NSFW CHAPTER AHOY keep your distance if you’re not interested in that sort of thing.

Couple of soundtracks for today: the dance in the market (which I wrote ages ago, like Chapter 2 ages ago) is inspired by (the first half of) Aldnoah’s Ver$. I also used something purported to be Levi’s theme to help with the Sten fight. GitS made an appearance as well. Then, the hurt/comfort/smexy teimuz was brainstormed to Omake Pfadlib from SnK.

Actually, originally the cuddles from the end of the previous chapter were also going to be sex, but the Haven sex was always supposed to come first, and it didn’t make sense to delay Soldier’s Peak at all, so just plain fluffy cuddles there. There’ll be a few more kinky bits in the story, anyway; in fact, I’m not sure whether or not to write the second half of this part. It doesn’t add anything to the story (I’m told sex never does unless it’s literally PWP) but smut is good, right? Anyway. AVERT YER EYES, CHILDREN

I wanted to include more lore, but the story was going at a snail’s pace anyway so if you also want lore I’mma havta say “go play the game again”. And then the part between ‘entering Haven’ and ‘finding Genitivi’ was super hard to write, for some reason. I need to write more horror stories. : )

The part where Elizabeth breaks Sten’s maul was researched a bit, and it’s difficult for a sword to break a weapon (they were designed to take a lot of stress, medieval weapons), but not impossible. Skallagrim did at least one video on how a sword can’t easily cut through a spear haft (watch full video for comments on fighting techniques; also this wasn’t the vid I was thinking of but it will do just as well), which is applicable here as well. My friend Thari suggested that the maul could break at the last rivet between the head and the handle, as that is probably where all the stress goes, especially if the maul’s been heavily used (as Sten’s has) even if not overly damaged in combat. Also, this is a fight between a human with an enchanted sword and a Qunari, soooo… that could shake things up too.

Or maybe it was ~*fate*~.

I made some Dreamselfy dolls of Elizabeth and Zevran. : )

Previous chapter: Soldier’s Peak; next chapter: Denerim

Haven

It took them another four days to travel to Denerim. Elizabeth hadn’t been in the capital in some time, and she was a little nervous that they would be spotted by one of their many enemies there, but people kept their heads down in the cold, even the guards. They took rooms in an inn near the marketplace, and set about the daunting task of finding anything that could lead them to Brother Genitivi, Ferelden’s expert on Andraste. Few people, it seemed, had ever heard of him, let alone knew him, even at the Chantry.

While the others split up to do odd jobs, earning themselves enough coin to continue staying at the inn as long as they needed to, Elizabeth and Leliana went to find Marjoleine along with Zevran, Huan, and Morrigan, who was not interested in taking a job of any kind and was spending most of her time climbing on things she shouldn’t and getting yelled at by random people. The directions they were given were clear enough, and they found a perfectly unassuming door in a maze of side-streets on the north-west side of the city that matched their description. Continue reading →