Tales of the Blight: The Price of War

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

With 50 Redcliffe Soldiers, 50 Dalish elf archers, 50 Dwarven Warriors and 16 Templars behind me I decide to try clear as much of the city as I can before chasing down the archdemon. The darkspawn on the firey streets are all pretty tough, numerous and later on well entrenched, but we persevere - slaying two enemy commanders before marching up to Fort Drakon, the top of which was where the archdemon was last spotted crash landing after Riordan managed to wound the creature. Alas, the Grey Warden himself did not survive the attempt.

Somehow Leliana managed to squirrel herself back to the entry gate too, just as darkspawn reinforcements were coming in but between her, the handful of Denerim soldiers and Quickly, who had transformed into a mighty beast during his long down time, they are no match and are easily driven back. Leliana then magically made it back to the rest of us in time to storm the fort itself, fighting our way past elite darkspawn until finally reaching the roof.

The archdemon was a beast to combat, but thanks to Arl Eamon, Knight-Commander Greagoir, my archers and emplaced ballista it was brought down easily enough even with darkspawn reinforcements coming to its aid. King Alistair, being the "older" Grey Warden and not actually wanting to be king anyway opted to end the beast by stabbing it in the face. An effective move against pretty much everything! With a big explosion, he and the archdemon died and the remaining darkspawn - now leaderless - fled the city. Victory was ours!

Everyone else up there somehow survived.

Friendly losses incurred were: Riordan, King Alistair, 13 of his Templar brothers, 28 elves, 28 dwarves and all the soldiers from Redcliffe.

*Sorry Rakuno: That was a very short summary to eat popcorn to. :P

Tales of the Blight: Beginning of the End

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

Riordan shares with Alistair and myself why Grey Wardens are needed to stop the blight. It is specifically because to ultimately kill an archdemon, the last blow must be struck by a Grey Warden or the fiend will simply reform itself elsewhere. Ultimately, whoever does that also dies due to some absurd magical reason. Morrigan claims that she knows of a blood ritual spell that can save one of us from dying, it just requires sex. Man that sounds like an awesome spell.

However it also turns out that this will result in an "old god" being reborn so I'm not keen on it. Especially the "blood magic" part. Despite my best negotiation attempts, Morrigan gets upset by me not letting her do her ritual and leaves on the eve of the battle. Oh well. It's not like mages are a necessity anyway.

Not willing to be making any more "old gods" thank you very much!

The next day sees the army march forth to Denerim which is already in flames. After rushing the gates and defeating the outer most of the darkspawn horde it is clear the army is badly out numbered. Riordan suggests the only way to win is to go after the archdemon directly and advises I take a small team with me to try do so.

It falls upon Quickly to defend the gates, though Leliana claims she can command the defense there to prevent darkspawn reinforcements from appearing while at the same time joining me deeper in the city. That will be an interesting feat!

Tales of the Blight: Ye Olde Rope-a-dope

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

Since Anora will serve as another divider among the lords which cannot be dealt with right now, King Alistair orders her locked away in a tower for the time being while we deal with the blight. We make one last detour though to rob the Tears of Andraste from the pompous lord who set up an ambush for us last time - a pretty easy task. After anonymously donating the artifact to the chantry we head to Redcliffe to fight the darkspawn horde.

Sure enough the village has already fallen by the time we get there. Despite the numerous enemies present they are all lowish level making it a joy to wade through and slaughter. Clearing the castle courtyard is also just as easy. Fortunately the soldiers stationed there kept them out of the castle proper and soon, all the darkspawn are defeated! It is too early to rejoice though as Riordan, a visiting Grey Warden who I previously rescued from Arl Howe's dungeon, arrives to tell us that the main bulk of the horde is heading towards Denerim and there's no way we'll reach it with our forces in time to defend the walls.

We be clever!

That doesn't mean we're not going to try though, and plan to march at first light. This would be the last night before the great battle. Sharing a drink with Oghren, I learn he loves the surface and intends to find some old flame after our victory. At least he's optimistic!

Tales of the Blight: Matters of Leadership

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

Before returning to Arl Eamon's estate I sort out a few other leadership issues first for the local thieves guild and the Blackstone Irregulars, killing the upstart faction leaders. I also decide to hand in all the evidence of the Mages Collective who previously were enjoying freedom from non monitored magic to Knight-Commander Tavish who is overjoyed at having someone to hunt and destroy.

I also make a pit stop at the local tavern where many of the visiting lords are relaxing, handing in tokens of their relations that I had freed from Howe's prison to earn their favor before letting Arl Eamon officially beginning the Landsmeet at the palace. It is a big event with lots of people in attendance and Loghain at every turn trying to win votes to his side. Too bad for him I'm simply better and win 5/1. El Presidente would be proud.

Loghain doesn't take defeat lightly and chooses to have a duel against me which I allow. Too bad the supposedly "great" general cannot detect stealth so it is easy for me to take him down, finishing him with a strong nut-shot kick. Humiliated, he surrenders himself for punishment and despite my best efforts to please Anora by not executing her dad, Alistair decides to claim the crown for himself (which I support) and as his first act - beheads the traitorous Loghain.

Alistair's reaction by Drathe.

Tales of the Blight: Alien Export

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

Talking to Queen Anora at Arl Eamon's estate I am convinced she genuinely wants to stop the madness of her father. After easily proposing a marriage between her and Alistair as that would be the strongest candidate against Loghain at the Landsmeet, she first sends us to the elven alienage (slums) to find out what sort of schemes Loghain had going in there and why things got so bad that it had to be closed for so long.

Apart from meeting a hilarious group of beggars and assisting a near blind templar to cleanse a number of buildings of evil spirits and demons, I can focus all my attention on the supposed plague within, as well as group of Tevinter Imperium troops (overseas empire) who claim to be helping cleanse the sick via magic. With a bribe and a bit of snooping it becomes clear that is not what they are doing at all. They are slavers!

Stop abducting people!

As expected, I carefully annihilate them all - especially the ones that try talk to me to stop the madness. Their leader ultimately reveals they are there legitimately as they struck a bargain with Loghain. He tries to make all sorts of deals too to spare himself at the end, and once more to Morrigan's disapproval I decline all of them - opting instead to eradicate such scum from existence.

Tales of the Blight: Not so Simple

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

The only thing left between us and the Urn of Andraste's Sacred ashes is a gauntlet meant to test pilgrims who have come to pay tribute, and boy what scummy tests they are. The first room is one of riddles which is solved easily enough if you listen to the question enough times. Then there's a part where you fight your doppelganger (because Andraste is a sadist I guess) followed by an irritating bridge building puzzle that took me ages to solve.

I hate you, logic puzzle!

Only after all of that do we finally get to our objective, and with a pinch of the sacred ashes in hand we return immediately to Redcliffe and cure Arl Eamon who is brought up to speed rather quickly about all the events that transpired while he was in his coma. He's a pretty cool dude, and is not too upset about me hacking up his demon possessed kid earlier. He even suggests calling a Landsmeet at Denerim to get all the lords to rally together and put an end to Loghain's civil war, as well as putting Alistair forward as king.

I say that's all well and good and to go call it, but he refuses until I use up all the treaties I'm carrying to get more allies. Damn, he means the dwarves doesn't he? Oh well. Without any choice we head back to Orzammar, dealing with random darkspawn forces on the road AND in camp on the way. Looks like the archdemon is starting to think we're a threat if he's sending monstrous assassins after us.

Tales of the Blight: Cult of the Dragon

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

Our next stop is the small mountain village of Haven, following a lead to find some holy ashes to cure Arl Eamon. I decided to bring Alistair and Leliana for their chantry background and Morrigan for her spells on this mission. The villagers are outright weird and unfriendly and it isn't long before they turn to trying to murder us just like they've been doing to some others. I find one brother Genitivi a prisoner in their chantry and after learning that the ashes are close in a nearby ruin, I send the injured man back to Denerim for his own safety.

After purging the village of all life we do find more cultists and their pet dragon kin in the ruin and do the same. Turns out this cult worships dragons and believes one particularly powerful one to be a resurrected prophet. Sounds like a different group I've heard of before elsewhere...

Wonder if they are related?

Anyway, I end all of them which angers Morrigan a little bit, including their "worshipped" dragon. That turned out to be a pretty lengthy but fun optional boss fight. Alistair eventually slays the beast, leaving the way clear to reach the higher sanctum where the urn full of ashes are meant to be.

Slightly off topic: For those who play Neverwinter Online, now is a good time to remind you that the Cult of the Dragon are raising/summoning Tiamat on November 18th! :)

Tales of the Blight: Friend Zoned

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

Not wanting to run out of supplies again we made a quick pit stop back with the elves after fighting past a bunch of ents to buy over 1000 units of elfroot and blowing the rest of our gold on other reagents for Morrigan to make a LOT of health poultices. While there we also violently deal with a few elves still angry at the ex-werewolves and a bunch of mercenaries from Denerim.

That reminds me to visit Denerim next where we pay a visit to Alistair's sister, Goldanna who is not too receptive of her half-brother. While I'm out doing party related quests I also decide to head over to Flemeth's hut to try make heads or tails if she is a daughter snatcher heart eater thing. She certainly gives nothing away and since she doesn't defend herself about Morrigan's accusations I can only assume they are true and face her in combat.

Oh crap.

What I didn't realize is that she could shape shift into a dragon! That at least explains how she saved us from the tower near the start. It's a pretty decent fight and though our resident mage was unavailable for this fight as she didn't want to face her mother, the numerous health salves already came in handy as the entire team survived the battle until Oghren finally finished the old hag off.

Morrigan was very pleased when I gave her Flemeth's real grimmoire but for some reason suddenly friend zoned me. Can't work out why (other than the "social butterfly" nature of my character) but at least Leliana hasn't done the same.

Tales of the Blight: Drama Camp

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

Back at camp the girls are giving me issues and forcing me to pick one over the other ever since I gave that special spell book (earlier found in the mage tower) to Morrigan. Having forced my hand, I pick Morrigan over Leliana because she is simply more useful. The witch is delighted and asks me to slay her mother, Flemeth, next because apparently Flemeth likes taking the bodies of her daughters as a form of immortality. That's nice.

Alistair also shares that Grey Wardens have around 30 years to live after ingesting the darkspawn juice, because well... its poison. The older wardens feel the taint get stronger and thus are drawn to the deep roads to go out killing as many dark spawn as possible. While on the subject he mentions he has a sister in Denerim that he wants to visit before things go bad.

I'm the pretty one!

Meanwhile Oghren is so drunk that he hasn't realized he's no longer in the Deep Roads, and Leliana is broken up for the shortest time before she decides to share an elven song with the party, and then continues to bed me. Wait what? Did I break the game or something? Oh well, not complaining! ;P 

Quickly doesn't care. He's a dog, and he's always happy. :D

Tales of the Blight: The Solution to Everything

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

We found ourselves infiltrating the Redcliffe dungeon underneath the castle proper and immediately encounter Loghain's imprisoned man, some blood mage tutor Isolde had secretly hired to teach her son, Connor. Already knowing where this is going I decide to execute him on the spot, much to Morrigan's disdain. Then begins the arduous room by room clearing of various undead and rescuing of still trapped civilians. We also open the castle gates to let in Ser Perth and his handful of knights to assist in the rest of the cleanup though only the named knight actually survives.

In the main hall we find the possesed Connor having turned Ban Teagan into a crazed fool while his mother helplessly looks on. It's not long before he turns all the remaining guards on us before fleeing himself and in the end it is my team, Ser Perth, and Lady Isolde still standing. Ban Teagan while downed, actually survived and was back to normal. The "hard" discussion of what to do came next.

Roll against Paralyzation!

I already knew what I wanted to do. Besides the only other option according to Morrigan required a Circle of Magi - just like the one I had purged. Up the stairs we went killing off more scum and finally facing the demon in combat. When it came time to finally kill it (and the child) Isolde interrupted again, asking for another way.

I reminded her that this was her fault for hiding him from the Circle of Magi to begin with then punched her as strong as I could in the face. Lucky for her I knocked her out. She might have gone insane watching me dismembering the demon child. Alistair certainly lost it. I asked him what he would have done, and how many others would have had to die for the life of one. That shut him up, but he was definitely not happy.

Tales of the Blight: Redcliffe Halloween

For those not actually reading these, I just want to wish you all a Happy Halloween up front! ^_^

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

As we arrive near Redcliffe village Alistair reveals he is actually a royal bastard. As in, the half-brother of the King and probably next in line to the throne. Good to know! I've also taken Leliana in the party instead of Morrigan since Leliana was upset at sitting out of the whole Circle of Magi thing. Besides Morrigan needs her rest after the... extracurricular activities we shared after the tower got cleansed.

Anyway the village is in all sorts of distress as apparently every night, they have been getting attacked by undead forces stemming from the castle, like a more violent version of Halloween where the visitors come knocking for blood instead of sweets!

This is the same castle where I'm supposed to get another ally for the war. We quickly get into quest mode, convincing the smith to get cracking on repairs, hiring hesitant warriors and strong arming stuffy barkeeps into helping out, as well as setting up oil traps, finding missing kids and learning that Arl Eamon (the guy in the castle) might have been poisoned by an agent of Loghain. Sheesh that name keeps cropping up!

I'm in your bases. Manipulating your allies.

Night falls and the defenses are pretty solid, though the barkeep and town mayor are among those that fall. Ban Teagan, the guy in charge and brother to Arl Eamon asks us to infiltrate the castle via secret passage and sort things out. This is right before Isolde, wife of Arl Eamon appears from the castle and desperately asks Teagan to go back with her. While I suspect a trap, he goes anyway trusting that we won't just walk off on him. Tsk. He's right too. Before entering though I swap Leliana out for Morrigan as I think her magic might prove more helpful in the castle itself. I also help fund a few people get the hell out of the village to somewhere safe... which they assume is Denerim. Nothing bad will happen there right?

Tales of the Blight: Cleansed

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

Continuing up the mages tower we ran into some dragonlings that needed to be put down and a few more abominations before reaching the top. There the "boss" blood mage fellow was busy changing other mages into more abominations. Needless to say I had to put an end to that. Niall's magic scroll came in handy as a canceller to the boss's "turn captive into abomination add" technique and eventually we wore him down and killed him.

With the task complete we took the survivors back downstairs to talk to Knight-Commander Greagoir. While all were grateful for the assistance my team provided I couldn't help but suggest that the remaining mages might have been tainted by all the residual evil magic in the tower. The Knight-Commander agreed and invoked the Right of Annulment which "is the right to purge a Circle of Magi that is ruled irredeemable by ordering the templars to kill all the mages within a Circle".

With no more mages left to guard, Knight-Commander Greagoir accepted my proposal of joining the collective army to fight the darkspawn blight and promised his troops for when the time came. Woohoo, one ally acquired! Next stop, Redcliffe - since Alistair keeps whining about it. Well, not as much as being sad whenever someone mentions "Duncan".

Tales of the Blight: The Fade

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

I come to, alone, in the Fade - the realm of demons and spirits. The first ones disguised themselves as other Grey Wardens, one taking the form of Duncan himself. After destroying them I find the depressed mage Niall trapped there too. Looks like it's up to me to find a way out and I do so by learning how to shape shift into various forms, unlock secret bonus rooms and defeat mini-bosses. That all sounds very "gamey" but it is all very awesome and a very fun to experience!

Eventually I locate each of my comrades to stir them from their slumber with Quickly being the easiest - I literally just woke him up. Morrigan also knew what was up and was quick to assist in dispeling the demon trapping her. Alistair on the other hand was completely fooled, having a vision of his sister and her children. It wasn't till I destroyed them that he came to - realizing their manipulation and apologizing for his dimwittedness.

Finally it was time for a showdown against the sloth demon (who also had shape shifting abilities) and while he did put up a decent fight, it was he that was ultimately destroyed in the end. Niall then showed up and told us of some scroll he had on his body, and for us to take it to protect us from mind control further up the tower. He had been in the dream too long and could not escape any longer. The rest of us woke up and did as he asked. Before continuing though I did pay my respects to the worldly corpse of the sloth demon, for his realm was super fun and very rewarding. I was a little sad to end him to be honest. :(

But I powered you up!

Tales of the Blight: Party +3

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

With almost all the tasks done in Lothering we entered the tavern for a well earned pint of milk but are attacked by a handful of Loghain's troops. A red headed girl named Leliana in chantry robes helps defend us in the melee and after I kill off the last of the surrendering cowards she asks to join the party, having had a vision from the Creator telling her to do so. She might be crazy but she's handy with a knife and sort of cute so I take her along. I do -NOT- take along the psycho in the cage outside though.

But I'm hurt in the feels?

It's pretty clear that the big brute Sten could be another party member but for the crime of killing a bunch of good people who nursed his wounds I don't give a shit how much remorse you have. It's unfortunate there is no option to execute him so I just leave him there as darkspawn food. After killing some desperate refugees who were also after the bounty on my head (Alistair's head too), I rescue a dwarven pair of merchants from darkspawn and convince them to get outta dodge.

Apparently they took this as "please join us on our travels" for some reason and are now part of my camp. It's handy to have a vendor and enchanter traveling with us though. After getting bad dreams which turn out to be "communicating with the darkspawn leader telepathically due to the grey warden joining ritual" I chat with the team for awhile, listening to Leliana's stories, learning Alistair is a funny bastard, and agreeing with Morrigan's suggestion that we go directly to Denerim to face our enemies immediately.

Tales of the Blight: He's a Dog

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

I awoke in Flemeth's hut, with her hot daughter tending my wounds. Alistair and Quickly are there too, apparently saved by Flemeth's magic somehow. Too bad for Ted, he was left to die. As we might possibly be the last grey wardens in the land we're tasked with using those papers (old treaties) to unite everyone and raise an army against the ever growing darkspawn army. I totally try to worm my way out of it but Alistair is such a whiner so I have to go along. Flemeth's daughter Morrigan is also sent along, much to her dislike but hey, we needed a replacement for Ted.

First stop is the little settlement of Lothering where we almost immediately come across some highwaymen asking for a toll on the bridge (fucking trolls). I tell them that grey wardens should be exempt but this only excites them as apparently Loghain put a bounty out on us and battle ensues. They are soon begging for their lives since they didn't realize Quickly has a stun-lock howl so I take the opportunity to get more info out of them before executing them for the worthless pieces of excrement they are.

They aren't the only bandits nearby and between them and some wild life that needs hunting, Quickly's abilities really shine in getting the team out of dire predicaments! These tasks net us some good coin which I spend on the honest merchant nearby, the one the refugees are complaining is selling things too high. That's just the business of supply and demand folks. Morrigan agrees, while Alistair shoots me a glance of non-approval. This makes Quickly all the more awesome. He doesn't really give a stuff about that. He's a dog. :P

Dogs in game are always awesome. They don't poop!

Tales of the Blight: All According to Plan

[Part of my Dragon Age: Origins play through. Spoilers ahead!]

Upon arrival at Ostagar I am soon tasked with getting the other recruits, Daveth the rogue, Ser Jory and Alistair the templar (technically not a recruit) together for a "joining ritual". Well, that sounds dirty. First up is a fetch quest of blood of darkspawn, which is easy given the number of the things around, and old papers which we find with swamp resident Flemeth and her daughter who hand them over with no issues.

Back at camp it's stage two - the drinking phase, from a ludicrously huge cup! Daveth goes first and dies. Yep. It can prove fatal. Jory freaks out and doesn't want to drink so Duncan guts him instead. Lucky last I obviously survive and become a true Grey Warden initiate. Would sure be a quick game otherwise! Anyway it's soon time to battle that dark spawn horde and the plan involves the brash, glory seeking King Cailan (and the other Grey Wardens) to lure the bad dudes into position where General Loghain's forces can then charge down their flank. Fool proof!

Alistair and I (*woof!*) ... and Quickly ... are tasked with lighting the beacon atop the nearby tower to signal when Loghain should charge. Only problem is no one actually checked the tower before the battle and when we get there it is crawling with darkspawn. Fortunately a mage of the circle, who I call "Ted", joins us as we fight our way all the way to the top, defeating a towering ogre guarding the beacon fire. With the bacon lit... mmm bacon... I mean... beacon, Loghain gives the order...

Sound the retreat!

Wait did they change the plan on us? Looks like no one told the King either as we get a good view of him, Duncan, and the rest of the "bait team" getting slaughtered. Before we can contemplate what's going on, more darkspawn show up and knock us out. Damn you uncontrollable cinematic battles.