9:30 Drakonis 1st
Fighting against the villagers was…different to say the least. Not only were we being attacked by regular villagers with no armor or any sort of real weapons, this was the first time I had fought against a reaver. In Dragon Age, Reavers are those that gain power through dragon's blood. The ritual for it can be different and many can get several bonuses for it. In Origins they were more closely linked to demons but in Inquisition it was mostly the berserker side that came out. If there was one thing I could explain though from the group of Reavers that came toward us was that chill that you got when you were about to meet something in the deep dark alley, the monster in your closet, the branch that broke while in a dark forest.
Fear. Absolute fear of death that loomed over you.
The regular villagers were downed one by one by spells or Leliana's arrows. The reavers and warriors that came down wore heavy chainmail or plate armor. When one got near me, I felt that chill go down my spine and I let out an involuntary shiver. I met the man's eyes and something flashed in front of me. It was like they had faces of demons, almost screaming at me. I was frozen in fear before Sten came and tackled him, thrusting his sword through the weak part of the armor. I started to breathe again before noticing that my hands were shaking.
"Careful! These guys have weird abilities! Don't get close to them and don't look at them in the face!" Derek shouted as he punted a warrior into a tree.
"Got it!" Alistair shouted as he and Eren pushed another reaver into a house. There was something animalistic in their eyes before they were all taken down. Then arrows started to rain down on us and we ran for cover.
"We need to get at those archers!" Eren shouted. Morrigan had shifted into bear form with Talen and I following closely behind her. The arrows tried to pierce through her form but Talen kept on a barrier surrounding her as she roared and barreled through. I slashed the throat of an armored archer before stabbing my daggers into another villager. Talen has busted out his trusty fireball to get rid of the ones on makeshift walls and Morrigan's muzzle was red with sticky blood.
"We're good here!" I shouted down and the rest came up the path. We walked past the other houses. There were eyes watching us from the cabins but none dared to come out. I felt guilty for doing this but cults were always bad news. They preyed on the weak minded and they were stuck in this cult for God knows how many years. Eren came up to the Chantry and opened it as the parishioners inside were still praying. Those few reavers and warriors unsheathed their weapons before the old man leading the Chant turned toward us. He had a mage staff in hand while the villagers looked at us with utter hatred.
"Ah, visitors." He glared. "Welcome to our village of Haven. I had heard you all were wandering the village. Have you enjoyed your time?" He talked down to us condescendingly.
"If enjoying you mean finding all the Redcliffe soldiers stuffed into a pantry then yeah, we were enjoying ourselves." Talen glared.
"Not to mention the bleeding tables we found." Zevran added.
"We do not need to explain ourselves to outsiders. We have been chosen by Andraste herself to care over her and her flock. As such, we must remain hidden to deter those unworthy to see her. We will protect Haven and all our charges at all costs. We are her chosen," As he recited this, all the villagers started to get up from their pews, "We are her protectors. All will be forgiven, in Her name."
The villagers all launched themselves at us with roars. I have three jump onto me with a woman clawing at my eyes and another trying to bring me down and another hanging off my hair. I felt my scalp burn as I managed to not fall, feeling them pull out a chunk of hair. I grabbed the collar of the woman scratching at my face and delivered a heavy right hook smashing into the bridge of her nose. She passed out. I grabbed at the person on my back and threw them onto the ground. They coughed up hard before I kicked them hard in their ribs.
The other woman threw the chunk of hair that she had yanked out and I got mad. I had my daggers on and got her with my knuckles in a brutal upper cut. I gasped as I felt that fear starting to overwhelm me before someone let out a mighty blizzard spell right in the Chantry. I shivered out of the fear and the increasing cold temperatures, my feet starting to freeze on the stone ground. I saw a Reaver come toward me, his axe held high before his entire body froze.
Sometimes friendly fire can work to your advantage. I put my weight into my fists and shattered the man. As I looked back to the rest of the group, Eren was struggling to reach the Chantry priest between two barriers. He pushed back with the Blizzard, not caring that the rest of his warriors were slowly becoming ice statues. The villagers that weren't protected by some form of armor all froze. Eren gave out a loud grunt and plunged his sword into the heart of the mage. The priest's magic ended almost instantaneously before Eren pushed his sword out of him and he went down onto the stone ground.
"Forgive this trespass on your ground." Leliana shivered out.
"As if a dead woman will care about the blood spilt in Her supposed home." Morrigan rolled her eyes.
"Guys come over here to warm up." Talen had summoned a fire and everyone limped over to the fire. My fingers turned from purple to regular color. Alfred whined as his ears twitched constantly.
"So…we've killed everyone in the Chantry, now what?" I wondered.
"Well when you put it like that…" Alistair pouted.
"We must find Brother Genitivi. The Redcliffe soldiers were not the only ones missing." Wynne rubbed her hands.
"Speaking of which, does anyone else hear screaming?" Zevran wondered. We all perked our ears before Derek went to an unassuming wall. He put his hands on the stone and patted it before getting his hammer and knocking out the wall. There was a passage through the door. Wynne, Talen, and Derek went down through the passage. I looked at the destruction that was left in the Chantry. They did try to kill us first and a cult is no Bueno but that doesn't mean I still won't feel guilty for what we've done.
"You are bleeding." Zevran came up and lent me a bandage.
"Where?" I wondered before Zevran touched the sore spot on my head and I hissed in pain.
"Oooh, they got you good too." Alistair cringed.
"They ripped off some of my hair. I'll be lucky that it will grow back." I whined as I stood in place. Zevran wrapped my head softly as the group came up with Derek helping a malnourished man through the rubble.
"Oh so you took care of them, good. Now, in order to get to the Temple, you'll need a medallion that the priest wears around his neck." The man said.
"This is Genitivi everyone." Talen announced while Eren took a medallion from the old man's corpse.
"Is this it?" He asked.
"Yes. Now then, please help me for a moment. The Temple is quite a walk away and thank you for saving me." Brother Genitivi bowed as Derek helped him out.
"What Chantry keeps a dungeon?" Wynne scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"A good one." Morrigan chuckled and Wynne glared at her. We got out of the Chantry where Genitivi led us to a stone bridge that the trees hid from plain view. I could tell that the villagers made sure to hide this very well considering how dilapidated everyone was. Elfroot and weeds broke through the cracks of the stone bridge with trees overhanging, covering it. It was maintained enough for you to walk through though.
"How did you get in this precarious situation Brother?" Leliana asked.
"Well it wasn't intended of course. I am well-traveled, searching for any clues to the Sacred Ashes of Andraste. Once I had settled down in Denerim, I began looking through all the notes that I had gathered in my time along with my assistant Weylon. Of course one book about cults caught my interest. A small village named Haven who believed that a High Dragon was Andraste reincarnated. To those that I showed my research, blew off what I had found. I had hoped for my travels would be funded by the Chantry and then the Blight hit. I couldn't ask for help especially when the people needs the Chantry during the dark times." Genitivi explained.
Morrigan opened her mouth before Talen purposely bumped in to her and placed a single finger across his mouth. She scowled and moved closer to Eren who was intently listening to Genitivi.
"But I was so close! The Ashes were in front me in this journal! So I had pinpointed the village and went to investigate. I never knew that the cult was so powerful." Genitivi sighed and ran his free hand over his face. I let out a breath as we followed the road toward the temple. The sun made the snow bright underneath our feet and I couldn't help but imagine a giant green hole in the sky above us. I wondered if I would even be here.
"Are you sure that the Sacred Ashes even exist?" Eren asked.
"Even if they don't, the people here are protecting something that belonged to Andraste and as a scholar for the Chantry it is my sacred duty to bring it forth to the people." Genitivi announced.
"As your role should dictate it." Sten nodded in his approval. Genitivi hesitantly nodded as we slowly walked the path. Leliana was fidgeting and was muttering small prayers under her breath. It seemed that Wynne was doing the same but with her eyes and silently. Everyone else was walking in anticipation. What was going to end in this road that we followed?
Then once we got through a path that was overrun by trees, we saw the Temple on a cliff just a mile away from us. The sun glistened against the stone covered by ice. I was awed at the size of it and could only imagine what the inside looked like.
"Everyone, I'm sure that there are still hostiles inside of the Temple. Check your packs and be ready to face whatever we find inside." Eren announced. I still had my potions in my pack and everything was accounted for. Eren had made Zevran and Leliana scout ahead to know that no one was waiting at the entrance for us. It gave me time to write. Time to see what lies beyond the temple.
9:30 Drakonis ?
"That's a really big door." I said as I looked at the large menacing doors in front of them. After Leliana and Zevran came back, assuring us that they didn't find any enemies, everyone got ready to walk to the Temple.
"But there's no real lock on it?" Talen wondered, looking at the door. Instead, there was a circular indent in the middle.
"Tis reinforced and will not break unless we ram it down, perhaps your head will work on it." Morrigan glanced at Alistair.
"I'm stubborn but I'm not that hard headed." Alistair scoffed.
"Actually this medallion should help." Genitivi limped over to the door with the medallion in hand. "There are very few doors like this in the world. Most take special runes to open but luckily this medallion should help. I only saw it opened once but it should do the trick if I place it like so…" He put it on the circle and fiddled with it until five spots on the medallion lit up. The door lit up in response as well and the door opened by itself.
"Interesting. And magic can do this?" Derek went up and touched the door.
"We had a door in the Circle that opened with a prayer and a hint of magic." Talen shrugged.
"Very few exist, reinforced by magic and opened with runes special to it as well. Someone wanted to guard their secrets well but now that we're here, we can go in." Genitivi nodded. We all followed him through the stairs and right into what should have been the main hall. Everyone was in all as the light filtered in from the few windows on the side. Icicles hung from the ceiling and ice stalagmites jutting from the ground. Ice littered the temple all over but that made it look more ethereal. We all let out gasps of awe and even Morrigan raised her eyebrows at the beauty of the temple. I've been in beautiful temples before but this is definitely an experience I won't forget.
"Oh…what I would give to have been able to see this Temple in all its splendor. Still, sweep away the snow and you can still see the beauty that lies within." Genitivi breathed out.
"Don't forget we are still in the enemy territory. We can't let our guard down Brother." Eren said.
"What? Oh of course. You don't have to worry about me. I'll be keeping here. It must have been only my destiny to lead you here but it's enough for me. Not to bother anyone but do any of you have anything to write with and some loose-leaf vellum or paper?" Genitivi asked. I grabbed my journal from my pack and ripped out a good chunk out of it and gave him the ink well, an inkstone, and a quill.
"You think this is enough?" I asked.
"It's plenty. Thank you all for bringing me here." Genitivi nodded before starting to study the writing on the walls.
"Don't let your guard down. I'm sure what we found in Haven wasn't the entirety of the cult." Eren said, going forward.
"If we weren't here for the Ashes, I think I might lose myself in the Temple just as Genitivi has." Wynne sighed, looking at the ceiling.
"I know! To just restore the temple to its former glory would be a time well spent." Leliana nodded.
"Oh please, someone gag them or I will." Morrigan rolled her eyes.
"I'm not Andrastrian but I am respectful so leave them alone." I replied.
"Shh! I think I saw something beyond those stairs." Derek whispered, getting his hammer.
"Alfred, stay here with Brother Genitivi and guard him." Eren said. Alfred barked and sat while panting. Our whole group readied themselves for a fight as we crossed the large bonfire that roared in the middle of the room. As we went up the stairs, the sound of a few arrows passed by. The warriors ran up to meet the cultists at the top. Three archers, as well as three reavers.
I followed Eren and Alistair closely as they met with the reavers. My ankles felt weak and I had to keep a tight grip on my daggers to not let them go out of that same weakness. Fear aura was a really good technique though I wasn't about to drink any dragon's blood to get it. Sten, out of all of us, seemed to be most comfortable against the technique though. Unlike Derek, Alistair, and Eren that seemed to only parry the reavers instead of hitting them, Sten went up, clonked a reaver with his pommel before beheading him.
Alistair and Eren were taking turns trying to take one down before Derek came up and slammed his hammer against the reaver's back. Zevran, who quickly caught up to me, did a flurry of hits in the armor's weak spot in the other reaver. They both roared and the aura started to gain in pressure. My heart started to race as adrenaline spiked in my body through natural fear. I didn't want to fight though, my body was telling me I had to run and quickly. I stood my ground and ran around one of the reavers with Zevran to confuse him.
Down below, Talen and Morrigan were getting ready their spells from the archers that were trying to get them. One got clipped by Leliana on the hand before it rained fireballs and icicles. The archers were taken out but the two reavers, even with mortal wounds, kept coming at us. They kept on trying to hit us harder and harder. Poor Alistair nearly fell from the stairs from a big shove and Eren was knocked into a wall by the other. Both reavers were covering their backs as they swung wildly at the group, roaring at all of us in a primal rage. They gained strength the closer they were to death.
"We won't get anywhere just defending ourselves!" Derek shouted before one nearly got him.
"They are drawing strength from something and it's not magic!" Alistair pushed me out of the way of a direct hit and moved his shield to protect himself. We heard heavy footsteps and Morrigan, in her bear form, rushed one and crushed his head under her jaws. Sten came over and impaled his sword through the other reaver's body but he still kept swinging. Zevran then came and stabbed at his spine, the reaver lifeless on Sten's sword.
"Jesus Christ, what is up with these guys? I keep feeling the urge to run the hell away and when we stab them, they just get angrier and stronger." I breathed out as Sten removed the body from his sword.
"I think I might know what they are. We had someone similar in the Grey Wardens. From what they told me, they had a few Tevinter mages mix dragon's blood with some other concoctions. Since then, he can hear voices from the fade, demons were able to help him in his fighting. They gave him a fear aura to weaken his enemies, to make him seem larger, stronger, and terrifying to them. The more he got hurt, the more the demons gave him strength to keep going. Bastard didn't go down easy though. Last I heard, he killed an entire camp of darkspawn by himself and barehanded at the end when they saw his body." Alistair explained.
"So we need to go for the head or heart in this instance." Derek rubbed his chin.
"A quick kill so that they can't get stronger through the line between life and death." Zevran twirled his knives. "This would be easy if they weren't so well armed."
"Is everyone alright?" Wynne came up as well as the others.
"We're fine just strategizing." I said.
"If we're having this much trouble with only three, imagine if we had to fight a company of them." Eren grumbled.
"You are letting your fear sway your blade, the fear of death. To you it appears staggering but you must keep in mind that death is only natural. You cannot be led by it. Should you fall to their blade, you can only blame your weakness." Sten put his sword away.
"Everyone fears death as much as they would like to deny it." Wynne sighed.
"We are getting nowhere from here. Tis best to kill them as quickly as we can, no matter what method we choose." Morrigan said.
"I agree with her. Let's just keep going." I said. "Eamon is on borrowed time right now."
"You're right as much as I hate Morrigan." Alistair mumbled the last part. Eren went for the door only to find that it was locked. Leliana tried picking at it but broke one of her tools. It wasn't made out of wood but steel so we couldn't force our way through either.
"We'll have to look for a key. There are two side passages here. I'm sure there are other cultists waiting for us. Derek take Morrigan, Wynne, Leliana, and Alistair with you. The rest are with me." Eren said as he went toward the right passage. Sten and Eren were at the front while Zevran, Talen, and I were at the back. We opened the door with a long hallway. We walked further down when Eren held up his shield and arrows bounced off from it. Two archers rounded the corner and a door, that we couldn't see in the low light, burst open with a bronco right behind us.
"This sucks." I mumbled before moving to the side while the bronco charged. Eren whistled at it and kept on running toward the archers that realized he was egging the bronco toward them. They let out a few screams before Eren jumped out of the way and the bronco smashed into them against the wall. The splatters and breaking of bones echoed in the hallway. Sten didn't waste any time in going to the side of the bronco and stabbing it through its side, where it's heart was supposed to be. The bronco took a few steps before lying dead on the stone ground.
We heard a few shouts coming from the turn in the hallway and we got ready. Four reavers came out and I felt the pit in my stomach again. This was going to get annoying in the long run. Zevran had rushed forward and dug his dagger into the neck of the reaver before sliding back. Eren and Sten formed a shield wall along the wall so they wouldn't get through. Talen magically put a sigil on the floor and a small explosion hit all three of them. Even burning inside their armor, they rushed at Sten and Eren who both took down two. One was left who started to backtrack toward the other rooms. Archers had come out and joined him along with other villagers.
Zevran and I rushed forward as I used his same tactic and brought down the reaver with digging my blade into his neck. The two archers were brought down with two small fireballs from Talen. The villagers came in with mages and two more reavers. With the hallway as small as it was, the reavers came out first to tackle against Sten and Eren. One of their mages put up a barrier for the rest while the other one was readying a spell. Talen did his own barrier as Sten and Eren killed their reavers. Just in time as a blizzard started right in the hallway, their allies be damned.
Talen grunted as he kept the wide barrier over our group while those unlucky villagers with no protection slowly froze to death. The mages kept on shooting out various flares of fire, ice, and lightning while the mini blizzard roared. The blizzard broke before Talen's barrier did. Zevran and I rushed forward, running between the frozen bodies as I lunged with my daggers, Wolverine style, and plunged them into the heart of the first mage. Zevran did a stab in the stomach before slicing open the mage's throat.
I took out my daggers as I heard shattering behind me. Sten was making quick work with the villagers. I held a pang of guilt as their body parts rolled about and felt my stomach come up in my throat before I cleared it out.
"Search the rooms for any keys." Eren said, putting away his sword and shield. We got down to it as Zevran, Talen, and I searched the villagers room while Eren and Sten went into where the mages were stationed.
"Were they all living here?" Zevran wondered as we went through the things, mostly home things.
"Probably. It seemed that they all centered in the mountain while keeping their village for show. We didn't see anyone out there. Even the home we broke into had no one. Cults are weird like that." I said, leaving another chest with clothes.
"I found it!" I heard Eren yell from the other room. As we regrouped, we left the hallway and Derek's group were already waiting out the main gate with fresh blood around him.
"What happened?" Talen asked.
"Got a scream from Genitivi. A few were hiding in the lower hallways. They're clear now of course." Derek laughed darkly. Leave it to him to clear those rooms.
Beta'd by Syutaku
We're finally here! Sorry it's been taking so long but I'm getting the groove back, little bit at a time. The Inquisitor's Guardian should have an update later this week too so keep an eye on that. Not much to say other than I'm really ready on not being pregnant lol
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