Ch. 2: In Which Everyone is Double-crossed
Olivia followed Duncan to the huge military camp in the ruined fortress. "Here we are. We need to…" Duncan was interrupted by the arrival of a group of soldiers led by a tall blond man wearing golden armor. "Your majesty!" Exclaimed Duncan. "I wasn't expecting…"
"To be welcomed personally by the king? I was just beginning to worry you wouldn't get here in time for the fun."
"Er, of course not."
"Then the great and mighty Duncan will fight at my side in battle after all. Glorious!" Duncan looked rather awkward. King Cailan looked at Olivia for the first time. "I heard you found a recruit. I'm assuming that this is her?"
"Yes. Olivia Amell, from the Circle of magi."
Olivia shook off her paralysis at the king's odd attitude. "It's an honor to meet you, your majesty," she said politely, bowing slightly.
"The pleasure is all mine. It must be hard for you to leave your home to become a Grey Warden."
"Not really," said Olivia cheerfully. "The Circle's basically just a big prison where they put people without trial for the dubious crime of existing. I'm having the time of my life. Seriously. We stopped in a bar one time and I got to have actual alcohol! And I got a sunburn! It was awesome!"
Cailan didn't seem to know how to react to that. Luckily, Duncan stepped in. "Your uncle would like me to remind you that he can be here very, very quickly if you'll just wait for him."
Cailan laughed. "Eamon just wants to steal all the glory. I'm not even sure this is a real blight."
Duncan blinked. "Er…"
"I just want something like in the stories, a king riding into battle against the darkspawn beside the Grey Wardens." Olivia surreptitiously tapped her staff with a fist. Duncan stared at her. 'Knock on wood' she mouthed to him. She had the feeling that Cailan had just jinxed himself. The king did not notice this exchange. "Anyway," the King continued obliviously, "I have to go. Loghain is waiting. He wants to bore me to death with his strategies." With that, he turned away and left, followed by his entourage.
"He refers to strategy as boring?" Olivia said to Duncan, stunned. "You really do need all the help you can get, don't you?"
"I'm afraid so. To this end, we need to get your joining ritual over as quickly as possible. Go find Alistair. As the junior Grey Warden, he'll be the one helping you prepare."
"Right. Um, who's Alistair?"
"Just look for the guy who looks exactly like King Cailan except with short hair. He's pretty hard to miss. He'll be somewhere across that bridge," Duncan said, pointing.
"Okay. Wander around until I find the king's doppelganger. Got it."
Olivia ambled off across the bridge. Upon reaching the other side, she heard a miserable whining noise, like an animal in distress. Curious, the followed the sounds to an enclosure full of mabari hounds. One of the mabaris was in a smaller fenced in area off to the side. It was the source of the noises. Olivia stepped up to the fence. "Awww… poor doggie. What's wrong?" She said, feeling sad. The mabari looked at her with an obviously miserable expression and whined unhappily.
A man rushed up. "What are you doing? Get away from there! That dog's got the blight sickness!"
"That's horrible!" exclaimed Olivia. "Isn't there anything you can do?"
"We've got some medicines, but no one can get near enough to administer them." He looked between Olivia and the dog, which was now giving her puppy eyes. "You wouldn't mind muzzling him so we can, would you?"
"Of course not!" He handed Olivia a muzzle and let her into the enclosure. She went over to the dog, making soothing noises, and put the muzzle on, then walked back over to the gate and left. The man looked relieved. "Thank you. Now we can at least try to help him. Listen, you wouldn't happen to be going into the wilds anytime soon?"
"I don't know."
"Well, if you do, there's a flower that might help. It's pretty hard to miss- white with a pure red center. If you happen to run into one…"
"Then I'll bring it to you, I promise."
"Thank you."
"No problem," said Olivia cheerfully as she turned away and began to walk off.
Olivia wandered around a bit more. She found the mages' encampment and spent a little time annoying the Templars before she got bored and left. Eventually, she found a mostly collapsed building with no walls or ceiling where a blond man who looked almost exactly like King Maric was arguing with one of the mages, who abruptly stormed off, pushing past her. "Rude!" she yelled after him.
The blond sighed. "One good thing about the Blight is how it brings people together."
Olivia instantly decided that she liked him. "I know exactly what you mean."
"It's like a big party! We can all stand in a circle and hold hands. It would certainly confuse the darkspawn, at least."
Olivia laughed. "You must be Alistair."
"And you must be the new recruit."
"Yep. Olivia Amell. What was that argument about, anyway?"
"The Grand Cleric asked me to give that man a message. I used to be a Templar, so it was a bit awkward."
"Oh," said Olivia. Her initial good impression went down a bit. "So, er, shall we just move on, then?" she asked uncomfortably.
"Good idea. Go find Duncan next to the bonfire in our camp while I round up the other recruits."
Olivia found Duncan standing dramatically next to the bonfire at about the same time as Alistair showed up with a brawny, nervous-looking fellow and a man whose attitude screamed 'loveable rogue cliché'. Duncan introduced them as, respectively, Ser Jory of Highever and Daveth.
"Now that everyone is here," announced Duncan, "I have two tasks for you in the wilds." Everyone looked at him expectantly. "First, each of you new recruits must procure a vial of darkspawn blood."
That sounded slightly ominous. "Um, why do we need…"
"You just do. As to the second task. There is an old Grey Warden outpost in the wilds. You need to recover a set of important treaties that were left there when it was abandoned."
"What kind of idiot leaves something like that behind?" Duncan looked a bit sheepish. He glared at Olivia. "Right. Shutting up now."
Alistair led Olivia and the other two recruits outside the fortifications. Within a few minutes, they came upon a group of dead soldiers along with one severely wounded survivor crying weakly for help. The group immediately stopped in front of the injured man. "Help!" he gasped. "Scouting group…attacked by darkspawn…need to get back to camp…"
"Hold on a second," said Olivia, pulling some bandages out of her backpack and helping him up after they were securely on his wounds. "The camp's only about twenty feet that way," she said, pointing over her shoulder. "If you can't make it all the way there just yell and someone'll probably hear you."
The injured soldier staggered off. Olivia turned back to her companions to suggest they go. Ser Jory, however, appeared to be having a panic attack. "Why are we out here? We're going to be killed by darkspawn, just like all those men!"
Daveth rolled his eyes. "Don't worry so much. This is probably just a test."
"Besides," added Alistair, soothingly, "Grey Wardens can sense darkspawn nearby. We won't run into any large groups."
"See?" said Daveth cheerfully. "We might be killed by darkspawn, but we'll be warned about it first." It didn't seem to help.
Soon afterward, the group was attacked by a pack of wolves. "What?" shouted Olivia freezing a couple of the wolves in ice and shattering them with a blow of her staff. "Wild animals do not act like this!"
"It's the Blight," Alistair yelled back. "It drives them crazy."
Soon all the wolves were dead, most the victims of Olivia's freeze/burn/bludgeon method of attack. They were ready to move on again when Oliva pounced on a large, miraculously undamaged white flower with a red center, which she carefully placed in a buttoned pocket.
"Okay, why…"
"The man over at the kennels was looking for this kind of flower to help a sick doggie."
"Doggie?" asked Alistair faintly
Olivia glared at him. "Shut up."
"Moving on."
The first encounter with darkspawn began when an arrow smashed into the ground at Ser Jory's feet, making him jump at least a foot in the air, followed by more darkspawn pouring out at them from behind the hill where the archers were stationed. The three men instantly rushed forward to meet the onslaught head-on while Olivia cheerfully hid behind one of the ancient broken pillars they had been walking past and threw fireballs at the archers, freezing or smashing any enemies that came close enough to actually threaten her as she enjoyed the sight of the explosions. Blowing up horrible, twisted monsters was fun.
When the fight was over, the three melee fighters, tired, blood covered and mildly injured, looked at Olivia standing cheerfully in the center of a ring of frozen chunks of darkspawn. "I think I hate you," muttered Daveth.
"S'what you get for not using a bow."
They collected the vials of blood and continued to the abandoned tower, now abandoned structure-with no-ceiling-and-very-few-walls, killing all the darkspawn they came across on the way. The 'tower' contained a smashed-in chest with nothing inside.
"Well, that was productive," remarked Olivia sarcastically. "Now what?"
Everyone jumped as a voice spoke up from atop one of the broken walls. "Well, well, what have we here?" The speaker was a skimpily-dressed black haired woman with creepy yellow eyes. "Are you scavengers perhaps? Or merely intruders come to these darkspawn filled wilds of mine in search of easy prey?" Everyone stared at the newcomer in various degrees of surprise, confusion, and suspicion. "Well?" she said. "What say you? Scavengers or intruders?"
"Neither," Olivia answered, when it became obvious that no one else was going to say anything. "We're Grey Wardens. It's our tower. Well, our organization's tower, technically."
"It is a tower no longer." Well, she'd gotten that one right. "I have watched your party's progress for some time," she continued. "Where do they go, I asked myself. Why are they here?" And now you disturb ashes none have touched for so long. Why is that?"
"Don't answer her," whispered Alistair. "She looks Chasind, and that means there might be others nearby."
"Oooh!" the woman exclaimed. "You fear barbarians will swoop down upon you?"
"Yes… Swooping is bad." Muttered Alistair.
Uncharacteristically, Daveth chimed in nervously. "She's a witch of the wilds, she is. She'll turn us all into toads."
Olivia hit her forehead with her hand. "Daveth, magic doesn't work that way."
"Witch of the wilds?" said the stranger. "Such idle fancies, those legends. Have you no minds of your own?" she gestured to Olivia. "You there. Women are not frightened like little boys. Tell me your name and I shall tell you mine."
"Olivia Amell. It's nice to meet you," said Olivia politely.
"Now that is a proper, civil greeting, even here in these wilds. You may call me Morrigan. Shall I guess your purpose? You sought something in that chest, something that is here no longer?"
"Here no longer? You stole it, didn't you?" accused Alistair. "You're some sort of sneaky witch-thief."
"How very eloquent." Olivia agreed with that sentiment completely. "How does one steal from dead men?"
"Quite easily, it seems," snarked Alistair. "Those documents are Grey Warden property and I suggest you return them."
"I cannot. I didn't take them," Morrigan sniffed.
"Who did take them, then?" asked Olivia.
"My mother."
"Can you take us to see her?"
"Now that is a sensible request. I like you."
"I'd be careful," said Alistair. "First it's 'I like you' then 'zap', you're a frog."
Olivia sighed. "You'd think an ex-Templar would know that magic doesn't work that way."
"Duncan rescued me before I could finish my training."
"She'll put us all in the pot, she will, just you watch," said Daveth.
At this point, Ser Jory made his first useful contribution to any of their conversations with a comment of "If the pot's warmer than this forest, it'd be a nice change."
"Follow me, then," said Morrigan, beginning to walk away, giving them no choice but to follow her or be left behind.
Morrigan led them in a twisting, convoluted path through the forest to a tiny hut outside which an elderly woman stood. "Greetings, mother," said Morrigan. "I bring you four Grey Wardens, who…"
"I noticed, girl, I'm not blind." interrupted the elderly woman. "Much as I expected."
Alistair scoffed. "Are we supposed to believe you were expecting us?"
"You are required to do nothing, least of all believe. Shut one's eyes tight or open one's arms wide, either way, one's a fool." That… made no sense at all.
"We shouldn't be talking to her," said Daveth in an undertone. "She's a witch."
"Be quiet. Do you actually want to make someone who might be a witch mad?" asked Ser Jory sensibly.
"There is a smart lad," said the old woman. "Sadly irrelevant in the larger scheme of things, but it is not I who decides. Believe what you will."
Olivia shivered, causing Alistair to look at her inquisitively. "My foreshadowing senses are tingling."
That seemed to have gotten the old woman's attention. "And what of you? What do you believe?"
"I…honestly don't know," admitted Olivia.
"And you show more wisdom in that than is at first obvious. So much about you is uncertain…and yet I believe. Do I? Why, it seems I do."
"So this is the witch of the wilds everyone is so scared of," said Alistair in an amused voice.
"Witch of the wilds? Morrigan must have told you that. She secretly thinks those tales are amusing." The old woman laughed.
"They're not here for your stories, mother," cut in Morrigan irritably and a bit embarrassed.
"No, they came for their treaties." The old woman fetched a stack of papers from the hut's steps. "And before you start to complain, the seal on the chest broke long ago. I have protected these."
"You…"Alistair automatically began indignantly. "Oh. You protected them. Thank you."
"And why not?" She handed him the documents. "Take them to your Grey Wardens and tell them this Blight's threat is greater than they realize."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Olivia.
"Either the threat is more or they realize less. Or perhaps the threat is nothing or perhaps they realize nothing." She laughed. The cryptic statement inexplicably made Olivia more nervous than it probably should have, but she had no chance to ask more questions, for the old woman then had Morrigan escort them back to the camp.
Once they arrived at the camp, it was time for the mysterious ceremony, though Olivia did make a quick detour to give the flower she had picked up to the man at the kennels, Alistair, Jory, and Daveth waiting exasperatedly behind her. While they were waiting around for Duncan to show up, Ser Jory began having another panic attack. "I didn't sign up for this sort of thing! I came to fight darkspawn, not participate in mysterious, creepy rituals! I left my pregnant wife behind in Highever at our new house to come here." Olivia discretely sidled away from him. Yep. Definitely a goner.
"I'd sacrifice a lot more than that if I knew it would stop the Blight!" shot back Daveth.
"It just doesn't seem fair," Ser Jory whined.
"Since when is anything in life fair?" snapped Olivia.
At that point, Duncan arrived, carrying a large, ornate goblet. "And now the time has come for the Joining," he said solemnly. "You must drink darkspawn blood and master the taint."
"Ew," said Olivia.
"We're going to drink those…things'…blood?" asked Ser Jory, sounding horrified.
"Just like all the Grey Wardens before you. It is the source of our power."
"Doesn't make it any less icky, though," said Olivia.
Duncan rolled his eyes.
"You'll be immune to the Taint afterward. And able to use it to sense when darkspawn are nearby and slay the archdemon," said Alistair. "If you survive."
"Not helping much," grumbled Olivia. "Fine, fine, on with the deadly, icky cultish ritual, then."
"We speak only a few words prior to the Joining, but these words have been said since the first," said Duncan. "Alistair?"
Alistair bowed his head slightly and began to speak. "Join us, brothers and sisters. Join us as we carry the duty that cannot be forsworn. And should you perish, know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten and that one day we shall join you." All three recruits, including Olivia, began to become rather nervous. Ser Jory was becoming positively antsy, shooting apprehensive glances at the goblet of blood.
Duncan picked up the goblet in both hands and moved toward Daveth. "Daveth, step foreward," he said. Daveth took the cup and took a sip. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, Daveth grasped his head, screaming, and collapsed on the ground, desperately trying to breathe. "Maker's breath!" swore Ser Jory, stepping backward with a horrified expression as Daveth expired on the ground.
"Step forward, Jory," said Duncan.
"No way! I've got a wife and child! If I'd known about this…"
"There is no turning back."
Ser Jory backed against the wall and drew his sword. "No! This isn't glorious at all!"
Duncan put down the goblet and drew his dagger, stabbing Jory in the chest. "I am sorry," he said, letting the lifeless body fall to the ground. "But the Joining is not yet complete" He turned to Olivia, who was staring in shocked horror. "You are called to submit yourselves to the Taint for the greater good," he said, handing her the goblet. Olivia closed her eyes, desperately trying to pretend that she was not about to drink poisonous blood, and took a sip from the goblet, forcing herself to swallow. She handed the goblet back to Duncan and collapsed into agonized darkness, filled with visions of a vast dragon beneath a greenish sky.
Olivia awoke to a pounding head and the sight of Alistair and Duncan's faces looking down at her. "It is finished," said Duncan. "Welcome."
"Two more deaths," said Alistair sadly. "Only one person died at my Joining, but it was still awful. I'm glad one of you made it."
"Yeah?" said Olivia. "The one who died at your Joining, was it from the poison blood or was he stabbed, too?"
Alistair and Duncan both looked a bit awkward. "So...how do you feel," asked Duncan.
"Well, my head hurts, I was just in horrible pain, two people I know are dead, and I just had a really creepy dream about a giant dragon."
"The dream part is normal," said Alistair helpfully. "The other Grey Wardens will explain it later. Oh, yeah, here." He handed her a small glass pendant filled with a viscous dark red liquid. "We take some of the blood from our Joining and put it in a pendant to remind us of the people who died."
"Oh, joy," said Olivia dryly. "Did you make this while I was unconscious? How long was I out for, exactly?"
"Only a few minutes. We pre-make them and if you die in the Joining we bury you with it."
"Lovely." Olivia stuck the pendant in her pocket.
"Okay," said Duncan. "You have five minutes to rest, then we need to go to a strategy meeting with the king. For some reason he insisted on having you there. It's at that table just down the stairs to the west."
"I'll just buy a headache potion and meet you there, then," said Olivia with a weak smile.
True to her word, she went and got a headache potion the wandered over to the meeting. As she approached, Cailan was arguing with a large, grumpy-looking man with black hair. "For the last time, Loghain, I'm fighting with the Grey Wardens!"
The man, who was apparently Loghain, scowled. "It's too dangerous for the king to fight a darkspawn horde on the front lines."
"Maybe we should wait for the Orlesians to get here, then."
"No Orlesians!"
"Oh get over it."
"It's a good thing your father isn't here to see this."
"Whatever," said Cailan. "Duncan, are your people ready for the battle?"
"Yes, your majesty," said Duncan politely.
Cailan looked at Olivia. "And this is the recruit I met on the road? Congratulations."
"Um, thank you, your majesty," said Olivia. She wondered what Duncan would have told him if she had died in the Joining.
"We need every Grey Warden we can get right now. You should be honored to join them."
Loghain glared at him. "Your fascination with glory and legends is going to get you killed one of these days. We need to focus on the real world."
"Fine, let's talk plans, then. So, the Grey Wardens and I will draw the darkspawn into charging at us and then…"
"You light the beacon to signal my men to charge from where they're hidden."
"To flank the darkspawn, I remember, yeesh. Who's going to be lighting the beacon? It's in the Tower of Ishal, right?"
"I've got some men there," said Loghain. "It's not very dangerous but it is important."
"Then we should send the best people we can. Send Alistair and the new Grey Warden to make sure it gets done."
"I have a name," muttered Olivia. "I will do it if you want me to, though."
"You are putting way too much faith in these Grey Wardens," complained Loghain.
"Enough of your conspiracy theories," said Cailan. "Grey Wardens battle darkspawn no matter where they come from." Olivia kind of wanted to hear the conspiracy theories. They sounded interesting.
"You should consider the possibility of the archdemon showing up," interrupted Duncan.
"No one's seen any giant dragons nearby," pointed out Loghain.
"Isn't keeping a lookout for the archdemon your job?" asked Cailan.
Duncan looked embarrassed. "Yes your majesty."
An older man in mage robes that Olivia vaguely recognized from the Circle Tower butted in. "Your majesty, we don't need the tower and the beacon. The circle of magi…"
He was interrupted by an elderly cleric who for some reason was part of the war council. "We will not trust our lives to your spells, mage!" she snapped. "Save it for the darkspawn!"
"I have a name," snapped the mage at the same time as Olivia commented with "Wow, you really are prejudiced."
"Enough!" snarled an exasperated Loghain. "Let's just stick with the plan we have. The Grey Wardens can light the beacon."
"Thank you, Loghain," said Cailan. "I cannot wait for that glorious moment! The Grey Wardens battle beside the king to stem the tide of evil."
"Yes, Cailan, a glorious moment for us all." Olivia couldn't see Loghain's face, but just from his voice that sounded distinctly ominous.
"And suddenly I'm really glad I won't be fighting in the battle," she announced to Duncan.
He looked confused. "Back to the bonfire, let's go."
Back at the bonfire, they met up with Alistair. "Okay, you heard the plan," said Duncan. "You and Alistair will go to the Tower of Ishal and make sure the beacon gets lit."
"What?" exclaimed Alistair. "I'm not going to fight in the battle?"
"The king specifically requested that you and Olivia do this. Besides, if the beacon isn't lit, Teryn Loghain and his men won't know when to charge. It's important."
"So he needs two Grey Wardens up there just in case?"
"Yeah, well, he's the king. You're stuck with beacon-lighting duty," said Duncan. "Even if it is boring."
"Fine," said Alistair grumpily. "But if the king ever asks me to put on a dress and dance the remgold, I'm not doing it."
Olivia rolled her eyes. "Way to take a stand there, Alistair."
"I've still got dignity. Well, a little bit of it."
Duncan sighed. "The tower is across the gorge from the king's camp, back the way we came when we arrived. You need to get to the top of the tower, where you'll be able to see the entire valley. We'll signal you when it's time to light the beacon."
"What's the…"
"Alistair knows what the signal is."
"Okay."
"I need to join the others. The two of you are on your own from here. Remember, you're Grey Wardens, act like it. Oh, yeah," he pulled a stack of paper out of his sash that Olivia recognized as the documents they had retrieved earlier that day. "Take these with you. I don't want them getting lost or damaged during the battle." He handed the papers to Olivia, who carefully stuck them in her backpack. "Keep those with you." Duncan turned to leave.
"Duncan," called Alistair hesitantly. "Good luck. May the Maker watch over you."
Duncan sighed. "May the Maker watch over us all."
A couple hours later, Olivia and Alistair began heading toward the Tower of Ishal. In the distance, Olivia could hear a clamor of noise from the battlefield. As they crossed the gorge, huge flaming boulders smashed into the bridge they were on, making the entire structure shudder and sending shrapnel flying everywhere. It was raining, and the stones were slippery, which, along with the boulders, made it very difficult to walk.
It was once they reached the other side of the gorge, however, that things started to get difficult. A rather generic-looking soldier ran up in a panic and started gesturing wildly to a second soldier.
"What's going on?" asked Alistair.
"The Tower!" wailed the first soldier. "It's fallen!"
"What? What do you mean? Fallen how? More information please!"
"The darkspawn came up from the basement! All our people are dead!"
"We've got to get to the beacon ourselves, then," decided Alistair.
The second soldier was staring at Olivia oddly. "Do I know you? You look eerily familiar."
"Probably not; I spent the past ten years locked up by an insane theocracy."
"Olivia?"
"Okay, how did you know that?"
He took off his helmet, revealing a young man with short black hair and bright blue eyes almost exactly like hers. "It's me, Carver."
Olivia stared. "Woah. I haven't seen you since you were seven. You got taller than me. No fair. What have you been up to, anyway?"
"We went back to moving around all the time. You?"
"Spent ten years jailed for the crime of…well, existing…before going and joining the Grey Wardens." She cackled. "They'll never be able to take me back to the Circle now."
Alistair was getting impatient. "Tower. Darkspawn. Remember?"
"Oh, sorry," said Olivia. "Meet me after the battle?" she asked Carver.
"Sure. You'll be in the Grey Wardens' camp?"
"Yep."
"Great. I'll be there. You should visit Mother, too. We're living in Lothering."
"I will," said Olivia. Alistair coughed. "Right. Tower."
"I should go find Hawke. She'll get in trouble trying to rescue someone without me. She's developed a bit of a hero complex. Why Mother let her con her way into the army…" Carver ran off, and Olivia and Alistair commenced hurrying to the Tower of Ishal.
"Who was that, anyway?"
"My long lost cousin who I haven't seen or heard from in years because the Templars don't let mages have any contact with their family or friends."
"…So, who's Hawke."
"His sister, Pandora. Never use her actual first name. She hates it and is really scary with a sword." Also her magic, but Olivia wasn't mentioning that in front of an audience.
"So…"
"Look out!" Olivia pulled Alistair out of the way of a darkspawn arrow and reached for her staff. "Looks like we'll have to fight our way to the tower," she said, blasting a hole in the offending darkspawn's head.
"Guess so," said Alistair, drawing his sword.
The next ten minutes or so were a blur of rain, dismemberment, and explosions courtesy of Olivia as the two of them battled their way through about a dozen darkspawn with the help of a few surviving soldiers to get to the doors of the tower.
"Right, who's coming with us?" asked Olivia.
The handful of soldiers looked at one another nervously. Eventually, two of them stepped forward. "Bob and I will, ma'am."
"Great. Let's go. Come on, Bob and…"
"Cliff, ma'am."
"Bob and Cliff. Brilliant. May I just say that you two are the bravest men here?"
Bob and Cliff looked father proud, while their comrades shifted guiltily.
The group of four walked into the tower of Ishal and almost immediately encountered a barricade with only one opening. Shrugging, Olivia walked over to the barricade and immediately slipped on the floor, which had been covered in grease, sliding straight into a tripwire that caused a nearby barrel to explode. Well this was off to an auspicious start.
Several floors of bloodshed later, Olivia was getting severely annoyed. She didn't seem to be the only one, either. "What are these darkspawn doing here?" wondered Alistair, sounding equal parts annoyed and befuddled.
"You could try telling them that they're in the wrong place," Olivia suggested a bit bitterly.
He laughed. "Pardon me, mister darkspawn, you appear to have gotten a bit turned around. Allow me to direct you to the battle." Olivia snickered.
They eventually reached the top of the tower. "Finally!" exclaimed Alistair. "There's the beac…on," he trailed off, staring at the corner of the room, where a gigantic ogre was happily dismembering corpses.
"How did that thing even get up here?" wondered Olivia. "It looks too big to fit on the staircases, let alone through the door."
The ogre roared and charged the four unlucky humans, who immediately scattered in different directions. Olivia flung a spell at the ogre, somehow managing to hit it and encase the huge monster in ice that immediately began to crack. "Do something!" she shouted, sending a blast from her staff at it. "That won't hold it for long!"
"Right!" said Alistair. He and Cliff fan around behind the ogre and began hewing at the back of its heels, presumably going for its tendons, while Olivia and Bob sniped at it from as far away as possible using the staff and a bow respectively.
The ogre got free of the ice at the same time as Alistair managed to cut through its thick skin to cripple it. It fell to one knee with a roar, sweeping its arms around and knocking Alistair and Cliff off their feet, sending them crashing into the wall. Luckily for all of them, that gave Bob a clear shot at the ogre's face and he sent an arrow through its eye, killing it.
"Hurry up and light the beacon," called out Alistair while struggling to stand back up. "We must have missed the signal by now!"
"Right," confirmed Olivia. She ran over to the beacon and flung a quick fire spell at it, sending up a gigantic blaze. "There. That should be…" She was interrupted by the door being smashed inward, darkspawn flooding into the room. Before she even had time to reach for her staff, three arrows simultaneously slammed into her and she collapsed, her vision going blurry. Her last, slightly incoherent, thought before passing out was vaguely delirious annoyance that after everything that had happened, she was still going to die in a tower.
