Dragon Age Inquisition Playthrough - Grey Expectations

With so many Templars corrupted by Corypheus, Torquemada is concerned by Hawke's suggestion that another great order of warriors, the Grey Wardens, may suffer a similar fate. So, she directs Leliana to send scouts to a region called Crestwood, where Loghain is supposed to be hiding out. This part of Fereldan is similar to the Storm Coast in the sense that it is rainy, gloomy and saturated with things that want to kill us. The key feature of this area is not a coast, however, but a lake that sits where Old Crestwood used to exist before the darkspawn blight of Dragon Age: Origins. Somewhere under the lake is another fade rift, which is causing dead bodies to walk out of the water as undead that attack the new village. That's a crisis for another time, though.

Look, we have to live up to Amastacia's legacy. Protecting helpless villages from the undead wasn't really his thing.

At a crossroads near the new village, we find two Grey Wardens protecting a random villager from a couple of stray undead. Torquemada joins the fray and helps the Wardens to take down the walking corpses-- probably unnecessary, but they're grateful anyway. We strike up a conversation about what they're doing here and they say they're here to arrest Loghain, on the orders of their Warden-Commander, Clarel. They sound a bit reluctant about it too, but that's all the info they're going to share about their mission. Torquemada decides she'd better head to Loghain's hideout before someone else finds it.

Hawke is waiting for us at the entrance to a cave that was once used by smugglers. We warn him that there are Grey Wardens looking for Loghain but Chickene already knows. He says he hopes he doesn't have to kill them because most Wardens aren't bad men, they've just been given bad orders. We proceed inside the cave, where we meet a sword-brandishing Loghain who's ready for a fight before Hawke tells him to relax. He relaxes, introduces himself and confirms that yes, he's the same "traitorous Teyrn" who wanted to wipe out the Grey Wardens 10 years ago.

You know, Loghain, if being a Grey Warden doesn't work out, "The Traitorous Teyrn" is a great name for a pro wrestler.

Loghain has worked out that Corypheus hasn't corrupted the Grey Wardens exactly, but his connection to the darkspawn taint has somehow allowed him to influence the Wardens in a more subtle way. All Wardens, when they are close to dying due to their tainted blood, feel what is known as the Calling. It is a subconscious urge to go into the darkspawn lairs in the Deep Roads, where a Grey Warden will spend the last moments of their life killing as many darkspawn as possible before being slain. Corypheus has found a way to make all Wardens feel the Calling simultaneously. Many have already disappeared into the Deep Roads and the rest believe they're about to die, too. As for the Hero of Fereldan, his whereabouts have been unknown for a while now.

Loghain continues, saying that Warden-Commander Clarel ordered his arrest after he spoke out against her plan to use blood magic to solve the problem. He does not believe she is being controlled by Corypheus, she is just so determined to her cause that she is going to extremes... a mindset he admits to being familiar with. Hawke adds that in any case, he has seen enough blood magic to know that such rituals never end well. Loghain agrees, and says we should go to a Warden stronghold in a region of Orlais called the Western Approach, where this Commander's supporters are gathering for the ritual.

The odds aren't good that Amastacia is still alive but let's face it, maybe we're better off without him.

Before heading to the Western Approach, however, Torquemada is going to return to Skyhold and see if she can navigate the fortress without getting lost this time. With the help of some dwarven engineers, rubble is being cleared and fewer doors are blocked off now, but the place still needs plenty of work. We learn that Skyhold includes a garden and Torquemada has gathered enough resources to improve it a little. There are two options: we can either make it an herb garden, which will allow us to plant seeds and gather more key ingredients when we need them, or a Chantry garden which... is just a garden that really likes Andraste, I guess. Being Dalish, Torquemada sets the place up as an herb garden and tells Mother Giselle, who is hanging out among the shrubberies, that she'll have to go somewhere else if she wants to lead people in song again. Preferably, a different video game.

Another feature of Skyhold we haven't mentioned is the Inquisitor's throne. Here, we have the opportunity to decide the fate of certain characters, such as Alexius who we managed to defeat without killing. It's possible to show mercy, or proceed straight to an execution if we want, but Torquemada remembers how Alexius treated his own prisoners in the alternate future she visited. We tell him he's going straight to the dungeons and Leliana will be in charge of his interrogation... which probably makes him wish he was dead. Josephine also brings an Avvar barbarian before us whose tribe was attacking us because one of his idiot sons mistakenly thought we were in league with Tevinter. He's not exactly apologetic for his actions, but it seems his honor compels him to act this way so we make things easier for him. We arm him and his entire tribe and banish him to the Tevinter Imperium. Everyone comes out of that decision feeling better about themselves.

He was also attacking Skyhold with a catapult. Using goats as ammunition. I'm not going to punish a guy for being AWESOME.

Eventually, we turn our attention back to the war table and the Western Approach. The site that Loghain gave us is in the middle of Orlais' western desert and our favorite dwarven scout, Harding, confirms that it's the most inhospitable location we've sent her to so far. In addition to aggressive native wildlife, there seems to be a large area of hot springs that spew sulfur and noxious gases. One of her scouts came back from those springs in a state of delirium, so she's not sure if his claims of spotting a High Dragon are correct or not. In her professional opinion as head scout, she says that there's something "off" about the whole area. She does, however, confirm the location of the Grey Wardens' meeting place and reiterates that we should proceed with caution.

As promised, the desert is full of some nasty predators called quillbacks, as well as some critters called hyenas that look nothing like hyenas, and critters called phoenixes which look nothing like phoenixes. Sure enough, the High Dragon wasn't a hallucination either, and we steer clear of it as we head to a large temple/fortress where the Grey Wardens are gathering. Hawke and Loghain are standing at the foot of a bridge that leads to the structure ahead and Hawke tells us that he'll watch our backs while the rest of us go in with Loghain. ...Kind of living up to your name there, aren't you Chickene? Regardless, Torquemada walks across the bridge and finds a group of Grey Wardens being led in a ritual by Tevinter Magister Livius Erimond who, sure enough, turns out to be a Venatori cultist.

"In death... cookies?" I hope it's cookies. Please let it be cookies.

Erimond kills a young Warden who is protesting the ritual, summons a rage demon and has one of the less scrupulous Wardens bind it to his service. He sees us approach and thanks us for bringing Loghain to him since his friend Clarel is still quite unhappy with him. We try to tell the Wardens that they're being deceived by the Venatori, but Erimond demonstrates that all the Wardens with new demon friends are under the total control of his blood magic. He brags that the Wardens were all too willing to accept Tevinter's help once they thought they were all about to die, and Corypheus now has an army that will march into the Deep Roads to kill the Old Gods in their lairs. Torquemada tells him that's not going to happen now and demands that he release the Wardens under his control. The magister, however, says Corypheus told him how to handle us and begins to channel energy that makes our glowy hand get wracked with pain.

He didn't count on the fact that Torquemada is more comfortable with her mark now, and she throws off the energy while Erimond continues to gloat. Realizing that he has a fight on his hands that he hadn't planned for, he tells the Wardens and their demons to attack us, and flees. There are plenty of them to deal with but we have Loghain's help in addition to our usual band of companions, and group of demons and enslaved Wardens are quickly slain. Hawke joins us shortly thereafter and curses the use of blood magic once again. Loghain tells Hawke that the Wardens were desperate and had good reason to turn to blood magic, but Hawke replies that every blood mage has rationalized their actions some way and it is never justified. Returning to the business at hand, Hawke and Loghain say that they will assist our scouts in tracking Erimond in order to determine where the rest of the Wardens are. Torquemada is a bit annoyed by the fact that he got away, but at least this means we can get out of the desert.

Look, Traitorous Teyrn, could we maybe discuss this AFTER we get all this sand out of our codpieces?

We return to Skyhold once more and find Hawke chatting with Varric outside our war room. He's just finished telling my advisers that Erimond and the Wardens are using Adamant Fortress as their base of operations. That's not the best news he could have delivered, because the fortress in question was designed to stand against a darkspawn blight. Cullen knows that it was built before trebuchets existed, however, and believes that all we need to do is focus our siege engines on a key point, then get to Clarel as quickly as possible. Leliana hopes that some Grey Wardens in the fort will be willing to see reason, so she agrees that we should fight them as little as possible and focus on getting to Clarel and Erimond. This tactic sounds all well and good, but we expect it's not going to be that easy to execute. It's the best plan we've got though, so Torquemada tells her advisers to make the appropriate preparations.

At this point, we don't really need the battering ram but Cullen brought it and by the Maker, he's going to use it.

Some time later, Cullen has brought our trebuchets to a promising-looking section of wall and has made a hole for us to enter. Torquemada enters with Varric, Blackwall, Solas and Loghain and Cullen tells us that Hawke is assisting Inquisition soldiers who are fighting on the battlements. The walls above us are full of archers, mages and demons who can rain attacks down on us from above and Cullen hints that they may need some more help up there. Torquemada takes everyone up and starts thinning out the army of demons, which becomes quite easy when we round a corner and find Chickene Hawke obliterating a pride demon singlehandedly. We backstab it while it's distracted and Chickene casually asks where we'd like him to go next. We ask him to help our reinforcements and let us go it alone, since they'll need his firepower more than we will.

Eventually, we find a central courtyard where Clarel and Erimond are standing above the assembled Wardens and demons, issuing orders. Hawke catches up with Torquemada as she enters the area and tries to tell Clarel that Erimond is turning her Wardens over to his darkspawn master. Erimond replies that the Inquisition will say anything if it suits their agenda and tries to convince Clarel to let him summon a powerful demon that she can bind for herself. We brought Blackwall with us for a reason though, and ask him to speak on our behalf. He reminds his fellow Wardens that those who have heard of him know his commitment to the order and he wouldn't be with the Inquisition if it conflicted with his duty. At this, even Clarel falters in her support for Erimond, so the Venatori announces that Corypheus has sent another of his followers to his defense. At that point, an archdemon shows up.

"Hold on, hold on! Let me check my notes here... oh, there it is!

'Grey Wardens + Archdemons = Mortal Enemies'! Son of a bitch! I even had it underlined!"

Clarel has gone along with plenty of forbidden magic at Erimond's urging, but she knows an archdemon when she sees one and the Wardens kind of have a rule about killing them. Erimond makes one last feeble attempt to convince her that he's still on her side, but as Clarel starts firing bolts of magic at the archdemon, the other Wardens follow her lead and turn their swords on their mages under Corypheus' control. Erimond attempts to flee and we follow Clarel as she pursues him. She knocks him down with a spell as he runs along a wall and is ready to finish him off, but the archdemon has followed the chase, too. It mauls Clarel with a snap of its jaws, flings her to the ground and moves in for the kill. The Warden-Commander channels as much energy as she can in response, detonating a magic explosion when the archdemon is directly above her.

Her spell does some damage to the archdemon, but not as much damage as it does to the Adamant Fortress itself. The walls we're standing on start crumbling. Torquemada and her companions try to run for safe ground, but everything is collapsing so it's only a matter of time before we're in a freefall. It's a long way down to the earth below so as we begin to plummet, Torquemada uses her mark to open a rift, which she, Varric, Solas, Blackwall, Loghain and Hawke all fall through. When we reach the other side, we discover that we've entered the Fade but it's not just our spirits that are here. Solas confirms that we have found a way to physically enter the Fade, which he finds fascinating but the rest of us find pretty disturbing.

Solas, don't just stand there, staring at the Fade. I'm taking screenshots. They'll last longer.

It's not long before we find out that we're not alone here but surprisingly, the first thing we encounter is friendly... in fact, it looks exactly like Divine Justinia V. Solas and Torquemada believe that it can't actually be the Divine, but either a spirit inspired by her or a demon trying to deceive us. Whatever it is, she tells us that we're in an area of the Fade controlled by a fear demon that calls itself Nightmare. It's an ally of Corypheus, and she says it's responsible for making all the Grey Wardens feel the Calling. Also, this is supposedly the same part of the Fade that we entered during the disaster at the Conclave, and we left something behind: our memories. Not-Justinia points toward a group of nearby demons and says they're holding on to them. Sounds odd, but we planned on killing demons anyway so we might as well start with that group.

Although we're still unsure of this spirit's motivations, we can't deny the results. The demons literally drop memories and we pick them up to get flashbacks of the events that led up to the destruction of the Conclave. Some things wind up being what we expected, such as the memory that shows us that Torquemada barged into the chamber while Corypheus was sacrificing Justinia, causing him to drop orb of power. Torquemada grabbed the orb with her left hand as it rolled toward her, which caused her to absorb the power of the anchor. What was surprising about that scene, however, was the fact that Grey Wardens were holding Justinia still while Corypheus performed his ritual. Additional memories show that Justinia was pulled into the Fade with Torquemada when she first acquired the anchor, and it was the Divine that people saw standing alongside her in the Fade, not Andraste. Luckily for Torquemada, she never bought this whole "Herald of Andraste" thing in the first place.

Thanks to our trip to the Fade, we now have the comfort of knowing... how Justinia died horribly. I guess.

The Fade being the Fade, everyone with us could see the memories along with Torquemada and Hawke isn't at all happy about the fact that the Wardens have been helping Corypheus all this time. Loghain tries to defend the Wardens again, but Torquemada reminds them that they're in the middle of the Fade and still have a fear demon to deal with. The arrival of more demons proves that this argument will have to wait, and our group continues forward in order to confront Nightmare. The demon is aware of our presence now that we've been taking our memories back and begins taunting us. He's not very good at it though, because when he gloats about being the leader of Corypheus' demon army, Not-Justinia points out that taking him down will banish all the demons under his command, much to Nightmare's annoyance.

The spirit accompanies us all the way to the fear demon's lair, which is a good thing because its aspect is accompanied by a rather large, mutated spider. Not-Justinia flies toward it, and the two of them vanish in a flash of energy. This leaves all of us to deal with the smaller, but still powerful part of the fear demon and its spiderling swarms. Normally, this would be a difficult battle but we still have Hawke and Loghain with us, and despite Nightmare's attempts to hide from us and let the spiderlings fight for him, he can't get away from the six of us for long before someone finds him. The demon is finally destroyed and we're about to make our escape when we realize that the giant mutant spider was only temporarily dealt with by Not-Justinia. Now it's back, and it wants to eat something corporeal.

"INQUISITOR. YOU REFER TO ME AS A MUTANT SPIDER. THIS IS HURTFUL.

YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW ME AS A MONSTROSITY, YET YOU MAKE JUDGMENTS."

Loghain immediately volunteers to fight the monstrosity while we retreat, because the Wardens caused this problem and as a Warden, he intends to fix it. Hawke tells Loghain that his order will need him to rebuild, that it was his failure to kill Corypheus that caused all this in the first place and he'll deal with it instead. Naturally, it falls to Torquemada to make the decision. The fact is, we do intend to have the Chickene Hawke help us deal with Corypheus but this thing isn't Corypheus. Not only is Hawke more likely to have better insight about our enemy, but the Champion of Kirkwall is more valuable as an ally than one disgraced Teyrn turned Grey Warden. We're not happy about sending Loghain to his death, but he charges into the fight without hesitation and we take the opportunity to leave the Fade. A short time later, Torquemada and her four companions step through a portal back to the physical world and find that all the demons within the Adamant Fortress are vanquished, and the Grey Wardens are firmly on her side.

Torquemada tells the Wardens that Loghain sacrificed himself, just as he promised he would in his oath. One of the Wardens says that he was the last senior Warden whose whereabouts were known, and they are now leaderless. We had a feeling he'd say that. Torquemada continues, saying that the Grey Wardens are invited to add their strength to the Inquisition in order to defeat the archdemon and its darkspawn master, Corypheus. Additionally, since they're still susceptible to his corruption, we would much rather keep a close eye on them than exile them for Orlais and leave them vulnerable. The Grey Wardens accept her offer without hesitation, which makes Solas a little bit uneasy but Varric and Blackwall are quite pleased with our decision.

Look, how important could Orlais be? You couldn't even go there in the previous two games.

Upon returning to Skyhold, Leliana discusses the revelations from our recovered memories with us, but we're not too concerned with the nature of Not-Justinia, or the fact that we're really not the Herald of Andraste. So, Leliana tells us that our focus should now be firmly on Orlais, because we may have freed the Wardens from Corypheus' corruption and vanquished an army of demons, but even this will be meaningless if Orlais falls. Our invitation to Empress Celine's ball has been arranged but there are plenty of other regions for us to explore, including Emprise du Lion, a known stronghold of the Venatori and the Red Templars. Leliana thinks we should focus on ensuring Celine's safety and go to the ball, but destabilizing Corypheus' forces in the area may be a better way of keeping Orlais safe. That's a decision for the next update, though!