Through the Orthan Taig
The group pressed deeper into the endless dark, the faint hum of lyrium veins and the occasional dripping of water their only companions. True to Duran's prediction, they encountered few Darkspawn. The tunnels felt… abandoned.
Adela, ever watchful, moved with her daggers drawn, her sharp eyes scanning the shadows. "This isn't right," she murmured. "The Deep Roads should be crawling with them. Where are they?"
"Likely topside," Gorim said, his voice hushed. "The Blight's call pulls them like a moth to flame. They'll leave only what's necessary to guard the deepest places."
"Lucky us," Oghren grunted. "Nothing like a nice, quiet walk through a nightmare."
Duran remained silent, his thoughts focused on the strange sound they had heard at their camp. It had echoed in his mind ever since, a deep, resonant groan that felt almost alive. It wasn't Darkspawn, and yet it carried the same air of threat—an unspoken warning.
After hours of trekking through narrow passages, the tunnel opened into a vast cavern. Massive stalactites hung like jagged teeth from the ceiling, and the faint, bluish glow of lyrium veins illuminated the edges of the space. At its heart, they saw the remnants of a long-abandoned dwarven settlement.
"Orthan Taig," Duran said softly, recognizing the carvings on the crumbling stone archways.
"What's left of it, anyway," Adela added, her voice quiet.
The Taig was in ruins. Cracked stone buildings jutted out of the walls like broken bones. Collapsed walkways littered the ground, and here and there, rusted weapons lay forgotten, their blades dulled by time.
"Looks like the place was overrun long ago," Gorim said, his tone grim.
"No corpses, though," Adela noted. "Not even skeletons. That's… odd."
"Maybe something ate them," Oghren offered cheerfully, grinning as he hefted his axe.
"Not helping," Adela muttered.
A Whisper of the Past
They moved cautiously through the ruins, their boots crunching over shattered stone. The silence was oppressive, broken only by the occasional creak of shifting rock.
Shale stopped suddenly, its massive form blocking the group's path. "Do you feel that?" it asked, its tone uncharacteristically subdued.
Duran froze, closing his eyes and reaching out with the Warden's innate sense of the taint. Nothing. The Darkspawn presence remained distant, faint like a dying ember. But there was something else—an energy, subtle but unmistakable.
"I feel it too," Adela said, her voice hushed. "It's… different. Like a heartbeat."
Gorim frowned, gripping his shield tighter. "A heartbeat? From what?"
Before anyone could answer, the sound returned—a low, resonant groan that echoed through the cavern. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, vibrating through the very stone beneath their feet.
"Stone's breath," Oghren muttered, his grin fading. "That's no Darkspawn."
"No," Duran agreed, his tone grim. "It's something else."
The Heart of the Taig
The sound grew louder as they ventured deeper into Orthan Taig, drawing them toward the ruins of what must have once been the settlement's center. There, they found a massive hall, its walls carved with intricate reliefs depicting dwarves in battle, wielding hammers and axes against a tide of shadowy figures.
At the far end of the hall stood a great stone door, its surface engraved with runes that pulsed faintly with an otherworldly light.
"That's the source," Adela said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Duran approached the door cautiously, his axe ready in his hand. The runes were ancient, their language older than even the Shaperate records he had studied. But as he touched the cool stone, a single word formed in his mind, unbidden.
"Titan," he murmured.
"What?" Adela asked, stepping closer.
"It's connected to the Titans," Duran said, his voice steady despite the strange energy coursing through him. "The old legends… the Titans were said to be the Stone's first children. Immense, powerful beings that shaped the Deep Roads themselves. But they were lost—forgotten."
"Not forgotten, it seems," Shale said, its tone thoughtful. "This… explains much. If such creatures shaped the Stone, their echoes would remain."
Adela frowned. "You're saying there's a Titan behind that door?"
"Or what's left of one," Duran replied.
The Shattering of the Taig
With a heave of effort, the group pushed open the great stone door. It groaned in protest, ancient mechanisms grinding against each other. As the door creaked wider, a blinding light erupted from within, flooding the hall with such intensity that it seared their vision.
"By the Stone!" Duran shouted, shielding his eyes with his arm.
The ground beneath their feet began to tremble, then violently quake. Dust and debris rained from the ceiling, and the once-ancient stillness of the hall was shattered by the deafening rumble of collapsing stone.
"Run!" Adela yelled, her voice barely audible over the chaos.
The group turned and sprinted back the way they had come, but the ground was buckling, and massive chunks of stone were falling all around them. Shale bellowed a warning, its massive arms shielding Oghren and Gorim from a cascade of debris.
Duran gritted his teeth, his axe slung across his back as he grabbed Adela's arm. "This way!" he shouted, pulling her toward a narrow path that veered off to the right.
Behind them, the chamber was collapsing entirely, massive boulders crashing down to block their escape route. They dodged and stumbled, narrowly avoiding the rain of destruction. Oghren's voice echoed behind them, though it was impossible to make out his words over the din.
"Faster!" Adela urged, her grip on Duran's arm like iron.
Just as they reached the mouth of the right-hand path, a massive slab of stone crashed down behind them, cutting off their retreat. The sound of the collapse echoed through the tunnel, then faded into eerie silence.