Chapter 19
The North Road ran east-west and connected Amaranthine in the east to Highever in the west. It was a fairly well traveled road and as the Wardens made their way westward, they spoke with anyone traveling along the road. They also stopped at the various homesteads to speak with the farmers. The further west they went the more reports of darkspawn they heard.
The late afternoon sun was blinding, making westward travel difficult, so Beth decided to set up camp for the night. The group got to work and Beth took the canteens to the river that ran north of the road. Anders hurried to help her.
"So...no darkspawn yet..." Anders said, trying to start a conversation.
Beth said, "No and it worries me that we're getting closer to Highever."
"We haven't heard any reports of darkspawn in Highever. I'm sure they are confined to this area," he said reassuringly.
"I hope so." Beth knelt at the edge of the river and filled canteens.
"Um..." Anders wasn't sure how to ask. "Thank you again for Ser Pounce-A-Lot."
"As soon as Delilah told me about him, I thought of you," she said smiling fondly at him.
Anders took a deep breath, "I care about you," he blurted.
She looked at him, "I care about you too, Anders. You are a good friend."
"Oh. Right. Friends," he said, disappointment in his voice.
"Anders. I am not ready for anything more than that. With anyone," she put a hand on his arm and stood up. "You of all people should understand."
Anders smiled reassuringly at her, "Of course I do."
...
Nate sat up, sweat streaming down his face. The nightmare had seemed so real. He shook it off and got up. He left his tent and looked around the campsite. Beth had taken second watch and was sitting at the edge of the campsite. Nate walked over to her and sat down.
"Trouble sleeping?" Beth asked.
"A bad dream." He looked back at the tents. "How come no one else seems to have them?"
"Oh, they have them, but everyone sees something different and they vary in intensity." Beth said.
"I guess I just got lucky tonight." Nate said, trying to smile.
Beth leaned against him, "At least its quiet tonight."
Nate put his arm around her and said, "It's quite nice." He paused, listening to the crickets, "Beth, can I talk to you?"
She smiled, "Nothing stopping you."
"I...um...I..." he stuttered and paused.
Beth laughed softly, "So eloquent."
"Beth, I've always cared about you, and I've realized how much you mean to me." The words tumbled out in a rush and he pulled away to see her reaction.
Beth hung her head. "Oh Nate. I care about you a great deal..."
"But..." Nate said, removing his arm from around her.
"But, I'm not ready for any kind of serious relationship. I'm still dealing with all that has happened this past year." Beth sighed.
Nate looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be pressuring you, that was thoughtless of me. I just...couldn't bear the thought of you getting closer to Anders."
Beth giggled, "Jealous, huh? Silly. I do care about him, the same way I care about Ohgren, Margaret and Velanna. We're family now. That's what the Grey Wardens are...a family."
They sat quietly together, looking over the peaceful landscape.
...
More farmers complained of darkspawn attacks and they were directed southwest. They arrived at a homestead where buildings had been burned down and bodies of both darkspawn and humans were scattered around the property. The group followed the darkspawn tracks south from the North Road toward the hills and the Bannorn. As they got closer to the area known as Knotwood Hills, they began to sense the darkspawn.
Knotwood Hills was a big contrast to the fertile lands of the farmland. The barren landscape was dotted with dead, gnarled trees. Rocky craigs made travel difficult, so the group had to leave the horse and cart behind.
Beth could tell that they were heading into a dangerous area. She could sense a large number of darkspawn scattered in the rocks ahead. She motioned to the group and they readied their weapons. Velanna and Anders cast a few protection spells on the group. Beth led the way as they descended through a rocky pass toward a cavern deep in the hills.
The rocky pass gave way to stone columns and cut stone walls. The light dimmed as they slowly made their way into the great hallway of the Deep Roads. Beth began to hurry, sensing the darkspawn ahead of them. The others glanced at each other and followed. Soon sounds of fighting echoed off the stone as the group encountered a dwarf being dragged away by a small group of darkspawn.
Beth leapt into battle and began slashing at the darkspawn, Ohgren followed hacking darkspawn with his axe. Nate fired arrows as fast as he could , while Anders and Velanna cast various spells. The Wardens easily defeated the small group and Beth approached the dwarf, who was out of breath.
"Are you alright?" Beth asked.
"Yes, thanks to your timely arrival. My name is Sigrun." Sigrun replied, perkily.
"What are you doing here?" Beth asked, looking around.
"We were scouting reports of darkspawn massing at Kal'hirol." Sigrun hung her head, "I ran when we were attacked, I'm ashamed to say. The darkspawn are smart now and had a trap set for us when we arrived."
"Who's we?" Nate asked.
"The Legion of the Dead." Sigrun answered with a smile.
"You're a member of the Legion?" Ohgren asked, surprised.
"Yes. The last of my unit, now." Sigrun replied. "But, I'm heading back to finish what we started," and she turned to go.
"Wait!" Beth called, "We're coming with you."
"What?" Sigrun said surprised. "Why would you help me?"
"Because we're Grey Wardens." Beth said simply.
"My condolences." Sigrun said smiling broadly.
...
The Kal'hirol Thaig was dark and forboding. Anders used a spell to create an aura of light around the group. The illumination revealed the thaig to have intricate stone carvings. The group walked slowly admiring the beauty of the stone and architecture that was one of the oldest dwarven settlements.
As they ventured deeper, the beautiful stone structure gave way to ruins and rockfalls. Climbing over a partial wall, Beth heard a noise to her right. She looked down and saw an injured dwarf lying in the rubble and moaning.
"Jukka!" Sigrun shouted and ran to the injured dwarf's side.
"S..Sigrun? By the stone...you're alive!" The dwarf tried to sit up.
"No, Jukka. Lay still, I have bandages. Let me help you." Sigrun said, pulling him into her lap.
"No...I feel...death upon me...it will be...sweet release." Jukka covered his mouth and coughed. There was blood in his hand. "Be careful...we found broodmothers...an army of children...but...beware...the child...ren...are abominations...even to...the darkspawn." He gasped and was silent.
Sigrun closed Jukka's eyes and muttered a prayer. Laying him gently back on the ground, she stood.
"What is a broodmother?" Nate asked.
"A soddin' bugger to kill." Ohgren snorted. "And he said broodmothers...plural. Great sod!"
"Yeah, but what is it?" Anders asked.
"Darkspawn capture women and feed them the taint. The tainted women mutate into broodmothers and spawn new darkspawn." Beth said quietly.
"How horrible!" Margaret gasped. Velanna and Sigrun looked pale.
"We need to find these broodmothers and stop the creation of new darkspawn." Nate said.
"The entrance to Kal'hirol is this way." Sigrun said and pointed.
...
They entered the courtyard of the ancient fortress and were immediately attacked by vile creatures. They were shaped like giant grubs with pincers and humanoid facial features. They were about ten feet long and moved about on skinny, spiderlike legs.
"Ewww." Anders cried as he began shooting fireballs at them.
"Are these the children?" Nate asked.
The creatures were slow and not very strong, the group had little trouble killing them. Standing over one, Ohgren heaved his axe and severed a creature in two. "Well, if these are the children, it won't be too hard to kill 'em."
"Yeah but if these are the children, what does their mother look like?" Anders sniped.
Beth looked at the long set of stone stairs leading up to the main entrance. Sigrun stepped up beside her.
"We don't want to make the same mistake that the Legion made. The darkspawn have infested the main hall and are using the Thaig's defenses against us. We must find another way in." She said, looking around. "Perhaps there's a side entrance."
They worked their way around the stone front of the building towards the side. Collapsed walls and rockfalls made climbing hazardous. Eventually finding an opening into the building and they stepped into a ruined hallway.
"Stop!" Beth said, urgently. "There are traps everywhere."
She bent down and worked on disarming a pressure plate. Nate knelt down also and found a trip wire that he disarmed.
"Be careful where you step!" Beth warned and they moved extremely slowly through the hallway.
...
The group moved from room to room, following Beth. She was using her Warden's sense to locate the area that the darkspawn were coming from. They encountered darkspawn or children everywhere. Between the battles, concentrating on her senses and her recent injury, Beth was getting strained.
They descended down a long hallway that ended in a large room. As they entered the room, a large stone golem swung a heavy hammer down making the floor shudder and dust come raining down on them. Darkspawn filled the room, growling and menacing the group with their weapons.
"One of the darkspawn must be controlling the golem!" Sigrun shouted, as the group separated and began fighting.
Beth pulled her blades out of the dead darkspawn and looked around, "Okay. But which one?"
Ohgren swung his axe in a wide circle knocking down the darkspawn in his path. "Just kill 'em all," he said, raising the axe over his head and bringing it down on a nearby enemy.
The room began to brighten as Anders flung fireballs into the fray. Velanna yelled, "In the corner!" and she cast an entanglement spell at the darkspawn, trapping it. The creature moved its arm and the golem swung its hammer at Velanna. She rolled away just as the hammer hit the floor, leaving a huge indentation.
Beth dodged a blow from one attacker as she maneuvered her way toward the golem controller. Nate fired arrows killing darkspawn heading toward Beth. The darkspawn controlling the golem must have seen the danger, as the golem began focusing his attacks toward Beth.
Ohgren and Sigrun were standing back to back killing darkspawn after darkspawn. Anders and Velanna sent spell after spell at the darkspawn and the golem trying to keep them from Beth. Nate had worked his way around the other side of the room and was firing arrows at the darkspawn attacking Beth and Margaret, who was trying to help Beth.
Beth dodged the golem's hammer and raced toward the controller. The entanglement spell started fading, but Beth plunged her daggers into the creatures chest before it was gone. She kicked the control rod away from the darkspawn's hand and stabbed the creature again. The golem ground to a halt and its hammer crashed to the floor near Beth, bringing debris down upon her.
She stood up slowly and looked around. The last of the darkspawn was dropping from Ohgren's axe. Anders was healing a bad cut on Nate's arm. Margaret, Sigrun and Velanna were searching the corpses. Beth limped slowly up to them. "Everyone okay?" she asked.
"I guess I'm still alive!" Sigrun chirped happily. "Funny how that keeps happening."
Anders stood up, "I have enough left to help you, Commander."
"Save it. I think we'll need more by the time we're done," she said.
"Did anyone else notice that we either fight darkspawn or children, but never both at the same time?" Nate said, collecting useable arrows.
"Yeah...interesting." Ohgren responded. "Now let's go kill some more."
Beth rolled her eyes then took a deep breath. The fires were dying in the room and darkness was closing in around them. Anders cast another light spell and the group followed Beth into another hallway.
This hallway had a definite downward slope and as the group descended, the cut stone gradually gave way to natural rock. They came upon a room where darkspawn were fighting with the children grub.
One of the grublike children climbed over the body of a darkspawn and began eating it. Suddenly it rose up and began to shed its skin like a snake would. The creature that emerged was larger than it started out to be.
"What are we waiting for?" Ohgren said and charged into the room. The rest followed and shortly finished off the last of the creatures.
"So, these children things get bigger and stronger when they eat." Nate observed.
"We better kill them as newborns then." Anders said, looking around.
After traveling another distance, they arrive at what appeared to be a dead end. The room was square with a large opening in the floor. Above the opening, held by chains, was a great boulder. There was no apparent exit from the room except the way they came in.
Beth looked down into the opening, but it was too dark to see anything. "Anders, can you shed some light in here?"
"Sure," he said and created a ball of light in his hand. He then let the light fall down the hole. The group all peered into the opening following the light downward. At the bottom of the hole, in each of the corners was an unbelievable creature.
The upper body and head were a grotesque mutated version of a human woman. The waist down however resembled more an insect than anything human. There were four of them and they were each pumping out eggs through an elongated tube from their abdomen.
Beth leaned back and frowned. Ohgren said, "Four! Great sod!" Margaret and Velanna looked like they were going to be sick. Sigrun, Nate and Anders all took a step back.
"How do we get down there?" Nate asked, looking around the room.
Beth looked up at the boulder. "Perhaps we don't have to." She approached a corner of the opening where the chain was anchored to the floor. "Ohgren, could I use your axe?" Ohgren handed her his axe with a puzzled expression.
Beth heaved the heavy weapon over her head and swung it with all her might at the chain. The metal rattled and sand erupted into the air. She did it again and the link weakened. With the third strike an audible metal sound was heard as the chain broke. The other chains were now straining against the heavier load.
Beth went to the next corner and repeated her attack. The groans of the remaining two chains were louder and the boulder started to sway. When the third chain broke, a thunderous sound was heard as the fourth chain ripped its anchor from the stone floor. The boulder crashed through the opening, landing on the four broodmothers below.
As the dust settled, Beth had Anders cast another light spell to verify that they were dead. Once that was confirmed, the group turned and made their way slowly back to the surface.