The Deep Roads

[igetthatalot]

Varric does not like being underground.

He's said this before, plenty of times. It's a known fact. He hasn't mentioned it since five minutes after they stepped into the Deep Roads (how Blondie managed to secure those Gray Warden maps of the entrance he doesn't know, but he's grateful). It would be bad form, considering how much of this expedition was his idea in the first place.

But, Maker, it's been four days now- he thinks- and they're still picking their way downwards with no sign of treasure anywhere to distract him from the knowledge of just how much stone is positioned directly over his head. This... this is not his idea of a good thing.

They'd better find the good stuff soon. This is getting way too old for his liking.

Comments

[da2_npcs]

Isabela's caught many a sailor when he was off his balance before; she catches Hawke reflexively. "Steady, now," she murmurs. "It's not going to hurt anyone."

The sound catches the pale-haired dwarf's attention. Sandal turns to the newcomers, smiles brightly, and says, "Hallo!"

[birdofkirkwall]

Hawke's hand wraps around Isabela's briefly and squeezes she sucks in a shaky breath before exhaling a steadier one.

Mentally shaking herself of the memory, Hawke releases the pirate's hand and steps forward, crouching down to Sandall's level.

"Well isn't this something. How did you manage to kill all of them?"

[igetthatalot]

For a moment, it almost seems as if he's not going to speak. Bodahn did warn them that young Sandal wasn't entirely right in the head- lyrium-addled as a child, or something.

But then he nods solemnly and holds out a round grey stone engraved with a peculiarly glimmering dwarven rune on it. "Boom," he says.

[birdofkirkwall]

Hawke nods at the explanation, taking the offered stone gently and looking down at it.

It's simple enough, it seems.

"Good job," she praises, then, looks towards the frozen ogre. "What about that?"

There's another long set of beats, where it doesn't seem like the boy it going to answer. When he does, though, it's just as enigmatic as 'boom'.

"Not enchantment."

[igetthatalot]

"Smart boy," Varric murmurs, and Sandal smiles happily. "Listen, Sandal, your father asked us to find you. Can you wait right here until we come back, so we can take you to your father?"

To Hawke and Merrill- mostly- he adds, "We can't keep him with us, and I'm not about to send him back on his own. Seems like he'll be all right here, though."

[birdofkirkwall]

Hawkwe's eyes remain fixed on the ogre for a few moments. "Sure looks that way to me," she says in response.

She straightens, looking down at Sandall.

"You'll remember that, right? S-"

The boy nods emphatically.

"Smart boy. Stay here."

[igetthatalot]

"Come on," Varric murmurs. "We still need to find a way past that collapse."

And, preferably, away from that.... frozen ogre.

[birdofkirkwall]

"Good idea," agrees Hawke.

That ogre is just too damn unsettling.

She clasps the buy warmly on the shoulder before they head off, leaving him with a bit of food and her canteen for the moment.

"Let's go kill some more darkspawn."

[igetthatalot]

A side passage perhaps half again as wide as the ogre reveals what looks like ancient, crafted stairs. They lead upward, into a high-roofed tunnel with a perfectly flat-

No, a paved floor. And here the pillars aren't stalactites and stalagmites grown together, but carven stone- dwarven work. The dim red glare of what's probably the lava-stuff again shows them at regular intervals, and some carvings of what might be old, old dwarven script.

No wonder there are darkspawn howling in the distance.

[birdofkirkwall]

Hawke whistles low at the sudden change in scenery.

"Well then, this looks pretty impressive. Think it means we're on the right track?"

[igetthatalot]

"Looks like it to me," says Varric, and glances to the right, where the bottom two-thirds of the tunnel have filled with rubble.

Naturally, the darkspawn sounds are coming from the left.

[birdofkirkwall]

Of course they are.

Hawke just groans frustratedly at the noises.

"So, I'd like to make a motion. After this is all said and done, no more darkspawn or Deep Roads ever again."

[igetthatalot]

"Seconded," chorus Varric and Isabela in near-unison. Whatever Merrill's vote on the subject is goes unheard; battle against these things is noisy and horrific, and by the end of it there's blood and body parts and worse everywhere.

[birdofkirkwall]

She's wiping the darkspawn blood off of her blade when she spots the golems against the wall, and she pauses, half expecting them to come to life and attack them.

That seems to be their luck these days, after all.

"People are going to come ask me to help save their second cousin or some such from the deep roads," she says, picking up on her previous thread of thought. "'Please, Hawke, save them!', and I'm just going to laugh. One of you hit me if I don't."

[igetthatalot]

Thankfully, the golems don't move. They're probably stronger than the shackles holding them to the wall, but so far as Varric and Hawke can tell, they're not going anywhere.

"Tell you what, Hawke," says Varric as they make their way down a half-flight of stairs into a vast room lit on one side by an enormous lyrium vein and on the other by ancient dwarven lamps of some red stuff too shielded to see clearly. "I'll make a special point of paying for the courier to go find the nearest Gray Warden instead next time, personally. We can leave the darkspawn to the professionals. How does that sound?"

This room doesn't end in a tunnel, unlike the chambers they've encountered before this. At the far end a half-flight of stairs leads up to a heavy-looking iron-bound door.

[birdofkirkwall]

"It sounds like you're the best friend a girl can ask for," Hawke says cheerfully, pausing to inspect the lyrium vein now that they don't have darkspawn to deal with. "You know just what to say to a girl."

With that, Hawke leads the way up the stairs, muscling the ancient door open and-

There's a roar, and a yep, and...

What happened earlier, with Merrill and the spider? That's now replaced with Hawke, her daggers, and an ogre.

[igetthatalot]

Well.

At least the ogre's big enough that Varric can target some of its bulk without fear of hitting Hawke, right?

... that's a lot of ogre blood flying around the room.

[birdofkirkwall]

SHINK, SHINK, THOQQ!

The ogre roars, staggering to the ground and staying down.

Hawke, meanwhile, shows no signs of stopping her assault.

[da2_npcs]

"Ah- Hawke?" says Isabela, raising her voice. "Hawke, you can stop now. it's properly dead."

[birdofkirkwall]

Hawke's mind creeps back from wherever it had been, at Isabela's words. Her attack hesitates, then stops with the woman looking a little embarrassed.

"Ah...sorry about that..."

[igetthatalot]

"It's okay, Hawke," says Varric. "We all have our moments."

"Hawke?" calls Merrill, who's crept around the edges of the room to peer ahead just in case. "It's half-collapsed out there, but I don't see anything moving. I think we should be all right..."

[birdofkirkwall]

Hawke nudges the ogre one last time...just to be sure.

"Alright," she calls to the elf, stepping away from the beast to head in her direction. "We'll be right there."

[igetthatalot]

It's uncomfortable going for the next few lengths of passage, but the collapses happened long ago. The rocks are stable; the route, it seems, is safe. And there's no darkspawn to be found anywhere.

Although Varric finds himself sniffing the air unhappily as the dull red glow of a much larger chamber ahead starts to penetrate the dimness. "Hawke," he says, "I don't like that smell, do you? That's not darkspawn."

[birdofkirkwall]

Hawke sniffs the air tentatively for herself expression immediately settling into a scowl.

"It doesn't," she answers, her mind trying to place the odd scent until...

"Oh no...no no no, I am calling cheat on this one, to whatever higher power is up there."

[igetthatalot]

"Better get your big spells ready, Daisy," says Varric grimly as he readies his most potent explosive arrow. "We've got a dragon coming."