(ACT 1/A New Home)
Crimson P.O.V
My brother and I were arguing with a dwarf about joining an expedition to the Deep Roads, rumor has it the place filled with loads of gold and antiques that is worth a fortune. If I were able to get my hands on it my family would be able to live out the rest of their lives in peace and comfort and I wouldn't need to do any of this mercenary work.
"Come on let us on your expedition" Carver pleaded.
"I don't need anymore guards now stop pestering me!" the dwarfed shouted, he looked as though he were going to explode but we continued to pester him.
"Listen..." I said in a gruff tone. "We had training and actual experience killing darkspawn, how many of your men can actually say that?"
"I'M NOT STUPID I KNOW YOU WANT IN ON THE EXPEDITION ONLY SO YOUR SORRY ASSES COULD MAKE IT OUT OF LOWTOWN, WELL TOO BAD FIND ANOTHER MEAL TICKET" the dwarf responded before stomping off away from us. If I get the chance I'd like to slowly roast him alive while gouging out his eyes with my hands.
"What are we going to do this expedition was our last chance." Bethany said worried beyond belief.
"Don't worry Bethany I won't let the big bad Templars come and get you." Alior exclaimed before bursting out in laughter.
"You think this is funny?!" Bethany shouted before I shot her a look that said 'be quiet before the Templars find us'. Bethany composed herself before speaking again. "We need something staters, money, power, something to hide behind. As long as we're just living in Lowtown we're nobody and nothing is stopping the next Templar from barging in and taking us to The Circle."
"I don't care either way we're running away from your bloody Templars." Carver bellowed furiously as if he wanted us to get caught by Templars. I just glared at him as we began walking to Gamlen's house in Lowtown. As we were walking a shady looking guy bumped into me effectively taking my coin satchel bolstered on my hip. I took off after him and the rest of the Hawke(s) followed behind me. We have too little money as it is, no way I letting a dirty thug take what little we have. I turned a corner to find the cut-purse pinned against a wall. He squirmed before the dwarf shook his head at him before the dwarf punched his lights out and took the satchel from him. He walked causally toward us and tossed us the satchel. Everyone was in awe at the dwarf's decidely impressive feat myself included.
"Varric Tethras at your service" the dwarf said bowing.
"Is there a reason I'm supposed to care?!" I exclaimed ignoring the impressive amount of skill he just displayed.
"You may not know me, but you know my brother. He's leading an expedition into the Deep Roads. Lucky for you I just so happen to know how to get you in on our little expedition."
"Your brother just rejected us" I replied narrowing my eyes at 'Varric' if that was even the dwarf's real name.
"You see what my brother needs is not another guard, but a business partner". Everyone quirked their brows at Varric.
"Yeah cause we're definitely the Viscount of Kirkwall" I nodded at Alior's stupid brand of humor.
"If we had that kind of coin then we wouldn't need this job."
"It's a once in a lifetime chance the Deep Roads are filled with treasures after a blight. This opportunity doesn't come around often. It'll be worth it ' I'll even help you get the coin."
"This better be dwarf" I then briefly cracked my knuckles.
"Trust me with the way you glare I wouldn't want to be lying"I glared at him expectantly and waited for him to speak. "Look if you want to speak more about it meet me in the Hanged Man, the local tavern"
"Will do" my family and I began treking back to Gamlen's house to decide on what would be the best course of action. The walk to the house was slow and uneventful but I rarely get moments where I'm not getting attacked anymore. Upon entering the house we saw Leandra and Gamlen fighting.
"Brother I just want to see fathers will it is all I ask of you"
"Father left me his will, it was old news it went in the vault"
"Well where is the vault?!"
"It's back in the estate and there's nothing we can do about it now"
"Arrggh" mother said before storming out of the house. We all immediately ran into the nearest room afterward and began discussing the matter. "I hate to think badly of family but didn't Uncle Gamlen seem a little slippery when he was speaking to mother, like he was hiding something" Bethany noted skeptically
"I'll bet he was lying to mother about the estate" Carver backed
"Does anyone even know where the estates is?!" I chimed, my siblings and I looked at each other.
"Well I know of an estate that used to belong to me and Gamlen but I don't know if it's the right one."
"Your glibness does you no credit" I said with a flat tone.
"It's overrun with those nice friendly men that sells you people , and jewelry, and people, and armor, and did I forget to mention people."
"Slavers..." Bethany said quietly.
"I won't mind killing a few slavers to take back what's rightfully ours" I said in determination.
"Finally something we agree on brother"
Traveled to Darktown
We were in Darktown and noticed why it was named as such, there was barely any light getting into this area of Kirkwall. It looked so abandoned like this was a part of the city that the Viscount tried to cover up. We made our way pass several merchants several of which tried to coerce us into buy their faulty looking merchandise and other were just plain creepy. We eventually came across a passage way that lead to the first floor of the estate. It looked like some sort of side entrance or something of that nature. Aswe went inside we could tell that the building was beautiful in it's prime. The mansion itself was made entirely of wood, stone, and some foreign minerals for designs and such. There was great deal of intricate marking and designs on the wall and a lot of golden embroidery on the smashed antiques littering the floor. At this time though you could tell the mansion was way past it's prime. It seemed as though the wood flooring was coming up, the stone seem to be eroding and the minerals used for extravagant designs were barely noticeable. The estate seemed to be abandoned. The big question is whether it was like this because of the slavers or did Gamlen sell it to them like this?!. I shook my head of those thoughts. We were here for one thing and one thing only, to get grandfather's will for mother's sake. As we headed up the stairs we began hearing conversations. Most of them were along the lines of " I can't wait to get my hands on that slave, she's a fine piece of work" or "We need to increase the price we sell them at". The conversations were absolutely revolting. We continued until we were in what looked like a basement or a storage room perhaps?. Seconds later Bethany began hurling massive balls of flames the size of doors at the slavers in the area, and so the the battle begins...
The slavers pulled out daggers and readied themselves into a fighting stance similar Alior's, there were seven of them and only four of us. I used my entropy magic to put to sleep three of the seven to sleep, effectively evening the playing field. Now it was four on four and I knew we were better fighters than these slavers. I smirked mischievously and sent blasts of energy toward one of the enemies with my staff knocking him off of his feet and into one of the walls. Bethany followed suit. Alior went for a more stealthy approach by vanishing completely and re-appearing just before he slit the throat of his enemy. Carver did something similar only without the stealth and the same skill of appearing behind an enemy, he kind of just went blow for blow with the slaver until he spotted an opening and cut him down. The remaining sleeping enemies were merely decapitated in their sleep compliments of Carver. As we wondered deeper into the abandoned estate we were met with more slavers and we finished them off pretty much the same way, that is until we reached the basement where there was an apostate waiting for us and we had to be careful with them.
I could tell this was a powerful mage and as such proceeded with caution. The apostate slaver started by putting up a transparent barrier of some sort. I could only tell that a barrier was put up because there was a distortion in the air. Kind of like when you see heat during a heat wave. Carver being the rash person he is attempted to cleave him into pieces but that wasn't the case because when he tried to execute the attack the barrier bounced him back into one of the walls putting a massive dent in it. Alior vanished again using one of his rogue skills. Using the same skill about eight rogue slavers appeared ready to eliminate us with a stealthy kill. This wasn't good, I wouldn't be able to use the same strategy because if I put some of them to sleep then their apostate would just wake them with his magic. I had to come up with a strategy but that would require time which meant someone had to stall. As I was lost in thought the apostate put down his barrier to form an attack. He conjured a white orb that drew in all of the people the within a certain radius. I just so happen to have been in that radius because one second I was thinking and the next I was being sucked in by the orb gravitational pull. It sucked in me, Alior, and about three slavers in until it bursted sending us in all all different directions. Alior and I sustained massive injuries but, on the bright side he killed two of the slavers with that were still not in our of favor even though Bethany took down one of the slavers while Carver killed another one. That means there should be four slavers and an apostate. In that moment I had formed a plan that just might work. It seemed that to cast any type of magic the apostate has to put down his barrier so I'll put the slavers to sleep and have Alior vanish. When he puts down the barrier to wake them up then Alior will reappear and deliver the finishing blow, the rest could be done with ease. I have to hurry quickly though, the attack will make it hard to cast my spell, the attack damaged my staff wielding hand. Alior seemed to be picking himself up from the attack
"Bathany, Carver hold them off, Alior I need you to come over to me"
"Will do" Carver and Bethany said in unison. Alior ran over to me quickly, in fact he seemed to have had sustained no damage aside from a few scratches. "Alior I have a plan"
"Tell me quickly I'm not sure your siblings can hold out much longer"
"Okay... when I put the enemies to sleep I need you to use your vanishing skill then when the apostate puts down his barrier reappear and slice his neck."
"Understood"
"Now prepare yourself" I said putting the enemies fighting Carver and Bethany to sleep. Immediately Alior vanished and the apostate as expected tried to wake up his allies but, to do so he had to lower his barrier. So the moment his barrier was fully down Alior slashed him three times before he finally fell. The rest of the slavers were dealt swift deaths in their sleep. "Thank the Maker" Bethany said wiping sweat from her brow. She like myself suffered from mana exhaustion.
"Come on we have to find grandfather's will" I shouted and we ran up to a staircase where there seemed to be one final door. Alior eagerly opened the door as if we were children on a spy mission. As we entered the room I noticed there were several strongboxes, they appeared to have needed a key to open both of them.
"I got it" Alior said as he casually used his rogue skills to open both of the strongboxes.
"Here it is" Bethany chirped as she jumped merrily with the musty old pieces of paper. "Are you guys ready to get out of here?" Carver asked, as if Carver's stupid question weren't bad enough Alior went and indulged it.
"No because I enjoy staying in an old, dark, slaver infested mansion with no food or water" Alior retorted.
I merely glared daggers at Alior before responding with a yes to Carver's previous statement.
Traveled to Lowtown
When we got back to house Bethany and I immediately started shifting through the old papers to see what if the claims uncle made were true. Although he was our family whenever mother mention Gamlen it wasn't often in a positive context in fact it was often quite the opposite. My eyes widened when I finished reading the will coincidentally mother and Gamlen were walking in at the same time.
"Gamlen's a liar and a cheat mother read it here." I gave mother the documents.
"I leave all my possessions, the estate, the money,the name everything. So mother and father didn't hate me?"mother said as realization hit her.
"You will spend everyday of your miserable life paying mother back." I growled at Gamlen but he wasn't having it.
"Like hell I will. How long was I supposed look after a life you abandoned after left with that apostate?"
"That's not what I want... it's just enough that mother and father didn't die hating me. Meanwhile I can petition the Viscount for rights to the house, and we'll be out of you hair in no time. "
"Bah that'll never happen you have to be somebody in this city to get that estate back."
"Well I had better get started" mother said walking away with her held high with the utmost grace. I watched mother's retreating figure and thought how is mother going to get that reputation.
Three hours later
Bethany was walking back and forth pondering the things that had transpired just hours ago.
"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have lived here? To have known our grandparents... do you think they would've like me"
I half smiled "How could they not you enchant everyone you meet."
"Do you think that we could really get the estate back?" I frowned
"I'm not sure, but I'm positive there's way we can have it back. Where there's a will there's a way" I said almost inaudibly. A sinister voice began speaking in my head. Is that what you tell yourself. My you are pathetic. You can't bring people back can you? Of course you can't you don't have the POWER. You couldn't save your father from an ogre, how in Thedas will you protect your sister from a Templar.
"Brother" Bethany said concern evident in her eyes. "Are you alright?!"
"Yes Bethany, I appreciate you concern" I rested my hand on her shoulder
"Listen" Carver interjected " I don't really care if we get the estate back, in fact if it were up to me I would start something new not hide behind a fallen noble house". Carver said aggressively
"Yeah but it isn't up to you..." I said glaring at Carver.
"But it's not up to you either brother. The last time we left something up to you and father was murdered by a blight-" I stopped Carver in the middle of his sentence with good hand wrapped tightly around his throat. "Dare to repeat that again brother" Carver just glared at me with rage in his eyes. My hold got tighter and tighter and Carver's expression went from rage to fear that I was going to actually kill him.
"Brother?" Bethany said shaking my arm "Brother that's enough, let Carver go" however, Bethany's pleas fell on deaf ears. She continued chanting brother but to no avail. Carver at this point began turning blue from the lack of oxygen. Do it, do it, show them how powerful you are. Show them how you can kill ogres and crush the templars beneath your heel. Show them all. Right before I was about to end Carver's existence Alior slashed me on the side of my good arm and kicked me off of Carver. I suddenly was aware of my senses and all of my surroundings. Alior looked at me with a stoic expression before continuing.
"I've had enough your show, next time quit before you live to do something you regret..." then as swiftly as he appeared he vanished.
"Brother" Bethany rushed over to my side healing my wounds. I was beginning to feel drained and dizzy. The last thing I was aware of was Carver coughing and gasping for air before falling unconscious.
(ACT 1/A New Home) - End