Thread: dragon age ⋮⋮ ◜ohm and rivine◞

The scouting party moved forward with only the slightest sounds to give away their passage a creak of leather, the shifting of chain, a soft footstep. The sounds were fleeting, barely audible, but to Cathan they might as well have been a ruckus created by a tavern brawl. He knew full well that it would be impossible for them to be utterly silent... well, for all of them besides Deval. The slight Orlesian moved silently, making no sound that Cathan could hear. It had always amazed him that the man could be so quiet, but no matter how much he tried to bring it up Deval had been mute on the subject. Cathan decied that if Deval kept them alive he really did not care how the smaller man was so silent. After all, one should not look a gift horse in the mouth. As they continued to moved down the hall the mercenary's mind began to wander a bit, reflecting back on the footprint they had found. Why would there have been another expedition or party down here? The footprint had been right in the middle of a hall, which was not where he would have had his men walking, but then again his men were swords for hire and not amateurs. He could not help it as a suspicion wormed it's way into his thoughts what if the print had just been a set up? Something to draw them into an ambush? The thought swirled around in his mind for a moment before he dismissed it. That would be ridiculous, beyond ridiculous really. Why would surfacers down here set up to ambush other groups or expeditions? There was enough trouble already in the Deep Roads and it would be idiotic to go looking for more. What with the darkspawn and other creatures it was already hard enough to survive in the depths. Cathan was torn away from his contemplations though as a scream echoed through the halls. He stilled, listening, and soon enough there was a cacophony of sound for him to hear. The clash of steel and metal echoed through the stone passages, rebounding off the walls to make it fairly hard to distinguish where it was coming from, but Cathan was fairly certain it was from ahead of them. Deval had stilled completely and was looking back at Cathan, awaiting instructions. The mercenary captain motioned for the scout to move forward and Deval nodded, quickly padding ahead. Cathan and the others began to move again, going quicker then before, the sound of their passage drowned out by the clamor of battle. They ran on like that for quite sometime before they emerged onto a ledge which overlooked a scene of utter chaos. The mercenaries moved behind rocks along the ledge, concealing themselves as their captain took in the battle below. Cathan watched for a and the appearance of the warriors fighting the darkspawn. Kossith, the race that many called the qunari, formed the entirety of the force that was fighting the darkspawn from what he could see. He waited, listening to their battle cries, and was even more surprised. He would not have expected kossith down here, but for them to be actual Qunari and not mercenaries was even more unexpected. A spell of some kind that had had bolts of lighting streaking down amongst the darkspawn one would think that you'd have to be outside for that to work, but magic did strange things came to an end just as two ogres burst into the cavern. Cathan considered all of this quickly, formulating a strategy quickly. He made some quick motions to his companions, communicating with them silently. He instructed Gurne and Deval to cover he and Ronan with bows as they went for one of the ogres, then told them to work on taking out the darkspawn archers. His attention then turned to Ronan and he signed slower, instructing the young man to stay with him and to avoid a real fight until they reached the ogre. Ronan's eyes were big, but he nodded and slowly drew his bastard sword. Cathan flashed the younger man a hard smile, then drew out his falcata, holding it in his left hand as he rolled his shoulders a bit, waiting for an ogre to pass them. Once it did he moved quickly, going to the edge of the ledge and dropping down. As soon as he hit the floor and went into a roll he heard the twang of bows from above. He came out of the roll right between to genlocks who had slumped, one with an arrow through it's throat, the other with one through it's head. As he rose to his feet he heard Ronan land behind him and knew that it was far from graceful, but he did not turn to look. Instead he began to run towards the ogre as there were more twangs behind him and a hurlock ahead of him staggered with two arrows in it's chest before Cathan eviscerated it, the creatures putrid viscera spilling onto the cavern floor. But he was already moving on, oriented upon the ogre and sparing only the briefest of moments to finish a foe before he moved on. Soon enough he reached his intended target just as it smashed the first kossith. Cathan struck quickly, the blade in left hand slicing into the creature's right knee from behind. As the blade slid through flesh he could feel it severing tendons and ligaments, man of them snapping and retracting up into the ogre's body further. The creature stumbled and howled in pain, but he did not let up. As it slumped down onto it's knees he struck with the small axe in his right hand, burying it into the ogre's back and hauled himself up onto the ogre's back. Once on it's back he began to ram his sword down into the ogre's back, mostly to either side of it's spine, undoubtedly destroying intestines, kidneys and liver as he struck over and over. Cathan was ruthless, cold, as he lay into the creature, and why shouldn't he be? Darkspawn slew people without care, so why should he care about slaying them? The ogre tried to reach back to knock him away, but he easily dodged the creature's hand and continued his assault. It did not take log at all before the ogre slumped to the ground and stilled completely. He glanced around once that was done, seeing Ronan felling a hurlock as Deval and Gurne shot down more of the darkspawn. His eyes then fell upon the other ogre which was just being dispatched by the qunari warriors, but he could not help but notice scorch marks along the creature's chest and face. As the last of the darkspawn were cut down he stood upon the ogre's corpse, eying the kossith for a bit, but did not speak. Cathan waited, wanted to seeing how the quinari would react to their presence.