Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Dragon Age.
"Spiders. Why does it always have to be spiders?"
Harry was chuckling to himself and remembering Ron, who would not have been happy at the moment. They had reached near where the map said Ortan Thaig was supposed to be and found yet another large, rough-hewn cavern. This time, not only were there a number of darkspawn, but also dozens of the enormous, man-sized spiders blocking their way.
Thankfully, the darkspawn and the spiders were not friendly with each other, and therefore, they were trying to tear each other apart.
It was the one good thing about that afternoon.
The morning had started pleasantly enough, waking with Morrigan beside him, and they had made good progress for a couple of hours flying down empty passageways. But the great dwarven roads had come to another dead end, leading to them having to take another route, and thus now all the monsters in front of them.
"We could always let them kill each other," Sirius suggested.
"That would be boring, though," Oghren complained.
"Agreed," Shale nodded. "I want a chance to fight an ogre, since the rest of you stole my opportunity yesterday."
"Me too," the dwarf added.
Wynne sighed. "Why don't we let out more blood thirsty members have their fun while the rest of us stay out of the way and keep them from getting overwhelmed?"
"I can live with that," Harry said as he flew towards the largest darkspawn that was roughly in the center of the cavern.
Oghren yelped as Shale picked him up and set the dwarf on her shoulder. "Hold on, and try not to spill anything on me."
The golem did a running leap off the end of the carpet and barreled into the ogre, knocking it off its feet. Somehow, Oghren managed to end up standing after he rolled off of Shale and he started pounding on the monster's chest with his maul.
Harry flew the carpet back up and scanned the area while the rest of the group rained destruction down upon their foes. Without spellcasters or missile weapons, the battle was soon over.
"I'm willing to share the credit," Oghren was telling Shale as they stood near the dead ogre. "That was a nice shoulder tackle you managed on mister horn face here. Let's say, sixty forty."
"I suppose if I'm feeling generous, you could have almost forty percent of the credit," the golem replied.
"The forty is for you, you great big pile of rocks!" Oghren yelled. "I caved this one's head in, so don't try pulling that one again."
"Children, please," groaned Wynne.
"The path narrows," Harry interjected. "We're going to have to put the carpet away again."
"We don't want to get too complacent anyway," Leliana replied. "Especially if we're near Ortan Thaig- we'll need to start looking for clues about whatever happened."
"She's right," Sirius agreed. "I could start sniffing around, but I won't find anything until we get past all these dead bodies."
"Good idea," Harry nodded. "Take the lead, but don't run off too far ahead of us."
"Yeah, I don't want to get swarmed by these damn acromantulas," Sirius said with a grin. "Nor those darkspawn- the bloody things smell terrible."
Shifting into Padfoot, he trotted on in front of the group. Harry noticed one of the large spiders turn down a path to the right, and the grim followed a moment later before starting to howl. Running after him, Harry skidded to a halt once he saw his godfather growling.
There were a number of spiderwebs blocking the path and more spiders further in the distance.
"How many of these stupid things are there?" he grumbled.
Sirius shifted back and stood up. "Even more than we can see. This place is crawling with the bloody things. We could go the other direction, but I don't know that we want to leave an enemy to come up behind us."
"Yeah, that would be annoying," Harry agreed. "Do you smell anything else down that way?"
"No."
"Why don't the rest of you go the other way then?" Harry suggested. "I can burn this path clean and then catch up."
"With Fiendfyre?" Sirius asked with a wince.
"I'll be careful."
"You'd better be."
A few minutes later, Harry came out into what could only be Ortan Thaig. There were plenty of buildings carved out of stone, most of them still standing although with some signs of battles that had come and gone over the years. From what he understood, it had been decades or possibly even centuries since the dwarves had occupied this area.
Their stonecraft really was remarkable.
"Good timing," Morrigan said as she sauntered over to him. "We spotted a dwarf who ran off down a tunnel when we approached. Now that we've dealt with the enemies here-"
"He looked wrong," Oghren interjected. "Hunched over and mad. Keep your guard up."
"You were waiting on me?" Harry asked.
"You are the one leading us," Leliana teased. "Shouldn't we have our trusty Grey Warden do the talking?"
"Besides, I didn't want to deal with the first smelly little dwarf you've forced upon us," Morrigan sneered. "I certainly wasn't going to speak with yet another."
Harry snorted and walked towards the tunnel that was pointed out to him. It didn't take long for him to spot the dwarf the others had spoken about- he was hunched over in an odd posture and his arms also bent strangely.
"There's nothing for you here! It's mine! I've claimed it!"
"Who are you?" Harry asked. "One of the survivors from Branka's expedition?"
"You've come to take my claim," the dwarf said. "You surfacers are all alike- thieving scoundrels. Well I found it first. Begone before you bring the dark ones back, and they'll crunch your bones. Yes they will. Crunch your bones!"
The dwarf ran off further down the tunnel.
"How odd," Wynne said. "Something has clearly driven him mad. Did you recognize him, Oghren?"
"No," Oghren replied. "I'm fairly certain he wasn't one of Branka's clan. And with how he's acting, I think he's more than gone round the twist. I think he's been living down here so long that he's turned into a ghoul."
"A ghoul?" Sirius asked. "I think that means something different compared to where I come from."
"Ghouls are living creatures who have become tainted by the Blight," Wynne explained. "If he's been living in darkspawn territory for years, it does seem likely, although I've never seen how it affects dwarves."
"Hopefully we can still find out something from him," Harry said. "Let's try to keep him calm."
They followed and found what had clearly been a campsite. The dwarf was standing there amongst the items that remained, what hadn't been destroyed or picked over by darkspawn.
"Go away! This is mine. Only I get to plunder its riches."
"This place could have been used by Branka," Oghren suggested.
"It's mine," the mad dwarf rambled. "I drove away the crawlers, so now it's mine!"
"We aren't here to steal anything from you," Harry said. "You can keep your treasure. We just want to find other dwarves that have come this way."
"You won't take Ruck's shiny worms and pretty rocks?"
"No, we won't."
Leliana had gasped. "We spoke to your mother, Filda. She still had faith that you were alive. We should tell her-"
"No, no, no!" Ruck yelled. "No mother! No Filda! No warm blanket and stew and pillow and soft words! Ruck doesn't deserve good memories! No, no, no!"
"There is no known cure for those who have become ghouls," Wynne said with a sigh. "Perhaps it is better if she does not find out what has happened to her son."
"Yes, Ruck agrees with the wise lady. Tell her that Ruck has died."
"How did this happen to you?" Sirius asked.
"Once you eat, once you takes in the darkness," Ruck began, "you not miss the light so much. When the dark ones came, I kept to the shadows. They don't look in the shadows, not if you're quiet. Not if you've eaten their flesh. Then the dark ones think you're one of them. They leave you alone. But they're gone now."
"Do you know where they went?" Harry asked.
"I think they went to the south. Far, far to the south," Ruck answered. "That is where the dark master calls them with his beautiful voice. So much joy when he awoke. The dark master called his children and they all went. I wanted to go too, and gaze upon his beauty."
"His beauty?" Leliana turned up her nose. "Becoming a ghoul is worse than I thought."
"Did you find anything from the previous dwarves that were here?" Harry asked. "Maybe a map or a journal?"
"The crawlers take most things," Ruck said. "They takes the things of papers and the shinies and the swords. They bring to the great nest they make for eggs. They puts the shinies inside, they do."
"More bloody spiders," Sirius groaned.
"And I can't just burn everything if we're going to have to pick through their webs looking for answers," Harry added.
"Then I'll have to stomp them all into oblivion," Shale suggested. "You pitiful fleshy creatures can just hide behind me."
Harry turned to his godfather and laughed. "That works for me. Everyone else in favor of letting our golem friend deal with them?"
Other than Oghren, the entire party raised their hands.
"I'm not letting you hog all the fun!" the dwarf argued.
"Then the drunken dwarf had better keep up with my pace," the golem replied as the two of them headed back out into the main area of the Thaig.
"Farewell, Ruck," Harry said as they walked off.
A moment later, Morrigan finally spoke up. "I think we should have put that pathetic little creature out of his misery."
"You may have a point," he answered. "But he seemed harmless enough for now, and I don't think the others would agree with you."
"Would you want to live like that?" she asked.
"No."
"Precisely."
"Let's leave it for now," Harry replied. "If he's a problem when we're heading back this way, we'll deal with it then."
They found the others looking around the cavern and Shale had stopped near one of the buildings. The sound of rushing water was nearby, and Harry spotted stone bridges leading across a crevasse to the other side of the cavern.
"This is the Ortan Thaig," the golem said. "One of the little dwarves back in Orzammar wanted us to look for evidence of its clan. If we're going to do that, we should do so now before moving on."
"I didn't think you cared," Morrigan said with a smirk.
"I don't care," Shale scoffed. "But I imagine it will be even funnier to see more of them groveling about my majesty, and the little mage can use the reward to buy new crystals with which to adorn my spectacular form."
Harry laughed. "You've got a point. Let me handle it."
He pulled out his wand and cast a couple of diagnostic spells before finding a locked chest that looked promising.
"I can open that," Leliana piped up.
"Be my guest," Harry shrugged.
The redhead knelt down and bent over the chest as she started to pick the lock.
Harry noticed Sirius paying particularly close attention to the redhead's bum as she worked. He whispered to his godfather, "You can thank me later."
Sirius chuckled quietly and nodded.
"I've got it," Leliana said after a minute as she opened the chest. "There are a number of books. Should we take them all?"
"Hand them over and I'll take them all back to Orta," Harry answered. "She'll know better than we do which one to look for."
"Then we should move on," Wynne said. "If we need to find a spider nest, it may not be in the main chamber."
"True," Morrigan agreed. "A smaller tunnel or corner may be our best bet."
"Follow me little mages," Shale said before stomping off towards the nearest stone bridge.
Harry looked carefully at the water rushing below them. "An underground river? Fascinating."
"There are supposed to be a few of them somewhere in all the Deep Roads," Oghren said. "Not that we can access many of them anymore."
"I guess it would have been convenient for this settlement," Wynne answered.
"Aye," the dwarf replied. "From what I know, it was once one of our larger Thaigs."
"More golems!" Leliana announced as she pointed across to a couple of the enormous stone warriors waiting for them. "Do you think they'll be able to help?"
"Why would we need help?" Shale replied with a snort. "You've already got me."
Harry just hoped that they wouldn't have to fight any of them. That could be really annoying, if they were as resistant to magic as he assumed they would be.
"You are Shale," one of the golems said in a monotone voice as they approached.
"I am indeed."
"Long have you been lost," the other golem added. "Why have you returned with mortals?"
"The dwarves have lost one of their paragons, and we're hoping to retrieve her," Shale replied. "The fools in Orzammar can't do anything it seems, and the little mage needs their help for the Blight that's recently begun."
"Yet another Blight? How many have there been now?" one golem asked.
"And how many more will there be?" the other added.
"This is the fifth," Wynne answered. "If the tales are true, there should only be seven possible Blights."
"Really?" Sirius asked. "How come?"
"There were seven ancient dragons that the Tevinters worshipped, known as the Old Gods," Wynne explained. "Each Archdemon is one of these ancient dragons, buried for centuries deep underground until the darkspawn find them. When they are discovered, the darkspawn gain a purpose, and thus, a new Blight begins."
"A company of dwarves passed through here," one of the nameless golems said. "They were in search of Caridin and the Anvil of the Void. Beware, Shale, for the leader of the dwarves was obsessed with her mission. The type of obsession that leads to madness."
"I thank you," Shale replied with a small bow. "Come on, little mage. Our task lies further on."
"Well, that was easier than I had hoped," Harry chuckled.
"Of course," Shale smirked. "We golems are civilized. It's too bad so few of you little fleshy beings can say the same."
Harry held up his hands in surrender. "I can't disagree with you."
They searched past several more buildings and eventually found a tunnel leading deeper underground. Judging by the webs, they were on the right path.
"It's getting narrow," Leliana said.
"Stay behind me," Shale said while stomping forward.
"They'll know we're coming," the bard added.
"They're spiders," Sirius shrugged. "They shouldn't be planning much of an ambush for us."
If only that had been true.
As the path led a bit further down, they came across another stone bridge and then a larger area.
Filled with spiders.
And beyond the spiders, a couple of the darkspawn mages, who immediately sent spell towards the party.
"Stomp faster, Shale!" Harry called out as he and Sirius used their shields to try to deflect as much of the elemental damage as possible.
The golem merrily bellowed as it smashed a spider. Oghren was hurrying to try to keep up with it and was trying to pulverize as many of the man-sized arachnids as he could with his maul.
"Aim for the spellcaster on the left," Harry said. "I've got the right as soon as Shale steps out of my line of sight."
A volley of magic and arrows overwhelmed one of the genlock emissaries, and as soon as he had an opening to deal with the second, Harry flourished his wand. "Avada Kedavra!"
The killing curse did its job, green light striking the darkspawn and ending its tainted life.
Meanwhile, Morrigan unleashed a Cone of Cold that froze the last of the spiders, making them easy work for Oghren and Shale.
"So many spiders," Harry groaned.
The path split in two, and they followed the closer way, which led to...
More spiders. One of which was twice the size as the others.
"Dibs!" Oghren yelled as he ran towards it.
Harry laughed and started conjuring flames to deal with the oncoming horde. A wave of fire met the four spiders that had skittered towards him, and they shrieked as they burned.
To his right, Morrigan had taken the opposite approach, and once again used cold magic to freeze and then shatter her foes.
"Get me out of here!" Oghren bellowed, and Harry spotted him trapped in a web as the spider queen climbed back up to the ceiling and disappeared in the shadows.
"Hold still!" Shale yelled at the dwarf while tearing him free.
"Watch for her," Sirius warned.
"Look out!" Leliana yelled as the queen dropped down behind Harry and stung him in the back. He rolled with the blow as much as possible.
"Harry!" Sirius growled and leapt forward, shifting in the middle of the jump and then barrelling into the spider. The two creatures tumbled over, a chaotic whirl as claws, fangs, talons, and pincers tore at each other.
Meanwhile, Harry had staggered to his feet. "Get clear, Sirius!"
As the grim rolled out of the way, Harry used the staff he'd taken from the Circle Tower for a change. One Crushing Prison later, the queen was screeching as it staggered towards them.
"I said, I called dibs!" Oghren shouted as he ran towards the beast. He smashed into it with his maul and the spider crashed off into the rocks several feet behind it.
"Is it dead?" Shale asked.
"I'll make sure," the dwarf grumbled as he raised his maul high over his head and brought it down two more times. With all the nasty ichor that splashed out, it was clear that the spider was now thoroughly squished.
"Let me check where it stung you," Wynne said as she hurried over to Harry's side.
"Don't worry," he replied. "I'm practically immune to poison."
"It is the taint I'm more worried about," she countered as she lifted up his shirt to check his back. "These spiders have been likely feeding off darkspawn, so who knows what that could do."
"You're right," Harry admitted. "Did anyone else get punctured like that?"
The others were all safe, which was good.
"It doesn't look too bad, as long as there isn't an infection," Wynne said a moment later.
"I've got an idea," Harry replied. "Expecto Patronum!"
"Why are you bringing Prongs out?" Sirius asked.
Harry spoke to his Patronus. "Go ask Fawkes if he can help, please."
It disappeared a moment later.
"Neat trick," his godfather said.
"It was something the Order all learned in the later days of the war, so I learned it too. Damn useful, as it can travel really far, even when you don't know where the person you're sending the message to may be staying."
A burst of flame announced the phoenix's arrival.
"Hi there," Harry said. "Could I get a little help please?"
He leaned over a bit more and pointed to his back.
Fawkes let out an annoyed little chirp but then healed the wound with a single teardrop.
"Thank you," Harry said as he pulled his shirt back down. When he had turned around, he saw the phoenix seemed to be smirking at him. "I can be polite, you know."
A few notes of phoenix song filled the air and soon calmed everyone after the heat of battle. There were even a couple of giggles that came from the Orlesian bard.
"Why do I feel like laughing?" Morrigan asked as Sirius joined Leliana's laughter, with Oghren and Wynne soon following.
"Because Fawkes was making fun of me and my predilection for getting wounded," Harry answered before turning to the phoenix. "You do realize I'd rather it be me than any of the others, right?"
The phoenix bowed his head briefly before continuing to sing.
"We should really be searching for more information," Wynne said once she was able to stop laughing.
"I think I see something," Leliana replied. She pointed to an alcove with a stone table and a book upon it.
Harry turned back to Fawkes. "So, how have you been?"
The phoenix responded by spreading its wings and flying around the cavern.
"You've been exploring?" Harry guessed.
Fawkes landed on his left shoulder and nodded.
"Seen anything interesting?"
One eye peered into his and Harry saw a vision of an enormous castle high in the snow capped mountains.
"I wouldn't think that you'd want to go somewhere so cold," Harry said. A second vision showed him that inside the castle was an overgrown garden and multiple courtyards, all of them with greenery growing despite their environment. "So, it's steeped in magic, I guess?"
Fawkes nodded again.
"And that's why you liked it?"
"Harry, we've found something," Sirius called to him.
"Maybe I'll be able to go there with you someday," Harry said to the phoenix as he walked over towards the others. "But for now, duty calls."
"Listen to this," Wynne said as she read from the book. "We found evidence today that the Anvil of the Void was not built in the Ortan Thaig. We will go south, to the Dead Trenches. The Anvil is somewhere beyond. My soldiers tell me that I am mad, that the Dead Trenches are crawling with darkspawn, that we will surely die before we find the Anvil... if we find it. I leave this here in case they are right. If I die in the Trenches, perhaps someone can yet walk past my corpse and retrieve the Anvil. For if it remains lost, so do we all.
"If I have not returned, and Oghren yet lives, tell him..." she continued with a look at the dwarf. "No, what I have to say should be for his ears alone. This is my farewell."
"Branka was thinking about me!" Oghren chuckled. "I knew she still cared, the old softie. Looks like the Dead Trenches is our next stop then. They say the darkspawn nest there, whole herds of 'em. But if that's where Branka went, then that's where I'm going."
"There's a tunnel leading further this way," Morrigan pointed out.
"Onwards, then," Sirius added.
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "What do you think, Fawkes? Coming with us this time?"
The phoenix let out a cry, flew off his shoulder and then disappeared in another burst of flame.
"No help?" Sirius asked.
"I don't think he likes being stuck underground," Harry replied with a shrug.
They trudged down the tunnel and it emptied out into another of the great highways the dwarves had carved. The smooth path looked quite nice- and refreshingly spider free.
They ended up camping along the highway and set out again the next day after getting some rest.
An hour or so later, they came upon an end to their path, and a large tunnel carved deep into the rocks.
"No carpet again, today," Harry grumbled.
"It's never that easy, is it?" Sirius shrugged.
There was a din off in the distance.
A few minutes later, the tunnel led them out into an enormous cavern, with a massive stone bridge built across a deep crevasse. Harry walked closer and looked down over the edge. "Fuck me."
Sirius stepped next to him and groaned. "That is a lot of darkspawn."
The others joined them, and hundreds of feet down, they saw the source of the noise they'd been hearing. Thousands of darkspawn were gathered in a trench.
And then it got even worse.
An enormous dragon flew up, landing on the bridge and letting out an ear piercing roar. It had spikes all down its spine, several horns growing up out of the top of its head. The scales were dark, but the wings were lighter, what looked to be a faded purple, and its wingspan was immense- easily a hundred feet.
It put the Hungarian Horntail to shame.
A blast of purple flames shot out of its mouth as it roared again, the fire pointing further along the path of the trench its horde had been marching down. With one last roar, it pushed off the bridge and flew on, the darkspawn stomping after it.
Morrigan broke the silence. "Glorious, isn't it?"
"Glorious!" Oghren protested. "What, are you mad, woman?"
"A dangerous foe, of course," she replied, aiming a sneer at the dwarf. "But even you must admit that it was unlike anything you've ever seen before."
"Thank the Maker!" Leliana exhaled.
"Indeed," Wynne agreed.
Sirius turned to Harry. "You don't think a killing curse could work on such a thing, do you?"
"Highly doubtful," he shook his head. "There's something more to the tainted magic that is in all of these darkspawn."
"So, we're going to have to do it the hard way," Sirius muttered.
"Isn't that always how it goes?" Harry answered.
Author's Note: I got this done just in time for the birthday of Claudia Black (the voice of Morrigan) :)
Those of you who've played the game probably realize that I changed a couple of things- namely the golems you run into are no longer mindless killing machines. Frankly some of that stuff just felt like padding, throwing in more enemies to fight (same for the dwarven ghosts), which is why I cut it out.
Plus, it seemed more fun that they would recognize Shale.
With luck, I might be able to do the rest of the Deep Roads in the next chapter (maybe?), but my next update will likely be to my Harry/Daphne story I'm also writing, as that chapter is about half done so far.
Till next time!
