Author's note: I was watching Mass Effect: Paragon Lost while working on the current chapter of Forsworn. A friend of mine wanted a chapter of krogan versus darkspawn and dwarven specters. This is the result.

"So, uh, Kendrick, with you bein' senior Warden round here an' all, I was wonderin' if I could ask ya another question?" Oghren asked as they set up camp.

Dear Andraste, why me? Kendrick thought plaintively. Mutely he gave Delindro the most pathetic look he could. The Antivan Warden, damn his eyes, just snickered and kept going on his way.

He sighed, "If it has to do with anymore bits of flesh turning odd colors -"

Oghren huffed indignantly, causing the braids of his beard to rise up slightly. "Ain't nuttin' like that. It's um, well, I guess what you surfacers call dreams." He frowned, "At least, I think that's what you people call 'em."

"A series of images or scenes with emotions and such while you're asleep?"

"Yeah."

Kendrick debated with himself if he really wanted to know and realized that even though it was likely to make his head hurt, he did want to know. "Then that's a dream. Why do you ask?"

After dropping the load of wood he'd brought for the fire, Oghren scratched his rear end for a moment as he thought, "Wullll, I had one. I think. An I was wonderin' iffn' it were what Wardens are supposed to have."

Movement at the edge of his vision drew Kendrick's attention slightly. It was only Mal and Delindro, evidently settling in for story time.

Even though he knew he was going to regret, he asked, "So what is it about?"

"That's the thing. I was fightin' in this weird place that was outside but no plants 'n stuff, it was all reddish rock. Well, the place wasn't that weird, it was what I was fighin', or mebbe what was fightin' along with me."

"You were fighting darkspawn?"

The dwarf scrunched up his face in thought, "Well, I kept callin' 'em that, but the guys fightin' with me kept callin' 'em husks an' cannibals. They didn't look like darkspawn, the things they called husks, looked like bald, naked humans with glowy blue bits stuck in 'em. And the things they called cannibals, they looked like bloated naked humans, only without the stuff that makes 'em male or female, and one arm was all swoll up and shot out weird red beam-things." Oghren frowned, "An there were other things too, but I ain't got the words to describe 'em."

Yep, he shouldn't have asked. And he was glad he'd never faced darkspawn like that before. "You said the allies you were with were strange?"

"Yeah! They were these big lizard things, biggern' even a qunari, with these big humps on their backs and stubby little tails. They sure knew how to fight the right way. Going all 'RAAAWR!' and 'FOR TUCHANK!' and stuff like that."

Mal asked with the morbid fascination of someone watching something going horribly wrong and not being able to pass up commenting on it, "So what's Tuchanka?"

Oghren shrugged, "No idea, but they seemed to think it was all important an' stuff. Mebbe their kingdom?"

The mage nodded thoughtfully. The beserker suddenly brightened, "Oh and they had the best weapons. They were these tube things, with a trigger like a crossbow, you pulled the trigger and it went BlamBlamBlam! Which made the weird darkspawn splatter in all sorts of great ways. And sometimes one would make this WHUMP sound one of them would just explode in bloody gobbets. And the armor! All sleek and shaped 'em."

The three humans exchanged incredulous looks which Oghren didn't take any notice of, his eyes were unfocused as he remembered his dream. Or was it a nightmare?

"I had one of them tube weapons too! And this awesome black armor with a stripe down the arm that was white with a red center." His face scrunched up again, "Fer some reason they kept calling me a specter. When I said to them I wasn't a ghost, they'd just shake their heads at me in disgust. Or mebbe it was confusion." He peered at them and scowled, "They gave me looks kinda like what you're doing now."

"It's called disbelief, Oghren," Kendrick replied mildly.

That earned an annoyed grunt, "So, is that a Warden dream or what?"

Trying to be diplomatic, Kendrick said, "Well, I've certainly never had one that exciting or colorful."

The watery green eyes swiveled over to the other two, Delindro nodded his agreement with Kendrick, "Same here, it makes the ones I had during the Blight seem positively boring."

"Hmm, maybe I can get a better description of those weapons at another time. They sound useful," Mal commented. Oghren beamed happily at him while Delindro and Kendrick tried not to cringe. Then he peered at Mal, "You ain't said what kinda dreams you get."

"Sadly, they're the boring variety. I quite like yours better."

Another grunt, this time thoughtful, "So you usually get the shadowy figures murmuring something at ya?"

All three nodded. He shook his head and sighed, "See, this is why I shouldn't go to sleep sober. I get the weird stuff going on in my head."