Vigil for Vigil's Keep

After all the travel it had taken they were all finally within a mile of Vigil's Keep on top of a plateau which overlooked the area. Everyone was there and seemed to be rather excited by the thought of not sleeping out in the wilderness, except for those who were not used to cities and walls. At least even they could admit that it was nice to stop traveling and get into their new location so that everything could get to semi normal to what life in a Wardens' Keep should be like.

The dwarf stood there gazing at the keep in the distance but did not move even though people were getting antsy.

"Griffinhart." She called in a voice of no emotion as she studied the landscape.

He was like a shadow - not her's, for that was a different man - but a shadow of something, something heart-felt and compassionate, that killed with kindness and tears in its eyes. He was that thing's shadow, and everything that it wasn't.

Quiet, for one. It was a preternatural thing that Griffinhart did - gliding around in full combat regalia without making a single sound; whether by Fade or by skill, it was disturbing to the men and women who weren't familiar with the taciturn Anderfels Warden when he passed by them with nary a word. Similarly, he appeared beside Nygozy.

"Warden-Commander."

The arrival of Griffinhart at her side did not make the commander react like most others would. She was used to having people idle up quietly to her side and speak from beside and mostly somewhat higher than her body. Her eyes remained on the keep, watching and waiting.

"It is too quiet down there. Did the report not say that there were more wardens within the Keep awaiting our arrival?" Nygozy turned her head to look up at him, "And either way, there were no scouts as no one spotted any."

Her eyes returned to the keep, "We will lead in a team to check it out. Choose three to come with us and send Calliara to me."

"Aye, Commander."

Three people, not including himself, the Commander, or, presumably, Calliara. Possibly excluding the White Wolf - that meant a team of five, six people. Four, if the Commander was not attending. He did not account for the possibility that he, himself, would not be a part of the team; the thought did not occur to him that Nygozy might have only called out to him to pick a party. It wasn't that such a simple task were beneath him; the thought had literally not occurred at all. Griffinhart was fully expecting to be sent on the sortie.

They were going into unknown, possibly hostile territory. In fact, it was hostile as far as Griffinhart cared. Unknown, that was the difficult part. They would need a scout of some sort, someone with good senses and the head to use them. The warrior mulled the situation over in his head... they were delving into the keep, which meant close-quarters combat. Not a place that made for easy archery, and magic brought with it the possibility of friendly-fire... though, in tight quarters, magic was devastating.

Arriving back at the main of the camp, the soldier had made his decision. He loathed to have to pick anyone at all, of course - he understood the necessity, but buried in his mind and in his skin was the crawling guilt, the question that he subconsciously asked, and did not want the answer to: what if they die? What if I choose badly? What if- This was not a task suited to Griffinhart. But it had been handed down to him, and he would execute it as he executed all tasks - effectively, efficiently, and without complaint.

He tapped the three that he felt suited the task; and he found Calliara in the camp, attending to one task or another, and tapped her too; telling them only that the Commander had a task for them. If there were questions, they were not voiced; from the four, they knew that they would be told in due time. From everyone else, Griffinhart was either too intimidating, or too focused to notice.

Fremelda was sleeping in her tent when Griffinhart had came to her, saying the Commander demanded her presence. She sighed and nodded then rose up and strapped Thorn to her hip, and slid her dirks into her boots. She was finally going to be doing something, so she couldn't complain about it. At least she hoped she was going to be doing something. walking up to the plateau where the Warden-Commander waited, she folded her arms. "You rang?" she said, smiling a small smile.

When Griffinhart addressed her, the Wolf just nodded and patted his arm softly. ''Thank you''

Slowly, bow in hand and checking the arrows in her quiver with the other absently, she walked over where Nygozy was standing, serious and with her cloak's hood covering her head and snowy hair.

She said nothing, just waited.

Checking the horses was about the only Caterina could do to keep the urge to rip her hair out at bay. She wasn't so clingy that she needed to spend every moment with Bowen, but there had been relatively little action for most of the camp, lately, and grooming Bosco for the seventh time seemed better than sitting by the camp fire doing nothing. She'd already checked and cleaned her weapons and leather armor, and the Cousland girl seemed to have placed herself in charge of gathering wood.

She heard the footsteps before Bosco shuffled his hooves in response to someone coming up behind her, but she didn't turn. A good assassin never gave anything away, even when it came to hearing someone approach. Not that she needed to fear for anything within the camp, but only a fool ever truly let their guard down.

An icy voice - not unkind, but simply cool, as ice was - spoke to her from behind, and without turning, she nodded. Once the footsteps began to retreat, she placed the brush aside and patted Bosco on the neck before turning herself, and she started for where Nygozy had been standing earlier.

When she reached the spot, Calliara was there as well, along with a few others she didn't care to really notice. She glanced at the white-haired wolf momentarily before turning her gaze on Nygozy, keeping quiet, waiting for orders.

"Yes, Fremelda. I rang." Nygozy said, a slight lift to the edge of her lips. The woman could be quite the smart ass and she was happy to see it. Fremelda was starting to open up, "Everyone except Bowen. Ah I see you Bowen."

The woman looked to Calliara first, "I need you and Macha to set camp. You will be in charge of getting the people set up while Macha will deal with fortifications. I want this whole area up to a mile back and half a mile forward to be scouted. Set the location by those mountain sides to give an advantage. If you can find a cavern which is not connected to anything spawnie like then use it." She considered for a moment, "We need a group to go to Aramathine to make sure all is well there. I think that Guremi and Marcus should be in the team. Choose three more to go with them and send them out with orders to be back within three days. No one is to wander. Put a watch on the fortifications, mostly long distance people. Robert needs the experience so use him and choose however many more you believe are required."

She looked down the hill then back at the others, "Giffinhart, Caterina, Bowen and Fremelda. You are with me. We are going to check out the keep. I don't like the feel of it. Griffinhart, you will precede us, check out the area outside of the keep and return to us as we go there. We will go in together."

Days of travel, and now they were running tasks across multiple fronts. The Warden-Commander was getting back into being a commander and not a babysitter, and that sat well with Griffinhart.

"Reconnaissance; understood, Commander." As a scout, he would need speed and sight; without equivocation, the Warden removed his helmet and unclasped his cloak. Deftly, despite wearing gauntlets, he bound back his long, silvery hair with the cloak's tie; and he stuffed the cloak partly into the helmet. "Hold onto these for me," asked the warrior, handing off the items. They were heavier, far heavier, than a cloak and helmet should have been; and it was suspected that the cloak was weighted, or armored.

His peripheral vision freed and movement unhindered by the weight of the cloth, Griffinhart adjusted the positioning of his swords for faster draws - it didn't hurt to prepare for the possibility that he got into a fight before he could return to Nygozy's party.

Griffinhart nodded at the Commander.

Eyes closed, the motions made, the incantation spoken silently in his mind - the Fade flooded his form, quickened his footsteps, sharpened his senses.

Eyes opened. With no further words, he took a few long steps down the hillside before letting gravity do the rest.

[Whoever wants to take the hat and coat, feel free to do so.]

So she was going to be working with Bowen, Caterina and Griffinhart. That was an interesting choice of people, almost as if the Commander was taking those who were the least busy and putting them to work. At least Fremelda was getting something to do finally. Fremelda still had the knife that the Commander had given her the other day, it was tucked into her right boot, ready to be thrown at a moment's notice.

Without his helmet on, Griffinhart looked handsome to the assassin, but it was his icy demeanor that deterred her. He was far too cold for her tastes. Still, she trotted down the hill after him, wanting to see Vigil's Keep for herself. Her curiosity was insatiable right now due to her long years of living in Denerim. She had never seen anything else besides her original home and the capital.

Caterina frowned a little as she instinctively took the cloak and helmet from the icy-voiced warrior. She raised a brow as the weight of it dragged her arms down more than expected, and she cast a glance between it and the former wearer before turning to look at Bowen, handing the bundle to him.

"Take care of that for Griffinhart, querido?" she asked with a pixy-ish smile, patting his arm at he took them from her. "My tiny little rogue hands cannot hold it all." She was half-joking, of course - she was more than capable of at least holding them, whether or not it was easy to move with them was another matter - but the weight had been far more than she was expecting, and so it was better to let an equally manly man hold them.

With the armaments handed off, she could consider her mission more carefully. They had two warriors and three rogues heading off into unknown territory. She supposed that Griffinhart could do a bit of magic, as well, which was a good thing, at least. It seemed a bit of an unbalanced team, in her mind, but it was by no means a bad one. As for the ones remaining at camp, well, for now, that wasn't her business. She couldn't help but be a little relieved that they would finally be doing something, even if it was potentially dangerous (but didn't potential dangerous missions make for some of the most fun situations, anyway?).

Kai watched from the shadows as Nygozy considered the situation and gave her orders. He agreed with her assessment that something was very wrong. He kind of wished to himself that he could communicate with Nygozy telepathically the same way Kraven did. It would be nice to be able to talk to her without giving away his position to the others.

The blonde assassin watched as the others gathered and began to move out. The others seemed unaware of his prescense and he was fine with that. He stuck to the shadows and followed behind Nygozy as he always did, alter and ready for trouble.

''Understood'' Calliara nodded, without even looking down at her or anyone else, her eyes focused on the ground. She refused to let anyone see her face and her scarred tattoos for now. She hoped Nygozy would notice something was wrong. She hoped Bowen told Nygozy her message. She hoped.

She was glad that fortifications was going to be Macha's duty. At least, she had that. And most important, the one that was spying them through her eyes and ears wouldn't know about them.

Fuck you, stupid mage asshole The Wolf gritted her teeth, remembering the pain, but she had learnt by that moment that her thoughts couldn't be heard by whoever was the one that was trying to enslave her. That was a relief. At least she had one private place to hide.

Bowen took gently Griffinhart's helmet and cloak from Caterina's hand, trying hard not to smile too wide with her comment.

''Just be careful, love. I'd hate to piggyback you back to camp if this heavy, evil helmet makes you fall and roll down the hill'' He chuckled. Then looked worried at Calliara, who was leaving in that moment, head covered with her hood. His dark green eyes wandered to Nygozy, and then back to Caterina.

Fremelda was already trotting after Griffinhart, and for a moment the Nevarran amused himself by thinking about that funny scene. He shook his head and started to follow them, his own helmet with Griffinhart's in his hand, and Griffinhart's cloak over his shoulder. The Nevarran was wearing his full massive armor, and looked ready for anything

For a moment the little leader watched the others and noticed that Calliara was acting strangely. She looked down the hill then back to her second in charge and wondered if she should deal with whatever it was that was going on. A sound from the direction of the keep caught her attention and she sighed, starting off down the hill and into the shadows, following the others. Whatever was bothering Calli could keep until she got back.

The others moved no faster than she would and that made checking around the area easy. There wasn't much to see. It was strange as well as eerie. No feel of Darkspawn but the way the land was seemed to either say differently or it was damaged beforehand. She was sure it looked like a newer form of damage.

As they got closer to the keep she moved slower, catching a glimpse of the front gate. Nygozy waited in a bushy section and looked about at the others, "This is strange."

There was something unsettling ahead.

It wasn't the scent of blood on the wind, or even the glimpses of corpses scattered throughout the forest; not even the fact that mixed in with the civilians there were Wardens. It was a feeling that Griffinhart had. He had circled around the walls of Vigil's Keep, keeping a visual on the site as he went around it, looking for signs of... well, anything. And he had found plenty of signs of violence and death - fresh ones.

He had just stepped through the front gates (a quick peek, just in case there was something within the walls) when he felt them, and heard them, and heard someone. Reflexively, the warrior drew a sword-

A man, in Warden's armor, running as best he could, waving and screaming. The guttural not-speak of darkspawn in a hunt. And the feeling of the taint permeated the air. His eyes scanned - he counted four squat, ugly figures with an array of filthy weapons, and a fifth with a staff. He saw them, and they saw him.

So much for stealth. Griffinhart yelled out to the running Warden - "Leave the Keep! There are more Wardens outside! Warn them!" - he could not tell if the man was severely injured or not, but threw the man a healing salve as the two ran past each other-

Deliberately, the warrior drew a second sword, and charged into the fray. He had to keep these five occupied, lest they called for reinforcements.

The grounds outside of the castle were silent and decayed. Had the Darkspawn been here? But that couldn't be right... the Blight was defeated. Griffinhart had gone ahead of the others, and Fremelda was getting bored but edgy. Something was going to happen, or has happened already. And then she heard the man from the keep yelling as Griffinhart engaged five darkspawn. But how could that be? They would have sensed them. Was there a problem with their ability to detect darkspawn? She rushed forward as fast as she could to aid the frosty Warden. Drawing Thorn from her hip, she crashed into one Darkspawn and impaled it with the sabre, right through its face and then took a sweeping swing around to prevent others from attacking her as she got back up. "Can't let you have all the fun, Griffinhart." she grinned.

The lighthearted feeling of the banter between her and Bowen from the beginning of the meeting quickly wore away as their band traveled through the small section of forest that lay between them and the Keep. As they walked, the eerie feeling only seemed to loom heavier and heavier in the air around them, until Caterina found herself sticking almost unnecessarily close to Bowen, glancing around her with wary eyes. She was used to being on her guard, but this was ridiculous - the silence of the forest and the Keep ahead of them was almost too much to bear.

And then, the silence was broken, and almost before she knew it, a small group of darkspawn was upon them. Griffinhart and Fremelda were in the lead, attacking before the darkspawn could strike first. She was momentarily distracted as a Warden - she couldn't tell if he was injured, he was running so quickly - dashed by her, running in the direction of the camp.

Maker, but what was going on?

She didn't have time for questions like that now, though. She drew a dagger in each hand, and prepared herself to fight.

''Party at last!'' Bowen roared, an enormous grin on his face. Maker's breath, about time they had some fun!

The Nevarran put his helmet on and prepared his sword and shield, Griffinhart's cloak still over his shoulder

''Let's have some fun, huh?'' His covered face turned to Caterina briefly, almost wishing he could tell her to be careful and not get hurt, but he didn't wanted her to be mad at him. So, instead he bowed his head and then rushed to Griffinhart and Fremelda's position with a thunderous war cry that attracted the atention of most of the darkspawn

As soon as the action started up Nygozy was on the move. She had seen Griffinhart moving about then the ruckus of a warden rushing out with the five Darkspawn hot on his tail so was already by the keep walls before Fremelda was getting into action. Unlike the other rogue, Nygozy worked quietly, skimming from shadow to shadow making sure that Kai could follow her easily. What was the sense of having a bodyguard if they couldn't find you? She figured it was a good thing that before Kraven left she had requested that Kai could find her without any problem no matter how insubstantial she became in the shadows.

Nygozy wound her way towards a Darkspawn assassin who suddenly appeared behind Griffinhart, her scimitar slashing at it's arm as her axe went for the neck. It noticed her at the last moment and even though it lost it's arm it only got a long slash along the top of the shoulder, cutting away the armour there.

It stumbled away from the dwarf and right into Kai's path, just as Nygozy had planned. Kai needed to have some fun too.

She didn't need to yell for anyone to take the Darkspawn down. The blood lust was on and she knew each one of them were in their element, destroying Darkspawn.

Nygozy rushed forward like a mist taking the fight directly to the emissary.

Unlike the others Kai wasn't a warden, so he wasn't momentarily distracted or bothered b not being able to sense the approaching darkspawn. As soon as the action began his daggers were in his hands and he was moving silently through the shadows on Nygozy's heels.

As Nygozy engaged the first darkspawn Kai moved to flank it and was in the perfect position to finish the kill. He lashed out at the off balance darkspawn with his daggers. The first dagger hit the creature in it's now unarmoured shoulder, pinning it so the second dagger could slip between the ribs and into the creature's vital organs.

Kai grinned up at Nygozy, happy for a decent fight. He withdrew his daggers quickly and ghosted after her toward the next foe. He may be concerned for her safety, and the safety of their child, but he had to admit he sure did love fighting by her side.

There were others around him now, appearing from out of the green forest, out of the grey mist, out of the black shadows, each a killing blow in their own. Griffinhart paid them mind in as much as he avoided swinging his swords too terribly close to them; for they were in a fight, and few fights were predictable down to the step and the breath.

That did not stop him from attempting his predictions. He anticipated blows, dodging under, over, around them with the grace of an acrobat; or met the blows head on with his own steel, not so much stopping an attack as he did sunder it with his own - that was the advantage of human, dwarven, elven weaponcraft: theirs were weapons that did not break easily. They were evenly matched at first - one Griffinhart against five genlocks - and then they were overwhelmed, as more appeared; suddenly one Griffinhart became a party of Wardens prepared for war.

And he felt it, through the whirling and the stabbing and the shattering of swords and shields - that glowing light, that vortex of power, the sensation of a vacuum - and Griffinhart looked in its direction. The one with the staff, that had stayed out of the fight, was doing something-

No! he jammed a sword through a genlock, sheathing the blade temporarily, and raised the freed hand, concentrating, thinking with that careful calculation needed to execute a bit of Fade-magic, going through the steps and the words and the thoughts with blazing speed-

The spell launched itself from its staff-

The spell launched itself from his hand-

It saw her. Even through the mist and shadows it saw her. The emissary should not have been able to sense her presence until it was too late, until her scimitar was safely embedded between it's malicious little eyes. So how did it sense her? Or had the power which ... no that was not taken away.

The Darkspawn could not see her but it SENSED her.

Nygozy snarled as thoughts came running into her mind and then she felt the building of power. It was too late to do much more than duck and roll as the spell was cast, ripping into her leg with a painful finality should make her easier prey for new Darkspawn who appeared, three more right in front of her. Assassins. Her leg was a useless lump not because of breaks, burns or physical signs but a debilitating pain that removed the ability to use it. She had been fast enough to avoid the attack hitting her full on and that was a benefit.

The Darkspawn did not know her well enough. Even hobbled the dwarven woman was dangerous, her scimitar flashing out to take away one of the Darkspawn assassin's legs. She moved on the ground using her one leg and arm while fighting with the scimitar as she could not get up yet. The small woman was a difficult target to hit as she clenched her teeth, sneering at the pain and moving as if she'd trained in combat from such a position, which she had.

Griffinhart's spell met it's mark and took down the emissary as more Darkspawn started to emerge. Now they could hear screams of people being attacked in the Keep itself. The emissary must have been using a spell to mute sound. How in the ... it didn't matter. Right now all that mattered was killing and survival.

"Work together and stay together!" Nygozy announced as she avoided a blade aimed at her head, her voice authoritative, "If we split up we are easier targets."

The fighting alongside her comrades was glorious. Fremelda felt an unfamiliar wave of pride knowing she had people to back her up for a change. This was something she savored as she plunged Thorn into the gullet of a Genlock. Then she saw it, Griffinhart and an emissary preparing to outdo one another with spells, and the Commander jumping in, fighting off a trio of assassins at the cost of her leg. Fremelda grit her teeth and was most likely backed up by Kai when they reached her friend and she threw the balanced dagger that Nygozy had gifted her, right into the throat of one of the assassins while Kai took care of the others.

Fremelda then went to assist Griffinhart. The screams ripping out from the silent keep were unsettling and Fremelda knew there was going to be a long battle ahead. She punched a Hurlock in the face before delivering a fatal slice with Thorn, cutting it effectively in half. She weaved her way through blows and cuts, dancing around their blades and spells as best she could. Her heart was pounding in her ears. Why couldn't she sense the Darkspawn here? It was like being deafened.

Being two steps behind Nygozy Kai was more easily able to dodge the spell that took her down. As three more darkspawn appeared and headed for the dwarf he snarled in rage and threw himself at the closest one. Both daggers landed in the darkspawn's chest as the force of the attack sent the elf and the darkspawn to the ground.

As the two hit the ground Kai rolled and was on his feet in a defensive crouch instantly. He reached out with his right dagger and slit the darkspawn's throat before it could regain its feet.

Kai looked around for the other two assassins. One was on the ground with Fremelda's dagger in its throat and the other had been taken care of by Nygozy. Before more could appear he ran to the fallen dwarf and helped her to her feet. "No laying down on the job Hero," he joked, despite the concern for her that was obvious in his face.