled swinging his sword wildly over the fire, "Go away! This is mine! Only I get to plunder its riches!"

Deesh calmly tried to reach out, "We just want to talk."

"No! No talking! You leave my territory!"

Kallian leaned forward, "We're not here to steal anything, I promise."

When Kallian's face was visible to Ruck, he stopped his sword swinging, "Pretty lady…pretty eyes, pretty hair…smells like the steam of burning water, blue as the deepest rock… So…the pretty lady won't take anything from Ruck? You won't take his shiny worms and pretty rocks?"

Deesh didn't seem to care who got information from him, so long as it was useful. She nodded to Kallian to continue, "We just want to talk. We won't take anything."

"Oh. Ruck not mind that, maybe…"

"So, your name is Ruck?"

"Ruck not pretty name, not pretty like lady. Ruck is small and ugly and twisted."

Daylen pointed out, "I think we met your mother. Is her name Filda?"

Ruck quickly cowered, "N-n-n-no. No Filda. No mother. No warm blanket and stew and pillow and soft words. Ruck doesn't deserve good memories. No- no-no-no-no—"

They weren't certain why he reacted so suddenly, though Neria wanted an explanation from Ruck, "Your mother misses you. She asked us to find you."

"Sh-she did not know, not what I did. I was very, very, very, very angry and then someone was dead. They wanted to send Ruck to the mines. If I went to the mines, sh-she would know. Everyone would know. So I came here, instead."

Oghren got it now, and it disgusted him more. "Bah! He's a criminal. And too sodding gutless to join the Legion of the Dead."

Faren didn't seem to be too bother, rather he seemed to expect this response, "House honor or something. Too bad I'm gonna have ta start thinking about that kinda stuff soon enough."

"Once you eat…once you take in the darkness…you not miss the light so much. You know, do you not?" pointing to Kallian, Alistair and Theron, "Ruck sees, yes. He sees the darkness inside of you."

Kallian didn't want to imagine being anything like him, "I'm a Grey Warden. It's not the same."

"Grey like the stone. Guardian against the darkness. Beautiful like waterfalls under the lichen."

Theron knew better, looking at how Deesh turned away to retrieve her deepstalkers. "So you won't tell your mother you're alive?"

Ruck cowered again though not as intensely. "No, no, no! She cannot… She remembers a boy, a little boy, a little boy with bright eyes and a hammer and she cannot see this! Swear-promise-vow you won't tell!"

"Would you rather she think you dead?"

"Yes! Yes. T-tell the mother Ruck is dead. He's dead and his bones are rotting in the crawlers' webs and she should never look again."

Even tainted that doesn't explain how Ruck has managed to still be alive for so long alone. "How did you survive out there?"

"When the dark ones were here, I kept to the shadows. They don't look in the shadows, not if you're quiet. Not if you eat their flesh. Then the dark ones think you're one of them. They leave you alone. But now they're gone."

Kallian kindly asked him, "Do you know where the 'dark ones' went?"

Ruck seemed enamored by Kallian as he answered, "I think they went south, pretty lady. Far, far to the south. That-that is where the dark master calls them with his beautiful voice. So much joy when he awoke!"

"Mmmm… He's talking about the archdemon, huh?"

Deesh had returned, "And his story seems to collaborate with the events of Ostagar."

"After the dark master awoke, he called his children and they all went. I wanted to go, too, and gaze upon his beauty…"

"Where is the dark master now? Do you know?"

"He stopped calling. I wish I could go see him, but Ruck, no, no, Ruck-Ruck is a coward."

Daylen shivered, "But there are still giant spiders here."

"The crawlers. They used to eat the smallest dark ones. Now the crawlers go hungry."

Deesh looked back, "Explains why the spiders have been so aggressive."

Kallian knelt down to Ruck, "We just have a few questions for you, Ruck. Then we'll be gone."

"I will answer your questions, pretty lady. Anything you wish."

Kallian looked around, "Did you find anything unusual at this camp?"

Ruck rummaged through some of his things, "Bits of things, but only bits. The crawlers took almost everything. They takes things of steel and things of paper. They takes the shinies and the words. They bring to the great nest, the nest they make for the eggs. They puts the shinies inside, they do."

Kallian smiled, "Thank you. We'll be leaving now."

Oghren spat in his direction, "Enjoy your tainted mud, you poor sodding duster."

Ruck inched toward Oghren, "It not so bad. The dark and the burning keeps Ruck warm…warm like Mother's arms—"

"Get away from me, you sodding freak!" pushing Ruck way. "Look at him; he's like a pale mud-worm. He should've been sent to the mines. Instead, he chose this. I'd put him out of his misery."

Even Zevran seemed a little unnerved, "I am not what one would call a sympathetic man, but seeing him like this pains me. His mind is gone, and his body will soon follow. I have seen victims of poisoning in better shape. We should at least put him out of his misery."

Deesh had somehow managed to sneak past Ruck as she drew upon one of her daggers and quickly rammed it through the back of his head. There wasn't any struggle as Ruck collapsed onto the floor. Deesh check Ruck's pulse before retrieving her dagger. "We should see if there might be anything useful around that we could use."

As they did Oghren found something, "See these marks on the floor? There were a lot of people and fires here once. Those must be Branka's papers he said were taken by the spiders. Nothing that fragile would be left from the thaig."

The only real interesting thing was the pommel Deesh found in a broken vase with matching patterns to the hilt of the elven blade. She tossed the pommel to Theron since he had the hilt as well.

One of Deesh's deepstalkers jumped out of her satchel, the black stripped one had run off to the remains of what seemed to be a storehouse. Inside was a chest that still retained its lock after all these centuries and the deepstalker was trying to get inside.

Deesh pulled out a lockpick to see what was inside the chest. What she found was a parchment coated by a wax-like substance that had protected it from time. Faren took a peek at the document after Deesh opened it and couldn't read any of the dwarven writing. "Hey, look like this is the thaig's geneology up until a few hundred years ago. Probably around the time the thaig was lost."

Theron remembered something from Orzammar, "There was a dwarf named Orta who wanted someone to find proof that she is the last surviving descendant of House Ortan."

Deesh didn't seem to care about that, "Then I'm sure she'll reward you just fine with this."

The two other deepstalkers jumped out now as the trio ran off. They stopped for a moment, turning back to Deesh. Wynne had worked with plenty of children to know what this appears to be. "It would seem your little ones wish for you to follow this time."

Deesh knew something wasn't right, and if the stalker matriarch wasn't a big enough clue, she could only guess that her three stalkers were being controlled by Hermaeus Mora, and possibly other Daedric Princes too, influencing the deepstalkers. Guiding them to points of interest or finding things for them.

The stalkers had stopped near a bridge that was guarded by a stone golem, though the bridge wasn't what had them interested. Zevran had a trick up his sleeves, drawing one of his blades and polishing it up so he could see his reflection. He did so to look around the corner to find why the stalkers stopped. "That's interesting. It would seem that these little ones knew about another golem and more ghosts."

Oghren was ready, "So when do we rush 'em?"

Zev pointed to Neria, "Or we could use that big fire spell again. You can cast it from here, correct?"

Neria was thinking, "In theory… how far are they?"

After showing the Dragonborn to the genealogy papers and alter, Hermaeus turned his eyes back to the deepstalkers they had gathered. Even after the death of their former matriarch, the stalkers still tended to the eggs as before. Hermaeus was even providing them with some nugs for food to observe their hunting and ambush techniques.

Even as the Dragonborn brought the pieces of a demon back together and fought against it, these creatures were still a curiosity to the Prince of Knowledge that he would uncover.

Even Sanguine was planning to find ways of using his collection to liven a few of his parties while Sheogorath was busy naming his. "…And you'll be Charles. You look like a Cynthia. Oh and this cutey will be Sir Bitty. Hey Haskill, what rhymes with Boris?"

"Horis, sir. Or perhaps Doris is something more befitting your tastes."

"Nope. This one is Lady Snagglebit."

"Of course sir. It is as you wish." Haskill was keeping the unnamed deepstalkers separated from the others until Sheogorath could name them.

"How do you think they'll favor skinned hound? They're like a walking buffet! Or maybe they'll hunt Grummites instead. They like dark places, and Dementia is the darkest part of the Shivering Isles. That'd be something to see."

Sanguine moseyed over, "You know Sheo, I've been meaning to ask you about your manservant. Think you can let me borrow him, or maybe show me how you got a mortal to be so obedient."

"What Haskill? Hell if I know. If you find Jyggalag ask him for us."

"You are aware I am capable of answering, my Lord, if you so ask."

"And miss the look on that tight screw's face? Not on your life, or services, Haskill."

"Of course you would, my Lord."

"Damn right. Now, where'd that stick of mine go?" Haskill was already holding Sheogorath's cane in hand, ready for him to take. "Thank ya, Haskill. Now to train these guys in the ways of madness."

The massive spiny demon erupted with a wave of mana energy knocked the team back and dispelled the barrier magic Wynne and Neria had casted for their group. Even so, Oghren, Sten, Shale and Deesh had not let up their assault against the brutish demon. They had been so continuous in their attack the demon hadn't had time to remove two arrows that were lodged into the pride demon's lesser eyes.

Oghren rushed at the demon, throwing himself at it as he plunged his axe into its chest, felling the demonic beast. As the battle finally settled, Daylen turned to Neria, "Now that one wasn't my fault."

Deesh watched as the demon's corpse burned with green flames after Oghren got off. "Better to have dealt with it than let it have a chance of being unleashed by a greedy fool. I have never encountered a spirit or demon that hasn't been deceitful."

Wynne looked back to the bridge with the golem at guard, "Is there another way across the river where we won't have to confront that golem?"

Oghren looked back, "Beside those bridges? Not likely."

"Then there is nothing to worry about." Morrigan turned to Shale, "A golem cannot swim, can it?"

"No, but we aren't so easily moved either."

"Then perhaps we need a bit more power," Morrigan turning to Deesh as she said that. "The forceful shout should be sufficient."

Deesh knew which shout she was talking about. "I wouldn't want to make a mistake in not using the shout at its fullest." Deesh's hand now encompassed a purple sphere, releasing the energy as Deesh disappeared from sight. Deesh quickly rushed to the bridge where the golem stood. Deesh only had another five seconds before her invisibility dissipated as she positioned herself to the golem's side. "Fus…" her spell immediately ended, but it was too late for the golem, "Ro…Dah!"

The golem tipped over, falling down and with the bridge as narrow as it was caused the golem's weight to fall off and be swept by the current. As the golem went down stream, Deesh could see more dwarven spirits waiting on the other side that were moving toward her as was the golem from the other bridge. The Ghostblade formed in her hand, ready to cut them down.

A/N: Sorry, got bogged down with a lot of stuff recently, the Taken King being one of the bigger ones.