The Deep Roads
Nov. 23rd, 2013 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
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.
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Date: 2013-12-15 06:20 am (UTC)She straightens, looking down at Sandall.
"You'll remember that, right? S-"
The boy nods emphatically.
"Smart boy. Stay here."
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Date: 2013-12-15 06:26 am (UTC)And, preferably, away from that.... frozen ogre.
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Date: 2013-12-15 06:33 am (UTC)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."
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Date: 2013-12-15 05:32 pm (UTC)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.
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Date: 2013-12-15 05:46 pm (UTC)"Well then, this looks pretty impressive. Think it means we're on the right track?"
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Date: 2013-12-15 05:48 pm (UTC)Naturally, the darkspawn sounds are coming from the left.
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Date: 2013-12-15 05:54 pm (UTC)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."
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Date: 2013-12-15 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-15 06:06 pm (UTC)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."
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Date: 2013-12-15 06:15 pm (UTC)"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.
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Date: 2013-12-15 06:30 pm (UTC)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.
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Date: 2013-12-15 06:33 pm (UTC)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.
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Date: 2013-12-15 06:36 pm (UTC)The ogre roars, staggering to the ground and staying down.
Hawke, meanwhile, shows no signs of stopping her assault.
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Date: 2013-12-15 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-15 06:44 pm (UTC)"Ah...sorry about that..."
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Date: 2013-12-15 06:49 pm (UTC)"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..."
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Date: 2013-12-15 06:56 pm (UTC)"Alright," she calls to the elf, stepping away from the beast to head in her direction. "We'll be right there."
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Date: 2013-12-15 07:06 pm (UTC)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."
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Date: 2013-12-15 07:12 pm (UTC)"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."
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Date: 2013-12-15 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-15 07:29 pm (UTC)"Generally what that smell means, yes. And it's never just one dragon, so everyone watch your backs."
She pauses just before they enter the room.
"Everyone ready?"
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Date: 2013-12-15 07:34 pm (UTC)And there's the sound of leathery wings.
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Date: 2013-12-15 07:46 pm (UTC)A dragon settles in front of them and roars a challenge, dragonlings skittering out from darkened corners of the room. Just great.
So, grumbling, Hawke lashes out at their foes, she and her friends working together like a well-oiled machine as always.
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Date: 2013-12-15 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-15 07:54 pm (UTC)The only drawback, really, happens when one of the younglings manage to get past Varrics support fire and wrap it's jaws around Hawke's forearm. Hawke grimaces, and ends up having to stab the beast a lot to dislodge it.
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