The mages had arrived a head of schedule. A pack of ogres tends to inspire a decent boost to running speed.
The mages were granted a small space that easily accommodated the group while giving them enough space to set up large scale rituals. The few Tranquil they brought with them had wasted no time in setting up enchanting stations and offering their services to soldiers. Six of the mages had already began a ritual of unknown purposes, closely guarded by their templar wardens.
Mirion had escorted the ailing Durkon to the Wardens, having been given directions by a Warden Recruit who now walked alongside them. After handing Durkon over to the Warden-Commander Duncan, Mirion returned to his tent and decided to study the spells in Varsuuvius's journal. Disintegrate, while destructive and would require a good amount of mana, was fairly straight-forward and easy to learn. This Anti-Magic Field on the other hand...
It operated like the Dispell spell they were taught, but instead of a single, purging wave, it was a sustained effect. And it didn't dispel so much as it suppressed the effects of magic. It and anything within it would be impervious to magical effects but the downside was that it also kept any mages inside it from casting spells. And as it was sustained by its caster's power it was centered around him/her, meaning that as long as the field was up the caster would have no offensive capabilities unless they were skilled to some degree at close combat.
The spell worked by thickening the Veil around the caster. The mage's mana would form a second layer that would meld seamlessly with the Veil. It was a costly spell to maintain, and unless one was fight a fellow mage it didn't have much offensive use. Mirion would study it at a later time.
He brought the vials of blood out of his bag along with a small pouch of lyrium, grinded elfroots, and concentrator agents.
Mirion took a vial of genlock blood, and one of Durkon's. The preservation spells held. Aside from the genlock's blood being a darker shade, the two were indistinguishable in consistency, and scent. Now for the first tests.
Elfroot was a common ingredient in poultices and potions, well known for it's curative properties. Used to treat both wounds and toxins. Casting an appraisal spell to on both vials on blood, jotting down their properties in his journal, he poured an equal amount of elfroot into the vial. There no visible effect. Casting another appraisal spell, Mirion found that the changes were minimal. Labeling this experiment as Test A, he moved on to other experiments.
By the time Mirion had finished with his tests the sun had set, and he was down to six vials of each type of blood. Walking out of his tent he took in his surroundings. The mages still were finished with their casting, and the Tranquil had closed shop. He walked to the Warden's part of the camp to see if Durkon had returned. After handing him to Duncan the Warden-Commander had sent the recruits out to the woods to retrieve darkspawn blood and some treaties from the Ruins.
They had not. He had instead decided to try and strike up a conversation with the Warden-Commander. The commander was agreeable enough. He had only answered his question on the Wardens' immunity to the Taint with "That is something I am not allowed to discuss with people outside our Order."
As the topic moved on to viable tactics against the Darkspawn, the recruits had returned. Mirion took note of them.
There was Durkon, the blight having taken its toll on him. The dwarf was being supported by the Warden Recruit he had met earlier, a human by the name of Daveth. Two other recruits, both male humans were noticeably more built than Daveth, carrying heavier arms and wearing heavier armors to match. Trailing behind the two was a female elf wearing light armor fit for a scout. Judging from the the tattoos she was a Dalish, and judging from the darkening veins she was also Tainted. Walking alongside her was another female, human. Wearing armor on the same weight class as the two human warriors, and with a massive sword strapped to her back, she was a bit intimidating.
Saying farewell to Duncan Mirion walked out of their sight. And as soon as he was he decided to make use of one of the spells he and Varsuuvius had co-researched. Looking around to make sure no one could see, he cast it. Now, time to make sure it worked.
He looked around, and stalked the first unarmed person he found and when he got close, clubbed him over the head with his staff. The woman was understandably annoyed and turned to look for who had hit her. Mirion just stood right in front of her.
"I guess it works."
He walked back to the Warden's area, looked for a good place to view them safely without making much noise. Another spell took care of his footsteps. Leaning against the remains of a large pillar, he spied on the Wardens.
Interesting. The cure was physical, some kind of formula. Darkspawn blood was used, but he saw that Duncan had taken some vials from his belt and added their contents to the Chalice. What was inside? It appeared to be blood of some kind. Was it altered Darkspawn blood? The shade seemed to be right. Was it some kind of secret Warden Formula? If it was, they definitely succeeded in making sure it wasn't identifiable by sight.
And did Davos just die? Apparently the cure has as just a good a chance of killing initiates as it did in providing immunity. Perhaps he could get to Daveth's corpse later. Whatever was in the chalice may still linger in his blood.
And now Duncan had just slit Jory's throat. Apparently the Warden's liked to make sure that their recruits stayed as recruits. Mirion decided that he could stand to be a little farther away from them now. Wardens's take their oaths of secrecy quite seriously as he had just observed.
Durkon and the two women were fine. The other man was already initiated after the two of them it seemed. He should get a sample of Durkon's blood soon.
The horns were sounded. It was time he return to his group. The battle was close to starting and if he were to be late they would ask questions, and Mirion had not prepared any convincing lies for today.
He had arrived at the mage's section early enough. They were briefed on their positions and what they were allowed to do. Mirion along with other, less experienced mages would be stationed near the rear. Wounded soldiers on the front would be passed to the back, patched up by the mages and redeployed.
It was simple enough. Not a lot of trouble and little chance of actual combat.
Of course the geniuses planning this battle failed to take into account that Darkspawn are subterranean creatures, and thus, had a knack at digging tunnels that lead to the army's rear.
Mirion threw fireballs from behind a line of soldiers. It was fortunate the new Wardens were stationed nearby. Their immunity and combat prowess kept the Darkspawn from completely overwhelming what defenses the surprised rear guard could mount. Eventually the wardens had split into two groups. Group one, consisting of the elf and Durkon would lead whatever soldiers were left and hold the hordes of darkspawn the came from the tunnel that had appeared beneath the tower. Group two, consisting of the two humans would take a small group of soldiers and fight their way up the tower to light the beacon.
Mirion went with group two.
The tower was high, and the few soldiers that had survived all the way to the top were audibly panting. Of course to Mirion, who had spent his life in a tower and had to walk just as many flights of stairs daily had handled the trip much better.
The Darkspawn were ferocious bastards. Mirion had already lost count of how many of the blighters he had killed, but he was confident that he had the highest kill count. While most of what they fought were hurlocks and genlocks, there was the occasional ogre that would burst out of one of the rooms to tackle an unfortunate soldier.
Thanks to their large mass, they were good practice targets for the Disintegrate spell Varsuuvius had created. Focusing his magic to the tip of his staff, Mirion fired a thin, green beam that hit the ogre right in it's bare chest. The spell worked fast, the ogre glowing a bright orange before breaking apart into embers. It had worked faster on the much smaller hurlocks who were destroyed so fast that the beam had enough time left in the world to hit the one behind it. Mirion had received a few incredulous looks upon killing an ogre with one spell, but one fireball and a lot of darkspawn screaming in pain quickly reminded them that they still had more to fight.
At the top they had found a pair of ogres, much more heavily armored than usual, a hurlock that was also larger than usual, wearing thicker armor that seemed to designate some kind of rank among the Darkspawn, and an Emissary.
The fight took much longer than any of their other encounters with darkspawn till then. The emissary wasted no time and quickly sent a fireball, one larger than those that Mirion had cast earlier. The two Wardens had managed to move to dodge in time, but some soldiers weren't so lucky. Three of them fell where they stood, Mirion managing to raise a barrier fast enough to save the remaining six. The hurlock was already on the male, showing prowess with a sword that was unseen so far in darkspawn.
The female warden had tried to go to her fellow warden's aid, but was forced to contend with one of the armored ogres first. The other had attacked the soldiers.
"Mage! We could us that green spell of yours!" The male warden called out while locking blades with a hurlock.
He didn't seem to notice that Mirion had engaged in a magical duel with the emissary that kept him from focusing long enough to cast Disintegrate. "Warden, take care of the emissary!"
The female deftly dodged a charge by the ogre and advanced toward the emissary who took notice of her immediately and sent a volley of arcane missiles. Most hit, but the silver armor the woman wore was nothing to scoff at, and neither was her will. The ogre turned to attack her again only to be met by several, thick ice spikes jutting from the ground surrounding it. The ice wasn't strong enough to punch through the thing's armor, but it would the beast long enough.
The ogre attacked the soldiers, who were now reduced to four was struck by a familiar green beam. "Kill the emissary!" The soldiers didn't bother to think about the order and drew their bows and trained them at the emissary, who was currently using magic to deflect the female warden's sword strikes. Two arrows struck it's back, followed by another two. The warden chopped the darkspawn mage's head off.
Meanwhile, the bound ogre had freed itself and tried to attack the woman again only to be met by another green beam and destroyed. The hurlock fighting the male warden suddenly found its right leg frozen, it's shield arm chopped off, and a sword thrust through his back.
The two wardens went to work lighting the beacon.
Several darkspawn burst through the door, firing arrows that quickly felled the two wardens. The darkspawn seemed to be prioritizing the Wardens. Mirion didn't take note of it earlier but recalling the previous fights it did seem that way. The four soldiers soldiers fired into the entering darkspawn as fast as they could, Mirion casting a fireball through the open door. The fire would hold them for a while. Mirion summoned a thick, spiked wall of ice for good measure.
"Watch the barrier. Barricade it with what you can find. I must tend to these two." Unless they had another ogre or an emissary, they wouldn't breach that wall for a while. Now, time for him to finally collect some Warden blood samples.