A/N Another Chapter for you all! Yeah that's all I got. Oh, and Scorpio's Legacy has not been forgotten, I'm just starting to get busy with the start of the fall semester coming up and am also pretty stuck on a strange part in ch. 21 so I'll keep working on it, but it's going to be a bit before I can post another chapter.
Ok, as always... Read, Review, and Enjoy!
When I wake, I'm greeted by the musty smell of mold and stale ale. "Oh, by the Creators I need to buy some sort of air freshener soon, or maybe some cologne, that might work. These smells are just horrific." I gag as I step outside and add three more nasty smells to my list.
Yeah, I cannot understand why people should live like this... just dig a well away from the damn city and take a daily trip to dump your waste there for god sakes!
I sigh before noting that the sun hasn't even come up yet and climb down the ladder to start off north and towards the forest to collect herbs. I hum the tune the bard played last night as I walk down the path and check if certain plants along the side of the road were what I'm looking for. None yet.
Miriam wanted... ten elfroot, five deathroot fruits, and four spindleweed stems? Wait no, six spindleweed stems.
I double check it with my memory and think it's probably right. I continue walking for a while, finding some elfroot growing just off the road behind some trees and such. I collect some leaves off of them, stem and all, like the book told me and tip them with my dagger to- (I look at the page elfroot is on.) '-keep the restoring liquids from slipping out during longterm preservation.' I nod and only cut down the stem after taking the leaves, I cut it into three-inch pieces and put them in my pack.
I seriously love this pack! It's exactly like a backpack, definitely worth twenty sovereigns in the craftsmanship alone!
Four exterior pockets, two on the back, one on each side. A strap holding two different sections apart, one part thick for carrying sharper objects or dangerous materials I guess, the other is thin enough and pricked to breath a bit.
I never even knew backpacks properly existed in the DA universe! I thought it was all nap-sakes and such. Guess I was wrong.
The sun came up about half an hour after I left, the most brilliant array of colors I'd ever seen, even better than on Thessia. I shake my head, "I'm not going back there, I need to quit thinking about it."
After a few hours (I think, it gets difficult to tell time without a watch) I've gathered just enough to start heading back, I even grabbed some extra ingredients like a few bulbs of a blood lotus I caught growing in a clearing out of the corner of my eye. I left the plant and noted the location so I could come back later if I wanted. I even found and harvested two deep mushrooms growing at the entrance of a cave.
I didn't even DARE go near it with all the skeletons laying about outside. Nope, not going in there alone.
As I started to head back since I have been walking for about... probably three or four miles, I spot a caravan moving along the road and wait for it to catch up.
"Greetings traveler! Might I interest you with my fine wares?" I blink at the elf running the cart as he stops his ox and I take note of the woman and young child in the cart.
"Sure, but lets keep moving, easier to avoid bandits if you don't stop moving."
He nods, "Wise, and quite right. Please hop up and look through my cart, my wife will help you if you find anything of interest."
I smile and thank him before carefully entering the cart. "Hello, my name is Darien. I was gathering alchemical ingredients when you pulled by." I hold out my hand and the light-skinned elven woman shakes it with a friendly smile.
"Yes, I pointed you out to my husband, my name is Erianne, this is Aren and my husband's name is Owen."
I smile, "Aneth ara Erianne, Aren, and you too Owen." Owen staggers and looks behind him to stare at me while walking just ahead of the cart.
Erianne stares wide-eyed at me for a moment while little Aren looks indifferent. "Y-you're Dalish?" She asks incredulously.
I nod, "I used to be, I was separated from my clan and decided to strike out on my own just recently. I made it to Lothering down the road just yesterday and took an apprenticeship with the village elder at her alchemy shop to make some coin. That's why I'm out here." I partially lie smoothly.
Erianne nods with a certain twinkle in her eye. Owen speaks up, "W-We traded with some of the Dalish just weeks ago, perhaps they were your clan?"
I look over to him as he lags behind to speak directly, "Perhaps, who was the Keeper?" I ask.
"I believe his name was Zathrian. He was weary of letting us stay in their camp so we parked our cart at it's edge for a few days and traded with Master Varathorn, t-their crafter."
I shake my head, "No that wasn't them."
"Oh, I am sorry." He lowers his head slightly in apology.
"No harm done, I'll find them eventually." I lie easily as I turn to Erianne and Owen jogs up to lead the ox again. "Now, what do you have for sale?" She shows me some potions and well-crafted armors that were definitely Dalish. Some extremely well-crafted bows and daggers as well. I pick up a steel Dar-Misu and smile at the fine curvature the blade has, perfectly balanced. I take the other for the set and twirl them in my palms before carefully dropping into a combat stance and finding the curved blade perfect for personal protection and deflection. I hand them back to Erianne, "How much for these?"
She smiles and looks them over, deep in thought, "Sixty silver each."
I rub my chin, thinking for a moment before taking out my titanium dagger and showing it to her, "This dagger is made out of a rare metal stronger than silverite, how much would you give me for it?"
She looks it over after I hand it to her and she raises an eyebrow at the strange markings along the side, "Owen could you come back here?" He stops the cart and jumps in the back as she hands him the dagger, "This is supposedly stronger than silverite but it weighs barely as much as iron!"
He looks it over before touching the sharp tip to his finger and wincing as it easily cuts into his skin. "Darien, where did you find this rare item?" He asks excitedly.
I shrug, "I found it in a ruin when I was young, it was glowing green and looks like it's enchanted." I lie again.
"Indeed? Well, then that explains the sharpness! Very nice and indeed quite rare! I know a collector in Denerim that would definitely enjoy such a priceless object!" He looks up and hands it back to me, "How much would you want to part with it?"
I mull it over in my head, "How about we trade, some of my equipment for some of yours?" I say, remembering my clawed up armor and cheap iron sword.
He nods happily, "That is acceptable. Have a look around and pick out what you like."
I smile and after about half an hour I choose a full set of actual real leather armor that fits pretty well, the two steel Dar'Misu daggers, a steel Dar'Missan longsword and a band holster to hold it all. One dagger would be on my chest and accessible by my right hand while the other is at my right side for my left if need be. My Dar'Missan is now in a holster on my back, the hilt pointed left along with my staff that sits in it's own loop pointing right. That way I could grab my staff or sword easily. I thought about getting a longbow, but it might be a hassle if it gets tangled up back there so I didn't. I gave them all my personal effects, besides the pack full of ingredients and my coin, for the trade and step off the side of the road to suit up after some difficulty.
Leather armor is a bitch to get on right, too many straps and knots to tie. If I ever end up caught off guard without my armor I'm definitely NOT going for that first, most likely I'd get stabbed through the chest trying to get a boot tied on properly.
I turn around and notice Erianne staring at me with an open mouth.
Was she watching me change?
I look down and notice that the armor makes me look pretty buff. I shrug.
Just another bonus I guess.
I walk back and am immediately approached by Erianne. "Oh thank you so much for the trade, it will help us tremendously!" Erianne hugs me and I tentatively return it, watching Owen laughing under his breath when I try to pull away after ten seconds to find her still tightly hugging me.
"Uh... you are welcome falon." She pulls back and kisses my cheek. I blush as I back up and hop off the cart, trying to get away from her while throwing on my pack with the ingredients as I go. "I'll keep with you to make sure you make it to Lothering in one piece, there's a lot of bandits around in the country-side." I say politely.
Owen nods, "Yes, we know. We were attacked on our way here, thankfully they were few in number and we got away unharmed." He laughs, "My wife is proficient with the bow, took two of them down before they drew their weapons, the last simply ran as she notched a third arrow and warned them to back off." I stare at Erianne as she blushes.
Deadly...
"You could ride in the cart with us if you want?" She asks, hope gleaming in her eyes that makes me a bit uneasy.
"Uh... no, no. I can't react quick enough if we're attacked and I'm in the cart, I'm mostly a melee warrior."
Her smile drops and she nods in understanding as I continue walking along with the cart. I look back to catch her staring at me and then blushing as she averts her eyes. Aren is still indifferently playing with something small, maybe a block? I look off to the clouds and see Erianne instantly look back at me and smile out of the corner of my eye.
Interesting...
We make it into Lothering by noon with no trouble at all, well, besides Erianne staring at me luridly the entire time.
Seriously what is wrong? Am I a good-looking elf or something?
I direct them to the markets and walk into Miriam's shop as they wave to me in thanks, Erianne blowing me a kiss over her husband's shoulder. Which I promptly cut off by closing the door.
Nice people, kind of, strange how elves are nice to elves and humans are nice to humans, but they don't get along... some sort of cross-race societal disconnect maybe? They did enslave each other one time.
I shrug and take off my helmet to set it on the counter as I walk up. "Ah! You're back, do you have the ingredients?" Miriam states warmly.
I carefully take off my pack and unstrap the first pocket to show her the elfroot and spindleweed, then open up the second to show her the deathroot fruits.
"Splendid! You even separated the harmful reagents from the beneficial! My last helper handled deathroot with bare hands and died of poisoning on the way back from the wilds. An adventurer found his pack, but his corpse was gone. Sad, such a bright lad, if a bit agitating..." She pulls on some leather gloves and starts plucking out the items.
Ok, I didn't even THINK about that... good thing I wore my gauntlets.
I swallow at the thought I nearly died from stupidity so soon on entering this universe.
She finishes unpacking the items and huffs as they lay on the counter, "You gathered more than enough reagents for my restock."
I stop her and open up a side pocket to pluck out the blood lotus bulbs. Her eyes light up. "I found a blood lotus plant in a clearing, it's still there and I know where it is if you want more."
"Oh..." She takes the bulbs and sets them down carefully in a metal tin before placing it back on the shelf, "Those are exactly what I need for a little experiment of mine, thank you."
I open up the other and take out the two deep mushrooms, "I also found these outside of a cave."
She nods and adds them to her stock, "You have preformed marvelously. Nearly twice the amount of ingredients I asked for as well as others I didn't, and they're all properly gathered!" She smiles brightly, "Hold on, I'll get something for you." She steps out from behind the counter with my pack and walks around the shop as I stand there, surprised myself at how much I ended up gathering. "Here we go." I look over and she hands my pack back. "These should help you out." I look inside and see a bunch of glassware that looks extremely fragile. "It's a basic alchemy station, it should allow you to brew your own items whenever you feel like it. I added a manual in there as well so you have some idea how to use reagents properly and not end up poisoning someone already bleeding out with a bad poultice or potion."
Wow... I never-
I look up at her and smile whole-heartedly, "Thank you so much."
She shakes her head, "No, thank you. Thanks to you I'm overstocked! In fact, why don't you come into the back so I can show you some basics on making poultices and poisons." I agree and step into her back room with her. Instantly the smell of elfroot, deathroot, and boiling water over a wood fire fill my senses, refreshing compared to the stench of the streets. She directs me to set up my beginner's station at an empty spot near the fire and she starts up her own brew. "Alright, now the first step to properly mixing deathroot extract..."
I leave late at night, two vials of weak deathroot extract I personally made in my pocket and a 'barely acceptable' health poultice in my pack. My mind filled with all the information I gained on basic herbalism and some small bits on poison making. "I can't believe that people actually BUY their poultices! It's so simple! Just grind up, mix, purify, and rehydrate some elfroot and you're good to go! It took longer to make the poison for Go- the Creators sakes!" I mutter happily while setting up my alchemy station on a table in my room at the inn. I decide to brew up a better poultice, this time with some spindleweed added to hopefully enhance it.
All I need is a pint of boiling water and some time to prepare.
I dash downstairs and quickly buy a pint of boiling water for a few coppers and carefully climb the ladder with it stored in a few flasks in my pack. When I sit down I take an elfroot leaf and carefully grind it up into a paste before cutting a small piece of the spindleweed stem off and grinding it up separately, trying to avoid any cross-contamination as I follow a rough estimation of a recipe I saw in Dragon Age 2, the Restoration Potion, while trying to prepare them correctly in different vials and flasks for proper experimentation.
An hour later I'm ready to start experimenting and take out a Dar'Misu to cut a small wound into my thumb, just enough for it to start bleeding. I rub the small bit of elfroot salve onto it and it heals relatively quickly within a few moments just like it's supposed to. I do the same with my first mixture and find that a combination of 10 part elfroot, 1 part spindleweed doesn't do much beyond the control. I move through a few more vials, each with a small fraction of spindleweed more than the last. Nothing notable happens until about a 10E to 4S ratio. I blink after applying the drop onto the cut and shake my head as I feel slightly more invigorated, but a second later it slips away. I grab a quill and vellum I borrowed from downstairs and note in my rather terrible and shitty handwriting my very small discovery.
It's a start. Damn it why couldn't I have just remembered the ingredient ratio from the game?! Though nothing compares to figuring out what's right and what's wrong than first-hand experience... Screw it, I'll just keep going.
I look over and groan that I needed to brew another batch of elfroot. I go grab some more water from downstairs and take more than half an hour to carefully cast a few puffs of fire at a time in an attempt to boil the water in the pot. "Damn it I need to start practicing my spells soon, otherwise I'll end up shattering my glassware from heating it too rapidly! I'm pretty sure nothing is tempered here so I could die if one explodes." I shake the thought away and set it to cook before lying down for a small nap.
I wake up, maybe a few hours later, to find the water barely warm and the new batch of elfroot nearly ruined from too much dehydration. I grind some more into a paste and add it before heating it up just a small bit magically, and nearly setting my room on fire from the plume of flame that flies out of my hand. That's when I learned a new spell on impulse, I panicked naturally and threw my hands out to freeze my entire alchemy set in a thin layer of frost. I gape at all of it as it starts to evaporate and shake my head in annoyance. "Creators... what next?"
It takes another half hour to melt everything and get the batch of elfroot to boil to perfection.
I find that if you cup your hand when casting fire blast it concentrates the flame, making it easier to control. I just hope the Templars don't sense my magic while I'm here doing this. I'd be killed pretty quickly if I was. Or sent off to the circle, and I REALLY don't want to go there. As much as I LOVE the idea of mastering my magic I'd rather avoid being stuck in a gilded cage for the rest of my life.
I sigh in exasperation and FINALLY start up on the next part of my experiments. The next few ones invigorate me for progressively longer times.
The last one, a 10:6 ratio, lasts ten minutes! I used my heartbeat when it's calm as a counter. I looked up the effects of spindleweed in the meantime and it seems to strengthen the immune system while adding a bit of strength back into the body, it's usually added into stews and eaten by the infirm during and after certain physical trauma to lessen physical pain and improve healing. There was even a note in it the manual to add the concentrated stem juices of an elfroot and spindleweed plant into any standard elfroot potion to add a curative to injuries. I'm not well equipped enough to do that yet, or even brew potions, but maybe one day I'll open up a potions shop and go to market with it just to wow some people. Oh! Maybe if I can add spindleweed directly into it in a salve form it could also invigorate them! A Restoration Curative Potion! I'll think about a better name later, but it could work! All I need is time and-
I remember the Blight and then the Mage Rebellion coming up and sigh in aggravation. "Well... maybe I'll pitch the idea with a few people so it can be done and researched before Anders blows up the damn Chantry in twelve years." I shake my head and finish up my testing to find that any concentration over 10:6 actually burns the skin like a bitch and doesn't heal it at all. I use the rest of my elfroot to heal it and start thinking about how to make the whole potion. "Ok, so if a vial is barely this much..." I mentally work through some math to find out how much a single potion would need to be filled up. I frown as I figure out that it would take almost fifty vials, or an entire elfroot plant, stem and all, to fill up ONE Restoration Potion. "Well... that explains why people who brew potions grow elfroot by the bushel, and why most people enjoy poultices a lot more often since naturally they cost less to manufacture and aren't breakable." I shrug and start thinking about how I could make a Restoration Poultice as I yawn tiredly. "I'll talk to Miriam tomorrow and see if my experiments were worth anything to her." I mutter while brushing the scraps off into a flask for a future RAE-brew, or Random Assorted Effect brew, Miriam does a few of those every year just to avoid wasting ingredients and holds them for the 'adventurous' types that wander through and fall for the 'mystery potion' bit.
Thankfully no one has died yet, that I know of, but it IS random so she gives them an anti-effect potion with it that costs a whole sovereign just in case. I average that if I made a RAE-brew right now I'd get a weak Restoration sip from it, or a corrosive acid that might cause a laceration in someone's throat when swallowed, either way it would be interesting.
I pack up the alchemy lab and make sure nothing was going to clang against each other when I need to run before plopping down on the hay mattress and passing out from exhaustion.
I wake up and wince as my face is covered in small scratches from sleeping on the hay and I have to apply a bit of a poultice using the distorted reflection off of a flask to get them to stop itching. "I swear if there's ticks in that bed I'm throwing it outside and setting a lite." I catch a whiff of my three day old stench and grind up some dried out elfroot into a power to rub on the inside of my armor. "No way am I using the water here to clean myself, I'd have to boil it more than a few times to get rid of parasites and it just isn't worth it. I'll just pick a stream in the woods and torch the water to a boil before washing my armor there. Damn it where the hell do you find soap in a medieval village?" I sigh and throw my armor back on over my bare skin since I don't think wearing a shirt and pair of pants under your armor is very smart sweat-wise. I'm surprised when I finish putting it on that my skin is nice and cool inside the armor. I also no-longer smell like a dying animal, so bonus.
Huh, powdered elfroot gets rid of uncomfortable itchiness as well as cools you down when in armor like deodorant! Another thing to add to the recipe book. I should really buy a journal and start recording this shit properly. I might just get a mint selling a book on '100 daily uses for elfroot'.
I add journal and soap to my mental shopping list and arm myself to the teeth before grabbing my pack and leaving my room with everything I own... again.
Only practical to keep everything you own on your back. I should add camping supplies to my list, it's getting expensive to live in an inn.
I step down the ladder and eat breakfast at the bar again, another simple meal of berry-ale stew, before checking the time via the sundial outside the chantry and smiling that it's just about ten in the morning.
Good, just enough time to go grab some more ingredients for my experiments.
Jogging past the bewildered civilians as they stare at the extremely heavily armed elf walking through their quaint little town, I make it to the forest around Lothering without trouble and carefully step inside, mindful of the twigs, leaves, and branches that might give away my location to any predators stalking in the shadows.
I make it about twenty paces in before I find a clearing with a pack of wolves eating a dear they managed to kill. I keep clear of them and step around the tree-line to get at a spindleweed I spot. To save time and the probability of the wolves possibly spotting me, I cut down the entire plant and step back into the woods to strip off the leaves and take the stem alone since its the only useful part of it that isn't poisonous.
Maybe I'll use the leaves one time and make a virulent poison or something.
At that thought I remember the two vials of deathroot extract in my pack and mentally go over what it does to living things since I feel like I want those wolf pelts.
Ok, in small amounts such as a vial it eats away at the skin and prevents minor healing. In moderate amounts, a small flask, it causes slight paralysis that may spread to the lungs and heart if someone's unlucky enough to get it into their blood stream, causing total failure of those organs and a severely agonizing death if it reaches the liver first. Large amounts cause paralysis of the immediate area and easily spreads to other limbs and most definitely to the brain, forcing the individual's brain to hemorrhage, killing them instantly. Thankfully that only happens if it gets into the blood stream, if digested it has a range of four days to four hours to four minutes before it settles it and kills the digester depending on the dose. The strongest antidote is ironically purifying the juices of the plant's fruit down to about a vial amount up to a whole flask and taking it within about a certain time frame of one minute to one day depending on the amount of poison digested. Huh... so that's why Miriam only had me pick the fruit and not the entire plant.
I pack up the spindleweed stem and turn back to step up to the edge of the clearing. I can still see wolves chewing on the dear.
I wish I had a bow right about now.
I shrug and carefully take out and uncap a small vial of deathroot extract before pouring the thin liquid down my Dar'Missan, careful not to waste any of it as it dries onto the blade.
It's weaker when dried, but easier to apply during combat.
I take a breath, careful not to breath too close to the sword since it has been known to cause hallucinations, and start to sneak closer, using patches of bushes here and there as cover. I step on some dried grass and one of the wolves stop chewing to look up and sniff the air. I freeze, I was stupid enough to approach from up-wind, a rookie mistake in hunting. Surprisingly the wolf snorts before going back to chewing on one of the dear's legs.
What the-?
I smell myself and I reek of elfroot.
Oh... well, that's another use I'll need to remember, masking your scent.
I smile and look at a bush right behind the largest of the wolves. Checking my blades I step softly and avoid the eyesight of the wolves as I get up behind the bush and ready my Dar'Missan. I take a chance as something flashes into thought and whisper, "Fen?" I hear one of the wolves stop eating before approaching my bush slowly. "Falon?" I say. A low growl starts from behind the bush and I feel my adrenaline already starting to spike. I give up on whatever my mind is trying to tell me and quickly swing my sword through the bush, catching the largest wolf in the head. A reverberating crack shakes me to my very core as the wolf's head shatters, my blade slicing into it and out again, killing it instantly. The other two wolves yelp in what sounds like shock as I quickly move to stab the one on my right with my dagger. It dodges and runs off in fear. I turn to the other one and it's growling, ready to jump at me. "Atisha Fen-falon!" I blurt out suddenly. The wolf stops growling and licks its lips, watching me, but no-longer completely hostile. We stare at each other and he seems to be listening.
Holy Creators...
I take another stupid chance and sheath my weapons to say, "Dareth Fen-falon. Emma Darien, ma nuvenin Hahren-fen. Hamin Fen-falon." (Peace wolf-friend. I am Darien, I want/need elder-wolf. Relax wolf-friend.) The wolf raises it's head and tilts it at me strangely before turning and running off to the edge of the clearing to sit watch me intently.
Holy mother of- Did I just...?
I blink at the wolf for a few more moments to see if he does anything before kneeling down and cutting into the dead wolf, working on skinning it with my Dar'Misu as I think.
I'm not a ranger, but I am elven. Does it understand elven? If so then how and why? Is this just something my Dalish origins have allowed me to have? Some kind of aura of command?
I mull it over as my hands deftly skin the wolf with practice only a hunter would know.
Was he a hunter that was led astray and forcibly possessed by my soul? What was he doing out here in the first place?
I shake my head and scrape off some last bits of flesh hanging off of the hide before folding it up and sticking it in my pack, mindful that it was about half full. I stand up and see the wolf still sitting there, watching from a distance. I raise a hand to signal it before jogging out to the edge of the clearing to watch and see what he does. The wolf howls and five more run out of the woods with him to start chewing on the corpse again. I see it look over at me and seem to nod before pushing aside the other wolves to eat first.
Oh! I killed the elder and now THIS one is the strongest wolf! Son of a bitch I just made a deal with a wolf! I get the dead elder's corpse for a moment and it gains elder status? That is just awesome, and a bit disturbing that it understood me. I'll have to remember that for later. Might come in handy.
I turn and make my way back to Lothering, even more curious and worried about my true origins.
A/N And we find out a new connection Darien has. :) Next chapter coming soon! Oh, and Darien is classified as a Fade Warrior only in Magic. In reality he has a proficiency to use daggers and strike from shadow, so he's relatively skilled as a rogue as well. Hey, I can do what I want! In the real world you aren't limited to only learning how to fire a bow if you know how to sneak or pick locks! I personally think that if a mage only knows how to fight as a mage it's easier to find them hiding in society. If they fight as a rogue in public and a mage in private then it's a lot more difficult to notice them, unless they're reckless... ;)
