Tales of the Blight II: The Herald

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

The Herald of Andraste's second attempt at closing the breach is a success, now that he is backed by the Redcliffe mages conscripted to the Inquisition - but the victory party is short lived as a massive enemy force descends upon the hamlet that night: An army of templars, dubbed "Red Templars" by Varric, as they are all clearly under the effect of red lyrium like the templar leader in Kirkwall slain years ago.

A young boy named Cole manages to alert the town in time to get their trebuchets and other defenses ready which eliminates much of the enemy force, but not enough to stop a red lyrium dragon and the Elder One. The Herald confronts him alone to buy time for the others to escape, and this Elder One who calls himself Corypheus accuses the Herald of stealing the "anchor" from him - using his big magic ball to try reclaim the rift power in the Herald's hand... but fails.

I love fondling my magic ball.

Accepting he'll have to find another way to achieve his goal of god hood, Corypheus tries next to simply kill the Herald, but an avalanche that destroys Haven forces him to flee and buries the Herald in a cave. Somehow touching Corypheus' ball has made the anchor grow more powerful - and the Herald uses it to blast his way out of the mountain and regroup with the survivors.

With the village lost, it falls to Solas to lead the Inquisition to Skyhold, a forgotten fortress high in the mountains to begin anew - and it is here where Cassandra proclaims the official leader of this Inquisition to be the Herald, now officially "the Inquisitor", to the cheers of many.

Insight: If you are a kleptomaniac like I am, you'll want to get the perks which increase inventory space. You'll also want the fine tools perk to open the "harder" locked doors.

Tales of the Blight II: Varric

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

The Herald of Andraste, that's what they're calling him now - and because of that some muscle brained Avvar barbarian down in the mire decided to challenge him to a duel to the death. The chosen of their gods against the chosen of ours, with only the lives of some hostages at stake. I could not make this shit up if I tried, and believe me - I've made up a lot of shit in my time.

So while the Herald deals with that, I now find myself in the ass-end of nowhere recruiting people and horses and mercenaries for this new Inquisition. At least I'm no longer a prisoner said the Seeker, yet here I am doing what she asked. Did I just get downgraded to a slave? That's a funny thought.

He still has some of the best lines.

Not many are willing or able to join though, not with Blondies' war still going on. Mages and templars, and innocent people caught in the middle. At least the rebel mages in Redcliffe are willing to meet, but it turns out they've basically sold themselves to some Tevinter magister who wants to personally negotiate with the Herald.

If your money's on this being a trap, you were right. Dorian, an apprentice of this magister with the most sparkly Tevinter mustache you'll ever see, confirmed his master is part of the "Venatori" - some radical group serving "the Elder One". With a few well placed bolts and some magical protection from Sparkles, the magister was convinced to hand over both the mages and the Elder One's plans which involve the assassination of the Empress or Orlais and a demon army. Like I said, I could not make this shit up if I tried.

Insight: In the mire map, walking into the water spawns undead. Contrary to what is suggested, do not avoid it. Spawn as many undead as you can to level up. There's also a fire dragon in the Hinterlands whose fight is almost exactly like the high dragon in Dragon Age 2, where is summons adds and flies to unreachable places to snipe. Have potions ready for it!

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: 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: 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: 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".