They had saved Arl Eamon of Redcliffe and now they must gather support from the dwarves and the elves against the darkspawn and the blight, while the Arl played his part and gathered all the nobles from across the land together for a Landsmeet.
At last enjoying a well-deserved rest after the haste they had taken in returning to Redcliffe, Caelyra wandered around the camp and talked to all of her people.
Leliana spoke of her life as a minstrel before becoming a sister of the Chantry, but soon let slip that she was actually a bard. Wynne spoke sadly of her younger days and an elf mage she had mentored and failed. Zevren the assassin spoke of his longing, of returning to Antiva and smelling the smell of fresh Antivan leather once more. And Sten just wanted his sword.
The sword that they had searched for by the Lake but hadn't found... the sword that would perhaps be in another's hands near Orzammar, the dwarven city. If that scavenger by the lake was to be believed.
Caelyra decided that they would seek the aid of the dwarves next, and perhaps find Sten's lost sword while they were there. But first, perhaps a trip back to Denerim to give the smithy these dragon and drake scales. Surely he could craft something amazing with them.
As they travelled, they came across mages fighting darkspawn. There seemed to be more and more of the creatures roaming the lands each and every day. Surely the people could not deny the blight was coming for much longer.
In Denerim, they stopped by Genitivi's home and made sure he had made it back to the city safely. He had. And, in fact, the chantry was quite interested in the adventure they'd had in Haven and were making plans for a grand expedition to Andraste's resting place.
Then they stopped by the smithy where Blacksmith Wade was ecstatic about the thought of working on some drake scale armour. He didn't wait to hear about the dragon scales Caelyra had, but took three of the drake scales and ran back to his forge.
His service assistant, Herren, was most displeased but allowed Wade to work.
Caelyra paid an extra 10 gold to have the piece crafted extra masterfully.
With that sorted, they begun to make their way back to the mountains and to where the great dwarven city of Orzammar was located.
On the way they came across yet more darkspawn, this time being fought by Arl Eamon's knights.
The darkspawn were everywhere! They helped the men defeat this group then continued on their way.
Just as they were travelling through the pass that would take them direct to Orzammar, a merchant waved them over.
His mule had run off, his elven assistant had run off to catch the mule, and he was all alone here, waiting for them both to return. After speaking for a while, he offered Caelyra a 'control rod'. It was alleged that using the rod could control a golem, only, when he had bought it, it didn't come with a golem.
The golem was located further to the south in the village of Honnleath and the village had been overrun by darkspawn. There was no way to claim it, but perhaps a band of adventurers such as themselves would be able to acquire it with no trouble at all.
It was free and having a golem could be useful. Caelyra accepted the control rod. Orzammar would have to wait!
They soon found themselves at the village of Honnleath.
People hung from buildings, dead lined the streets, and the stink of darkspawn filled the air.
Not only did the stink of darkspawn fill the air, the actual darkspawn were there too. They came out of the shadows and attacked! The fight did not last long, however. They were becoming quite adept at fighting off those rogue pockets.
In the village centre stood a statue... although, upon closer inspection, it appeared to be the golem that the merchant had spoken of.
Raising the control rod into the air, Caelyra commanded the golem to awaken. It did not. Perhaps the control rod was a faulty piece of garbage. Regardless of the golem though, they needed to investigate this town and see if there were any survivors from the darkspawn onslaught.
A trail led to a cellar...
And in the cellar were bloodied, twisted bodies. The darkspawn had followed people down there. Growls and grunts echoed through the area, followed by the dim sound of sobbing. People were still alive!
Caelyra and her companions fought through the darkspawn confined in this place. At the back of the room were a small handful of villagers, protected by magic forcefield. A mage must be in there, protecting them.
When the last darkspawn fell, Caelyra walked over to the barrier and introduced herself. The people were pleased that a grey warden had come! Unfortunately, they were the last surviving people of this town.
With the darkspawn gone, the mage who had erected the magic barrier lowered it and allowed the remaining villagers out.
He asked her why she had came and she told him about the control rod and the golem outside that was meant to be controlled by it. The mage suddenly got angry. That golem had killed his father and it had been deactivated, forced to stand where it stood for all eternity after what it had done.
He would, however, tell her the pass-phrase that would activate it so she could get it the hell out of this village, providing she helped find his daughter. His daughter had run into his father's laboratory and it was dangerous in there. A man had already died trying to rescue her! Could perhaps Caelyra and her group rescue her?
Of course they could. They would've done that regardless of golem.
They headed into the laboratory and discovered almost immediately why a man had died looking for the girl. Demons appeared. Many demons. They slaughtered them all and continued deeper into the lab.
There was a journal on the table outlining a few things. Apparently this mage had once worked for Arl Eamon, back when the Arl was much younger. He'd set up traps in his lab so that people not of his blood would be killed, but those of his blood would pass through unscathed. That explained the demons. And why the girl had managed to go through and the man had not.
Further into the lab, behind a magic barricade, they found the man's daughter. She was with a cat and didn't want to leave. The cat couldn't leave and would be oh-so sad if she left too. She would never leave!
No amount of convincing could change the girl's mind... and then the cat spoke.
That was not really a cat, was it? Caelyra demanded the demon inside the cat to let the girl go, but the demon would have none of it. Instead it offered a compromise. Allow it to possess the girl and escape this wretched place, and she would return the girl to her father.
Caelyra snapped back that she did not make deals with its kind.
That had been the wrong thing to say.
The cat screeched and threw itself at the girl, then the girl became an abomination. She summoned a mass of demons and Caelyra had no choice but to destroy all the vile things.
The girl... the man's daughter... was dead.
Caelyra delivered the sad news to the man. He was beside himself, as expected. Wiping away his tears, he told her how to activate the golem, to please just get rid of the cursed thing. This town and its people had already been ruined enough.
They returned to the golem statue in the centre of the town. Caelyra lifted the control rod and commanded the golem to awaken. And this time it did.
The golem had been stuck in stasis for thirty years, watching the villagers for all that time. It had witnessed much over the years, and had watched as the darkspawn annihilated all in this town.
It then discovered that it didn't feel the need to follow instructions anymore. It demanded Caelyra try to command it to do something. Caelyra did... and the golem felt no desire to perform the task. It was free of control.
The golem didn't know what to do. Should it follow Caelyra or leave, and do whatever it wanted? In the end, it chose it would follow Caelyra for a while, but it was very clear that the golem had its own thoughts and opinions and would leave and do its own thing if it so desired, and, by the way, that it's name was Shale.
Alistair wasn't sure it was a good idea to allow it to come with them, but Caelyra convinced him otherwise.
It could be quite useful having a golem around, and, if nothing else, they could use it as a battering ram.
Until next time! ⚔️🐲
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 