Soundtrack:
Requiem for the Nameless Dead ~ Adrian von Ziegler (The Fade)
After getting lost a couple of times, we finally found our way out of the crypt and into the village. We walked past graves and towards the gate where we were stopped by a guard who looked like he had no idea what he was doing. "Halt! Who enters the Blackmarsh?"
"We are Grey Wardens," I answered. "Trapped here."
"Trapped?" he sighed. "Then you're just as we are, locked in this endless nightmare. We've been here so long, at her mercy. I almost forget what it was like before." He motioned towards the manor. "There's a spirit that's come to free us. Perhaps you could help him? If only that were possible."
We walked into the village and followed the shouting. We passed by a villager that seemed to be trying to rally his neighbors."Hear me, people! She is evil incarnate! The countless evils I've seen her perpetrate in there... I'm ashamed to even recount them aloud! She orders our children stolen in the night so she can —" He was cut off. "No! Unhand me, you thugs! Let me go! Don't let them take me! No!" Like the villager earlier, he too disappeared.
"She doesn't sound like a pleasant woman," Nathaniel commented.
We found a crowd gathered around the gate leading to the manor. At the center of the crowd was a heavily armored man that was obviously a spirit. He was glowing white and had a shield and mace at his back.
"The mansion will not protect you, fiend!" he shouted. "Come out and face your crime!"
"We aren't afraid of you any longer!" a woman shouted. After a pause and more shouting, she added: "The witch hides! Break down the door!"
"Be cautious, my friends," the spirit warned. "The Baroness has power within her lair and she well knows it. We rush in at our own peril!" We joined the crowd. The spirit noticed our arrival. "And who comes now?" The crowd parted around us.
"That makes me feel so much better," Ainnileas said. I had to have gotten my sarcasm from him. "I don't like having all these Shems' eyes upon me."
"That is something I have yet to get used to."
"They're not going to start throwing stuff at us, are they?"
"Be still, Father."
During our exchange, the spirit had looked each one of us over, his eyes lingering on my father before finally resting upon me. "Are you more minions of the Baroness?" I raised a brow at him. "Or yet more helpless souls she has tormented?"
"We are Grey Wardens, brought here against our will," I answered.
"I cannot say what a 'Grey Warden' is but clearly you are a stranger." He looked at my father. "As well as you, spirit. Perhaps it is a sign. I am Justice. I have watched this place and seethed at the wrongs visited on these poor folk and now I seek to aid them."
The woman who'd shouted earlier spoke again. "Once, we lived in the real world and the Baroness ruled over us." I could see the sadness in her eyes. "She took our children and used their blood to work dark and evil magic." The man next to her rubbed her back in a comforting way.
"Blood magic," Ainnileas said. He shook his head. "She no doubt used them to feed her vanity."
"Indeed she did," the man took up the story as the woman wiped away tears. "And when we burned down her mansion, she cast one final spell that brought our spirits here. We have been trapped ever since, still under her rule."
"This spirit knows the Fade," Nathaniel said. "If we help him, he might help us in return."
"Your friend is right, Realin," Ainnileas agreed. "He is a true Spirit of the Beyond, created here, not brought here upon death."
"I think that since the Baroness trapped these people here that she's our best chance of getting out."
I turned and looked at Anders. Was he being serious?
"Tell me, stranger, will you help us in this righteous task?" Justice asked. "Being a Grey Warden appears to make you an able sort and thus your aid would be most welcome."
"What are you trying to do exactly?" I asked.
He motioned to the villagers. "These people have been held in thrall of this sorceress for too long. I seek to free them."
"It's been a nightmare that seems to go on forever," the woman said. "Until Justice arrived, we didn't even know this wasn't real." I knew that feeling. If it hadn't been for my father's appearance the first time around, I probably wouldn't have figured out I was in the Fade to begin with. Or would have done so too late.
"I could no longer stand by and watch. The sorceress has fled into her lair but a reckoning has been called for. We must act, stranger."
"Then I will help."
"Then we have the numbers to challenge the Baroness directly."
"Ooh, a direct challenge!" Oghren said, hefting his axe and getting that berserking look in his eye. "I like the sound of that. Less talk, more killing!"
"They just said she was an evil, powerful witch!" Anders countered. "Do we really want to antagonize her?"
"We could defeat her and make her use her magic to aid us," I argued.
"Hmm, now that's a thought... alright. You've convinced me."
"Must take a lot to convince you of anything," Nathaniel remarked.
"My intention is to storm the gate," Justice said. "Are you ready?"
I nodded. "Let's do this."
"Good people, we take the battle directly to the witch!"
I drew my swords as he spoke.
"For too long have her crimes gone unpunished! Now is the time to reclaim your freedom!"
Justice ran up to the gate and with one kick, burst through the gate. He strode into to courtyard with me, my father, and my Wardens behind him. The Baroness stood on the low balcony flanked by Ash Wraiths. I hadn't seen those since the temple that harbored the Dragon Cult of Andraste.
"My, my," the Baroness said. Her accent was much thicker than Leliana's. She was almost hard to understand. "All that shouting outside and now you've finally decided to barge in? Without even a proper invitation?"
"Foul sorceress!" Justice cried. "You will release these poor folk and submit yourself to justice!"
She snorted. "Justice? Is that what you are calling it? What of their punishment, burning my home to the ground and me within it?"
"Because you were stealing our children!" the man we'd spoken to outside the gate cried. "Using their blood to feed your vanity!"
"As was my due! You lived on my land, I your rightful ruler! Your blood was mine just as your lives are now!"
"How is it you created all this?" I asked, my natural Dalish curiosity peaking "How do you remain?"
She looked down her nose at me. "What's this? The pathetic fools have managed to recruit yet more sympathizers?"
"We are no longer alone, Baroness!" Justice called. "Your reign ends here!" Movement drew my eyes to her right side and I spotted the First.
"Shit." Damn the Fade interfering with my abilities to sense Darkspawn.
"As it happens, I am no longer alone, either."
"My path back across the Veil lies in victory over you and your new allies," he said as he moved down to our level. "Then the Mother will pay for her treachery!"
"You should choose your pets more carefully, Baroness," I remarked.
"Instead I should have chosen you, mortal?"
"We must be ending this! Now! The Grey Warden, it is more dangerous than you know!"
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, I'm an it now?"
"Oh? As you wish, creature." Her voice sounded bored. "Slay them and you shall have the reward you requested."
"Enough! The battle is joined!" Justice suddenly disappeared and then reappeared next to the Baroness. The two Ash Wraiths rushed at us.
"The First is mine!"
The First swung his massive sword at me and I dodged. I brought both my blades around and cut into his back. He cried out and the hilt of his sword came at my face. I twisted to avoid it, slashing my right sword at his side, and he hit my shoulder as my sword gave him a shallow slash. Tristan jumped onto his back. I thrust one of my swords into his shoulder. He cried out again and backhanded me. I fell, then twisted around and was back on my feet, spitting blood from the split he left on my lip. I tackled him, dropping my right sword and flicking my wrist, extending the blade hidden there, a gift from Brother Genitivi for saving his life during the Blight. I punched and the blade slide between his ribs. He staggered backward, dropping his sword and clutching his side.
"No!" the Baroness cried. "You fool! Why haven't you defeated them?"
"They are... too much! It must be sending me through the Veil! Now! Before it's too late!"
I retracted the wrist blade and retrieved my sword as they spoke, spinning it in my hand and ready for round two.
"Oh, I will sunder the Veil alright! I'll send them all back! But you... your life is going to provide the power!" The same green mist that had sent us here appeared in her hands.
"Shit!"
"No!" He cried as I darted towards my father. "No!"
"Get out of here!" I cried. The First ran as I shoved Ainnileas away. "Now!"
The Baroness' magic hit the First and the green mist exploded outwards. It hit me in the back and I was thrown forward. I never did see if my father escaped.