Dragon Age: Inquisition — Story Playthrough — Part Ten
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Iselia was searching for the Warden, Alistair, in the region of Crestwood. Hawke had said that the Warden was here somewhere and that he might have answers in regards to corruption in the Grey Warden ranks.
Before they could find Alistair though, first they needed to drain the flooded remains of Old Crestwood Village and remove a rift that was inviting spirits into the corpses of decade-old dead. The mayor had said that the darkspawn had broken the dam controls and flooded the village, but the dam controls were intact and worked perfectly fine to drain the water... something seemed off.
After draining the water, they climbed down into the mud and ruins of the old village. Spirits and demons alike roamed it.
Most of the spirits ignored them but one sought help — it would not return back to the Fade until it had found at least one thing it could control out here. Iselia offered to help it. It asked her to kill a rage demon... and so she did. There were plenty of demons around to kill.
Although the village had been underwater for a decade, there were still a few items of interest there and they gathered them up. Soggy books, some old weaponry and armour that was still in working order, and there were even some of those elven artifacts that Solas had spoken of, that strengthened the veil.
They found an old cave system just next to the village. It looked very well travelled and looked as though people had been living in there at the time of the flood. There plenty of torches to light, chests to rummage through, and more bodily remains... beside cave walls covered in scratch marks.
There had definitely been people down here when the flood occurred.
They followed the walkways down, down, down until they descended so far beneath the surface they wandered into the deep roads! The tunnels down here were still lit by torches, as though the years of water hadn't deterred their flame.
In one of the dwarven chambers lay the rift they sought. And this one was one gnarly rift! Iselia attempted to close it several times and it refused to respond; more demons pounded at the rift and got sent through to them to dispatch... it felt like hours before the last wave of demons was killed and she could at last close the thing.
With the rift gone, they found their way out of the deep roads and the cave system and emerged into daylight. They had spent the entire night down there in that cave... after arriving that night and spending so much time in the darkness, it was nice to see the sun again.
Now that the rift was closed, the corpses should no longer walk... they hurried back to Crestwood to tell the mayor the good news.
But the mayor had gone.
He had left a note for the Inquisition to find upon his desk. It was a letter of confession, for he was the one who had flooded the old village. Refugees had arrived, consumed with the blight, and he didn't want his entire village infected... so for the greater good, he flooded it all.
Unimpressed, Iselia was determined to find the mayor and bring him in for questioning, once they returned to Skyhold and she could issue a few commands to her people.
In the meantime, the rift and the walking dead had been dealt with; now they had to find Alistair.
On the other side of Crestwood, far from the village, sat a cave. Hawke stood outside of it and beckoned for them to come. Iselia told her that other Wardens had been in the area searching for her friend, but they had since left.
Thankfully they hadn't searched over in this area, apparently.
Inside the cave, Hawke introduced Iselia to Alistair. Iselia couldn't help herself. She asked if he was the Alistair who had fought by the Hero of Ferelden's side during the blight ten years ago. Yes, indeed he was... he then muttered something about changing his name.
They then got to business. Alistair had only recently heard of Corypheus and after Hawke's story, he believed that perhaps Corypheus possessed the same power as an archdemon — a great unwillingness to die. Practically immortal.
Apparently ever since this started, the Wardens had been hearing the Calling. All Wardens. They believed it was their time to die, and their Warden-Commander was preparing a terrible ritual in hopes of destroying all the darkspawn they could before they perished.
The Warden-Commander had sent for all Wardens to come to an old Tevinter ritual tower to do some blood magic before they died. Alistair was going to investigate further, and told Iselia where she could meet him again.
Before Iselia took her leave to do more Inquisition things, she questioned Alistair. Where was the Hero of Ferelden? Surely she could help during these dire times.
The Hero of Ferelden... Alistair sighed and said that his love had followed a lead out to the west... that she was searching for a way to end their Grey Warden curse, forever. He wouldn't mind though if the Inquisition got word to her and warned her about Corypheus and this false-Calling that was happening. If it wasn't for this, they would be together right now, searching.
Feeling awkward having brought her up, Iselia bid Alistair and Hawke goodbye.
Back in Skyhold, before calling for a meeting in the War Room to send off her next round of orders, Iselia wanted to chat with her people. She found Dorian with Cullen, playing a game of chess. Cullen soon defeated him, smiled very smugly about his win, and Dorian dramatically walked off.
Next Cullen offered Iselia a game... at first she was going to refuse — there was so much to do, she didn't really have the time to sit down and play a game — but drawn to him, she was unable to say no. Alistair's words about preferring to be with someone he cared about than off doing.. whatever this was... came back to her. She decided to stay, and have a game with someone she was starting to care about.
One thing led to another and they soon found themselves walking the ramparts, where Iselia admitted to Cullen that she was starting to care for him, but didn't know how to tell him... what, with her being a mage and all, and he being a former templar. Could he care for someone like her?
It turned out that her magic didn't bother him at all, as he embraced her.
With a little hum, butterflies in her stomach and a skip in her step, Iselia at last got back to work. Heading for the War Room, she was waylaid by Josephine.
Apparently Josephine's family were on the verge of destitution and Josephine was doing everything in her power to help her family get back their standing. She had come to an agreement with Orlais that her family could trade there once more, but her messenger had been killed and the documents restoring her family's trading rights had been destroyed. Someone wanted her ruined. There was a nobleman who said that he knew who had done it, but would only tell her if Iselia was there, so it looked like he was having an important conversation with a powerful figure.
Iselia had no desire to have lunch with an egotistical nobleman, but if it helped her friend, she would do it.
In the War Room, Iselia set about some more commands for her people. She sent someone off to look for the mayor of Crestwood so he could be brought to justice, cleared a mountain trail for Skyhold's soldiers to more readily travel, and... most importantly, she got Leliana to send word to the Hero of Ferelden, as per Alistair's wishes.
Leliana said that it would take quite some time, assuming they even found the woman, but they would try. She sent off her fastest messenger... who wouldn't send word back for at least 16 hours. It would be a grueling wait.
In the meantime, she contacted the scouts to have a look at the Western Approach, where Alistair said the Warden-Commander was gathering the Wardens for some ritual. Word got back that there were indeed a lot of Wardens in that region. They would need to have a look, soon, before anything bad happened.
Until next time! 🐲⚔️
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