Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age or any of its related characters. This is just for my own enjoyment and the potential enjoyment of other fans like me, and no monetary gain was expected or received.
Rating: T+
Spoilers: May contain spoilers for Origins, Awakening, Origins DL content, and Dragon Age II as well as the novels The Stolen Throne and The Calling.
A/N: This chapter was a real bitch-kitty to write. I hate having to rehash canon storyline and I'm incredibly bad at it. Both factors make me procrastinate actually doing it rather horrendously, which is why I don't have anything else to show for all weekend and yesterday. The knowledge that the only reason I'm putting off writing this chapter is because I don't WANT to write this chapter makes it impossible to write anything else - good old guilt. I'm in the same position with In A Nearly Perfect World but hopefully my greater familiarity with events of the main storyline (as opposed to this, which I've only played through twice thus far) will make it a bit easier.
Chapter Seventy-Eight: Forbidden Thaig
Amgarrak Thaig was eerily devoid of darkspawn. There were no spiders, and the only deepstalkers they encountered ran straight past them.
"Does anyone else get a bad feeling from this?" Nathaniel asked. "I should hate to think it was just me."
"It's not just you," Elilia said. "This place is wrong."
"What is this place supposed to be, Jerrik?" Loghain asked.
"This was the center of research into the creation of golems after Caridin sealed off access to the Anvil," Jerrik said. "Any information we could recover would be invaluable."
"Even though you have the Anvil of the Void?" Elilia asked.
"We don't have it; Branka does. And she's gotten a little bit persnickety about His Majesty's demands for more golems."
"Knowing now how golems are made, I cannot but agree with anyone who feels their creation should be somewhat limited," Loghain said. "Let's move on: find your missing expedition, if anything's left of them, and get out of here."
They came to a chamber where a dense fog precluded travel in most directions. "I've never seen fog in the Deep Roads before," Elilia said.
"Nor have I," Loghain said. Jerrik, too, seemed nonplussed by the strange phenomenon. "Let's avoid getting lost in it, if at all possible."
They followed the one clear path to a chamber in which stood a silent, deactivated golem.
"What a find," Jerrik said, eyes alight. "If we can find its control rod, this golem will be of great use to us."
"Yes, and of course it lives for nothing more than to serve," Shale said in her sarcastic way.
They backtracked to the fog-shrouded chamber. The dense cloud had cleared slightly, and a new path was open. They followed it, and found a control rod lying conspicuously atop a runic anvil.
"Could we honestly be that lucky?" Elilia asked.
"I don't like it," Sigrun said. "Did anybody else notice how the fog just happened to clear in this direction after we found the golem?"
"Oh but Sigrun, you speak as of matters supernatural," Warden Amielle said. "I am certain it is all just a happy coincidence, or explainable through simple logic. We just do not know enough yet."
"And ignorance is the most dangerous condition I know of," Loghain said. "Be wary: Maker only knows what sorts of tricks and traps guard this thaig. Fog may be only the most innocuous of the dangers we encounter."
They returned to the golem and used the control rod on it. It came to life with a groan of stone and steel. Silent, the construct immediately fell into step with the group.
"Makes a nice change to Shale, don't it?" Loghain whispered to Elilia. "Obedient and most importantly, quiet."
"And here I thought you were going to stand as a champion of golem rights," Elilia said. "You'd prefer Shale to be a silent, obedient hunk of stone rather than the free-willed creature she is?"
"Of course not. But I'd give much if she'd shut up."
"The same could be said of everyone you know, up to and most likely including myself," she said.
He grinned at her. She stuck her tongue out at him. They returned to the fog-shrouded chamber with the others. Another pathway had opened. Sigrun looked at it and shook her head.
"I'm not so sure this isn't supernatural," she said.
"I gotta agree with the pipsqueak," Oghren said. "This place puts my knickers in a knot. Feels like I'm stuck in that damned dream-place again."
"The Fade?" Elilia said. "You know what, he's right. This place does kind of feel like the Fade."
"Let's keep moving," Jerrik said. "Brogan has got to be here somewhere, and I'm not leaving without him."
"A dwarf who would actually save his brother's life. Interesting phenomenon in itself," Varric said.
They moved forward down the path the fog had helpfully cleared. They soon saw their first darkspawn, but the creatures were unreal, ethereal. Almost as if they were ghosts, or existed on another plane. The darkspawn took no notice of them, which was almost more unnerving still.
"Gah, this place gives me the creeps," Sigrun said. "Can we go home now?"
"Not without Brogan," Jerrik said.
"You heard the man," Loghain said. "Let's keep moving."
They continued through the silent, eerie ruins. They found bodies. They found Brogan.
Like the darkspawn, Jerrik's brother was ethereal, unreal. But apparently very much alive, wherever and however he was trapped. Unless, of course, he was a ghost.
"Brogan. Brogan!" Jerrik said, and tried to make contact with his brother through the veil that separated them. The dwarf paid no attention to him, either because he was unaware of their presence or because he was out of his mind. He gabbled to himself, oblivious to everything, as he faced the wall and cowered.
"Jerrik, leave him be," Loghain said. "He's trapped by something I don't understand. We'll have to look for an answer before we can save him."
"But we will save him," Jerrik said. It was a statement and a question all in one.
"We will. We're just going to have to work a little harder, is all. Come on: answers will be further in."
They moved forward. Jerrik was not too distracted by fears for his brother to loot the thaig, and uncovered a cache of researches into golem manufacture. They found footprints in blood, and the torn journal notes of the lost expedition's scholar, and they found passages blocked by strange magical walls. Warden Bannistre walked up to one and put a hand out to touch it.
"It's like…like the Fade, only…" He trailed off uncertainly and then turned to look at the others. "I think that this is another plane of existence, like the Fade, only this feels as if it were engineered. I don't know what sort of magic or enchantment could call an alternate plane of existence into being but however it came to be, I think what we're dealing with here is extraordinarily dangerous. I think that this Brogan is trapped in one of these alternate planes. I sense several. I don't know how we're going to sort it all out and save him."
"We'll find a way," Loghain said, and Jerrik looked somewhat relieved at the surety in his voice. "There's one path open: let's follow it and see what we see."
"I hate to be that guy," Varric said, "but has anyone else been seeing…something…moving, out the corner of their eye? 'Cause I have. And I don't think it's anything I want a better look at."
"I've seen it," Elilia said. She scratched Haakon's ears. "The dogs have been alerting to it. I guess we'll find out what it is sooner or later. I vote for later, myself."
"Let's move on," Loghain said, and they followed him into the open chambers. Jerrik kept an eye out for more research notes. There were sentinel golems that activated when they entered certain places, and they were difficult foes. Finally, in the last chamber they could reach without tunneling through collapsed rock, they found a floor switch. Bannistre checked it, and said that he sensed it had something to do with the created planes he'd sensed. They activated the switch, felt the change, and deactivated it again to ensure they could return to normal.
"Well…let's see how the world changes with this 'alternate plane' activated," Loghain said. He stepped on the plate again.
"This is wild," Laz said. "How did they do this without magic?"
"I think they had magic," Bannistre said. "Those notes we found mentioned something about Tevinter. I think this thaig was a cooperative effort between the dwarves and the magisters, or at least one of them."
"That would explain a lot," Varric said. "Tevinter. Your one-stop shop for all sorts of freaky magic."
"Let's get back to Brogan," Jerrik said. "Maybe we can reach him now."
They returned to the place where they'd seen the dwarf. "Brogan!" Jerrik called. This time, the man heard. But his response was not much encouragement. Terror, it seemed, had robbed Brogan Dace of much of his senses. He continued to babble.
"Brogan. Brogan, calm down. I'm here, Brother. What happened? Where are the rest of the men?" Jerrik asked.
"Dead. All dead, Jerrik. All except Darion. Maybe him, too. It tore them apart and stole their bodies."
"Darion?" Elilia asked.
"Darion Olmec, the scholar that came along with the expedition," Jerrik explained. "If he's still alive somewhere in this thaig, we have to find him."
"Let's see if we can breach the other chambers," Loghain said. "I'm willing to look for another survivor, but let's move quickly. I want out of this place."
It was quite a puzzle, and they encountered more hostile golems and even arcane horrors and revenants that they were forced to battle through. There were more switches to be thrown, more alternate planes to enter, more half-glimpses of some crawling horror that fled from them. They found more research notes, and more pages from Darion Olmec's discarded journal. Then, they found Darion. Or rather, they found what was left of him.
"There's nothing more we can do here," Loghain said. "Let's quit this place while we can."
"Yes. Yes. Leave now, while we can," Brogan said.
They turned and started back the way they'd come. They did not get far. Cobbled together from the cast-off pieces of dead bodies, the horror Olmec's notes had called "The Harvester" attacked with frightening, unnatural speed. Loghain, at the fore of the group, was the monstrosity's target. But he was not the one who fell to the creature's claws. Though the monster moved too swiftly for even his well-trained reactions, someone had time to make one step, one step that put him in the path of the creature's ire instead. Chatterly made that step. Limp as a rag doll, his body flew bonelessly to the side as the creature discarded him.
"Healer!" Loghain bellowed, and attacked the monster. Bethany scrambled to Chatterly's side as the rest of the group fell to the assault against the Harvester. Despite their numbers, it was a difficult battle, made more complicated as the creature had the assistance of shades of demonic magic. Loghain wasn't the only one streaming blood from various wounds before at last the monster and its minions fell.
Loghain dropped his blood-drenched sword and hurried over to Bethany. She turned a tear-streaked face up to him.
"I'm sorry, Your Grace," she said. "There was nothing I could do."
Chatterly lay where he had fallen, torn almost completely in two. Strangely, his frozen expression did not betray pain or terror. His face was a mask of peace and his lips curved in the same pleasant, open smile he always wore. Loghain's breath came in hitches, and after a momentary struggle, he began to cry.
"You damned fool. Did your Maker tell you to do this, Chatterly? Did that bastard tell you to sacrifice yourself on my account? Well tell him to keep his damned nose out of my affairs. You had no business being here, no business dying for me."
Elilia came to stand behind him, and she reached down and put her hand on his shoulder. "Loghain…"
He stood up suddenly, and took the camp kit from his back. He unrolled his own bedroll and put Chatterly's battered remains inside it.
"What are you doing?" Elilia asked.
"I'm not leaving him down here," he said, and tied the blankets around the corpse. "Let's go."