Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Orzammar, Part One

We keep Sten and Morrigan in the party, but ditch Zevran in favor of Leliana before heading west. The road to the Frostback Mountains is paved not with gold, nor with good intentions, but with Loghain's mercenaries. We have more trouble getting into Orzammar than we did freely wandering the streets of Loghain's stronghold, Denerim. First there's a group waiting for us on the road, second is a messenger and his bodyguards trying to convince the dwarf guarding the gate to let him in. The guard tells the messenger that only the king of Orzammar can respond to his request for an audience, and they don't have one right now. Oh no, Amy cries! Did something happen to King... Whats-His-Name?

"Loghain, the true king of Fereldan, will hear of this and-- wait. Did that dwarf really just say that?"

Loghain's messenger actually pities us for our lack of tact, until we flash the Grey Warden treaties and the guard says we have the right to enter the city. The dwarves are not particularly happy that we happen to be the casteless that everyone hates, though. The messenger is unhappy too, and demands that we be executed as a traitor to Ferelden but the gate guard politely asks us to get off his doorstep if we're going to kill each other. You don't have to tell Amy that twice.

With another group of Loghain's cronies defeated, we look around the area near the gate and remember that one of these guys is supposed to have Sten's sword. So we start shaking down merchants with our Qunari friend in tow and eventually find a guy who admits selling it to a dwarf... who lives in Redcliffe. For an object without wheels, this sword sure does get around. The task goes back into the procrastination bin.

After thanking us for killing the loudmouth human, the guard lets us into Orzammar and we pass through the hall of Paragons before entering the market district. There, two dwarven lords competing for the throne are having a heated discussion. By "heated", I mean that a supporter of Prince Bhelen pulls out an axe and eviscerates a supporter of Lord Harrowmont in front of everyone before both groups disperse. The captain of the guard is furious that the nobles did this in front of outsiders, but then he sees we're the casteless that everyone hates and tells us to sod off.

"Consider yourself lucky. If I could afford cutscene power on a guard captain's salary, I'd murder you."

So, off we sod to the Diamond District, where we're greeted by a richly-dressed lady dwarf and-- here's a switch-- she's happy to see us. We're about to flirt with her but then Amy remembers this is his sister, Rica. Apparently, she did find a man like Beraht wanted her to: she's a royal concubine to Prince Bhelen. And the mother of his son. This makes our choice of who to support for the throne pretty easy. We tell Rica we're going to talk to Harrowmont's men.

Rica gets flustered and says she can't talk to us when we're "like this"... a term that might as well mean "when you're breathing" given Amy's personality. That's family for you. We leave her behind and seek out Dulin Forender, one of Lord Harrowmont's most trusted advisors. He refuses to let us see Harrowmont directly but asks if we're willing to show our loyalty by ruining a Proving for him.
 

I just took this picture to remind everyone what his face looks like.

Remembering how many new friends he made that one time he impersonated Everd in a Proving, Amy accepts without hesitation. Apparently we're supposed to find out why Harrowmont's real fighters dropped out, but who cares? We get to relive our glory days as a respected member of the carta!

There are plenty of dwarves fighting for Bhelen and since we didn't bother to talk to the ones who were supposed to fight for Harrowmont, we have a couple of 2 on 1 battles ahead of us. The Proving Master tries to tell us at one point that we can choose a second, but we're pretty sure he's wrong about that, so we ignore him. Besides, fighting's only half the fun. We can insult our opponents before we stab them, too! No way is that talkative qunari, Sten, gonna steal our good insults!

You're wrong, friend! *I* will be the one to enjoy losing to you!

 

When all is said and done (or rather, shouted at and stabbed), a member of the royal family gets defeated by a blithering casteless idiot. The only thing Amy has to say about it is, "somebody get me a damn ale." As luck would have it, Dulin is waiting for us at the Tapster's Tavern and is more than happy to arrange a meeting with Harrowmont.

Lord Harrowmont, a grey-haired guy who's not as forceful as most dwarves, thanks us for being his champion in the Proving. However, Bhelen has many supporters and we need to do something that Orzammar will really notice. That's when he mentions that Beraht's right-hand woman, Jarvia, is running the carta these days and-- WHAT?! That's MY carta. I'M supposed to be running it. Sorry, Harry. Whatever errand you need us to run can wait. We've gotta kill Jarvia.

"That's what I was going to... umm... never mind."

Off to Dust Town we go, but we're delayed by some Bhelen fanatics who are upset that the Wardens have sided with Harrowmont. Get in line, guys. Right behind my sister, Rica. These angry dwarves become target practice for Amy's roaring rampage against Jarvia. Strolling into his old stomping grounds covered in blood, we're met by our carta buddy Leske, who wonders if we're back because we missed being treated like dirt. That never really stopped happening, man. Anyway, small talk's over. Where's Jarvia so I can kill her?

Leske tips us off that the carta took over the Brosca family home after Rica and the liquor cabinet called Mom moved to the Diamond District. I guess it's more target practice for now. We find an ambush waiting for us in our old house, which is fine with Amy. Thoroughly beaten, one dwarf tries to surrender but we hear the talking as an unfortunate sign that he's not dead yet. We finish the job before he can say, "wait!" Idiocy waits for no man.

One of the thugs had a token made from a finger bone that is probably irrelevant, but we take it anyway. There are no secret doors inside, so we head back out to ask Leske what gives. He's gone, though. Bathroom break, I'm sure. Another casteless dwarf who remembers us tells us she's seen carta members go into another building with no handle on the door, but a slot that they put some kind of token into. Amy thinks for about a minute on what that could be... then has to lay down for a while because his head hurts.

"Come on! My fellow mobs and I have already spawned and we're not going to wait here all day!"
 

He eventually figures out that he has to put the finger bone token through the slot, and the door opens. We head down a staircase and find a group of thugs waiting for us. The leader of the group demands the password. We answer, "die!" Not the password he was looking for, but it's the right answer in its own way.
After carving through them, we find that the carta headquarters is bigger than we remember and there are some elf and qunari mercenaries who are definitely new, too. Apparently, Jarvia has done a good job running things but Amy's way too stubborn to admit that. We wreck all her new stuff and find her in a large room where one of her guards is none other than Leske.

Jarvia gloats that our friend is on her side now, and we yell at Leske that we never would have betrayed him. We can't yell that with a straight face, but we yell it anyway. Leske asks us what exactly he was supposed to do when all of Orzammar wanted him dead and Jarvia gave him a way out. Not our problem. Amy tells Leske it's time to kill Jarvia but he follows her orders, not ours. We have to kill him to get to her.

"This guy should have died from his own stupidity years ago. We can take him, right?  RIGHT??"

 

Jarvia's tough, and uses smoke bombs and traps to move around the battlefield and stay in an advantageous position. Amy, however, has not yet met a trick so clever he can't get around it by hitting it really hard. Jarvia eventually falls and we head back to the market district using a secret tunnel that runs through a very confused merchant's shop. Amy is now the leader of a carta consisting of one member since he killed everyone else, but that's good enough for him. With that done, decide to head back to Harrowmont to figure out what he wanted before we ran out.

Turns out, he wanted us to kill Jarvia. Huh. Well, that was serendipitous. So we ask him when he's going to give us our troops and he explains that he still can't win a vote against Bhelen and there's one more thing we need to do for him. Really, Harrowmont? You have a legion of supporters but sole responsibility for your succession falls on our shoulders?

Fortunately, the task isn't complicated. We just have to 1) enter the Deep Roads-- the home territory of the darkspawn. 2) Find any sign of a dwarven paragon named Branka-- who disappeared into the Deep Roads years ago with her own private army. 3) Help her find a lost dwarven relic-- which we have no clues for its location or even what it is.

We tell Harrowmont we'll be back in about an hour.