Haven is a piece of shit. A guard tries to stop me when I begin walking up the path to the town. A sharp shove gets him to shut up. The freezing, snowy city is a few shacks leading upwards to a chantry in the distance. I look around and see a little boy standing outside a particularly beaten shack. He's the only person outside, so I go to him. When I near him I hear the boy mumbling something while looking at his clasped hands.
"Come, come, bonny Lynne; tell us, tell us where you've been. Were you up, were you down. Chasing rabbits 'round the town. Come, come, bonny Lynne; tell us, tell us where you've been. Come, come, bonny Lynne; we've a bed to put you in. It is soft, it is warm. It will shelter from the storm. Come, come, bonny Lynne; we've a bed to put you in. Dear, dear bonny Lynne sleeps the peaceful crib within. A mossy stone, a finger bone. No one knows but Lynne alone. Dear, dear bonny Lynne sleeps the peaceful crib within.". Morrigan manages to speak a second before we reach the boy.
"I like this child.". The boy looks at me with wide, cautious eyes. I kneel down in front of him, offer a big smile, and use some coercion on him.
"Hello, child. Might I ask about the town?". The boy offers a wide, toothy smile and asks me a question.
"Do you want to see a secret? I can show you a secret. Just promise not to tell.". I nod and hold up my hand.
"Promise.". The boy shows me the item clutched between his hands. A shining, bleached bone rests in his palms. He whispers to me.
"I found it by the mountain.". I can't stop my reaction. I smack it out of his hands and the bone goes flying.
"My finger!". The boy runs after his bone. I stand, thrusts my hand up into the air, and begin charging towards the nearest shack. I slam the door down with my foot and begin screaming as I enter.
"What the fuck is this town?!". The empty, abandoned shack has a bloody alter in the corner.
"What the fuck is this house?!". Duncan runs over and begins licking the alter.
"Duncan, is that human blood?". He growls and comes running back to me with his tail between his legs. I spin out of the building and begin running like mad. I find the convenience store and charge inside. The man inside is screaming and banging his dagger on his counter. I ignore him and begin running around the building. I don't quite know what I'm doing, but I'm hoping it's working out. Eventually, I find myself in the back of the store. I find a large pile of bodies stacked in the back with blood splattering the walls.
"What the fuck is this?!". Screaming and growling from outside the room cause me to stick my head outside. Leliana, Morrigan, and Duncan have already killed and torn apart the owner of the store who, apparently, started attacking the group. I give everyone commands as I charge out of the building.
"Fuck it. Kill the town.". Thankfully, nobody seems to have any qualms with destroying this damned place. When we're outside I instantly turn right towards the chantry. Already, a militia is forming at the top of the hill to attempt to repel us. I pull me sword, shake it a little to get my shoulders loose, and charge up the incline with Duncan right beside me. Arrows and spells fly past us as we struggle up to meet the people already attempting to form a defensive line.
The unarmored men and women are cleaved in two by my blade while my Mabari rips their throats and stomachs out. Arrows meet little resistance from their clothing, and fire spells quickly catch the cotton on fire. It's not even a battle; it's a slaughter. Blood pours like a river around me as Duncan finishes the last dying villager with a swift bite to the neck. I wait until Leliana and Morrigan join me, then kick down the door of the chantry. I leap inside, raise my sword high, and ask a simple question.
"What the fuck is going on here?!". I'm met with shouts and roars as the entire group of worshipers flip around to look at me. The high priest (isn't it suppose to be a priestess?) points a finger at me and commands his followers.
"Kill them! Don't let them get to the sacred ashes! No outsider must reap their rewards!". Another slaughter. No villager can even try to stand up to the sheer force my group is. We've become similar to gods among mortals. Morrigan is capable of calling down storms of fire, Duncan has honed the blood of his gigantic wolven ancestors, Leliana can pin a fly to a wall hundreds of feet away, and I'm a fortress of metal and muscle. Trained professionals couldn't hope to take us down; this group has no chance. The biggest threat is the priest himself who can wield some magic if the fireballs forming in his palms are anything to judge by. Morrigan's own fireball and arrows from Leliana take him out within moments. That leaves the horde of villagers for Duncan and I.
A feral, thunderous howl from Duncan has all of the enemies clutching their ears and falling to their knees. A single sweep with my sword takes out the first row of opponents, and another sweep takes out everyone else. I take a moment to loot the bodies. Some coin and a key, but not much else. Finally, I begin ransacking the chantry in search of the ancient ashes to heal Arl Eamon. Unfortunately, I don't find them. Fortunately, I find a wounded scholar who looks like he might know where they are. When I approach him the man quivers and barley manages to whimper his fearful question at me.
"Have they sent you to finish the job? To finally put me out of my misery?". I'm tempted to go ahead and say 'yes', but that might not work out for me in the long run.
"No. In fact, I actually killed all of them.". The balding, pale man sighs in relief and begins motioning towards his obviously injured leg.
"They wounded me when I came here looking for the ashes of Andraste.". I kneel down beside him and examine his leg. Eventually, I have to ask Morrigan.
"Morrigan?". She hums and doesn't bother even examining it or kneeling beside me. She just replies after a few seconds of looking at his leg from where she's standing a few feet away.
"It might need to be cut off.". The man sighs and shakes his head.
"That was what I feared.". He turns his attention fully to me and doesn't say another word to Morrigan.
"It doesn't matter, though. There's an entrance up on the mountain, but the priest was the one with the key.". I dig around in my pocket and show him the key I took from the priest.
"Is this the key?". His face lights up and he begins shaking his head while struggling to get up. Leliana and I heave him to his feet and the man begins motioning to lead us to where we need to go. Morrigan and Duncan trail behind us as the wounded scholar leads up outside the chantry, around to the back of the building, and up about a mile incline to the very base of the mountain that looms over Haven like a protector. I awkwardly use one arm to steady the man while turning the key inside the lock. Leliana and I sit the man down on a rock near the entrance. The scholar speaks to us as I examine the area around us.
A tremendous, glittery cavern of ice higher than the halls of the dwarves, longer than the ruins of the elves, and cleaner than the palaces of the humans. Pillars of sharpened ice erupt from the ceiling and floor with nary a scratch on them, every surface in the cavern reflects as clear as any mirror, and I can barely see in the distance a form of stairs leading upwards higher into the mountain. I was ignoring the scholar, but I get the general idea of his speech. He's staying here while we hunt down the ashes. He also warned of cultist or some shit. I nod and begin leading everyone deeper into the mountain. As we walk, I slightly lean down to run the tips of my fingers along the chilling floor and watch my own face stare back at me from the ice. My breath puffs out in front of me as I ask Leliana a question.
"Do you think the dwarves would like to live here?". My lover shakes her head as we continue deeper with the stairs becoming slowly visible in the distance.
"Not enough stone, and their ancestors didn't live here. Besides, you've seen their capital. They prefer lava and heat over ice and cold.". Morrigan makes a sarcastic offer.
"If the dwarves don't want it, then why not let the elves have it?". It was meant to be mocking, but it wasn't. Instead, it actually has me thinking. Teagan claimed the queen would give me whatever I want. I just now decided what I want.
"I want this mountain.". A cruel laugh echoes around the cave from Morrigan. Leliana doesn't laugh, but she still disagrees with me. "
Tabris, I don't think that's possible. You're only one woman, and a single person can't claim a mountain. Besides, I'm sure somebody has already claimed it.". I bristle and defend my idea. Obviously, two humans wouldn't agree with me.
"Yes, someone has claimed it. Haven. The village of murderers we just killed. They're all going to be dead by the end of this. So, why can't I say I own the mountain? I killed everyone in it.". Leliana keeps trying to convince me to give up the mountain.
"If you murdered your father, then you wouldn't get his house.". I stop roughly three stone's throws away from the stairs, turn towards Leliana, and challenge her.
"What will happen to this mountain if I don't own it? A lord will prance in here, stick his cock in it, and claims he owns it. Or, it won't be owned by anyone and it'll be worthless. I want the mountain. I'm going to ask the queen to give it to me after I save her country from the Blight.". Leliana bites her lips, but it appears she's finally given in and decides to agree with me about the mountain.
"Alright. Ask Anora for the mountain. But how are you going to live here with your family and friends?". I scoff and motion towards where Haven is.
"The dwarves have a market outside their mountain. We can do the same. Besides, I'm sure the Dalish would swarm here if they were assured they could continue their way of life without being hunted for squatting on human land.". Leliana shrugs and tells me something simple.
"I'll follow you wherever you go, but I'm going to complain if we end up sleeping on a bed of ice.". Morrigan hasn't said anything and it doesn't look like she's going to, so I just turn around and continue our journey to the stairs. We've barely reached the snowy, icy stairs when a call goes up from somewhere. Cultist mages and warriors begin pouring down the stairs. My entire group springs into action instantly and works to bring our enemies deaths.