"Think before you speak mage. Sudden actions will only mean consequences for all. And I doubt you will feel any better with more blood on your hands?"
"Enough, both of you," Calien commanded, visibly flustered by how events had gone, he paused seeming struggling as to what to say next in front of Volshen.
Volshen meanwhile had taken events in turn, Von's offer had raised slight interest, a raised eyebrow, a twitch of the mouth. Ash's continuation of the intimidation met with a visible flinch as the staff was raised, hands raising reflexively, the golem took a step forward when Von's technique cleared magic from the air. At first Volshen seemed confused, then he began to chuckle to himself.
"Next time you try your scare tactics you should make sure your underlings are clear on the plan," Volshen said to Calien, smirking broadly "As if you surfacers could ever scare an Orzammar dwarf," he directed his gaze to Von "we live with the Darkspawn, templar, we know the danger they pose, and we are better equipped to handle them than you are."
With that Volshen started to leave, pausing only for a closing remark "Kal Hirol is a site of dwarven history, I won't have you surfacers damaging it with your investigations," he said "So run back to your inquisition and tell them we don't need your help."
Calien sputtered somewhat feebly and fell silent, once Volshen and his golem had left down the tunnel he turned to Ash and Von, his expression disappointed and aggravated.
"Flames! We almost had the screws put to him," he said "Von what were you thinking trying to switch tactics like that? We needed to portray a united force, not squabble like children!"
He sighed and rubbed his forehead "Alright, no sense dwelling on it for now," he said, sounding rather downtrodden "we just need to find another way in. Maybe if we're lucky they'll find Anso and he'll let us in."
________________________________________________________________________________________________
"I've heard rumors about what you've all seen, but I want a first hand recollection. You tell me everything you've both seen about these 'ghosts' and dispel the talk of darkspawn down there and there might be more 'cure' coming your way."
The worker whistled at the gold, taking a coin and polishing it with spit to admire its shine under the sunlight before pocketing it.
"For this I'd tell you the sky is green and Andraste was a cross dressing dwarf, if that's what you wanted to hear," he said with a cheerful grin, pausing to think for a moment before speaking again.
"Well, the darkspawn were mostly cleared out when we got here, wardens work I was told, and the dwarves, er other dwarves not including yourself, brought their own soldiers to deal with them," he said "we're mostly just cleaning up rubble, trying to burn away that shit the darkspawn leave everywhere."
One of the other workers seemed to wretch at the thought of it "horrid fleshy stuff," he added.
"Yeah," the first continued "the dwarves are always watching us though, don't want us breaking anything. See, there are ghosts down there, I heard the dwarves call them 'memories of the ancestors' trapped in the stone or lyrium or something like that, I'd call 'em demons 'cept they just do the same thing over and over again. Dwarves don't like letting us near them, but there's one right in a main hall where its just a bunch of dwarf spirit things gathered to listen to a speech or something."
"It's bloody unnerving it is," one of the workers added, then clarified "some of them just die over an' over again."
"Right, sometimes they have to take us past those to get to what they need moved," he continued "usually they wait until the ghosts are gone for a bit, at first I didn't know why they wouldn't want us seeing them, but I think I've figured it out."
He paused and glanced back and forth before leaning in conspiratorially "the ghosts are going crazy, attacking people," he said "its got the dwarves worried, they don't know what's causing it, but some of them are turning red like blood and going mad."
The other workers had mixed expressions, for some these 'ghosts' presented a very real fear, for others it was the sort of story invented after having too much to drink. One in particular rolled his eyes and spoke up.
"Enough of that nonsense," he said, turning to Nola "your coin's wasted on him, he's just full of ghost stories and such nonsense, wouldn't know a demon if it bit him in the arse. Sure people have been injured, but it hasn't been any ghosts, the tunnels are old things are bound to collapse, and there are still a few darkspawn down there in the shadows."
"Oh yeah?" the first one said "why don't you tell that to Morris? One of the ghosts took an axe to him, nearly cut his arm right off!"
"So he claims," the skeptic said "more likely he had too much to drink and fell on something, Maker knows there are enough old blades lying around down there, its half of what we bring up some days."
