Dragon Age II Playthrough - On the corner of Main and Secondary

In Dragon Age II, your journal conveniently groups your quests as either main quests, secondary quests, companion quests, or premium content. This lets you know which tasks are necessary if all you want to do is advance the plot, as opposed to other odd jobs that will get you money and equipment but no closer to the next chapter in the story. Since this blog would start to run a little on the long side if I covered every single side quest in the game, I'll be talking about the main quests primarily. However, there's one secondary quest in act one become important later in the game, so I'll touch on that as well.

Chickene learned that there's an herbalist in Kirkwall who's looking for special ingredients and has offered to track some of those down in exchange for gold. One his way through the wilderness however, he happens upon a dwarf and his bodyguards being attacked by giant spiders. Since a spider's silk gland is actually on the list of things he needs to collect, Hawke and friends run forward and start squishing arachnids. They don't find the gland that they need, but the dwarf is grateful for our assistance since the bodyguards certainly didn't pull their weight. He introduces himself as Javaris Tintop and says he's been negotiating with the Arishok-- the leader of the Qunari--  about buying some of their explosives. The Arishok refused to sell but mentioned that the renegade Qunari called Tal-Vashoth  were a thorn in his side and he'd really like to see them dead. Javaris read between the lines and was hoping his bodyguards would be up to the task, but given their poor performance against spiders, he'd rather hire us instead.

"I'll have you know I am no mere amateur, ser! I attended the Recluse Institute for Ambush Tactics and received a 4.0 GPA!"

Hoping this promise of coin will actually come to fruition, Chickene takes Fenris, Varric and Merrill to the location on the Wounded Coast where the Tal-Vashoth are said to be camped. We can tell we're getting close when we hear a stern voice telling us to go back. This one doesn't want to kill us, though. As we approach the camp, the Qunari shows himself and says the Tal-Vashoth ahead are dangerous. We kindly point out that this is the reason we're here. He says we're free to proceed; he only came to warn us.

Apparently he's a renegade Qunari too, which technically makes him a Tal-Vashoth, but he doesn't agree with these particular Tal-Vashoth. He wouldn't mind seeing them dead but seems to think killing them would still be like slaying his brothers. Annoyed, Chickene says they won't be able to question his morality if they're dead. Our new friends decides this is wisdom somehow, and says he'll help us kill them.

The ensuing fight goes faster with an extra sword on our side, and we head to the Kirkwall docks afterwards to meet up with Javaris. The Qunari have a compound here where they are supposedly waiting for a ship to take them home. That's been their story for the better part of a year, though. Anyway, Javaris tells the Qunari to get the Arishok and we see a giant man with massive horns walk in. Fenris greets him in his native language and the Arishok grumbles that an elf reciting the Qun is madness.

"If you make a 'this is Sparta' joke, you will not leave this encampment alive."

Javaris ignores this and says the Tal-Vashoth are dead, so he'd like to buy some explosives now. The Arishok says no. Our dwarf tells Fenris to try talking to him and we let him go right ahead. He politely asks the Arishok to clarify and he tells us the dwarf imagined the deal. Fenris apologizes and offers to kill the dwarf, which certainly takes Javaris by surprise. Luckily for him, the Arishok tells us that if we killed Tal-Vashoth, he's not worthy to be killed by us. We bluntly tell Javaris he should leave before the Qunari change their minds. He storms off without giving us any gold for our trouble.

That's another job we didn't get paid for, crossed off our list. Chickene decides to change tactics and try a quest with no promise of coin, since the so-called paying jobs aren't actually a sure thing. While visiting Merrill in the Alienage, we overhear an elf woman talking to a Templar about her runaway half-elf son. Apparently, he's been showing signs of magic affinity in the form of nightmares. She's concerned about him, but is also concerned by what the Templars might do if they find him. When we come over to see what's wrong, she asks us to try to find him. Chickene dismissively points out that she doesn't even know him and she says she's desperate. So, Chickene compassionately says he'll do everything he can.

"You seem mentally unstable. Then again, you're not a Templar. Good enough for me."

Mom thinks the kid may have tried to get in touch with his human father, who abandoned him as a youth. We think it's more likely that the Templars already have a good idea where he went. So, we head out to Templar HQ (delightfully called "The Gallows") with Varric and Fenris but ask Aveline to come instead of Merrill. There, we meet Ser Thrask, the Templar who was talking to Feynriel's mother earlier. He's hesitant to provide info when we ask nicely but when we sternly tell him that a missing kid should be the city guards' job, Aveline backs us up.

He provides us with the location of a Lowtown resident named Seamus who's been known to help mages escape Kirkwall. We find him and ask nicely again to start, but when he plays dumb we threaten him and the memory of Feynriel magically comes back. He tried to put him and a lady mage in touch with a captain he thought he could trust, but he turned out to be a slaver. We find ourselves being directed to yet another part of the city, as the captain has a warehouse on the docks.

Upon fighting our way through the warehouse, we find that-- sure enough-- Feynriel's not here either. We find the lady mage Seamus mentioned but she kind of turns into an abomination, so there'll be no reward for her rescue. There are two notes among the pile of dead bodies we created, though. The first is from the lady mage to her father: Ser Thrask of the Templars. That could be useful. The second note is from the slaver boss, detailing how Feynriel was moved to a cave on the Wounded Coast because OF COURSE HE WAS.

The cave is somewhere in this general area. Our plan is to just go there, find some bandits and ask them for directions.

With sore legs and plenty of frustration, we head to the Wounded Coast. We finally find Feynriel, alongside a slaver who is holding a knife to his throat and telling us we should leave. Chickene no longer has the patience for negotiation, so he lets Varric take the lead. The dwarf feeds the slavers a ridiculous story about how Feynriel is the viscount's secret love child. We ready ourselves for the attack but unbelievably, the slavers buy it. They not only let Feynriel go, they also toss us a coinpurse as a peace offering.

Finally rescued, Feynriel decides to try his luck living with the Dalish. We get a trinket from his mother as thanks, and we also get gold from Ser Thrask once we extort him with the letter from his apostate daughter. Not the nicest thing to do, but not enough jobs have been paying off lately and we still need the gold for the expedition. All things considered, finding that missing person was relatively profitable, so Chickene and his party head to Hightown next to talk to a man who reported his wife missing.

I'm not a not a violent man... 100% of the time... but this guy is asking for a knife in the throat.

Ghyslain de Carrac is a reprehensible man who doesn't really care if his wife Ninette is happy, as long as her family stops accusing him of killing her off. Chickene mocks his poor morals, then promises to bring her back safely. Our first stop is the Blooming Rose, where Ninette has been shamelessly spending time with the young men working there since Ghyslain is that bad as a husband. One of her favorites, an elf named Jethann, says a Templar named Ser Emeric took an interest in the disappearance and we should see if he's found anything. We track him to Darktown, where we see that all he's found is a group of thugs that are trying to beat him up and steal his shiny armor.

After getting rid of the thugs, we have a talk with Ser Emeric. He tells us that Ninette is just one woman who has disappeared recently and based on his investigation of a missing mage lady, he thinks they may be connected. The mage's trail ends at a foundry in Lowtown that he hasn't checked out yet, but after getting beat down by the thugs, he's in no shape to go there. He decides to hand over his notes and let us go in his stead before the trail goes cold. We seem to be doing the Templars' work for them pretty regularly all of a sudden. Hopefully, we'll find something that lets us extort this guy, too.

"I HEARD that. ...Maker, I'm getting too old for this crap."

Unfortunately, all we find at the foundry is a desire demon and a lot of human remains. We spot a human mage running away from the scene, but by the time we defeat the demon and root through the body parts for valuables, that mage is long gone. Ninette and the mage Ser Emeric was tracking are almost certainly dead and the only consolation we have to offer Ghyslain, spouse of the year, is Ninette's ring. He accepts this when we get back to Hightown as something that will satisfy her relatives, and we insult him one last time before taking his gold. Ser Emeric also pays us for our efforts, and we didn't even have to threaten him this time.

Things could have gone better, but Chickene is finally getting a decent amount of coin saved up to buy his way into the Tethras' brothers scheme. In the next update, we'll be going into the Deep Roads themselves, where nothing could possibly go wrong!

Dragon Age II Playthrough - A Man of Good Characters

Flemeth's amulet has been burning a hole in Chickene Hawke's pocket, possibly due to some kind of fire spell that was designed to go off if he went an entire year without delivering the thing as promised. In any case, it's time to take this thing to Sundermount as we were instructed. As luck would have it, Aveline has also identified a site near Sundermount as the next likely target for a bandit raid. So, we head out of the city of Kirkwall to accomplish those tasks.

The ambush site is a winding path surrounded by steep, rocky slopes to ensure we don't stray from the locations where we're supposed to run into enemies. Aveline refers to them as "stragglers" but there's an awful lot of them considering we haven't reached the actual ambush yet. The groups are well-organized too, containing a mix of rogues, swordsmen and archers. We eventually hack our way through every bandit on the path and Aveline remarks that they were not just organized but well-equipped. In any case, our work is done for now and she tells us we'll have to head to the guard barracks later to be rewarded.

"Oh, and we really should pose triumphantly now that justice has prevailed. It's a thing that heroes just do."

For now, it's on to Sundermount itself. We approach the foot of the mountain and are met by two Dalish elven scouts who tell us to go away because we're human. Chickene is annoyed and says he'll leave as soon as his business is done. The lady Dalish, being the smarter of the two, realizes their Keeper told us we were coming and takes us to see her. Keeper Marethari is an older elf in mage robes and Chickene decides to be polite to her, saying he was instructed to deliver this amulet by a witch who saved his life. She tells us we were expected and our task is not yet done. We must travel up the mountain with her apprentice (or "First" as the Dalish say), perform a funeral ritual on the amulet and take the apprentice back to Kirkwall with us before our debt is paid. Chickene thinks this is too much work and he doesn't need any help, but Marethari insists.

We head up the mountain path to find a young, skinny Dalish lass who is TOTALLY NOT doing magic as we approach. She awkwardly introduces herself as Merrill and asks us for our name as long as that's not rude. Fortunately for her, Chickene is temporarily in a good mood and says it's nice to meet her before switching back to grumpy and telling her to get moving. We do so, but it's not long before we run into the walking dead... which is a problem for Chickene because he has an ice staff equipped and these corpses are highly resistant to cold. Merrill, however, starts slinging fireballs and confesses after the fight is over that she is a mage, actually. Chickene is just glad she helped out though, and we continue.

In Ultimate X-Men issue 17, Psylocke describes the Welsh like this: "Picture the Scots without the sex appeal or the Irish without the laughs and you've pretty much got them nailed."
Merrill is voiced by Eve Myles, who is essentially Wales' unbeatable counter-argument to that sex appeal remark.

Further up the mountain, we find a cave and another Dalish scout who isn't happy to see Merrill. He remarks that the Keeper finally found someone to take her off the clan's hands and tells us to finish our business quickly because he'll be happy to see her leave. Merrill loiters uncertainly after he leaves and we bark at her that the dialogue scene is over. We press on, but she stops again shortly after to apologize because we're not seeing the Dalish at their best. Chickene asks if she's okay and she says she'll be fine. We enter the cave, kill some spiders, and emerge on the other side to find a glowing barrier blocking our path. Merrill casually says she can deal with this, slits her hand open with a knife and uses blood magic to dispel the barrier. Carver asks if that was what he thinks it is and Merrill says she just summoned a spirit to help. Chickene aggressively tells her to call it a demon, because that's what it is. Merrill's brilliant comeback is: demons can't help the fact that they're demons!

Well, damn. We have no way to respond to that. So, we proceed into the graveyard and are predictably attacked by more corpses before we reach an altar on a cliff overlooking the foothills below. Merrill takes the amulet and recites an incantation, at which point there is a surge of magical energy. The light coalesces into a human form and we find ourselves looking once again... at Flemeth herself. Merrill curtsies and greets her while Chickene stammers that she should have told us that we were carrying her, not just her amulet. Flemeth says she didn't trick us, it was just a lie of omission. She then says she has places to be but leaves us with a word of advice: the world is on the precipice of change. When the moment comes, we should not hesitate to leap. Chickene asks what the hell she means by that. She replies that we should do what she does and turn into a dragon. Then she looks directly at the camera and says, "just kidding! You can't turn into a dragon in this game!" before turning into a dragon and flying off... just to rub it in our faces.

Because if you're a centuries-old witch, haven't you earned the right to troll people every now and then?

We return to the Dalish camp and Marethari asks Merrill if she's sure she won't reconsider. Merrill is determined to leave though, so we head back to Kirkwall. Lowtown has its own elven alienage where her people live in squalor, and Merrill is shocked because she obviously hadn't pictured this when she thought about leaving her clan. Varric tries to cheer her up by saying at least you can't see the giant chains from the alienage, while Chickene tells her to deal with it because this is city life and he didn't want to bring her in the first place. She says she'll make do but asks if we'll visit her later because she could use a friend. Chickene says he can manage that.

First, however, we need to collect that bounty that Aveline has promised us from the city guard. We head back to the Viscount's Keep and Aveline confidently tells us to wait while she informs her superior of her initiative. Chickene hears a great deal of yelling on the other side of the door after Aveline is finished, with Captain Jeven telling her to get back to her post before he has us all arrested. We brusquely tell her she can handle a lot more yelling than we thought. Ignoring this, Aveline wonders why Jeven would care which guard took out the bandits and Chickene kindly suggests we check the duty roster to find out. As we're researching that, another lady guard comes up to thank Aveline for taking her patrol... because she was scheduled to go out there alone carrying the guards' pay and some important documents. Said delivery is scheduled again for tonight and we see that another guard has been slated for a solitary patrol, this time through Lowtown in the middle of the night.

This is the look of an NPC who just found out that he's not one of the guardsmen that gets to hang out and repeat the same five lines of dialogue all day.

We proceed to the patrol route and find that guardsman Donnic has already been beat down by some well-organized, well-equipped thugs that seem oddly familiar. It turns out they're linked to a criminal organization called the Coterie and Donnic was carrying some documents that would have been very useful to them. Aveline helps Donnic to his feet and they share an awkward moment before he explains the Jeven told him it should have been a quiet patrol. Chickene suggests that if Jeven tried to have a guard killed, we should try to kill him right back but Aveline says that's not how she does things. We head back to the Viscount's Keep so she can make her report.

A short time later, Captain Jeven is being dragged away by two guards while he calls Aveline a Fereldan bitch. The Viscount's seneschal, Bran, tells us they uncovered debts to some unsavory figures and it will take some time to restore public confidence in the guard. Since Aveline proved herself to be lawful and upstanding however, he informs her that she will be given the training and support to become the new captain of the guard. This is something of a shock to everyone but Bran assures her that while the process will take months, she had best get her affairs in order because she'll be quite busy soon.

"Calm down, Jeven, it's not worth it! Just be cool and maybe they'll make you a recurring antagonist!"

What Chickene takes away from this, however, is that he's not getting paid for taking down those bandits like Aveline promised. So, we're going to try following up on a lead that was passed on to us by our former master, Meeran. Apparently, a dwarf named Anso is looking for some help and the Red Iron don't want to deal with him so he thought we might be interested in following up instead. We find him in Lowtown late at night and he's clearly jumpy; not because of the constant threat of bandits but because he only came to the surface recently and he's still convinced the sky is going to swallow him up. Varric laughs and says Bartrand went through that phase, too. Anso eventually tells us that he had some valuable cargo to sell to the Templars that is TOTALLY NOT lyrium, but it was stolen and he needs someone to take it back. He has their location, in a shack in Lowtown's alienage, so we head there straight away.

The smugglers prove to be unchallenging for Chickene and his fellows, and he confidently opens a large treasure chest to find it... completely empty. Annoyed to discover that another simple job has gone sour, he stomps out of the shack to find Anso... only to be met by a large group of warriors from Tevinter. They don't know who we are, but something they want is supposed to be in the shack we just exited, so they attack us. This group is more difficult than the smugglers, but the points I've been investing into Chickene's healing magic pay off. We try to retreat from the Alienage after defeating the group, only to run into a Tevinter lieutenant who tells us we're going nowhere and orders an ambush. No one shows up, though... except for one Tevinter warrior coughing up blood who collapses at the lieutenant's feet.

And here comes the dangerous but kinda sexy elf that serves as Merrill's male counterpart!

A mysterious elf with white hair and bluish white tattoos informs the Tevinter lieutenant that he has failed. The lieutenant calls him a slave and tells him to shut up. The elf replies that he's not a slave and drives the point home with an armored fist through his chest. The lieutenant, bleeding profusely, has no counter-argument to offer as he dies. The elf apologizes to us as and introduces himself as Fenris as he bends down to loot the lieutenant's body, explaining that he asked Anso to hire someone to distract the Tevinter warriors and he hadn't expected them to attack us so aggressively. Chickene is okay with this for now. Fenris goes on to say that these men were sent after him by a Tevinter magister named Danarius and we need to go kill him in his Hightown manor now. Chickene demands to know if he's actually getting paid for this. Fenris promises to give all the coin he has if we help him do this, which is good enough for Chickene.

We head into a Hightown manor shortly thereafter and, judging by all the magical traps and fade spirits being summoned, it looks like a nasty mage has definitely been here. The path through the manor is winding thanks to all the locked doors but we eventually find the main hall and a key to open the door to the room where Danarius is believed to be hiding. Opening the door summons even bigger and nastier fade spirits but when the dust has settled, we find no trace of a living person within the manor. Disgusted, Fenris tells us we can loot the place to our heart's content, but he needs some air. We're more than happy to have Varric pick the locks on some chests for us since selling Danarius' stuff is probably all the pay we're getting at this point.

"Hard to believe he just left it abandoned like this. Didn't his mother ever tell him to mind his manors?"

When we head back outside to talk to Fenris, it turns out he's disappointed not just because his former master escaped his vengeance but because he realized he's in the company of another mage. Being from Tevinter, where mages used their power to force normal people to accept their rulership, Fenris harbors a grudge against magic-users in general. He acknowledges that we're not Danarius though, and says he'll work with us while he's waiting for his final confrontation. Chickene assures Fenris he's just trying to get by, not dominate others, then rudely asks if his existence is going to be inconvenient for Fenris. The elf takes this in stride, and tells us he's just going to crash in this Hightown manor and wait for Danarius to come and try to reclaim it. Lastly, he does give us some coin for our trouble so that makes him slightly better than Aveline in Chickene's book right now.

All work and no play makes Chickene a dull protagonist though, so he heads back to the Hanged Man to spend some of that coin on questionable ale. There's an incident at the bar that's going to make things difficult, though. Three mercenaries are harassing a busty woman with no pants, possibly because there's a dress code in this tavern that she's not adhering to. As we get closer, we hear that she hired them to bring her information that turned out to be worthless, so she's refusing to pay. They aren't taking no for an answer, so she starts a brawl and thrashes the men easily. Taking note of us, she introduces herself as Isabela and says she has a job for us: she challenged an old "friend" named Hayder to a one-on-one duel tonight but she doesn't expect him to play fair and needs backup. Looks like we won't be having that drink after all.

"I can't promise you gold for this job but with a rack like this, I don't believe I need to."

Returning to Hightown, we rendezvous with Isabela on the street where the duel's supposed to happen, but all we find are hired goons. They don't last much longer than the chumps she beat up in the tavern, and we find a note from Hayder telling the goons they can meet him in the Chantry once the job is done. Naturally, we rush to the Chantry to make sure we can catch Hayder before he realizes his henchmen are dead. He's waiting for us when we enter and confidently tells Isabela he expected her to live, but now it's time for her to repay Castilon for the slaves she freed and the talisman she stole. Chickene doesn't know who the hell Castilon is, but he didn't come here to be threatened. Isabela agrees, and throws a dagger directly into the neck of one of the thugs standing next to Hayder. Things go downhill for him from there. One bloody mess later, Isabela pays us and thanks us for our help. She says she has more ideas for how we can work together, possibly in the bedroom, and she'll be at the Hanged Man if we'd like to take her up on that.

So, Chickene is a little bit richer but still several gold coins away from the fifty he needs to become Bartrand's business partner. What we do have, however, is three new adventuring companions. Aveline, Carver and Fenris are all warriors, while Isabela and Varric are our available rogues, and Anders and Merrill are backup mages along with Chickene himself. They all have their hangouts in the city of Kirkwall too, and you can have unique dialogue with them there during certain points in the game. Unlike Dragon Age: Origins, where companions only received bonuses to their abilities if they liked you, these characters gain a benefit if they're your friend, and a different benefit if they're your rival. Unfortunately, since Chickene takes a bipolar approach toward conversation, most character attitudes are hovering around neutral right now.

"It's so nice to see you again, Merrill NO I WON'T DRINK YOUR WATER! NOT EVEN ON A DARE!"

With all possible companions recruited, our attention turns toward the many quests still available from Varric's contacts throughout the city. Shall we try to find the runaway mage who's plagued by nightmares? Or maybe help the awful man who's looking for his missing wife? Perhaps the dwarf who wants to negotiate with the Qunari for some black powder is a better option? Only one thing is for certain: after the way today's quests turned out, Chickene will be lucky if he gets some coin for accomplishing any of those tasks.