Of Assassins and Oracles

Birds chirped making Nygozy look across at the trail which came up to the ledge then glanced back to where Kai had been. The key words were "had been." The man was gone in a flash, hidden within shrouds of the foliage behind them. Nygozy was impressed but continued to sit on her rock, knowing that whoever was coming up would not see her until the last moment. This moutainside ledge had been chosen specifically because anyone trying to reach it would be seen before they could get up there and not the reverse.

As the woman came timidly around the last bend, Nygozy stood, checking out the maleficar with curiosity. It was possibly not a good sign that Margaid introduced herself as a maleficar but she was willing to give this poor soul the benefit of the doubt, unlike Alistair who would have wanted to kill her on the spot.

A slight nod prefaced her words which were to the point. Nygozy seldom danced around a subject unless she felt it required diplomacy, which she hated but could use well enough when she wanted to, "I was curious of you, yes. You were with Sinjan and Lithawen, yes? I hope Torture didn't startle you much. Anyway, what are you doing around this area?"

Torture sniffed about the ground, calmly keeping close to Nygozy then lifted his head. He snorted at the maleficar then took himself into the bushes where it was shady and no one could see him, moving quietly so no one would hear where he went.

It was easy enough for the mabari to find the assassin and drop himself down beside him. His face turned enough to look the Elf in the eyes then he looked back towards where Nygozy stood, speaking with the other woman. Even though he seemed to be resting someone who was always ready for action could tell the dog was ready for any twitch that would require his canine help.

Kai watched the dog as it sat beside him. The hound, to him seemed was very similar to himself. They both sat and watched as Nygozy and the Maleficar spoke and they both were ready to move at a moments notice. As the two talked with no sign of trouble Kai found his mind wandering.

His thoughts went to the dog beside him and just how capable the animal would be in battle. He looked over the creature with intrest, it's body did seem to be capable. It's size would help with weight and muscle power. The hounds jaws and teeth also seemed like impressive weaponry, no doubt they held plenty of force behind them. This all added together with the sharp claws on each of the paws, was more than enough to gain Kai's satisfaction.

He reached over with one hand to pat the head of the animal

Two doggie eyes moved to look over at the man who was trying to pet him and he moved his head slightly to give him better access. His ear flicked to allow better access to his more itchable spots.

This man seemed ok. He wasn't here to do anything bad to his person so that was fine. He'd gotten the idea that this person was watching over Nygozy and that made it even better.

Kai smiled at the dog, continuing to pet him. Kai was able to see the animals intellegence reflect in his eyes. "So you have intellegence as well? Impressive" He continued stroking the dog gently as they sat, watching over Fereldens hero

Torture's tongue hung from his mouth as the man complimented him, sure of his own intelligence and glad that this Elf was able to figure it out, unlike other people he had met. He turned his head and his ears flicked up as he listened to something scratching.

The dog stood, his eyes never wavering as his lips curled up in a growling pose then he rushed out onto the ledge, jumping into the air and landing on something no one could see until the dog hit it.

Sprawled on the ground was a shriek, trying to hack up towards Torture as he bit down onto an arm.

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Nygozy heard a clicking sound which alerted her to danger. She pushed Margaid towards her tent just as Torture emerged from the brush. Another shriek screeched on the other side of her, deafening the Dwarf as she pulled out her axe and sword, slashing in an arc with the axe to try to catch anything around her off guard as she tried to hold her head with the hand holding the sword.

Kai was off almost as quickly as the hound was. He rushed off in a dark streak of shadow, appearing suddenly by Nygozy's side. One shriek behind her quickly found itself with Kai's dagger in its chest. "You okay?" he asked Ny as he spun quickly dealing with a shriek that had come up beside him.

Margaid took her sweet time in answering, thinking the question over with a dazed expression. Perhaps she wanted to give the most satisfactory answer; perhaps she simply forgot who Sinjan actually was. Or maybe she had forgotten Nygozy had even asked in the first place and was just enjoying the quiet she was so used to.

Whatever the reason, Margaid took so long in answering that several things managed to happen before she managed to reply. First, the giant rat who was actually a dog who did not belong to Sinjan (Oh, right! That's who Sinjan was) but to Nygozy, the Hero dwaf who had asked her a question leapt out of the trees and lunged at a loudly-shrieking form. Then, the dwarf who was the Hero Nygozy pulled out an axe and sword in a swift arc, defending herself against whatever the rat-dog was attacking and then a shadow actually darted out of the forest to Nygozy-the Hero-dwarf's side, slashing a terrible-looking monster in the process, taking it down.

The combination of Kai's swiftness and the sudden appearance of monsters startled the paranoid mage so thoroughly that she transformed promptly into a bear and clubbed one darkspawn in the head before she even realized what was happening. The thing she had hit shrieked and charged back at her; Margaid roared in retaliation, almost as loud as the sharlock had, and clubbed it again, biting around its gangly throat and thrashing it for a moment before spitting it out, unable to stand the rotting and vile taste of the thing in her mouth.

"I'm fine!" Nygozy called as Margaid turned into a bear and attacked the shriek which had pounced out on the other side. She was now slashing ahead of her quickly, blood from an invisible source spattering her clothing as she did so. Finally the shriek appeared before her as the head fell from it's body.

She turned to look at Margaid then Torture and finally Kai. When her eyes met his she smiled, "Good work, Kai. Didn't I say you'd get some fun in good time? Let's get some more."

Nygozy took out her bow and was about to shoot a hurlock with a flash of exploding flames knocked her off her feet.

Kai quickly ran up behind Ny and caught her before she hit the ground "Yes, you're totally fine hero" Kai said as he set Nygozy down. He made a run for the darkspawn in the distance and located the one who had sent the flames, it was an emissary.

Kai unleashed a barrage of attacks upon the creature, his hands moved with a startling speed. As one dagger lashed out to the enemy he followed up with a second.

Bear-Margaid gave a deep groaning roar as she was knocked back by a fiery blast that pummeled the others in the area back as well. The roar turned into the shrill cry of a woman as Margaid shifted back to human form, rubbing the back of her head where it had bashed against the ground. She looked about wildly, panicked from the attack and dazed from hitting her head.

What on earth was going on!? Margaid was not unfamiliar with darkspawn, but she had never actually fought them before, avoiding them when she could and running when she couldn't, and neither had she ever seen them in such a large group before. The situation was entirely foreign to her and she, quite frankly, was at a complete loss as to what to do.

Margaid struggled to her feet and staggered, the vision in her one eye momentarily swimming from her head injury. Her aim, one-eyed as she was, was bad on a good day, and like this, she really had no hope of picking enemies off, one by one. The chance of her actually hitting something was less than one percent. So she did the next best thing.

"Tempest!" The maleficar cried, thrusting her oaken branch up into the air and tasted the familiar taste of ozone on her tongue as lightning took over the area. The only problem was, Margaid was completely unused to fighting on anyone's side, with companions. Half-blind, she usually tried to hit as many things as she could with as little need to aim as possible, and cast large-area affecting spells that would kill as many bad things as possible, without concern for friendly fire. It was simply never an issue for her before.

Except that, now it was an issue. One that Margaid failed to think of before blasting everyone in a several-meter radius with electricity.

"Yes, you're totally fine hero"

The fiery blast had hurt Nygozy and she would have hit the ground if Kai hadn't been there to catch her. She smirked up at him for a moment, the left edge of her lips quirking up while she chuckled then winked at him, "I was fine before that blast. Not my fault I attract hot stuff."

Nygozy got to her feet and followed Kai, noticing him take down the emissary before she or Torture could get to it. Instead, she took a double bladed sweep at another Darkspawn which was going for Kai's back and Torture ripped the leg off another Shriek. She avoided a couple of attacks, moving back towards the center of the plateau, leaving Torture and Kai to take the path and gave out some of her own damage, slicing quickly into her foes.

Then the electrical storm hit and Nygozy screamed. She was closest to the center, whereas Torture and Kai were just outside of the attack range.

It lasted some time, jolting her about but she still got her bow and arrows so she could shoot more Darkspawn coming up the path while trying to move out of the electrical storm. The Dwarf was stubborn, not allowing the pain to stop her from killing while she continued to move whereas any of the Darkspawn that had been in the radius died from the affects.

As she was getting out of the storm it stopped and a calming magic seeped into her body, healing her wounds as she fell forward to her knees. Jezarine's healing took affect at the right time but the healing was only meant for bad wounds. Nygozy had been damaged much worse from the fireball and the electrical storm.

Her lungs still felt like they had exploded, and her skin felt like prickly fire running over it but she held herself up from the ground on hands and knees, continuing on. Her skin had blackened areas with red welts, even on her face, neck and hands, almost making her look like she should be dead.

"Margaid! Change back into a bear and get that big thing covered in the tarp to the edge of the plateau. Don't push it off though." She pointed towards something that was on wheels and looked like it might be wooden. It was the size of her tent.

She breathed slowly before saying anything more, "Torture, clear path."

The large canine barked and went after the few remaining Darkspawn on the path so the others could get up.

"Kai. There are boxes behind my tent. Bring them forward. We'll need them." She noticed Durbans' fingers clasp the rock a couple feet from her, "Durbans help Kai get those boxes and don't you guys rattle them. Once the others get up then Drake and Sinjan have to hold the path with Torture."

The last was added as she figured she would need a bit of time to catch her breath and since she wasn't in sight for archers to get easily she wasn't going to hurry. She'd wait until the others came up then move.

''Let's go, kid. Ladies are waiting'' Bowen winked at Ianto, smirking, and led the way to the plateau. Even if his wound was healed by that moment he could feel the soothing touch of magic around him, making him less exhausted. The Nevarran grunted his approval and stabbed a genlock that was trying to jump on Ianto.

Both of them made their way up to the plateau, and the older Warden lifted his sword to greet Sinjan when they saw him. ''Thanks for watching our backs down there, lad. Very much appreaciated''. Then he bowed his head lightly with courtesy to Lithawen before turning and facing the darkspawn that were following them trying to get to the plateau

As Marcus reached the top of the cliff to where the camp was, Nygozy was already ordering him around. "Well...nice to see you too, chief. No no, don't thank me for saving you." He said as he went to go assist the one named Kai with some heavy boxes. He pushed them towards the leader of the camp as she said they were needed.

When that work was completed, he unslung Durbans from his back and prepared to strike at a Darkspawn Genlock who was charging at the group. With a swing that can best be described as a golf swing, he not only cleaved the Genlock in two, he also sent the thing flying in two directions. "Aaaaaand that's a dead midget." He grinned.

Margaid shut her eyes tight and let the storm of electricity do the talking for her in the battle, letting it rage on for some time. That was, at least, until she heard someone shriek in pain (not the same shriek of the darkspawn, but more human), and she opened her eye to look around.

She cursed and broke off the spell a little shorter than it would have normally run. The mage was feeling drained, anyway. She rarely had to cast battle magic like that unless it was one of those times where she couldn't avoid humans or darkspawn, and those instances were usually far and few between. When she shifted to animal form, it was usually for long periods of time, and she had all the time in the world to rest afterward. But today, she had not only shifted twice, but also cast a huge tempest and was being beaten down upon by darkspawn.

The maleficar heaved a heavy breath, but then shuddered and tensed as a familiar-yet-foreign feeling slid over her body, a feeling she recognized a few moments later as magic. Huh...she had never had someone else cast magic on her before. Not that she could remember, at least. And certainly not healing magic. It felt...sludgy, thick, like paint or mud, but not exactly unpleasant.

The feeling roused Margaid once again to what was happening around her, just in time to hear Nygozy the dwarf shout an order over to her. The feral mage really had no idea what a tarp was, but there were thankfully very few items located on the plateau and Nygozy had gestured in the general direction of a very large...contraption on wheels. Margaid couldn't make heads or tails of what it was (not that she could make heads or tails of many of the tools and things 'normal' humans used), but she was told to move it and Margiad, though unused to being ordered about for a very long time, wasn't about to question someone who seemed to know what they were doing while in the middle of being attacked by hideous monsters.

"Form of...a bear!" She shouted, a useless gesture, but one she had a habit of doing when transforming, and resumed her earlier bear shape.

Taking a lumbering run up to the contraption-on-wheels, Margiad sniffed about it, but still couldn't divine what, exactly, it was. With a bearish shrug, she reared up to stand on her hind legs, and began to push it in what she hoped was the right direction, towards the edge of the precipice, but ensuring that it wouldn't fall over. She looked back over at Nygozy and roared, telling her that she had complied, yet forgetting that she wouldn't actually be understood.

"And we can't keep them waiting, now can we?" Ianto answered with his own smirk, quickly following after Bowen up the hill. He moved quickly to the side when Bowen swung his sword at something he didn't see. He looked at the man appreciatively when he noticed that there had been a darkspawn coming up behind him. "I really have to get me some of those darkspawn-sensing powers," he mumbled as he looked at the corpse, then put it out of his mind as he hurried his pace upwards.

When they finally reached the top of the plateau, Ianto took a moment to stop at turned to look behind him, wincing internally at all of the carnage the darkspawn had wrecked, and feeling his chest tighten when he saw just how many of them were left. Damn, but this wasn't going to be easy. "Where the hell did they all come from..." he found himself wondering aloud. Then, he heard Bowen speaking to someone, and he turned back to the group that had finally congregated on the plateau.

When he saw the man Bowen was speaking to, he hit his head at his stupidity, and hurried to join the older man. "Apparently the old man's got better manners than I have. Sorry about that. But thanks for watching our backs," he added with a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "I think right now, we could all use all of the help we can get. And, speaking of help, have Caterina and Jez made it up here safely?" He glanced around, keeping both of his swords firmly held in each hand. He didn't want to be caught off guard again.

Caterina followed as close to Jez as she could up the plateau, changing her position from walking in front to following after the darkly colored mage. It was a better vantage point from which she could protect the elf, after all. She stopped once or twice to allow the mage to cast various healing spells, and frowned when she saw how they wore Jezarine out, but made no comment. After all, How could she complain about something that was helping them all, even if it took some time.

As Jez was casting magic, the assassin kept a sharp eye out for danger, and each darkspawn that came close was met with a dagger in the eye or throat. Even if she wasn't strong, she was quick, and that would be enough, for now.

Then, finally, they reached the top of the plateau. With Jez safely there, Caterina felt a weight go off of her chest. With a quick glance, she saw that Bowen and Ianto were not yet there, but a look down the side saw that they were on their way up, which was another weight off of her chest.

She heard someone call her name, then, and turned to see one of the more unfamiliar faces in camp yelling to her. Still, she did recognize him as one of Nygozy's original companions, so his word was as good as her's. When he asked that she cover his and another mage's back, she nodded, then looked at Jez.

"Will you be alright here on your own, for a few moments? Or would you prefer to come with me?" At least now, most of the fighting was being done on the plateau, and everyone was slowly coming together, so she could keep a better eye on Jez, and also on everyone else.

The elf found himself smirking, amused at Drake's response, but quickly pushed it to the back of his mind as he focused on the more important things about. Like, actually making good on his promise to watch their backs as they hurried up to the plateau. Fa'hallen, without needing any instruction, ran ahead so that she was keeping close to Drake and Calliara's sides, shielding them on one side from darkspawn, and attacking wherever she could. The elf smiled proudly at his beloved halla, then readied his own bow to follow them.

Darkspawn, as they were, were fairly easy to kill. They were only barely intelligent, made generally poor maneuvers, and had a penchant for fighting amongst themselves when not attacking innocents. Of course, even though it took a warrior of some skill to fight them, they weren't generally bad in small numbers. But then, that was the one cursed thing about darkspawn. When they came, they usually came in droves, though he hadn't seen a group this large since the Arch Demon had attacked Denerim.

He was brought away from his musing (and, of course, he had been following and fighting diligently whilst musing) when he felt the familiar calming flow of magic cast over him. Even though he wasn't injured, it was a comforting feeling, and it restored some of his energy. And, he thought logically, if he was being healed, then it must have been a group-cast spell, which meant that perhaps Calliara would be mended, now.

With the help of Durbans, a man whom Kai had yet to meet He pushed the heavy wooden boxes as he'd been ordered. As soon as this task was finished Kai was gone, he'd vanished into the shadow where he could strike and move effectively.

Darkspawn came in waves, he attack at each as they neared him. Kai was also watching for any nearing the little hero. No one else was of the assassins concern, he was to watch the dwarf and no one else, if the troop got injured then that was through fault of their own.

Half of a genlock flew by Kai, he turned and watched as everyone else fought and though he didn't care for what happened to them he had to admit he was impressed. Kai suddenly brought himself from his observations as a hurlock made a move for the hero, he was quick to intercept the creature slicing through it's neck with a swift sweep of his dagger.

Suddenly a healing spell had been cast over him. It was strange though, he had not been injured nor was he weary. He decided that the spell must have been one to affect a group. Kai continued fighting through the mass of enemies moving swiftly and silently from shadow.

Drake could feel the healing work it's way into his skin and he smiled as he noticed what was going on. As they got to the plateau he could see most everyone else there and looked at his leader who was starting to get up. He had heard her scream and now could see why she had but stayed back from her as she got up, knowing she would not accept help as she was one of the most stubborn beings he'd ever met.

Instead he set Calliara down, made sure everyone was up there then pushed on what seemed to be a dead, young tree and there was a rumbling.

About twenty feet down the trail which led up to the plateau a metal porticus flew out of the rock face, knocking two Genlocks off the trail and covering the rest of the path so no more Darkspawn could get up to them. They would have to climb.

"You might want to start plucking off that barrel of fish as they keep trying to climb over that." He chuckled and grinned at Calliara, touching her arm. His hand lingered on her arm a moment longer than it needed to then he moved over to the top of the plateau to remove bodies and push them over onto the other Darkspawn gathering on the road.

"Huh. Must be the new dark one then." Sinjan said to Lithawen as the two got up onto the plateau.

''Thanks for watching our backs down there, lad. Very much appreaciated''.

"Apparently the old man's got better manners than I have. Sorry about that. But thanks for watching our backs,"

"Not a problem, gentlemen. You'd do the same." He said then noticed Nygozy hurt, "Still kicking I see." He teased as he went past her, "Are you going to start kicking something else or just me?"

The knight knew what his leader's answer would be as he went past her to the thing under the tarp and pulled the tarp off of it with a grin, "And we thought you were nuts to want this thing."

He patted a large ballista and then put in the weapon's ammo, yet unlike normal ballista shots this one had a jug on the front and got another.

"Now, pretty lady ... can you do a firestorm?" He smirked at Lithawen.

AIR!

Calliara breathed deeply, feeling the healing spell that was mending her wounds, specially the one she had on the back of her head and her broken ribs. The pain was still there, but at least she could breath.

Drake set her down, and she could set Fenrir down as well. Feeling his touch, longer than necessary, made her felt lots of things, and when the human moved, Calliara followed him quickly.

Grabbing his arm, she gently forced him to face her, and wrapped her arms tightly around the man's neck while pressing her body lightly against his. Even if she was trying to look determined and calm, she was trembling shyly, with a light blush on her cheeks, but Calliara did it anyway. The Dalish pressed her lips softly to his skin, touching the commissure of his mouth with hers

''Thank you'' She whispered shyly, then fled to do what she was told to

"Will you be alright here on your own, for a few moments? Or would you prefer to come with me?"

"Oh yes I should be fine in the middle of ... Nygozy? Oh no. I'll heal you right up. That group spell wasn't enough. What happened? You look so burnt."

Jezarine started healing Nygozy from the center of the plateau where no more Darkspawn were and where it would be difficult for any form of ranged weapons to reach her. She took a deep breath because this one was going to be fairly big to get rid of all of those burns and pocks in the other woman's skin.

The healer closed her eyes and concentrated, working the magic she was best at.

Nygozy finally got to her feet, now able to breathe steadily and chuckled quietly as Durbans got up and moving about.

"Well...nice to see you too, chief. No no, don't thank me for saving you."

"You didn't save me, someone else was so kind, but I do thank you for what you have done and what you are doing." She grinned at the larger person as he moved boxes with Kai and sliced up a few creatures herself. She did note that Kai was taking care of any Darkspawn which came too close to her so the amount she needed to fight were dwindled down to those she could shoot.

The roar of the bear caught her attention and she turned her head, grunting out a thank you in the bear language, a loud then shallow grunt. She looked forward to the look on the maleficar's face.

"Oh yes I should be fine in the middle of ... Nygozy? Oh no. I'll heal you right up. That group spell wasn't enough. What happened? You look so burnt."

Everyone was getting onto the plateau and once they all were, Drake hit the release for the porticus and she chuckled, "That was good money spent on that porticus." She stated as she walked towards the ballista, nodding at Jezarine as the healing started to take effect, "Thank you, Jezarine. I will discuss that with you later. Keep up the healing and energy spells as required."

Nygozy glanced about to make sure all was there, "I need someone to get some lyrium from my tent and hand it out to whoever needs it. Ianto, that means you as well. You'll have to cast for removal of spells between our spellcasters' attacks."

She also noticed the halla and gave her a greeting in that language, nodding at the new Elf as she knew he had been helping for the others to let him come up.

"Still kicking I see. Are you going to start kicking something else or just me?"

"Nothing but you fun enough to kick. I know of no other who satisfies my mean streak towards merry men." She said as wounds were disappearing from her skin and gave Sinjan's ankle a tap with her foot.

"And we thought you were nuts to want this thing."

Nygozy fired the ballista after making sure none of the group was too close to it. The sound echoed to screams of Darkspawn as the ammo hit and the container broke, splashing a liquid all over a large area.

Her voice then pierced the air in an amused, commanding tone, "Everyone who doesn't have long range attacks, start tossing the oil bottles and explosives from the crates, even on the fish behind the dam." She pointed towards the ones still trying to get past the porticus, "Sinjan reload. Anyone with firestorm ..." She turned her head and grinned, "We now have oil on the field. Anyone bring hot dogs or sausages to the party?"

The fighting raged on, and Marcus lost himself in his berserker rage, taking some minor wounds from various Darkspawn attacks as he hacked and slashed his way through the Darkspawn too foolish to get close to him. He howled in rage and ripped the head off a Darkspawn with a quick swing of Durbans. Marcus then snapped out of his rage when he heard that there was a plan set for bombing the Darkspawn with oil. He doubled back and then started hurling the glass jars out so that oil splashed all over the ground. He grinned. "Hi ho, hi ho, it's barbecue we go!" He briefly sang and then took a flint rock from his pack and scraped it on Durbans, causing a spark to fall into the oil on the ground. His trail of the stuff lit up instantly, immolating several Darkspawn as their screeches shrieked in through the night.

Marcus gingerly removed some sausage links from his pack at Nygozy's request and started roasting one as the fires of everyone else's oil spills lit up. "A true man of the world is always prepared! A toast! Here's to you; Grey Wardens, and us, their loser normal friends!" He cheered and raised his sausage on high.