The group had left Flemeth's hut just before midday and it was well into the afternoon before they reached the part of the Imperial Highway near Lothering. Olorin and Morrigan had mainly stuck together, talking about magical theory. She was very knowledgeable for someone who had only had one instructor and she was surprised at how open minded Olorin was for a circle mage. He had already asked her about shapeshifting and she found no reason not to start discussing all she knew. Similarly William and Alistair walked together, William doing his best to lift Alistair out of his deep depression, Ardal walking beside him.
Reaching the point where they should turn off the Imperial Highway, they found their way blocked by eight men, who were obviously highwaymen. The leader sauntered over to them, his weapons sheathed.
"Wake up men, more travellers to attend to. And it looks like that ones the leader." He said, pointing to William.
A larger man approached them, a two handed maul came up behind the leader.
"Ummm maybe we should let these ones go. They don't much look like the others."
"You should listen to your friend. We are not refugees who will fall prey to petty highwaymen."
"The toll applies to everyone. That's why it's a toll and not a refugee tax. A simple ten silvers and you'll be on your way."
"We won't pay. We are not people to be pushed around lightly."
"Well then we get to ransack your corpses then." The leader said as he drew his two daggers.
He didn't draw them quick enough though, as William head-butted him, giving himself time to draw his sword and shield. Morrigan reached for her staff to fire magical bolts at the three archers. Olorin extended his left hand as he reached for his staff with his right. From his left hand a stonefist flew and hit one of the archers killing him. With his staff he encased the one with the maul in stone, allowing Alistair to easily cut his throat.
The other two archers fell to Morrigans magic. William had killed the leader and another one, and Ardal had just dispatched the highwayman he was facing, leaving only one. Olorin froze him solid just as Alistair plunged his sword through the chest, leaving no more highwaymen.
"Loot their corpses, see if we find anything useful." William ordered, as they did just that. They found several weapons they could sell for some coin, as well as some potions. The best find was made by Alistair who found the bandits takings, around four sovereigns in silver, more than enough to be getting on with for now.
Moving into Lothering, Alistiar recvied lots of stares. The group had no idea why until they overheard two farm workers talking.
"Hey isn't that Grey Warden Armour? Does that mean he killed the King?"
"I don't know maybe so. If he did the Templars will take care of him until the Bann gets back."
Ducking into an alley between two houses, the group stopped to take stock of the situation.
"But how did we kill the King? It was Loghain who quit the field." Alistair asked.
"Yes and he's likely gone and told a fair old tale about how we led the King in a futile charge against the Darkspawn." William replied. "It's what I'd do in his position."
"It doesn't matter right now. We need to get Alistair out of that armour. He can change into some of the armour we took off the bandits." Olorin stated
"But what shall I do with this armour? It's too good to just leave laying around and if we are being framed for the death of the King, we can't sell it."
"Bury it for now, we can always retrieve it at a later date. Make it kind of a cache."
Alistair stripped off with Morrigan turning around. Once he'd changed into some scale armour took from one of the bandits they put his Warden armour in a bag ready to be cached at a later date.
Moving through the town they came across an inn, and went inside. They were immediately confronted by several men who wore the heraldry of Gwaren on their armour.
"Well look what we have here then." One of them stated. He seemed to be the leader, likely an officer judging by the quality of his armour.
"Get ready." Olorin whispered, as one of the Gwaren troops who seemed to be sergeant rounded on William.
"Didn't we spend all morning asking after a fella with this description? And everybody denied seeing him" the man said, in mock surprise.
"It seems we were lied to" the officer said, rather menacingly.
Just then a woman wearing the robes of a Chantry initiate with flaming red hair walked over to the group, apparently to play peacemaker.
"Now, now gentleman, surely there is no need for trouble. These are no doubt more poor souls taking refuge."
"They're more than that." The officer replied. "Now stay out of our way sister. You protect these traitors, you'll get the same as them."
"If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get." William said as he punched the officer, before drawing his sword."
Olorin was in a spot of bother here. Many of his spells would risk injuring some of the innocent people in the tavern. Morigan was casting Winters Grasps at the enemies, so Olorin followed suit. What caught his eye though was the Chantry sister.
Rather then shrinking back like Olorin expected, she had pulled a dagger from somewhere and was dancing round the various opponents, finding little openings within their guards she could exploit to help Alistair and William finish them off. First the sergeant fell to a blade through the neck thanks to Alistiar. William was still duelling with officer, who seemed to be a very competent fighter as Morigan and Olorin finished off two troops who had hung back. Seeing all his men were down the officer gave up.
"Alright, alright I surrender."
"Good. They've learned their lesson and we can all stop fighting now." The sister spoke.
"But we can't have him reporting to Loghain." Olorin pointed out.
"You mean to kill him after he's surrendered?" The sister asked, scanadlised.
"I don't see what choice we have." Olorin said regretfully.
"We don't have to kill him. Whether we kill him or not Loghain will know we escaped sooner or later. I say we use him to send a message." William offered.
Olorin conceded the point, and they sent the officer off with the message that the Grey Wardens lived, and would work against the Blight and any who tried to stop them.
Now he had chance to look at her properly he couldn't help but see how beautiful the red headed woman was. He had thought much the same of Morrigan as well, but they were beautiful in different ways.
"I apologise for interfering but I could not just stand by and watch."
"So I saw." Olorin answered. "I've spent much of my life around chantry sisters and I'm pretty sure none could fight like that."
"Can you be sure? Many of us had interesting lives before dedicating ourselves. I am Leliana."
Olorin introduced the group to Leliana and asked her what she wanted.
"Well I want to join you."
"Well you were useful in that fight." William admitted.
"Thank you. The Maker also told me to join you."
"Ok… I am going to need some context here." Olorin admitted.
"I know it sounds insane, but it's true. I had a dream, a vision."
"More crazy, I thought we were full up." Alistair joked.
"While this does sound rather improbable, she was very skilled in the fight, and we certainly could use all the help we could get."
Eventually it was decided that Leliana would join them. She vanished into the room she had hired in the inn and came out a few minutes later wearing leather armour, a bow and quiver full of arrows strapped to her back, and a sword and dagger strapped to her waist.
Deciding after their fight it was best to leave town, they headed to the Imperial Highway, knowing they had enough supplies to last at least a week from Flemeth. Especially considering William had experience hunting.
Moving out the city they saw what looked like a very tall man locked in a cage. Getting closer, Olorin realised he matched the description of the Qunari he had read in accounts of the final Exalted March against the Qunari.. After approaching the Qunari he spoke to them.
"You are not one of my captors. I will not amuse you any more than I have the other humans Leave me in peace."
"Who are you?" Olorin asked.
"I am a Sten of the Beresaad, the vanguard of the Qunari peoples."
"The revered mother said he slaughtered an entire family." Leliana interjected.
"It is as she said."
Through the conversation, it soon became clear that Sten would likely be great ally. Though Leliana found his acts distasteful, she understood the need for allies and readily picked the lock of his cage. Although Sten said he preferred two handed weapons, the only spear weapon at this point was Olorin's sword and there was no spare armour, though they had the coin for some as soon as they found a merchant.
The first test for Sten was not far away. No sooner had they started moving towards the Imperial Highway again, they were surrounded by what appeared to refugees.
"We heard what was said. I don't know if you Wardens killed the King, and Maker forgive me I don't care. That bounty could feed a lot of bellies. Attack!"
On the leaders word all the refugees launched themselves at the group. Though Olorin was loathed to kill them, he didn't see much option as he launched a Stone Fist at the leaders face, crushing his skull before twirling around shooting lightning at another of the attackers.
One of the refugees got in a lucky shot on Alistair's back, but his armour took the blow well as Olorin cast a Crushing Prison on the attacker. Turning round after hearing a great war cry, Olorin saw an astonishing sight. Sten was taking on four of the attackers on his own, without wearing armour. Despite his size he was incredibly nimble and had dodged attacks that came his way until he saw an opening. In two swings one attacker had his arm cut off at the elbow and the other had his heart pierced by the sword Sten wielded.
The other two attackers were finished off by Leliana slitting their throats as she had disposed of her attackers.
Although all understood they were only defending themselves, only Sten and Morrigan showed no remorse at killing the desperate refugees. However the others were soon brought out of their stupor by screams coming from the Imperial Highway. Rushing up the embankment they saw two dwarves being advanced upon by a group of Darkspawn led by a Hurlock Alpha. William and Alistair went off to deal with the Alpha, as Leliana and Morrigan dealt with the Darkspawn archers leaving Sten and Olorin to take on the weaker melee fighters.
Sten occupied two Hurlocks, as the two Genlocks closed in on Olorin, too quickly for him use his magic effectively. Because of that, he drew his sword, and as he drew his sword, he parried one of the attacks. Another however, had knicked his arm, causing a small cut on his wrist. He just about managed to keep hold of his sword through the pain as he kicked the Genlock who had cut him on the wrist, who fell onto his back. Olorin knew he was safe from that attacker for now, so turned to focus on the other attacker, whom he had to parry another blow from. This second parry however presented an opening, and he impaled his sword through the Genlocks eye. Turning to his previous attacker, got a surprise as the Genlock had recovered quicker than expected and Olorin found himself having to defend a series of quick blows, and Olorin realised he was in trouble. This Genlock was more skilled than others he had faced and Olorin knew he was outmatched. However he was fortunetly saved by William, beheading the Genlock from behind after dealing with the Hurlock Alpha.
The older looking of the dwarves approached them casually. Both dwarves were unarmoured and wearing travelling clothes, not armour meaning the group felt they little to worry about.
"Mighty timely arrival there my name is Bodhan Feddic, merchant and entrepreneur at your serivice. And this is my son Sadal. Say hello boy."
"Hello." The young dwarf said, his voice displaying his simple mind obviously. As William and Bodhan talked, Olorin visually studied Sandal. It was obvious the boy was of simple mind, but it was relatively uncommon to be born in such a way. He soon noticed Sandal was also looking at him wide eyed. Olorins first thought was that he could be that way due to overexposure to Lyrium, but that unusual in such a young dwarf. But he could sense some sort power coming from him. He didn't think it was magic, but he could sense something. Looking over at Morrgian he could see she also seemed to be studying Sadnal, so he was not the only one who could sense this power.
During Olorin's study of Sandal it seemed that William and Bodhan had come up with a deal. Both parties were heading north, and for as long as their interests were alligned, they would travel together, Bodhans cart allowing for more goods to be transported.
They didn't travel long before the group of adventurers came off the Imperial Highway, having found a suitable place to set up camp for the night, a clearing with one entrance into it and a lake nearby for water. After William returned from a hunting trip with three rabbits and started cooking Olorin went round the camp, securing its perimeter. Over a wide area he cast a ward that would discourage any casual observation from outsiders. Closer to the camp proper he set up a couple of Crushing Prison traps that any persistent voyers would trap themselves in.
Dinner was rabbit with some potatoes Leliana had brought wiith her from Lothering. The three Wardens of the group were discussing where their first stop should be.
"I think we should go to Redcliffe." Alistair started. "Arl Eamon is a good man, well respected and would likely be able rally other nobles against Loghain."
William confirmed Alistairs opinion on Arl Eamon, though offered no opinion on whether it should be their first stop.
"I feel we should first visit the Circle of Magi." Olorin offered. "The mages would be a powerful ally. Not to mention they have equipment we could give to Sandal for enchanting our things to make our lives easier."
Alistair nodded. "I see what you mean, but I still feel Redcliffe would be better. We can get armour for Sten there, there are plenty of farmers to buy food from and we might even be able get help from the Chantry there. Revered Mother Hannah is one of the senior priests in the country. Only the Grand Cleric could over rule her.
Olorin adopted a thoughtful expression while William was clearly analyising which one best. Finally, William spoke.
"The rumours have said Arl Eamon is sick. Is his position high enough that the Chantry allows him a Court Mage Alistair? Though my father was Teryn over Redcliffe I never accompanied him on his visits there."
Alistair thought for a second before shaking his head.
"He was allowed one but the Arlessa is a deeply pious woman and wasn't interested in one."
"Then we should go to the circle. Olorin is no healer, and although Morrigan has said she has some knoweldege, she admits it is not a specialty of hers. We don't want to go to Redcliffe then find out the Arl can't talk to us anyway."
Alistiar looked disapointed for a second, before realising the truth of Williams words and nodded his agreement. That decided Olorin finished off his meal before heading towards Morrigan, who had set up her own small encampment not far from the main one.
"Oh I am to be blessed with a visitor." Morrigan drawled, her voice heavy with sarcasm.
"Hello to you to. You know you are welcome to camp with the rest of us?"
"And pray tell, why would I want to do that?"
"I don't know. Just thought I'd make the offer."
"And is that why you came all the way over here?"
"Well no, I wanted to ask you about shapeshifting."
"Oh. The cirlce mage wants to learn more about a forbidden art. Aren't you worried Templars will come and brandish you a maleficar?"
"Even if I wasn't a Grey Warden, and therefore out of the juristiction of the Chantry, it is not blood magic. Irving would not authorise the Rite of Tranquility for it. And besides, its a branch of magic I know little about."
"Very well. I will tell you what I can. The core of it is that it is a spell, no different to any other. However 'tis a dangerous one. You must be extremly familiar with the animal you are attempting to turn yourself into."
"You mean like its insides?"
"Yes. Plenty of times my mother would bring something back and we would cut it open so I could learn about the internal structures of it. But that will only get you so far. It is not good turning into a wolf, if you can't understand how they walk. Or no good turning yourself into a bird if you don't understand how they fly. You would just be stuck. You must know every detail of the animal."
"Would you be able to show me?"
Morrigan looked torn between wanting to show off, and telling another person the full secrets of such a rare ability. She had already revealed more than she had orginally planned to.
"Very well. But I warn you, there will be no slacking off. You will come here after dinner every night or never get my help with it again."
Olorin fired of a mock salute, causing a scrowl to appear across Morrigans face.
For the hour until it was Olorin's turn to take watch for the first part of the night, he and Morrigan talked through the spell. Like most spells there was no incantation, but each spell called upon a mages magic just a little differently. Olorin quickly grasped how the spell pulled onto his magic, leaving Morrigan to order him to try and bring back a dead wolf for the next lesson tomorrow. As William called for Olorin to take the watch, he bade Morrgian a good night. He wasn't sure if it was just his imgaination, or if he saw a smile ghost the lips of Morrigan before she also bade him goodnight.