Chapter 29: A dwarf, golem, and an anvil…
A/N: So I'm going to keep it normal, and not bold my characters' names. xD Oh, and we will be ending Orzammar soon. Can't wait. XD Please read and review!
Morrigan
The party had split into a few groups, for our new leader had kindly requested that every mage be accompanied by two non-mages. She hoped to protect everyone in the dark caverns after a few near misses when Daylen had led us into ambushes. Interestingly enough, she had not considered herself as a mage, but rather as a warrior.
Such foolishness.
It was true that she no longer did most of the casting, but she had refused any guards for herself, even that of her loyal Templar. He had seemed hurt, and that was most satisfying to watch.
We had rested briefly in the area which we had cleared of darkspawn—it had seemed to be a place where they forged their weapons and armor. The fire was blazing bright, casting shadows against the wall. Briefly, I wondered if we were chasing the same—shadows, the endless tunnels and darkspawn seemed to prove so. She was still tense, alert to the vague scrabblings that echoed faintly in the distance.
Kiera had calmly warned me against shapeshifting in the caves, commenting on how similar my spider form was to the creatures which infested the tunnels. I consented, if only to satisfy her not unreasonable demands. She had approached me alone, and I appreciated that. To have that idiot Templar jeer at me would be most annoying, and I did not understand what she saw in him.
A disembodied female voice seemed to reverberate in these parts.
"First day they come and catch everyone." The empty way it was said chilled my veins, even though I would never admit it to anyone. Something was very wrong here, and with no doubt, the Grey Wardens were leading all of us in that direction. Sometimes I wondered what they sought to achieve, flinging themselves at such danger without a second thought. It certainly wasn't bravery, I saw.
Their actions seemed to be akin to perpetual deathseeking.
Words continued echoing off the low ceilings.
"Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat." Just where was this voice coming from?
"Third day, the men are gnawed on again." It sounded faintly like some of Flemeth's stories, but now was not the time for reminiscing on such nonsense. The dark was beginning to close in and the only light we saw were the dims ones on our staves. We marched in silence.
"Fourth day, we wait and fear for our fate." I was gratified to see that I wasn't the only one unduly wary at our surroundings. The bard crept closer to Daylen, who had refused my advances so far. He was indeed rather… fascinating.
"Fifth day, they return and it's another girl's turn." Kiera was alarmed by that, but she continued to lead. She had a most definite resolve, much stronger than the two bumbling men. It was high time a woman took charge.
"Sixth day, her screams we hear in our dreams." Where most would falter, our leader simply picked up the pace. As much as I do not approve of this running into danger, she seemed almost expectant—something large lay ahead.
"Seventh day, she grew as in her mouth they spew." Blood? Or other unsavoury fluids? It was disturbing to even ponder on such. Everyone was silent, no doubt dreading the rest of the rhyme that was soon to come.
xOxOx
Alistair
"Eighth day, we hated as she is violated." I glanced nervously at Kiera, but she seemed more concerned with something else. She had wanted me to stay close to Wynne, and as much as I hated to let her lead on alone, she continued with only Loki close at her heels. The taint felt much stronger now.
"Ninth day, she grins and devours her kin." The tunnel had opened into the small rooms, filled with the same bulbous things which we had seen once before, at the Circle. These were much more grotesque, however, they gleamed a most oily black.
She had stopped in front of a door, listening intently. The voice was nearer, and I dreaded to find out just what was behind that door.
"Now she does feast, as she's become the beast." Kiera took a deep breath, and pushed the door open.
Daylen
We found a woman, tearing at something on the ground. She seemed demented, mumbling those words over and over again. I wanted her to stop, but Kiera merely waited for her to finish her rhyme again before speaking. The woman was tainted, but she seemed lucid, and mumbled her story.
The darkspawn had used this woman turning the others who belonged to Branka's house, and this knowledge made us uncertain. This Branka didn't seem quite so worthy of her title as Paragon, from the horrors that lurked in those deadened eyes, whispered in that hideous rhyme—nothing we heard of her was positive.
Oghren had identified the woman as Hespith, and she refused to talk of Branka despite Kiera's numerous coaxings and soothing words. We were a little taken aback at the events she revealed, and the dwarf was similarly affected as he gaped after the fleeing woman.
His wife had left him for her.
Our findings were now that Branka had become consumed by her obsession with this Anvil, and if the woman was to be believed, there was precious little left of her sanity.
I whispered this to Kiera. "I'm not too sure about getting Branka's support for the throne now, you know."
"I know, but we have no other choice, do we?" She glanced nervously at Oghren, who had fallen silent in the light of such things. He had even stopped drinking from that accursed skin, following in Kiera's wake.
Sten
"Two ogres lie ahead, let's split into two teams then. Heavier armour in front— then rogues and mages." the kadan spoke, readying her blades for battle. Her requests seemed nothing like the orders that I was used to; yet we followed suit, and the beasts fell efficiently. She seemed to be tracking the crazed dwarven woman, and we continued, cautiously.
"The men, they kill, they're merciful. But the women, they want. They want to touch, to mold, to change until you are filled with them…." That infuriating voice was continuing, despite the fact that its owner was no longer in sight. These tunnels echoed with the slightest noise.
"They took Laryn. They made her eat the others, our friends. She tore off her husband's face and drank his blood." It was strange to see nothing of the rising horror in the kadan that the rest of the other females in our party exhibited so freely. Her face was calm, if slightly paler than before. Yet, when the kadan had stumbled upon a rock and had leant against me for support, I felt small tremors; she was shivering, very faintly.
She pulled away, and forced herself to carry on moving.
She was proving to be a most interesting human.
Kiera
I was going to be sick—this Hespith's mutterings seemed like nothing but the ramblings of a crazed woman, but the things she detailed—Maker—they were horrible.
"And while she ate, she grew. She swelled and turned grey and she smelled like them. They remade her in their image. Then she made more of them." Women were being turned into mothers of darkspawn? Now I know why Duncan had hesitated at my Joining.
"Broodmother."
We turned a corner, and found a most heinous creation; a huge, tentacled thing, with numerous pairs of breasts, sagging. Everyone stared in horror—this was what made darkspawn? I struggled to control my involuntary retchings, as well as the panic rising in my throat.
"Someone, please end it for me before I ever get dragged away by the vile things." I muttered, and Alistair's hand grasped mine. Although we were both encased in this blasted platemail, I could feel his warmth, his strength adding to my own. It was a relief to have someone to hold on to, amid all of this chaos.
xOxOx
Alistair
The dwarf seemed to be in denial; the Paragon we had searched so hard for was alas, hostile. Yet, Oghren seemed not to heed the warning signs; especially the trap that she had set for us, blocking our exit from the area.
"Shave my back and call me an elf! Branka? By the Stone, I barely recognised you!" I give him zero points for mental imagery. Those metaphors were disgusting, to say the least.
"Oghren. It figures you would eventually find your way here. Hopefully, you can find your way back more easily." The woman turned her half-crazed eyes upon Kiera, who was standing at the head of our party.
"And how shall I address you? Hired sword of the latest lordling to come looking for me? Or just the only one who didn't mind Oghren's ale-breath?" Kiera seemed content to let the woman talk, she seemed to be thinking quite hard. Perhaps upon Hespith's warnings about her? Even I wasn't too sure we should continue in this chase for a mad Paragon.
Oghren yelled at Branka, "Be respectful woman! You're talking to a Grey Warden!" To be honest, I was quite shocked that he was even sober enough to pay attention to the conversation, but he had stood up for Kiera, and that earned him some points in my favour.
Branka continued, tapping her chin with an armoured hand. "Ah, so an important errand boy then. I suppose something serious has happened. Is Endrin dead? That seems most likely. He was on the old and wheezy side."
Kiera actually answered that, which seemed to surprise the woman. "Maybe I just want to help Oghren?"
"Nobody helps Oghren. At best, Oghren's need to find me happened to coincide with the needs of someone more important." Was she really married to the dwarf? She seemed so… mean.
"Arrrgh! You are impossible! This Grey Warden's come all the way from the surface to ask your help picking Endrin's successor!" Oghren growled at her, but Kiera calmly drew her weapons again, walking off to the side; ignoring the nutty Paragon. She had motioned us along too, we followed her deeper into the place, and saw a group of darkspawn pour in through the other opening in the cave.
"I don't care if the Assembly puts a drunken money on the throne. Because our protector, our great invention, the thing that once made our armies the envy of the world, is lost to the very darkspawn it should be fighting. The Anvil of the Void. The means by which the ancients forged their army of golems and held off the first archdemon ever to rise. It's here. So close I can taste it."
By following Kiera, we were soon out of hearing range; the woman truly was obsessed with the Anvil's supposed power.
xOxOx
Daylen
What we did next was to walk into numerous traps; rooms filled with poisonous gas, pressure plates, and these we endured— as forward was the only conceivable way out. Kiera's fearlessness was definitely admirable, but she flirted with serious injury when she rushed headlong into things. We found a large cavern, one which the molten lava had casted bright, reddish hues all over the stone walls.
And there, in the centre of the place, stood numerous golems—these we had fought, and each battle was brutal, for one cannot simply harm a creature made out of solid rock.
The golems stood still, deceptively so, as we had found out by surviving some of the earlier ambushes. And yet, our gazes were drawn to a most majestic one, which stood at the very end, right in the middle of the two rows. It was different, somehow, and to our immense shock, it began to speak.
"My name is Caridin. Once, longer ago than I care to remember, I was a Paragon to the dwarves of Orzammar. If you seek the Anvil, then you must care about my story, or be doomed to relive it."
"Caridin? As in the Caridin? Of Caridin's Cross?" Kiera's voice was incredulous as she stared up at the golem. It was truly a wonder.
"Though I made many things in my time, I rose to fame and earned my status based on a single item: the Anvil of the Void. It allowed me to forge a man of steel or stone, as flexible and clever as any soldier. As an army, they were invincible. But I told no one of the cost. No mere smith, however skilled, has the power to create life.
To make my golems live, I had to take their lives from elsewhere."
Kiera nodded, "Sounds like blood magic. A dangerous road."
The creature continued with its account, "The darkspawn were pressing in. Originally, I only took volunteers, the bravest of souls willing to trade their very lives for the chance to defend their homeland."
"But man's heart is filled with inevitable greed." Kiera commented; we all knew that it would happen.
"King Valtor became greedy, and began to force men… casteless and criminals, his political enemies… all of them were to be given to the anvil. It took feeling the hammer's blow myself to realize the height of my crimes."
"So… you want revenge?" She pondered carefully—golems would surely aid us in the battle, but the price seemed so… extreme.
"Not revenge. The blow of the hammer opened my eyes. My apprentices knew enough to make me as I am, but not enough to fashion a control rod. I retained my mind. We have remained entombed here ever since, and I have sought a way to destroy the Anvil. Alas, I cannot do it myself. No golem can touch it." Kiera had had a hand on her chin, deep in thought.
A cry startled the party, and we spun around to see Branka rushing towards us. "No! The Anvil is mine! No one will take it from me!
Alistair broke in, addressing Caridin. I have to admit, we were a little impatient to get this over with. "You need our help for that, I presume?"
"Yes! You! Please… help me destroy the Anvil! Do not let it enslave more souls than it already has!"
"You were a Paragon. I'll help if you support a new King in Orzammar." Kiera's suggestion rang true. It was plain that we couldn't trust the madwoman behind us.
"Don't listen! He's been trapped here for a thousand years, stewing in his own madness. Help me claim the Anvil, and you will have an army like you've never seen!"
A mutter came from Leliana, who had a most disgusted stare directed at Branka. "If you ask me, she's the one who's been stewing in her madness—the golem makes more sense than she does."
"Branka, you mad bleeding nug-tail. Does this thing mean so much to you that you can't even see what you've lost to get it?" Oghren had stepped between Kiera and the woman, trying to talk some sense into his wife.
Kiera had already made a decision, apparently deciding to take matters into her own hands. "We'll destroy the Anvil if you'll show your support for Prince Bhelen. That is the deal that I offer."
The golem sounded so relieved and we all knew that it was the right thing to do. "Thank you stranger. Your compassion shames me."
The female dwarf cried out in frustration, and darted forward, waving a rod in her hands. It seemed to call the other golems into action, and we were once drawn into another fight with the impossibly tough-hided creatures. Ugh.
Leliana
The mages and warriors kept the golems at bay as Zevran and I took on this Branka. She had a most foul attitude, and her seasoned, calculated swings made it difficult to get near her. Soon, however, we had managed to knock the control rod from her grasping hands, and Loki promptly picked it up, dancing out of her reach.
She had flung her shield at the poor mabari, and hit it on its jaw, which snapped shut from the impact and bit clean through the control rod.
All the golems now stood abruptly still, unmoving, like the statues they resembled. Kiera had run over to the whining dog, healing its bruises while Daylen froze the woman in place.
He called, repeating Kiera's offer to the golem. "Paragon Caridin, we will destroy the Anvil when you show your support for our cause."
"Yes. For the aid you've given me, I shall put hammer to steel one last time, and give you a crown for the king of your choice." That was apparently all they needed to prove that a Paragon had given support for the dwarven kingship.
"And I thought he said that golems couldn't approach the Anvil," Kiera muttered. She was still soothing Loki, the big baby.
The golem then presented us with a shining grown which glowed in its perfection, and Sten stepped forward—his qunari strength shattering the Anvil in one blow.
"You have my eternal thanks, stranger. Atrast nal tunsha… may you always find your way in the dark." Saying this, Caridin stepped off the ledge, and fell into the lava, leagues below. Now, we had the matter of dealing with Branka, who, although encased in ice, had the most evil glare.
xOxOx
P.S.: Yes, I'm diverting from the storyline regarding Branka. Oghren seems to need closure. =)
