Tales of the Blight: Aftermath

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

With no one on the throne again, Queen Anora quickly claimed it as her own and held a celebration to honor our victory. I also convince her to strip all lands and titles from the Howe family and give them all to the restored Cousland line, namely to Lord Ferghus Cousland. Yup, my big brother somehow survived and sat out of everything but is a-ok now. I bid him and Oghren, who decided to become a general in the Queen's army, farewell to continue my travels elsewhere with Quickly and Leliana.

In the months that followed the Queen proved to be a good ruler for the people, even providing the Dalish with new lands to settle in but the untrusting elves remained restless there. King Harrowmont didn't fare as well, isolating the dwarves further from the surface. He tried rebuild the Anvil of the Void to catastrophic results and was under threat of an exalted march by the Templars for harbouring free mages. Eventually he was killed by poisoning.

Knight-Commander Greagoir retired and died of old age while Arl Eamon had another gifted child. This one he gave to the newly built Circle of Mages as his wife Isolde died during the birth. As for Ferghus I heard he didn't make such a good lord at all, hitting the drink pretty hard and breaking things left and right. Eventually he left for a different land to become a blacksmith of all things! Well it's been awhile since I've seen him. Maybe I should go pay him a visit?

90%(?) chance of repairs! :P

Here ends the Tales of this Blight. Maybe it will continue it one day.

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: 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: Assassins

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

With the castle clear we were finally free to see Arl Eamon, still in a coma thanks to Loghain's poison. His wife Isolde was obviously not on speaking terms with me, so it was up to Ban Teagan to suggest I go look for some sacred ashes that might be able to cure him. That was actually the reason most of his knights were away, they were all on a grail ... erm... ash quest. Deciding that maybe one of their knights can do that we go off to do other things (small skirmishes) first like helping some refugees against darkspawn, templars against undead, and Bannorn soldiers against Loghain's troops. Then we walk into an ambush!

Look out for the counter-kills!

A pretty decent ambush with a pretty lure, a good number of skilled enemies and a bunch of well placed traps. Unfortunately for them, my party was simply better. After beating them up I question their leader, an elf assassin named Zevran about who sent him. He openly admits that it was Loghain. Actually he's a pretty funny guy. I decide to let him live by offering him a different job - assassinating Loghain. He refuses because he's scared. Pity. That means he is also useless. After many hours of torture I feed what's left of him and his buddies to Quickly then continue on.

That night Leliana confides that she is actually being hunted by a past acquaintance in Orlais (France?) and that she was an assassin. She also kisses me, despite knowing what Morrigan and I get up to. The next day, what a surprise! Another ambush. Those hunters from Orlais are kind of annoying, so despite Leliana's protests I execute the captives after we get all the information we need from them. The important one being that their employer is in Denerim.

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: 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.

Tales of the Blight: Rail Roaded

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

It's a busy day in my home of Cousland Castle as everyone is preparing to fight the darkspawn (monster things) to the South. There's also a grey warden named Duncan here looking for recruits and asks what I think of that. I shoot him down immediately. Grey Wardens? Please. I'd much prefer to stay in the castle and bed all the visiting ladies and handmaidens, or just maidens in general. After getting my cute but effective war dog (who I name "Quickly") out of the pantry I do just that with an elf lass named Iona but our fun is interrupted when an arrow finds its way into her head.

Why didn't you dodge!?

Our supposed "ally" Arl Howe decided to attack once Ferghus, my elder brother, took the majority of the troops ahead to the battle. With only a handful of defenders it is clear the castle is falling, despite me thoroughly killing all enemy soldiers on the map I can find. Fortunately there's a secret passage to escape the carnage, but only Duncan, Quickly and I make it out alive. Duncan asks again if I can join the Grey Wardens since his other choice sort of died earlier. I strongly tell him again "NO" and then he goes all legal on me enforcing conscription. Way to railroad me dude. I suppose that's still better than the Witcher's Law of Surprise.

And so it's off to Ostagar to fight the dark spawn. Woo? At least Quickly doesn't seem bothered by it.