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."
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