What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers]

Before I killed him, someone once told me that the only good Grey Warden is a dead Grey Warden.
I realize now he was right, us Grey Wardens are never more dangerous than when we're dead.
What sort of example would I set if I let a little death keep me from my duty.
If Leliana had given up the first time she died, Ferelden would be blighted land by now.
So Lyna set off for Amaranthine.
I arrived there, still in my Warden issue traveling robes.
I still had in my possession the Dragon Plate armour I had Master Wade make for Alister.
He had moaned it was too heavy and he wasn't strong enough to wear it.
So I gave it to Ser Mhairi, a knight assigned to escort me to the keep.
Back at Soldier's Peak, I had Levi's brother craft me a two handed sword that Mhairi would have loved,
but I must have left it in the Archdemons head.

Lyna is gay, so if she standing on a cold road south of Vigils Keep watching a young recruit change her armour, she would rather it be Mhairi than Oghren.
Being a new recruit, you need to "focus" her training in the areas she is lacking.

Replaying the start of DA2 the 5th time, I noticed things.

The port the Hawkes take ship from is Gwaren. That's Loghain's lands- or were, at the time of their escape. In this world, they are now the lands of Teryn Surana and Warden Commander.

Speaking of my Surana's lands...The DA Keep Mod doesn't have a bunch of tiny flags. So, the barkeep now says Surana took the boon of independence for the circle. Pah! She wouldn't have done that. I shall now head cannon that it was King Alistair's gift to Wynne; Surana and Alistair weren't on the best terms, after Loghain got conscripted, so he wouldn't have done it for her. And after listening to the story again from that bounty hunter... I am now quite sure it didn't flag Amaranthine as being saved even though there was a specific flag for that. Nobles being mad about the city burning down just sounds too much like a lost Amaranthine. But Alistair is King! So, there is that. And they obviously registered my Surana's mage status too.

Does anyone else think it's OOC for Bethany to try to take down an ogre? Knowing Carver now, it seems totally IC for him to do it. But reserved thoughtful Bethany who does best at healing magic? What did she think was going to happen?

In other news, the mod to make Sebastian a super hunk is working quite well. And my pious Reagan Hawke may flirt with him before committing to Fenris. No chaste marriage lies in her future.

I like the mod that lets me change companion armor. Although, I was looking at Aveline's base outfit and thinking man! She needs some new clothes.Her shirt strings aren't even strings, they were just...drawn on like a paper drawing. And the 82 new NPC faces had really put a fresh...face on the game that I can appreciate on an official 4th play through. I gave up on the Antivan Classico as it made the skin shine WAY too much.

Oh, and I'm confused about the CC family connections all over again. I picked a darker skinned preset, then just lightened the tone a few shades; and ended up with a very caucasion family. Sigh. My Hawke must take after her darker father?

Sadly, poor Lyna will have no outlets for her romantic inclinations in this game!   Poor Neria is still going through her Leli withdrawals.

A couple of hunters in Amaranthine told us of a cavern filled with darkspawn in the Knotwood hills, so we went to check it out.
We ran into a Bereskarn and knew we were on the right track.

Got done helping Cassandra find the Seekers stuff. I got the cut scene where she turns down your flirting if you're playing as a female. In all of the games I have played, that is the first time I ever got that cut scene. Must be a glitch in my previous games.

Yes, it's just a script to put her back in the game, she says the same two or three lines if you click on her, and she is not available in the party picker, she just stays with you. But I would take a silent Mhairi over listening to Justice any day.

Edit: And I was just reminded, the game doesn't know Mhairi is there, so she doesn't lose her gear in the Silverite mine.
Not that the part before you get you gear back is particularly hard with two mages anyway.

On the way back to the keep, we rescued a woman named Lillith from a bandit attack.
She has set up shop within the safety of the Keep.

We had to go back into town to look into the dwindling trade caravans.
There we run into Namaya an old "friend" of Anders, she was less than pleased that he had kept her waiting so long.

Andruil hold me...Velanna?
Merrill and I had met Velanna at a meeting of the clans years ago.
She was giving a speech as Illshae's first.
I'm surprised she even remembered me, she was much older than us, and so serious about Elven history.
Merrill didn't care about Elven history and just wanted to do dirty things with her, but I had hung on her every word.
I even got tattoos the same as hers and changed my hair to look like her. (her hair was different then)
The things you do when your young heh.
She said the shems had killed her clan members and abducted her sister Seranni.
Seranni was younger and the life of the party from what I remember of her, though she isn't a mage.
But before I could tell her we would help find the killers and get her sister back, she disappeared into the woods.

I told her I would get her sister back, because I wasn't going to let another one of ours end up like Tamlyn.
She asked to come with us and of course I agreed.

Yes. At that first meeting she says " wait I recognize you from the meeting of the clans, your Keeper is Marethari is she not?"

Neat that you were able to mod the game to do that!  I assume Howe will recover from his "head wound" later in the game?

I totally get that feeling.

I end up limiting myself to only tier 2 schematics with tier 1 mats, until I have reached Skyhold (and usually until I have done either Abyss or WE&WH's). With harder difficulty and nearly all the trials on, it feels pretty fair - at least to me.