The soldier wasn't kidding about the trail, the darkspawn littered the ground with their equipment and tracks. Trudging through the badlands wasn't as difficult to traverse in part because of the darkspawn pressing through first. Fortunately, before they reached the darkspawn lair, they did encounter Theron's group who had been given directions to this location thanks to the Architect's messenger.
Theron seemed to be holding some information back on what happened at Amaranthine, the good news was that the city and its citizens were saved and Theron left Garevel and the contingent of soldiers they brought to help defend the city should the darkspawn attempt another assault.
Soon enough the trail led them all to a rather unusual sight, to say the least, a graveyard of dragon bones. Shadow whistled at the mass grave, "It's like an elephant graveyard, but with dragons. Plenty of bones, so I guess it's only natural someone decided to try and make a settlement out here."
Deesh ran her hand against the remains of one of the stone towers, "This wasn't a settlement. It was an outpost to gather materials from this gravesite. If I had to guess, it was the ancient Tevinter faction who did this. The only reason it was abandoned was Ferelden probably did not know this place existed when they pushed Tevinter out."
Shadow looked around, "So Shade, what do we got here?"
Her little orb popped up next to her head, "Very deep and every dark tunnel imaginable…"
Oghren was ready to rush in, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's show this Mother our boot!"
Theron looked to their group, "We don't slow down unless we encounter something big like an ogre." Theron put his bow away, drawing on his blades, "Oghren, Sigrun, Justice, Deesh and I will take lead. Everyone else, give us support."
Deesh took a moment to dig through her satchel, but instead of drawing upon weapons she had used, she grabbed two scimitars and swung one of them around, "Watch the corners and any archers in hiding."
Haskill soon returned with the fruit requested by Sheogorath, "Is that all you need, my lord?"
"For now. I'll snap my cane if I need ya again."
"Very good, sir." With that Haskill stepped through a portal leaving his master to his own devices.
Sanguine was leaning over the orb where they were observing their champions charging with the Grey Wardens into the darkspawn den. "So, why do we need to help them again? They seem fine from where I'm standing."
A tiny rift opened as a deepstalker poked its head out and sprayed acid at the architecture to send a darkspawn archer tumbling to its death. The many eyes and tendrils of Hermaeus appeared behind the two Daedric Princes, "This will be an opportunity to allow us to test the true origin of the darkspawn's corruption and the deepstalkers."
The orb shifted to an isolated realm within Oblivion, "Don't you already have enough corpses as is?"
"While deceased, these darkspawn have provided plenty of information, live specimens will provide even more."
"You should have thought about that before forgetting to nab any during their little war on the surface. Or is there a different reason than that?"
A tendril rushed through a portal, dragging a genlock through. "These have been altered by magic and blood. The corrupt nature twisted and exposed to their true essence. It would be rather fitting to find the fragments of Trinimac's corruption to be their true origin."
Sheogorath tapped his cane on the ground, resulting in a group of hurlocks and genlocks tripped just as a ribcage perfectly trapping the group. "What's a favor or two between friends, huh?" Before any of the mortals noticed Hermaeus abducted these trapped darkspawn.
Sanguine looked to Sheogorath, "While we don't always look too highly on mortals, not all of them are stupid like we all pretend they are. Some of them might catch on."
Hermaeus' tendril started to wrap around the orb, forcing Sanguine off, "Then we will simply have to watch as we enact our will."
The path down was certainly long, though that also helped to funnel the darkspawn and the armored ogre that were in their way. As the path opened to a clearing and a group of darkspawn were ready for a fight, a familiar roar echoed around them before a mighty high dragon engulfed most of the darkspawn in flames. "Scatter!"
The dragon flew over again and made another pass to inflame the area. With the high dragon not willing to let them pass without a fight, Deesh readied herself as the dragon came for another pass. "Joor…Zah Frul!" Deesh's shout forced the dragon to suddenly stop its flight and land immediately. The dragon tried crushing the Dragonborn but was distracted by Shadow's gunfire.
The mighty dragon fried burning Shadow, causing the strange Guardian to warp herself into the air, hovering there as she resumed firing on the beast. The archers and mages started targeting the dragon's wings, trying to prevent her from taking off again before the effects of Deesh's shout could end.
Justice and Oghren both started hacking away at the dragon's hind legs, dodging her kicks and dividing her attention even further. Sigrun was trying to do something with the tail, though she wouldn't get much of a chance when Deesh used her as a stepping platform to get onto the dragon's back. Deesh continued climbing across the dragon's back as the beast turned to blast her in a sea of fire. Deesh quickly pulled a new shield with a large blue orb from her satchel as well as having her Ghostblade form in her other hand. Before the dragon unleashed her fire Deesh dug her ethereal sword into the dragon's side followed by bashing her with the strange shield.
In an instant, the dragon and the flames turned ethereal blue as Deesh swung through the dragon and was hanging by the grip of her ghostly blade. She looked down, "Mages, unleash a storm! Quickly!"
Anders and Velanna started casting, uncertain how long the dragon would be ethereal for. It didn't help morale when the dragon's legs started returning to normal and she started fighting back. Deesh continued to hold onto her blade, throwing ice spears at the dragon's feet to help the others below. The dragon was nearly back in the normal realm of existence but fortunately, the spells were nearly ready.
Shadow flew toward Deesh reaching out her hand, "Alright, time to go!" Deesh grabbed Shadow's hand, pushing off the dragon's side and yanking her sword out. Everyone else had moved away as Velanna and Anders cast their spells. The dragon was hit by a Blizzard followed by a Tempest as the two spells combined into a powerful storm. With the previous damage done to the dragon's wings, she had nowhere to go and not enough room to escape the spell's area of effect. When the spell finished, Shadow jumped into the air carrying a rather cumbersome looking object with a tube sticking out of it. "Time to say goodnight, dragon!" she lifted the strange boxy object to her shoulder, leveling it with the dragon's roaring maw as an explosion of steam and fire jettisoned out of Shadow's strange weapon. As soon as whatever was blasted out of the weapon entered the dragon's mouth a shower of blood and scales soon rained down as the dragon's head erupted in a fiery mass. Everyone had backed far enough away to avoid the combined spell so the falling dragon body posed little threat to the group.
Almost as soon as the body dropped, Deesh moved to the dragon and started harvesting scales from it. It was unfortunate for the dragon to have blocked their path to the underground, otherwise, she might have been allowed to live out what little of her life she had left.
Once Deesh finished gathering what she wanted, they entered the structure the darkspawn had been guarding. Deesh had her shield at the ready, "Stay ready, the lightly guarded surface will be nothing compared to what may come."
Velanna was quick to retort, "Lightly guarded? They had an armored ogre and a dragon blocking our path. And you think that is lightly guarded?"
Nathanial agreed, "They could easily have blocked our path using the bones more efficiently, and some strange things happened while we attacked. Archers losing their footing and bone piles falling onto groups in our way."
Deesh looked back to Justice, "As I'm sure our spirit 'friend' has noticed, those were not accidents. Powerful entities tied to me, for one reason or another, decided to lend a small hand in our battle above. Meaning I'm in greater debt to them once again…"
Justice huffed at her, "Dealing with such powers is not something mortals should be messing with."
"In this world, perhaps. But they love to meddle in the affairs of man where I'm from."
Continuing with this bickering seemed counterinitiative to what they were supposed to do. Velanna was trailing behind a bit to try to get their arguments out of her ear, when someone approached her from a nearby destroyed wall, "I am glad to see that you are well, sister."
Seeing her sister once again, Velanna tried to reach her sister, despite the debris keeping them apart, "Seranni! Oh, thank Mythal you're still alive." Despite the distance, it seemed that Seranni's condition has worsened since they last saw her, "What has the Architect done to you? Why are you with him?"
"The Architect is kind to me, and tender, and he has told me his plan." The way Seranni mentioned his 'tenderness' was a little disturbing with how much fondness she held, "The darkspawn are just like us. The Architect has freed them, and they search for a place in this world, just like the Dalish are searching. Everything he has done, he's done to help his people. You can respect that, can't you, sister?"
Velanna couldn't see it as her sister did, "Seranni, they killed our friends, and so many others. Don't you remember?"
Seranni smiled to her sister, "I do, and this is why I must help them. They are like children— come into the world with no understanding of what is good and fair. They have a bestial nature, but I've seen them overcome it. They just need to be shown how."
Shadow was a little disgusted at what she was hearing, "And we wanted to help her because?"
Seranni stepped back toward the tunnel, "The Architect is waiting for me, and for you. He will explain everything. You will see as I have seen."
Velanna tried reaching out to her sister once more, "No—don't go!" But before she could climb over, Theron stopped her. Without a word, he held his hand on her shoulder, giving a reassuring look that they would find her again.
A series of screeches and roars snapped them from this slightly somber mode, "This is it everyone, get ready for the fight of our lives." Theron looked back to Deesh, "Same idea as before, melee fighters in front, ranged in back. This time we're focusing our numbers on ranged. So Deesh and I will be using our bows."
Everyone was ready to go, and seeing the spiraling stairs going further down it was a good thing their melee fighters were going to be overcrowded. A hurlock alpha rallied a mighty war cry, stirring the darkspawn below to rush up the stairs. Justice stood his ground closes to the edge of the staircase as the two dwarves controlling the rest of the stairs with arrow and magic support.
Things seemed to be running smoothly, they even managed to throw a few darkspawn off the stairs and down the tower. That was until a familiar roar echoed below. Barreling through the opening another armored ogre arrived as it looked for the intruders.
Deesh quickly jumped over the dwarves, her bow slung over her shoulder as she drew out her shield. Both of her hands started to glow a dark ethereal blue, "Bound to flesh and bone, servant to me until thy slain." She threw the orbs down toward the two hurlock alphas who were thrown off the stairs. The heretic disciple and its three genlock guarding it just watched as the two dead darkspawn slowly started getting back up.
Deesh's hands focused on creating a fireball between her fingers, tossing it at the base of the stairs and leaving a burning wall to discourage the darkspawn from climbing. "Necromancy? You're a necromancer?"
Deesh waved off the mage's concerns, "It's far from my primary spellcraft, but I'm well versed in it to understand how to wield it or turn it against the wielder. Now, archers and mages should focus on taking down the ogre before the fires die down. If the thralls still stand, you may take them down personally, spirit."
Justice said nothing but his expression was enough to show his dissatisfaction with her using such magic. Shadow started cracking her fingers, "So I guess I get mop-up duty?" Deesh nodded to her, leaving it to the stranger with even stranger abilities and weapons. "Since you probably don't care about your little toys, then I'm gonna wipe them all out." Shadow finally spread her wings and jumped into the air. Her boots started emanating strange energy that kept her floating in the air. A sudden surge of energy emanated around her until it culminated in an orb of purple energy that Shadow threw down at the darkspawn.
None of the darkspawn knew what was about to happen before it suddenly detonated, turning them into partials. The only one left standing was the ogre, though many parts of its armor had been devastated and rendering it useless to defend it from the archers and mages standing on the stairs.
The others made short work of the wounded ogre just as the magic flames started to die down. Shadow floated down toward the ground, looking closer at the floor when she got there. "Hey, is it just me or is there supposed to be something more to this pattern?"
As soon as the others arrived, they took a moment to look at what she was talking about. Justice ran his fingers across, "It feels like an old ripple sealed in stone and waiting to be released."
Anders looked down at a small circle, "Old Tevinter magic. I've heard someone yammering on about how the old Tevinter mages would create special circles that could hold a spell until the user casts it. Don't know if it still holds a charge or even if it works, not to mention how it works."
Deesh pulled out a crystal from her satchel, "If magic works similar to how it does from where I'm from, then these should act as the catalyst that is required to reactivate this circle." Simply placing the crystal down onto the smaller circle, it suddenly reacted, partially restoring the magic circle's energy.
"Where did you find that?"
Deesh looked to Anders, "You'd be surprised what you can find if you utilize your magic in the right ways. That and it was glowing among some of the darkspawn growths near the door."
Theron was no mage, and he knew human magic was slightly different from what the Dalish would use. "If we can find enough crystals to activate these spells. They could be useful in our battle against the Mother."
Deesh was looking around for something, but she didn't seem to find it. Oghren huffed, "What's wrong now?"
"It's quiet…"
The others didn't quite understand what Deesh was on about, but as Theron listen, he quickly understood. "None of the Architect's forces are in the tunnels fighting the Mother's forces. Although he is here somewhere."
Deesh nodded, "That may mean something sinister for us later, but for now we are dealing with the Mother's forces in their entirety. Not knowing the terrain or how deep this tunnel goes will test our endurance at the very least."
Theron understood what that meant. "Same strategy we had pushing our way into this place, new formation." Theron placed his pack down to dig through the equipment he had. "Sigrun, I know the Legion probably didn't train you to use many weapons but using a crossbow is simple. Just remember to reload after each shot. Deesh and Shadow will be our leading warriors and I'll be helping in back. Let's try to keep our eyes out for any more crystals in case there are any more of these spells that we might find."
Sanguine turned to the mass of tendrils and eyes that continued to move around, "Let me guess, you want us to help them find these crystals just so you can see these spells in action?" Hermaeus did not need to say a word as Sanguine threw up his arms, "Fine, fine. Just remember that this requires compensation later on."
"Your usual tribute…"
"What else." Sanguine then looked back, "Though I don't get why you don't use time travel magic to witness to mages who created the old circles?"
"Do not think I have not already seen such matters. The mages created the seals, but they never cast the spells within them. Their battle against the Mother will push them to utilize the spells."
Sanguine smirked, "So it seems even you have your moments of languor too."
Hermaeus hating the thought of being compared to such a lazy daedra, quickly countering his statement, "It requires patience and dedication for the perfect opportunity to see everything until the end."
"Say what you will, but I know laziness when I see it. Not that it means much if no one says anything about it." Sanguine leaned back as a couch suddenly appeared for him to lounge on, "Just so you don't misunderstand, I do approve of this, even if we have to give a bit of effort to help out. Just try not to make this a habit or at the very least not so often or rapidly."
