We established a camp after clearing the bafflingly fiery darkspawn nest and, after taking a short rest, used another freshly rigged elevator to head further down. This time, we descended into dark, natural caves. We’d actually managed to go deeper than the Deep Roads. Of course, there were still things that wanted to kill us down there. This time, they took the form of an unknown sect of dwarves who were obstinately non-communicative, had lyrium-infused armor that was grafted onto their flesh, and used some kind of explosive-powered projectile weapon to blast a whole right through Renn’s armor. Though he helped us rout the initial group we encountered, the Legion lieutenant didn’t survive much longer. We helped Valta lay her friend to rest before pressing on. Further in, we found a carving that Val could partially translate that referred to these new dwarves as the Sha-Brytol, or “revered defenders.” They were apparently guarding the titan while it slept, and didn’t take kindly to intruders. That didn’t matter to us, however, as we needed to stop the earthquakes before they tore one of the last bastions of dwarven society apart. And, no, the tragic irony of killing dwarves to save dwarves was not lost on me. More Sha-Brytol appeared as we pressed on, with odder and more potent abilities and equipment on display. In fact, the further down we went, the stranger and more incredible virtually everything around us became. For example, we eventually stumbled across an underground sea, with waves and everything, and columns covered in spidery patterns of raw lyrium thrusting out of it.
Unutterably gorgeous. And I still just want to get out of here and feel some grass between my toes.
Past the underground cavern with a sea in it, which I can’t stress enough how incredibly beautiful and surreal that was, we encountered something even more out of the ordinary. It was, well, green. A lush underground city, full of plants and homes carved into the walls, with a beating heart of lyrium at its core. With this fresh finding and the help of more of the ancient runes that we’d encountered along the way there, Val and I finally figured something out, as well: the titan we’d been looking for all this time wasn’t some being like us, just bigger, that we’d find sitting in a comically huge cavern somewhere. It was the caverns we’d been walking in. It was the stone around us, somehow. Look, I didn’t say it made complete sense, but it was true. The Sha-Brytol, despite our pleas, refused to let us pass peacefully and continued to fight us every step of the way. Not that I can really blame them, because, as far as I could tell, we’d just kicked down the door to their home. I’d probably respond with violence, too, if the situation was reversed. Near the lyrium heart, we found a final carving that revealed yet another world-altering secret: lyrium is the blood of a titan. It’s not a crystal, it’s alive, and that is why it sings, why it’s temperamental. It also explained how red lyrium could come to exist: while lyrium had always been thought of as a mineral, that fact that it was some part of a living thing meant it was actually organic, meaning the taint could take hold of it. We didn’t have much time to muse over this new discovery, however. When we approached the heart, it blasted Val back, transformed into some kind of stone-lyrium golem, and attacked us.
At least it’s not another dragon.
We hacked away at the outside of the golem, to little effect, as it tried its hardest to swat us off the elevated platform it sat on. Eventually we found, and destroyed, a lyrium core that put the thing down for good. We went to check on Val, and discovered that something had changed in her. The blast she’d been hit with hadn’t just been an offensive strike, it had forged some kind of connection between her and the titan and imbued the shaper with some kind of new, non-traditional magical power. She told us that the titan had been disturbed from its slumber, and the earthquakes were the result, which, after our various discoveries in the deep, actually made sense. What disturbed it, you ask? Why, the Breach, of course. The big hole in the sky that somehow managed to even cause problems underground. Anyways, now that we had calmed its golem guardian and it had connected with Val, the titan would stop the quakes, and Orzammar was safe once again. It also meant that the Sha-Brytol would at least tolerate our presence, so Valta opted to stay there to commune with the titan and try to learn more about the lost history it might have access to. We left her to it and, gleefully in my case at least, headed back to the surface. One last thing, though. Before we left, scouts near the underground Sha-Brytol city we’d discovered heard some kind of odd cry come from that direction. When they went to investigate, they found that Renn’s grave was empty, Valta was nowhere to be found, and the path to the green city had been completely blocked off. Make of all that what you will. I know I have.
This cavern was very bright for a place with no sun.
