open Dragon Age: Shadows of The Deep Roads

[Anon In Equestria 57]

Connor looked at the limp body of rica, then back up to the hurlock, a low growl emanating from inside his helmet.

 

"Ser thomas I take it you know the layout of this building more than we do, go look for the mother and the young lad, tessa grab rica and get her away from the hurlock, and try and help her any way you can, Civ, vk'tir help me push this thing back, while the others do their thing"

 

he unsheathed his sword, which he had picked up before entering the chantry, and charged over to the hurlock, intent on spilling his blood, he let a low swing fly, aiming for the hurlocks waist.

Edited May 7, 2014 by lonewolf1735

[Scrambled_Egghead 16]

@, @, @@Scrambled_Egghead, @@Umbreon

 

(Super important post!)

 

The final genlock fell to the dirt with a thud, leaving the village with a calm breeze as the volume of the fighting suddenly died down. It was then that Ser Thomas began to see the true extent of the horror that befell the village.

 

One of the small cottages had its door broken down completely. There was a trail of dried blood that lead out of the cottage where the darkspawn had dragged a villager outside for feeding. The woman by the well had clearly died of a head wound, as her skull was busted open where it appeared she had been slammed into the side of the well. The foul smelling substance that the Ogre had been feeding on appeared to be the remains of the town guard. Shards of metal extruded from the corpse which appeared to be the shredded remains of a set of plate mail armor.

 

Ser Thomas tried to focus on something else and said to the other recruits, "Rica went into the chantry to look for survivors. We should meet up with her there."

 

He calmly walked with the others to the entrance of the Chantry. The thick door to the Chantry made it impossible for them to know what was happening within its walls. Once he visually confirmed that the other recruits were with him, he opened one of the two doors to the Chantry wide enough so that they could all see inside.

 

Rica was inside of the Chantry's main hall just as Ser Thomas had said. However, she was not alone. She had both of her dragonbone daggers out and was skillfully dueling with a single dakspawn.

 

The Darkspawn she fought was unlike anything Ser Thomas had seen before. It was the same size and shape as a hurlock, but it's armor was different than any other darkspawn uniform he had seen. It had a massive black chestplate and two massive gauntlets, but no piece to protect its biceps. The gauntlets were linked to its chestplate with crude, black chainmail. It had a thick pauldron (Shoulder guard) that stuck out at a sharp point on both ends and doubled as a neck guard. Its greaves and boots were similar to that of a hurlock alfa, save for a darker shade of black. The darkspawn's helmet covered every feature of its face. Small eye holes were the only opening in the entire helmet, and they were too small for even arrows to enter. The helmet had a rounded shape with two enormous metal horns protruding from it. Despite how massive and clunky the armor was, the darkspawn was able to command his movement with ease. In fact, it moved with more speed and grace than any other darkspawn they had encountered. The mysterious darkspawn skillfully wielded a two-handed darkspawn greatsword.

 

The brief fight they witnessed happened too fast for any of the recruits to intervene. Rica's weapons were lighter, yet the darkspawn was somehow able to swing his clunky sword even faster, forcing Rica to be entirely on the defensive, unable to counter attack. Each time the darkspawn swung its massive blade, Rica had to block with both of her daggers to keep the sword from cutting into her.

 

The darkspawn made a powerful upward swing aimed at her head. She was able to parry the attack, but the force of the swing caused her to lose her grip on her daggers. Despite her best efforts to maintain her grip, the two daggers were sent flying out of her hands and landed far across the chantry and made two loud clanks.

 

For a brief moment, the two fighters locked eyes. Both Rica and the darkspawn knew what would happen next. The darkspawn took a short step back and then thrust its blade deep into Rica's lower torso, so deep that the blade burst out the of her back, impaling her completely. Her armor was completely useless against the blade as it cut through as if she were wearing silks instead. She coughed up a wad of dark-red blood before her vision faded away and she went limp.

 

The darkspawn placed its boot on her shoulder and used it to push her off of its blade. She fell onto her back and blood began to pool beneath her. The darkspawn lowered its blade and looked back at the entrance to the chantry, seeing Ser Thomas and the other recruits.

 

Ser Thomas had never heard a darkspawn laugh until that moment. The mysterious darkspawn raised its sword and laughed a deep and horrible laugh which produced a sickening sound that no human could ever recreate.

 

(You will have to fight this guy, but you won't be able kill him... yet.)

Civ felt her blood boil with rage. She could always go berserk over her hatred to the Antivan Crows, but this wound was fresh on her soul. She entered a trance of anger and cried out a vicious war cry as she charged at the darkspawn. She swung at it at exactly the same time as Connor did to increase there chances of hitting.

[Literally Snails 2,307]

Civ felt her blood boil with rage. She could always go berserk over her hatred to the Antivan Crows, but this wound was fresh on her soul. She entered a trance of anger and cried out a vicious war cry as she charged at the darkspawn. She swung at it at exactly the same time as Connor did to increase there chances of hitting.

 

 

Connor looked at the limp body of rica, then back up to the hurlock, a low growl emanating from inside his helmet.

 

"Ser thomas, go look for the mother and the young lad, tessa grab rica and get her away from the hurlock, and try and help her any way you can, Civ, vk'tir help me push this thing back, while the others do their thing"

 

he unsheathed his sword, which he had picked up before entering the chantry, and charged over to the hurlock, intent on spilling his blood, he let a low swing fly, aiming for the hurlocks waist.

@Umbreon

 

When Ser Thomas saw Connor charge, he ran with him and drew his sword. " I am no Orlesian lick-spiddle! I will avenge her too!" He shouted as they charged.

 

Ser Thomas, Connor and Civ all attacked at roughly the same moment. However, none of them managed to hit the darkspawn. The powerful creature swung his massive blade as they attacked and hit all three of the warriors with the broad side of his blade, knocking them all back several feet before they crashed onto the ground. All of them would have suffered grievous injuries had they not been wearing such thick armor.

 

"Maker's breath!" Ser Thomas exclaimed as he lifted himself into a sitting position, "How does it move so fast?"

 

The darkspawn champion laughed and began beating its chest with its free left arm, signaling that it wanted more.

[HigurSan 195]

@,

Vk'tir, for his part, did absolutely nothing. As soon as they'd entered the monastery he'd been lost from sight in the shadows. Now he stared out from them with a calm stare as the human woman was spitted upon a blade like a meat tong with a soft steak. If there was one thing that he had learned in his life, it was that one did not under any circumstance fight anything bother larger AND quicker than you. While it looked like he might have had an edge over Rica in the speed department; this Darkspawn's size and swiftness far outmatched him. There was no way he'd be able to beat it up front. (Even with the Hurlock Alpha, he'd been rather lucky.)

 

Briefly he considered using flames to roast the thing alive. However, it would take time and he was loathe to abandon his refuge in the darkness. Thus he pulled a small flask from one pouch and hefted it in his hand. Inside of the thick casing rolled a viscus solution. He'd never actually used such things before, nor had he ever intended to. To summarise, it was (highly) acidic glue. When applied to any surface (other than the bottle he held) it would stick and begin to burn through it like a knife through butter. In addition it tended to suck in anything else that touched it. Worst affected were stone and metal, though standard clothing was just as ineffective at warding it off. The one time he'd seen it used, it had turned the target into a pile of slag and then burned through the ground. (Ancestors only knew how far it'd gone down.) It had been told to him that water would neutralize the acid, but somehow he doubted it all the same.)

 

Pulling off the cork he turned his nose away from the foul smell, drew back his hand, and tossed. While he'd meant to hit the creature's chest, it had instead sailed inbetween its feet. The stone behind its feet began to liquify into paste within moments, though it might take a little bit to see any effects on the armor itself. (Even so, the stoney paste would cling to it like rubber cement, hissing softly.) Without waiting to see, Vk'tir moved his position and hit above in the rafters.

[Anon In Equestria 57]

Connor lifted himself up off of the floor and grunted as his fore arm started to flare up with pain, he sighed and took a deep breath, then turned to face the hurlock.

 

"Okay this things got speed and power, we're gonna need to think of something quick or we're gonna end up like rica, god damn it I knew I should of brought one of the blood mages with me"

[Literally Snails 2,307]

@,

Vk'tir, for his part, did absolutely nothing. As soon as they'd entered the monastery he'd been lost from sight in the shadows. Now he stared out from them with a calm stare as the human woman was spitted upon a blade like a meat tong with a soft steak. If there was one thing that he had learned in his life, it was that one did not under any circumstance fight anything bother larger AND quicker than you. While it looked like he might have had an edge over Rica in the speed department; this Darkspawn's size and swiftness far outmatched him. There was no way he'd be able to beat it up front. (Even with the Hurlock Alpha, he'd been rather lucky.)

 

Briefly he considered using flames to roast the thing alive. However, it would take time and he was loathe to abandon his refuge in the darkness. Thus he pulled a small flask from one pouch and hefted it in his hand. Inside of the thick casing rolled a viscus solution. He'd never actually used such things before, nor had he ever intended to. To summarise, it was (highly) acidic glue. When applied to any surface (other than the bottle he held) it would stick and begin to burn through it like a knife through butter. In addition it tended to suck in anything else that touched it. Worst affected were stone and metal, though standard clothing was just as ineffective at warding it off. The one time he'd seen it used, it had turned the target into a pile of slag and then burned through the ground. (Ancestors only knew how far it'd gone down.) It had been told to him that water would neutralize the acid, but somehow he doubted it all the same.)

 

Pulling off the cork he turned his nose away from the foul smell, drew back his hand, and tossed. While he'd meant to hit the creature's chest, it had instead sailed inbetween its feet. The stone behind its feet began to liquify into paste within moments, though it might take a little bit to see any effects on the armor itself. (Even so, the stoney paste would cling to it like rubber cement, hissing softly.) Without waiting to see, Vk'tir moved his position and hit above in the rafters.

The darkspawn felt a sensation of pain as some of the acid burned into the skin on its lower leg. Although the acid could easily melt metals, the darkspawns boots and greaves seemed mostly unaffected. However, a black paste seemed to peel off of any piece of armor that was hit, showing that the outer most layer was being dissolved. The darkspawn stepped away form the hole it had created and looked around for its source.

 

When it saw nothing, the creature instead turned its attention to the mages. Ninarya instinctively cast an arcane bolt at it, but the strength of the spell was not powerful enough to penetrate its armor.

 

 

The Darkspawn broke into a charge and headed straight for the two mages.

 

"Tessa, you might want to run. Now!" Ninarya said before she ducked and rolled out of the way, almost slamming into a row of seats. She didn't have time to transform, otherwise she would have been in her wolf form by then.

 

Ser Thomas got up and gathered his sword and shield as fast as he could and dashed at the darkspawn, but there was no way he would make it to Tessa in time.

[HigurSan 195]

@,

 

After that last stunt, Vk'tir did not have much else that he could contribute to the fight. His blades would bounce of the thing's armor. All of his various baubles had been exhausted. Sure, there were some poisons, but none of those were of use without direct ingestion of skin conact. Some paralysis vapor would have been useful, but he'd stopped using it a year ago after once tripping and gassing himself. Maybe he could run distractions, but the Darkspawn gave him the notion that such things would not trouble it in the least. Like many dwarves before and after him, he found himself bitterly wishing for the air of a Golem or two. Thus for now he remained in hiding... waiting.

[Literally Snails 2,307]

@,@, @@Scrambled_Egghead,  @,@@Umbreon, (I didn't want you guys to wait on Blackquill any longer. He'll be online soon, but we're already behind as it is.)

 

Ninarya cast a misdirection hex on the Darkspawn to decrease its accuracy, causing a purple rune to glow beneath its feet. The darkspawn swung its blade at Tessa's head, but the blade missed its mark and swung over her.

 

The darkspawn stepped back and gazed at all of its opponents as they readied their weapons. It lifted its head to the ceiling and shouted a champion war-cry that caused a wave of energy causing all of the recruits to fall backwards.

 

The darkspawn took a few more steps back while they were busy regaining their balance and noticed a circular window near the ceiling of the chantry. Without warning or hesitation, the darkspawn champion squatted down then burst into the air. The jump should have been impossible for something weighed down with that much armor. In fact it should have been impossible for anything, but the darkspawn effortlessly jumped through the window, sending shards of broken glass trickling down to the chantry floor. After the creature was freed from the chantry walls it jumped from tree to tree making its way deeper into the forest.

 

Ser Thomas couldn't believe what had happened. He stood up and pointed to the window shouting, "We need to follow it! Ninarya, turn into a bird or something!"

"That thing is half way through the forest right now. We would be stupid to follow it." The Elf replied coldly.

 

Ser Thomas knelt down at Rica's corpse. "I don't understand." He said. "Grey Wardens die by hordes of darkspawn, not just one! And if that creature was so strong, why would it leave?"

[Scrambled_Egghead 16]

@,@, @@Scrambled_Egghead,  @,@@Umbreon, (I didn't want you guys to wait on Blackquill any longer. He'll be online soon, but we're already behind as it is.)

 

Ninarya cast a misdirection hex on the Darkspawn to decrease its accuracy, causing a purple rune to glow beneath its feet. The darkspawn swung its blade at Tessa's head, but the blade missed its mark and swung over her.

 

The darkspawn stepped back and gazed at all of its opponents as they readied their weapons. It lifted its head to the ceiling and shouted a champion war-cry that caused a wave of energy causing all of the recruits to fall backwards.

 

The darkspawn took a few more steps back while they were busy regaining their balance and noticed a circular window near the ceiling of the chantry. Without warning or hesitation, the darkspawn champion squatted down then burst into the air. The jump should have been impossible for something weighed down with that much armor. In fact it should have been impossible for anything, but the darkspawn effortlessly jumped through the window, sending shards of broken glass trickling down to the chantry floor. After the creature was freed from the chantry walls it jumped from tree to tree making its way deeper into the forest.

 

Ser Thomas couldn't believe what had happened. He stood up and pointed to the window shouting, "We need to follow it! Ninarya, turn into a bird or something!"

 

"That thing is half way through the forest right now. We would be stupid to follow it." The Elf replied coldly.

 

Ser Thomas knelt down at Rica's corpse. "I don't understand." He said. "Grey Wardens die by hordes of darkspawn, not just one! And if that creature was so strong, why would it leave?"

@, @, @, @@Umbreon

Civ walked over to Thomas's side as he stood next to Rica's corpse. She patted him on the shoulder, then made a verbal suggestion to the group. "We cannot take her back to camp. Perhaps we could bury her here, but..." She paused for a moment. "But her daggers. These are dragonbone! This is useful, no?"

Edited May 9, 2014 by Scrambled_Egghead

[Anon In Equestria 57]

(Omg so sorry for not replying I saw the post a couple of days back but I forgot to post cause something happened, please find it your hearts to forgive me)

 

Connor walked over to ser thomas and sighed.

 

"A burial would be fitting for such a fine warrior, I'll go look for some shovels"

Edited May 12, 2014 by lonewolf1735