In Brief - The Dragon Age Keep

The release of Dragon Age: Inquisition is just around the corner and, with the title coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4, fans have been wondering how they'll be able to get the stories of their Warden and their Hawke in the game. Last week, EA gave us the answer in the form of the Dragon Age Keep. It's a website that allows you to replay the story of the past two games and customize the choices that will make an impact in Inquisition. It's similar in concept to the Mass Effect Genesis DLC, included with PlayStation 3 copies of Mass Effect 2 due to the fact that ME1 was an Xbox 360 exclusive at the time.

Under the Nature of the Beast section, the Tapestry says that Amastacia "brokered peace" between elves and werewolves.

There was no option for, "was so indecisive that they worked it out on their own just to be rid of him."

At first glance, this seems to suggest that any saved games you have are useless but, if your Origin account is linked to your Xbox Live or PSN account, you can import your characters' appearance as well. Also, it should be noted that importing save files between Mass Effect games wasn't exactly flawless. Appearance options for a Shepard created in the first game would sometimes glitch by the third game, and Conrad Verner would get confused if he survived, too (though Bioware cleverly chalked that up to him being an idiot).

This is just one of several points in the narrative that can be changed depending on your preferences.

All things considered, I think this was a pretty good way of dealing with continuity and cross-platform issues. Also, it clearly doubles as a marketing tool for DAI and does pretty well at that, too... as long as you're willing to sign up for an Origin account. Varric's narration is a great way of introducing people to the story of the series and it's a shame that can't be shared outside of the site itself. Still, I'm hopeful this tool will provide a relatively seamless method for us to personalize aspects of DAI, regardless of which platform we use.

Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - The End

In Redcliffe, we encounter a familiar scene of a villager running up to us, saying they're under attack and they need our help. Amastacia remembers how this place got through the undead attacks just fine and turns to leave. The darkspawn spot us though, and we wind up defending what's left of the village by accident before proceeding to the castle. The monstrosities follow us but there's a company of guards in the courtyard who provide supporting fire as Amy, Morrigan, Leliana and Loghain deal with a few ogres.

Once the assault stops, we head inside to talk to our allies. Riordan has just arrived from a scouting mission with bad news. All reports indicated the horde was massing on Redcliffe but he took a look and there's only a small percentage of their total numbers here. The majority of the horde is marching to Denerim. The city we just left relatively defenseless by rallying our armies here. Oh, and the Archdemon is leading the charge.

Whoa, actual war? I'm more of a "light a beacon while other people fight" kind of guy.

Although we can't reach Denerim in time to stop the invasion, Anora and Eamon agree that we should march our armies there as soon as possible. Amy's pretty damned tired of walking at this point and asks if he can just direct his armies from here. Riordan speaks up to ruin our brilliant idea, insisting that the Grey Wardens must face the Archdemon. He also says he'll explain why to Loghain and Amy in private. Eamon doesn't question that, and suggests that everyone gets a good night's sleep before that whole forced march against a superior force thing.

We make our way to the upper floor of Eamon's castle, where Loghain is already waiting to talk to Riordan. With all of us assembled, Riordan explains that an Archdemon's soul will jump to a new darkspawn when it dies, to be born again in a new body. Since Grey Wardens bear the darkspawn taint, the soul will jump to a Warden's body instead if they make the killing blow. This prevents it from being reborn, and kills off both the Archdemon and the Warden for good.

"Sucks to be you guys, huh? LOL!"

Amy says there's no way he's sacrificing himself, and Riordan says he plans on making the killing blow himself since his darkspawn taint will kill him soon anyway. He reminds us that there are no guarantees in this battle though and we should be prepared to do what's necessary. Amy makes a mental note of that. Specifically, it says "run like hell."

For now, Amy is ready to get some sleep but he can't because someone else wants to talk to him. Morrigan sits on his bed, explaining that she overheard our conversation and knows of a way to cheat death. All we have to do is sleep with her and AMY NEEDS NO OTHER DETAILS.

Please enjoy this bottle of bleach in lieu of Morrigan pretending to enjoy the sight of a naked Amastacia.

We ignore the bit about "Flemeth wants Morrigan to have a baby born with the soul of an Old God" and spend the night with our witch. The next morning, Amy is in a strangely good mood as they march on Denerim. Most of the city is in flames by the time we get there, and we stop just outside the walls to rally the troops. Anora tells Amy to keep his mouth shut while she gives a stirring speech describing the Grey Wardens' heroics. We let her do her thing, and our armies charge into the city. Our initial push overwhelms the darkspawn assembled inside the main gate and we establish a forward camp there once the stragglers are cleared out.

Riordan finds us to talk strategy. He suggests that Amy and Loghain go one way while he goes another to ensure all the Grey Wardens aren't wiped out at once. He also says he'll go after the Archdemon directly and we can try to find the darkspawn generals. Last but not least, we need to stick to the mandatory 4 person party and leave the rest of our allies behind to guard our forward camp. Damn, who died and made this guy Greyest Warden of them all?

...Oh, right.

We decide to head into the city with Loghain, Morrigan and Leliana while Polystyrene, Shale and Oghren stay behind with Sten in command. Each party member takes a moment to wish us luck, or say goodbye in case we all die. Some, like Leliana, are quite sentimental while Shale simply says, "so, the Archdemon's next? Good luck with that."

We head to the market district first, which is swarming with darkspawn including one with a particularly large axe and more hitpoints than the two ogres he brought with him. This would be the first general. Loghain proves to be a competent fighter and weathers the attacks as well as Amy does. With the market clear, we proceed to the alienage where we run into Shianni again. She's armed herself with a bow but an ogre is about to burst through the flimsy wooden barricade the elves have constructed, so she's more than happy to let us take over. The brutish darkspawn in the front stand between us and the second general, who is a mage. Amy charges past the ogres to confront the general while our allies deal with the main force. Not the best strategy, but it's better than letting a powerful mage sling spells unchecked. Many healing potions later, the battle is won.

The Archdemon appears briefly to destroy a bridge in the alienage, preventing us from retreating even if we wanted to. As Amy proceeds to the palace district, we cut to Riordan who is awaiting the Archdemon atop a building near Fort Drakon. He senses it coming and seizes his opportunity, jumping on its back and driving his swords under its scales. The Archdemon pulls up into a steep climb to shake Riordan off. He clings to his sword but the force causes the blade to slice downward across the Archdemon's wing and he falls to his death. The Archdemon is now flightless however, and lands on top of Fort Drakon.

"Killed one of you! Aww yeah! Time to raze the roof!"

Amy sees the wounded Archdemon land and we make for the fort. There's heavy resistance, but we haven't used our new warhorn yet. We have the ability to summon elves, knights, dwarves, Templars or a few golems to our location and Amy calls in some Dalish archers to help clear the way to Fort Drakon. There are darkspawn in the fort too, including some beefy assassins, but they're small fry compared to what awaits us on the roof.

The Archdemon is slightly larger than the High Dragon and has lots more pointy bits. Our strategy for dealing with it is basically the same, but this time we can call in the golems. They trade punishment with the Archdemon while we surround it and start chipping away at its hide. However, it can still fly short distances and is not shy about running away when we're in an advantageous position.

This should be the hardest fight of the game, but there are a couple of problems. One, the armies you summon provide a very effective distraction and you don't have to watch your party's health as closely. Two, there are a few ballistas set up on the roof and you can take cheap shots at the Archdemon while your allies keep it busy. So the fight isn't too challenging; it's just long.

With the proper timing, you can keep lobbing bolts indefinitely, making this thing more powerful than two dozen knights.

We have to call in the Templars after the Archdemon kills all our golems, but it's eventually whittled down to its last ounce of life. Amy grabs a greatsword that he doesn't even know how to use that well, climbs onto the back of the Archdemon's neck, and rams the blade into its head. A shaft of light erupts from the wound which makes the darkspawn flee in terror, followed by a small explosion of energy... but as Morrigan promised, Amy survives the experience.

All that's left is the epilogue. Queen Anora assembles many important nobles together in the throne room of Denerim's palace to honor Amastacia. Most of our party is there as well. Alistair has kept his promise not to return, Shale seems to have wandered off and Morrigan has disappeared into the Wilds to prepare to be a new mother. Loghain is present though, confused about why Amy's not dead but he admits that we've earned his respect. Oghren has a trio of dwarven ladies around him, saying he might stay on the surface for a while. We flirt with Leliana, but she says she'll be off on a new adventure shortly. Sten says he's going back to his home in Par Vollen and thanks us for making that possible. Lastly, our sister has come to tell us our mother has finally stopped drinking... but only so she can lord her sobriety over her old drinking buddies.

Amy has the opportunity to ask a favor of the new human regent. For the final time in this game, he blows it.

Amy exits the palace to greet his adoring masses and we're shown a series of closing narratives about Ferelden. Queen Anora proves to be a good ruler but never remarries. Redcliffe never recovers from the undead incident and eventually becomes a ghost town. The Dalish prosper for a while, but their increased numbers inevitably bring them into conflict with humans again. As for Orzammar, King Bhelen starts off well by allowing casteless to fight darkspawn and become warriors. However, he becomes tyrannical over the use of the Anvil of the Void and Paragon Branka eventually locks herself in the deep roads with it, just like Caridin before her.

The fact that Amy is declared an ideal example of dwarven society is the strongest proof yet of its inevitable downfall.

So ends my playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins! There is an expansion to this game, somewhat cumbersomely entitled Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening. However, I think this is a good stopping point for now. I'll have to think about what to do next... let me know if there's anything you'd like to see!

Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - The Landsmeet

As Amy makes his triumphant entrance into the palace for the Landsmeet, his path is blocked once again by Ser Cauthrien. She's not happy that she beat us fair and square, and we would have stayed captured if that other prisoner hadn't foolishly declared There Is No Escape From Fort Drakon™. We try to persuade her to let us pass, but she says our very presence will shame the Landsmeet and is determined not to let that happen.

"I would tell you that you shall not pass, Warden, but you would only make a Gandalf joke. I know how you think."

Several guards rush in to attack us with her, but they're nowhere near as good as the ones she brought to Howe's estate. Morrigan, Leliana and Alistair hold them off while Amy shows Ser Cauthrien why two swords are better than one. Her attempt at a repeat victory fails, and Amy walks into the Landsmeet, albiet in in dirty armor. So Cauthrien managed to make him look a little sillier, at least.

Loghain is already debating with Eamon by the time we enter, and points us out as "the usurpers" immediately. That was the name of the cover band Amy played bass for back in Dust Town. About time someone noticed. Anyway, we came armed with evidence that Loghain allowed Rendon Howe to torture people and let Tevinter soldiers into the city to abduct elves. So, at this moment of truth... Amy repeats the unprovable line about Loghain abandoning Cailan at Ostagar.

Come on Loghain, can't you see that you're Teyrn this kingdom apart?

...No, huh? Umm... people! We have everything to lose and nothing to Loghain!

Wow, this crowd is a lot tougher than I thought.

Loghain turns this argument around masterfully. He admits he retreated, because Cailan was misled by Grey Warden tales of glory and had no hope of victory. Faced with a choice between throwing away an army in an attempt to save his king's life, or keeping the kingdom strong enough to survive, he made the only choice he could. No one regrets it more than he does, Loghain claims, and we insult the king's memory by suggesting otherwise.

Damn. When Loghain puts it like that, we're not entirely sure why we started this rebellion in the first place.

"Is it too late for me to withdraw my support for this man?"

He then demands to know what we've done with his daughter. Amy has completely forgotten by now. Loghain reminds everyone that Anora was abducted from her manor. At this point, the Queen appears and says she will speak for herself. She's much better at telling the crowd that Loghain has gone mad than Amy is, but Loghain's not giving up. He makes one last appeal to the nobles, reminding them that he's a proven general and Ferelden's best hope against the darkspawn.

Two nobles voice their support for the Wardens. Two other nobles voice their support for Loghain. Then... the crowd rallies behind Loghain.

"Loghain! Please shut this dwarf up for us!"

Arl Eamon says this isn't good. Amy, completely oblivious to what's going on, says nothing's been decided yet. Loghain makes things clear by declaring himself regent and ordering the guards to arrest us for treason. Arl Eamon shouts that we're not going down without a fight. His knights clash with the palace guards.

A brief scuffle later, a revered mother of the Chantry demands that we stop this violence. She says that in the past, such disputes were settled by trial by combat. Loghain agrees immediately and says he will fight Alistair. Amy speaks up, saying we accept... but Morrigan will be Alistair's champion.

Morrigan, bravely showing sarcasm in the face of probable death, thanks us SO MUCH for volunteering her.

It's hard to tell which of the two of them hates me more at this point.

The witch looks terribly awkward as she and Loghain circle each other. He draws his sword and she draws hers, looking somewhat confident that she knows which end to hold. Loghain gives a war cry as combat starts... giving Morrigan time to shapeshift into a bear. She tackles Loghain to the ground, biting his armor but not doing as much damage as we'd like. He wriggles away and gets enough hits in to force Morrigan to shift back to human form and use her life draining spell to recover. Her hitpoints still looking too low for comfort, she tries a cone of cold. It's enough to bring him down.

Alistair is ready to see Loghain executed on the spot, but Riordan interrupts us. He knows the joining ritual and says we can turn Loghain into an ally by making him a Grey Warden. Anora adds that since this ritual is often fatal, she is content with letting fate decide whether he dies or lives. Alistair is livid.

Damn it, Riordan, you made Alistair mad! Everything was going GREAT before you showed up!

The royal bastard says becoming a Grey Warden is an honor, not a punishment. More importantly, he refuses to accept that Loghain could be a brother Warden and vows he will leave if we let him undertake the joining ritual. It is clear that Amy has to choose between keeping a proven friend or losing him over the slight chance at gaining his proven enemy as an ally.

Amy tells Alistair he's free to go. Anora contradicts us though, saying the Wardens still committed treason and she believes Alistair should pay the price with his life. Amy's reply?

I rarely put him in my party. He's more like a prop than an actual teammate at this point.

Alistair is completely stunned by how things went so wrong so fast. He asks Amy to please just let him exile himself in peace. Luckily for him, that's all Amy needs to hear to change his mind. Anora makes him swear never to pursue his claim to the throne and spares his life.

The whole bloody matter is finally decided. Loghain survives the joining ritual and becomes our new best friend. Eamon laments that King Maric's line is ended but is glad that Amy didn't get them all killed. He then announces that they will gather the armies in Redcliffe to meet the darkspawn and end the blight.

Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Denerim, Part Three

Amastacia awakens to find himself mostly naked in a cell in Fort Drakon. In his confusion, he instinctively looks around for how many empty flagons are on the floor and whether or not there's an angry dwarf woman in here demanding money. His memories of being gutted by some knight-lady slowly return, along with the realization that it was all the elf handmaiden's fault for insisting that they wear stupid disguises. An emaciated man in the cell next to us says Loghain's men were pretty rough when they brought us in, and we really must have pissed the Teyrn off. We tell him that it's none of his business but he keeps talking, suggesting we get comfortable because there is No Escape From Fort Drakon™. Amy says that's a tired cliché, and knows what to do next.

We shout at one of the guards, who walks over and says, "unless you're dying, I don't care."

"Relax, man," we tell him, "we just want to tell you about this great bar we found!"

Amy grabs the guard and slams his head into the cell's bars, rendering him unconscious. We take the key off his body, let ourselves out and strap his human-sized armor over our dwarven frame. Then we look at the emaciated guy and say, "see? Any time you say 'there is no escape' in a setting like this, that means someone's about to escape." To prove our point, we declare there is No Escape From Fort Drakon™ and unlock his cell. He runs off, possibly more afraid of us than the guards at this point.

"You killed a guard with a pun and escaped using a cliché? If you're not going to take this scene seriously, I'm out." 

Our gear is in a large chest, located conveniently near our cell. Feeling silly for trying to fit into the human armor, Amy strips it off and gets back into his usual plate mail. There are plenty of guards between him and the exit, but they're surprisingly ineffective against one angry, armored dwarf and his pair of longswords. As we're headed out, Morrigan and Leliana are running in. Leliana seems disappointed that they didn't get to enact their elaborate escape plan, but doesn't linger on it because she'll have plenty of opportunities to be disappointed in us in the near future.

Upon returning to Eamon's estate, the arl tells us he's relieved to see we're all right even though that's probably not true. He goes on to say that they have another idea about how to discredit Loghain, and tells us we should look into the disappearances at the elven Alienage. We're also told that Queen Anora wants to talk to us and Eamon warns that while she's a powerful ally, we shouldn't trust her completely.

Of course, Eamon's the same guy who couldn't see the brilliance of us stealing Loghain's crown, so we can't trust his opinions. We head down the hall to see Anora, who cuts right to the chase and says she wants to keep her throne. She has a list of reasons why we should listen but we assure her that we're not interested in backing our trusted ally. Anora may only be supporting us because we're convenient, but the woman knows how to make a self-serving grab for power and we respect that.

"For the record, your approval fills me with disgust. As did your question to Arl Eamon about whether or not I was still single."

For now though, Amy, Morrigan, Sten and Leliana are going to see what's up at the Alienage. This is the most run-down part of Denerim, complete with corpses that no one has disposed of and a giant tree that is just taking up space. Morrigan mocks the symbolism of the tree with us as we head to a long line of elves standing outside a hospital. A red-haired elf named Shianni is yelling at everyone that the plague is a lie and no one ever come out of that hospital. Her fellow elves mostly ignore her. Noticing us, she insists that something is up there but asks us not to do anything that will make things worse.

Amy, being Amy, muscles his way through the elves and up to the hospital's front door. A mage tells us we can't go in and we tell him we're dying... of curiosity. To see what the hospital looks like inside. The mage calls on the nearby guards to shut us up, and the elves scatter as all guards get killed in various ways.

Shianni lingers a moment to ask us what the hell we were thinking just now. Amy incredulously replies, "I fail to see how that was my fault." Shianni takes this as her cue to hide, because the dwarf is just getting warmed up.

"It's a good thing you didn't pick the City Elf origin. I'd hate to have you as my cousin."

Inside, the hospital is full of soldiers from another fiefdom called the Tevinter Imperium. Slavery is still legal in Tevinter and strangely enough, there are half a dozen elves in cages in one of the back rooms who insist they're not sick. Amy scratches his head and says he has to think a bit more about what the connection here is. For now, he tells the elves to stay in their cages. He can't fight the archdemon if he catches some kind of elf cooties.

The back door to the hospital leads through the elven slums, and the apartments are a lot more empty than they used to be. There's nothing decent to loot here though, so we proceed to a warehouse which is being guarded by more Tevinter soldiers. One asks us what we're doing here, but we stall him with a clever tactic we learned in the Penny Arcade Splinter Cell spy training manual (seriously, I think this may have been an intentional reference).

Seriously though, did you say "Tevinter Soldier"? Like that new Captain America movie? I heard that was awesome.

We eventually find ourselves confronting the mage in charge of this whole operation, who realizes it's time to close up shop. He'd like to make a little more profit before he leaves however, and offers to sell us documents implicating Loghain before he leaves. Morrigan says this had better be his opening offer. Amy agrees and tells the magister that he thinks it'd be a better deal if he gave us the documents and paid US for them. That doesn't go over well, so we insist they can leave their slaves behind too. Apparently that isn't what he wanted to hear, either. This is why Amy doesn't usually negotiate.

One beatdown later, the magister makes another offer: he can kill all the slaves and increase our own lifeforce. We tell him we have more than enough hit points to take on a dragon singlehandedly, but thanks. "I don't suppose you'd just let me go?" he asks. "No, I don't suppose I would." Amy replies.

Awkward pause.

This is probably a bad time to mention it, but you're not in a strong negotiating position when you're bleeding and on fire.

The magister makes his move and finally gets killed. The leader of the elven Alienage is freed and asks us what we intend to do with them. We tell him we don't care, and he takes that as his cue to exit.

A short while later, we return to Eamon, who says that the rest of our allies have arrived and it's time for the Landsmeet. We head toward the palace with Morrigan, Leliana and Alistair, who asks us if we still plan to support Anora for the throne. We tell him we do, and he admits to being relieved, because this means he can go back to ignoring his royal bloodline. He agrees this should make things easier at the Landsmeet, too. All Amy needs to do is be charismatic enough to sway the crowd....

Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Denerim, Part Two

Amastacia heads to Redcliffe and informs Arl Eamon he's finished screwing around-- for now. We cut to a scene of armies of humans flooding into Denerim for the Landsmeet as we arrive with Eamon and Alistair... and we're greeted by Loghain himself.

"Now entering the arena, being accompanied by his manager, Rendon Howe...."

The Teyrn chastises Eamon for calling all the nobles away from their lands when many of them are being invaded by darkspawn. A fair point, but Eamon counters with the fact that Loghain tried to kill him with poison. Amy says they both talk too much, and he'd like to go see Wade the armorsmith again. We just thought of some other weird critters we killed that he could make a nice hat out of!

Loghain storms off with an air of false indignation and Eamon shows us to his Denerim estate, which will serve as our new camp for the rest of the game. Like our camp, all our party members are hanging out in random locations and can be chatted with if we so desire. Oghren is in the dining room, eating anything that resembles food, Leliana is in the library and Morrigan is apparently sharing a room with Polystyrene the war hound. Meanwhile, Arl Eamon, Bann Teagan and Alistair are all hanging out in a large study upstairs, waiting for us to advance the plot.

Whoa. Alistair looks way more elven and feminine than I remember.

Upon approaching Eamon, he introduces us to an elf woman who works as one of Queen Anora's handmaidens. Amy is excited as he anticipates their plan is to kidnap all the Queen's servants to embarrass her. He's disappointed to hear she came here voluntarily because Loghain is keeping Anora under house arrest in Arl Howe's estate. Amy fails to see how this info helps us. Besides, you don't mess with Tim Curry.

Arl Eamon insists, however, that having the Queen on our side would greatly strengthen our cause. Alistair is all for it too, because he still doesn't want to be king and is more than happy to let Anora keep the throne as long as she's not interested in killing all Grey Wardens. This is why Amy never liked Alistair much... he never goes along with our short-sighted attempts to grab power. Well, screw both of you guys! We developed a foolproof plan of our own!

We take Leliana, Morrigan and Oghren with us to meet a contact we made during our first trip to Denerim: Slim Couldry. He's been talking about the perfect thieving opportunity for a while and the chance to strike has finally arrived. One of Loghain's couriers has something that will swing the balance of power in our favor and word on the street is, he just stopped into the Gnawed Noble Tavern. We pay Slim a generous finder's fee and then pay the tavern a visit.

Judging by that beer gut, I'd say this guy spends a lot of time keeping his eye on tavern patrons.

As promised, Loghain's man is in a side room surrounded by a small group of soldiers. We don't steal the item so much as we're immediately recognized as a Grey Warden and attacked. Not that the details matter to Amy. We take our prize off the courier's body and triumphantly return to Arl Eamon with the good news: he can rest easy, for we have just stolen... Loghain's crown!

...And then stupid Arl Eamon and stupid Alistair say they still think we should rescue the queen.

FINE. We keep our current party and head to Arl Howe's estate with Anora's handmaiden but yet again, we're stopped on the way there. This time, it's a group of thugs with very familiar Antivan accents. Their leader, Taliesen, asks why Zevran isn't with us. The answer is because we don't remember having anyone in our group by that-- oh! You mean the blonde elf who just walked up behind us so conveniently? What about him?

Taliesen tells Zevran that the Antivan Crows don't need to know about his previous failure and if he kills us now, he can go back to his old life. We've done this scene before, though. Assassins attack, we assassinate them first, and lecture their corpses about the folly of hubris. Zevran has been on the receiving end of that too, so there's no way he's going to-- uh, Zev? Why are you pointing that thing at us?

That's the face of a man who's about to make a "that's what she said" joke. KILL HIM NOW.

The elf has gotten tired of us telling him he's not as good of a rogue as Leliana and his accent isn't as sexy. So, he decided to see if the second assassination attempt is a charm. Leliana brings him down with a hail of arrows while Oghren and Amy take care of Taliesen and his hired muscle, which only serves to prove our point. This time, Zevran doesn't get back up. We take back the gear we equipped on him, say a few words about hubris and move on.

Upon arriving at Arl Howe's estate, our handmaiden turned spy tells us she has an elaborate plan to get us to the back entrance undetected. Amy, still trying to clean bits of Zevran off his sword, isn't listening and strolls into the gardens. Guards immediately come to investigate and Amy is forced to bloody the blade he just finished cleaning. The pushy elven lady tries to get us back on track, saying she'll distract the guards while we hide. That's not Amy's style. Sounding more annoyed than shocked as she stands over the dead bodies of the guards, the handmaiden demands that we put on the disguises that she worked so hard to find for us and sneak in.

This is exactly why Amy didn't want to go on this mission. He knew it was just going to be a big hassle. We finally try things the elf's way and stroll through Arl Howe's estate dressed like mercenaries. No one pays any attention to us, which seems odd considering how distinctive Amy's face is, but we don't question it and head for Anora's room.  Unfortunately, the door is glowing in an unfriendly way and Anora tells us that a spell has been cast on it, so we need to find the mage responsible for it to get her out.

"Hey, uh... do you think that hideous dwarf talking to the queen's door might be--"
"SHUT UP AND GO BACK TO LOOKING STOIC."

So after all that subterfuge, we have to head down into Arl Howe's secret dungeons and are immediately recognized as fake mercenaries because no one goes down into the secret dungeons without knowing the secret handshake. The handmaiden is dumb, that's all I'm trying to say. Regardless, we decide that we might as well free some other prisoners to distract the guards while we're breaking out Anora. One says his father is a bann, which doesn't seem important. Another is spouting crazy talk, so we stab him. The most interesting one, however, reaches through the bars and strangles his guard as soon as we distract him. He walks out of his cell shortly thereafter, wearing the guard's armor and thanking us because he's waited for weeks to do that.

Our new friend introduces himself as Riordan, one of the Orlesian Grey Wardens who was sent here to see if the Ferelden Grey Wardens needed help. He ran into Loghain first though, and was tossed in the dungeons to keep us from getting reinforcements. He also mentions that there are supplies stashed here in Denerim that he can help us get access to but for now, he's going to show himself out. We ask him if he's sure he doesn't want to kill Arl Howe for us, but he makes some weak excuses about starvation and torture. More like Grey Whiner, am I right?

Brother Genitivi walked into a Dragon Cult headquarters with a broken leg and I didn't hear him whinge about it.

With him gone, we head into the deepest part of the dungeon to kill Arl Howe. There's a powerful mage with him, more than likely the one who's keeping Anora magically locked up. Howe tells us that we should have run while we had the chance, but we're too mesmerized by his silky voice to be intimidated. We snap out of it when he attacks though, and Amy charges at the mage to ensure the nasty spells are kept to a minimum. Howe is a capable rogue, but he can't defend himself against Leliana, Morrigan and Oghren when he's busy trying to backstab Amy. The group is defeated and Howe chokes out a last, defiant statement before dying.

Hoping we murdered the right mage, we run back upstairs to Anora's room to find that the elven handmaiden has dressed the queen up as a guard to sneak her out of the estate.  ...Really, lady? You think anyone's going to be fooled by that? What is your obsession with making people dress up in outrageous costumes?

"Yes, your majesty! That looks divine! Now I have this nug costume for you to try on...."

Anora tells us to shut up and head for the exit and we do, but we find one of Loghain's best warriors, a woman named Ser Cauthrien, blocking the doors with a small army. She says we're under arrest for the murder of Arl Howe. We're actually kind of impressed that word of our accomplishment spread that fast. Unfortunately for her, we came here to rescue queens and kill guards... and the queen just ran away.

So far, we've fought a high dragon and Flemeth the Shapeshifter, and we still have the archdemon ahead of us. This, however, is the most difficult fight in the game. In addition to Ser Cauthrien being a strong warrior with a massive health bar, she's surrounded by about 15 competent guards, several of which can stun you and leave you unable to drink health potions. I've defeated this large group before with a character who saved Wynne at the Circle Tower, but without a healer behind us, we basically have no chance of victory.

This woman is about to get thank you notes from SO many dwarves in Orzammar who were waiting for Amy to get knocked down a peg.

All four party members get dropped and we cut to a scene of Anora returning to Arl Eamon with Morrigan, Leliana and Oghren behind her. She tells Eamon that Amy has been captured and taken to Fort Drakon. Then she suggests that they come up with a plan to rescue him. Arl Eamon pauses uncomfortably.

"Well?" Anora says.

"Hold on," Eamon replies, "I still haven't decided if we should."

Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Loose Ends

Amastacia is in Arl Eamon's throne room in Redcliffe with Alistair, Leliana and Morrigan as the Arl starts plotting a strategy with Bann Teagan.  Eamon has the right to call a meeting of human nobles called a Landsmeet in order to decide on who will succeed King Cailan as ruler of Ferelden.  The problem is that the strongest contender is Cailan's widow, Queen Anora, who is also Teyrn Loghain's daughter and is not likely to support the Grey Wardens.  Eamon says we need someone who is a stronger candidate than Anora... and points to Alistair.

I know I gave him King Cailan's old armor and it fits him perfectly, but so what? This game lets you equip it on Oghren, too.

It turns out that Alistair is King Maric's illegitimate son and this royal blood makes him more acceptable than Anora as Cailan's successor.  Alistair meant to tell us all of this when we went to Redcliffe, but Amy was gripped by golem fever at the time and he never got around to it after that.  Not that Amy cares one way or another... he just wants Loghain gone somehow so he can start flinging his personal army of elves, templars and golems at the darkspawn while he eats popcorn.  Eamon agrees that the army is impressive enough as it stands and we should waste no time in calling the Landsmeet.  Amy disagrees.  He has to invent popcorn before he can eat it on the battlefield, after all.

The Landsmeet in Denerim is the point of no return before the end of the game, so delaying it presents a final opportunity to wrap up side quests.  The first quest on our agenda, which has been pushed back for quite some time, is finding Sten's sword.  Its last known location was right here in Redcliffe, supposedly in the possession of a dwarf mercenary named Dwyn.  Of course, that was before the undead swarmed in... so when we head to his shack, we find it deserted and the greatsword "Asala" is sitting in a chest he left behind.  Unfortunately, it's an ordinary steel blade and by now, we've found quite a few two-handed swords and axes made from silverite and dragonbone.  Naturally, Amy throws it into Lake Calenhad and moves on.

His equipment glitters so much at this point, I can use it to see in the dark.

Stopping at camp briefly, we also talk to Morrigan who asks us if we remember the grimoire we found at the Circle Tower.  Umm... vaguely, Morrigan.  You can't reasonably expect us to remember every ancient tome we've looted in this game.  The point, according to our witch, is that this grimoire didn't have the spells she expected to find in it.  What she found instead was a detailed account of how Flemeth has kept herself young over several decades: by having daughters and transferring her soul into their bodies.  Morrigan realizes that she's the next host for Flemeth's soul and kindly asks that we kill her before she gets the chance.

Flemeth is an ancient, powerful mage who is likely more than a match for us and Morrigan says destroying her physical body probably won't kill her because she has taken precautions in that regard.  I'm smelling a lot of "maybe" coming off this plan.  Smells like victory.  We tell Alistair, Sten and Shale that we're headed back to the Kocari Wilds.

As soon as we show up at Flemeth's hut, she knows why we're here and is ready with a counter-offer.  She says what Morrigan really wants is her true grimoire with her deadliest spells, which she hands over without hesitation and tells us we can take it as a trophy.  She also promises to leave Morrigan alone... for longer than she intended to, anyway.  All we have to do is walk away and Flemeth will disappear into the Wilds.  Amy likes this plan but he tells Flemeth he's going to make one little change.  He'll take the grimoire, but he won't give it to Morrigan.  He intends to unlock the secrets himself.

"You can't win, Warden. If you strike me down, I shall become more evil-looking and SEXIER than you could possibly imagine."

Flemeth throws back her head and laughs at this idea, saying it's a great twist and she would love to see the look on Morrigan's face when we do it.  However... she's only willing to give up her grimoire for her daughter.  If we want it for ourselves, she'll have to insist that we take it from her the hard way.  At that point, she polymorphs into Andraste.

This is the second high dragon battle of the game, and it's no easier than the last one.  We have an advantage this time, however, in having four meat shields instead of two and the entire party is able to deliver sustained damage to Flemeth.  She also doesn't have as much room to maneuver as the high dragon did in the mountains, so we fight the battle on our terms: Shale, with the most health and highest defenses, takes on the head.  Sten and Alistair go to either side of Flemeth and Amy stabs the hell out of her tail.  Flemeth eventually succumbs to the assault and while we don't get a dragon horde of treasure, we do get the grimoire.

"SERIOUSLY, WARDEN?! THE TAIL?! I KNOW I'M AN EVIL WITCH AND ALL, BUT THAT'S JUST MEAN!"

Amy looks over a few pages of it before deciding it's indecipherable gibberish, so he abandons his plan and hands it over to Morrigan.  She seems happy, which is a rare occurance so we relish it while it lasts.  After she returns to her normal mood, we decide to talk to Oghren, who says that since Branka isn't interested in him any more, he'd like to look up a dwarven lass he had a fling with before she left for the surface.  We're more than happy to delay finding a successor to the throne of Ferelden to play wingman to a boorish dwarf in search of unlikely romance!  Off we go to Lake Calenhad!

Something happens along the way, though: Oghren and Amy are traveling with Leliana and Morrigan when we're ambushed by mercenaries, and not Loghain's this time.  We have no problem taking out the group and are about to deliver the death blow to the last survivor when Leliana stops us and says we should question him.  It turns out they were hired to kill her, and they were very surprised to see she was traveling with a Grey Warden.  She demands to know who hired them and where their employer is and the man has no problem giving us the name Marjorlaine and her address in Denerim.  She lets him flee, which is disappointing.  Just for that, Leliana, we're going to put your personal crisis on hold and make you watch Oghren flirt with this dwarf lady instead!

Oghren admits as we approach the tavern near the docks that he and Felsi didn't exactly part on good terms and asks us to lie about how awesome he is.  This is sounding like a better plan all the time.  We find Felsi serving drinks at "The Spoiled Princess" and Oghren immediately starts bragging about how he would have found her sooner, but he was busy killing darkspawn with the Grey Wardens.  We nod and say we saw him feed an ogre its own horns.  Felsi proves that she has a working brain and is thoroughly unimpressed by this bragging.  Oghren doesn't quit however, and continues to boast about his greatness while chiding the woman for being so cold.  Amy has no problem mirroring his clueless bravado.

"I can't decide if I should be disgusted or amazed there's another dwarf here as repulsive as you are."

Eventually Oghren decides it's time to go and Felsi says, "wait! I'm not done insulting you yet!" and suggests they continue the verbal abuse over drinks some time.  So, what looked like a horrible attempt at flirting to any sane person was actually just their version of foreplay?  Amy accidentally succeeded again!  Oghren thanks us for our help and brags again, saying she could barely keep her hands off him.  Glad we could help, Oghren.  Just don't ask us to show up at your date.

Now we finally ask Leliana what was up with her hired killers.  She tells us she was trained as a bard and a spy in Orlais by Marjorlaine until she discovered her mentor was selling secrets to their enemies.  Marjorlaine framed Leliana for the espionage, which led to her fleeing to Ferelden.  Leliana assumed that Marjorlaine was going to leave her alone now that she was in a different kingdom but obviously this is not the case.  We get another polite request to kill someone and when has Amy ever refused one of those?

So we head to Denerim without Arl Eamon and the might of our combined armies behind us, confident in the belief that everything will work out fine for the sake of the plot. We have every intention of finding Marjorlaine, but we're distracted by shiny armor at a place called Wade's Emporium. It happens. The armorsmith in question laments the fact that he doesn't make anything truly extraordinary, so we produce the remains of all the dead dragons we've been carrying around (apparently). Wade responds with girlish enthusiasm while the shopkeeper curses our name as the smith puts all other orders on hold. Wade even says he'll make the armor for free, but we know a clever lie when we hear one. Amy slaps a handful of gold coins on the counter and yells, "you're not cheating me today, SUCKER!"

"I don't... what just happened?"

"Who cares? I have pretty armor to make!"

We make a dramatic exit and walk with Leliana to Marjorlaine's hideout in Denerim. There are a couple of guards who object to us barging in... but not for long. With them dead, Leliana confronts Marjorlaine, who gives us a warm reception and says the hired killers were just her way of saying hello. Makes perfect sense to Amy; he communicates mostly by stabbing people, too. Leliana warns us that she's trying to manipulate us... this would be obvious to most, but she's traveled with us long enough to know we need these little reminders fairly often. She tells Marjorlaine in no uncertain terms that she wants her out of her life forever, then attacks. Marjorlaine had some other guards standing by in the side rooms for this reason, but they can't help her. Leliana stands over the body of her mentor and says she'll need time to process this.

After gathering up our two sets of drakeskin and one set of dragonscale armor, we head back to camp and Leliana tells us she's not sure what to think. On the one hand, she enjoyed being a deceptive killer under Marjorlaine's tutilege but she left that life behind when she joined the Chantry and had her vision. She asks us if we think she was just running away from who she really was, and Amy decides to belittle her religion and tell her she enjoys killing as much as he does. Surprisingly, she says Amy might be right about that.

...I knew we'd turn this innocent lay sister into a jaded killer if she spent enough time with us.

Of course, if you want an outfit to match her new personality, you'll need to get some DLC....

At this point, there are other quests you can do that involve your party. However, Alistair doesn't like Amy enough to trust him with information about his half-sister and Shale has been grouchy ever since we killed Caridin, so we're not doing the golem any favors, either. Zevran is indifferent to us as well, but there's no way that could possibly affect us later.

Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Urning the Ashes

Now that Amastacia has wasted as much time as possible, we take Morrigan, Leliana and Oghren with us to Brother Genitivi's last known location: a town called Haven. The gate guard is decidedly unhappy to see visitors but we reassure him with the convincing excuse, "we just want to see what your town looks like." He grumbles that we can trade at the store if we must, then we should leave. This is still warmer than the reception we got in Orzammar though, so Amy happily strolls in.

The village is a collection of small wooden cabins with nothing very remarkable except a large church. We do stop in at the store though, and the shopkeeper is relatively friendly... until we decide we want to see what the back room looks like. This NPC is only the second in the game to object to the main character barging into whatever room he pleases. Clearly, he didn't hear about what happened to the last one. We insist that the ability to root through private property unquestioned is an important trope of the RPG genre, and he attacks us for breaking his fourth wall.

Truly, this is the visage of a formidable warrior! No blade can pierce his dirt-stained tunic!

Turns out, he did have something to hide: the body of one of Arl Eamon's knights lays on the floor of the back room. We loot the body and, our work here being done, we head outside to discover that the other villagers are well-armed and have surprisingly good hearing when it comes to the dying screams of their neighbor. Weird... they seemed so nice earlier. We decorate the village with blood stains before continuing to their church.

Amy wanders in as the priest is giving a secretive-looking sermon to a circle of worshippers, and he's not happy that we're interrupting. We tell him we're just exploring the village and he tells us we should have done that without killing people along the way. That thought honestly never occurred to Amy. At this point, the priest directs the villagers to slay their new enemy. Since most of them aren't wearing armor, it's about as effective as throwing a sheep into a pit full of spikes and expecting it to hold its own.

"I'll have you know, outsider, that those sheep disarmed a poison dart trap quite handily last week!"

We pluck the priest's cool-looking amulet off his body and head into a side room where we find Brother Genitivi laying on the floor, battered but not dead. We ask if he's okay. He tells us he's been tortured for days without food or water, so he's never felt better. That's a relief. I guess he doesn't need our help. At that point, Genitivi apologizes and says he was just kidding. He's one stiff breeze away from falling over dead, but he believes the villagers are hiding the resting place of the Urn of Sacred Ashes and a little broken leg won't stop him from getting there.

We head into the mountains and find a door with a complex lock. After Genitivi messes with the priest's amulet a little, it changes shape and fits perfectly into the keyhole. By now he's pretty tired, and says he'll study the carvings in this entrance hall while we explore the ruin. He says it doesn't look like there are cultists here, but what he really meant to say was, "there are TOTALLY cultists about a hundred feet away." This seems like an awfully high cultist population for such a small village, but Amy stabs first and asks questions never.

The ruins' walls are riddled with holes that lead to winding underground passages, because we didn't get enough of that scenery in Orzammar. Here we discover what the cultists have repurposed the ruin for: a dragon breeding ground. There are eggs in clutches in caves, eggs being studied by mages on altars, but no omelettes or even scrambled eggs. Seems like a waste to Amy. After carving through cultists and young dragons alike, we arrive at the final room before the exit, where their leader, Kolgrim, is waiting.

"Yes, I want to parley after you killed all my disciples! It worked for the werewolves, didn't it?"

He warns us, with suppressed crazy, that we have spilled enough blood for today. We apologize for that, insisting again that we were simply "exploring". He goes on to say that Andraste will smell the blood of her children on us and will be displeased. Huh. That's confusing. Well, thank you nice cult leader! We'll keep that in mind! We're off to explore some more now. Buh-bye!

Before we can politely excuse ourselves, he orders his cultists to attack. Apparently he was threatening us, not giving us helpful advice on how to avoid being slaughtered by a dragon. Amy always gets those two things mixed up. Regardless, the cult leader has a shiny axe that we take off his body and hand to Oghren because we think the cult leader would want it to be wielded by another crazy person.

Upon heading out the exit and onto a mountain pass... we see Andraste.

I wasn't expecting Andraste to be... so purple.

Well, the cultists thought this was Andraste and Amy thinks now is a good time to respect the beliefs of the people he just killed. As we head down the path, a random party member will remind you that dragons are death incarnate but Amy's already made up his mind. The cultists probably expect to meet their god in the afterlife and they can't very well do that if it's alive. Dragandraste must be slain to honor those poor cultists' memories.

This fight makes the Broodmother look like a helpless octopus in comparison. If you take the dragon head-on, it will apply fire directly to your forehead and then bite you. If you try attacking its rear, expect a tail slap or a kick from a hind leg. If you surround it, it will fly straight up and land in a more advantageous position. Mages and rogues are especially vulnerable to its high damage attacks and sure enough, Morrigan gets knocked unconscious before a third of its hitpoints are gone. Oghren and Amy keep it distracted well enough to allow Leliana to retreat, but they're drinking healing potions like they're chocolate-flavored stout. At one point, the dragon picks up Amy in its jaws and swings him around like a toy. He survives with a sliver of life thanks to the fact that he tastes pretty awful.

"I'M BREATHING FIRE BUT I CAN STILL TASTE THE DWARF-SWEAT! I ACTUALLY WANT YOU TO KILL ME NOW!"

An ordinary human would probably be vomiting for hours after drinking as many healing potions as Oghren and Amy did, but luckily they're two dwarves who have spent their lives making bad decisions about what they drink. They're able to bring the High Dragon down and unlike the little dragon we fought in the Brecilian Forest, this one has a proper treasure horde. We'll be able to buy Morrigan some new internal organs with the gold we'll get from selling this stuff, but for now we're off to the underground shrine on the other side of this mountain pass.

Once there, we are greeted by a pale figure in bright silver armor, who is here on loan from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He is the guardian of the Urn of Sacred Ashes and he will judge whether or not we are worthy to take a pinch of ashes. To judge our character, the Guardian asks Amy if he should have done more for his family before leaving Orzammar. Amy just laughs and says they'd be miserable with or without him. The Guardian seems satisfied with that, proving he's not very good at his job. He then turns to our companions: he accuses Leliana of lying about speaking to the Maker, Oghren tells him his life story, and Morrigan is having none of his crap. His methods don't seem very consistent, but he lets us pass for whatever reason.

"'You have chosen... wisely.' There, I said it. Will you shut up now?"

The rest of this temple is no less confusing for Amy, who never really understood the Chantry's teachings before he came here. He definitely doesn't get the point of the next room, where Andraste will sic an Ash Wraith on you if you can't answer a riddle about her life. It just seems excessive... furthermore, wasn't Andraste that dragon we just killed? Head hurts so much. Leliana, you're the Andraste fangirl, why can't you just take over?

The other rooms include a bridge puzzle where you're supposed to "put your faith in your friends" but really involves random button pressing. You also have to fight a shadowy version of your own party. Morrigan kills shadow Amy almost immediately, which must have been very cathartic for her. There's also a hallway where you encounter a vision of someone from your past... in Amy's case, it's Leske. He acts like our friend once again, at which point we mention that he totally betrayed us and we killed him.

CALL ME "SALROKA" ONE MORE TIME! I DARE YOU!

"Yeah, I know," Leske replies, "but you were supposed to play this part of the game a lot sooner than now."Fair point, Leske. He gives us a trinket and we proceed to the final room, where we have to strip naked and walk through fire. After that, the Guardian re-appears and proclaims us worthy. Damn, man. If getting naked and running through flames was what made you worthy of the sacred ashes, you should know we passed that particular test after a really drunken stupor back in Dust Town a few years back.

So, with Leliana in awe and Morrigan dripping with sarcasm, we take a pinch of ashes and head back to Genitivi. Upon seeing that we reached the ashes, he says that we need to let the world know about this place so any pilgrim can come here. Amy disagrees, saying we should keep it for ourselves and threatens that Genitivi should keep his mouth shut. He replies he would give his life to tell the world about this discovery. We briefly consider stabbing him but Amy ultimately decides that this death threat was another one of his hilarious jokes.

HA HA HA! He would ridiculous with a knife sticking out of his head!
...Come on guys, I'm not the only one who was thinking that, right?

At long last, we return to Redcliffe Castle and a healer performs a ritual with the ashes over Arl Eamon's body. He awakens, and is dismayed when Bann Teagan tells him he's been asleep for almost the entire game now. Teagan gets him caught up on all the boring details: demonically possessed son, village slaughtered by undead, blood magic, dead wife, etc. For some reason, Arl Eamon thinks we're worthy of the title "Champion of Redcliffe" anyway. Shortly thereafter, he brings us to his throne room and lays out his plan for how we're going to deal with Teyrn Loghain....