People keep following this, so I guess I should try and finish it off? I honestly didn't plan anything beyond Act 2, so everything that follows I'll just be making up as I go along. That's sure to work well.
For Act 2 we shifted to the Hero of Ferelden, Solona Amell, as she searched for a cure to the Darkspawn Taint, while Razikale hunted for a god-killing weapon at the behest of Dumat, who turned out to have faked his death at the end of the First Blight. Urthemiel used a time portal to summon Andraste to the present day, and possessed her ala Wynne in order to revive her. Andraste revealed that Dumat is the Maker, and he intends to be the only god left alive in Thedas.
The second act closed out with Solona killed by Dumat, who then used the god-killing blade to slay Lusacan, the last sleeping Old God. This ended the song keeping the Black City locked away, which appeared in the skies above Denerim and opened its gates, releasing the imprisoned and corrupted Evanuris into the world.
Act 3 sees the return of Hawke as she travels to Tevinter. I have only played the Dragon Age games, which haven't really featured Tevinter yet (Dragon Age 4 not being out yet), so expect me to make many mistakes writing about the place. Act 3 takes place shortly before the end of Act 2, in case anyone is wondering why things haven't completely gone to hell yet.
Dragon Age: Revengeance
ACT III
Chapter 21
Hawke peered over the side of the airship at the glowing splendour of Minrathous, the dark city lit up at night by a myriad of colourful magical lights. This was her first time in Tevinter. She wondered if Fenris was down there somewhere. She hadn't seen him in years. They'd parted on good terms, but they hadn't exactly kept in touch. He might be dead for all she knew.
"There she is! Get her!"
She pulled back and turned, seeing a trio of guards emerge from the interior of the airship, one of them clutching a wanted poster with her likeness. Well, that hadn't taken long, had it? As they drew their swords, Hawke backed up and tossed down a frost bomb. It shattered into a cloud of freezing mist, turning the deck of the ship into an icy slide. The guards lost their footing and skidded to a stop before her in a tangled heap.
"Do I really look like that?" she asked, snatching the wanted poster from them. "Well I'm certainly worth much more than a few hundred sovereigns." She tutted and threw the poster over the side. As the guards staggered back up, one of them took a swing at her. Hawke twisted to the side to avoid the clumsy blow, and then kicked the man back into the other two. She then drew her dagger and stabbed it into the fourth guard, who was sneaking up behind her.
"Different country, same stupid guardsmen," she remarked, yanking her blade free. Whereupon an energy bolt crackled past her face, missing her by inches. She turned in alarm to see a mage floating down from the mast, staff extended in her direction. The tip glowed in preparation to fire again, and Hawke reached for a throwing knife, but she needn't have bothered; a shimmering force yanked the mage out of the air and slammed him into the deck with enough impact to knock him unconscious.
"Stop showing off, Sister," said Bethany, walking up and planting her boot onto the back of the flattened Tevinter mage. She extended her hand, and the three guardsmen in front of Hawke fell to their knees, pinned down by Bethany's gravity spell. Hawke blew a fistful of sleep dust into their faces, and they crumpled to the deck within seconds.
"I have to show off when I'm with you," she said, joining her younger sibling at the front of the ship. "How else will I be able to impress you?"
Bethany rolled her eyes and pointed towards the helm of the vessel. "You could impress me more by showing you know how to fly this thing. I doubt the pilot is willing to drop us off where we need to go."
He certainly wasn't, and when he tried to fire off a distress flare, Hawke had to deck him. Literally. She stepped up to the controls and scratched the back of her head.
"I've seen Isabela steer her ship. How much harder can this be?"
The answer was "A lot", as it turned out. Airships had altitude, for one thing. Sailing ships seldom had to worry about going Up and Down. After several false starts and a great deal of tipping and pitching, Hawke managed to get the ship more or less pointed in the right direction, though the only reason Bethany wasn't flung off was due to her mastery of gravity magic holding her in place.
"Marian, I'm no expert on flying, but shouldn't we at least slow down before we crash?" Bethany offered, joining Hawke at the controls. Hawke gaped at her.
"You called me Marian!"
"So? That's your name."
"Yes, but you never call me Marian. Nobody does."
"Well I can't very well call you Hawke, can I?"
"Why not? Everyone else does."
Bethany took another look at the enormous building looming ahead of them and gave an exasperated whimper. "I don't think now is really the right time for this. Slow down!"
Hawke tried pulling levers and operating pulleys, but nothing seemed to work. She shook her head. "I'm trying, it's not working. I think perhaps we should consider abandoning ship."
Their destination was the Minrathous Circle of Magi, a series of towers connected to a circular plaza, situated on a peninsula overlooking the main road into the city. It was not meant to function as an airshipyard, so safely docking with it was out of the question.
They were going to crash directly into one of the towers.
Hawke gave up trying to slow or stop their forward momentum, and grabbed her sister by the arm. As they leapt from the deck, Hawke anchored her grappling hook to the side of the ship and used it to try and slow their descent. The Hawke sisters dangled from the airship as it collided with the Circle Tower, and the gas contained within the balloon ignited, exploding. The grappling line sheared off, and they dropped like stones towards the plaza far below. Bethany twirled her staff, and the next thing Marian knew they were falling upwards. The gravity ring she had conjured tossed them up and around, setting them down upon one of the tower's upper balconeys.
"!" said Hawke, struggling to catch her breath. She clapped her sister on the back and wheezed. "Nice save."
"Nice flying," Bethany shot back, the sarcasm unmistakable. Hawke grinned impishly.
"Ironic, for a family named Hawke, isn't it?"
They might have touched down safely, but they had made one hell of a commotion in the process. They could hear people shouting and running about from every direction. It occurred to Hawke that she had unintentionally created the perfect diversion. She pointed this out to Bethany, and jabbed her finger downwards.
"If what she told me was true, then we need to head into the dungeons beneath the Circle Tower."
Bethany peered over the edge of the balcony, watching all of the Tevinter mages scurrying about below. "Well, lead the way. I don't know the first thing about this place."
Even though the pair were intruders who did not belong there, everyone was so busy either panicking or trying to put out the fire raging above that no one paid them any attention. Hawke used the visions she'd had of the layout to find her way around, and soon located a gravity shaft that led down into the lower levels. Once in the dungeons, they forced themselves to walk calmly past the handful of mages they encountered, behaving as if they belonged there. Since Bethany was obviously a mage herself, that made it easier to pull off. What was one more mage and her bodyguard in a Circle?
"That's strange," Hawke said, stopping abruptly.
"What is?" asked Bethany, frowning. Hawke pointed to the door ahead of them, a solid metal affair covered in protective glyphs.
"She should be in the room beyond those doors, but where are the guards? She said she was a prisoner. This smells more and more like a trap. I don't like it."
Bethany glanced back the way they had come. "I'm not exactly thrilled to be here either, but what choice do we have? You said she was responsible for curing my Tranquility, and that she could return it if we didn't help her." She looked her sister square in the eye, and Hawke almost flinched at the expression she wore. "Marian, I can't go back to being Tranquil again. You promised you wouldn't let that happen."
Hawke nodded in agreement and took a deep breath. She checked the door. It wasn't locked, raising yet another red flag. If this wasn't a trap, then she was the Empress of Orlais.
"Ready?" she said, weapons drawn, shoulder pressed up against the door. Bethany gripped her staff tighter and nodded back.
"Ready. Let's get this over with."
Beyond the door lay a dark, circular chamber, dimly lit with Veilfire lanterns hanging around the walls. In the centre of the room was a stone chair, shackled to which was a little dark haired girl, the very prisoner they had come to rescue. She was not, however, alone, and the instant Hawke recognised the room's other occupant, she at once understood why there were no guards to be seen, and why the door was unlocked.
It was Tallis, her daggers drawn, advancing towards the little girl with obvious murderous intent.