Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Redcliffe

Now that Amy has been cured of his burning desire to acquire a personal golem, he comes around to the notion that maybe this undead plague in Redcliffe is worthy of his attention after all. He returns to the town and finds it deserted, except for a random human picking through crates for loot. We tell him to scram. Only we are allowed to profit from our reckless negligence.

We eventually turn our attention to the Chantry and find what appears to be the dead body of Bann Teagan. Leliana realizes he's still alive. Shale asks if we can kick him around a little before helping him. I think I'm gonna like this golem.

After regaining consciousness, Teagan is horrified to find everyone gone and chastises us for our apathy. We scoff and tell him he's more to blame. After all, he was actually here when it happened. Strangely enough, he accepts this logic and tells us to meet him at the town windmill. Once there he explains there's a secret passage to the castle that his signet ring opens. Now it's our turn to chastise him for not using it before the attack. Before we can make him feel worse, we're interrupted by visitors from the castle... and they're not the dead kind.

Either that, or it's a couple of zombies with REALLY good human masks.

Isolde, Arl Eamon's wife, tells Teagan that something is wrong with her son Connor and he needs to come back to the castle with her alone to help. Amy invites himself along, which Isolde calls impertinent, so we accuse her of being racist against dwarves. Confused, she apologizes, saying that something has possessed Connor, and it made her promise to come back only with the Bann. Teagan agrees, but pulls us aside before he leaves and tells us to take his signet ring and enter the castle via the secret passage, as he knows he'll be in danger facing Connor alone.

We briefly consider leaving again, but luckily we have a recent, highly successful experience with a possessed child to boost our confidence. Into the secret passage we go!

The game reminds us again that we failed the village when we enter the castle's basement, as the fresh corpses of people who died last night join the undead soldiers in attacking us. The numbers are far from overwhelming though, and we carve a path to the dungeons without much trouble. Once there, we find one of the cells occupied and zombies are trying to reach the prisoner through the bars. The distraction means they're easy to kill.

Those things were trying to kill him... so Amy assumes he must have ordered them to do that!

 

The prisoner, a man named Jowan who is dressed in mage robes, cautiously approaches us and we accuse him of being responsible for the undead menace. He assures us he just came here to poison Arl Eamon. Oh. That's okay, then. He goes on to say he'd like to help solve the problem and we have no issues with letting this self-admitted assassin walk free. He asks if we're sure we don't want to keep an eye on him. We reply that we really, truly do not give a damn.

Moving on, there's not much to see but more undead. There is a traumatized servant who successfully hid from the monsters but she screams too much for our taste so we tell her to go away. Eventually, we find the throne room, where Bann Teagan is playing court jester for the possessed boy. Noticing us, Connor demands to know why we're here and we tell him we're just passing through and thought we'd say hi. He knows, however, that we killed all his undead soldiers whose wanton slaughter provided him with so much amusement. Desiring more fun, he orders Teagan and a few guards to attack us.
 

 DAMN IT KID, I PREFERRED HIM LIKE THIS.

 
We've been wanting to smack Teagan around for all the attempted guilt trips, so this is fun for us too. Unfortunately, he once again refuses to die and Isolde helps him to his feet, the demonic influence gone from his mind. Connor himself has run off, and Teagan grimly brings up the topic of how we should deal with him. Amy knows from recent events (that were totally not his fault) that killing the kid would be the easiest solution. Isolde insists there must be some other way... at which point our mage from the dungeons shows up.

Jowan is not only an apostate and an assassin, he's also a maleficar, a user of a forbidden craft called blood magic. He tells us that a mage can confront the demon on its native plane, the Fade, and not harm Connor in the process. All he needs to do is sacrifice someone and use all the blood in their body to cast the spell. Surprisingly, Isolde volunteers to do this. Teagan is concerned but Amy just shrugs and says someone's dying either way.

So, ignoring the obvious hints that there must be a better way, Amy has two choices. Either we kill the kid who's essentially an abomination, guaranteeing an end to the problem, or we allow this highly suspicious mage to perform a human sacrifice. Assuming his ritual works, it will send one squishy wizard off to confront a much more powerful foe than a child, and leave the demonically sensitive kid alive (possibly to be possessed again in the future).

"I promise I'll never turn villagers into zombies again. Unless they piss me off."

Morrigan, I hope you like washing blood stains out of that skimpy outfit.

Without going into too much detail, the ritual looks like it hurts like hell. Isolde gives a final, ragged gasp as Jowan hits Morrigan with her blood, causing our witch to faint right away. She wakes up in a blurry wasteland, surrounded by wandering spirits. If Amy were here, he'd probably ask one for directions to the nearest tavern. Morrigan is sensible however, and seeks out Connor specifically. He tries to bargain in his distorted voice but she demands to see the demon. At this point, the body of Connor flashes a few times and, sure enough, turns into the demon. A brief fight ensues before it flees.

Morrigan continues to chase the demon down through the Fade, which insists on hiding behind the illusory form of Connor. This only serves to irritate her further. Eventually, it gives up the chase and appears to Morrigan in her true form. As luck would have it, it's another curvaceous Desire Demon!

...Or another ordinary cat. We're still trying to figure out the difference between those two things.

The demon tries to tell Morrigan that she's totally interested in bargaining now, not fighting, but our witch is so annoyed at this point that she won't even entertain the notion.  A battle ensues and while the Desire Demon can make illusory copies of herself and cast a few spells, Morrigan has life-draining magic to heal herself and can turn into a bear.  It turns out that even demon heads fall off when clawed at by an angry wall of meat, and thus the demon is vanquished.

True to his word, Jowan has enabled us to trade Isolde's life for Connor's and Bann Teagan is relieved to see that the young boy doesn't remember a thing about his ordeal.  Teagan is, however, concerned about the fact that Jowan tried to have Arl Eamon killed and asks us what we think should be done with him.  Once again, Amy informs him that he doesn't give a damn, so Jowan is sent back to the dungeons.  Our attention turns to how to go about curing the Arl and Teagan believes, with regret, that search for the Urn of Sacred Ashes may be our best bet.  Amy has one question, though: what's in it for me?

"Oh, screw this. I'm going to jump out of my deathbed and STRANGLE that guy."

Teagan, continuing to show patience, explains that the Grey Wardens will need the Arl's support and his armies if we want to have any chance of confronting Loghain.  Amy says that Isolde promised him a reward, which is completely untrue as far as I know.  The bann doesn't want to hear it either, and suggests we should cure the Arl if we want to discuss a dead woman's promises.  Sounds like a plan, Teagan!

So, Connor is alive and unpossessed, Redcliffe is a buyer's market for real estate, and even Alistair tells us when we get back to camp that he appreciates the fact that we didn't kill the Arl's son.  Things are looking good, right?

Not so fast.  A cut scene shows us Loghain plotting in Denerim with his noble ally, Arl Howe, ominously voiced by master villain Tim Curry.  Arl Howe tells Loghain that he has learned of the Grey Wardens' survival and has devised a solution... at which point he introduces an elven assassin named Zevran, a member of a notorious organization called the Antivan Crows.

"I'm just here to join the club for characters with nice hair and sexy foreign accents."

 

I'm sure we'll never see him again.