They soon reached the chasm, and it wasn't hard to miss, it was big enough to fill a city, and indeed there were stairs that lead down into it.
Anders whistled. "Now that is a big chasm."
"It looks like it leads into the Deep Roads," said Ragnar.
"Surprised that darkspawn have poured out of it," said Wartihog.
They then began making their way down the stairs and encountered a group of deep stalkers. Ragnar remembered his last time in the Deep Roads, and that was when they were after a crazy mad woman just to crown the King. He was hoping that things would be rather simple this time, though he very much doubted it.
They began making their way through the corridors, and just before they turned around the corner, Ragnar held up a fist. "Darkspawn."
They were dragging a dwarven woman towards the mouth of a tunnel. Ragnar pulled out his sword and moved just as the dwarf kicked herself free and grabbed an axe.
They quickly joined the battle, and soon their combined forces managed to kill the darkspawn.
The dwarven woman panted as she picked herself up. "Well… that was… close. For a moment there, I thought I was really going to join the Legion of the Dead."
"You all right?" Ragnar asked.
"They rushed me up a bit, but I'm sad to say that I am the only breathing member of the Legion of the Dead," she said regretfully.
"What happened?" Ragnar asked.
"The others are dead. Properly dead… all of them. And I only narrowly away."
Wartihog whistled as he looked up and down her. "And Stone me, are we glad for that."
She ignored him and looked back at Ragnar. "There's something strange going on at Kal'Hirol. We thought the darkspawn were breeding an army. The Legion went to investigate. The Legion went to investigate, but Kal'Hirol proved too much for us. It was a massacre. And now I… I'm the only one left."
So this was the breeding ground. "These darkspawn must be eradicated," he said, starting towards the opening.
"What?" she said, staring at him. "Really? Did I mention Kal'Hirol was a death trap? Why do you want to do this?"
It was then that Ragnar noticed that their armour was rather filthy, so she had no idea they were, in fact, Grey Wardens.
"We're Grey Wardens," he explained.
The dwarf blinked and then nodded with understanding.
"Ah. My condolences." She hefted her axe and started for the opening. "Let's not waste time. Kal'Hirol awaits, and darkspawn, when left to their own devices, get up to all kinds of nonsense. My name is Sigrun."
"Then let's get going Sigrun, they're some darkspawn that need killing."
They headed deeper into the tunnels, and soon they found Kal'Hirol, or what was left of it. He was now mostly in ruins with some darkspawn fortifications.
"I don't know much about Kal'Hirol, except what the others from the Legion told me," said Sigrun. "It used to be an important centre of learning for the smith caste. When the fortress was lost, a lot of what the smiths had learned was lost with it. They've never built anything quite like Kal'Hirol since."
"Looks like they're quite heavily entrenched," Ragnar noted.
"They practically overwhelmed us the moment we entered," said Sigrun. "It was utter chaos; they attacked us from all sides. I barely managed to get away as I saw them dragging some of the women."
Then they saw a wounded dwarf was crawling towards them. Sigrun ran to his side. "It's Jukka. He's hurt. Bad."
"S-Sigrun?"
"Yes, it's me. Be still and try not to talk…"
The man was badly wounded, but he did not sense the taint in him. "There must be something we can do." He glanced at Anders, but the man shook his head.
"No… I feel my death upon me. And it is a sweet release…"
Sigrun sounded like she was fighting tears. "No, I have bandages! I can help—"
"You must listen!" Jukka was gasping, blood on his lips. "The… the broodmothers. They are breeding. I saw an… an army. You… you must… you must stop them." He coughed up quite a lot of blood. "But… but beware the Children. They are abominations, even among darkspawn."
"What… what children? Whose children?"
Jukka tried to raise his head and gasped. "Forgive me…" He exhaled a ragged breath. He did not draw another one.
"Ancestors look kindly on you, brother…" Sigrun stood. "We have to finish what the Legion started. Those broodmothers need to be destroyed."
He nodded. "Show us where."
She led them to a fortress, still strong after all these years. At the base of the stairs, she stopped them. "The Legion got this far with no trouble. We got careless and complacent and stormed the main entrance up those stairs." She turned towards him. "It was a disaster. The darkspawn were waiting. They turned the thaig's old defences against us."
"Ironic," said Ragnar.
"Ancient dwarven ingenuity, used by the very monsters it was intended to kill," she nodded. "We need to learn from the Legion's mistake. Avoid the main door."
He turned around, scanning the courtyard. "Is there another way in?"
"Most of the old dwarven fortresses had hidden side entrances. I bet this one does too. We just need to find it."
He nodded and then turned to the others. "Spread out. See what you can find."
"I once started a rumour about secret passages in the tower. Had the templars pressing their noses to the walls for months. Hilarious!"
Velanna found the passage. Sigrun clapped. "This will work perfectly! The darkspawn will never see us coming!" She giggled.
They continued moving down and even activated a golem along the way, though it had nothing on Shale, but it was certainly useful until it came to a stop. They continue fighting their way through the fortress.
As they moved down the next corridor, he saw something. Spirits pressing on the veil, and then… it changed. He heard his companions gasp. He wasn't entirely sure he was relieved they were seeing it too.
"For generations, they have told you you were nothing, swept you away like so much dust. Now you are the only thing standing between them and the darkspawn that threaten our empire! Show them that you are not nothing! Show them that you can be warriors! Let the Stone tremble with the thunder of your footsteps. Fight!"
The strange, foggy figures faded away as quickly as they'd come. "Um…" Anders said. "The rest of you heard that, right?"
"What was that?" Velanna asked.
"Sometimes the Stone shows images of the past," said Sigrun.
They found another group of the figures just a little further inside.
"They're gone! Everyone's gone! They've abandoned the thaig! We have to follow them! I'm not going to stay here and get eaten by those monsters!"
"But this is our home! We can't survive out there."
"We won't survive in here…"
"It looks like that the dwarfs left the casteless to their doom," said Velanna.
"I can't say that I'm surprised," said Ragnar. "The dwarfs treat the casteless even worse than how humans treat us elves."
"Though I heard that Bhelen has just announced that casteless can join the army," said Wartihog. "Though you can expect that both the noble and warrior castes are up in arms at this."
As they pressed on, they found more talking darkspawn. They were tough and worse; the other darkspawn listened to them. Organised and with someone to call tactics, the darkspawn were considerably more formidable. Theron was right about not letting them live.
Sigrun was as tenacious as a badger and nearly as tough as him. She used a pair of long knives to devastating effect and moved lightly despite her heavier armour. Wartihog held the front line with him, while behind them, Anders and Velanna held back the fire spells at the darkspawn as they fought their way through the ruins.
They soon came across a room and found the spirit of Dailan carving something onto a tablet, desperately.
"I cannot let them be… forgotten…" he said, and judging by the way he was riding, he was heavily injured. He then turned around. "No!"
The next thing they saw was an ogre ramming into him, killing him.
"It would seem as if the dwarfs of Orzammar owe everything to these casteless," said Ragnar as he examined the tablet.
"We can't just leave this here. We have to find some way to honour the memory of those who died here," said Sigrun. She then looked at the tablet. "'Died warriors?' He… he wanted them to be remembered as warriors. Warrior caste. And look… he carved their names in this tablet. All of them."
"I know a few dwarfs who can take it back to Orzammar, but anything else is up to the Assembly," said Ragnar. "Though this might make things easier for Bhelen and his policies. But first, we need to clear this thaig of any darkspawn."
Ragnar held up a hand. The darkspawn were fighting each other. And not just the petty skirmishes over food or weapons that he'd seen before. Active, organised warfare.
He thought there was only one faction of awakened darkspawn, but there appeared to be two, and they didn't like each other.
"Press the attack! Go!" A hurlock in surprisingly well-made armour called. "The Lost is mine."
"Oooh, lyrium." Anders walked towards the bucket containing the blue substance. "The Chantry has a monopoly on all lyrium the dwarves mine. They kill anyone who tries to get around it." And here they were, standing in a huge lyrium mine.
"You thinking of going into business?"
He laughed. "Sure, why not? I've always fancied life as a lyrium smuggler. Maybe I'll wear a dashing chapeau!" He then turned and looked at Ragnar. "I used to be a good little Andrastian. I said my prayers, repented my sins—all of it."
"What's the alternative?"
"Life as a hedge mage, brewing love potions for villagers and hoping nobody notices?" He shrugged. "It could have been worse. I could have been made Tranquil, haggling over the price of a wand. Or I could be with the qunari. I hear they leash their mages. Or I could be dead. Dead's bad."
"Instead, you're a Grey Warden."
"Right. Death to the darkspawn. Rah." He shrugged. "A related question: What do Grey Wardens do when there aren't darkspawn running amok? I mean, are there parties? Do we travel the world? Take over small kingdoms?"
"That sounds like a good start." Ragnar shrugged.
Anders grinned. "Ah, you are a scholar and a gentleman." He gestured. "Me, I intend to take up knitting. I'll send a scarf to the templar commander every Saturnalia." He frowned. "Provided I don't end up in some ogre's belly, chewed into tiny mage pieces. But I'm an optimist."
"Thank the Maker! It's a relief to see someone who isn't one of those… monsters!" The man shook the cage door. "Please, for the love of all that's good, let me out. I couldn't stand another minute with these creatures."
"Are you all right?"
"Yes! I haven't been injured or infected with the darkspawn corruption. I swear."
Wartihog folded his arms. "Huh. Why haven't they killed you then? And what are you doing here in the first place?"
"I overheard Colbert talking about the chasm, and I thought I'd…" The man sighed. "Sneak in past the darkspawn to see if there was any treasure." He suddenly brightened. "Well, I… I found something. In this place, before the darkspawn caught me."
Sigrun all but growled at him. "You thief! What you have belongs to the dwarven people!"
"Well, they weren't here to defend it. It's not stealing if they've abandoned it." His face became hopeful. "You can have it if you let me out. I don't want it anymore; it's caused nothing but trouble."
"I'll get you out," said Ragnar and began working on the block. "What did you find, anyway?"
"I… I'm not sure, but it looks valuable. I've a nose for these things, trust me. Come on, all I want is to get out of here." He thrust his hand through the bars to hand something to Ragnar. Ragnar took it and handed it to Sigrun, who stuck it into her belt pouch.
The lock clicked.
"Thank you! My life is worth more than this. Thank you. Thank you a million times over!"
"Just get out of here," Ragnar growled.
The man nodded nervously and immediately ran down the corridor.
"Is he at least going the right way?" Sigrun asked.
Wartihog had found an anvil, and judging from the way he was looking, it brought back memories.
"This anvil must be pretty old. They make them differently these days…" Wartihog shook his head. "Branka once explained it to me, but I'll be a nug's uncle if I remember what she said crazy harpy." He sighed.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah, the thing just reminded me of Branka, that's all." Wartihog's shoulders drooped. "Look, Warden, I know she's gone. I know it. But sometimes I… ah, sod it."
"I understand."
Wartihog grunted. "Look at me, whimpering like a wet box of kittens. Let's go make paste out of some darkspawn."
Anders glanced at Wartihog as they started walking. "Who is Branka?"
"My first wife."
"Wait… someone actually married you?" Anders blinked.
"Twice," Velanna added.
Wartihog glared at them. "Yes."
"And how did this particular arrangement end?" Anders asked.
"We killed her," said Ragnar.
Anders stopped dead in his tracks. "Wait, what?"
"Branka?" Sigrun asked. "As in Paragon Branka?" She looked at Wartihog. "You were married to Paragon Branka?"
"Yes."
"Any particular reason why you had to kill your own wife?" Anders asked.
"She got obsessed with an anvil and went crazy," Wartihog said.
"Makes perfect sense."
"She sacrificed her entire house just activate a few traps, sacrificed the women to become broodmothers and then try to kill us," Ragnar explained. "In the end, we had no choice."
"I did hear rumours that she went mad, but I didn't realise the extent of it," said Sigrun.
They had to fight their way through even more of these new strange-looking darkspawn; the strangest thing was that given time, they acted transformed into something even more monstrous. Fully grown, they look like a combination between a scorpion and a mantis.
"By the Dread Wolf. Are they… growing these darkspawn?" Velanna stared at the strange pods that had produced the insect-like darkspawn.
"It looks that way." Ragnar crouched, examining one.
"Why would we be seeing new forms of darkspawn?" Anders asked. "This isn't even a Blight."
"That's a good question," said Ragnar. "Let's go find the answer. And kill it."
Voices echoed down the corridor. "The Architect sends many but does not come himself! He is a coward! I will kill you, and he will know that he has failed to destroy the Lost. He will know that the Mother will tear him apart."
The voice stopped. A moment later, it growled. "Who comes now? I can feel you, but you are no darkspawn. What trickery is he planning? You will die, as all who serve the Architect will die! The Mother demands it!"
They stepped out of the corridor just in time to see a truly massive golem rip a darkspawn in half.
"Is that golem on fire?" Wartihog asked.
"Yes," said Ragnar pulled out his sword. "This is what we'll do. Since I have the most experience in dealing with darkspawn magic, I will handle the Lost. Everyone else takes on the golem."
"Lucky us," Anders muttered.
Anders and Velanna use a combination of ice spells to slow the golem down, and Wartihog charged towards it with his axe held up high and slammed it into the leg. Sigrun jumped and plunged two daggers into the golem's other leg.
Ragnar was facing the Lost, who began shooting lightning towards him, but Ragnar was proving to be too nimble. He somersaulted forwards in order to avoid a fireball and then plunged his sword right through his chest.
He quickly turned his head and saw that the others were having difficulty with the golem.
"Aim for the joints!" Ragnar yelled at Anders and Velanna.
The two of them cast even more ice spells, but they aimed at the joints on its arms this time. This seemed to slow it down as it was unable to move its arms, but bad wouldn't last for long. Then out of nowhere, Ragnar rushed in and slammed into the golem, causing it to topple over.
"Well, that was fun," said Anders.
"He was clearly guarding that corridor," said Ragnar. "Now, let's see what he was protecting."
"Any idea what we may face down there?" Velanna asked as they walked down the corridor.
"Nope," said Anders.
Tentacles suddenly burst out of the corruption. "Sod it," said Wartihog. "You know what that means."
Ragnar sighed. "Broodmother." He drew his weapons and headed in, ignoring the tentacles trying to kill him. Sigrun fell into step behind him, dodging around the tentacles nimbly.
Anders and Velanna tried, but one knocked him down. "I got the mages," Wartihog yelled and turned back to help.
"I… I'm afraid to look too closely. What if one of those creatures was someone I once knew?" Sigrun shook her head as she glanced into the pit.
Ragnar looked around and then caught sight of the chains. He looked up and saw the giant container of lyrium. "The chains." He broke left.
Sigrun broke right, catching on immediately. She sliced through the chains with a hatchet while he sliced through them with his sword, the ancient chains snapped, and the container fell into the pit. There was the sound of sizzling meat, followed almost immediately by an indescribably foul smell. And all the tentacles went limp.
Sigrun sighed with relief. "We did it." She sheathed her blades. "If the rest of the Legion were alive, I know… I know they would honour you in some way."
"I'm sorry so many had to die."
"I used to wish I could get away from the others. Now I'm all alone, and I just want them back. Silly, isn't it?" She took a breath and then steadied herself. "What's curious is that we seemed to be caught between two… factions of darkspawn. I've never heard of such a thing. The darkspawn are by nature vicious, and they've always fought amongst each other. But for there to be two organised factions… this is something else."
She didn't know the half of it. "I noticed that too. It worries me."
"Good, it's not just me then. Something has changed in the darkspawn, and I don't think I like it." She shrugged and smiled. "Well, it's something to ponder. Especially when you need to be reminded that impending doom is always right around the corner."
He considered a moment. "What will you do now?"
"Oh, I'll probably disappear into the bowels of the Deep Roads, never to be seen again." She spread her hands and gave a cheerful smile. "One good thing about the Deep Roads is that you never run out of darkspawn to fight."
Ragnar looked at her, she was a very skilled warrior and had a deep knowledge of the darkspawn, and there was someone he couldn't afford to lose. "Perhaps you would consider coming with me?"
"Go… with you? But that would go against my vow—and my plan to disappear into the deep, unmourned and forgotten."
"I am looking for Grey Wardens. Join us."
"Be a Grey Warden? Is that allowed? Can you be both part of the Legion and a Grey Warden?"
Ragnar shrugged. "You'll still fight darkspawn and die doing so."
The thought seemed to make her giddy. "And I'd be more effective at killing the darkspawn, won't I? Ha! How does one say now to this?" She nodded. "I will follow you. You seem an all-right sort, and I'm better off with you at my back than alone. Let's go then. The darkspawn await!" She dashed off eagerly.
Deep underground, the Mother had just been given a report from one of her hurlocks about Kal'Hirol.
"Kal'Hirol lost?" she screeched. "The Lost is lost? Lost lost lost lost!"
"Mother, be calm…" said the hurlock nervously.
"Calm, yes. Once I was calm," she said in restrained anger. "Once Mother listened to the beautiful call, felt it wash over her and inside her, and she was calm. But now there is no calm. The Father took that away. And now he is taken away Kal'Hirol." She then lowered her body in sadness. "My poor pets in Kal'Hirol… the Father knew I would send them against him. The Father fears!" She then laughed maniacally in a crazed laughter. "Kal'Hirol is gone, but the Mother still has her tricks. Many, many tricks…"
"But what will the Mother do?" the hurlock asked.
"Do? I will laugh!" She then laughed in her maddest way, so loud that it filled the entire chamber. She then started and looked down at the hurlock with a hungry look on her face. "And then I will wait."