Showing posts with label King Cailan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label King Cailan. Show all posts

Monday, 17 November 2014

Tales of the Blight: Break in Bad

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

Soon after settling in at Eamon's estate, a handmaiden of Queen Anora - Loghain's daughter and widow of King Cailan, arrives asking us to free her from her imprisonment at Arl Howe's estate. I agree to it but get side tracked in robbing someone else's mansion first - only that whole job is a trap forcing a pretty big fight against the ambushing guardsmen to escape. Of course I make sure to kill -all- guardsmen before escaping just to make a point.

After the warm up round we go to Arl Howe's estate and initially are very cautious about killing anyone, using guard disguises and everything. Unfortunately Queen Anora's room is sealed magically which means having to kill Howe's magician who is currently with him in the dungeons below. The guards there see right through the ruse too, and put up a decent fight but are ultimately all killed like the scum they are. It helps that Morrigan's AOE blizzard hits through walls. Their boss, Arl Howe, dies as unceremoniously as the rest which leaves my thirst for vengeance quite strong.

Blood lust activated!

There are a few prisoners down there too, most with political ties so I free all but one who seems like a scum anyway. That one I execute on the spot. Before freeing Anora I also meticulously go through the top floor, not just raiding Howe's treasury but killing ALL the guards who worked for him (apart from the 2 non combat ones) both inside and outside the mansion before freeing the Queen.

Loghain's female bodyguard, Ser Cauthrien, shows up with a good number of soldiers at that point and tries to arrest me. Stupid bitch, only pussies surrender! She and all her minions are easily torn to pieces with good tactics that exploit their flawed "stand here and guard, no matter what" AI. Rescue complete.

Thursday, 23 October 2014

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.