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.