Chapter 5
Disclaimer: I own nothing (that may or may not include OCs and/or the basic plot)
When we reach the town, it is infested with dark spawn and there are no obvious survivors. The Golem we hope to reactivate is in the center of town but the activation phrase given by the merchant doesn't work. Not giving up yet, we search the buildings until we find a mix of dark spawn and Demons attempting to destroy a barrier beyond which several survivors are trapped. Once we clear out the hostiles, everyone except the apparent leader return to the main part of town. The leader introduces himself as the mayor and son of the Golem's former owner. He offers to give us the correct activation phrase if we rescue his daughter from his dad's lab deeper in the building.
After clearing out several demons, we find the young girl talking to a small cat. While Neria keeps the talking cat distracted, I enter the Fade and track down yet another Desire Demon who intended to possess the young girl once someone had disabled the lab defenses against demons escaping. With a smirk, I challenge the Desire Demon to an endurance contest and exhaust her so much that her connection to the possessed cat is broken. With my seed leaking out of the passed out Demon, I return to Thedas and lead the girl back to her father along with the cat. Overjoyed to be reunited with his daughter, the mayor gives me the correct activation phrase for the Golem and once I use it, my team returns to Lothring so Shale (the Golem) can assist in fighting back the main horde of the dark spawn.
On the way to Lothring we are ambushed by Antivan Crows. When we capture the leader of this particular group (an elf named Zevran), he offers to join us if we spare his life. After a moment's thought, I infest him with the Warden strain of the Zerg virus. On reaching Lothring, Morrigan mentions to me that the grimiore I found in the Circle Tower detailed how Flemmeth survived for hundreds of years while I plant Zevran's Chrysalis in the Creep. The result however prompts a return to Flemmeth's hut for an execution. When I confront Flemmeth with the help of Neria, Lyna and Wynne, she tries to kill us using a dragon form but I quickly overwhelm her and collect her true grimiore for delivery to Morrigan.
At Wynne's suggestion, we enter the tunnels beneath the Tower of Ishal to clear out the dark spawn there before Neria, Lyna and I return to Lothring. While in the tunnels, a corrupted spider knocks Neria to the ground and rapes her while the rest of us are busy fighting more spiders. Wynne heals most of Neria's injuries but discovers a lump of corruption in Neria's womb that can't be cleansed by any method she is aware of. Retreating to the original Hive, I infest Neria with the Warden strain. One accelerated infestation later, Neria is free of the spider corruption that would have killed her as hundreds of mutated spiders hatched out of her.
On return to Lothring, we meet a man named Levi Dryden whose grandmother was a Warden-Commander at a time when the King attacked the Wardens. At Levi's request, Neria, Morrigan, Lyna and I head north to Soldier's Peak to clear out the demons and restore the old Warden base. About half way through the base, we find Warden-Commander Sophia Dryden still alive…. sort of. After killing her demon infested corpse, we continue to the top of the keep and discover the Warden Blood Mage is still alive kept somewhat healthy by blood magic. With his help, we seal the portal to the Fade and I spawn a new Hatchery behind the keep so we will have more Zerg who can hit the scattered northern dark spawn quickly.
Our next stop on our quest for allies is Denerim, home of Tyrn Logain. While in Denerim, we meet up with Alistair so he can track down his half sister. Unfortunately for Alistair, Goldanna only sees him as the son of the late King Cailan and hates him for it. To smooth things over, we offer 15 sovereigns and I spawn a generic version of the Warden strain to act as her personal unpaid servants. After doing a few minor tasks to earn the goodwill of the people, we head south where rumors state we can find Dalish camps. When we find the camps however, they are decimated by werewolf attacks.
Keeper Zathrian asks us to enter the Brecilian Forest and retrieve the heart of a powerful werewolf named Witherfang so that he might end the werewolf curse and save what is left of his clan. After talking to a few of the other clan members and bringing two lovers together, we enter the forest and clear out several werewolves along with demon possessed trees. Regrettably, one of the werewolves remained sane long enough to properly identify itself as the wife of one of the Dalish. Among the demon possessed trees, we find a sample of Ironbark for the clan craftsman.
Just before we enter a temple the werewolves appear to be using as a lair, Morrigan is overwhelmed and raped by one of the more aggressive werewolves leaving infestation as the only way to keep her alive much less human. Using vast amounts of psionic energy, I emergency spawn a Hatchery at the temple entrance and accelerate Morrigan's infestation so only an hour later the four of us enter the werewolf lair as Zerg Wardens. Technically I was a Grey Warden Zerg, but it made little difference when compared to the two Zerg Warden elves and one Zerg Warden human. At the heart of the temple lair, we encounter a forest spirit the werewolves worship as The Lady. A short conversation reveals that Keeper Zathrian was the one to start the werewolf curse after humans long ago raped and killed his daughters. When Zathrian shows up to confirm the destruction of Lady Witherfang, a major battle breaks out between the Dalish and the werewolves and I personally kill Keeper Zathrian as punishment for attempted genocide.
With the death of Zathrian, the curse becomes permanent but I suggest that the werewolves spare the Dalish who didn't know better thanks to the now dead Keeper. The werewolves agree and noticing that Morrigan had curse scars but was not cursed into being a werewolf herself asked to join the Zerg Wardens. Seeing the benefits of were troops, I infest all 20 or so werewolves with the Warden strain of the Zerg virus at the hive cluster forming around the Hatchery just outside the temple. With our second treaty taken care of, we march for the Frostback Mountains where the Swarmlings have tracked down the location of Haven and an ancient temple slightly further up the mountain.
AN: Thanks for reading and please review.