This was a tough scene to cut, because it was cathartic to me to write it, but it was also too much of an exposition dump.\u00a0 Vaulen gets a spot to shine here, giving us much more of his backstory.\u00a0 This far into Quantum Quest, we didn’t really get a good grasp of it, so losing this hurt, but it still exists in this form for superfans like you!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bonus Extended Scene<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Devaniel hesitated for a moment, but he worked his magic, pulling away Vaulen\u2019s bindings and discarding them to the aether.<\/p>\n Freed of his restraints, Vaulen fell to the ground, weary and contrite.\u00a0 He rested his brow on the heels of his hands, wondering how he could let things go so far.<\/p>\n For some time, there was only silence, except for the consistent sound of the rain dripping from the dwarf\u2019s hair and clothes.<\/p>\n Recognizing the internalized pain, Devaniel stepped backward, leaning against his staff and the wall behind him.\u00a0 Worried as he was for Nyrshia, he knew they needed to take a breather.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you okay, Vaulen?\u201d the dwarf heard.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t lift his gaze from the floor, even as he saw Urrabar\u2019s boots come into view.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s all right you know.\u00a0 None of us is hurt, and we know it\u2019s not your fault.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaulen shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cActually, it is.\u00a0 The room must have felt this\u2026this anger beneath everything.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take hold of ye or the elf.\u00a0 It got its grasp on me.\u00a0 I always have it there, waiting just beneath the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have to talk about this if you don\u2019t want to,\u201d Devaniel said.\u00a0 \u201cYour pain belongs to you, and if you\u2019re not ready to share\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt belonged to me and me alone up until now,\u201d Vaulen replied.\u00a0 \u201cIf this blasted place can reach into the very heart of ye, I owe it to the pair of ye to tell ye the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n He paused to catch his breath and steady himself, and in that moment of silence, he saw Urrabar place his helmet on the ground, just beside him.\u00a0 Vaulen looked up to thank his companion, though he was almost unable to meet his gaze.\u00a0 But when the dwarf caught sight of him, he couldn\u2019t resist a quick glance.<\/p>\n Urrabar stood there, his hat in his hands, a sympathetic look on his face.\u00a0 But it was the shiny surface of his head that had caught Vaulen\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n \u201cYer bald!\u201d the dwarf said.<\/p>\n Crossing his arms over his chest, the gnome scoffed.\u00a0 \u201cWhy do you think I wear the hat?\u201d\u00a0 He brought out one of his hands a second later, rolling it forward to urge Vaulen on.\u00a0 \u201cGet on with it.\u00a0 Tell your story.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaulen stared for a moment more before shaking his head.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2026uh\u2026 Well, all right, I\u2026\u201d \u00a0He closed his eyes, realizing that the truth he planned to speak was deeply personal, but integral to reveal to his allies in order to keep them safe.<\/p>\n He took a deep breath and peered at his friends, one after the other.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was a wee lad back home, I lost me da,\u201d he said, the recollection somber but without any weakness.\u00a0 \u201cI must have been ten or so.\u00a0 It was just me and my ma for a while, living among the clan, in the same home me da had carved out of the stone for us.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just the two of us for long, though,\u201d he went on.\u00a0 \u201cShe was young though\u2014had only had the one child\u2014and was a beauty akin to an angel.\u00a0 A\u2019course she woulda found someone again, but she found her way to a dwarf who had lost his lady the same way we had lost my papa.\u00a0 Strange and unforeseen.\u00a0 Rorig,\u201d he said, almost unable to get through the name without drawing his lips back into a snarl as he spoke it.<\/p>\n \u201cThings were all right for a while.\u00a0 He seemed to really care for her.\u00a0 Rorig was a lumberer, and after a day\u2019s hard work, he always brought her home a flower he found on his journey. \u00a0She always made sure that there was food on the table whenever breakfast or supper came. \u00a0They knew that neither was each other\u2019s first choice, but they were determined to make the best of their second chance.<\/p>\n \u201cBut things changed,\u201d Vaulen continued.\u00a0 \u201cIt was like the mask was falling off him.\u00a0 In the first few years, I don\u2019t ever remember him having a pint of ale\u2014not exactly something the dwarves shy away from, as I\u2019m sure ye know.\u00a0 Still, before it was expected of me ta drink the stuff on me own, he had barrels of the stuff in the home, almost overnight.\u00a0 I\u2019d have taken him at his worst on those days than at his best in the months and years to come.\u201d\u00a0 The dwarf looked off with a vacant stare into the room the spectral swords had been in, though they had long before withdrawn to their spots alongside the doorway.<\/p>\n Shaking his head to pull himself back toward the present, Vaulen interlaced his fingers as if in prayer.\u00a0 \u201cIt started off innocently enough, but it was plenty irritating.\u00a0 He would come home, more axe than handle, tottering this way and that until he fell doon to whatever place made him happy.\u00a0 And then the singing.\u00a0 By gods the singing.\u00a0 He would start as soon as the first mug hit his lips and wouldn\u2019t stop until he\u2019d fallen off\u2014and then some!\u00a0 The bastard sang in his sleep.\u00a0 I was certain all the other members of the clan would come and give him a proper thrashing, but it never happened.<\/p>\n \u201cMe ma had family who were keen to the situation.\u00a0 Things started off all right with them too, but as he carried on, they began to give up on him.\u00a0 He hunted with a few of me uncles, and early on, they\u2019d even spent a week or so in a lodge up in the mountains, but when he started acting a fool, they went up without a mention to him, which seemed to set him off even more.<\/p>\n \u201cIt grew to a point where he wouldn\u2019t even try to hide it.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t force himself to go to work and pretend he could stand steady all day.\u00a0 I think maybe once or twice he may have felled a tree the wrong way and almost\u2026 He may have almost killed someone.\u00a0 And I think they telled him, \u2018don\u2019t even bother coming in till ye shake off whatever it is that\u2019s got hold of ye.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaulen clenched his fingers into tight fists as his story continued.\u00a0 \u201cI think forcing him to stay home and think about his failings made things worse.\u00a0 Me ma would already be off and about, working at the mill to keep the clan fed and happy.\u00a0 I had started apprenticing with an armorer.\u201d\u00a0 He smiled, having fonder recollections of his master than his stepfather.\u00a0 \u201cHe always wanted me in a little later.\u00a0 I think he just wanted a few hours where I wasn\u2019t asking a thousand questions or foulin\u2019 up a patch job.\u201d\u00a0 He shook his head and waved his hands, trying to keep things on track.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember one morning,\u201d he said, pressing out his jaw as he recalled every nasty memory.\u00a0 \u201cI was setting myself something to eat.\u00a0 It was one of those quiet days when you could hear the kinds of animals outside you don\u2019t hear among all the bustle.\u00a0 Well, we had this sticky cupboard door in the kitchen\u2014howled like a banshee on good days.\u00a0 Me hands are full, and I tap it to go back into place, and it pops<\/em> as it swings onto its hinge.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think much of it.\u00a0 But the hinge couldn\u2019t hold, and all of a sudden it falls and smashes to the table beneath it.\u00a0 You would have thought we were at war.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t even know he was on his way, stomping forth like a crash of rhinotaurs,\u201d Vaulen said with a shake of his head.\u00a0 \u201cThe noise was still fresh in my ears, and when I turned about, I was shocked straight to see him there.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t ask nothin\u2019.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t give me any stern lectures.\u00a0 He just grabbed hold of me and lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n Devaniel spotted the look in his friend\u2019s eyes, and he impulsively reached for his staff.\u00a0 The anger wasn\u2019t forced upon him by the room\u2019s darkness though.\u00a0 Vaulen waved his hand, letting his companions know that, though they were painful memories, he was in control of his emotions.<\/p>\n \u201cRorig was tall\u2014for a dwarf,\u201d he specified.\u00a0 \u201cBastard was bound to be something that needed muscles, but I think he was a bit top-heavy to be a good fighter, so he went logging instead.\u00a0 Anyway, he\u2019s strong as an ox and then some. \u00a0He gets his hands on the collar of me shirt, and me fresh little beard,\u201d Vaulen said, tugging a little higher up on the length of beard he had grown since then.\u00a0 \u201cAnd when he lifts me off the ground, his fists are practically in me throat.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember what he said\u2014he had to have said something\u2014but it\u2019s like I see it as though I was somebody else, watching.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see him, or the anger on his face.\u00a0 I see myself, flailing in the air, scared of what\u2019s about to happen.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t remember being on the ground a moment later, or him walking away.\u00a0 That first time is all a blur.\u00a0 But just like with his drinking, things got worse, and they started to happen more often.<\/p>\n \u201cHe started slapping me around,\u201d Vaulen hung his head, ashamed he hadn\u2019t done anything to stop it, even as young and scared as he was.\u00a0 \u201cFirst it was when me ma wasn\u2019t in sight of it.\u00a0 And then he started to do it almost to spite her, I\u2019m sure.\u00a0 Eventually I began to tolerate that it was me and not her that was getting this side of him.\u00a0 But she started to see it too, a\u2019course.\u00a0 And he grew worse and worse.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see it at the time, but she was a lost soul amongst it all too.\u00a0 How could she have allowed him into our lives?\u00a0 And why couldn\u2019t she bring herself to do anything about it?\u00a0 Shame and regret had us both trapped in our own home with this bastard, and there was nothing we could do about it.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then, he started pushing her around.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember one day; she was going off to visit distant family in a different hall.\u00a0 If she couldn\u2019t rely on the other dwarves of our clan, she\u2019d at least find some respite farther away, at least for a little while.\u00a0 I think a part of me wondered if she\u2019d ever come back.\u00a0 She asked me to come with her, but it had come out of nowhere that she\u2019d decided to run off.\u00a0 My master at the blacksmith was preparing for a big project, and I didn\u2019t want to let him down, but I think more of me just wanted to be stubborn.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t going to be kicked out of me own home.\u00a0 It was mine long afore it was his, and I was sick of it.<\/p>\n \u201cI was never going to be as tall or as broad as him.\u00a0 I was never going to be as strong as him.\u00a0 But I could be better.\u00a0 I could be braver\u2014I could walk into my house with my head held high.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaulen sighed, recalling his failures.\u00a0 \u201cThat day when I came home, he was there waiting for me, or anyone else who would dare to come in through the front door.\u00a0 He was seated at the table, looking right up at me, with a hunter\u2019s crossbow in his hands.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure of it, if he had been a bit soberer, and a better shot, I might not be here today.\u00a0 But I wasn\u2019t brave or even stoic.\u00a0 I ran like a dog with my tail atween me legs.\u00a0 And with no other member of the clan sticking up for us, I felt like I had nowhere to go.\u00a0 I remember sleeping out in the wilderness that night, just a small little hammer at my side if anything crawled up on me.\u00a0 And I didn\u2019t have a blanket or a pillow\u2026 I just curled up where I was and hoped for night to pass quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe next morning, I went home again, and I crept inside, hoping to whatever gods\u2019d listen that he\u2019d finally passed out.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t at the table, and neither was the crossbow.\u00a0 I just crawled into bed, trying to get some proper sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLater that day, he went off to the mead hall, neither of us crossing paths.\u00a0 Other dwarves made their way to me home though, and word quickly spread.\u00a0 Someone had gone by me uncles\u2019 home and shot a trio of bolts at it\u2014with one even tearing past the door.\u00a0 I had wee cousins in there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBy that point, I didn\u2019t care who knew it.\u00a0 I was going to kill the bastard.\u00a0 Oh, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do it fairly, I was sure.\u00a0 I was still a runt, and it seemed that all the ale had only cast a bigger mountain out of him.\u00a0 All I needed was one more push, and I\u2019d beat him to bloody hell with my hammer while he slept.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore I could, Ma told him to gather up his things and get out.\u00a0 He griped and groaned, went from telling her he owned her to begging for forgiveness, swearing up and down that he would do better\u2014he promised he would stop his drinking.\u00a0 And he did, for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaulen swept the strands of his hair from his face, pausing for a moment as he realized how dry they\u2019d become.\u00a0 He knew that he had been talking for some time, yet Devaniel and Urrabar seemed engaged still. \u00a0The dwarf nodded to them, knowing they needed to hear how his tale ended.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was something about it.\u00a0 It was as though the excess time he hadn\u2019t taken a swig of an ale had made him an even more pleasant person than he was when he\u2019d first come into our lives.\u00a0 But the first time he took a drink again, he was a worse monster than any time I\u2019d ever seen him.<\/p>\n \u201cOne night, while Ma was gone, doing something or another, he came shuffling into the house, demanding to know where she was.\u00a0 I had no idea, and I tried to tell him.\u00a0 And then I tried to walk out of the house, and he shoved me back.\u00a0 He looked right at me and told me there were some things I needed to know.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first,\u201d Vaulen said, \u201cwas that I needed to know how to protect myself.\u00a0 He had a knife in his boot, and he knelt down to grab it, and I felt my hand land on my mallet.\u00a0 He was up a second later, holding the blade to my throat, unsteady with the ale flowing through him.\u00a0 He wobbled enough to draw blood, but for some reason, he didn\u2019t use it on me.\u00a0 Rorig handed it over to me, so that I could protect myself.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second thing I needed to know was to always demand respect.\u00a0 I thought he was toying with me then, seeing how I would react while he demeaned me and threatened me at the end of a blade.\u00a0 \u2018Do you know who the last people to disrespect me was?\u2019 he asked.\u00a0 \u2018Your uncles,\u2019 he said.\u00a0 He\u2019d found out about them going hunting without him.\u00a0 And there, right in front of me, with no remorse or regret, he told me the truth about what he\u2019d done.\u00a0 It was him that fired the crossbow, and he admitted it right to me.\u00a0 He\u2019d shot at their house with his friend Liam, and together, the two of them took the crossbow and threw it in the nearest river.\u00a0 He wanted me to come at him with the knife, I know it.\u00a0 And a part of me wanted to more than anything.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore I could muster up the courage to do anything, he started to tell me about the third thing.\u00a0 Without any warning, he plucked his belt off, and dropped his trousers, confusing the hell out of me.\u00a0 But he pointed at his thigh, and a wide scar that was there.\u00a0 I needed to know that if someone doesn\u2019t respect you, they have to pay.\u00a0 And the person who put that scar there was the last person who disrespected him.\u00a0 I never knew for sure, but I suspected since that night that his deceased wife had died because of him.\u00a0 With everything else that he was confessing to me, it felt as though he didn\u2019t care if I knew about it or not.\u00a0 And knowing that was how he felt, I was certain one of us was going to die.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018I know where Ma is\u2019, I said.\u00a0 \u2018She\u2019s planning on leaving you, and she\u2019s talking to the fella who plans on taking your spot.\u2019\u00a0 All at once, it was like a fire burned in his eyes, and the fire burned out at the same time.\u00a0 He demanded to know who, and I swore up and down that I didn\u2019t know\u2014but I did know where he lived, out in the wilderness.\u00a0 So off we went, into the darkness, just he and I, with a hammer and a knife at the ready.<\/p>\n \u201cI had us walking for what felt like hours, just trying to figure out how I was going to do it.\u00a0 And with him sobering up with every step, I knew I had to think faster than I did.\u00a0 As I played out every scenario in my head, over and over again, I had enough.\u00a0 I turned about, the knife in my hand, and stared right at him.\u00a0 He laughed at me, saying I would never dare to do anything.\u00a0 And I might not have\u2014not for me.\u00a0 But if he\u2019d have made me ma a prisoner, I could never have forgiven myself.<\/p>\n \u201cI so desperately wanted to lunge forward.\u00a0 But doubt and fear held my hand, and he seemed to tower taller and taller with every passing second.\u00a0 And as he sobered and steadied, he grew louder, threatening me and anyone I knew.\u00a0 Tears in my eyes, I was ready.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2026I never got my chance,\u201d Vaulen said, tilting his head as he recalled that fateful night.\u00a0 \u201cA loud roar echoed out into the night, and it didn\u2019t belong to either of us.\u00a0 I stepped back in horror when I saw it, and he turned about, and almost right away, it was as though he had never taken a sip of ale at all.\u00a0 A bear that towered over both of us snarled and threatened, and somehow, I was more scared than I had been the moment before.\u00a0 I was frozen solid, but Rorig tried to run. \u00a0One slap of the bear\u2019s club-sized paw was all it took to send him flying to ground, terrible gashes in his clothes and his flesh.\u00a0 He screamed out in terror and in pain, but a moment later, the bear was on top of him, crushing him under its weight as it tore into him.\u00a0 In what felt like seconds, Rorig was gone\u2014no longer a threat to me or my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaulen shook his head, still confused about the distant memories.\u00a0 \u201cI thought I was next, certainly, but the bear didn\u2019t seem to care about me.\u00a0 Still, I couldn\u2019t run or even sneak away.\u00a0 I just watched as the fellow I had planned on killing bled out on the ground, an animal feasting on his innards.\u00a0 For whatever reason, the bear didn\u2019t finish him off\u2014he was dead, certainly, but the bear didn\u2019t bring his corpse back to its den or anything.\u00a0 And it knew I was still there, too.\u00a0 It just looked at me, almost with purpose and understanding, and it turned about and headed off to wherever it came from.\u00a0 Part of me thinks it was my da, coming to me when I needed him most.\u00a0 A\u2019course, another part of me thinks it was just a mama bear trying to protect her cubs.<\/p>\n \u201cEither way, I sat there for some time\u2014I don\u2019t even remember how I ended up on the ground,\u201d Vaulen looked about, then.\u00a0 \u201cIt was just like this: dark, unsettling even though there was some relief found. \u00a0As much as I was glad to be alive, I was lost with him dead on the ground.\u00a0 And not because I cared for him\u2014it was because I couldn\u2019t be the one who put him in his place.\u00a0 I had all this rage bubbling up inside me for years really.\u00a0 And to not have anywhere to put it felt terrifying.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years, there\u2019s been a few times where I\u2019ve felt my rage spilling out.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s when tragedy strikes, and I\u2019m pulled back to those feelings of weakness and helplessness and abandonment. \u00a0Sometimes I just can\u2019t take it anymore.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like that before I came here,\u201d Vaulen said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I know, with all the terrible ways this place gets into your head, it\u2019s only a matter of time before it finds its way into the darker parts of me, waking them up and making me do things I don\u2019t want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Urrabar bowed his head, his knit cap still in his hands as he considered what Vaulen had endured\u2014both in the dungeon, and in the life he had beforehand.\u00a0 There were questions he wanted to ask, but he thought better of it, knowing that the journey ahead meant keeping their focus on the dangers they faced then, and not those distant memories.<\/p>\n \u201cYou didn\u2019t hold me accountable for what happened when you first found me,\u201d Devaniel said then.\u00a0 With a new voice entering the room after so long, it felt as though the weight of the air inside it had shifted somewhat.\u00a0 Vaulen looked up to his friend, who offered him a nod of support.\u00a0 \u201cI had done far worse to you, and you\u2019ve never for a second held me in contempt.\u00a0 Why would we hold you to anything worse?\u00a0 You may have shadows that live inside of you\u2014we all do.\u00a0 But the dungeon\u2019s power doesn\u2019t come from awakening the darkness in us.\u00a0 It comes from where it can latch onto what doubts we have and make us second-guess our own quality.\u00a0 You\u2019ve done nothing worthy of shame here, Vaulen.\u00a0 I don\u2019t fear you or your inner anger anymore than I did before we entered this room.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s right,\u201d Urrabar offered.\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t have anything against you.\u00a0 We\u2019ve never seen the shadowy part of you except when it was necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, it\u2019s still there,\u201d Vaulen admitted.\u00a0 \u201cBut I will say thatall my adrenaline is gone from me right now.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t felt this fatigued since I found myself in this place.\u00a0 And a little rage might have been a plenty good thing against that beastie in there,\u201d he said, pointing to the door to the death knight\u2019s tomb.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you did just endure a monsoon, as well,\u201d Devaniel countered.<\/p>\n Vaulen snickered.\u00a0 \u201cAye.\u00a0 That I did.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCome on,\u201d the druid bade as he climbed to his feet.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sure that after he throws us all around for a few minutes, you\u2019ll find enough rage to help us out once more.\u201d<\/p>\n As his companions shook out a bit of their fatigue, Vaulen rose as well.\u00a0 Caught somewhere between compunction and catharsis, he still didn\u2019t have the strength he felt in him before they had entered the chamber.\u00a0 But with compassionate allies at his side, he knew he could find it again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was a tough scene to cut, because it was cathartic to me to write it, but it was also too much of an exposition dump.\u00a0 Vaulen gets a spot to shine here, giving us much more of his backstory.\u00a0 This far into Quantum Quest, we didn’t really get a good grasp of it, so 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\nVaulen Lightfoot – Memories of Sadness and Rage<\/strong><\/p>\n