What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers]

The messenger armor is not so bad :C, it's just lousily colored. It's quite dapper with the Robes of the notorious pirate color scheme.
I do wish the armors were more...orlesian...and not just repeats of older armor. The Messenger at least gets some recoloring, bad recoloring, but still. The others are just the same models and colors as they are in game.

I like doing MOTA in Act 1. It's easier to justify going on a dangerous heist when you are dirt poor rather than when you are rolling in money. Also, lots of free, tasty food is probably tempting when you are squatting in Lowtown. Especially some depressed ham.
As for the invites, maybe it was just a yearly thing. Since the Amells were friends of the Duke's mother and Leandra was good friends with his wife, they might have been on the "always invite" part of the guest list, even if Prosper himself wasn't on really close terms with the family.
Gamlen then either just threw away the invites as they came, or they got a special invite since Prosper (or the one in charge of the invites) heard that Leandra returned to Kirkwall with her children who were both formidable fighters, so he invites them to the hunt for old times sake. Leandra still throws the invite away, but if Hawke meets Tallis then they manage to dig it back up from the trash.
Also given the diversity of the Dukes guests, I figure he was fine with party crashers (the more the merrier) provided they were interesting and behaved properly. Promising hunter with noble blood can be handy to know, even if the family fell from grace.

As for what was done in DA today, nothing. But I might turn on the game to finish MotA with Floretta.
Decided to try fighting the Duke on Hard because I had the chance to chatter. Figured it would be a good laugh to watch the party get steamrolled by Leopold. But no, they kicked his ass (and Chalon bit his butt) on the first try! Whoop.
The Floretta kissed Tallis.
Carver: Well, highlight of my day.
Varric: Don't complain! Sidekicks get to watch!
Carver: (Sigh)
But seriously, Carver should have gotten the kiss, since I messed up at the end of the fight. Tallis got knocked out, then Varric, Flo and Carver got caught in one of the explosion  (stupid mistake). Varric goes down but Flo and Carver pull through. Flo cast a healing spell on Carver, because he was her baby bro and way better meatshield. They cut Leopold to about 1 hit away from death. Leopold knocks out Flo, then goes for Carver. Carver dodges once, dodges twice and finally manages to smash Leopold with a Mighty Blow. Boom, victory!
And then his sister get's the kiss. No wonder he's bitter.