Our story so far: Having been given the Warden blade Dumat's Spine, Warden Commander of the Dalish Vashti Mahariel and her friends Ariane and Finn set out to find its companion dar'misu, Dumat's Claw. Following references in the ballads of the Black Fox, the trio (plus faithful hound) arrived in splendid Val Royeaux. The Warden Commander of Orlais, however, rather than offer them assistance, accused Vashti of fraud and treachery and challenged her to a duel, in which he won Dumat's Spine. Letting that go for now, the companions followed the ballads' tale to the Grand Cathedral, uncovering a secret passageway the Black Fox had once used as an escape route. It led to the ancient Tevinter sewers under Val Royeaux, a perfect place for the Fox's urban encampment... but also the perfect place to hide a dragon cult! When last we left our heroes, they had just found evidence that Dumat's Claw had indeed been left here, but were interrupted by an ominous hiss from the darkness!
Flames erupted in the darkness as the agitated dragonlings skittered towards them. One and then another dropped, thrashing, halfway into the room, goose-fletched arrows protruding from their slender necks. Ariane drew her two daggers - Daggers? I don't fight with daggers! What was I thinking?- and stepped forward to intercept any that got past Vashti's arrows. She keenly missed the comforting weight of her chain mail; dragonlings could scratch at that all they liked and never draw blood. But those claws looked more dangerous now...
"Yours!" With a nest's worth of dragonlings streaming into the room, Vashti had elected to let one of the frontrunners past to keep those in the rear from closing in. Ariane took that as her cue and feinted at the beast, drawing its attention from the archer. "Hey ugly! Over here!"
"Ssssss!" The serpentine head swiveled to regard her and she feinted again, a big wide motion that cut nothing but air. But the ploy worked - the noisy, flailing threat was more interesting than the comparatively still, silent archer.
"Come on, you..." Ariane rocked on the balls of her toes, waiting for the dragonling to make its move. When the long neck snapped out toward her, she jumped and rolled forward, slicing at a wing as she came back up on her feet. The creature flapped the useless appendage instinctively in pain and caught Ariane in the midsection with it. It pushed her back harmlessly - but her heel ran unexpectedly up against the edge of the dais. Losing her balance, she toppled backwards.
For a split second, she had a much too personal view of Finn standing next to her, but then he gestured and everything went white. Glyph, she thought as she got up, hoping the dragonling's eyes were as dazzled as hers by the sudden bright light.
"That should keep them at range," she heard Finn say, as her sight recovered enough to show her the dragonling she'd been fighting sliding, bewildered, across the floor and away from them. Its puzzlement was ended a heartbeat later by an arrow to the chest.
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip! The dragonlings milling about the edge of the ward in confusion all soon fell. "Do you think that's it?" Finn asked nervously.
"Hope so. Bet not," Vashti said, nocking another arrow.
The growl was something felt in the chest before it was heard by the ears. "Fall back!" Ariane cried. "Back through the arch!" Finn dashed ahead first, skidding to a stop beyond the columns and immediately beginning a new spell. Ariane and Vashti reached the door at the same time, and each waited for the other to go through. The hunter loosed her arrow into the darkness beyond the far side of the chapel, and then pushed Ariane back. The warrior started to protest, but remembered that she was without her armor and her blades. By all the Creators, I am never letting Finn talk me into something like this again!
Thwip! Thwip!A roar from the darkness indicated a solid hit; then the drake surged into view. Finn's spell finished, setting another glyph between the dragon and the door. But the drake stopped just beyond it, anyway, drawing its head back, which meant... "Cover!"
Ariane knocked Finn to the side, behind one of the pillars; Vashti dropped flat into the center channel of sewage as the drake's head shot forward and its mouth opened, a jet of red-orange flame spilling out. It angled the burst of fire down, tracking its prey - but when the fire stopped, Vashti sprang up again.
"She's... covered in..." Finn blinked disbelievingly.
"Mud," Ariane said firmly, pushing the mage back into line of sight of the dragon. "Cold, wet, fire-resisting mud. Now help her!"
"Mud. Right. Mud," Finn muttered, raising his hands - and stopping. "It's too close for a paralysis glyph!" he shouted. "It would overlap the repulsion ward and that would be bad! Very bad!"
Vashti grunted. "As long as I've got range..." Thwip! Thwip!
But it was not to last. The drake butted its head against the ward a few times and then, with an ear-splitting roar, threw its bulk forward. Vashti barely had time to shoulder her precious bow and draw daggers before the dragon was surging through the doorway, knocking her down with savage raking blows from its taloned forefeet.
Ariane dove in from its flank, stabbing for all she was worth. The serpentine head swiveled instantly to regard her, and she slashed at that, too. Behind it, she saw Vashti staggering to her feet, the warm light of Finn's healing magic playing over her. The hunter was back in the game instantly, hammering the drake's other flank. The drake made a quick snap at Ariane; she moved, and its teeth skated over her arm, leaving bloody trails behind them. Then it whipped back toward Vashti, open mouth closing on her armored thigh.
Light flashed and the dampness in the air suddenly formed frost on the drake's scales. The cold slowed the great reptile; it blinked groggily as Vashti pried it off her leg. "Can you paralyze it yet?" Ariane shouted to Finn.
"The repulsion ward is almost spent!" he shouted back. "Just a moment more and - ah!" The mage's hand went to his shoulder, instinctively clutching at the arrow that protruded there. "Cultists!"
The ward was keeping the cultists at bay, and the intervening doorway plus the drake's bulk made them work to get line of sight on the trio. If we can just drop the dragon before the ward drops...Ariane sunk both daggers into its back, hoping to sever spine.
Daggers didn't chop like her usual blades; the points seemed to hit bone and slide to the side, despite the considerable force she put behind the blow. The drake noticed that, cold-induced torpor or not, and let out another roar. Its thick, muscular tail whipped from side to side as it thrashed in pain, and Ariane found both daggers pulled from her grasp as the tail slammed her to one side. She staggered, found her feet - and stumbled again as a bolt of magical energy hit her. Not an apostate, too...
She heard a sudden rush of footfalls and bloodthirsty battlecries, Finn chanting, Vashti crying out. A new glyph flashed to light under the drake -
- who ignored it. Perhaps it caught one of the cultists instead, or the beast was just too strong.
An arrow flew past her head and shattered on the stone behind her; between her and the archer were two cultists, approaching quickly with swords and shields at the ready. Energy crackled through the air, purplish tongues of lightning that licked at Finn. Their own mage screamed and fell to one knee.
No more of that. The warriors were closing in, but Ariane ignored them, focusing instead on the apostate who had her staff leveled at Finn. "Know the fury of Elgar'non!" she cried, calling down the wrath of the elven warrior-god on the mage. Her mana tore free from her control, ascending skyward in a column of white light, leaving her, Ariane knew, in pain and breathless.
The shield bash knocked her back into the wall. She ducked one swordblow, and then another, using her small size and elven grace to good advantage - so one of the brutes just lashed out again with his shield, slamming her back. Her head cracked against the wall this time and she slid down it. A silver sword came up, and she found herself hoping hazily that the other two were doing better...
A sudden shout in Orelsian distracted her would-be executioner. He checked his blow and turned his head, even as his partner kept a blade leveled at her chest. Looking through his legs, she saw a cultist helpfully drape his cloak over Finn; the arrow was somehow gone and she supposed he must have healed the wound. The apostate staggered into view, glaring daggers at her; three cultists were soothing the drake and two more had Vashti, her leathers torn and bloodied, pinioned between them.
Finn was speaking so slowly and carefully that Ariane was sure he was lying. He was naturally a rapid-fire speaker, mouth hardly able to keep up with his mind. But the cultists wouldn't know that. He nodded, patted various cult members on the shoulder, and finally gestured to the two elves. Ariane was pulled to her feet and marched over.
"The Dalish of the Tirashan," Finn said carefully, "will find no victory against us whether you fight us here or in the very shadow of Arl Dumat. As a magister of the second rank," he fingered his silver pendant, the one in the shape of the Old God Zazikel's sigil, "I have decided that, despite your attempt on my life, you shall be spared. Go and tell your people of our strength and battle us no more; while we would be victorious in the end, I would rather not lose the lives of our brethren and our scaly children. Pierre here will show you a way out."
The Dalish looked at each other, and the potentially hapless Pierre. "Finn..." Ariane began.
"Go!" he repeated, with a slight break in his voice; he was afraid that they would not, Ariane realized. "Please, go, so that no one else gets hurt today." He spoke slowly again, emphasizing the words as he looked from the injured Warden to the weaponless Ariane to the rather impressive number of enemies in the room.
"We return to the Tirashan," Vashti repeated.
"Right," Finn said, relief coloring his voice. "Take the message to the Dalish clan there."
They stood there in silence for a moment, then Ariane said, "You haven't seen the last of us, Magister."
Finn dared the smallest half-smile before turning to Pierre and issuing a command. The cultists holding the elves released them warily. Pierre took up a torch and led them back the way they came, into the darkness.
Talk about splitting the party! Will Finn be able to maintain his ruse long enough for Ariane and Vashti to find him in the vast Tirashan Forest? How are the Dalish elves involved in this? And never mind that - where is Pierre leading them? Tune in next time to find out in Blood!
A/N: All the recaps and 'tune ins' made a lot more sense when I was originally releasing this on a weekly update schedule. But they're fun, so I leave them in.