hazmats | Glowfic Constellation

keep_busy

"It's a two-wheeled vehicle that requires some balance to keep upright - which is why I didn't have one of those - but on even moderately friendly terrain it can let a person go about three times faster than walking pace without working too much harder, much more so if they're racing and the ground's really flat."

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"Oh. Sounds very... surface-ish."

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"Yeah, not really designed to work in a cave system."

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"But useful, on the surface."

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"Very."

first-and-final

"Well, then, while I'm imagining that we survive the Deep Roads and bring back the Anvil of the Void and reverse my exile and remove my traitorous brother from the line of succession, I will also imagine that we get some engineers to put together a tricycle for you."

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"...Are we imagining that I go live somewhere... elsewhere."

first-and-final

"We're imagining that you can live wherever you like, but I wouldn't expect you to prefer to spend literally the entire rest of your life underground without exception, and once they've got the design worked out we can also begin exporting them to the surface, where I'm sure lots of people would like more wheels than they've got."

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"Okay."

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"While I'm at it," he adds wistfully, "I am definitely also imagining being able to get a bath. Ancestors, I miss being clean."

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"...Well, if we don't find water eventually I'm in trouble, but I suppose you might not want to rinse off darkspawn blood into running water."

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"Ideally not."

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"Is water common in the caves?"

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"Common enough that I don't expect you to die of thirst, not common enough that I've been able to wash."

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Nod.

"...Darkspawn that way. Coming toward us. Lots. ...Fourteen, fifteen..."

first-and-final

"Great," he sighs. Time to backtrack!

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Backtrack backtrack.

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Backtrack and more backtrack, all the way to an unpromising-looking cross-tunnel that winds deeper and deeper, and from there...

An ancient road cut into the stone, still intact after all these years, easily the most civilized place they've been since she arrived even though it has clearly been abandoned by everything but the darkspawn and assorted animal life.

"Shit, I think this might be Caridin's Cross," says Stalas. He laughs softly. "My crazy plan to find Branka begins to look substantially less crazy."

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"Wow," says Annie, not exactly looking around but pausing to appreciate the place.

first-and-final

"Yeah. Unfortunately if there are darkspawn here we're going to have to deal with them, because I need to figure out how to get to Ortan Thaig from here and then go that way regardless of how many darkspawn are between me and it."

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"Um - there's five that way, only five."

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"Five is a good number." He goes that way. "Any of them enormous with horns? Those are ogres. I like to be warned about ogres specifically in advance."

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"No, they're all closer to your height, no horns."

first-and-final

"Genlocks, then. Good, that makes things simple."

They approach the five darkspawn. Stalas stops talking and unsheathes a pair of daggers.

The five darkspawn appear to be manning a pair of ballistae set up at the T-junction where the three branches of this road meet. However, happily for Stalas and Annie, the two of them are approaching from the direction not already covered by a ballista.

There are five darkspawn. Then there are four darkspawn. Then there are three, then one, and finally zero. Stalas wipes his daggers halfheartedly on a dead darkspawn, sheathes them, and starts picking over the bodies to see if they have any equipment worth looting.

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