Dragon Age Inquisition Playthrough - Boy, That Escalated Quickly

The arrival of an army at the gates of Haven is surprising to say the least. Cullen is quick to point out that the village was never meant to be a defensive stronghold and our ability to repel an invasion is limited at best. With few other options though, Torquemada heads to the main gate of the city to lead the defense. The gate is already rattling due to the presence of an intruder, but this visitor isn't part of the army marching on the village. He kindly asks us to open the gate so we can talk, and upon doing so we see an odd-looking, blonde-haired young man with the bodies of a couple of enemy soldiers next to him. He informs us that his name is Cole, that the Elder One is unhappy with us for stealing his mages from him, and this situation is exactly as bad as it looks. Fortunately, the Inquisition built some siege engines just in case someone tried to attack Haven and Torquemada takes Blackwall, Varric and Dorian with her to defend these trebuchets against the oncoming attackers.

We know he's not part of the approaching army...
because no self-respecting general would allow one of his soldiers to wear a hat that ridiculous.

Even though the bulk of this army is still in the hills, there are plenty of soldiers coming to attack the trebuchets just outside of the village. The attackers appear to be Templars, but there's definitely something wrong with them: they're glowing with red energy and the leaders appear to have red lyrium growing out of their bodies. We can only assume that the Templars have been corrupted by the Elder One and their forces have now joined his. Torquemada doesn't waste any time in putting these knights out of their misery and allowing our siege engine operators to rain as much destruction as they can down on the advancing army. We then proceed to our second trebuchet, which has been overrun by these "red Templars", and get it operational again. With a well-placed volley, we're able to cause an avalanche on the snowy mountain near the battlefield, which looks like it claims the lives of many of the Elder One's soldiers. Unfortunately, this is when his best minion joins the fight.

A large dragon arrives, destroys the trebuchet responsible for the devastating attack, and flies toward the village of Haven to do more damage. We immediately head back to the gate, where Cullen is trying to herd as many people as possible off of the front lines and into the Chantry. He says that they have no defense against a dragon, and the Chantry is the strongest building in the village, so the best strategy is to have the townsfolk and soldiers bunker down there. With the entire village retreating into the Chantry, red Templars begin to advance into Haven, so Torquemada and her companions need to fight their way through the town. On the way, we hear the cries of other townspeople who need help. The tavern owner is trapped under burning rubble, our researcher and our alchemist have gotten too close to flammable ingredients and our requisitions officer is trying to fight off a group of Templars all by herself. These NPCs can and will die unless you intervene quickly, so Torquemada stealthily walks around the Templars in order to help her people while her followers keep them distracted. It's impossible to save everyone, but Torquemada saves who she can.

Cullen manages to look heroic and valorous, even when retreating from his mutated, former allies.

Once inside the Chantry, the hopelessness of our situation becomes clear. We're completely outnumbered by the army outside our gates, there's no escape route out of the Chantry and the Elder One isn't likely to accept a surrender. The stranger named Cole, who is tending to Chancellor Roderick as we enter the Chantry, also says that he's pretty sure the dragon is actually an Archdemon. There's a little bit of good news, though: Cole says the Chancellor wants to say something before he dies from the sword wound in his torso. Roderick has had a change of heart since we closed the breach and as someone who made a pilgrimage to the Temple of the Sacred Ashes when he was younger, he knows of a path out of Haven. He can show the villagers the way out, but the Elder One's armies are going to need to be distracted in order to ensure that our people aren't followed. Cole says it "hurts" to listen to the Elder One, but he believes he's come for Torquemada specifically and won't be inclined to pursue if she's the distraction. Cullen doesn't like it, but recognizes that it's the best plan. Torquemada agrees and says she'll do her best to come out of this situation alive.

There's still one trebuchet in Haven that the dragon hasn't destroyed, so that's where Torquemada is headed. She has an idea about how to use it too, but she'll need to aim it first. This means repelling a large number of red Templars in order to set up the shot, which isn't easy when it's just her and her three companions that are doing the fighting. It's even less easy when the Elder One sends in a grotesquely corrupted brute called a "behemoth" into the fight, which has a red lyrium arm wider than a telephone pole to swing at you. Sneak attacks don't cripple the behemoth the same way that they affect lesser minions, and it's generally resistant to any attack that gets thrown at it. The wild swings are easy enough for Torquemada to dodge though, and the monstrosity is eventually whittled down until it falls. Torquemada finishes aiming the trebuchet, but that's when the Elder One and his pet Archdemon show up. She tells her followers to run while they still can.

Is this the guy who's going to deliver the villain monologue, or is he just the front man for the tavern's death metal cover band?

Torquemada doesn't even bother trying to fight the dragon, since it's far beyond her abilities. So, the Elder One calls it off and speaks to Torquemada directly. He tells us that our mark is called the "anchor", which he designed himself before we stole it from him. He's come to take it back, because he wants to assault the heavens themselves with it. Torquemada asks him why he it's so important, and he continues to talk about his experiences in the Fade, where he went to the throne where the Maker is supposed to sit and found it empty. He literally wants to make himself a god, and claims to have be someone who came close to becoming a god thousands of years ago. He names himself Corypheus, and attempts to take the anchor back for himself by force. After seizing Torquemada and channeling his power into her hand, he says that her meddling has made it impossible to extract from her body. He's displeased, and prepares to kill her.

Torquemada manages to get away and seizes a nearby discarded greatsword, much to Corypheus' amusement. He begins to tell her that resistance is futile, when Torquemada replies that he should enjoy his victory while he can, and cuts the rope holding the trebuchet's payload in place. A large boulder is flung toward a nearby snowy hillside, triggering an avalanche that will consume the village of Haven. Torquemada makes a run for it and Corypheus, realizing that even he can't survive if he remains here, gets on the back of his dragon and flies away. The avalanche moves faster than Torquemada can run though, and at some point during her escape, she blacks out.

"Oh, COME ON! That was cutscene power! You always complain when the antagonists do it to you, you damned hypocrite!"

We wake up in a tunnel underneath Haven, with Torquemada's mark glowing more vibrantly than ever. She walks, with difficulty, toward what she thinks is an exit but finds it blocked by a small group of demons. The game tells us we have a new way to use the mark, though. Torquemada focuses its energy on a point above the group of demons and a small rift appears above them, which pulls four of the five of them back into the fade. Killing the last demon is easy after that, but we're no closer to finding where the rest of our Inquisition went. The tunnel leads to the surface, where it's after dark and the only way forward is through a windy, frozen mountain pass. Visibility is limited at best and there are no signs to indicate where Haven's vllagers went, but the quest marker directs us to walk deeper into the frozen terrain ahead.

After trudging through the winter wasteland for hours, Torquemada finally comes over the crest of a hill and sees fires burning in a large encampment below. An Inquisition search party is already coming our way as we approach, so Torquemada allows herself to pass out and let her soldiers take her to the camp. When she awakens in a cot later, Mother Giselle is by her side and her advisors are having a heated argument nearby. Most of the villagers made it out safely, but Cullen and Cassandra in particular are trying to figure out who's to blame for this defeat. Torquemada wants to calm everyone down, but Mother Giselle doesn't think that will help. She leads everyone in song instead... which doesn't solve any problems but it boosts morale a little.

"You make an excellent point. In lieu of refuting it, we're all going to sing a hymn now, and you're going to like it."

Solas, on the other hand, has useful information for us. He starts by saying that the humans may support an elf for now, but they won't be happy when they learn where one of Corypheus' most powerful artifacts came from. Solas says our nemesis was using an orb of Dalish origin but like so many other Dalish artifacts, even the elves know little about it. On a happier note, he knows of a fortress built long ago that has been forgotten over time and he can help us lead people there. One montage later, Torquemada comes over the crest of another mountainside to find a massive castle below: Skyhold.

This is great, but really, Solas... would it have KILLED you to mention this perfectly good abandoned stronghold earlier?

Skyhold is vast, mostly intact and will serve as an excellent base for both housing our refugees and defending ourselves from another attack. It's also kind of a mess right now, with several doors blocked by rubble and even some partially collapsed walls. We can work on that, though. In the meantime, Varric comes to see us and says that once he saw it was Corypheus we were dealing with, he got in touch with a friend who can help. We tell Varric that's great, ask for his name and say we'll meet him right away. Varric becomes evasive and says it'll be better if we meet him up on the battlements. As we head toward the stairs that lead to the top of Skyhold's outer walls, we see Cassandra savagely beating another training dummy. She doesn't have much to say except that Varric's friend better not be who she thinks he is. She's going to be disappointed. When Torquemada arrives on top of the crumbling walls of her new fortress, Varric introduces us to the Champion of Kirkwall: Chickene Hawke.

Chickene starts out grumpy, saying he doesn't know why we bothered to contact him since he left Kirkwall such a mess. Torquemada asks him why he's not viscount anymore, and he politely explains that the Templars started using a new kind of lyrium to boost their powers. Red lyrium. They became paranoid and stripped Hawke of his title, and he had to leave while he still could. Varric steers the conversation to Corypheus, because he and Hawke have fought him before. Hawke confirms that Corypheus once lured him to a fort where he had a small army of corrupted Grey Wardens waiting to ambush him. He believes Corypheus is a darkspawn, but thinks the creature itself is not sure of what it is. He is just as uncertain about how it managed to survive, because both he and Varric were quite sure they killed it. What he does know is he already managed to corrupt Grey Wardens and force them to drink darkspawn blood once, and suspects he may have succeeded again. Chickene says that he should contact his friend in the Wardens who was worried about some kind of corruption when they last spoke. His name is Loghain Mac Tir.

With the Templars being corrupted and another Archdemon appearing, it's good to know some things don't change.
Chickene Hawke is just as unpleasant a person to talk to as he was in Dragon Age II. It's comforting.

Once our meeting with Chickene is finished, Cassandra violently confronts Varric about the fact that he lied to her during Dragon Age II, because he knew where Hawke was the whole time. Varric confirms that he did know, but refused to hand Hawke over to Cassandra because he felt he had been through enough already. Torquemada separates the two and once Varric leaves, Cassandra says that she's not really mad at the dwarf. She believes that Hawke may have been one of the only people who could have kept Divine Justinia save at the conclave and she blames herself for believing Varric's lies. Torquemada tells her that what's done is done at this point, and we have to work together if we're going to defeat Corypheus. Cassandra recognizes that this is her duty now, and agrees not to take her frustration out on Varric in the future. With that resolved, Torquemada is left to face her war table again... we know from our vision of the future that Corypheus will try to kill Celine, the Empress of Orlais next. We also have the option of finding Loghain instead of traveling to Orlais. Next time, we'll choose our mission and begin exploring options on how to make Skyhold prettier!