A/N I apologize profusely on the late update. I have been extremely busy, and my weekends have been away from my laptop. Unfortunately I will soon be going on a week long camping trip, but I'll see if I can update for you guys tomorrow. Anyway, I would like tips on how to make combat flow more smoothly if you think improvements could be made.
Merrill stood gathered with Hawke and the others in the center of the trade district, absentmindedly examining her feet while Bartrand went on about taking the Deep Roads virginity or something of the like. Bartrand continued droning on and on, when suddenly a shrill voice was heard. Merrill turned to see a woman she had learned was Hawke's mother, rushing toward them. Bartrand brought his palm to his face and cursed under his breath as she led her two sons away from the scene.
Merrill watched them argue, with Hawke's mother obviously very concerned about something. Hawke and Carver managed to convince her; however, even to Merrill it was obvious that the agreement was made grudgingly. Hawke and Carver reentered the group, Bartrand walked over to them saying, "Family drama over? Good, lets get on with this," Bartrand said impatiently. Hawke motioned for Merrill to join them, as they prepared to make their way out of the city.
Merrill examined the large expanse of tunnel around them. When they had first walked in several days ago, the entrance possessed an ominous atmosphere threatening to swallow them. Now it seemed as if they were in the belly of the beast, at any moment they could be attacked by a stray group of Darkspawn. They had been traveling for several days; progress seemed to be going well. However they had just been stopped by one of the expedition's scouts, and Bartrand was talking to him trying to sort out what was going on. Merrill winced as Bartrand slammed his fist into the scouts face, 'Not good news obviously.' Bartrand called out to set up camp. Hawke and Varric however, had other ideas.
Weapons in hand, Carver, Hawke, Merrill, and Varric made their way deeper into the Roads, searching for a way to lead the expedition forward, ready at any instant for the threat of Darkspawn. Veins of pure lyrium filled the expanse or rock with a glowing blue light, illuminating the caverns. Hearing the distant clink of weapons and armor they advanced forward carefully
Pausing as they reach a bend in the cave, Hawke listened intently for any further signs of Darkspawn. Confirming their presence he motioned for them to come forward slowly. He pointed toward a group of Darkspawn idling towards them. Merrill, who hadn't encountered Darkspawn since Mahariel had left, was again slightly intimidated by the fearsome appearance of the creatures. With the Hawke brothers and Varric by her side however, she was not afraid.
Hawke nodded at Varric, who understanding readied Bianca appropriately. Taking aim he launched a flurry of arrows upon the currently unaware Darkspawn. Roars of alert echoed through the walls of the cave as Darkspawn attempted to take cover from the hail of arrows. Shouting out orders Hawke and the others join the fray. Hawke and Merrill further wore at the numbers of the enemy, their alternating attacks of fire and lighting sending Darkspawn screaming as they were burned alive. Carver moved in having a clear opening, and charged into enemy lines, easily dismembering multiple Darkspawn with broad sweeps of his blade. Merrill noticed the Hawke brothers slay the Darkspawn with particular animosity, likely remembering their sister in the fight. They all worked together in sync effectively eliminating the remaining Darkspawn. They had won, for the moment.
Putting away their weapons the party continued forward, eventually greeted by the site of a ogre, frozen solid, surrounded by the corpses of dozens of Darkspawn.
"Well I'll be damned to the void, I think that's Bodahn's boy!" Varric exclaimed.
Chuckling as he examined the corpses, he looked towards Sandal, "Cool trick, but how in Adraste's name did you do that," Hawke asked, eyeing the Ogre, which still managed to look threatening in its frozen state.
Sandal reached into his pocket taking out a rune and emphasizing, "Boom!"
Hawke and Varric both shared a chuckle as Sandal made his way back to the expedition's camp, and Merrill herself couldn't suppress a small giggle at the dwarf's antics.
The party had been walking for several hours, fighting the seemingly never ending waves of Darkspawn as they pushed their way through the Deep Roads. The combat had started to wear down on them, and they were eager to finally It seemed things were finally coming to a head when they found a promising looking passage. What no one was expecting was the shriek of a large dragon as it swept down upon them gnashing its teeth together viciously.
"Really?" Hawke groaned, "Since when do dragons fly underground," He sighed drawing his staff. Merrill grinned as he unintentionally made light from the situation, despite being faced by one of the most dangerous creatures in Thedas. The creature released a roaring ball of fire towards them, and Merrill responded instinctively, willing a column of earth to rise in between them, effectively shielding them from the blaze.
"Nice save there," Hawke said in thanks, but he nodded toward the dragon, emphasizing the need to focus at the threat at hand. Merrill nodded in acknowledgement, steeling herself for battle once more.
Carver closed in on the dragon distracting it, allowing the rest of them to maximize their damage. As if realizing their tactics the beast suddenly leapt towards Merrill's position, throwing its tail at her viscously. Not having enough time to react it impacted the side of her chest hard, knocking the wind out of her as she was sent sprawling across the chamber. She impacted the floor hard, and heard Hawke shouting out her name as she slipped into unconsciousness.
Merrill groaned as she tried to clear the cobwebs in her mind, her ribs burning painfully. She heard voices as she attempted to open her eyes, and was greeted by the sight of Hawke over her, his hands emitting a healing aura. As she tried to rise, he gently pushed her back down gesturing for her to relax. Seeing the questioning look in his eyes, he nodded toward the dragons now still form, riddled with arrows, gashes, and scorch marks. Finally gathering strength to speak she asked, "What happened?" her ribs protesting as she did.
"The dragon knocked you out pretty good, things ended badly for it from there." Hawke explained. "Varric and Carver are heading back to get Bartrand and the others." Examining his work he said, "I healed your ribs but there's going to be nasty bruising there for a couple of days." His eyes met her emerald ones, obviously filled with relief. "I'm glad you're okay," He said, as he gave her a hand to help her up.
Merrill felt something stir within her as he took her hand in his, pulling her up. "Thank you," She final managed, thankful that most the blush that had crept its way into her features was concealed by the poor lighting. Hawke smiled, shrugging as it were nothing.
He looked as if he were about to say something when suddenly a loud voice cut in, "When your done flirting with the elf, I'd like to get this expedition rolling again," Bartrand interrupted, with undisguised irritation laced into his words. He brushed passed them, Hawke made a mock serious face, mouthing the impatient dwarf's words.
"Spot on Hawke," Varric said chuckling, as Merrill giggled at Hawke's impression. Hawke grinned, before motioning then to continue pressing forward.
Merrill couldn't believe how things had somehow come to this. One moment they had been examining the ruins of a long lost thaig, the next they were recovering a lyrium idol that was sure to be worth a fortune. Things seemed to go down hill from there. Hawke had given the idol to Bartrand and then sealed them into a room with no idea how to get out. They fought through shades and other strange creatures before finally arriving in a eerily quiet cavern. All four of them were on edge, hands tightly gripped around their weapons, poised to fight at a moments notice.
A disembodied voice suddenly spoke, "You shall go no further!" The creature took form resembling some of the other rock- like creatures they had fought earlier. The creature continued, "Why do you destroy the vessels that quell my hunger?"
"They really didn't seem to friendly," Hawke quipped in response.
"The vessels attack by my command, and should you agree to my conditions, I will allow you a way out."
"I don't do the dirty work of demons," Hawke said nodding at Varric. Not waiting a moment, Varric aimed and fired a direct hit, killing it in a single shot before the demon could even retaliate. Merrill wasn't sure if she liked Hawke's decision, but knowing Hawke, he must have had some sort of plan.
"If we find, what the demon wanted," Hawke said, pointing down the passage in front of them, "we can probably also find a way out of here."
"Sound reasoning," Varric agreed, "Lets just hope you didn't kill our ticket out of here." Hawke responded with a grim nod and continued forward. They continued forward for some time when Hawke noticed a promising looking passage.
Finally they made their way into a strange room, pillars supporting the high ceiling of the cavern. An eerie quiet dominated the area. "Look! I think we may have found our way out of here!" Hawke said, approaching the entrance. Merrill suddenly heard the sound of stones being disturbed, and could have sworn to have seen movement in her peripheral vision. Nothing came of it thought, so she dismissed it as nothing. Then as if to spite her, rocks suddenly begin to shift and move, beginning to take a form of a large monster. Retreating back to his friends Hawke said sighing "Can't seem to catch a break these days it seems."
They began there attack on the creature, and were surprised for a moment when it didn't seem to have any sort of response. Suddenly, it began glowing emitting a red light and a humming noise that became louder with each passing second.
Realizing what was happening Hawke yelled, "Get behind something!" Getting to safety, he noticed that Carver and Varric were going to be caught in the blast. Reacting quickly, he telekinetically pulled them behind cover. A deafening noise followed by the room being swathed by deadly red energy was the result of the wraith's destructive powers. The energy relented seconds later, and the wraith momentarily fell into a heap, needing to recover after expending so much raw energy. Taking the opportunity, all four of them began relentlessly assaulting the creature with their most powerful spells and attacks.
Reforming into a large sphere, the wraith then attempted to crush anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in its path. Merrill narrowly dodged the attack, and turned to see the wraith heading straight for Hawke.
"Hawke!" Merrill shouted, fearful for her friend's life. Just as the wraith seemed moments away from impact, Hawke, using tremendous amounts of force magic, shoved the monster into a pillar, the resulting impact shaking the foundations of the room. Resuming it's humanoid form the wraith released the equivalent of what someone might call a shriek of rage. Not hesitating for a moment Hawke leapt onto the creature's chest, causing it to stagger backwards. Bringing his staff above his head, he plunged his staff into its chest, emitting an inferno inside the wraith. Scorched from the inside out, the wraith collapsed into a heap of smoldering stone.
"Show off," Varric muttered.
"Hey, I don't see you slaying a creature of legend that could have easily killed us all," Hawke said in mock offense to Varric's insult.
"We'll call it even, given the countless times Bianca and I have saved your sorry ass," Varric said good naturedly, stroking his prized crossbow.
"Nope, I found a way out, and this. I do believe you have been trumped good serrah!" Hawke said, waving for him to come over at some apparent marvelous discover.
"Yeah right, unless it's a – holy shit!" Varric said, eyeing enough loot to easily get the Hawke family into Hightown and then some. Grinning he said, "Well boys and girls lets load up and hightail it out of here."
It had been several days since they had recovered the treasure. Several days of surviving off Deep Mushrooms, several days of running into, and fending random bands of Darkspawn, several days that might as well been hell. Merrill was also starting to see why the others liked to wear shoes. To make matters worse, things weren't exactly looking up.
Stumbling weakly Carver groaned, "Can we… stop for a moment. I'm not… feeling so great," He continued weakly.
"I agree, that last batch of mushrooms was particularly foul," Hawke replied.
"No…" His memory flashed back to Wesley a year earlier. "Its… the taint." He said grimly, in realization. He began to stumble to which Hawke responded by rushing over and laying him down slowly.
"No!" Hawke shouted in angst, "I'm not failing mother, not again!" In vain, he began to utter healing incantations. Carver batted his hands away.
"You need to save your strength brother, I'm not… going to make it," Carver said weakly.
"Their must be something-"
"Brother!" Carver cut in. His eyes softened, "Please, don't let me suffer…"
Hawke's shoulders sagged in defeat. "You always asked for too much, brother…" Hawke managed his voice tight.
"And yet, you still gave it brother," Carver said, his breathing becoming labored. He reached for the dagger on his belt, and placed it in Hawke's hand. He smiled weakly, "Goodbye brother…"
Hawke plunged the blade into his brother's chest, looking away. Merrill looked on, tears in her eyes, wanting to console him, but knowing no words would bring comfort now. Hawke stood, his head bowed. In a fit of anguish, he cried out, "You bastards! I'll kill you all, you took away everything from me, from us," flames surrounding him from pure rage coursing through his veins.
Hesitantly, Merrill walked up to Hawke, and placed a hand on his shoulder. Hawke looked at her, his eyes shining with tears that he refused to let fall. Eventually the flames receded, and his breathing returned to normal. He continued the forward, and Varric and Merrill followed silently.
Please R/R Thanks for reading!