What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers] | BioWare Social Network Fan Forums (2024)

But that's the problem, I like playing both
Ah well as I said, I'll decide once I finish with this current playthrough

I tend to use those more axe looking daggers in DA2 (the ones from the 2nd rogue pack called Fiona and Bard's Honor) for my rogue Hawke's, they looks pretty and level alongside the player

and yeah, I do think that ring is rather random, sometimes I even have several in one playthrough from random sources...ah well.
plus for me it couldn't drop from the bandit leader...'cause Raelyn made him run for the hills after cleaning him out

Both? Though in all seriousness, I like Carver better then Bethany

I mentioned this in another thread, and I think Hawke's role changes slightly depending on which sibling you have

with Carver you take on the role of the one being protected, with Bethany you become the protector

though sometimes I also go with aesthetics...the rogue armors imo. look better then the funky mage robes (plus, no obligated chantry imagery every 2 sets)

Arys Hawke went to the Arishok to ask what he wanted. Looks like Javaris, the stupid dwarf who tried to get some exploding powders 3 years ago, stolen from them and what he stole was bad. Bad gas killing thingy. First Arys would have to find the thief. So Arys started her search, dealing with some stuff in-between. Explored some opened up passages around town. Went to save those dwarves who ran after fool's gold and finally found some Coteri member seeling Javaris's assets. Then there was a bit of chase through Darktown, smuggler's tunnels and the wilderness to find her mark.

To discover that he didn't stolen anything. An elf did. At least, he had an idea of where said elf was hidden. Rushing back to town, Arys arrived in an area where the gas was making people crazy. She told the guard to held his breath and went in. Closing the traps while fighting idiots mercenaries. Then the elf showed up. This was another Kirkwall's Special! Yep, totally crazy. No blood mages in sight too.

Once her group was dispatched Arys went back to the Arishok to tell him the news. He was on edge. Big edge. Looks like he didn't like the craziness of Kirkwall at all. Arys found it endearing. She also learned a big news: there was no boat coming, the Arishok had something stolen from him years ago and he would be able to return until he had it back. But going by how he was fuming, he would probably raise the city at this point. The Viscount should know.

Today Raelyn and company went on their way to Denerim, 'course on their way there they were ambushed...Arl Howe's assassin had found them.

Raelyn and company made short work of the assassin's assassination attempt, and decided to spare the assassin leader to question him

said assassin was an elf named Zevran, who was quite chipper about failing his assassination attempt and quite forthcoming with answers to Raelyn's questions.

once she was done questioning him he proposed a deal of sorts...and asked her to hire him, she asked why she'd want to hire a man who'd just tried to kill them.

Zevran replied he had failed, and should be dead...but preferred to live and serve her instead, he then started listing his qualifications and even made a remark about "warming" Raelyn's bedroll, which she declined...for now. However she did agree to let him join, much to the chagrin of Alistair.

Speaking of Alistair, in order to cheer him up a bit Raelyn gave him an amulet which had apparently belonged to his mother, and requested that they'd look for his sister in Denerim, so said...so we did.

The city of Denerim was quite bustling, and Raelyn hoped to see her family before heading out again...though sadly and perhaps horrifyingly so, the Alienage had been locked down. The guard tending to the gate told her that there'd been an "uprising" and that the new Arl had led a purge as retaliation for Vaughn's death. With no way into the alienage, Raelyn decided to turn her attention elsewhere, getting herself acquainted with the city proper and doing various odd-jobs here and there. Among them was getting in contact with Slim Couldry, and a shifty fellow who later turned out to be a Crow as well (he wasn't very kind to Zevran). Raelyn also helped out the city guard dealing with some upstart mercenaries, which led the group to the local whor* house where they met Isabela. Raelyn was impressed with Isabela's battle skills and requested a lesson with her, but Isabela wanted to play cards to test her skills. In a...rather out of character moment, Raelyn asked if there were other ways to "get to know" her, and had a tumble with Isabela (and Zevran) in her ship.

After that the group returned to the market place to track down leads on Brother Genitivi, going to his house and finding his assistant there. The fellow was very nervous, and with some pressing he suddenly slipped up and attacked the group, sadly he didn't live long to report back to his masters. A quick search of the house uncovered some notes, as well as a location of a village named Haven.

Raelyn also helped Alistair find his sister but she was...not a very nice person, who kept implying that if Alistair was indeed a prince, all she'd ever want from him was his money. Alistair was devastated, and Raelyn told him that...how hard it may sound, many people where out for themselves, he said he needed some time to think about that.

The group then made their way down south again, stopping briefly at Lake Callenhad where Genitivi's 'assistant' had attempted to send them before snapping. Raelyn and her group made short work of the strange mercenaries...or cultists that awaited them back outside, and then made their way further toward Haven.

So yeah, that's where I'll be heading tomorrow, Haven...then back to Redcliffe and after that the Circle Tower.

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Today I also had Leliana's unintended "racist" talk about Raelyn being an elf, Raelyn called her out on it...which gave her some food for thought

I've decided that for this playthrough I'm going to let 'Andraste' life...I had planned to kill Genitivi, but I'm deciding against that...I mean, despite his short comings he kinda means well...and his death is later retconned anyway. But 'Andraste' can have some fun with the pilgrims instead

Oh, thanks for clearing that up. Now I have to think about Fiona's transformation being the result of either some Alexius shenanigans or just her body physically rejecting the idiot ball.

Yeah, I like those for DAI; the only time I rolled up a dagger rogue for it, I quickly made a pair of these after noticing them on the Nugged list. Bonus points that DAI has them as twirly "AOE" daggers. I'm too dumb to aim with the stabby ones. I'm not exactly sure when I cancelled that rogue, but they did not left the Hinterlands. These days, I tend to slap the leveling property on nearly all DA2 items I use... Oh and don't remind me about the DA2 robes. I refused to wear them even in my very first playthrough. Running around in the sleeveless apostate vests in Act1, with a short stint of Spiral Eye once complete, then quick jum to "notorious pirate" until I got the champion pieces. Act3 does have an actual armour-looking chestpiece for mages available, sold at the Gallows. Switching the model for some amours to something more appealing is also possible. (I tended to switch mage champion hood into the rogue version as one of my first DA2 modding experiences)

1) Haha, it has been a while, but when I did that for the first time I was totally afraid of Leliana disapproving about that, until it turned out she was keen of hearing some stabby stories.

2) Back when we could call characters out for casual racism in an in-character way... good times.

3) You swing around quickly, eh? Genitivi is like to me what Anders is for some others. Intentions might be good, methods are questionable, no scratch that, Genitivi's motivation is f*cking evil. And not even his german VA (far more "kind grandpa" than the original) makes me reconsider.

Heh, my take about these retcons is the opposite - giving it the finger and doing it regardless. Unless you specifically allow him to assist in feeding dragon lady.... I wonder though how she will be doing if even more armour pieces from eaten people will end up stuck in her... digestive system.

Wait, they have those in DAI? how come I never found any?

I've found that I'm terrible with melee weapons in DAI...I prefer ranged ones, tried a dual wield rogue and both warrior types in the past but never got very far with them

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1) same, but apparently his disapproval lowers depending on the amount of coercion you have (I had 3 when I got this scene, only gave me -3 disapproval), Morrigan disapproved as well, but her line was quite funny

2) yeah...I enjoy giving characters food for thought...kinda makes her being my canon Divine all the sweeter (given the fact she reinstates the canticle of Shartan again)

I used the "You may not be cruel, but you still see us differently." line this time around, last time I used "I am elven, but more than that--I am a person."

3) I might change again once I actually get there...plus there's nothing a few well placed words or some gifts won't fix

I do think letting Andraste life is canon...seeing as there's no choice for that in the Keep and the fact Wade made the dragon scale armor isn't addressed in Awakening

(the Warden says something like: Master Wade, I remember you...the drake scale armor right?)

LadyofNemesis
DAI calls it Barbarian Rock-Crasher; the craftable version is from the BE.
DAI melee... well time for *pat pat*.

1) Doesn't Morrigan says something about poisoned food? Wonder if that is a callback to "Can you cook?" "Yup, and I know tons of poisons, too."
2) Yes, these lines are pretty good... unlike later exchanges on vaguely similar topics.

3) I dunno... the Keep only has a slide for the ashes if I recall right. Leaving that lizard around so at least some of the Chantry folks get nommed. Now I've got to remember how Alduin finally has enough of Gormlaith boasting around and bites her head off. Seeing that for the first time, I was like "Aaah, finally she's quiet. Relief." Yep I watched the scene several times after finding it.
No idea about Wade, to be honest. Sometimes I'm not that fond of us having to kill all the dragons for the best stuff. Especially in DAI. Oh, and while were are at it... why is Fenris's last armour upgrade in DA2 dropped by the high dragon? Usually these upgrades are somewhere in the final quest of their arcs, but not for him. Maybe they though it would be to easy if they would just have Danarius drop it? *mod idea*

The Viscount wasn't to happy to learn about the whole debacle with the poison gas. He was even less happy once he mentioned that a Qunari delegation came to the Keep and then disappeared. He suggest to talk to Bran for more information. The later suggested it was some guard recruits who has since not come back to work. Arys was thinking that Aveline was somewhat failing at her job. Bran wasn't sure where someone who just made a lots of coins could be found, but Hawkes friends all knew: The Hangman. The other option would have been the Blooming Rose really.

Before going at the best bar in town, Arys brought everyone for some sights seeing around the coast. There was a lot more raiders than usual. They also took the time to save some apostate and deal with a rather popular gang of raiders. Even Isabela was impressed. After that little coast raiding, Arys went back home talking to mom. Looks like she had found a suitor and she was already talking about remarrying. Arys wasn't sure she wanted a step father.

Once the night arrive, it was time to go at the bar. First to give some boat to Isabela. A small boat and talk a bit with Varric. Seems like Bartrand was back in town. Arys and Varric should go see him to remember the good old times. After partying a bit with her friends, Arys then turned to the armed men talking about making easy money selling horned-mans. They were easy to provoke and once beating on their asses the leader said he was paid by a Templar to do it, and that the templar even had the Grand Cleric's seals. Arys couldn't believe the Chantry was trying to piss off the Qunari. Especially when Elthina is all "Chantry people shouldn't bother with worldly things". So useless.

Arys decided to spend some days thinking how best to approach this. She had other things to do, like find Gaspard Dupuis. Well he wasn't hard to find, just go pass his demon-booby-trapped house. Looks like he had in it for the serial lilies killer, because he killed his sisters years ago. He also scared a woman sh*tless, but Arys let him go. Beside who doesn't like Noble blood-mages.

After those little adventure, Anders wanted to talk to Arys. See there was an Apostate Association in Kirkwall. It was all secrets, but Anders knew things. A Templar was apparently thinking of making every mage tranquils. Arys wasn't happy with this, it could be Bethany! So they went under the Gallows and after clearing the Templars lyrium smugglers, they finally stumbled on said Templar. He was scaring a poor mage and now he isn't scaring anyone anymore. That's when Anders totally lost it. Justice when bonker and almost killed the poor mage. Arys managed to calm him down but he left in a hurry. Going back to his clinic, he was still a bit "high" but Arys told him to "get better". Also, she had a letter talking about the "Tranquil Solution", everyone refused it. Anders decided to try to approach the Grand Cleric. Arys doubted it would lead to anything.

Some times later, Arys received a letter from her business partner Hubert. Someone had been stealing their shipments for a years and he found a lead: a worked was leaking the schedule. Hubert hired a consultant from the Coterie, Lilley, to help. Arys found her charming. They managed to intercept the thieves that night and Lilley mentioned she recognized one of them. A Coterie member was being this, but Hubert was good on his payment so that shouldn't be happened. She left to get more information and Arys would try to contact her later in Darktown.

Lets not forget that Arys was accumulating quite the kills while travelling at night as well. Seems like thugs and bandits still do not understand. Whatever they are Dog Lords or Invisible Sisters (who are totally visible, what a bad name).
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So many things to do...

hm...I'll have to look into that

1) she says something like "from now on I suggest checking your food", to which Zevran replies "that's good advice for anyone"

2) saw a similar one once where the Dalish Quizzy replied "we already tried that Cassandra, we got our asses Exalted Marched on for it"

3) I hate having to kill the dragons too, but since I'm a completionist that's kinda inevitable

actually, most Act 3 armor upgrades are distributed randomly, for example...there's a 50% chance of not getting Varric's final upgrade

reason? His final upgrade is found during the 'finding Nathaniel' quest, which doesn't trigger if Nathaniel is dead, several of the others are distributed among the Best Served Cold quest, or found in random locations *shrug*

1) Could it be that she's just pissed because her attempts at poisoning Alistair could come to light while everyone looks for any misdeed from Zevran?

2) Vaguely remember something like that on the funny memes thread, but cannot find it.

3) Nah, I'm trying to reconcile completion obessesion with roleplay. Sometimes I tend to go as far as to, say, pull drake scales out of a console instead of a dead drake...

4) Hmm. I looked it up and I got that wrong initially. Only Merrill's and Aveline's are specifically tied to their Act3 quests. For Anders and Sebastian, it is a main quest (that's ok). But the two other rogues are also sh*tty. Don't know if the Varterral cave (for Isabela's upgrade) opens if Zevran's quest isn't available. Why not just put that upgrade on Castillon? And Varric's the worst as the conditions for Nathaniel being alive are wonky. If one imports from DAA, he is apparently only regarded as alive if taken into the party if defending Amaranthine, even if the Watch is fully upgraded and holds. Long story short, why not place Varric's upgrade somewhere in Bartrand's haunted house.

1) that's not such a bad idea...let's go with that

2) found it > link (I love the last panel with Solas leaning in being all...wait, whut?)

3) I did the Sacred Ashes quest today...read the thing on the tablet and my Tabris went all..."meh" let's see what happens, and got this conversation

I was like "who you calling privileged?" For a so called all-seeing and all-knowing entity he sure was blind to what my Tabris went through

I still grabbed some of the ashes though, so who you calling unworthy?

At any rate...Genitivi left the place alive...and 'Andraste' is still roosting in the mountains...let her eat lots of pilgrims

4) *shrug* beats me...design choice most likely

Today the group arrived in Haven, where they got a "warm" welcome. Apparently no one had seen the visiting Redcliffe knights or Brother Genitivi.

So what's any self-respecting adventurer to do in such a situation? Well...investigate of course, found a blood covered altar...got attacked by some of the villagers, snooped around the village store and killed the merchant who attacked them. Then made their way up the mountain toward the Chantry where they found the rest of the village and their leader Father Eirik, they also attacked.

Anyway, snooped around some more and found Genitivi in a nearby room, helped him bandage his wounds and even further up the mountain toward the Temple of Sacred Ashes.

From there on out everything became rather straightforward, kill cultists, some dragon-lings and drakes...and more cultists. Met with the leader of the cultists who wanted Raelyn to believe Andraste had been reborn, but joke's on him because Raelyn isn't one for religion in general. So she called him crazy and was forced to kill him.

Found Andraste on the mountain top...well, the creature the cultists revered as Andraste, which was actually a massive dragon. Raelyn decided to let her stay put.

Went into the temple itself and encountered it's Guardian who submitted her and the party to some soul searching. For her it was paining her with the fact that she hadn't been able to safe Shianni from Vaughn, Raelyn expressed sorrow that she couldn't have saved her from that fate. Then it was time for a bunch of riddles...some puzzles, some spirits acting like historical figures (one of them took the shape of Shianni).

At long last they arrived at the urn, which was behind a curtain of fire...Raelyn got impatient and waltzed through it, which angered the Guardian so she was forced to kill him as well. With that done she took a pinch from the urn and returned to Genitivi who was overjoyed with her discovery. Raelyn countered that sharing it wasn't a good idea but he insisted...well, everything going wrong with it would be on him then. The group then returned to Redcliffe and administered the ashes to Arl Eamon who upon recovery thanked them for helping him and Redcliffe. He was sorrowed by the death of his son, but said he'd loose much more if the Blight and Loghain wouldn't be stopped. Eamon also added that he'd be putting forth Alistair as heir to the throne, something the young man wasn't very happy with.

After that the group traveled toward the Circle tower to start with the Warden treaties. 'Course upon arrival the tower turned out to have been overrun by blood mages, demons and abominations. Raelyn decided to head into the tower to seek out the First Enchanter, and ran into Wynne who was protecting several young children from the demons. After some dubbing Raelyn decided to join forces with Wynne to safe the Circle itself.

The group made their way across each floor, killing demons, abominations and several blood mages left and right. Raelyn tried to help those who surrendered, but grew more appalled with each floor they came to. On one of the upper floors they encountered a demon who put them to sleep.

After she awoke Raelyn found herself in an unfamiliar place, which instantly made her realize something wasn't right, even more so when she encountered a demon pretending to be Duncan, who she knew to be dead. After defeating it she made her way further into the Fade to rescue her companions, even encountering a circle mage by the name of Niall who had attempted to rescue his fellow mages but had become trapped as well. Raelyn continued onward herself since Niall was too frightened and slew any demons she came across, eventually killing the major demon itself and rescuing her friends.

Back in the waking world they tore through even more demons and at long last reached the top of the tower, where the encountered a surviving templar who introduced himself as Cullen. Raelyn saw the young man had likely been tortured for he was very inconsistent with his words and delirious to boot. He then told her to kill any remaining mages in the Circle but Raelyn declined his request, perhaps once he was free he'd realize there was nothing to fear.

Raelyn and company rescued the First Enchanter Irving and killed the blood mage leader Uldred, remember that "let us mages help so you don't need the beacon" guy from Ostagar? Yeah...that was him, turned into a pride demon who had been torturing his fellow mages to turn them into abominations. The group then went back down to the lowest level to tell the Knight Commander everything was safe. With the mages secure Wynne requested to join the party, which Raelyn accepted.

--

Tomorrow I think I'll head over to do Return to Ostagar and likely tackle Flemeth as well, then head over to the Brecilian forest. In between I think I'll also make a quick stop in Denerim to deliver the drake scales

Thomas Hawke read the scroll, and it told the story of a fallen hero. He'd been instrumental in the wars against the Qunari, and everyone sang his praises... until one day, it went to his head, and he became possessed. His former comrades asked that he be sealed away. And Thomas had probably just tripped those seals.

He headed to the ancient abomination's lair, and it rose, surrounded by an army of shades.

Thomas hit it with Pinning Shot and followed up with Mark of Death. The party immediately threw everything at it, completely ignoring the army of shades surrounding them.

The undead abomination went down. Now all the party had to worry about was that they were surrounded by an army of shades.

Thomas threw out a Miasmic Flask and Aveline tried to rush into the center to draw as much attention as she could... but Merrill still went down. Well, Anders had her up before the fight was over, and she used an Injury Kit immediately after it.

Thomas figured he might as well explore all the way up to the top of the mountain, since he'd come that far. He slaughtered his way through tunnel to the graveyard, killing spiders and a Shadow Warrior. (Still not entirely sure what that is.) Then he left the cave and came to the Mountain Graveyard, where Merrill prayed to Mythal. She apologized for delaying them, but said that spurning Mythal is unwise. Thomas asked if he should pray too. Merrill said it couldn't hurt.

Thomas continued to the summit, where he met some dragonlings and an immature female dragon. (At least it's not a high dragon again. That sucked.) Then he turned around, since he'd reached a dead end... and decided to loot the graves on the way back down. He got about halfway through when the dead got up to "request" he stop. Using pointy things.

One of the creatures that attacked him was a "Shadow Assassin." Maybe Shadow Warriors and similar beings are incorporeal undead? But when it died, it turned into a fully corporeal (if bald) elf. More questions than answers, here.

Thomas put them down and continued looting. More got up. More got put down.

Thomas left with everything of value that had been buried with the dead.

When he passed the undead-abomination-war-hero's final resting place, he was inspired to look behind a short wall, and found another scroll that presumably sealed a demon.

This one spoke of a lesser noble in Orlais whose sons had all become undead: his line was ended, but was still walking, and the seals were meant to keep them a bit more still. Well, Thomas had broken those seals, so he'd probably better break the undead too. He headed back up the mountain... and ran headfirst into suck.

One of the sons was just a mostly-ordinary undead. He took more killing than most, but he didn't have any unusual powers other than his unusually strong will to unlive.

The other two were not only revenants, they were revenants that took more than the average amount of killing. For revenants.

At one point, Merrill took down her blood magic ability so that Anders could heal her after the revenants cut some slices out of her. She actually had time to wait out the cooldown and turn it back on before the second one finally went down. That's how long the fight lasted. Yeouch.

Well, they all died for good, and the party turned back around and went back to Merrill's place. Where she had a fairly ominous conversation with her boyfriend.

Merrill had thought that the arulin'holm Marethari had tried to keep from her would be enough to finish the eluvian... but now she thinks it wasn't. She can sense that there is power in it... but she can't get that power to do anything.

Bearing in mind what we learn about activating eluvians in subsequent media, I think what happened is that Merrill has completed it, but that she can't turn it on because she doesn't know what the "key" it requires is. But for one thing, Thomas can't tell her that because he knows less about them than she does. And for another, knowing that wouldn't help her, because knowing that there is a key isn't the same as knowing what it is, or how to figure it out or change it. So even if she knew what the problem was, she'd still have to do this next step to get the eluvian to work...

She said that the only way to know where to go from here would be to head back to Sundermount (where Thomas has just finished killing four superpowerful demons) and ask the demon who told her how to cleanse the eluvian of the taint for more advice. She said it claimed to be present when the eluvian was forged, and that it would know how to finish the process. (Speaking from a metagame standpoint, it'll probably also know how to gain root access, which will let it reset the eluvian to bypass the password-problem I'm pretty sure she's having.)

She also said that she wasn't sure this was safe, and asked Thomas to come along just in case the demon possessed her: she knew what was going to have to happen if that happened, and she wanted someone nearby competent enough to actually pull it off if it came to that.

Thomas agreed, because he knew he wasn't going to talk Merrill down from this, and because as much as it would hurt, he knew that someone was going to have to take any potential Merrillbomination down. Unfortunately for him, he was probably the only person he knew of who could.

The party is back on Sundermount now. (They wouldn't have had to leave it if Merrill hadn't insisted on having this conversation in her own home.)

I took Varric with me to Hissing Wastes, since I wanted to hear his commentary during The Tomb of Fairel quest again. Was he happy? I don't think so, but he should feel lucky I didn't take him to Deep Roads. Yet.I really don't want to think about whose corpse is in this broken vase...

I managed to find creepy Chantry sister in Hissing Wastes this time around, so a couple of quick saves and loads, and Perseverance was mine. Oh, and apparently Venatori think Aien is "surprisingly capable for a southern mage". Why, thank you.

With (almost) all shard fragments in Thedas, it was time for Forbidden Oasis. Place that has one of the coolest hiding place for loot (Verdict) and one of the most aggravating NPC to find (looking at you, Miner). Once again I did not get Dorian's wonderful comment about it. After getting remaining shard fragments and opening every door in Solasan Temple, it was time to get back to Skyhold. To get rid of all "the itchy sand down your trousers", as Inquisitor can lovingly call that place.

Leaving DLCs for post-game means it was time for Doom Upon All the World. I tried really hard to get more than just one comment out of Corypheus, but even when I literally stopped attacking him in hopes of triggering more than one, the only one I got was about vallaslin. Meh. At around 30% health he teleported out of platform and died. Just like that, Well, that was anticlimactic

Party done, quick round around Skyhold to hear last comments from companions finished, I went to do some crafting. "Some crafting" took me way longer than I expected. This is why I don't craft that much. I'd never leave Undercroft

Next, Frostback Basin. I bet Ice Giant is already preparing rocks to throw...

Arys Hawke spend a few days clearing the streets. Gangs, assassins, Sketchy person. Also, some evil tomes laying around. Who leaves their evil tomes around? A crazy dead blood mage of course! She's been dead for 3 years already too.

She also helped Sebastian investigate the Harimann's mansion. For a Kirkall's Special that one was especially rude. Who would have thought desire demons had such poor taste in everything­? See turnes out Sebastian's mom's friend made a deal with a demon to take Starkhaven. Except she wasn't a mage, yet used spells anyway. Anyway, she didn't last very long with Sebastian's fury raining arrows down on her. After that, he went back to the Chantry. Arys didn't follow him.

She instead when to Darktown to find Lilley, she probably got info by now. Except she only got a knife to the back. Poor Lilley. Some other members of the Coterie showed up and accused Hawke of the deed, but she was able to get out of it point out. Then she went to see that Brekker. The guy just hated Fereldans. So the whole "I'm stealing your shipments" was all just hate crimes. Arys was a bit offended, she was expecting something more twisted or some sort of grand mastermind trying to take over the Coterie. She dealt with the gangsters and then went back to her business partner. He was quite happy and suggested she went to the mine. Arys had a knack for increasing morales among the works.

So off she went and the mine had spider problems. Of course. If it's not demons or crazy blood mages, it is spiders. But first Arys found another evil tome. Hopefully, this was the last one.

1) Oooh, I'm so dumb. I had these pictures saved a while ago. But thanks for the link to the source of Noli madness. I never noticed Solas peeking in before.

2) Eh, I suppose his super-perception is kinda selective. He cares only about guilt-tripping. Come to think of it... I tended to see the Guardian as some kind of spirit ever since learning how Cole works... could it be a spirit/demon of Regret? "Worthyness"... bah, yeah. That's were my Surana signed out. Being called a piece o' sh*t was basically her life before Duncan happened.

But... "privilege granted by birth"? R.O.F.L., I'm a city elf. Is being regarded as not much more than an animal a privilege? Sorry, I'm rollin' around in here.

Huh, that sounds okay as well. As long as nobody gets their grubby hand on the pot.

3) Tried that answer once. The prick did not react at all. Typical. Knife to the head is it then.

1) you're welcome ^^

2) hm...that's a good question, I suspect he's a spirit of Faith or something akin to one. And yeah, my Tabris wasn't very happy with his guilt tripping either

I mean, if she'd been able to safe Shianni she would've done so damnit! No need to rub it in

(in fact the only two companions he doesn't address are Dog and Shale...and both Sten and Morrigan brush him of, Oghren is pretty cool as well...he beats the Guardian to the punch )

3) meh...I let him life...'Andraste' the dragon can have her fun...plus anything that derails the Chantry is good

Well, that's just rude

Someone decided to be troll, both metaphorical and literal

(like, seriously, it's called ice-troll Hryngnar in nearby landmark), and just glitch and stand there after dying, not dropping loot.

Screw you and your loot. I'm not reloading.

So Today Raelyn made a short stop at Denerim, delivering some drake scales to Wade and also doing a few more swipe quests for Slim Couldry, also got a reward for the second Crow assassination.

--

Tomorrow I'll be doing some side quests in Denerim (as well as pick up Jowan's regret), then head to Soldier's Peak.

And after that...Orzammar, which should also give me the next part of Sten's quest and eventually unlock both Wynne and Shale's quests as well.

also yes, some of this contains head canon...but shh

Thomas Hawke took his girlfriend up the mountain to meet the sealed demon.

As they passed the graveyard where they'd killed the war-hero-turned-abomination-turned-arcane-horror, Anders told her that this was crazy. Merrill responded that she knew, but that she had no choice. Anders replied that yes she did, she could just give up on the eluvian now. It was a legitimate point, but not one that Merrill was entirely inclined to hear just then.

She said that she'll get right on that, just as soon as Anders gives up the plight of the Circle mages. He didn't reply. She probably didn't expect him to.

They ran into giant spiders a couple of yards past that point, but slaughtered their way through them fairly trivially.

As they passed the part of the path where they'd just killed three superundead earlier that day, Aveline asked Merrill what they should look for if the whole thing went wrong and Merrill needed to die. Merrill replied that she wasn't sure, because she'd never seen an abomination before... which might be even dumber than the "I've never seen a big dragon" line from Act I. Thomas has had her in the party for Olivia, Evelina, the possessed mages who other mages keep summoning, and who can even remember what else.

Aveline said she just wanted to know what to look for if anything went wrong. Merrill assured her that nothing would. Aveline was not reassured.

As they neared the summit of the mountain and the cave, Anders asked why they were going into the cave. Merrill replied that that was where the demon was trapped. Anders said that the demon probably saw Merrill as a way out of the trap, and Merrill replied that that was why the whole party was there.

Shortly afterwards, a number of undead and a Shadow Warrior popped up right outside the mouth of the cave. It was almost as though they were trying as a last-ditch effort to keep them out. A number of shades popped up just as the Shadow Warrior died, but they didn't take much killing either.

The party entered the cave, and it turned out to use the same floor plan as the dragon lair he'd found on the Wounded Coast... complete with a giant idol that hadn't seemed to serve any purpose in the first area. (Maybe there's a demon sealed in the first one too?) Thomas noted for future reference that there was a growth of Felandaris there. I'll bet Tomwise will be happy to hear that Thomas knows where to find some.

Then it was down to business.

Merrill noted, to their horror, that the statue was empty. There was no demon trapped in it.

Merrill explained that the demon was a leftover from the war between the Ancient Elves and the Tevinter Imperium: nobody knew who'd sealed it there, only that it had been sealed in the statue during that war for reasons related to it. She also explained that there was no way for it to break itself out of the prison: someone would have had to deliberately unseal it for it to get out.

Thomas asked how Merrill planned to fix the eluvian now. She wasn't sure. But she needed to find the person who'd let the demon loose...

... Keeper Marethari appeared behind the party. Somehow. She hadn't been on the path up there, as far as they could tell.

Anyway, Marethari explained that the demon's plan was always for Merrill to complete the mirror, because it could use the mirror to get free. The demon would have made Merrill its first victim (possibly by possessing her, but the wording sounds more like it would have killed her outright.)

I'll ignore all the questions I have as far as how that version of the demon's plan could possibly work in the context of the stuff we learn later about the mechanics of the eluvian. For the most part, I'm ignoring them because Thomas doesn't have enough background that he could have asked them. So instead, I'll ask two questions that Thomas could have asked and didn't.

Question one: why does Marethari think she knows this? The only one either of them could have asked anything about the eluvian is the demon. She couldn't possibly have been dumb enough to let the demon talk her into letting it possess her, right?

Question two: why the hell didn't she tell Thomas and Merrill this instead of saying the eluvian is dangerous without getting into specifics? This explanation of the danger had an appreciably better chance of working than what Marethari actually did.

Marethari said the demon was now bound to her own life: a dead Marethari is a dead demon. Merrill said she couldn't do that, as if she honestly thought she was going to be given a choice.

Anyway, the abomination attacked, because that's what abominations do. (And now Merrill knows what to look for when a mage turns into an abomination.)

The party went into their usual strategy for beating up a single boss: Hex of Torment and Mark of Death cast simultaneously, followed by just straight up piling on it.

Two other spirits appeared during the beatdown: one that looked like one of the hunters Merrill had mourned over while hunting the varterall, and one that looked like the hunter who'd still been alive when the party had found him, only to run back into the varterall in fear when he saw Merrill.

The hunter who they'd found dead said that Merrill was a traitor, and wished that the Dread Wolf would take her. Which wasn't very nice. The hunter who had run away from Merrill and straight into a varterall said that he'd been trying to rebuild his life, only for Merrill to destroy it.

Wait, Merrill used her blood magic to force him to run backwards into the varterall?

Girl. You've been holding back your coolest tricks! How about you start doing that during fights?

The party ignored the spirits, and they vanished shortly afterwards as the demon launched into a diatribe about Thomas's constant sarcasm, claiming that "every glib word" has fed the demon.

Well, someone new is going to need to eat at that buffet table soon.

The demon didn't last too much longer after that, and Marethari collapsed at the foot of the idol and congratulated Merrill for killing the demon.

Thomas couldn't help but notice out loud that Marethari had survived the process of killing the demon, even though she'd previously claimed that that was impossible.

Merrill got the hint and stabbed Marethari with a long dagger she'd conjured from nowhere, even though it clearly broke her heart to do it.

And that's when Merrill lost all her composure, and fell to her knees crying over Marethari's body. She noted that she was hoping she'd wake up from this, and that Marethari would scold her for being foolish again. But that wasn't reality: the reality was that Marethari had lost the ability to do that a minute or so ago... and had probably lost her standing to years before.

Thomas reflected that getting possessed never helps anything. And Anders agreed, because who'd know that better than he would?

Merrill said that they needed to tell the clan what had happened, and the party left the cave... to find the entire clan waiting for them just outside.

They insisted on knowing what had happened, and quickly realized Merrill was covered in blood from stabbing Marethari.

Merrill said that Marethari was dead...

... oh, this is going to bad places.

Thomas stepped in and said that he was going to make sure Merrill's blood magic doesn't kill anyone else, as if that had been the problem here. Still, it worked. Mostly. One of the elves still wanted to get into it, but the elder who'd been mostly leading the conversation insisted she stand down and let the party leave, out of respect for Marethari, who had apparently loved Merrill more than she had loved the entire rest of the clan put together.

Thomas thinks he detected a note of bitterness there. Who can blame the poor guy?

The party stopped off briefly to sell the contents of Thomas's junk bag. They didn't stay long, because they had no more business there, and Merrill was afraid the clan might want her dead.

On the way out, Anders said that Marethari didn't deserve her end. Which I agree with, I guess, even if she brought it on herself. But the implication that this is Merrill's fault, I don't see.

Merrill said she didn't ask Marethari to do this, and Anders responded that Marethari did this because she knew Merrill didn't have it in her to resist the demon... which is clearly what Marethari believed, even if it seems questionable from an objective standpoint.

Merrill asked why Anders was still bringing this up, since there wasn't much to do about it by then. And Anders said that she could still make up for her mistakes, and that most blood mages don't get that chance.

And what exactly does he expect her to do there? The clan won't let her try.

The party headed over to Lowtown, and Thomas headed to the Foundry where the party had found the Tome of Koslun. He found a Spindleweed growing there... and somehow knew he'd gotten everything for his crafters that he could possibly get.

Arys Hawke cleared the mine of spiders and the Bone Pits was functional again. Happy workers meant happy profits.

After that she went to the Dalish camp. Merrill has some dealing with the Keeper. She asked some Dalish rights to use relics in exchange for a task. So the Keeper ask Arys to deal with a Varterral that was killing hunters. But first, Arys was going to visit the mountain for a bit, maybe there was interesting loot there. But there was just more undead, a crazy mage and dragons. At least no more spiders.

Then they went back down the slops to the cave near the camp to deal with the Varterral. Arys thought she should have asked what it was before accepting the task. She thought it might be some type of spiders considering how many there was in the cave. They found the corpses of 3 of the hunters and a fourth one alive. Why anyone would go back into the cave after three of their own was killed is beyond Arys. Said hunter also ran off toward the Varterral on the sight of Merrill. That was weird. Oh and the Varterral turned out to not be a spider. It was a huge monstrosity made of rocks. Arys decided to always ask explanation about monsters before accepting a task from now on.

Once the deal was done, the Keeper gave what Merrill asked to Arys. She was a bit of an ass about it. Arys decided to not give the tool to Merrill. She was getting way too obsessed about that mirror and failing to see she was losing everything over it. Merrill wasn't happy over it.

Back in Kirkwall, Arys went to the Chantry to talk to Sebastian, but was interrupted by Sister Petrice, sorry Mother Petrice. Of course. Arys knew she was the one who abused the Grand Cleric seal to get Qunari killed. Didn't bother hiding it from Petrice either. What Petrice did, invite Arys into a trap. Arys just rolled her eyes "Of course, Petrice, I'll play your little game".

Finally, Arys could talk to Sebastian. Give him his grandfather bow (where did Arys found it, she didn't remember) and made him laugh a lot by saying she just killed everyone. Poor Sebastian, maybe those were not jokes.
----
Fuuu, not being able to tell Elthenia about Petrice annoys me so much.

Thomas Hawke was already in Lowtown checking out the Foundry, and headed over to Merrill's eluvian-storage shack to see how Merrill was holding up.

The answer was "not great."

Merrill was crying in front of the eluvian and bemoaning Marethari's decision to die for her. Thomas said that he knew it wasn't going to help, but that this was just a misunderstanding.

The sort of misunderstanding that leads to your mother-figure dying. Happens to him a lot.

Merrill realized she couldn't go back to her clan: they'd kill her. They'd rather destroy themselves than accept her help at this point. Thomas agreed, but said that if it was any consolation, they'd all feel very self-righteous about it. Merrill agreed that they wouldn't be Dalish otherwise.

Merrill didn't know what she'd do next. Thomas didn't have any answer, except to say that whatever it was, they'd do it together.

Anders and Aveline materialized out of thin air, almost as they they'd been there that whole time, and the group went to Anders's clinic.

There was a passage recently opened there. Thomas couldn't shake the feeling that it was somehow connected to those scrolls he'd found that had sealed demons behind them.

Thomas went up the ladder and found... a dwarven style chamber, above Anders's clinic?

That makes no sense. Whatsoever.

They entered it to find a Pride Demon clinging to the roof. It dropped to ground level to meet them, and declared that all the demons Thomas had unsealed and killed were aspects of itself, and that in breaking their seals, he had also broken its own.

Thomas said that of course he'd unsealed an ancient horror: why wouldn't he do that?

The demon clarified that mere horrors are nothing compared to it, and dropped down to prove it.

It didn't do so good a job of that. Thomas and Merrill opened up with the usual Hex of Torment and Mark of Death, and it started losing chunks of flesh pretty fast. It eventually summoned demons, which Thomas took quick breaks from tearing chunks out of it to deal with. (Everyone else kept bashing at the big demon.) Nobody even went down... although Anders had to heal Aveline more than once. But hey, that's all part of the plan when dealing with a superboss.

The demon died, and Thomas retrieved an artifact longsword that Thane Shartan had once wielded from the few remaining chunks of demon. It was a nice piece... but Aveline's got one that grows stronger as Thomas does, and nobody else has any use for a longsword. So he's not sure what to do with this piece of history.

The group left the inexplicably dwarven-style lair and came back to the outside wall of Anders's clinic... and Thomas decided to swap Aveline for Fenris there, so he could compare Fenris's axe to the one he'd picked up off of the war-hero-turned-arcane-horror that had apparently held an aspect of this last demon. Thomas decided the new axe had more relevant enchantments, and two rune sockets didn't exactly hurt.

So then Thomas went back to his mansion to enchant it, and gave it a Frost Rune and a Spirit Rune.

And while he was there, he realized that Bianca suddenly had three new rune sockets.

The only thing that had changed recently that could have been responsible was that Varric had kept the shard of the lyrium idol.

Did this. Inexplicable. Incomprehensible. Impossible. Dumbass. Add that shard to his weapon!? The one he constantly keeps handy and takes everywhere?!

I mean, given that the shard was clearly mind-controlling him I suppose it was too much to hope he'd do something smart with it, like build a quadruple-layered lead-lined safe and put it there, but how stupid is this!?

Well, too late now. Thomas gave the crazy-lyrium-empowered Bianca a Spirit Rune, a Crit-Chance Rune, and a Frost Rune to go with the physical damage rune already in there.

And then he checked his writing desk, because why not?

There was a letter there from Meredith with five sovereigns enclosed, thanking him for killing Huon and Evelina and bringing Emile back. Nobody with any sense turns down money for things they'd have done for free, so...

There was a letter there from Cullen, too. He'd heard rumors that Aveline was coddling her men. He didn't seem to buy it, and asked Thomas to figure out what was up. Thomas could only agree that it was probably bullsh*t, given the tight ship he'd seen her running.

But he had to go look into it. He took Fenris, Anders, and Merrill to the Viscount's Keep to talk to her.

When he got there, he found a templar confronting her over the potential of problems caused by lack of leadership in the Viscount's seat, as if his own boss wasn't entirely responsible for that. She told him off, and Thomas walked in. She said that that wasn't that templar's first visit, and she said she didn't know what his problem was. Thomas joked that he might be looking for an easier job before explaining the allegations against her, making sure to note that he didn't think they were true.

Aveline admitted that these allegations explained a great deal. She decided to shadow her husband's patrol that night to see if she really was making things too easy for him (figuring that if she wasn't coddling him she was probably being just hard enough on her entire command,) and asked Thomas to be there as a witness.

I can feel that. I had that happen with Kaltenzahn once; her skull fell through the floor. Don't tell me you fought that oaf at this distance. I can only remember pelting it with staff firebolts from the maximum distance possbile until it finally keeled over.

Yeah, Marethari is inconsistent here. Earlier, she talks about the Eluvian being tainted (which Merrill solved), in Act3 she switches to "would have let the demon escape". Did you pick the only dialogue option which does not lead to all the Dalish going berserk intentionally for RP reasons or did you previous knowledge? (I just hate how this is written. )

The main effect of Glandivalis is like Blood Control as I recall. It even works on some bosses

such as Jeven. Very amusing to see Aveline wielding it in that quest.

Thankfully there's a mod for that

Arys finally decided to give Bartrand a visit with Varric. Seems like even Dwarf can suffer from Kirkwall's Special.

And in his case, it was sever. All of his servants payed for it. He had his guard eat lyrium. Heard voices. Talked to himself. Tarohne sounded less crazy than Bartrand. In the end, Anders was able to bring back a bit of sanity to him and Varric had him "collected" and brought to safety. Arys felt that living with memories of all the atrocities he did was better than killing him as punishment. All that because of a lyrium idol. Idol that was now sold to some woman in town. Oh joy, oh joy!

With this craziness, Arys remembered that she had identified where Tarohne's last grimoire was. Somewhere hidden in a dark evil pit under Darktown. Turns out the dark evil pit was a Dwarven ruins. Full of undeads and traps. Once Arys destroyed the last grimoire, lots of demons got angry too. Arys counted at least 6 rage demons. So yep, angry demons.

That night ended at the Hangman. Arys and friends sure needed lots of drinks and Varric started to tell tales about Hawkes fighting pirates and stuff she was sure she had never done. But fame was always all right.

The next day, she went to see Aveline at the Keep. Sorry Captain Aveline. She gave some weird task to Arys in regard to guardsman Donnic. Isabela even wondered if she was becoming crazy. But turns out she was trying to court him without telling him. Arys just and suggested she just told him. Instead she asked Arys to invite him at the Hangman. Arys did so by telling him it was a Guard's night.
-----
I forgot how stupid hilarious The Long Road was. Especially with Isabela around.

Previous knowledge. Not from a previous playthrough, since this is my first one: I'd read how to do it on the wiki years ago. I would not have guessed which one it was otherwise. I'd have probably gone with "Marethari was possessed" if I hadn't known how badly that choice would have gone.

I understood why this dialogue option worked once I heard the long-form version. The short-version sounded like Hawke was accepting blame for this incident, and I had no idea why that would mollify the clan. On the other hand, accepting responsibility for preventing future incidents sounds as likely to work as anything else does. Still, they could have made that quite a bit clearer than they did. I wonder how many times that unclear wording on the dialogue wheel got the whole clan killed?

I had been turned off by the fact that it only has a low chance of happening per hit, and the fact that the damage doesn't increase by level... but if that power can work on bosses I'm sold. That could be hilarious. Besides, Fadeshear doesn't have a rune socket, and Glandivalis does.

----
Thomas Hawke swapped Aveline into the party to have her take another look at the longsword he'd gotten off of Hybris, and wound up swapping it out for the one she'd been using for years. Glandivalis's rune socket was part of why he made that decision. Then he headed back to his mansion to have Worthy and Sandal work their magic on it.

He wound up having Worthy craft a Nature Rune, and having Sandal apply it to the blade. Then he realized that the armor upgrade he'd gotten off of Marethari's body had given Merrill an unused rune slot, and had Worthy make a Nature Resistance rune for that one.

The party thus upgraded, they set out to intercept Donnic's patrol. It was night by the time they reached the docks.

By the time the party caught up with Donnic, they were fighting off Coterie thugs. Thomas and Company threw in their own contribution, and the first few thugs were dead swiftly. But of course a fight involving Thomas always involves a second wave: it came from behind, and from both ends of the road... and it didn't take long to die.

Donnic greeted Thomas, and Thomas said that he hadn't expected to find Donnic hip-deep in bandits. Donnic said that that's what he signed up for, and explained that the guards choose their own patrol routes: Aveline rewards the ones who sign up for dangerous duties, but not if they bite off more than they can chew.

Letting the guards sign up for their own duties is a questionable decision, but she's instilled enough of a work ethic into her men to make it work. She's certainly not coddling them.

Aveline said that now that Thomas had seen her men in the middle of not being coddled, he could report to Cullen that this was all a waste of time.

They set out for the Gallows, taking a circuitous route that slowed them down long enough that the sun had risen before they got there. They walked up to Knight-Captain Cullen, and Thomas informed Cullen that the charges Aveline was coddling her men had successfully wasted his time.

Cullen correctly intuited that Aveline was not too happy about said allegations, and explained that he hadn't believed them at all, but felt obligated to act on them nonetheless. He explained that some people seemed to want the position of guard-captain abolished.

I can't think how that would work, unless a similar position with all of the same duties was created to replace it.

Something tells me that that position would be one in the templar order, rather than one drawn from the ranks of the guards themselves.

Something tells me that Meredith and the most fanatical of the templars are trying to centralize power in their own hands.

Cullen said that the complaints he'd acted to address all came from Lowtown. Aveline said that that district was handled by Brennan, the guard who the two had saved from bandits on the Wounded Coast six years ago, and who had complained when Aveline had tried to give Donnic a soft shift when she was trying (and failing) to court him.

Aveline said they should probably go have a talk with her.

Before they did that, Thomas decided to go into Meredith's and Orsino's offices for a talk, but neither one was feeling talkative.

He found something, though: a note from the Band of Three, hidden behind a panel with curious markings, right next to a torch.

Their leader said that he had seen records the templars said didn't exist, of the slaves who had been sacrificed. He reiterated that thousands of slaves had been sacrificed under the city, and stated that the sewer infrastructure had been designed with that in mind: channels in the sewers were designed to help the blood flow further down into the drains.

He asked what the magisters could need that much blood for, when a single cut already gives so much power? And as a blood mage's boyfriend, Thomas knew exactly what he was talking about: Merrill boils people from the inside and freezes them into ice sculptures with way less than a thousandth of what this project consumedin any single year.

Thomas pocketed the note and left.

On the way out of the Gallows, a Tranquil lamented how angry the mages of the Circle seemed to be, and said that they'd all be at peace if Ser Alrik had lived.

You're welcome, lady.