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 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?