Dragon Age: Dark Fortress (Comic)

Vaea does stealthy stuff to break into the Castellum and open the secret passage up from the inside.
Ser Aaron worries excessively about her, so she sasses him then asks him about his nightmares.
The group gets to the courtyard, where bad people plan their bad ritual.
The ritual involves a dragon.
Vaea decides she wants to free the dragon to end the ritual (instead of killing it).
This triggers big brother/little sister banter between Fenris and Vaea.
The Qunari attack the Fortress so the ritual starts right away.
Marius and Ser Aaron kill a bunch of dudes.
The Qunari attack screws up the attempt to free the dragon.
So the ritual happens.
Shirallas becomes a Red Wraith.
Oh shit.

As you'll see in the next issue, Red Wraith Shirallas will interact with the Red Lyrium, his markings, and even the sword, very differently than Fenris does with his engravings. I'll hold off on explaining until you see Issue 3. Happy to dive deeper after that, but hopefully the issue will showcase the differences.

Boy, even the qunari don't like Neromenian. I guess that place is really a shithole.

Hmm, I wonder how the bound and wounded MAGE was able to slip his bonds and murder his guard with a chair leg ...? I might be wrong, but I think I see where this is going.

Vaea, as usual, is one heck of a thief. She gives Cal Kestis from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order a run for his, uh, credits.

That panel where Vaea expresses mock surprise at Aaron confessing that he embellishes his stories made me laugh.

Of course it's a dragon. It's always a dragon.

That bit about the swords of the arcane warriors is interesting. Given the other stuff we know, I think that basically confirms the lyrium sarcophagus IS of elven design.

Vaea and Fenris sniping at each other was fun. Autumn's expressions were also amusing.

Oh, thank the Maker that Marius and Tessa are back to being FUCKING USELESS. I came dangerously close to believing that they were halfway competent during Blue Wraith.

The "free the dragon" plan was a bad strategy. They should have had Fenris backing up the others.

Prediction for Issue 3: Shirallas is going to lay a shit-ton of hurt on the Antaam. If he slaughters all or most of them, does that basically stop the qunari invasion in its tracks?