Dragon Age Inquisition Playthrough - On Our Way to Orlais

Now that Cassandra has reinstated the Inquisition and has made Torquemada one of the founding members, the town of Haven is open to us. There's an alchemist that will take herbs to create more powerful healing potions, a requisitions officer who tells us about special supply requests and, in a first for the Dragon Age series, a blacksmith who will make weapons and armor for us if we have schematics and materials. This is also where we can talk to our followers-- Cassandra, Varric and Solas-- and some important NPCs. The three most crucial characters who we can't put in our party are: 1) Leliana, our spymaster, the Orlesian bard we know and love from Dragon Age: Origins. 2) Cullen, our military commander, a former Templar who appeared in both of the previous games. 3) Josephine, a completely new face. She's originally from Antiva, but spent a lot of time in Orlais as an envoy and is now a seasoned diplomat.

She also carries a book with a candle permanently stuck to it, which seems convenient.

Except for that one time when she tried turning a page, and nearly burned the Chantry down.

Leliana, Cullen and Josephine are our key advisers once we head into the Chantry and Cassandra introduces Torquemada to the war table. Here, key areas on a map of Orlais and Ferelden are marked for our attention. Once we select a location, we'll be given a choice of which of our three advisers we want to handle the mission. These can either be smaller operations which only require time to complete, such as responding to concerns from Ferelden's banns and teyrns, or larger missions that can only be completed when you have gained enough "power points" from doing quests. These points are supposed to be a numeric value for how powerful the Inquisition is, but it comes across as a little superficial when the system boils down to, "find farmer's lost buffalo-thing, receive plot coupon". More on that a little later.

For now though, the only mission available to us is something that Leliana brought to our attention regarding a Chantry leader, Mother Giselle, who is trying to help refugees and might be more open-minded than the rest of the Chantry is right now. Our advisers also tell us that, probably thanks to Chancellor Roderick's meddling, the Chantry has denounced the Inquisition and refers to all of its supporters as heretics. It doesn't help matters that many of the locals in Haven decided that Torquemada got her rift-closing mark from the Chantry's revered prophet, Andraste, and are now calling her the Herald of Andraste. As a Dalish elf, Torquemada doesn't agree with this, neither does she particularly like the idea, but Leliana assures us that people need something to believe in. They have decided not to encourage or discourage the idea, and let people believe what they want. 

Hold on, Leliana. What's the point of naming my character if everyone's just going to call me 'Harold'?

Normally, this is when we would assign one of our three advisers to handle the mission, but only Leliana has an idea of how to handle it. She sends her covert agents to harass Templars and apostates fighting in the Hinterlands, ensuring relative safety for the refugees, before contacting Mother Giselle. This action costs us the one power point we have, and Leliana's agents report back that they have established a forward camp near the crossroads between Haven and Redcliffe, where Mother Giselle will meet us. With that, Torquemada heads out to the Hinterlands with Cassandra, Varric and Solas. The lead scout who greets us is a dwarf woman who seems more than a little bit nervous to be talking to the person that the villagers keep calling the chosen one, but she helpfully points us in the direction of the meeting.

Mother Giselle greets us warmly, thanking us for our efforts thus far in helping her people. She proceeds to tell us that between the death of the Divine and the Chantry's denouncement of the Inquisition, many of the faithful are divided and simply looking for someone who will make a real difference. Torquemada says that's all well and good, but wants to know what Giselle can do for the Inquisition right now apart from offer friendly advice. The Mother says she will go to Haven and provide Leliana with a list of Chantry members who will be willing to meet the Inquisition and hear our side of the story. She insists, however, that whether we believe we are the Herald of Andraste or not, we need to go out and start proving to people that we can solve problems.

Giselle, you may look and dress like Guinan from Star Trek... but you, ma'am, are no Guinan.

It's here that the open-world nature of Dragon Age Inquisition comes into full effect. The Hinterlands is a large map full of rolling hills, roving bands of Templars and apostates, and several quests that can be undertaken to impress the locals. When we walk into the small village that has been established at the crossroads, a guard loyal to the Inquisition named Corporal Vale gives us just a few examples: the former horsemaster of Redcliffe may be able to provide mounts to the Inquisition if we ask nicely, a guard recruit is trying to find a way to get the villagers more blankets, and a local hunter is having trouble getting enough food to go around. Most of the quests can be found simply by wandering the map and getting into trouble, though... and that's kind of a problem. If you keep the village from starving and from freezing to death, you get one power point for completing each of those quests. On the other hand, you could also find a farmer's lost buffalo-thing and a widow's lost wedding ring, and you'd get two power points that way instead. Eventually, certain tasks give your Inquisition more power than others, but initially it seems kind of ridiculous.

This open world wandering only ties in loosely to the main plot of the game, too. Once your Inquisitor gains enough experience and your Inquisition gains enough power, your will be able to start the mission that brings you to Orlais' capital city of Val Royeaux to answer the Chantry's denouncement in person. Apart from talking to Mother Giselle, you're not required to undertake any specific task in order to gain that power and experience. You can literally gain the power you need by finding a crapload of iron ore and onyx to send to scholars in Orlais to curry their favor if you're not too enthusiastic about killing Templars or mages. On one hand, It's good that the player a great deal of freedom in choosing what they want to do in the Hinterlands. However, it's also true that the lack of a direct tie to the overall narrative makes whatever quest you choose seem kind of pointless.

"We need food, blankets and medicine. Also, this scout is worried about a recruit he has a crush on. That's equally important."

As for Torquemada, she's going to clean up the Hinterlands a great deal before she proceeds to Val Royeaux, figuring that she'll need as much evidence of good deeds as she can if she wants to stand any chance at making the Chantry happy. She brings a large quantity of fresh-killed mutton to a local hunter, points the local guards in the direction of secret apostate supply caches where they can find blankets, and takes out the leaders of encampments where both the mages and Templars were organizing attacks. There are a number of rifts throughout the area as well and, by closing a few near an old fort where some former Chantry members were trying to start a cult, we manage to impress some of the locals with proof of our abilities. The would-be cult leader becomes an agent of the Inquisition and we tell her to spread the truth about us, which will make Ambassador Josephine's job a little easier. Lastly, we visit Redcliffe's old horsemaster on his farm and ask him about the possibility of securing mounts for the Inquisition... but he's harder to impress.

The horsemaster tells us that between bandits, mages, Templars, and demon-possessed wolves there are too many things between here and Haven that would steal or eat the horses. He gives us the location the demon wolf lair and says clearing them out will solve some of the problems in the immediate area, but what they really need is watchtowers so guards can spot bandits when they start to make their move. Clearing out the wolves and the demon controlling them is a relatively simple job, but building the watchtowers requires us to survey three locations and then return to Haven to decide who will be responsible for overseeing the construction. So, once the locations are scouted, we head back to the war table and find that building the towers isn't the only operation available to us. The Teyrn of Highever requests the Inquisition's presence at a memorial service for the Divine, a lesser noble is stirring up sentiment against the Inquisition, and there are a couple of repeatable operations that we can use to gather resources.

Hey, Josephine! I found these magic rocks in the woods! Can you do something with these?
"...I used to attend balls in Orlais every week. What am I doing with my life?"

These operations can be completed using different tactics depending on who we get to handle them. Cullen's soldiers could build the watchtowers, but Josephine suggests appealing to the local banns to provide manpower instead. Leliana says we can send some of her Chantry friends to Highever, while Cullen suggests an honor guard consisting of Ferelden officers loyal to the Inquisition. As for the noble who's unfriendly to us, Josephine recommends getting his fellow nobles to speak out against him but Leliana thinks we can make him an ally by having her agents solve some problems he's been having in his lands. It's not clear to me at this point if any of these operations will fail if I pick the wrong advisor but for now, I choose Josephine to handle the watchtowers, Cullen to handle the memorial in Highever and Leliana to deal with the unfriendly noble. We'll have to wait for up to an hour before a report on these operations is ready, though. So, Torquemada is going to Val Royeaux while we wait for the towers to be constructed in the Hinterlands.

Getting into Val Royeaux costs four power points, but we have plenty of them thanks to all the quests we completed. Torquemada heads into the city with Cassandra, Varric and Solas, and by the reaction we get from nervous locals, it looks like our reputation has preceded us. Shops are temporarily closed because of the crowd that has gathered in the central plaza, where tension appears to be high. We approach to see that a Chantry mother is standing on a stage above the assembled locals. She immediately notices the arrival of the Inquisition and wastes no time in calling us heretics. Torquemada reminds her that she never claimed to be the Herald of Andraste and all she wants to do is close the breach. They're not buying it, though. The mother announces that the Templars have heard of our heresy and have decided to return to Val Royeaux to enforce the Chantry's will. Right on cue, a man wearing armor similar to Cassandra's joins the mother on the stage... and punches her in the face.

"You should do something respectable, like sucker punching priestesses whenever you feel like it!"

Cassandra recognizes this man as Lucius, one of her fellow Seekers of Truth who is now calling himself Lord Seeker, and has apparently taken command of the Templars. This isn't a good thing for us, though. Lucius refuses to talk to Cassandra, saying she started an opportunistic movement to capitalize from Divine Justinia's death, before directing every Templar in the city to leave with him because Val Royeaux is no longer worthy of their protection. The local population is shaken by the Templars' betrayal immediately, with one local food vendor offering to send supplies to the Inquisition right away. We check on the Chantry mother too, who is still laying on the ground but conscious. She has already been told that most of the Templars in the city have left and those who remain loyal to the Chantry are too few be called an order. We ask if her she thinks any differently of the Inquisition now, and she says their opinion doesn't seem to matter anymore.

So, the trip to Val Royeaux pretty much got us nowhere... but after the debacle in the town square, Torquemada does receive a number of strange invitations. The first arrives via an official messenger, who says that First Enchanter Vivienne, also known as Madame du Fer, would like us to visit her at a nearby estate. The second arrives via an arrow that strikes the ground near us, and the note attached says a bad person wants to hurt us, but there are clues we can follow to find them. Lastly, we get an invitation in person from Grand Enchanter Fiona, who is apparently the leader of the mage rebellion. Torquemada questions how she managed to get into Val Royeaux unnoticed, but Fiona dodges the question and says we should meet with her in Redcliffe to discuss how the mages and the Inquisition can help each other.

So, you're saying we shouldn't go to the guy who likes assaulting old women and appeal to his sense of reason?

With the Inquisition still a fledgling movement with few allies, this level of interest is promising even if we're not sure what any of these people want with us. Is it possible that one of these invitations will lead to a valuable alliance that gives more credibility to Torquemada and her mission? Or are they traps designed to give us a false sense of security before leading us into an ambush? Cassandra is suspicious as always, but she and Torquemada agree that we can't afford to ignore these opportunities. In the next update, we'll be following up on these offers and dealing with the consequences....