Among the Grey Warden's Camp

[E. N.]

Night began to fall as the Grey Wardens of Ferelden made their camp.  Ostagar loomed overhead not too far away, its own sentries keeping watch from their high walls.  A thick fog poured down the ravine, rushing through the ruins of Ostagar and blanketing it in its wake.  The Wardens wasted no time in forming their posts, Duncan and Gregor holding first watch over the camp.  The trees and overgrown foliage made it hard to see very far, and the pools of swamp water that collected from humidity chilled the darkening night.

"Gregor and I will take first watch at camp.  Raelan, you will lead with Desten and take Ariss to patrol the southwest corner of the wilds," said the grizzled old Warden.  Duncan kept his composure well even in the cold of the near-desolate forest.  Besides Gregor, most of the other Wardens were not taking the temperature well at all.

Ariss came up behind Raelan rather timidly as Duncan spoke.  The short redheaded girl was just shy of twenty, but her skills with a bow were nearly unmatched.  She had become somewhat of a little sister for the Wardens, and though her presence often brought up their morale even in the darkest times, they knew the Chasind girl was deadly, no matter how innocent she looked.

"Good.  I know my way around these parts and Raelan won't get us lost!" She chirped.

Duncan offered an amused smile.

"But Duncan, is it wise to send me off with two newer Wardens?"  Raelan looked back at Ariss as she stuck her tongue out at him.  "I know they are capable, but I would not want to put them in any danger, no?  I can already sense something moving about in the wilds..."  His Orlesian accent bled through as he spoke, though his time in Ferelden had smoothed much of the less subtle bits of his accent.  His concern was not misplaced,  though the Wardens themselves were still only there to see if what they sensed was true.

[Delcan Damsein]

The young mage simply pushed rocks around with the end of his staff as the older Wardens talked. He was used to those types of discussions, ones where he knew better than to try and chip in. He left the hood of his robe up and stood with his back straight and his chest a little puffed up. He then scratched at the large beard on his face, a nice golden colour to match his hair. 

 

"You know..." he spoke up suddenly, his ice blue eyes rising to meet those of the senior wardens. "I don't exactly fear for my safety in these woods. The fables my nurse told me are just that...taking me shouldn't present any problem to you." After a brief pause, he added "sir" to the end of his statement.

[E. N.]

Duncan turned to Desten, listening attentively as he spoke.  Raelan tilted his head, offering only an ear, and Ariss turned around completely as if surprised to hear him speak at all.

"Be that as it may, Raelan is not wrong in his worries.  We are all in danger this far in the wilds, even here at camp.  I trust that you, Raelan, will take up this responsibility."  Duncan gave Raelan a reassuring hand on the shoulder, but it was a brief gesture.  

"Most legends have some truth to them, Desten.  We'll need your magic if we encounter a Witch of the Wilds," Ariss added in.  Her bright blue eyes widened in mock fear as she moved to tug his hood down from his head.

Raelan gave Duncan a nod and sniffled from the cold.  

"Should you come across any sign of the darkspawn, return to camp and report it to me.  No heroics, no theatrics.  They are not to be trifled with, and we do not know their numbers yet."

"I understand, Duncan.  I will not fail you."

[Delcan Damsein]

Desten merely shrugged as he was addressed. He tilted his head over to Atriss and flipped his hood off, smiling just a bit. "Think your arrows might do a bit more if we run into one of those. Never fails to kill." He then stood back up straight. When he realized a long walk was ahead, he made small embers form in his hand and blew them out, effectively warming up his hands. 

The mage looked over to Raelan, and moved to stand next to him, looking down to him as he spoke. "So...ready to get moving?"

[E. N.]

Ariss grinned and she began skipping towards the campfire to collect her bow and quiver.

Raelan watched Desten warm himself and arched a brow.  Even though he knew him to be a junior Warden, he was glad to have a spellcaster fighting alongside him.

Smirking, Raelan nudged Desten with his elbow.  "Only if you are ready to keep the rest of us warm.  Maybe you could conjure some fire to keep us from freezing to death, yes?"

Duncan pursed his lips and made his way to the camp where the others sat. 

"Let's get moving.  Maybe we can make it back in time to have Alistair's cooking," he said rather loudly.  Ariss began giggling, and Alistair stood from his roasting rabbit and pouted.  

"Hey! Don't think I can't hear you.  I'll save the best, most charred bits.  Just for you."  Alistair squatted back down with an amused grin as the rest of the camp laughed, and Raelan chuckled heartily.


The path ahead faded, turning into the pure and untouched wilds.  The Wardens assumed that the darkspawn would most likely travel without caution in the night, and so then would be the best time to track down any to be found deep in the wilds.  Raelan would take the lead, guiding them into the mysterious wild.

[Delcan Damsein]

Desten blinked a bit from the expression, then nodded with a smile. "I can come up with something." He began looking around the camp, moving towards the supply tent for three torches. Once he had them in hand, he raised his right hand and stood still. Seconds later, fire erupted from his fingertips making a short wave that engulfed the torches, setting them all off. As the other two Wardens made their way to the path, the mage jogged carefully over to the other two, and handed them each their own torch. "Hopefully this'll help..." And with that, he closed his mouth and looked towards the path.

[E. N.]

The wildlife in these parts were slim.  Wolves howled, swamp bugs whirred and buzzed, and crickets.  Endless crickets.  Even the croaking of toads were hard to hear.  Raelan guided them, torch in hand, as he began going further into the thicker part of the wilds.  The foliage grew so thickly he had to draw one of his two blades and cut through just to pass.

"Raelan, do you really have to choose this path?  If I can even call it that!  I told you already that there were clearer ways through if we went around."  Ariss blew a stray lock of of her flaming hair from her face frustratingly.

"I can sense something.  I would rather not travel through vulnerable and open spaces where we can be seen.  Do you not sense it too?"

"I... think so."

"You would know if you did.  Desten, can you feel it?"  The elf paused and his voice lowered, he closed his eyes.  He could feel the presence of darkspawn, though he could not yet pinpoint where they were or how many there were.  He knew they might come upon them at any moment, though, and so he lowered his torch and put it out in the damp ground.  Ariss followed suit.

"Focus.  The taint, you can sense it, no?  It is the darkness we have taken into ourselves, that gives us the ability to become part of the hive mind of the darkspawn.  That is why we have distant, horrible dreams.  Since you two are newer, you may not be as strong yet.  But we senior Wardens... we've begun to sense the Archdemon."

"So if you can just sense it, why are we out here?" Ariss contested.

"We need to know how many are moving, and how quickly.  We need to be able to bring proof to the King."

"Surely the presence of a Blight will be noticeable?"

"Presence of darkspawn, yes.  But only we can convince them of how dangerous the darkspawn will be."

[Delcan Damsein]

He looked around, the sense of the foul beast nauseating in nature. All he wanted to do was squash it out. He sighed as he knew he wouldn't see them, and then looked over at Ariss with a grin. "You'd be surprised at how utterly daft nobles can be." He then looked to Raelan and blinked again in confusion. "Are...are they getting closer?"

[E. N.]

Ariss gave Desten an amused eye-roll.  "You'd be surprised how utterly daft men can be, too."

Raelan shushed them both, holding up a hand.

"Listen..." his whispered.

For the three Grey Wardens, the nearby presence of darkspawn would be hard to miss by now.  The sense of them was stronger, and it seemed that the proximity of them and the group of spawns was closing.

Surrounding the three were trees, tall and thick.  Bushes and tall grass and weeds that reached the height of a man made it hard to see anywhere, but even in the darkness Raelan began to sense their locations now.  

He sensed a few ahead.  No, there were more.  Four.  Six.  Seven.  He sensed them.

And they sensed them right back.


Ariss broke the silence, her whisper barely audible, but in the dead silence, was louder than anything Raelan had heard in his whole life. 

"The taint... the corruption has taken this part of the wilds..."

Raelan cringed, relaxing his tense muscles only after she finished speaking.

"We must change our course.  They are beginning to sense us, and if we remain they will surely attract unwanted attention to our location," Raelan urged quietly.  

[Delcan Damsein]

Desten gave a quick nod. "Right...lead on." He grabbed his staff tightly and began to move away with Raelan and Ariss, hoping they did not catch wind of the darkspawn.

[E. N.]

They had traveled for hours winding back and forth through the wilds to get back to the campsite.  Without torches and the constant threat of darkspawn, it was taking far longer than they thought.  If it hadn't been for Ariss and her knowledge of the wilds, they would have been in far worse conditions.

"We should be close to the camp now... you can see Ostagar from here," she whispered.

It was true.  As Raelan looked up past the trees he could just barely see the outline of Ostagar, but the leaves and branches were blocking most of his view and the darkness did nothing to help.  

"If we go northeast a bit, we can go straight through to the camp."

"Ariss, lead us on another path by way of west.  And quickly."

"West? Why?"

"Because there is a very large group of darkspawn heading northeast."

"But... the campsite is..."

"All the reason to make haste, no?"

[Delcan Damsein]

Desten huffed and puffed slightly. Despite his fit build, the man was obviously getting tired from the running. "How much farther is it? We need to make sure we're with the others for any fights." He looked to Ariss or Raelan for an answer, the wise young man completely and utterly lost in the wilderness.

[E. N.]

Ariss was well ahead of the both of them, her lithe form bounding silently.  She was working the twon men hard as they tried to keep up.  In their efforts, they were making good time and ground.  They had to circle around the original course and begin a new path.  It seemed like an eternity had passed, and Raelan's dampened hair had begun to cling to his neck.

"I can see the campfire in the distance!" said a relieved Ariss.

"We must warn the others, before-"   Raelan could not finish his sentence.  The lights in the camp went out, one by one.  The camp went dark, silhouettes of the Wardens gone.

Raelan felt the feeling of the taint grow stronger, and knew that they were about to come upon the camp.  

"We may already be too late..."

Moonlight broke through the clouds and illuminated the ground through holes in the treetops.

Dozens of darkspawn could be seen marching, limping, crawling, hobbling in whatever forms they took.  Some tall, some short, even monstrously large ones were swarming slowly through the wilds towards the encampment.  

It would have been fruitless to signal Ostagar.  They were still a considerable distance away from it that any help would be pointless.  There were only two options for the Grey Wardens, run or fight.

Grey Wardens didn't run from darkspawn.

"Quickly, with me!"  Raelan rushed ahead of the other two, drawing his twin longswords and charging straight for the creatures closest to the camp.

[Delcan Damsein]

Desten let out a quick roar as he charged in behind Raelan. Before he had even taken two steps out of cover he had already picked his target. With a raise of his staff, icy winds started to swirl around the hurlock closet to the center of the camp. The hurlock turned with hate in its dark eyes and went to rush the Wardens...except he couldn't. After a few tugs the beast looked down to his feet to see his plate armor engulfed in ice, and it was on the move. Desten build the ice up to the hurlock's neck and took a deep breath. As the beast squealed and hissed in confusion, Desten sent a ripple of lightning from his finger tips through the chest of the hurlock. The ice exploded, leaving only the head intact. It rolled into the group of darkspawn, and Desten readied his staff for more.

[E. N.]

Ariss had already knocked an arrow into her bow, and ran alongside Raelan for a time before perching atop a boulder.  From her vantage point, she began loosing arrows one after the other, picking her targets carefully.  With fiery determination, she had downed three genlocks by the time Raelan reached the camp.

"To arms!" cried out Gregor as he came forth from his hiding place, hefting a mighty battle-axe.  The res tof the Wardens had been ready the entire time.  As the first wave of darkspawn poured into the empty camp, the Wardens sprung like rabbits from holes, cutting them off and surrounding them.  While outnumbered, the Grey Wardens were not outmatched.

Raelan's charge collided his boot with a hurlock's chest, knocking it back with a defiant growl as it remained standing.  Raelan wasted no time, forming an x with his blades and scissoring the beasts head off its shoulders.  

"For the Grey Wardens!" Cried Alistair as he joined Duncan's side.  

Gregor swung his axe clear through hurlock, separating its torso from the waist, and continued the momentum of his attack to swing around and down to cleave a genlock from its skull to its chest.  Kicking the body off from his axe-blade, Gregor bellowed with laughter and made it a point to break the second wave of darkspawn before they could reach the encampment.

Raelan had just finished slicing the arms off a genlock when he saw an ogre, staring at him with hunger in its eyes.

"Desten! Maybe winter should come a little early, yes?" shouted Raelan desperately as he rolled to the side and narrowly avoided the horns of the giant beast.