Branka
It was a long road, but it was starting to reach its end as they entered the Anvil of the Void area.
"If Branka is anywhere, this has to be it. She will not be unprepared." Oghren broke the silence.
"The anvil of the void is near…I can feel it." Shale spoke, admiring the purple crystals on her wrists.
As the group neared close, they saw a dwarven figure. When they crossed over the threshold, a metal door popped up, locking them inside. Lenna and her friends kept their weapons at the ready, assuming this was some kind of darkspawn trap.
A voice Oghren recognized began to speak, "Let me be blunt with you. After all this time, my tolerance for social graces is fairly limited. That does not bother you, I hope." Branka spoke bluntly.
"Well, shave my back and call me an elf! Branka!? By the stone, I barely recognized you!" Oghren looked with gleaming eyes at his wife.
"Oghren…" Branka Sighed, unimpressed. "It figures you would eventually find your way here. Hopefully, you can find your way back more easily." Her words were like daggers. "And how shall I address you? Hired sword of the latest lordling to come looking for me? Ojustst the only one who didn't mind Oghren's ale-breath?"
"Be rrespectfulwoman!" Oghren demanded, "You're speaking to a Grey Warden!"
"Ah, so an important errand boy then. I guess something happened. Is Endrin dead? That seems more likely. He was on the old and wheezy side."
"Not that this matters to you, but Orzammar needs a new king to defend against the blight," Lenna replied.
"Oh? So then, what do you need from mn? You must have a patron who wants something." Branka folded her arms. "I don't care if the assembly puts a drunken monkey on the throne. Because our protector, our great invention, the thing that once made our armies the envy of the world, is lost to the very darkspawn it should be fighting! The Anvil of the Void. The means by which the ancients forged their army of golems and held off the first archdemon ever to rise! It's here. So close I can taste it!"
"Yes but that does not change that Orzamar needs a king."
"A thousand kings could die, and history wouldn't even notice!" Branka spat. "I'm looking for the one thing that WILL return our days of glory! The Anvil lies on the other side of a gauntlet of traps designed by Caridin himself. My people and I have given body and soul to unlocking its secrets! THIS is what's important! This is what has lasting meaning! If I succeed, the dwarven people benefit. King's politics…all that is transitory. I have given up everything and would sacrifice anything to get the anvil of the void."
"You arobsesseded. This is probably why Caridin sealed it away!"
"I will not give up! His legacy lies just inside, the sum of all of his knowledge, and I will have it! There is only one way out, Warden, forward, though Caridin's maze and out to where the anvil waits."
"What has this place done to you!? I remember marrying a girl you could talk to for one minute and see her brilliance!" Oghren pleaded.
"I am your Paragon." She states before walking away.
Lenna sighed, running a hand through her long hair before they continued, "Looks like there's no other choice."
The maze was a blur of puzzles and Darkspawn, poison gas, and machines that tried to kill them. However, they managed to best each test, each feat defeated. Finally, they had made it to the final room, where golems stood frozen in time, waiting for them.
Finally, the end of the maze came;, it was lined with golems and a large doorway, as well as a strange golem statue seeming to hold some strangely arranged tablets.
Shale sighed. "I am starting to think that darkspawn are worse than birds…"
"You're right there…" Alistair sighed, feeling like he could finally breathe for a moment.
An ancient, elaborate golem began to speak in a booming voice, "I am Cardin. I was once a paragon to the Dwarves of Orzammar."
"Caridin? The paragon smith?" Shale said, seeming to recall something from her past.
"There is a voice I recognized. "Shayle of the House Cadash, come closer."
"You…know my name. Is it you that forged me? Is it you that gave me my name?" She asked hopefully.
Caridin sighed, "Has it been so long that you have forgotten? I made you into the golem you are now, before you were a dwarf, just as I was. The finest warrior to serve King Valtor, the only woman to volunteer. I laid you on the Anvil of the Void, in this room, and put you into the form you now possess." He seemed very disappointed by this.
"The anvil of the void…that is what we seek." She seemed surprised by all of this news, though you could not see the confusion that swarmed Shayles mind.
"If you seek the Anvil, then you must care about my story of being doomed to relive it." He boomed, turning his attention to Lenna, who now was filled with curiosity from the conversation she had just overheard.
"I assume you are the one who created the anvil," Lenna spoke with a lot of confidence.
He went through a long speech about the dangers of the anvil and how it could risk being used for evil, ending with, "Please…help me to destroy this thing before anyone else dies for my invention…"
Lenna was surprised by all she heard, but she knew this invention could not stand to exist, "Of course I will help you destroy the Anvil of the Void."
"No! The anvil will me mine! No one will take it from me!" Branka cried out in protest.
Lenna and her friends drew their weapons. "nNo you won't. It's not right to put people through this!" Lenna retorted.
"Just give her the sodding thing whats the worse that can happen?!" Oghren grimaced as his lover, "Branka…please see reason.."
"I'm sorry, Oghren. I can't do it. I cannot allow someone to use that anvil." Lenna spoke, turning to Branka and drawing her bow
Branka pulled out a control rod, freezing Caridin and activating the other golems to fight for her.
Shayle, approving happily of what Lenna said, charged a golem punching it down like the expert she is.
Lenna drew her bow, pausing for a moment to line up her shot, the arrow going just back Branka's face, drawing her attention.
Branka roared angrily and charged at her. Lenna switched weapons quickly, grasping her twin daggers and clashing weapons with Branka.
Lenna and Branka fought hard. Branka was strong, but Lenna was stronger, quickly decapitating Branka before she could do serious harm to Lenna. The golems seemed to fail as the control rod was in Lenna's hands now, freezing once more back in place.
Caridin started moving once more, as Oghren was livid now at Lenna for killing his partner. However, for the first time, he was thinking clearly. He thought for a moment about what Shayle and Caridin must be going through, never to be truly alive again. He realized that maybe he was in the wrong to be upset at Lenna for allowing this to happen to his people; maybe Lenna cared about things more important than just getting rid of the blight. Maybe instead of being an annoying drunk to the dwarves, he should be a grey warden, too. Of course, he would ask her about it later.
At this point, he'd missed the conversation with Caridin before Caridin destroyed his invention and threw himself into the fire, leaving Lenna the new crown with his seal on it.
Lenna was taking a rubbing on the names of the dwarves who gave their lives to become golems.
It was a long, uneventful walk back to Orzimar, full of Darkspawn and dead dwarves.
Lenna marched into the assembly, coated in grime and darkspawn blood from their journey.
"Lords of the Assembly! I call for order, this argument is getting us nowhere." The Stewart of the assembly called out.
"Then why these delaying tactics! I call for a vote now! My father has one living child to assume the Aeducan throne. Who would deny him that!?" Bhelen shouted.
"Your father made me swear on his deathbed you would not succeed him.", Harrowmont replied, glaring at Bhelen.
"I apologize for the interruption, Lord Steward, but the Grey Warden has returned." The guard who escorted Lenna in said.
Lenna strode into the middle of the room, "I bear a crown from the paragon Caridin for his chosen king." Lenna held the crown in front of her. "Caridin was trapped in a golem, I helped him destroy the anvil and give him the peace he had been looking for for so long."
"Lies! We all know the warden has been in Harrowmont's pocket! How do we know this is true!? Bhelen calls out.
"Silence!" Ordered the Stewart, "This crown is of paragon make and bears House Ortan's ancient seal…tell us, warden, who did Caridin choose?"
"He heard of Bhelen's nefarious grab for power, and like Branka, refused to allow him to acend to the throne. He chose lord Harrowmont as the new king."
"I appreciate your forthrightness, Warden. You have acted with grace through this entire torturous process." Harrowmont seemed relieved.
Lenna and a few of her friends waited in the corner as Harrowmont descended the stairs, assembly members making a path of him as they beat their staves against the floor. He knelt before the Stewart and rose King of Orzammar.
"Let the memories find you worthy, first amidst the lords of the houses, the king of Orzammar," Thstewardrt spoke.
"I will not abide by this!" Bhelen threw a fit.
An assembly member shouted from his seat, "The ancestors have spoken!"
"Stand down, Bhelen, you have lost," Lenna warned him, her hand brushing the hilts of her daggers.
"Would you let a sufacer decide the fate of the dwarves!?" He yelled.
"Watch out! They brought weapons!" The same assembly member cried out.
Lenna did not hesitate; she charged into the fight. She didn't hear Harrowmont yell for the guards to aid the warden and her friends.
It was not a long battle between the guards and the Warden's group. Bhelen lay dying on the stairs of the throne, Lenna's dagger plunged into his chest.
Harrowmont turned to Lenna, "I admit, I did not think even Bhelen would defy the word of a Paragon…nor that so many would follow him." Harrowmont sighed a little. "But most of Orzamar has seen him for who he truly is, and I trust we will bring this insurgency under control." Harrowmont seemed very sure of himself.
"I have faith in you, Harrowmont." Lenna put her daggers away.
"Thank you, Warden. Those loyal to the throne will begin preparations for a surface mission immediately. Orzammar will fulfill its treaties. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get to the palace and set our plans in motion." He bowed before he left.
"Thank you, King Harrowmont. We will return to the surface and finish preparations there." Lenna and her group left.
Oghren stopped her as they had gotten to the entrance to the outside world. "Warden, I'd like to stay with you."