Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Honnleath

Downloadable content is one of those topics I could write about at length, but a playthrough post isn't the place for it. Suffice to say, every new copy of Dragon Age: Origins came with a free copy of the DLC called "The Stone Prisoner" as a little bonus for consumers who decided not to buy a "pre-owned" copy of the game. The used game business is another topic I have plenty to say about. Not here. MOVING ON!

Amastacia has a chance encounter on the road with a merchant who's having a bad day. His mule ran off and someone sold him a trinket that is useless to him. It's supposedly a golem control rod. The merchant proceeds to doubt its authenticity, and notes that the golem in question is in Honnleath, a town that's right in the path of the oncoming darkspawn horde. We tell him to shut up and take our money.

"But... I was going to give it to you for free?  Okay, never mind."

Before we head out to Honnleath, it's time to change our party a little bit. For reasons that are never fully explained, Amy can only take three companions with him on his journies. Obviously, we have to do this because of the limitations of the game engine but it doesn't necessarily work out badly for Amy. Since Alistair has been objecting to a lot of his choices, we have the ability to leave him behind and head out with a party consisting of Sten, Leliana and Morrigan. Not a moment too soon, either....

You see, the road to Honnleath passes straight through Redcliffe on our map (the place Alistair wants to visit, which is probably about to see a significant drop in property value thanks to us). Although it's possible to select Honnleath as your destination and not actually trigger the events that take place in Redcliffe, you clearly see your Warden pass through the city when you do so. Not very realistic. I decide to go there because it makes more sense.

So, we run into a villager on a bridge, blocking Amy's path to his new golem. He asks if we've come to help. ...Help do what? Stand on the bridge? He goes on to explain that the undead swarm out of the castle at night, kill as many villagers as they can and drag the bodies back to the castle before sunrise. ...Well, that sucks, but we're off to get a personal golem. The villager persists, however, and says we should at least talk to Bann Teagan before deciding. Amy agrees just to shut him up.

(Obligatory joke about how human nobles look down on dwarves.)

Bann Teagan is in the Chantry, where wounded villagers are being treated for their injuries. He gives us the same sob story: the undead attack nightly, growing in strength every time, and they don't have enough fighters to repel them. Amy politely informs Bann Teagan he shouldn't talk to him because he's a stranger. Teagan says he still wants my help, and that should tell us how desperate he is.

Much to Leliana's dismay (but Sten and Morrigan's approval), we elect to continue our quest for the golem. We even tell Leliana that we've done everything we can for these villagers before we leave. She points out that we've done absolutely nothing. Although, given Amy's track record, doing nothing might actually be beneficial, right?

A brief cut scene shoots that theory to hell, as night falls over Redcliffe and the undead swarm towards the panicking villagers....

...I'm sure that spectral horde is just swamp gas. Or a weather balloon.

 

On to bigger and rockier things! By the time we get to Honnleath, there are no villagers to point us to our new golem... just darkspawn to fight. Amy really wishes he had something else to stab at this point, but clears out the small horde occupying the village with little difficulty. The most challenging foes are in the center of town, near this awesome-looking statue. Leliana points out the statue is, in fact, the golem we're looking for.

We point our control rod at the golem and say the command word, but nothing happens. Much cursing ensues. Leliana provides the voice of reason again, suggesting the villagers might know about it, assuming any of them survived. Well, ransacking houses was next on Amy's to-do list anyway. Roll your eyes if you want, but I got an awesome-looking cheese knife in the process!

This is the most powerful weapon we've found in our fight against the darkspawn, and some guy used it to slice his brie.

Eventually we find a house with a surprisingly large basement and-- surprise-- more darkspawn. There are a couple of emissaries in the biggest group that have taken up strategic positions to fire spells from. They're kind of a pain, but Sten and Amy make them priority targets. With the baddies cleared out, all we're left with is an empty room... except for the glowing magical barrier with the villagers behind it.

One of the villagers asks if their bann sent us but we tell them the nobles have abandoned them and we're just here for their golem. Dismayed, he lowers the barrier, introduces himself as Matthias and says the golem belonged to his grandfather, Wilhelm... before it killed him. BORING! How do we turn the golem back on?

Matthias suddenly regrets letting this dwarf through his magic barrier.

He says he has the correct command word... but. We hate buts. His daughter Amalia ran off, further into his granddad's old study and hasn't come back. I tell him to send someone else after her. Apparently he did and they didn't come back either. So I would want to go down there why? Because he won't give us the command word until we do.

Oh, we're done with this fool. Amy threatens him and demands the command word NOW. However, his intimidate skills are about as lousy as his skills of persuasion so the villager stays strong. Amy just laughs and says he's braver than he thought. We agree to find the girl.

There's nothing too nasty in the catacombs, just some magical creatures called dust wraiths. We're just happy it's not more darkspawn, honestly. The tunnels wind down to a large room with another magical barrier that we pass straight through. The girl we're looking for is in there, playing with a cat. She's happy to see us at first but when we tell her it's time to go, she tells us to leave without her because Kitty finds us distracting.

Pictured: A normal cat.  As far as we know.

Kitty can speak, as it turns out, and has glowing purple eyes. As a dwarf, Amy's never seen a cat before and assumes this is normal for them. We reassure the kid that she can bring Kitty with her. Unfortunately, that magic barrier prevents Kitty from leaving and the cat says she needs to posess the child to leave. Cats are way more talented than we thought, but this talk of "seeing the world through the eyes of a child" is too sappy for us.

We nonchalantly tell Kitty we're cool with that. She immediately realizes we're lying. Well yeah, cat. That's basically all we do. Refusing to remain trapped, Kitty forcibly posesses the child and transforms into her true... and much SEXIER form!

Pictured: A normal cat's alternate form.  As far as we know.

It was a Desire Demon all along, but there was no way we could have known that. We're forced to kill the demon and return without the child in tow. Back in the basement, her father is distressed when we return without her and demands to know what happened.

"We, uh... didn't see her. Looked all over. She's not there."

Amazingly, he buys it and sadly tells us the correct control words. He starts to bemoan how he's all alone now but SHUT UP. PERSONAL GOLEM. GOING NOW.

We return to the town square, raise the control rod and speak the proper words. The golem slowly works its limbs out of their rigid state and comes to life. It smugly gloats about how it doesn't have to watch the villagers all day anymore. It also asks if the darkspawn killed them all and seems disappointed when we tell it no. Finally, it realizes we have the control rod and glumly asks what we intend to do with it.

...

"I hadn't given it much thought."

"Are you any good at basket weaving? Or maybe glass blowing? I'm just winging it here, golem."

The golem glazes over the biggest damned lie Amy has ever told and realizes it doesn't actually feel compelled to obey the commands given by the holder of the control rod anymore. It has free will... and since it's never had that before, it has no clue what to do. So the golem, who introduces itself as Shale, winds up following us anyway.

Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Lothering

To recap: our party now consists of Amastacia, dwarf warrior (hereafter referred to as "Amy" because it's shorter... like the dwarf himself), Alistair, human warrior, Morrigan, human mage, and Polystyrene the mabari warhound. These four characters are entering Lothering when they come upon a group of highwaymen blocking the road. They ask for a "toll" but Amy has forgotten what coins are and is certain he doesn't have any. So the bandits attack, and are swiftly beaten down. They surrender, and we gloat about how we would make much better bandits than them. They seem to agree, so we tell them to follow our lead. They balk. We kill them.

In memorium. Bandits, we hardly knew ye. And we are better people because of that.

Before entering the city, Alistair asks if we have a plan. Amy is confused and asks why Alistair doesn't have one. He replies that he's more of a follower than a leader. So, we ask Morrigan what she would do. She suggests we go directly to Denerim to kill Loghain, which sounds like a good idea to Amy but Alistair sullies the suggestion with logic. We agree to figure it out later.

A Templar tries to warn the party that they'll find nothing in Lothering and they should just move on, but Amy assumes that guy just wants the town's riches all to himself. We find someone selling supplies, but he's being berated by a Chantry priestess for price gouging. The merchant says he'll pay us to make her go away. Excited, we turn to the priestess and ask what she's offering, anticipating a spirited bidding war. The priestess offers platitudes, not payment. Damn, she's really bad at haggling. We tell her she's no fun anymore and to go away. Morrigan and the merchant approve.

Continuing on his spree of jerkassery, Amy finds a little boy who lost his mother and asks us if we've seen her. "Huh? Sure, kid, she's over there somewhere."

The boy reappears a few feet away, still lost. "You said my mama was over here, and she's not!"

"...Did I say over here? I meant over THERE."

"You're lying! I'm not listening to you!"

 

Seriously, kid, she's RIGHT THERE. This is me being nice!

 

Amy shrugs. He was just trying to help. He's distracted, however, by a screaming man who we're pretty sure is the Ultimate Warrior. He's some kind of extreme doomsayer, scaring the crap out of nearby peasants. This guy's awesome. We ask for an autograph. He continues screaming. A dialogue option comes up, allowing us to ask him to cluck like a chicken. YES. I WANT TO SEE HIM DO THAT! ...Unfortunately, he assumes we're calling him a coward, and runs off. Oh well. We'll see him again if we can find someone in this town with a VHS copy of WrestleMania VI.

With refugees running about in a panic, and not just because of the Ultimate Warrior's ranting, Amy quickly realizes that the best thing to do would be to hit the local tavern for a few drinks.  Once inside, they are immediately confronted by a group of armed individuals that Alistair recognizes as Loghain's men.  They've been looking for a dwarf of Amy's description, too... before we can retort, a young woman wearing the robes of a Chantry sister approaches and attempts to convince them we're just unfortunate travelers like everyone else.  Amy, recognizing that this stranger is trying to diffuse the situation and avoid bloodshed, saves her the trouble.

A brief fight ensues, and Loghain's men surrender before they are butchered.  Our new friend is glad to see an end to the violence but Amy informs her he's just getting started.  She insists that they are helpless, we blink twice and say, "oh. In that case, run away."  Once they're gone, she presses us on the fact that they thought ours was a group of Grey Wardens.  Amy tells her he was just leaving, so she asks where she's following us to.  Our head starts to hurt.  She eventually explains that the Maker Himself came to her in a vision and told her to go with us.  Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?!  Amy doesn't find this implausible in the slightest and welcomes her to the group.

It's possible that she's a delusional religious nut. On the other hand, she's a redhead with a sexy French accent.

...There are some things that need not be questioned.

Just down the road from the tavern, we come upon an unattended cage with a prisoner inside.  Knowing that the last time we encountered a situation like this, it got us a hot meal and a key to a chest full of loot, Amy enthusiastically approaches him.  He says he has nothing that would amuse a dwarf.  Too late, buddy.  We ask him all about his life and he tells us that he murdered a family and allowed himself to be captured.  We also learn that he's a Qunari, a mysterious race of warriors not native to Ferelden.  Separated from his brethren and his purpose here, he doesn't much care what happens to him anymore.  Naturally, we make it our mission to get this guy out of his cage whether he likes it or not.  We learn that the key is in the hands of the local Chantry's revered mother, so off we head in that direction.

Inside, we run into Ser Donal, one of the Arl Eamon's knights from Redcliffe.  Alistair recognizes him and they strike up a conversation about recent events and Loghain's treachery.  Ser Donal says that Eamon would put things right... if he were well.  Apparently, the Arl fell ill shortly before the battle of Ostagar and all of Redcliffe's knights are now searching for an artifact called the Urn of Sacred Ashes, that is said to be able to cure any ailment.  No one has found anything yet, and he laments that he is chasing a legend.  "Hey, cheer up, Ser Donal!" Amy says, "after all, I killed the bandits that killed your friend!"

...Ser Donal didn't know that his fellow knight was dead.  We present him with his personal effects and he actually thanks Amy despite his lack of tact.  "No problem, Ser.  So, reward?"

 

Me being nice again! ...Don't tell me I'm the only person who uses dead bodies as a measurement of niceness.

 

Astonishingly, Ser Donal gives Amy a gold coin for his... trouble.  Feeling cocky, we're off to see the revered mother.  She greets Leliana warmly and asks the rest of us if we would care to make a donation, as the need has never been greater.  Amy laughs for a solid minute at this suggestion before refusing.  The revered mother is understandably unimpressed with his morals and asks him what he wants.

...Amy asks the revered mother for her blessing.

She refuses, pointing out that we just scoffed at her request for charity.  Okay, fine.  Down to brass tacks.  We want the key to the murderer's cage.  The revered mother points out that if she does that, she'd be responsible for his next victims.  So we lie and say we're here to return him to the Qunari.  She rolls her eyes and asks for proof.  This woman is officially no fun anymore.  We tell her to hand over the key.  NOW.

Alistair takes exception to threatening the revered mother, while Morrigan finds it quite exciting.  Alistair pleads with her to let us take the Qunari off her hands, and promises that he won't allow Amy to harm her.  Fed up with us, the revered mother gives us the key and tells us not to come back.  We proudly march back to the cage and lie to the prisoner too, saying he's been released into our custody.  He doubts that he'd find purpose with us and would just as soon remain locked up.  Eventually we tell him we're Grey Wardens trying to end the Blight.  This changes his mind and he swears to help us fight it.  We ask if he'd be okay with us killing him now that he's free instead.  Ominously, he simply replies, "you can try."

He's a confessed murder who's built like a gorilla. Making him mad is the smart thing to do!

 

There are other things you can do in Lothering: help other refugees gather supplies, do some quests that the Chantry has sanctioned or generally be charitable. Amy don't have time for that (there's no fun dialogue in those scenes, either). So we try to head out of Lothering but find, once again, that there are darkspawn blocking our path. Morrigan shows off her magic, Leliana fires arrows, and the monstrosities fall as quickly as they appeared.

At this point, a dwarf appears and praises our "timely arrival." What? I was leaving, not arriving. Bodahn doesn't get the hint, introduces himself and his son, Sandal, and asks if he can come with us. Since he wasn't told to join us in a vision from his god, however, he doesn't meet our new standards. We tell him we're on official business for the king, forgetting that he's dead. Bodahn finally leaves us alone after that.

Once out of Lothering, we set up camp for the first time. This is an area of the game where you can equip and have conversations with any of your companions regardless of whether they're in your party or not. It's also where you rest, though Amy isn't doing much of that thanks to dreams about the deep roads and a large evil-looking dragon. Alistair tries to tell us that these are visions of the Archdemon itself but Amy chalks it up to something he ate. Getting up to explore the camp, we see two familiar-looking dwarves....

 

"It wasn't easy, but I eventually decided you were less repulsive than those darkspawn corpses."

 

Bodahn explains that he saw our camp on the road, figured there's strength in numbers, blah blah blah YOU'RE STALKING ME, AREN'T YOU?! He insists he's not and offers to sell us his goods at a discount and make his son's enchantment services available to us. There's no way to actually turn down his offer, so he stays.

Now, we have a choice of places to go. Alistair really wants to visit Redcliffe, but Orzammar, the Circle tower and the deep forest is available to us as well. Any of these destinations will support our Grey Warden mission.

...On the other hand, I hear the village of Honnleath is lovely this time of year.

Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Ostagar, Part Two

We return to Duncan with darkspawn blood in hand, and he tells us the armies have assembled so we should proceed with the Joining immediately. At this point, Amastacia decides that running around in the Wilds was fun but he's bored with all this Grey Warden business and really wants to be a Circle mage. Duncan sternly warns him and the other recruits that there is no going back at this point and we should prepare ourselves to pay the price one way or the other.

The recruits then gather while Duncan and Alistair prepare the ritual. Ser Jory is still having doubts, so Daveth and Amastacia mock his cowardice. He doesn't get any happier when Duncan returns and explains that the ritual involves drinking the darkspawn blood we gathered and "mastering their taint". Amastacia was thinking of drinking a vial on the way back anyway, so he's game. Daveth is asked to step forward first.

That can't be good.

It turns out that drinking monster blood corrupted by dark magic is bad for you. Daveth fails his fortitude save and dies, which leads Jory to draw his sword and attempt to back out of the ritual. Duncan coolly draws a dagger, parries his strike, and guts him. Exactly what Amastacia would have done. He's happy to drink the blood, which causes him to pass out and have visions of a dragon.

When he comes to, Alistair and Duncan welcome him as a new Grey Warden. Alistair asks if he had any dreams. "No, man," we tell him, "just the same crap I always see when I close my eyes."

Duncan mentions that King Cailan is having a final meeting with his strategist, Teyrn Loghain, and he requested the Wardens' presence. Amastacia heads over, pausing to steal stuff out of the mages' chest with the key he acquired earlier, as the mages are too busy to guard it now. At the meeting, Loghain explains that Duncan will be the only Warden in the battle... Alistair and Amastacia will go to the Tower of Ishal and light a beacon at the appropriate time to signal Loghain's army to launch a surprise attack. Our dwarf immediately questions the master strategist, but Cailan insists that it's an important task he will only entrust to the Wardens.



BEACON.  I said, BEACON.  You already stabbed a prisoner for a hot meal, so FOCUS.

After a Lord of the Rings-inspired cut scene showing the start of the battle, Alistair and Amastacia rush across a bridge to the tower. Before we can go in, we're met by a guard and a mage who tell us the darkspawn have already gotten in and overrun it. Our hopes for an innovative beacon-lighting minigame are dashed. Looks like we have to fight darkspawn instead.

The monstrosities in the tower aren't much more of a challenge than what we fought in the Wilds. Some more Alphas and Emissaries, but nothing three warriors can't handle. When we get to the top, however, we find our first Ogre. This big bastard can lock you down completely with a grab attack and has plenty of hitpoints, too. Still, not a problem for three meat shields. The Ogre falls and the beacon is lit... and that's when things go south for us.

Cut scenes show us that the beacon was Loghain's signal to order his men to retreat. Without their help, Cailan's army gets overrun. The King is crushed by one of those Ogres we talked about earlier and Duncan is apparently beheaded. The horde eventually overruns the tower too and Amastacia passes out again after taking at least one arrow to the chest.

One of these days, I'm going to win the final boss fight vs. Cutscene Power!

Amastacia awakens, surprised to be not only alive but shirtless in an unfamiliar cabin. Feeling an unsettling amount of deja vu based on a night of bad decisions from his youth in Dust Town, he frantically looks around for a traumatized nug.

 

Instead, he finds Morrigan, who calmly explains that she bandaged his wounds and Loghain abandoned Cailan's army. Her mother saved Alistair and the dwarf (apparently in the form of a giant bird), and Amastacia incredulously asks why she bothered. Morrigan shrugs and says she wondered the same herself.

 

Alistair is outside, relieved that Amastacia pulled through. Morrigan's mother is with him, and introduces herself as Flemeth-- the name of a terrible witch whispered about in barbarian stories. She insists that whether or not she's a legend is unimportant, and explains that she saved the Wardens because she knows this is the start of a Blight, led by a creature with the happy-sounding name "Archdemon". She believes the Wardens have the best chance to end the Blight and reminds us of the treaties we got from her earlier that allow the Wardens to call on allies in this situation.

 

Our task, then, is to seek out the Circle of Magi, the Dalish elves and the dwarves of Orzammar to raise a new army to end the Blight. Alistair also mentions a human noble called Arl Eamon, who will likely aid the Wardens once he hears about Loghain's treachery. Flemeth gives us one more thing before we go, too: her daughter, Morrigan. In his typical fashion, Amastacia first says he doesn't want her along, then enthusiastically welcomes her 10 seconds later. Morrigan apparently approves of this.

 

Before setting out to use the treaties, Alistair recommends resupplying ourselves at a town called Lothering, just north of Ostagar. On the way there, however, a mabari warhound that is totally NOT THE ONE I STABBED IN OSTAGAR! SHUT UP! runs up to us and alerts us to a Darkspawn ambush. After helping us kill them, the dog happily stays by our side. Amastacia tries to shoo it off but Alistair tells him it could be valuable. So, he immediately changes his mind and names his new dog Polystyrene.

"I TOLD YOU I'D COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU, MORTAL FOOL.  WOOF."

Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Ostagar, Part One

With his new recruit in tow, Duncan travels to Ostagar, the forward camp for Ferelden's army that has been assembled to confront the darkspawn. He is greeted at the entrance by none other than Cailan, King of Ferelden. Duncan humbly introduces Amastacia to the king, and the dwarf bluntly informs Cailan he's no king to his people. Duncan sternly suggests that he show more respect, so he blows the king off by saying he needs a nap. Once Amastacia is alone with Duncan, he laughs at what a fool this king is.

Duncan promptly sends Amastacia off on an errand to find junior Warden Alistair and the other recruits before he loses his patience. He also mentions something about a ritual, but the dwarf is more concerned with finding a hot meal. With that, we're free to explore the camp... here are some highlights.

1) The Mabari. One soldier, dressed in light armor, is screwing around with some dogs instead of doing soldier stuff, so Amastacia decides to harass him. The kennel master explains that these are Mabari war hounds that fight alongside the army. One of them is sick from fighting a darkspawn and swallowing some blood earlier, and the kennel master asks if Amastacia knows anything about dogs. The dwarf remembers in that moment that he's a canine behavior expert and agrees to muzzle the dog.

Muzzle in hand, Amastacia enters the kennel and the dog makes no move to attack. So, he stabs it in the face and proudly tells the kennel master the dog isn't sick anymore.

"I WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU, MORTAL FOOL.  WOOF."

2) Loghain's Tent. Many important people are camped in Ostagar who have nothing to do with the Wardens. Teyrn Loghain, an experienced tactician and the Queen's father, doesn't even like the Wardens because their headquarters is in Orlais, a kingdom that was Ferelden's enemy until recently. Naturally, Amastacia goes out of his way to try to get an audience with him.

This goes... surprisingly well. The dwarf has a flippant attitude to both the king's competence and the Wardens' necessity that mirrors Loghain's own feelings, whether he admits it or not. Amastacia thinks he's an all right guy! ...That can't be good.

3) The Hungry Deserter. Tucked in a corner away from the important people are a couple of cages, one of which is occupied. The prisoner says the guards thought he was deserting, but he was really just stealing stuff. So that makes him an okay guy by Amastacia's standards.

He says the guards haven't even fed him, so Amastacia offers to fix that problem. The nearby guard says the only food he has is his own lunch. Persuading him to hand it over fails, so the dwarf buys it off him instead. The prisoner happily offers to trade the food for a key he stole from a mage before he got caught.

...However, upon seeing the key, Amastacia instinctively stabs him and takes it off his corpse. The guard is shocked. The dwarf shrugs and says the prisoner lunged at him. Unbelievably, the guard doesn't question it.

Purely by accident, Amastacia has acquired that hot meal he wanted so badly.

Guardsmen are not typically known for their intellect. Amastacia will continue to take advantage of this fact.

Anyway, once we're done with harassing and stabbing, it's time to find Alistair. He's delivering a message to a mage with free snark to go with it. Amastacia thinks little of this and Alistair explains he'll be accompanying the recruits as they prepare for their Joining ritual. Once again, this mysterious ritual goes unquestioned.

This leads to a dialogue exchange that pretty much tells you all you need to know about how this character interacts with people:

AMASTACIA: "You don't have to accompany me, do you?"
ALISTAIR: "Don't worry. I'll try not to embarrass you."
AMASTACIA: "I look forward to traveling with you!"
ALISTAIR: "Really? ...That's a switch."

 

If you think you're confused now, Alistair, just wait. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

When we get to the Wardens' section of the camp, we meet Daveth and Ser Jory. Amastacia was supposed to talk to them before finding Alistair, but he was... busy. Duncan explains that Alistair and the recruits must go into the Kocari Wilds to gather darkspawn blood. Not suspicious at all. Also, he'd like us to find some important documents in an abandoned Warden stronghold.

Whoa. Hold up, Duncan. If these documents are so important, what are they doing in an ABANDONED stronghold? Huh??

Duncan politely explains that the Wardens didn't abandon the place on purpose. Amastacia has already forgotten what he said, and is off to the Wilds.

Situated beyond the crumbling walls of Ostagar, the Wilds are said to be crawling with darkspawn scouts and barbarians. The first thing we face, however, is a pack of wolves because that's mandatory in RPGs like this one. Some of the wolves even drop potions, another requirement of this genre. This is all here to reassure us we are going the right way.

Continuing down the path, we find the remains of a scouting party with one human survivor crawling toward us for help. Barely able to speak, he tells us darkspawn came out of the ground to attack them. Amastacia yawns and says he doesn't have time for this. When Alistair asks if he's late for a dentist appointment or something, he explains this soldier is good as dead already... and proves his point by stabbing him in the face.

"I did not see that coming," is the only reply Alistair can muster. Amastacia shrugs and says, "I SAID I didn't have time for him, didn't I?"

Moving on, we eventually find our first pack of darkspawn. They look kind of like orcs with necrosis, and don't offer much challenge until the damned magic-using emissaries show up. Suffice to say, there are plenty of opportunities to gather their blood so that part of our task is easy.

We wind our way through the Wilds, pausing only to do some non-sequitur things like summoning a demon by sprinkling some ash on a random pile of rocks. In our defense, an obscure passage from a fairy tale that we found on a dead body TOLD us to! Eventually, we find the ruined stronghold only to find that the chest we're seeking has already been opened. At that moment, however, we discover a more impressive chest, belonging to a woman named Morrigan....

This unimpressed look tells me she's already heard every dry, witless comment that could possibly exist about her cleavage.

 

This raven-haired beauty with the skimpy outfit appears out of nowhere and tells no one in particular that we are intruders in "her" Wilds. Alistair and the recruits speculate that she is either a barbarian or a witch. Amastacia, however, doesn't find her odd in the slightest and politely introduces himself. Morrigan warms to his manners at first but when she mentions the Wardens' documents, he dismisses the possibility that she knows anything about them. The others have to prod him along fo the idea that going with Morrigan to see her mother may not be a waste of effort.

Morrigan's mother is obviously a little batty, so she speaks more sensibly than most as far as Amastacia is concerned. She hands over the Grey Wardens' treaties without a fuss and warns the danger is greater than they realize. With both of our missions accomplished, Morrigan shows us out of the Wilds and we return to Ostagar.