Oh, Crestwood. You are a sad reminder of the horrors of the Blight from Origins.
In this episode, the party does their wandering banter thing. I always assumed they were talking with each other way more than it seemed in-game. Making plans, poking fun on the reg. Also featuring: Ash being reckless, Crestwood making everybody sad, and Solas professing love of tiny cakes. Plus, a cliffhanger!
Crestwood was being attacked by the undead, the Fade rift was under a deep and stormy lake, a bandit stronghold nearby was choking off important roads, and there were rumors of a dragon terrorizing the inland region.
"Who's up for a vacation when this one's a wrap?" Ash asked as she wiped the sweat and blood from her brow. They'd just captured the bandit stronghold, Caer Bronach, after a particularly rough string of battles interspersed with sprinting up flight after flight of steps. Crows had already been released to request reinforcements to settle the fortress under the Inquisition banner.
"Name the spot," Blackwall grunted between swigs of water.
"What would even qualify right now?" Ash wondered aloud. "Ferelden and Orlais are out, thanks to all the demons. I have always wanted to see the Korcari Wilds."
"The ocean," suggested Cole wistfully.
"I hear the Amaranthine coast is lovely," the Warden said.
"You would suggest that," Solas snorted.
"Well, let me hazard a guess and say your suggestion is the Fade. Pardon me if I'd prefer to travel further than my bedroll and actually remember it," Blackwall retorted.
"Your inability to appreciate them does not diminish the wonders of the Beyond," Solas replied mildly. "But I wouldn't say no to visiting the Emerald Graves in better times. It's quite lovely."
"It's settled," Ash cracked her knuckles and stretched out her sore arms. "Picnic in the Emerald Graves when we get a breather."
"Mind the giants and spiders," Blackwall added. Ash cast him a lopsided grin as she headed out a side door of the keep and toward the tavern with the controls to drain the lake.
"That's what we have you for, Blackwall."
They crossed the bridge, Solas and Ash grumbling in kind about the rain seeming to come from both above and below, and entered the dark tavern. Voices from within almost made Ash give the signal to ready for battle, before realizing they'd stumbled across some hapless lovers on a date.
"I knew this was a mistake," the girl sounded panicked.
"Please don't tell anyone about this," the boy pleaded.
"About your choice of romantic locale being a dank, musty tavern with Maker knows what on the floors?" Ash winked. "Your secret's safe with me." The couple looked parts chagrined and grateful.
"We can't go back now. My dad will still be up," the girl sighed as the group moved past them.
"We could try the caves?" the boy offered.
"Oh, no. Maker, don't try caves," Blackwall chuckled to himself in amused disgust. The group left them bickering and headed into a room with massive barrels set against the walls.
"What's wrong with caves? They're nice. Quiet," Cole said.
"Nothing, if you're a dwarf. Or a reptile," Solas replied.
"And what would you suggest?" Ash challenged. She opened the door to a room with a massive wooden gear in the ground. Blackwall grabbed onto a spoke and started to push. "People can't just plan romantic outings to the Fade on a whim." Solas leaned against his staff and raised an eyebrow.
"Can't they?"
Ash fumbled for a smart retort. Finally, she scowled at him and looked away, her face burning. I walked into that one. Cole was still looking between her and the elven mage.
"Can they?" he was curious.
"That should do it," Blackwall announced, stretching his arms and back as the distant sounds of the dam rushing outside reached them.
"Let's get this done," Ash headed back out the door.
They walked back into the drizzling rain and started back across the bridge.
A roar pierced through the sky, so powerful that the stones shook beneath their feet. Great gusts of wind buffeted the group, and they looked up to see a massive dragon, flying so close that Ash could've hit it with a rock. Its tail and wings were colored in starkly contrasting black and white stripes. Huge, sharp talons curled under its body, glistening wet in the rain.
"I was not expecting that," Ash breathed in startled awe. It wheeled around in the sky, and for a terrifying moment, Ash wondered if it might divebomb them. But it continued on its way, off into the storm.
"A dragon," Blackwall said. "Do we ever have uneventful days?"
"Are we going to fight that?" Cole asked.
"Not today!" Ash declared.
The walk into Old Crestwood was wet and somber. Faded figures drifted in and out of rotted houses, across a mess of rocks and plants that might have once been gardens and roads. Voices echoed, calling forever to loved ones they would never find.
"Sometimes it seems this land is a collection of tragedies, one piled atop another," Solas observed.
"So many stories trying to find endings," Cole said sadly.
"This whole village was lost to the blight," Ash counted the houses she could see. She imagined what they might have looked like, properly cared for by those who had lived in them. She remembered the Chantry sister who had asked after the missing, if they could be found so their bodies could have proper farewells. "We're going to find the missing dead first. Then we can look for these caves the rift is in."
Her companions carried out the solemn task, felling a few demons along the way. Ash half-wished Sera or Dorian were along to make an inappropriately-timed joke. When the last body had been found, they turned their attention to finding the way to the Flooded Caves and the Rift within.
Ash walked past another crumbling house and toward a small jutting of rock wall. Something rustled nearby. She paused.
"Did you hear that?"
"I hear nothing," Blackwall halted next to her.
A large rust-gray rock suddenly unfurled itself at Ash's feet and lunged at her. Its body was scaled, with a maw that gaped like a hole of razor teeth.
"Ahh!" The elf warrior shrieked and instinctively punched it in the head. It squeaked and flew sideways. Several more appeared and encircled the group.
"They're almost cute," Cole observed.
"Something tells me they wouldn't make good pets," Blackwall shouted as his blade cleaved the head from one. Solas's barrier burst brightly around them as they fought off the attack. After a few minutes of hacking and small magical explosions, the assault was over.
"Well, "Ash wiped some gore from her gloves and the front of her armor, "that was bracing."
"Deepstalkers mean there is an entrance to the underground nearby," Solas observed. He put his hand against the sharp incline of hill next to them and walked along it. "We must be near the caves."
"Smart," Ash nodded. "Knew I kept you around for a reason."
"I would hope linking deepstalkers with the underground would not puzzle you for very long," the mage replied coolly.
"I found a hole!" Cole called out a few yards ahead. He stood triumphantly next to a door set a way into the hillside.
"You found a door," Blackwall asserted. The spirit nodded.
"There's a hole behind it," he opened them to show.
"Alright, team, let's head out," Ash ducked inside. "I want to close this rift and get home in time to have dinner and hug my friends."
"I know what you mean," the Warden muttered and followed, then came Solas, and Cole in the rear.
Aside from being more dank and dark than their normal missions, the caves were not overly taxing. It was a relatively straightforward path down, with Blackwall stopping a few times along the way to crack some strange silver blue ore from the walls and ground.
"Shall I clarify that I want to be back by today's dinner?" Ash called when she realized the Warden had stopped for yet another piece of ore.
"You ask for supplies for the Inquisition, you get them," he shot back.
"Ach," she spat. Ash peered across the massive underground cavern. They'd wandered into the ruins of some ancient dwarven city. She wondered if Varric would appreciate them. Probably as fodder for a story. Varric didn't seem an especially reverent dwarf.
Her palm with the Anchor itched. She frowned and looked back at her companions. Blackwall was still distracted with some last bits of ore. Solas was inspecting ancient runes along a crumbling wall. Cole was watching Blackwall, for some reason. The elven warrior snorted impatiently and started off again at a brisk trot. The rift was nearby. She could sense it.
Green light flickered in the distance, through a tall and narrow opening in the stone. She jumped down to jog across to it. Ugh, Ash thought as ankle-deep muck pooled around her feet.
Cole looked up from studying the Warden.
"Hey," he said at the sight of Ash pressing ahead. "Hey! Where are you going?!"
Solas and Blackwall turned at his urgent tone. They exchanged glances of realization that Ash had moved on without them.
"Or for the love of…" Solas hissed.
"Damned stubborn woman," the Warden broke into a jog.
She heard a crackle in the huge area beyond the opening and stepped through into an area as massive as a ballroom. Stairs led down to a moat of black water. Beyond that, stairs led up again to a raised area lined with columns. Four wraith demons shrieked and darted around beneath the bright, writhing green gash of the rift.
Damn. Not the easiest ones to take down, but Ash knew the others would join her soon enough.
"Found it!" she crowed as she dashed forward. The wraiths whirled at her approach. She shot out a chain at the closest one, snagging its grey, clawed foot and yanking it toward her, simultaneously twirling to dodge the icy blast of another as she unhooked her great axe. She swung the axe in the same motion used to pull it from her back and caught the second closest in its middle. The wraith keened and flew backward. Ash used the axe's weight to vault herself overhead to face the enemy she had yanked closer. She stepped forward and low, hauling with all her might to crack the wraith in two with an overhead swing.
"Ah!" she cried out as her shoulder flared with bright, icy pain. She turned to face her attacker in time to see Cole burst into sight in a cloud of smoke and a whirl of shiny, deadly daggers. The startled wraith spun away in retreat, falling directly into Blackwall's fast-moving shield.
"Glad you could all join me," she laughed. Balls of fire careened past her head, erupting with each swing of Solas's staff.
"You are singularly annoying!" the mage shouted over the din.
They felled the first wraiths, only to have more appear alongside Shades and Terror demons. Ash hated Terror demons. She would be in such a flow with her axe, when one of the lanky green jerks would erupt from beneath and knock the wind out of her. They had enraged her like no other until she'd figured out how to properly time her evasions.
This rift was no easy task, and by the time a Rage demon appeared, Ash was rethinking her decisions that day. She was out of potions and feeling the ache in her side as it spat fire at her. The elf shifted to defensive posturing, dancing and feinting while Cole and Solas pecked away at it from the flanks. Then Blackwall felled the Terror demon he'd been battling, waded in and finished the dwindling Rage demon with a sturdy hit of his shield. Only the quietly crackling rift remained.
Ash took a moment to catch her breath, then raised her hand. The Anchor jumped to life, sending electricity surging up her arm and through her body. She gritted her teeth against the discomfort and let out a gasp at the final burst.
"Are you alright?" Blackwall touched her shoulder.
"Just winded." And maybe my limbs are trembling like I haven't eaten in days. And I think I bruised some ribs. "We're done here, at least."
"We did it. We really helped these people," Cole sounded positively giddy. "We're doing good!"
"Indeed," Solas nodded as they headed back out the way they came. "It is good to see immediate rewards for our efforts. Crestwood deserves a respite."
"Gained a fortress, closed a rift, saved a town," Ash ticked off each one on her fingers.
"Helped lost spirits rest," Cole added.
"Slayed a dragon?" Blackwall asked.
"Not today!"
"Can we go to Val Royeaux after this?" Cole asked as they marched up the rickety wooden planks leading up and out of the cave. "I've been thinking where else I'd like to go. And the people there are very strange. Bright. And there are cakes."
"Cole has a point," Solas said. "They have delightful cakes." Blackwall guffawed.
"You like those tiny cakes?"
"You don't?" Solas effected mild surprise. "I can only assume you have deprived yourself out of a virtuous opposition to excess, and have never actually tried them."
The Warden paused.
"Well. Yes, that's right."
They emerged in the drizzling afternoon, Ash leading the way. She was feeling a little better with rest.
"Then it's settled. After this, we go to Val Royeaux, so Blackwall can learn the error of yet another of his ways," Solas declared.
"I've never had these… tiny cakes, either," Ash admitted.
"Well, then. The plan looks ever more promising."
Cole appeared more pleased than Ash had seen him for days. She chuckled to herself, turning to head back down the path through Old Crestwood.
She should have been paying better attention. But she had been pushing herself, and was tired, and still hadn't gotten a potion from one of her companions.
The bolt of lightning struck without warning and made every muscle in her body stretch taut. She was narrowly missed by a volley of arrows, thanks to falling over in a twitching, gasping mass.
Damn it all, she chided herself. Careless. She heard the approach more than saw it, dimly aware of her companions screaming around her. She rolled fast to the side as a massive hammer exploded into the ground next to her. The force of impact still knocked her back a few feet.
A flash of light, glow clinging to her skin… she smiled. Solas. She surveyed the field as she sprang to her feet and scoffed at the enemy who had gotten the drop on her.
Bandits. They must've been stragglers from Caer Bronach, away on a raiding mission when the Inquisition had taken the fort. She took quick stock. One of the massive brutes with the hammers was momentarily distracted by Blackwall's rush after she fell. An archer just beyond him. And beyond that… Her eyes narrowed on the mage, his hands still crackling with lightning.
She leapt to her feet, rolled past the giant warrior, deflected an arrow with her swinging axe, and charged.
The enemy mage saw her coming, and for half a moment she wondered if he would disappear in a burst. But he must have been low on mana, and she crowed as she made contact. They collided in a boom and she flattened him mid-spell. He went down in a flurry of robes and curses. Cole burst onto the scene in a cloud of smoke and slashed mercilessly at the fallen opponent. She heard the charging steps behind her then, but set her feet and hauled the axe overhead to bring it down in a final blow on the unfortunate mage. The elf spun on the ball of her foot to meet the foe behind her, simultaneously swinging her axe so the haft was held up overhead. She kept moving sideways, knowing she could not take the full force of that hammer. Her teeth clattered in her head as she deflected the oncoming blow and diverted it to the side, then stepped immediately into a spin and downward blow that set the huge fighter back a step.
She was tired. More than she cared to admit. But she saw Blackwall charging furiously to intercept the fighter that had honed in on her. Probably due to all the war cries. She did love screaming in battle. And there was one more ranged fighter left. She hated leaving them for last. Always such a task by that point, having to chase down the light-footed bastards.
Ash danced away from the hammer-wielding giant. She threw out her chain to capture the archer out of reach. She saw his eyes go wide and he yelped in pain as she yanked him to her and smashed her fist into face. Ugh. She hated fighting other people. Too personal. But so be it, if they attack her.
The archer tried to get up, but was frozen in an icy blast from Solas, then shattered to pieces as Cole materialized behind him and plunged daggers into his back.
"Watch out!" Solas barked, and Ash narrowly dodged a heavy blow as the giant starting smashing his hammer into the earth around him. Blackwall had been too close, and was knocked backward off his feet.
The elven warrior gripped her axe and waited for her moment. Her adrenaline made her blood pump loudly in her ears. These massive oafs were almost too easy. Even exhausted as she was, she could still play with this one.
There was an opening. Ash laughed and danced forward, jabbing the fighter hard with the butt of her axe. He growled and turned, angling his hammer for a swing. Ash readied herself to deflect it and end this battle with a final attack.
Her ear twitched at a distant sound. A twang of a bow. Oh, no.
Pain ripped into her side and Ash cursed as the expert shot found a soft spot between her armor. She reflexively curled around the wound.
"Another archer! Behind the tree!" the faint voice of Solas called. She heard a commotion and assumed Cole was on it.
"Fuck, shit," Ash hissed. She saw the smile spread across the giant's face.
She was going to get the full brunt of this hit. She tried to set her feet and brace for impact. The hammer flew toward her middle.
Blackwall ran in front of the blow. The hammer lifted him off his feet with an ear-splitting clang, smashed him into Ash, and sent them both into the air.
The wind left her lungs in a rush and wind whistled loudly by her ears as she flew. The world tumbled around her, ending abruptly against stone, then down a short distance atop wood planks that creaked in protest of her sudden graceless weight. She was atop some shoddy, boarded up exit to the cave. She had half a second to stare down between the wide slats into the expanse of a hole leading into the earth. Then the heavy armored body of Blackwall crashed down next to her, wood splintered, and the two plunged downward into darkness.