We're bringing Sten along because he mentioned something about losing his sword at Lake Calenhad, where the Circle is located. Not sure if that's a euphemism, but I sure don't want to think about it too hard. Zevran joins us too, because we'd like to see if he's a better rogue than Leliana. Lastly, Morrigan... because she's an illegal mage who hates the Circle so clearly she'll be comfortable with meeting them.
The first person we meet, however, is a looter. He tells us to scram cause he bought this spot fair and square. We congratulate him on his new land purchase. Confused, he says he just paid a guy for looting rights because apparently there were some dead Qunari here... at which point he realizes we have a live one with us. He immediately sells out the guy who found the sword and says he hangs out near Orzammar. So I guess Sten's sword will have to wait.
Normally, I'd rough you up for good measure... but you already look like you got kicked in the head by a horse.
We continue to the dock for now, where there's one boat that can be used to reach the Circle tower (which was built on an island in the middle of the lake). Unfortunately, the dock has a Templar on it, too. His job is to get in our way. We flash the Grey Warden documents and he claims to be Queen of Antiva. We claim to have business with the mages and he says that's impossible. His job is to stop unauthorized people and since he's stopping us, we must be unauthorized.
This guy is a master of non-sequiturs. That's supposed to be our job, damn it. We tell him we're getting mad so he immediately backs down and shows us to the boat. He and Amy are more alike than they'd care to admit.
We will duel to the death in a deleted scene. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!
Finally arriving at the Circle Tower, we find Knight-Commander Greagoir telling his Templars to lock the place down and keep anything from getting out. These guys take curfews seriously. Noticing us, he demands to know why we're here and we tell him we're just exploring. Unamused, he says there's nothing to see now that the tower is swarming with abominations. Ooh! Those sound like they'd be a great addition to our Grey Warden army! Greagoir doesn't like that idea, either. He assures us there will be no mages left to assist us once the Templars are granted the Right of Annulment and they "cleanse" the tower.
We know what cleanse means from Denerim. Cleanse means "paint with blood". Amy's good at that. We tell Greagoir we can handle it ourselves. He's doubtful, but says that if we eliminate the need for Templars to die fighting mages, he will pledge his support to fight darkspawn instead. Charging in with no backup sounds like a great plan to Amy. It's a deal.
"...I should probably stop him. On the other hand, he might kill ONE demon before getting slaughtered. Good enough for me."
One of the Templars shakes his head in disbelief as he shuts the door to the Tower behind us, and we get busy ransacking the place. Unfortunately, the damned apprentices keep their stuff locked up. Okay, Zevran, time to show those rogue skills!
...It turns out Zev has no skill in picking locks, stealing things, or moving stealthily. Basically, he fights up close with two weapons like Amy but he's way more fragile. This was a great plan.
Of course, you could give him a bow... but he has no skills in archery, either.
Moving on, we discover that someone else is fighting abominations in the tower: an older woman named Wynne, whose impressive magic takes down a rage demon before our eyes. As we enter, she turns and threatens us, probably mistaking Amy for an abomination. Understandable. We tell her we're not going to kill her; the Templars can do that for us. Realizing the Templars intend to annul them, she says there's still time to take back the Tower and prevent it. That sounds like too much work. We want to go ahead with Annulment but she says if the Tower is truly lost, she wants to see it for herself. This is another one of those people who won't shut up until she gets her way, isn't she? Fine. You can kill demons with us.
Morrigan, however, is shocked at Amy's lack of senseless violence exactly when she was counting on it. Blinking slowly, we ask her why she doesn't like Circle mages. She's more than happy to repeat her previous rants to us about how they allow themselves to be caged and they deserve death if they accepted a master who wants them to die.
...Oh. Sorry, we forgot. Never mind, Wynne.
Once Wynne realizes we're friends with an illegal mage, she's more than happy to give Morrigan the fight she wants. Unfortunately for her, she's fragile and falls down pretty quickly. With Morrigan's hatred temporarily subdued, we press on and find that the halls of the Circle Tower are practically stuffed with demons and abominations. Admittedly, these are greater numbers than Amy was expecting but with him and Sten being as well-armored as they are, the attacks don't faze them much.
NOTE: The battle looks much more awesome here than it did when I played through it.
Amy continues to slash his way through the tower, opening every unlocked chest he can find and fiddling with all the unsupervised experiments along the way. At one point, he summons an extra demon for good measure. The real prize, however, comes when we find the First Enchanter's office. Inside an unlocked chest is a large, black and evil-looking spell book. It's all gibberish to Amy so he nonchalanty hands it to Morrigan and keeps looking for treasure.
Morrigan is stunned to see that Amy has just handed over her mother's grimoire. She gleefully says she will begin studying the dark secrets within it immediately.
...Maybe that wasn't the best idea in retrospect. Oh, well. At least she's happy for once.
As we're headed for the top levels of the tower, we enter a room where a mage is laying at the feet of an abomination-- asleep, not dead. The demon-thing tells us we must be tired of all this fighting and we deserve a rest. Amy realizes he's forgotten his manners. This must be the designated nap hour here in the Circle Tower. His companions try to tell him that the demon is trying to trick him, but he's already asleep by then.
Using his demonic powers, he removed the "JUST STAB THIS THING" option from the dialogue. Or something.
So, after a long section of gameplay that has us hacking demons apart, the game decides to give cutscene power to a random sloth demon and put us on the railroad to Something Completely Different. Our dwarf is now imprisoned in the demon's personal corner of the Fade without his companions. To escape, he must use a combination of strength of arms and shapeshifting into a mouse.
Yeah. I don't get it either. Many fans of this game loathe this section due to all the backtracking and the sudden loss of party members. As a warrior, we won't have much trouble going it alone... but if you designed your Warden to be the party healer? Good luck.
We start in a dream of the Grey Warden headquarters of Weisshaupt, where Duncan is alive and proud to say that not only was the Archdemon defeated, but we also set the Deep Roads ablaze and burned up every last darkspawn, ever. Amy says this world is boring as hell now. He's going to find some bandits to slaughter, or something. "Duncan" calls him a fool and says if all he wants is death, that's what he'll get. We slay the illusions easily and a pedestal appears which transports us further into the Fade.
Nice try, demon... but the real Duncan doesn't have a Photoshop filter.
The only island we can access leads to a wasteland occupied by a mage named Niall, the guy we found passed out asleep earlier. He says he was trapped here on his way to stop the blood mages and although he escaped the first illusion like us, his path has been blocked ever since. We decide to give it a go ourselves. We don't find a way out, but we do see a demon attacking a large mouse, so we step forward to stop it. There's no food here, after all... that mouse might be tasty if we can find a campfire and some salt.
The mouse, however, teaches us how to turn into a mouse ourselves and then vanishes. Awesome! Now Amy can cook and eat himself! At least, he would if he had a proper campfire. Maybe later, he thinks to himself, and goes back to the Fade pedestal.
Behold... (sigh) our new secret weapon in the war against the darkspawn.
Here's where things get annoying. There are five islands (including mouse island) surrounding the sloth demon's inner sanctum. Each island has a lesser demon on it, holding the portal to the inner sanctum closed. Defeating these demons also opens portals to the areas where your companions are stuck in dreams of their own, so you can free them before confronting the sloth demon.
To reach the demons, however, you have to bypass different kinds of obstacles... that can only be overcome by learning new forms to shapeshift into. In theory, this sounds kind of interesting but in practice, you wind up scurrying through mouse holes, trying to decipher your map and determine if you've really explored all you possibly can. It could be that you need a new shapeshifting ability to progress, but it's also possible you missed a mouse hole a ways back that leads you to a new form... and without that new form, of course, you won't get anywhere on the other islands.
It's possible to do this section without a guide, but it's frustrating-- especially given the relatively linear nature of the rest of the game. For those who are diligent, there are permanent increases to your attributes to be found... but deciding between finding them or getting the hell out of the Fade ASAP is a constant struggle.
How badly do I want to poke this glowing training dummy with a stick? ...This is a harder choice than I thought.
Anyway... nothing interesting story-wise here. We eventually find our companions: Morrigan is not fooled by the illusion of Flemeth, as the demon has mistaken her for a compassionate soul. Sten isn't fooled by the illusion of his brothers-in-arms, as the memory of their deaths is etched into his mind. Zevran, meanwhile, is having a kinky torture dream. Eww. With them freed, we proceed to the demon's inner sanctum, and Mr. Sloth tries to tell us he tried really hard to create enjoyable illusions. Well, you failed, man. You failed hard. The demon gets vanquished with extreme prejudice.
With him gone, not much is standing between us and Uldred, the leader of the blood mages. We find a Templar named Cullen who thinks we're illusions but we tell him we're just here to kill mages and ask questions later. He accepts us as a kindred spirit. Another Templar is under the thrall of a busty demon with flaming purple hair. We are SO sick of cats! We kill her and her pet Templar before she can attempt to parley.
The top of the tower is a disturbing sight. Uldred is torturing the remaining Circle mages and turning them into abominations when their wills are broken. He turns to us as we enter and asks what we want. Thoroughly creeped out, we tell him we'll be going now. He says that's rude and we should get possessed by demons as punishment. Uldred turns into something big and nasty in an attempt to do so, but we're so experienced at killing abominations at this point that the best he can do is corrupt a couple of other mages to fight for him instead. Sten and Amy prove to be the better meat shields.
When your strategy has degenerated to "hope the minions don't die too fast", that's not a good sign.
First Enchanter Irving gets up slowly, relieved that it's over. We let him think everything is fine as we march him down the tower to Greagoir. It is here that he learns the Templars have written this Circle off as a lost cause and his "saviors" are totally cool with that. Irving glumly says he will do what is best and cooperate with the little inquisition. Morrigan is positively beaming.
Greagoir promises to heed our call to battle once his Templars are finished hosing down this bloody tower. With that, two of our four armies have been assembled! Where to next? It seems like Eamon needs those sacred ashes as soon as possible... but Amy just remembered he was supposed to be running the carta in Dust Town by now. Our dwarf's going home.
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