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Blood Song	By : Hikari86 Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 1631 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Bioware owns everything Dragon Age. I claim no ownership and make no money/profit.

Chapter List
- 6
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Kal'Hirol

It stunk. The smell of rotting corpses and undigested stomach content. The floor was squishy and each step released the odor into the air. It made them cough and want to add to what was on the floor as the confined space they were traveling in didn't help to vent it out. It wasn't long before Lisha saw light at the end of the tunnel and began to feel the chill of darkspawn. She stopped them short of the exit, her senses heightening as she closed her eyes. The darkspawn in the next room lit up like fireflies in the night as she scanned the taint.
“There's twenty,” she whispered. “Twelve genlocks, one's an emissary and three are alphas; seven hurlock, four alphas, and a shriek.”
“You can sense all that?” Sigrun asked amazed.
“Grey Wardens can sense darkspawn.”
“How come I can't?” said Anders.
“You haven't been one long enough. None of you have, and don't expect it to happen anytime soon.”
“Well if what you're saying is true,” Nathaniel said as he made his way to Lisha's side the best he could. “Then how do we go about this?”
“We take them out as fast as we can. Nate, you stay with me and we'll pick off the weaker ones. Anders, do you think you can take care of that emissary by yourself?”
“You know I can, Commander.”
“Right, then Oghren, Sigrun, go after the alphas, but not alone. Nathaniel and I will help when we can. From what I can feel the only one that might give us problems is that shriek.”
“What about any of those grub-like things?” said Oghren. “Feel any of them?”
“No, they're not anywhere around here. It's just these twenty guarding the door. If we act fast and get them by surprise, then this should be pretty easy.”
They all prepared themselves as Lisha pressed herself against the wall and peeked around the corner. She could see all the darkspawn as they stood, facing the large door on the other side, waiting for any who dared come that way. Lisha raised her left hand as her right held her bow and an arrow horizontal to the ground. With her signal, they all charged out.
Lisha and Nathaniel were out first, taking down some of the lesser darkspawn before they were even aware. Oghren ran straight for one of the hurlock alphas. His axe swung low, catching the darkspawn's feet and toppling him to the ground where Oghren dealt the final blow before continuing to the next.
Sigrun ducked a few crude arrows while taking out several genlocks before reaching one of their alphas. They tangoed for a while, their daggers parrying one another with every swing. They looked to be evenly matched until Sigrun tripped the genlock with her daggers and finished him off in time to block an attack from another alpha.
Lisha was amazed as she watched the two dwarves battle the darkspawn. They were in their natural element, and it showed. Lisha was especially impressed with Sigrun, seeing her fighting style and ability to handle the darkspawn with ease. When they were done dealing with the broodmothers, Lisha knew she had to convince Sigrun to join them. She would make an excellent contribution and a fine Grey Warden.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lisha saw a genlock make it's way past Oghren and form a straight line for Anders who was battling savagely with the emissary. He was unaware of the approaching threat as he cast another arcane bolt at the emissary. Lisha quickly turned her attention on the genlock, firing an arrow that hit it fast, slamming it against the wall hard enough to crack it's skull. She then turned her attention back on the remaining darkspawn, but didn't fire, only studied. Half of the darkspawn were down by now, and the shriek was still no where in sight. She scanned the area, searching for it. Shrieks were trouble. They were the darkspawn assassins, traveling in shadows and striking with stealth. She wondered when it would show itself, who it would strike. It might be her, as she was the only Grey Warden it would be able to sense. Or it may go after Anders, as his powerful spells would attract it's attention.
Lisha heard Oghren take out another alpha, Nathaniel's arrow split the skull of a genlock, and Sigrun ran her dagger through a hurlock. It was then she pinpointed the shriek's location. It was where she feared: right behind Anders. She felt it lurking in the shadows right behind him. Quickly she turned, seeing nothing but knowing it was there, preparing to strike.
“Anders, duck!”
“What?” He didn't have any time to understand before he flopped on the ground right as Lisha's arrow passed his head and embedded itself in the eye of the shriek as it came flying out of the shadows. It screamed as it missed it's target and landed on the ground hard, the screeching momentarily causing everyone to stop and cover their ears.
Lisha wasted no time, pulling out her own Dalish dagger and running for it. The shriek stood, seeing her coming with it's one good eye. It screamed again before running at her, it's scicled claws outstretched. It swung them down on her, but she ducked and spun on her feet. Sulhigil twisted in her hands, smacking the shriek in the chest as Lisha drove the dagger in it's side. It screamed in her ear, causing her to grunt as it made her ears ring. She flipped around, yanking her dagger out, making a huge gash. The shriek snapped at her, it's jaws grabbing on to Sulhigil's end. It thrashed it's head back and forth, ripping the bow out of her hand and throwing it to the side. It then snapped at her again, bringing up it's claws. Lisha flipped backwards, kicking it in the jaw with her feet before landing on them. The shriek shook it's head from the blow, but recovered and continued it's approach. Lisha kept her ground, waited until it's mouth was wipe open in a scream before throwing her dagger. It landed in the shriek's mouth, bringing it down at her feet.
“I hate shrieks.”
“Oh no... Commander!”
Lisha looked up while collecting her bow to see Sigrun on the ground, hands in front of her face as a massive creature loomed over her, looking as if it was ready to pound her to the ground. She rolled out of the way right as it's fists hit the floor. The sound of stone hitting stone vibrated through the room. Oghren let out a war cry as he barreled toward the strange creature, slamming into it with his body. The creature staggered slightly and made a sound like gravel rubbing together. It's massive hands went to reach for the dwarf, but missed as Oghren leaped out of the way.
“Nate, what's going on?” Lisha asked, seeing the human as he ran past her.
“Lisha! As you were battling the shriek, Anders was taken down by the emissary. It was able to strike him with a spell after you told him to get down. After that, it pulled out a weird glowing rock and suddenly that thing came out of the wall!”
“What is it?”
“A golem. Oghren and Sigrun have been fighting it, but their weapons are useless against it's rock body and so are my arrows. I've been trying to find where the emissary went, but I can't find it. The blasted creature disappeared after I got Anders out of the way.”
“Rhachon!” Lisha scanned the area once more, looking for the emissary. It wasn't too hard to find as the genlock had only gone a few feet away, hiding itself behind a statue where it controlled the golem. “There!”
She and Nathaniel ran around the statue, finding the emissary just as the golem nearly grabbed Sigrun by the feet. It seemed surprised they had found it, but soon grabbed it's staff and threw a spell at them. They both leaped out of the way as the spell exploded on the wall behind them. It went after Lisha first, firing another spell as she staggered to her feet. The spell hit her, freezing her in place. The emissary then went to strike her with another spell, but Nathaniel's arrow knocked the staff out of it's hands. Several more arrows punctured it's armor while another found its way into the emissary's skull before bringing it down. Once the emissary was dead, Lisha was released from the spell and the golem stopped in mid-punch.
“That was close,” Sigrun said as she moved out of the path of the giant stone fist. “I think I've been close to death more times than I would like for today.”
“Don't speak too soon,” said Lisha as she and Nathaniel joined the dwarves. “We still have broodmothers to kill and even more darkspawn, I'm sure.”
“Right, thanks for reminding me.”
“Hm, this is an old golem.” Oghren stood at the golem's side, studying it from top to bottom. “It's in good order, but not as up-to-date as the ones Branka was makin'.”
“Do you think you could get this to work?” Lisha asked as she tossed the gem to Oghren.
“You're giving me the control rod? Ha! If you want, Commander.” Oghren messed around with the red gem before it finally began to glow. The golem's eyes, which had been dull, began to glow as well and it stood up straight. “Well whaddya know! We've got ourselves a golem now!”
“So it'll do whatever we tell it?” Lisha asked.
“As long as one of us has the control rod, then ya. This golem should prove pretty handy.”
“Let's hope so.”
Nathaniel dragged Anders back out of the tunnel he had placed him in. The mage was awake now but groggy.
“Oh man... what happened?”
“You got knocked out,” said Lisha.
“Oh yeah.” Anders attempted to sit up but went back to lying down as his head spun. “Maybe not yet.”
Lisha thought for a moment, trying to determine what they needed to do. They couldn't continue without Anders, but they also couldn't afford to stay or turn back. “Okay, this is what we're going to do,” she said. “We need to keep going, so Oghren, Sigrun, and I are going to keep going with the golem to check things out. Nathaniel, you stay here with Anders until he recuperates. We won't go very far,” she added when she saw Nathaniel begin to protest. “We're just going to take a look. We'll avoid the darkspawn, and if we get to a point where avoiding them is impossible, we'll come back for both of you. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Commander,” they all said.
“Good. Anders, stay down and try and heal yourself if you can. Nate, watch over him. We can't really loose our only mage now.”
“Great, I get to babysit you,” Nathaniel moaned.
“You think I like you watching over me? I think I'd rather have Oghren do that. At least I know he has whiskey he might share for the pain. Ooh, my damn head! Why didn't you tell me to roll out of the way or something?”
“Because I didn't think you were just going to lay there like an idiot.”
“Now you're picking on me. That's so nice, pick on the poor injured mage. Do you think while you're going that you might want to reach in my pack and grab a healing poultice? Pretty please!”
The last thing Lisha heard was Nathaniel's grumble as she followed Oghren and Sigrun deeper into the fortress. She didn't turn around to notice his stare in her direction as they turned a corner. It was one of concern and wishing.
***
“H-How...?” Sigrun stuttered as they all stared at the figures in front of them. It was a dwarf and a darkspawn, fighting one another to the death without any awareness of their audience.
“I don't understand this,” said Lisha as she peered through the smokey blue figures. “I thought dwarves didn't have magic.”
“We don't, but I've seen something like this before.” Oghren passed his hand through the genlock's head. The eerie smoke swirled around it before reforming the genlock's head when Oghren took his hand away. The genlock never noticed his head misshapen, only kept fighting it's blue dwarven counterpart.
“I've never seen anything like this,” Sigrun commented.
“When I was traveling with Zelda and Arawin, we ran into things similar to these in the Dead Trenches. Course they were different. Popped out of anvils and attacked us. They were tough and sodding damn hard to kill too. Hopefully we don't run into any like 'em.”
“Popped out of anvils? So they came from the Stone?” Sigrun walked up to another fighting pair, one of many in the tunnel. “They say memories come from the Stone. Is this what they meant?”
“I don't think they were this literal, though,” said Lisha. “Hmm, I wonder if this is similar to the thin Veil in the Brecilian Forest. Only instead of the Fade causing the manifestations, it's the lyrium.”
“What do you mean?”
“There was much death in the Forest long ago, which caused the Veil to tare. Magic was able to leak from the Fade to the real world, causing all the strange things that happen there. I'm wondering if maybe since dwarves don't have magic it may be the lyrium down here doing something similar. After all, I assume with this fighting we see here, there was much death at some point long ago.”
“That might actually explain a few things I've seen down here. Interesting thought.”
They continued down the corruption-filled tunnel, the memories still dueling in their eternal fight. The golem made a steady thud thud thud as it walked slowly behind them, the only sound any of them made. When they reached the end of the tunnel, they came across a magnificent sight. A cavern opened up before them, massive and layered with levels on the sides. In the middle was a giant stage, the stairs leading up to it were cracked and blocked making it impossible to climb. But what they saw at the edge made them all stop in their tracks. On the stage stood a blue dwarf, many others standing below, looking up at him and listening intently at his worlds.
“For generations they have told you, you were nothing! Swept you away like so much dust! Now, you are the only thing standing between them and the darkspawn that threaten our empire! Show them that you are not nothing! Show them that you can be warriors! Let the Stone tremble with the thunder of your footsteps! Fight!”
He was dressed in fine armor while the ones listening to him wore tattered clothing, and as Lisha got closer to get a better look, she saw they all had an S-shaped tattoo under their right eyes.
“They're casteless, and he's trying to get them to fight, to take back the thaig.” Sigrun ran her hand over her own S-shaped tattoo as she peered up at the dwarf on the stage. “He believed in them.”
Lisha didn't know much about dwarven society, but she did know about the castes, and that casteless were mostly seen as worthless, a waste, and disposable. From her tattoo and the way she was acting, Lisha knew Sigrun used to be casteless and what they were seeing here meant something.
Sigrun looked around when the blue crowd disappeared and pointed over to a side set of stairs. “That's were the casteless would have lived. Maybe if we go in there we may find out what happened.”
“They fought and died, that's what happened,” said Oghren. “Otherwise I'm sure we'd be greeted with arrows right about now.”
Sigrun glared over at him. “Are you saying the casteless couldn't fight darkspawn if they had to?”
“I'm just statin' the facts. Look around, woman! Do you think they won?”
“Alright you two, enough.” Lisha got in between the two dwarves. They didn't look like they were going to fight, but Lisha wanted to stop it before it could start. “Now it looks like we may have to find a way around. Would going through there get us to the other side?”
“It looks like it might,” Sigrun said as she got closer to the stairs. “If we make our way through then we might--” She stopped cold. “Wow, do you see that? There are more memories in there!”
Lisha looked over her to see the shimmer of blue at the far end of the alley. At the same time as she got closer, she could also feel the strong pull of the taint. Something was in there. “Hang on, Sigrun,” Lisha said grabbing her shoulder. “I can feel something's there. I think it would be best to go back and check on Anders and Nathaniel.”
“I agree,” said Oghren.
“Alright, we'll go back, but... I just want to see if I can hear them.” Sigrun inched closer. “They may not be here when we get back.”
“Sigrun.”
“Hang on, I'll be right back.” She went up the stairs and ran into the alley. Lisha groaned not wanting to chase after her, but she couldn't let the dwarf go in all alone.
“Come on, Oghren.”
The two of them made their way up the stairs with the golem close behind. Immediately Lisha regretted it, as her face hit cobwebs hanging from the low ceiling. She went to wipe them away only to reveal a whole mass of weds completely covering the area. She could sense them now more clearly, all of them above where they stood, looking down with their beady black eyes.
“Oghren, we need to get out of here.”
“You don't have to tell me twice,” he said backing up.
“Sigrun, come back now! I don't think we should go through here.”
“What, why?” Sigrun made her way back, brushing away webs and looking confused. Lisha went to tell her not to do that, but it was already too late. The shadow came down before any of them could react fast enough. The large body of the gigantic spider landed on Sigrun, sending her forward and on the floor. Both Lisha and Oghren called out her name and ran forward.
Oghren went to strike the spider off but was stopped by another spider that popped out of a hole in the wall. It lifted it's front legs, exposing it's dripping fangs and jumped, landing on Oghren. The dwarf however was able to push it off and cracked his waraxe down on the spiders head. It split the exoskeleton and the spider struggled below the axe for a moment before settling.
Determined to get the spider off Sigrun, Lisha released several arrows, all hitting it in the eyes. The spider stopped it's pursuit of the dwarf below it, but still kept her pinned. It looked up at Lisha and exposing it's fangs, projected a greenish liquid right at her. Lisha dodged it, rolling on the ground and propping up on her knees. She was horrified when she looked to see the spider had lifted up part of Sigrun's armor and jammed it's fangs into the dwarf's side. Sigrun screamed but so did the spider as a large golem fist connected with it's face and sent it hurtling down the alley.
Lisha struggled to her feet. She could feel the corruption in the spider, as well as the corruption in all the spiders that were beginning to surround them. The golem went after the spider when it put itself back on it's eight legs. It screeched at the golem, which in turn made the other spiders around them click and screech in answer. Lisha knew she had to do something, not just to get Sigrun out of there, but somehow to kill all the spiders at once. If not, she knew they would come after them.
Seeing all the webs, a thought came to her. Quickly she grabbed an arrow from her quiver as well as a small container that was hanging off her belt. Opening the container she dipped the arrowhead in the contents before closing it back up. “Oghren, get Sigrun out of here!”
“What are you doing, Commander?”
“Just get out. Now!”
Lisha struck the arrowhead on the ground. A flame burst on the head and quickly spread across the liquid coating it. Oghren saw what she had planned when she notched the arrow. As fast as his little legs would let him, he scooped up Sigrun and bolted for the exit. Lisha aimed at the spider that was now on top of the golem, trying to sink it's fangs in. She released and the flaming arrow went soaring, catching completely on fire and hit the spider directly in the middle. The spider went flying into the webs, the fire catching rapidly and spreading. Instantly the entire area lit up as the fire burned the webs. Lisha covered her eyes and ran for the exit. She could feel the heat of the fire on her back and smell the roasting of spiders and years old dirt. A whole plume of dust and ash passed her as she ran down the stairs and landed on the ground next to Oghren and Sigrun. All three of them coughed and choked as the dust and ash settled. When it was all over, the golem slowly walked down the stairs, a thick layer of ash covering it's body but otherwise unharmed.
“Is everyone okay?” Lisha asked as she wiped away the dust from her face.
“I was until you did that!” said Oghren as he patted the dust off his armor.
Lisha made her way over to Sigrun, finding the female dwarf still alive. “Sigrun, are you all right? How bad did the spider get you?”
Sigrun coughed for a moment, a grimace on her face as she held her side. “I've had worse,” she said once she could. “Lucky for me that spider used up all it's venom spitting at you before it decided to inject me.” She sat up with Lisha's help. “Sorry about that. I guess I should've known, where there's webs there's spiders, and the ones found in the Deep Roads aren't the small, cute kind.”
“At least you're alive.”
“Yeah, funny how that keeps happening.”
“Do you think you can make it back? Hopefully Anders is good enough that he can tend to you.”
“Yeah, I should be able to make it.” With more of Lisha's support, Sigrun stood. She wobbled a moment but was soon able to keep her balance on her own. As fast as they could they began making their way back to where they had last left their companions.
***
“Hey! Watch it, that hurt.”
“Oh quit being such a baby, Nate. It's jammed in there pretty deep. I gotta get it out.”
“You're the one that shoved it further in, just get it out!”
“Wow, what's going on here?” Sigrun, Lisha, Oghren and the golem came around the corner to find Anders knelt behind Nathaniel who was sitting. “Gee, I'm glad you two are like that and not what we were... hearing.”
“I'm starting to like you more and more, Sigrun,” Anders smiled. “But no, Mister Dark Mood here realized that there was an arrow in his shoulder. Apparently during the battle the adrenaline running through his veins kept him from feeling it until he calmed down. I'm trying to get it out.”
“Really? I didn't see an arrow in your shoulder when we left,” said Lisha as she came to take a look. Nathaniel was bare chested, his leather armor and undershirt having been striped and thrown to the side. Lisha saw where the arrowhead had gone in, right next to his left shoulder blade.
“The shaft broke off,” said Nathaniel.
“That's why it's been so difficult to remove.” Anders went to dig his finger in the hole making Nathaniel wince.
“Damn it, Anders! You could warn me you were going to do that.”
“So you could tighten up like you did? I need you to relax your shoulder. It'll be easier to remove that way.”
“How am I suppose to relax with your finger pushing the arrowhead further in?”
“Move aside, Anders.” Lisha pushed the mage to the side without warning. “My fingers are a little smaller and more delicate. Maybe I can get it.”
Lisha placed her finger on the wound. She could feel the end of the arrowhead and felt it was rather deep but loose. Nathaniel stiffened at first from her touch but then relaxed when she didn't prod. Carefully, Lisha pinched the part of the arrowhead she could grasp between her fingers. When it felt like she had a good grip, she placed her other hand on his other shoulder. “This is going to hurt.”
“Just... do it.”
Lisha pulled, the arrowhead at first resisting, but soon came free and out with Nathaniel barely making a sound. “There. It's out now. Anders, take care of him, please.”
“As you wish, Commander.” Anders took his place where Lisha was and began healing the wound.
“So you're doing much better, sparkle-fingers,” said Oghren.
“Oh much better. I ate a few more of those dried ginseng roots. Best things ever.”
“You should be careful with those, Anders,” said Lisha. “They can become addicting.”
“Oh, I know, but what I had wasn't dangerous. I'll be fine, and besides, they gave me my energy back.”
“I can see that. Now, when you're done with Nathaniel, I need you to heal Sigrun. We ran into some spiders and she got hurt pretty bad.”
“Didn't sound like it when she came around the corner.” Anders smiled up at Sigrun once he was done with Nathaniel and patted on the ground for her to sit down. “Let the doctor have a look.”
“You're a doctor now? Great.” Sirgun as well removed her armor and raised her undershirt up so he could see the two bite marks on her back.
“Andraste's knickerweasles! What kind of spiders did you run into?” he yelled when he saw how large the puncture wounds were.
“Thaig crawlers, corrupted ones too. Not very nice.”
“That's an understatement.” Anders went to work healing her. Lisha knew it would take a while since she was a dwarf and magic was less affective on them than either humans or elves. Oghren went and took the golem to explore the room they were in. It was the entrance to the fortress, a large room with a wide open space and long stairs that lead down to the main door. Below Lisha could see the traps lining the floor. There were many, making her glad they had come in the secret entrance. Nathaniel made his way over to where his armor lay. Lisha walked over to check on him, careful to stay away from the edge of the stairs. They were steep and a ledge in the middle went straight down with no railing.
“Did he heal you good enough?” she asked.
“It's a bit stiff, but I'll be fine.” Nathaniel flexed his shoulder and rotated his arm, loosening the muscles. He looked over at her but quickly shifted his eyes away and went to put on his undershirt. “You look like you've been playing in dirt.”
“Do I now?” Lisha chuckled as she looked down at herself. “I guess ash doesn't come off easily. But that's what happens when you burn down very old spider webs that were also collecting dust.” She smiled at him. “You're dirty too, you know.”
“Fighting darkspawn, their blood flying everywhere. It doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is how people don't get tainted from fighting these things. It seems almost impossible with how much blood they fling.”
“The answer is probably because you're a Grey Warden and have no need to fear becoming corrupted, so you don't hold back. Neither does Oghren or Anders. Sigrun however, well... She's down here to die, so I suppose she wouldn't hold back either. But if you ever fight with men who aren't Grey Wardens, then you notice they do hold back, which can actually be more dangerous than not.”
Once Anders was finished with Sigrun, and Anders and Nathaniel were filled in on what they found, they all made their way back to the area where they fought the spiders. The buildings were clear now of the cobwebs, instead covered in a thick layer of dust. As they made their way through the streets, they found charred spider corpses along with piles of darkspawn and deep stalker bones.
The area which would have been Kal'Hirol's Dust Town—literally a town of dust now—was an intricate maze of buildings, all of them seeming to be nothing but homes. Sigrun took them through as they explored all the houses, collecting anything that looked to be useful or valuable. They ran into more memories, dwarves mostly running around the streets trying to determine what they should do. Some wanted to fight while others wanted to flee. It seemed to be a battle in itself amongst the casteless. The dwarf trying to get them to fight, which they found his name to be Dailan, tried hard to persuade them more within the town, but it appeared as if many of them wouldn't listen to his words anymore. It wasn't until they reached the other side of the town and the platform did they find out what truly happened.
More memories fought each other, darkspawn versus dwarves who on closer inspection turned out to be the casteless. It was a sad scene to come across, as it appeared the darkspawn were winning.
“Maybe they should have ran,” Sigrun said as she watched a blue genlock knock one of the dwarves down and stick him with it's sword. The genlock then disappeared as it ran off to fight another dwarf. “It was hopeless.”
“It might not have been if the others had stayed,” said Oghren. “Including the other castes.”
“Well, despite what happened long ago,” Lisha said. “We'll reclaim Kal'Hirol back from the darkspawn for the dwarves. We just need to find and take care of those--” It hit her like a shockwave, a strong electrical current that went straight up her spine and into her skull. An involuntary cry came from her throat as she grabbed her head and fell to her knees. Everyone came around her, trying to figure out what was going on, panic in their voices.
Lisha ignored them as she focused on the pain shooting through her nervous system. Although it was less of a pain and more of a presence forcing itself on her. Forcing her back. She recognized it, similar to what she felt at Vigil's Keep. Similar to how the Children felt, but not as malicious. More... helpful. She explored it, feeling it behind a large door, in an area that was completely corrupted by taint that was different. There were also other darkspawn around, fighting each other. It seemed to be leading some of them, wanting them to push forward, to kill all that got in their way.
“Is that why he doesn't want us to come?” Lisha whispered. “Is he trying to keep us back?”
“Lisha, what are you talking about?”
She opened her eyes to find Nathaniel staring down at her. She was on the floor, not realizing how she had gotten there. “There's another talking darkspawn here.”
“Another one? Great.” Anders's face came into view upside down along with Sigrun and Oghren on either side of him. “I was hoping we took care of the only talking darkspawn.”
“Wait, stop,” said Sigrun looking confused. “There are darkspawn who talk?”
“Yes, there is,” Lisha said pushing herself to a sitting position. “We can explain it to you later, but now we need to keep moving. He's getting away.”
“Hold on there, Commander,” said Oghren. “You just started acting freaky. I've seen Wardens act like that before, and it's usually never a good thing.”
“It wasn't an attack.” Lisha focused on what had just happened. “It was more like a warning. He sensed me even before I did and tried to keep me from... moving forward. It was as if he was trying to keep me from getting involved.”
“Involved in what?” Sigrun asked.
“I don't know, but he's leading darkspawn and they're attacking the ones that live here, going deeper into Kal'Hirol, and searching for...” Her eyes widened when she realized it. “The broodmothers.”
“Searching for the broodmothers?” Anders raised an eyebrow. “Is this talking darkspawn trying to protect them from us as well?”
“No... he wants to destroy them just like we do.” Lisha stood on her own and stared at the large doors in front of them. It was behind these doors she knew the battle between darkspawn was taking place. “I don't know why he wanted to warn me about continuing on, but we're going to keep going anyway. I want to know what's going on.”
They all agreed as they followed her through the doors. They came to a large room that was completely covered in a black and dark purple corruption. The floor squished underneath their feet and before them were several darkspawn fighting each other, unaware of the new arrivals. Oghren got ready to attack, but Lisha kept him back.
“No, this is not our fight, let them kill each other. We need to get to the broodmothers.” He seemed reluctant, along with everyone else, but they followed Lisha as she ran through the fighting. As they made their way through the cavern, occasionally they did have to stop and fight darkspawn that spotted them. It was easy work, and eventually they reached the end of the room. An opening to a lower area, surrounded by corruption was the way Lisha felt the talking darkspawn had been heading. She went to descend, but Sigrun stopped her.
“Hey, there's something over in that room!” she pointed. It was a small room off to the side and Lisha noticed a shimmer of blue within the door. If it was more memories, it was something she knew Sigrun wanted to investigate.
As they made their way into the room, they saw a small blue dwarf crouched next to a large stone slab. He was carving on it frantically. Lisha recognized him as the dwarf speaking on the platform, Dailan.
“I cannot let them be... forgotten.”
He lowered his head on the slab, looking haggard and drained. It didn't take much for the blue ogre that appeared rapidly to take him down, ramming him with his horns then slamming the poor dwarf in the ground with it's fists. The blue figures then disappeared in a misty haze.
Sigrun made her way over to the slab and rubbed her hand across its surface as she read the inscription. “'May the Stone remember the defenders of Kal'Hirol, who were born casteless and died warriors.' Died Warriors? He... he wanted them to be remembered as warriors. Warrior caste. And look... he carved their names in this tablet. All of them! Lisha, we can't just leave this here. We have to find some way to honor the memory of those who died here. We need to take this tablet with us.”
“I don't know about you,” said Anders. “But large stone tablets don't make me move any faster.”
“We need to take this with us somehow.”
“We'll come back and get it,” said Lisha. “When Kal'Hirol has been purged of darkspawn and the broodmothers are no longer breeding.”
“Thank you, Commander. This is something that shouldn't be lost to the blighted darkspawn. So what do you say we go down into the lower reaches and figure out what's going on.”

Paraphrasing from Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening
All Sindarin belongs to JRR Tolkien
Sindarin Translation:
Rhachon: Curses!
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Blood Song