inherit
401
0
1
43,567
DragonKingReborn
21,227
August 2016
dragonkingreborn
http://bsn.boards.net/threads/recent/143
https://i.imgur.com/1myVt9D.jpg
DragonKingReborn
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
887
590
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Post by DragonKingReborn on Aug 17, 2020 10:44:25 GMT
So for the first time since February (apparently), I spent a few hours in Inquisition tonight. Hela Adaar had arrived in Emprise...quite some time ago (October last year, as it turns out) and between other things, she is only just making progress (I blame Sera, she's always trying to get the Inquisitor into some mischief or other). Heading in to take on Imshael. For a nearly 6 year old game, visually it holds up really well. Gameplay took me a few minutes to readjust, though I've been playing so much RDR2 and ACOD lately that I kept trying to move the mouse to move the camera without holding the button down. Hela spent the first 5-10 minutes continuously running into things. Anyway, moved through the early locations, and cleared all campsites for the Inquisition. Battered our way through into Suledin Keep and - while Hela spoke to Imshael - the deal was rejected out of hand. Once you've asked for virgins once, the amusement of it subsides. I had completely forgotten how damn BIG that place was. I even found an area in the Keep I don't ever remember seeing before, with a couple of chests up high that you have to climb stairs and then jump from platform to platform (with barrels) in order to reach. By the end of the three hours, it felt like I'd been playing it for weeks again (in a good, familiar way).
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inherit
168
0
14,251
Rascoth
4,257
August 2016
rascoth
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Post by Rascoth on Aug 17, 2020 11:03:04 GMT
I had completely forgotten how damn BIG that place was. I even found an area in the Keep I don't ever remember seeing before, with a couple of chests up high that you have to climb stairs and then jump from platform to platform (with barrels) in order to reach. I love chests in Emprise du Lion My favourite must be above Sahrnia Quarry, where you basically have to circle half the Keep on rocks you usually don't climb to get to it.
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inherit
1685
0
1,636
riverdaleswhiteflash
1,501
Sept 28, 2016 8:03:42 GMT
September 2016
riverdaleswhiteflash
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire
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Post by riverdaleswhiteflash on Aug 17, 2020 21:13:56 GMT
(Tagging vertigomez again because she's the one who requested I go into detail about my first DA2 playthrough, so I want her to be able to find all of these. Explaining this again because given the way notifications work on this site, she's probably going to read the last one of these first.) Thomas Hawke is pretty sure he's found all the useful crafting resources he's going to. (He thinks he should have checked the Bone Pit more carefully, but he couldn't get back in. Oh well.) So then he went to Hightown to make sure everyone had all of the runes they could use (he gave Isabela's dagger a frost rune and Varric's duster a physical defense rune) and went to have one more chat with the Arishok, since he'd never actually gotten around to telling the Arishok what had happened to his men. But Isabela refused to go in. Strange, that. She just walked off. Anyway, the Arishok refused to talk with Hawke, because he thought this was about their previous misunderstanding with Javaris, and Hawke wanted more money. After Hawke tried to walk off, the Arishok either regretted the assumption or just needed someone who might be sane to talk to, and asked him to turn around. He asked Hawke how such a hellhole as Kirkwall could be justified, and Hawke basically said "why are you asking me? I just got here." The Arishok conceded the point. Anyway, then the conversation turned to the confrontation with Arvaraad. All Hawke said was that he had a confrontation with some of the Qunari, and Arishok was able to figure out that it was the incident with Arvaraad on his own, even though he admits that there were multiple incidents between the Qunari and Kirkwall's citizens. (Presumably the Arvaraad incident was the only one where the perpetrators had gotten clean away and the Qunari hadn't been able to piece together what had happened.) The Arishok apparently thought it was good enough that the mage had died, and decided to forgive Hawke for having to self-defense all the soldiers under Arvaraad. "But don't let it happen again," the Arishok said, as though the fight had been Hawke's idea. Hawke mentioned that the Saarebaas had killed himself because that was what the Qun demanded, and the Arishok explained that that's exactly what Qunari who find that the Qun demands they die should do. Hawke also tried to tell the Arishok who'd put him up to this whole thing, hoping that the Arishok could do something about it (he wasn't lying when he said he wanted to get Petrice for this.) But the Arishok said all humans look the same to him, so he couldn't really do anything with what information Thomas could give him. (If Tommy understood what the Arishok said in reply at all.) Anyway, that was the highlights of that conversation. So that's Hawke's business in Kirkwall. He picked Varric up at the horn outside the Arishok's dockside slum-palace, and they headed off to Hightown to expedite the expedition. Bartrand claimed that he'd denied Hawke a place in it because they were already full up, like we don't all know it was because he thought Hawke assumed he was an alcoholic. But Varric said that Hawke had the money they needed to get started, and obviously that changes things. Hawke did some brief haggling to try and bring the price down, or failing that to make sure he was getting his fair share. Bartrand turned out to need all of the money, but assured Thomas he was getting a full third of the profits, just like Varric and Bartrand themselves were. So Hawke handed over the money, and Bartrand said they were ready to go just as soon as they could find a Deep Roads entrance. Clearly, Bartrand thinks he's dealing with an amateur. Hawke immediately handed over the maps, and Bartrand told Hawke to make sure he had all his business completed before they left, since they were going to be gone for weeks. Again: not an amateur. Hawke just told him they were ready to go. So, Bartrand decided to give the men a speech about deflowering a virgin section of the Deep Roads. (He sounded so much like Oghren that I was surprised when I looked up their voice actors and learned they weren't voiced by the same guy.) But the speech was interrupted by Leandra, who asked Tommy to leave Bethany behind. Tommy wasn't entirely keen to leave her (she's been his most consistent backup this whole time) but he eventually agreed with Leandra that she should stay behind. Bethany wasn't entirely keen to be left behind: she said that she can either stay behind and deal with templars, or go with the gang and deal with darkspawn, and at least she's allowed to fight back when darkspawn come for her. Hawke cheered her up by saying that she didn't want to actually go in the Deep Roads anyway: even Thomas didn't want to go down there, but he had to because he had to bring home the bacon. Thomas is sure it'll all be worth it when he comes back, and his sister is waiting to help him spend the loot. Anyway, Varric allowed Hawke to take two other people, and he picked Aveline because they need someone who can take a hit, and Anders because they need someone who can undo hits. They got some distance underground, and... it turned out that the way was blocked by a cave-in. The scouts aren't willing to look for another way, because the Deep Roads are... dangerous? No, really? But it's a bit late to turn around, so Hawke and the rest agreed to look for another way. While they're at it, the quartermaster Bodahn asked the gang to look for his son, the enchanter Sandal. Hawke figured Sandal's probably dead, but Bohdan has faith in Sandal being able to survive darkspawn. He just doesn't think Sandal can get back to the group. So Hawke agreed to provide Sandal with a sense of direction, to Varric and Aveline's approval. So they set out. It's been too long since Aveline and Thomas have slaughtered darkspawn together.
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inherit
Wanted Apostate
127
0
18,245
Catilina
11,032
August 2016
catilina
Top
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Catilina on Aug 17, 2020 22:13:08 GMT
Okay, I'm back... Old PT continues: Aerland AmellBlood Mage Some Origin momentsDAO choices: Aerland... ...saved the mages; later asked for independence of the Circle. ...saved Redcliffe and Connor, let Jowan run; ...cured the werewolves; ...destroyed the Anvill, and crowned Bhelen; ...conscripted Loghain ...earned close friendship with everyone, love with Zevran ...Alistair rules with Anora; Loghain performed the Dark Ritual; Zevran followed Aerland to the Wardens, but never joined to them. And now Awakening... Someone understands Uldred... She said: Uldred went mad and killed everyone, Wynne constantly harassed him with his duty with the apprentices...But he just wanted peace. Nathaniel really loved his father. According to Delilah, he idolized him, and can't accept he was evil. Justice moments: Your husband is dead, now I live in this body, but I'll avenge him... Not a good way to say someone their loss... It seems worse way than just ask, that: Now who is the widow among us, raise, their hand! Aura, dear, don't hide! He realized, it was not the best way... He's funny on a morbid way, and he doesn't even realize This makes him even funnier. Justice is favourite in Awakening. Despite he wants to avenge EVERYTHING, and Nathaniel tries to speak on his Language, Justice doesn't buy this: Justice: So you are a thief? Nathaniel: Who, me? Not by profession, my friend. Justice: And yet you were imprisoned for attempted theft. Nathaniel: Of things which belonged to my family, and which were taken from us unjustly. Justice: A likely tale.
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inherit
1685
0
1,636
riverdaleswhiteflash
1,501
Sept 28, 2016 8:03:42 GMT
September 2016
riverdaleswhiteflash
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire
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Post by riverdaleswhiteflash on Aug 18, 2020 0:53:57 GMT
(Tagging vertigomez again because she's the one who requested I go into detail about my first DA2 playthrough, so I want her to be able to find all of these. Explaining this again because given the way notifications work on this site, she's probably going to read the last one of these first.) Thomas Hawke slaughtered his way through the darkspawn, including an emissary, to find Sandal Feddic covered in darkspawn blood and surrounded by dead darkspawn. (Either darkspawn blood only taints people the plot wants it to, or we can add another question to the list titled "What the hell is up with Sandal?") Thomas asked him how he'd accomplished that (but not about the darkspawn blood) and Sandal's answer was to hand Hawke an ice rune and say "boom." Helpful. Thomas asked him specifically about the ice-sculpture shaped like an ogre, which one assumes had an actual ogre in it. Sandal's answer was "not enchantment." Also helpful. (Also, what the hell is up with Sandal?) Varric reminded them that they still need to find a way out of the Deep Roads, so they pressed on... until Hawke realized he'd forgotten to explore a side-chamber that might have something cool in it. So they turned back around and went down a stairwell leading down from the cave where they'd geeked the emissary. They found a couple treasure chests, a vein of silverite, and an army of giant spiders, one of which was big enough to knock both Hawke and Anders out cold. Thank the Maker for Injury Kits. Edit: So then it was back to killing darkspawn, which was a relatively simple task... although the spawn do seem to have an interesting ability to appear behind the party in areas the party had thought they'd cleared. And they like doing it immediately after a fight, so that they're appearing right behind the mage and the two archers instead of near the basically-a-chevalier. Still, Tommy tossed down Miasmic Flasks and Confusion Bombs for groups, and used Mark of Death on the emissaries before having the entire party wail on them at once, and none of them lasted long. Eventually, they came to an ogre in a cramped room. The party figured they could lure it out and fight it on more open ground, but the ogre didn't go for it. So they went back in... and found their fears of facing an ogre in cramped spaces were overblown. Hawke used Mark of Death on it and then followed up with the ability to make every hit a crit. It died fast. Hawke didn't even have time to realize the room was filled with traps until the ogre was already dead. Edit2: The dragon was a bit more middle-of-the-road: it summoned some dragonlings to distract the party, and it stood up to being weakened by Mark of Death and beaten on by the whole party at once a bit better than the Ogre had, but nobody hit the floor fighting it. Edit3: Anyway, Varric said they'd found where they'd wanted to go, and he went back to get Bartrand. They moved the camp forward a bit and came to a thaig that Bartrand claimed predated the First Blight. Hawke figures that means whatever's in there is valuable... if it's still in good enough shape to be recovered and sold: the Chantry's about a thousand years old, and it was founded around the time of the Second Blight. (I assume Hawke knows that, at least.) So Hawke and Heavy Lifters headed out, making sure to drop off the stuff they don't have much use for with Bodhan for some pocket change. (Since there were two pieces of Tainted Jewelery in there, we'd better hope catching the Blight is as hard as Sandal's tainted-blood-stained visage suggests.) On the way out, Varric suggested that this place was could be trouble. He didn't care for being underground, since he was born a surfacer, and he wouldn't be in this place except that he thought it would be profitable. Varric's fears that the thaig might be trouble were proven founded a second later when shades attacked... but maybe that's a step up from darkspawn? At least shades aren't poisonous. Edit4: While he was heading further into the thaig, Hawke noticed that the lyrium veins in the walls were dark red, instead of the light blue they'd encountered previously. But why dwell on it? It was spooky, but he'd been using lyrium from pink veins for a while. Dark red isn't much of a change from pink. But then he got to an altar where an idol made of black lyrium was placed. Varric and Bartrand focused on the fact that it was probably worth a fortune, but all Hawke and Anders could see was that that thing was not right.The idol proved their pessimism right seconds later when Varric threw it to Bartrand (despite the fact that Varric thought it was supervaluable) and it took over Bartrand's mind and caused him to lock the entrance to the thaig to trap the rest of the crew inside it. He claimed he was doing it because he didn't want to split the profits from selling the idol (and the thaig's location) three ways, but his body language made clear he doing it because the idol told him to, rather than for any rational reason. So now the team needed a new way out, since warriors didn't learn how to kick obstacles down until DA:I. Luckily, there was a door out of the... shrine?... facing the opposite direction. Unluckily, it led through a small army of shades, and some rock-things called "the Profane." None of those were much of a threat, though. Then they came to... a possessed profane? Probably that. Anyway, it revealed itself to be a hunger demon feeding on the profanes' hunger for the lyrium around them. It offered to help the group find a way out, but Anders said that demons always screw you over, and anyway, Hawke figured that if there was a way out, they could find it themselves. So, they killed the demoniac profane, which took a while but didn't put them in real danger of going down. Then, they kept on going.
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inherit
168
0
14,251
Rascoth
4,257
August 2016
rascoth
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Post by Rascoth on Aug 19, 2020 8:03:31 GMT
Inquisitor's work is never done. After making sure GeForce Experience was making screenshots properly (it behaved itself, fortunately), it was time to tackle companion quests. Leliana softened, Cole more human, "Blackwall" works for Inquisition as Rainier... Everything went smoothly till "Well, Shit". Then I tried not to murder Bianca because of her last line. They really should have dropped it or gave us option to react. Maybe they tried to show she cared, but it didn't work at all Eh, at least I got to witness glorious Wicked Grace scene. Done with personal dramas of people around, Aien continued Western Approach sightseeing. Not much to be said here, aside from the fact that it's cleared now, Servis became Inquisition's smuggler and Rylen is still awesome. Also, at one point, I had Giant sink into the sand in the middle of the fight to be never heard of again. I wish those in Emerald Graves did the same...Speaking of, Emerald Graves time I love this place, for its greenery (I need to make screenshoting trip soon, preferably with ReShade), absurd details... Hafter's Woods revenge. Best quest ("Back in my day, we looked for Ardent Blossom without quest! Because no one knew how to start it.") Elf butts. I don't even know anymore. ...and the fact that it's probably the only area in main DAI where I consistently got music no matter the patch (it's also one of 3 areas where I got the most banter in troublesome patches - right with EdL and Hissing Wastes). Let's not forget Chateau d'Onterre! I really hope next game gets similar places. Anyway, cleared Emerald Graves, didn't reveal Fairbanks as noble and gave scroll from Din'an Hanin to Dalish. Dealing with red lyrium smugglers in Emerald Graves brought Sahrnia to light. So time to move to Emprise du Lion, another area I adore. Dorian wasn't happy about the cold. Inquisition pushed back Red Templars, cleared Sahrnia quarry and retook Suledin Keep. While confronting Imshael I was tempted to take "Virgins" option, just for fun, but in the end ended up killing him before it came to that. Once I got quest for Judicael's Crossing repair, it was time to get back to Skyhold to report to Cullen on our findings. Mistress Poulin was ordered to help rebuild Sahrnia.Last but not least, Before the Dawn. While Samson managed to escape, thanks to items found in Shrine of Dumat, Dagna was able to craft rune to destroy Samson's armor. I have to admit, even though Samson's side of the story is interesting, I would prefer to have Calpernia. But that would mean giving up mages (which I don't want to do) and having less chance on Leliana as Divine. I mean, it's possible to get her with conscripted Templars, but it's way harder than with mage allies (picking Templars - both alliance and concription - favours Cassandra, which means there's way more manipulation required to get Leliana). Of course game can still show you middle finger and choose someone else. I really hope it won't happen, but as long as I don't get Vivienne, I won't rage. Next, rest of Emprise du Lion and What Pride Had Wrought (with maybe Fallow Mire squeezed in before that).
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inherit
3318
0
3,811
Psychevore
1,584
February 2017
psychevore
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by Psychevore on Aug 19, 2020 20:14:17 GMT
Well, I made a Qunari and she looks hella weird, but I think I can accept it. It's not gonna get much better anyway
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inherit
1685
0
1,636
riverdaleswhiteflash
1,501
Sept 28, 2016 8:03:42 GMT
September 2016
riverdaleswhiteflash
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire
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Post by riverdaleswhiteflash on Aug 20, 2020 3:30:21 GMT
(Tagging vertigomez again because she's the one who requested I go into detail about my first DA2 playthrough, so I want her to be able to find all of these. Explaining this again because given the way notifications work on this site, she's probably going to read the last one of these first.) Thomas Hawke and company continued walking, and came to the vault of the Primeval Thaig. But just as Varric was explaining that that's where they were, a pile of rocks started floating and assembled itself into a very, very large Profane. Surprisingly, nobody reacted with profanity. This one had an ability the others didn't: it was able to explode with red light. Hawke never found out what the red light did, since he had his entire party duck behind the columns the two times the Giant Profane did it, but he assumes it was a spell of Inflict Immense Wounds. (Hence why he hid the party behind the columns when the Profane did it, and called Aveline back when she tried to jump back into the light to keep swinging at the Slightly Oversized Profane.) Anyway, after it was done blasting, the Plentiful Profane always collapsed into a heap and lay there for a while. Hawke assumed that was his cue to jump out, use Mark of Death and that all-hits-are-crits trick, and then initiate a good old rousing round of Everyone Wail On The Boss. (Although Hawke and Anders occasionally took a quick break to polish off a Puny Profane, since as ranged attackers it was easy for them to do that and then get back to business once it died. And Hawke had to tell Aveline not to do that at least twice. ) The first time the Profoundly Ponderous Profane collapsed, it did so at 90% health and had about 60 or 55 percent of its health left when it got back up. The second time, it collapsed with about 50% of its health and didn't get back up at all. After that, the party was free to loot the vault. And luckily, the vault was right by the way out of the thaig, which meant that Hawke and friends weren't as trapped as they should have been. (Although why you'd give your vault more than one entrance is anyone's guess.) So they took the treasure and left. It included two staves, and while Anders already had a good enough staff that he didn't need an upgrade, Hawke was looking forward to giving Merrill and Bethany upgrades. So they headed back to Kirkwall, and Varric encouraged Hawke to tell his family the good news. He went home to do just that... but it kind of took a backseat to his sister's wardrobe change. Also to the fact that she was now joining the Circle on a not-entirely-voluntary basis. Knight-Captain Cullen, the complete 4&*(ing ingrate that he is, said that the Hawkes would not suffer the consequences for harboring an apostate this time, because Bethany had agreed to come quietly. This time? It's almost as if he thinks that Thomas hasn't learned his lesson, and intends to continue working with apostates. (An inconveniently sharp man, that Knight-Captain. When he's not completely missing the fact that the cute little elf is a blood mage, that is.) Anyway, Bethany left, and Leandra collapsed to the ground in tears. Years passed, and the Hawke family's wealth started to gain some notice. One could be forgiven for assuming that that had something to do with why the Viscount called Thomas Hawke into his office three years after the expedition, but no: the Arishok wanted to speak with Thomas Hawke. He specifically requested Thomas by name. (It isn't entirely clear to Hawke if the Arishok requested him by first name or last name, but it's not like the templars are going to let Bethany out for this, so...) On his way out of the Keep, Hawke summoned Isabela, Merrill, and Anders with the horn by the entrance. And then he encountered Bodahn, who was there to give him the last payment from the Deep Roads haul: fifty sovereigns, equal to the amount he'd spent getting onto the expedition. One could be forgiven for thinking that Thomas's first move would be to head back to the dockside slum-palace to ask the Arishok how he was doing and was there anything Hawke could do for him. I mean, the situation in Kirkwall hangs by a thread, and the Powers That Be in Kirkwall know of his involvement and made a specific request to his face. But no, he immediately headed off to Merrill's place to have a conversation about how Bethany is doing in the Circle. A conversation that they could have had on the way to the docks. Edit: His priorities didn't exactly improve from there: he went from Merrill's directly to the Hanged Man, to talk with Isabela about the relic she was hunting, and to talk to Varric about how Hawke wanted to change Kirkwall's government. (If only Hawke and Varric knew that Varric was going to be the one to wind up in the big chair one day.)
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inherit
401
0
1
43,567
DragonKingReborn
21,227
August 2016
dragonkingreborn
http://bsn.boards.net/threads/recent/143
https://i.imgur.com/1myVt9D.jpg
DragonKingReborn
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
887
590
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Post by DragonKingReborn on Aug 20, 2020 12:10:57 GMT
Took an hour or so this evening to clear out the first half of the Emprise - including freeing the villagers from their carts of doom with the biggest locks in the history of locks and confront Mistress Poulin. Nothing particularly of note, although I got the "Mayhem" banter between Bull and Sera I'd heard it before, obviously, but it has been a loooong time. Also got one from Sera and Blackwall I don't recall - about him offering to help her out when everything was finished and she concluded by planning to show everyone his arse. After seeing Poulin and informing the woman that Louis had killed her brother, it was back to Skyhold where the Inquisitions engineers will be sent to repair the bridge, opening up the rest of The Lion.
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inherit
1685
0
1,636
riverdaleswhiteflash
1,501
Sept 28, 2016 8:03:42 GMT
September 2016
riverdaleswhiteflash
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire
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Post by riverdaleswhiteflash on Aug 20, 2020 21:40:30 GMT
(Tagging vertigomez again because she's the one who requested I go into detail about my first DA2 playthrough, so I want her to be able to find all of these. Explaining this again because given the way notifications work on this site, she's probably going to read the last one of these first.) After realizing he'd wasted enough time catching up, Thomas Hawke went straight from the Hanged Man to the Arishok's dockside slum-palace to see what he could do to keep the city's tentative half-peace in place. Just kidding. He immediately went from the Hanged Man to Anders's clinic to have another conversation he could have had on the way to the docks. But first Anders had to see to a rash the Seneschal of Kirkwall had picked up banging someone he'd met at the docks. But eventually, Anders and Hawke talked about how crazy the Knight-Commander had gotten, and how Anders's anger and Justice's inflexibility were combining to make Anders/Justice not-entirely-sane as well. Hawke forewent the usual sarcasm to remind Anders that he'd chosen the fusion, and that he could make it work. (And no, Hawke didn't just do that to increase Anders's Friendship score, because he has no idea such a thing exists.) Then he went right to Fenris's mansion, Isabela teleported from behind Hawke into a chair in front of Fenris, and assured him that she'd persuaded the taxman to leave Fenris alone. (I'm disappointed that we didn't hear exactly how.) Anyway, Isabela walked off, and Hawke sat down and listened to Fenris complain that he never got any closure on the Danarius thing. Fenris eventually said "but why am I venting to you? This isn't your problem." And Hawke replied, with uncharacteristic bluntness, that it wasn't and shouldn't be Hawke's problem. (And no, Hawke's more-than-usual asshattery isn't because he's trying to raise Fenris's rivalry score, because he has no idea that that exists.) Anyway, Hawke realized he had one friend he still hadn't checked up on, at the Viscount's Keep... Jeez, he should have started with Aveline, since that's where he was when he started screwing around. So Hawke went back in a complete circle, chatted with Aveline for a bit... ... and then finally got down to business, to placate, the Qunari. On his way into the compound, he chatted with a Qunari who was investigating the deaths of a Qunari patrol, and asked Hawke if he'd done them the way he'd done Arvaraad's men. Hawke truthfully denied any involvement, and asked why the Qunari didn't suspect the carta, the coterie, or the templars. The Qunari claimed none of those groups were good enough to kill Qunari soldiers, as though Petrice hadn't set Hawke up to fight Arvaraad by having her accomplices do just that. Anyway, then Hawke went through the gates to the Qunari compound, and Isabela literally vanished into thin air after suddenly remembering another appointment. (That's actually a rather impressive feat even for a rogue.) Hawke went back to the horn he'd just passed to summon Fenris, who surprisingly didn't seem to feel too bitter about Hawke's earlier dingbattery. He took the opportunity to give Fenris a slightly better (and much more attractive) maul than he was wielding, and then went into the Qunari compound. It turned out that the Arishok had requested Hawke because Hawke was the one person who could get anything done, and therefore the one person the Arishok thought might be worth warning about the disaster the Qunari had set in motion: a thief had stolen what they thought was the recipe for Qunari blackpowder, and instead they'd stolen a qunari poison gas that drives people insane before killing them. (The Arishok said that he'd sold the lie by ordering three men to guard it with their lives in order to make it look more valuable than it was. Great boss, this guy.) The Arishok was pretty sure Javaris had stolen it, but had no real evidence of it, and Hawke noted that it was strange that Javaris had taken three whole years to move. The Arishok did not give any orders or make any requests, but he said that it might be to Hawke's benefit to make sure this potential disaster doesn't live down to that potential. And he ended the conversation with "I do not hope you die," which is probably less backhanded than it sounds considering how he seems to feel about literally everyone else in the city. Anders suggested that they check with the coterie, but since Hawke had been screwing around this whole time and it hadn't led to disaster, he decided it was more important (to him) that he check the alleyways in the Qunari compound... and found that the Band of Three had somehow gotten in there to drop off a note. The note described Kirkwall as a maze... and mentioned that a decent map of the city showed that the streets were arranged in magical glyphs? Curiouser and curiouser. But Thomas doubted there was anything else there worth taking, so he summoned Isabela with the horn, and she turned out to be done with her appointment. Strange how quickly she got done. To Darktown it was. Hawke asked a Coterie Barker where Javaris was, and the barker said that if he'd asked that about anyone else, she'd just bark at him. But since he was asking after Javaris, who'd apparently skipped town to avoid various debts, including a debt to her personally, she said that he'd probably left town by sneaking through a nearby cave called Smuggler's Cut. She also said if Hawke should catch him, he should bark at him for her. So in the gang went... and they discovered another gang already there. They had to slaughter a small army of carta members on their way out of the city. (How many members does the carta even have?) Edit: Hawke finally exited the cave (after looting the hell out of it) and found Javaris surrounded by human mercenaries. He proceeded to kill these human mercenaries, and Javaris... seemed to think Hawke'd been sent by an elf? Javaris quickly realized that no, he'd been put on this trail by the Qunari, and set him straight: the not-really-plans-for-a-bomb had been stolen by a female elf, who decided to frame him for the theft by... killing him before the Qunari could find him? Brilliant plan. Javaris had tracked her to Lowtown before skipping town entirely. Hawke realized there was no point to killing Javaris and left him to loot his dead guards... after taking a few silvers off them for himself.
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Post by Rascoth on Aug 21, 2020 7:13:45 GMT
Fun never ends. Judicael's Crossing repaired, party visited previously inaccessible part of Emprise du Lion. I bet most of my Skyhold repair budget and materials went into it. Dealt with dragons and got rid of Red Templars that thought I won't reach them on the other side. Back at Skyhold, it was time to start What Pride Had Wrought. Took Solas, Dorian and Cassandra. Bothered Celene, Josephine and random praying soldier before leaving. Of course missed Fiona, somehow, but it's not my fault I tend to derail. Finally at the Temple, Aien may or may not had a little bit too much fun listening to Morrigan and Solas bicker, Cass wasn't too happy about following petitioner's path and Morrigan was definitely not happy about allying with Sentinels and potentially destroying the Well. My wandering while following Sentinel guide ended with scolding (sorry), but luckily party got safely to the Well. Samson - aside from his Whirlwind attack (I like it on my side, not when used against me) - was easy to deal with without his armor. As for the Well itself, Aien ended up being the one drinking from it. Which will definitely be fine. Yup. While looking thru screenshots, I noticed we get sneak peek on Corypheus's wonderful stockings I wonder who helped him put them on. It's kinda hard to imagine he did that alone, with his nails...Back at Skyhold Inquisitor had wonderful chats with companions, especially Sera and Solas. To deal with Corypheus dragon, Aien suggested summoning Mythal. After rather eye-opening talk (and Morrigan realising that it was - in fact - good thing it was Inquisitor who drank from the Well), dragon was tamed... at the cost of butt flap. Was it burned? Was it eaten? Was it sacrificed in the process of summoning? We'll never know. Lost Temple of Dirthamen and Cradle of Sulevin went as you'd expect. Swimmingly, with occassional "wait, where's my Veilfire torch?" Fallow Mire was, well... wet. Used good-old "send ahead" trink to avoid summoning undead when walking thru the water (basically you order party memeber that you're not controlling to cross the water with tactics and since the game doesn't register uncontrolled characters disrupting the water, there are no undead when you switch to said party memeber that's safely on the other side). Saved Inquisition people, recruited Amund and sent Movran to Tevinter. Got a grumpy "would have liked to see that" from Blackwall once I returned GW artifacts to him. Excuuuuuse me? I don't take him with me when retrieving GW artifacts after Adamant on purpose, but shhhhh, don't tell him.Last, Forbidden Oasis. Did I run in the opposite direction to uncover as much desert map as possible? Yes. Did I miss some loot? Probably. Did I fall down while trying to reach one of the shards? I blame Dorian for pushing me. Anyway, after running thru one too many tunnels, only one last door for The Cold Endured is closed. Next, Hissing Wastes and decision about when to play The Descent and JoH - before or after Doom Upon All the World.
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Post by riverdaleswhiteflash on Aug 21, 2020 22:09:46 GMT
(Tagging vertigomez again because she's the one who requested I go into detail about my first DA2 playthrough, so I want her to be able to find all of these. Explaining this again because given the way notifications work on this site, she's probably going to read the last one of these first.) So, I'm not sure how, but Thomas Hawke was somehow able to figure out exactly what part of Lowtown the crazy elf was operating in from Javaris's non-specific description. He could have gone straight there, but in keeping with his usual procrastination, he headed into Lowtown proper. Part of this was because night was falling and he wanted to see if a new gang had moved in to replace Sharp's Highwaymen. They turned out to be Ferelden Refugees who'd named themselves the Dog Lords and brought their poor innocent mabari into their crimes. It's one thing to turn to criminality because you have no choice. It's another thing to bring your poor doggies into it. Thomas slaughtered as many as he could find, stopped into the Hanged Man for a drink and to give Isabela a Ship In A Bottle, and then went out to slaughter more Dog Lords. He wound up getting a note saying that they had their "kennel" in an alley in Lowtown. He'd have gone straight there, except that his pockets were getting full: Thomas didn't doubt that he was going to want them empty for this. He stopped back into the Hanged Man to see if his bartender was willing to buy the junk he'd picked up. The bartender disappointed him, so he headed to Darktown. He found some carta thugs who needed killing, but no merchants apart from Tomwise, who was more in the mood to sell. Plus side? There was another Band of Three note by Tomwise's stall, and those are an interesting read. This one said that the Kirkwall Circle's mages are statistically more likely to fail their Harrowing or turn to blood magic, which simultaneously reveals that there is something wrong in Kirkwall and that the intelligentsia in this setting actually have some idea how statistics work. (The latter is a bigger surprise: anyone who's played this far into the game can tell you the former.) The note also hinted that there's someone or something that doesn't want the Band of Three to find whatever secrets they're looking for: they were attacked by blood mages, and as of the time of writing one of them is expected to die of their wounds. Thomas eventually found his way back into Lowtown, and by that time the sun had come up and the merchants had come out. Hawke offloaded the stuff he didn't need. He also bought armor upgrades for Isabela and Aveline, and a ring for Varric he intends to hand over later. Then, since it was already day, he headed to the alley where he knew the crazy elf could be found. The guard watching the entrance to the alleyway tried to stop him going in, on the grounds that he'd probably lose his job if Hawke bit it in the poison-gas-filled alley. Hawke proceeded to ignore him and go in anyway. He slaughtered a whole bunch of human soldiers who seem to have started this job for money and finished it as poison-gas-fueled crazies. He eventually looted the valves he needed to shut off the poison gas from the mercs, and the elf made her appearance. She said that she was planning to frame the qunari for the deaths she'd caused, because elves were converting to the Qun and she didn't like that. She'd hoped to do it using the powder, since everyone would immediately think "Qunari" if blackpowder bombs went off in Lowtown, but she was pretty sure that gas would do the trick too. Hawke slaughtered her and the rest of her mercs. Night had already fallen by the time they were done... which is strange, but on the other hand, that crazy elf had had a lot of mercs. Taking care of all of them really had taken a while. But anyway, Hawke decided to head back to Lowtown while the sun was still down: he intends to finish the Dog Lords before they can corrupt any more pups. Edit: He didn't have a great time at that fight, since nobody there had the specific job of being hard to put down: by this point he'd given Isabela some defense boosting passives, some Constitution, and an armor upgrade, but she's still a rogue. But he won anyway, although there was a nervous moment about five seconds before the end where it looked like Anders might hit the dirt and leave them without a healer. But he pulled through, and the few remaining mooks didn't. So Thomas went back to the Hanged Man to report this victory and give Varric back the signet ring, which it turned out had belonged to Varric's father. Bartrand had had to sell it to fund the expedition, but now it was back where it belonged, and Varric could use it to sign letters to the members of King Bhelen's court... even if he didn't particularly enjoy writing to them. Edit2: Anyway, with that all accomplished, Hawke headed back to the dockside slum-palace to tell the Arishok what had happened, but the sun still wasn't up, and neither was the Arishok. So Hawke decided to go exploring, and see if he could find a gang in the docks to go with the one he'd just forced out of Lowtown. The first thing he found was a chest with a lock that was just barely beyond his skill... so he left it and kept looking. Then he found the new gang at the Docks. They were called... the Undercut Thrifters? And they were using Templar shields? Right, maybe this'll make sense when he finds their hideout and sees their boss's name. Anyway, he killed the first bunch, and felt slightly more cunning afterwards, so he went back... and sure enough, he was just good enough to get that chest open. So he did that, and went right back to slaughtering Undercut Thrifters. But no note... yet. Edit3: Well, Hawke wasn't going to accomplish anything more there and then. He decided to head back home, and changed into... oh Maker, he needs a new outfit. Anyway, Aveline greeted him at the door, and asked him to get Emeric to shut up about his theory that there's a serial killer in Kirkwall. Hawke agreed to handle things, but not to shut Emeric up, because what Emeric was saying actually made sense to Hawke. And shortly afterwards, Thomas found his mother waiting by the door wearing a particularly fancy (and probably particularly expensive) dress. (To be more specific, it's the one on the far right here.) She told him, presumably not for the first time, how strange it was to live in her childhood home, now owned by her child. And she said something about finding a wife for Hawke, as if he can't find someone on his own. Anyway, he decided to look around a bit, and discovered that Isabela had vandalized his property in obscene ways, that Anders had left his manifesto everywhere... and that someone had been swinging on the chandelier. What the hell is up with Sandal?
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melbella
N7
Trouble-shooting Space Diva
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Post by melbella on Aug 22, 2020 5:26:17 GMT
Playing Descent. Was going to try to finish the main quest line tonight but the game had other ideas and decided to crash as I was running around the Titan Sea (is this supposed to be Titan stomach acid? ) So, not going to finish the main quest tonight.
My level is too low for any T3 crafting mats to be sold at the first camp - doh! Just hit 16 while fighting darkspawn in the upper levels. At least I managed to pick some silverite. Once I get back up top I'll use Cullen to mine even more.
I'm not romancing anyone this PT but I get the feeling Lukas has the hots for Dorian because he keeps yelling at everyone to "protect Dorian!" while the latter is at full health; meanwhile poor Varric is face-planted somewhere because he's the only one not generating any guard (I love me some guard-on-hit masterworks for mages).
Will hopefully finish up tomorrow, then go back and grab all the extra stuff. I made it to the nug king cave but didn't have the cheese yet so nothing happened.
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Post by riverdaleswhiteflash on Aug 22, 2020 10:22:06 GMT
(Tagging vertigomez again because she's the one who requested I go into detail about my first DA2 playthrough, so I want her to be able to find all of these. Explaining this again because given the way notifications work on this site, she's probably going to read the last one of these first.) The leisurewear Thomas Hawke changed into when he got back home seems to have spontaneously changed into something less ugly. Well, saves him the trouble of shopping for clothes. To be more specific, Hawke's wearing the one on the far left of this image. At any rate, he looked over his writing desk and found a letter from Arianni saying Feynriel was in trouble again. He decided it was worth going to the Alienage to check out what was happening, and it turned out that Feynriel had fallen into a nightmare that Arianni was worried he'd never wake up from. Marethari had agreed to come to the Alienage to do something about it. The idea was that Hawke, who Feynriel actually admired, would have to enter the Fade the same way mages do... which Hawke agreed to do. It would have to be in the Alienage: the idea was that the ritual would use Feynriel's childhood home, and the things he'd owned as a child, as a focus. Marethari arrived soon afterward... without Feynriel, from all Hawke could tell. She informed everyone present that Feynriel was a "somniari," which is to say he had immense power over the Fade that could make him a superpowerful mage... or a superdangerous abomination. The idea was that Marethari was going to use a technique the Dalish had created by studying the powers of the somniari to send Hawke into the Fade, and that he could make sure Feynriel became a super mage rather than a super monster. Then she sent Arianni out of the room, and took Hawke aside to tell him that if Feynriel couldn't be saved, Hawke would have to kill him inside the Fade; doing so wouldn't physically kill him, but would instead render him Tranquil. The idea of making Feynriel Tranquil to protect possibly-the-entire-world made way too much sense, but Hawke refused to consider it: he was determined to find some way not to have to make that choice. Marethari gave up on that idea and agreed to send Isabela, Merrill, and Anders into the Fade... but when Anders arrived, he arrived as Justice. The party walked into the area of the Fade Feynriel's mind was trapped in, and came to a sloth demon. (Which was unfortunately shaped like a shade, not a sloth: wouldn't that be a fun boss?) It attempted to make some kind of bargain, but Thomas never found out what the terms would be: he simply refused to negotiate and he and his group slaughtered it. Then they went into a side-room, where Hawke transformed into an unfamiliar elf, and found a crowd of Dalish led by Marethari cheering Feynriel as the hope of the Dalish, despite his human face. Hawke decided to cheer Feynriel on too, even though this could only have been a demon's trap, but eventually Feynriel saw through the trap despite Hawke doing more to help his self-esteem than his caution. Then everything went back to normal, and "Marethari" transformed into a Pride Demon and blamed Hawke for Feynriel seeing through the demon... even though Hawke hadn't done anything that really should have led there. Then the demon tempted Merrill into taking Feynriel's place, and Hawke and Company had to put her down and hope that the Tranquility thing only applied to Feynriel. (Hawke consoled himself that at least Marethari was unlikely to ever turn into a Pride Demon again.) Isabela, Hawke, and Justice went into the other side room, where Hawke transformed into Arianni and found Vincento teaching what could only have been a child version of Feynriel to read. This time Hawke was a bit more aggressive about helping Feynriel shake out of the illusion, and so he kind of understood when the demon blamed him for Feynriel breaking free. He also kind of understood how easily Isabela turned on him when the demon offered her a boat. She liked big boats, and couldn't lie, and it sounded like the demon was offering her a really big one... even if there's no way the boat could actually have been real outside the Fade. But Isabela had to go down too. Hawke really had to hope Feynriel was the only one who couldn't afford to die in the Fade. At last, they came to the moment of truth: Hawke and Justice were the only ones left, and the demons were all gone... but more were coming, they couldn't not be with a prize like this. Feynriel begged for Hawke to kill him. Hawke explained that he'd wake up Tranquil instead of not waking at all, but at this point, Feynriel couldn't even remember why he had been so scared of that fate. And who could blame him after three years of hell? But Hawke insisted Feynriel had it in him to control his powers, and Feynriel decided to go to Tevinter, since the Dalish couldn't help him. Everyone woke up, and the two friends Hawke had had to kill in the Fade still had their minds. So that was cool. Marethari was able to register that Feynriel was coming to, even though he still seemed to be physically located in the Dalish camp. For his help, Marethari granted him a tome that had been written by the last dreamer in her clan... which seems like it'd be more useful to Feynriel. Hell, maybe he might have actually been able to control his powers if he'd read from it... though that's unlikely, considering that if the book had had a solution, you'd think Marethari would have used it. Anyway, Hawke decided to visit Merrill's place with Merrill in tow... and she apologized for being so easily tricked by a demon. Hawke tried to be understanding, considering that demons had mind-altering abilities, but gently warned her to be more careful: as a blood mage, she's in even more danger than most mages are. Then he went to the Hanged Man to talk to Isabela, and did the same routine there. Then he tried to talk to her again, and got a second conversation about how not-judgy he is and how willing he is to get his hands dirty. I guess Isabela's finally come to see him as a friend. Hawke went up to talk to Varric, too... but he wasn't feeling chatty. Hawke then decided to go to Anders's clinic in Darktown... but Anders wasn't feeling chatty either. Hawke can only assume it's something to do with the fact that Anders hadn't fallen to a demon in the Fade... even if you can argue he fell to one in Amaranthine. Hawke went back home and checked his letters. There was one from Renvil Harrowmont thanking him for his assistance three years ago and sending coin, and a few others of less import... and there was one advertising a midnight meeting in Hightown? Sounds fun. Hawke took Fenris, Anders, and Merrill out of his mansion at night, and ran right into the gang running Hightown at night... it turns out they're an all-female gang called the Invisible Sisters. (At least the Guardsman Pretenders had a semi-decent supervillain theme.) Anyway, Hawke slaughtered his way through the relatively small number that he found. He didn't get the location of their hideout, but wasn't really expecting to. He got to where the meeting was meant to be... and found himself meeting with a templar. The Templar Lieutenant accused Hawke and Thrask of killing Ser Karras three years ago... quite correctly, too. Hawke said that he'd refused to allow Ser Karras to take some apostates, and that he'd attacked them in retaliation. The Templar Lieutenant didn't view that as an acceptable reason to kill a templar (if she acknowledged there was such a thing) and came for him. But she and her cronies weren't anywhere near as much of a challenge as Ser Karras had been: Ser Karras had knocked down both the Hawke siblings, and had had a real chance of victory, but these fools just got crushed. It was still night at that point, so Hawke decided to head to the docks to see if he could get a good whack in at the Undercut Thrifters. And he wasn't disappointed: he found a note saying they were hiding in an alley located... through the same door he'd gone through to find the warehouse where Martin's goods had been stashed three years ago. (I'm not sure if the warehouse had been demolished and replaced with an open area, or if the real entrance to the warehouse was in the alley, or if Hawke went through the warehouse to get to the alley, or what.) Their leader was named Kanky, and Hawke had no idea what was up with that, or why they were called "The Undercut Thrifters," or why their warriors had templar shields. And he doesn't need to understand any of that now, because the Undercut Thrifters are now really most sincerely dead, and Hawke has already been through the Hanged Man again to report their deaths. Now he can completely forget the Undercut Thrifters were ever a thing.
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melbella
N7
Trouble-shooting Space Diva
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by melbella on Aug 23, 2020 17:25:07 GMT
Finished Descent main quest, then went back to find all the gears and open all the doors, met and was judged by the Nug King, and directed Cullen's troops to kill lots of cretahl, mine lots of silverite, and keep up the fight vs Sha'Brytol. Then headed back to Crestwood to sell all the excess loot at full price so I'm now sitting at just under 1M gold.
Back to Skyhold to store more loot I can't use yet and activate Red Water from the WT. Funny thing....Bianca has shown up already. I guess this quest is approval based? I don't think I've ever seen her at Skyhold before doing both main missions (Wardens/Orlais) so I kinda did a double take when I saw her standing next to Varric. Even if I talk to them, that quest will have to wait until after the ball.
I really need to talk to everyone but I just don't feel like doing Josephine's mission - rich girl problems - or suffering Cass' continued sulking. My approval with her is so low she hasn't even asked about the renegades she wants to hunt down. Next time I talk to Bull his Qun mission will pop up....I need to do that one to save him from drone-hood. Blackwall's won't activate until after WEWH, nor will Leliana's, which I need to do to get her as murder pope this run.
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Post by Rascoth on Aug 23, 2020 19:04:01 GMT
Funny thing....Bianca has shown up already. I guess this quest is approval based? I don't think I've ever seen her at Skyhold before doing both main missions (Wardens/Orlais) so I kinda did a double take when I saw her standing next to Varric. Even if I talk to them, that quest will have to wait until after the ball.
Well, Shit is tied only to Here Lies the Abyss, so it popping up before WEWH is not something strange
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melbella
N7
Trouble-shooting Space Diva
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Posts: 8,223 Likes: 25,451
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Post by melbella on Aug 23, 2020 22:32:17 GMT
Funny thing....Bianca has shown up already. I guess this quest is approval based? I don't think I've ever seen her at Skyhold before doing both main missions (Wardens/Orlais) so I kinda did a double take when I saw her standing next to Varric. Even if I talk to them, that quest will have to wait until after the ball.
Well, Shit is tied only to Here Lies the Abyss, so it popping up before WEWH is not something strange
Makes sense. I guess I normally do the two big missions without much running amok in between so she's always shown up after both of them are done. However, it kinda makes me giddy (in a mad scientist kinda way) having her wait extra long in the creepy cave by herself.
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melbella
N7
Trouble-shooting Space Diva
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by melbella on Aug 24, 2020 3:18:03 GMT
Activated everyone's next mission, who still has one. Crafted myself a new staff (lyrium infused schematic, cold damage) and just as I was about to attach a rune, the game crashed again. Had to redo it, which luckily didn't take long.
Headed to Storm Coast to beat up on Red Templars. Cleared out the old dwarven dock then took a boat trip to Vinsomer Island. I just watched her dance for a few minutes, then headed back. Traded out Blackwall for Iron Bull to do Demands of the Qun. Saved the Chargers for the bazillionth time. Sorry Gatt, but if you can't tell me what this alliance actually gets me, I'm not interested. Your ship should have had more than one volley on board and, if not, should have been able to move back out of range before it got hit. The final insult: you and your team of crack scouts somehow missed a camp of a half dozen mages ON THE BEACH. Next stop is Emerald Graves to meet Mr. Fairbanks and find out what he knows.
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Post by Rascoth on Aug 24, 2020 6:45:52 GMT
However, it kinda makes me giddy (in a mad scientist kinda way) having her wait extra long in the creepy cave by herself. Good, good.
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Post by Rascoth on Aug 24, 2020 7:34:22 GMT
I'm slowly nearing the end of my current DAI journey. Hissing Wastes and the blessing of banter! I swear it was firing every 5-10 minutes and even when environment comment overrode it (and I got a lot of them), I got it again really quickly. So yea, Hissing Wastes once again proved itself to be the best banter place. Took Dorian, Cole and Cassandra, so I got some interesting bits. I was expecting to have problems with Notes on the Wastes, but surprise, surprise, it was one mosaic piece that gave me a bit of trouble (aka when you fighting with your bad exploration habits actually bites you in the ass), missed the one behind main Venatori camp... Anyway, tomb discovered, dragon slain, party made quick detour to Forbidden Oasis to open last doors. Done with that, it was time to bring half the desert to Skyhold. You just know they couldn't get rid of all grains of sand.After standing a bit too long before war room, I decided to tackle Doom Upon All the World before DLCs. 1) Because they're great fillers for that 2 year gap between main story and Trespasser, 2) I like tiny comments referring to Corypheus' defeat and 3) I was expecting some... trouble, but more on that later. Aside from small lag when killing Corypheus' dragon (thanks to Mark of Death), which resulted in amusing shuffling, nothing surprising happened, so Corypheus is done for. Got Leliana as Divine, so that's one less thing to worry about. I did pretty much everything I could to ensure it, but I had unfortunate pleasure of having strange Divine picks in my game before, so nothing was set in stone. Quick trip to different regions to complete some requisitions and I got annoyed once I was reminded of the fact that Celene/Briala outcome of WEWH doesn't give us banner for our camps. I know it's petty, but it won't stop me from being annoyed I'm not playing on high difficulty or with many trials this time around, so aside from correct aesthetics for my Inquisitor, I didn't care much for equipment. So knowing health sponges are coming, I decided to finally craft weapons and armor for companions, even those I don't really plan on bringing to any of DLCs. The most important was - of course - getting Bull covered in Dawnstone Eh, I wish weapons were also tintable...The Descent. Took Blackwall, Varric and Dorian. Good thing I crafted a bit because damn those health sponges. They're not even dangerous, just take forever to kill. The Guardian was as wonderful as ever, with Blackwall being the only one to not faceplant on the floor. Bless Champion spec. In the end party stopped earthquakes and released crazy dwarf into places deeper than Deep Roads. Also had wonderful meeting with Nug King while covered in blood, fortunately not nug blood. I had to get a bit of help with gears in Ruins of Heidrun Thaig, but aside from that found everything I needed without resorting to my own guides. I also noticed troubles with missing text/strange symbols, which - while not big enough for me to stop playing and dig thru the files - were another sign of trouble to come (first were strange trial and sigil names). Speaking of trobule... after initial JoH cutscene, I had to say stop and actually swap text files, because I was missing way too much text. Quick explanation why I was experiencing text troubles. I have localized PL/RU version, which natively doesn't support English text (I'll forever be salty about that). To get it I had to either edit EN files myself to resemble PL ones, or get already edited ones from the Internet. I got mine from Internet, but the ones I had clearly had DLC problems. I had different pack as backup in case this happened and fortunately those worked flawlessly. So back to playing. Jaws of Hakkon. Team Cassandra, Varric and Dorian. I didn't expect to hear new dialogue here of all places, but now that I think about it I shouldn't be surprised. I rarely drink from the Well and those few times I did I either didn't play JoH or played before What Pride Had Wrought. So it was fascinating to hear what the Augur had to say about voices Aien carries. I was planning to clear as much of Frostback Basin as possible before hitting The Lady's Rest, but after clearing 1/4 of it I said screw it, I want Aegis of the Rift. There was a lot of back and forth because of side quests, but once I was done with them, I proceeded with main quest. I imagine meeting Ameridan is one of the hardest moments for elven Inquisitor. Living proof of what can - and most likely will - happen to memory of him/her. Of course I had to reveal the truth and then help Ameridan's clan. As for Storvacker, I was tempted to recruit her, but then succumbed to puns and two wonderful "ugh"s from Cassandra Next, Trespasser. And then most likely replay Aien's story, because I'm itching to change order of things a bit, as well as small decisions here and there. Wouldn't be the first time I replayed the same Inquisitor right after ending my previous pt with them.
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Sept 28, 2016 8:03:42 GMT
September 2016
riverdaleswhiteflash
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire
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Post by riverdaleswhiteflash on Aug 24, 2020 7:51:39 GMT
(Tagging vertigomez again because she's the one who requested I go into detail about my first DA2 playthrough, so I want her to be able to find all of these. Explaining this again because given the way notifications work on this site, she's probably going to read the last one of these first.) So, Thomas Hawke figured that since he'd taken out the other two gangs that ruled districts at night, he might as well go for the set. He went straight to Hightown while the night was still young, and slaughtered two groups of "Invisible Sisters," but didn't get a note. He popped back into his mansion, and... found a mabari warhound? He was pretty sure that wasn't there before. He went up to introduce himself to it, and... found Sandal already doing it. In dog noises. Bodahn said he must have picked it up during their time in Jeeves's camp. What the hell is up with Sandal? Anyway, Hawke went over to his writing desk, and found a letter from Xenon the Antequarian, inviting him to his shop. In the sewers. Okay, weird place for a shop... but it turned out to have some neat stuff. Hawke's even pretty sure it was willing to sell him the locations of some lyrium he'd missed in the Bone Pit, and some spindleweed he'd... probably missed somewhere. Too bad the prices gave Hawke sticker shock. Thomas went back to Hightown, and found that it was somehow still night. Oh well, why waste an oppurtunity? He slaughtered a few more Invisible Sisters, and finally found a note saying where their hideout was. He went in there and had a pretty easy time of it. The highlight was when he personally took care of their boss, "Gracious" Gillian Winger. When he realized they were both archers, he felt obligated to handle her personally, so he used Mark of Death and the all-hits-are-crits ability before putting three arrows in her. He then decided to go down to the docks to report to the Arishok. It was day by the time he'd arrived, and the Arishok was ready for a talk. He admitted to being wrong about who'd stolen the formula... and also admitted that he'd been lying when he said that the Qunari were waiting on a boat to take them home. They were here because they chose to be... or more accurately, because the Qun demanded they stay. Oh, that's not ominous. Thomas went back to tell the Viscount what had happened, and the Viscount agreed that the Qunari lying was a sign of bad things to come. He also let on that it wasn't the worst one they were facing: the Qunari had sent a delegation to the Viscount, and it had seemed to go well... but now the Qunari involved have disappeared en route to the dockside slum-palace. Hawke agreed that something needed to be done about this, and the Viscount told him to talk to the seneschal. The seneschal said that he'd rather not being doing anything about this at all, since it was probably going to make them look bad. He also stated that he hadn't told the Qunari what was happening yet, since he feared that any messenger he sent to the Qunari with the news was probably going to be killed in frustration. Hawke asked if this could all be a trick to establish a cassus belli, but the seneschal didn't think the Qunari would bother: if the Arishok wanted to attack, he'd just do it. Seneschal Bran's advice was to look into why the guards hadn't responded to help the Qunari. He figured they should start by finding a few guard recruits who hadn't reported for duty recently, although he didn't know where to look for swordsmen who didn't have honor. Everyone else in the conversation did. Next stop: the Hanged Man. Edit: On his way down from the office, Thomas encountered Seamus Dumar. Seamus said that Hawke's talks with the Qunari might be the start of something great, and Hawke said that the Qunari were just a pain in the neck... although that's true of a lot of people. Seamus noted that even making a comparison between Kirkwallers and Qunari showed a lot more respect for the Qunari than most of the city was willing to. Thomas also decided that he should probably pay a visit to Aveline, and she... asked him a favor. All right, nothing unusual, Hawke gets everything done. She asked him to take a package to Guardsman Donnic, and didn't say why or what was in it. When Donnic opened it... it turned out to be a copper relief of marigolds. Not only does Donnic think Thomas is into him, Donnic thinks Thomas is being Hawkward about it. Hawke decided to lecture Aveline on her gift-giving, and Aveline half-heartedly explained her rationale before asking another favor: she needed him to post the duty roster, and give her Donnic's honest reaction without the Captain present. Hawke agreed to do it, but also made a pass at her, because it's painfully obvious what's going on here and he kinda felt like being a troll about it. He posted the roster, and... Aveline had given him a soft job. Donnic had to deal with his co-workers frustration at him getting the easy job, and his own fear that Aveline thought he couldn't do anything harder. Aveline acknowledged she'd made a mistake... and decided to fix it by sending three goats and a sheaf of wheat to his family as a dowry. Hawke talked her down from any further silliness, and she agreed to meet Donnic in the Hanged Man. Only she insisted Hawke ask him, and that he not let on that Aveline was going to be there. Maybe Hawke hadn't talked her down from the silliness after all.
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Norstaera
N3
Stealth Swooper
This morning my husband said I was evil like June Cleaver. I cried a single tear of wicked happiness
Games: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition
Posts: 387 Likes: 748
inherit
Stealth Swooper
1178
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748
Norstaera
This morning my husband said I was evil like June Cleaver. I cried a single tear of wicked happiness
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Aug 24, 2016 16:13:41 GMT
August 2016
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http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/3ead/s5mkgfa593ihxkkzg.jpg
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition
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Post by Norstaera on Aug 24, 2020 14:33:33 GMT
... We'll see, I have already made an excel spreadsheet which is usually a good indication it will happen i use spreadsheets too. I have them for DAO, DA2, Skyrim, and of course DAI. I also create character documents for my Inquisitor/Dragonborn/et al. For me, they help me define my character and the world around them.
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Norstaera
N3
Stealth Swooper
This morning my husband said I was evil like June Cleaver. I cried a single tear of wicked happiness
Games: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition
Posts: 387 Likes: 748
inherit
Stealth Swooper
1178
0
748
Norstaera
This morning my husband said I was evil like June Cleaver. I cried a single tear of wicked happiness
387
Aug 24, 2016 16:13:41 GMT
August 2016
norstaera
Bottom
http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/3ead/s5mkgfa593ihxkkzg.jpg
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition
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Post by Norstaera on Aug 24, 2020 14:37:41 GMT
Excerpt from JASMINE’S JOURNAL:
It Will be the Templars, After All
Until the Iron Bull, mustn’t forget the ‘the’, I’ve never met a Qunari. He’s not at all what I expected. In the Circle we were told the Qunari collar their mages and sew their mouths shut. They even control them with rods . . . I thought that was golems? Well, I did see some at the Conclave working as guards but I was never close enough to appreciate just how big they are. Even when he’s sitting down he makes me feel small. He’s also a spy (must be an unusual kind of spy since he just announced it). I took him with me to Redcliffe. If Fiona set a trap, I figured the eyes of a spy might be useful.
Fiona said she wasn’t at Val Royeaux, that she never left Redcliffe. She seemed confused and unhappy. She also pledged the mages to a Tevinter Magister. Is she insane? How can she fight for mage freedom and then not give her fellow mages a chance to vote on something so important? They are now little better than slaves. Stupid, stupid woman. Unless, could blood magic be involved? She did act odd and Alexius is a magister . . . did nobody think to use the Litany of Adralla? I remember when my parents were contemplating an offer of marriage from a family in Tevinter the First Enchanter made sure I knew how to block attempts at mind control. It didn’t come to anything, obviously. Apparently, he was no more willing than I. I wonder what happened to him.
Alexius is . . . smarmy; smarm oozes from his skin. I don’t trust him. He arrived at Redcliffe ‘just in the nick of time’ and right after the Conclave blew up. *thoughtful scowl* Clara, I think he’s up to something and I doubt it’s to help the Inquisition. The only genuine emotion he had was when his son stumbled. Felix is sick and Alexius loves his son. The Magister cut short our conversation in order to tend to him and took Fiona with them. Felix’s action was only a ruse in order to slip me a note telling me to go to the Chantry. He and his friend Dorian wanted to warn me about Alexius, that the man is part of some Tevinter cult that wants me for their master. That sounds like a third rate novel; I don’t think Varric has to worry about competition from me.
Anyway, Josephine said my efforts have given the Inquisition enough legitimacy for her to contact the nobles of Orlais and arrange a meeting with the templars. I do hope the Lord Seeker is willing to see reason and stop acting like a puffed up turniphead. Hmm, better make sure Cassandra doesn’t hear me say that. He was probably just having an off day, right Clara? Clara?
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Sept 28, 2016 8:03:42 GMT
September 2016
riverdaleswhiteflash
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire
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Post by riverdaleswhiteflash on Aug 25, 2020 4:32:52 GMT
(Tagging vertigomez again because she's the one who requested I go into detail about my first DA2 playthrough, so I want her to be able to find all of these. Explaining this again because given the way notifications work on this site, she's probably going to read the last one of these first.) So, Thomas Hawke went to Donnic's office to invite him to drinks later. Then he swapped out Fenris for Aveline at the horn near the exit of the Keep: his group now consisted of Aveline, Merrill, and Anders. He was going to need to be at the Hanged Man that night, to try and set Aveline up with Donnic and to get to the bottom of what had happened to the Qunari diplomats, but night was a long way off. He decided to head to Merrill's and flirt with her a bit. When he got there, she invited him into a back room to show him... a broken mirror. An interesting decoration, but more importantly, an opportunity to tell her she was even more beautiful than it was. She took a second to react before continuing that the mirror was a communication device... that had had the Blight in it, and had apparently killed one of their clan. But she knew what she was doing! Honest! Except that she had no idea how to get it to work. Part of the problem was that the mirror was missing a big chunk of the glass right in the middle, and at least she had some idea what to do about that: she needed an elven carving tool called an "arulin'holm" to fix it. She even knew where to find one: her clan had one. She wanted to go over and ask Keeper Marethari for it... but she wanted Hawke along to keep things on track: she knew the Keeper was going to start an argument over this. So Hawke agreed to head over to Sundermount, to Anders's mild disapproval. While he was there, he bought a set of carved buttons for Merrill's armor, and a carved halla that he's planning to give her later. (And a book for himself, that he used to teach himself how to keep his assassin "All Hits Are Crits" ability up for twice as long.) Then he found the Keeper and got down to business. Merrill managed to keep the argument short by invoking a Dalish ritual where the person who needs to borrow an ancient relic offers to do something in exchange, and Marethari sent her to kill a giant monster in exchange. A giant monster that had already killed three hunters. That would have been a problem, if she hadn't brought Thomas and friends. They headed for the cave, and were immediately attacked by corpses and giant spiders... including wasp spiders, and thank the Maker that's just a name. Along the way, they started finding the dead hunters. Merrill explained that Marethari had sent them into the cave held by the giant monster to collect old elven relics, and that that's not nearly as stupid as it sounds because this specific brand of giant monster (a "varterall") usually leaves Dalish elves alone. Something must have provoked it. And since apparently Dalish presence in its cave isn't enough of a provocation, something else must have provoked it. Eventually, the group came to a Dalish hunter who wasn't dead... and didn't seem entirely Dalish: he didn't have the tattoos, and he slipped up and almost said "Praise Andraste" instead of "praise the Creators." Perhaps more interestingly, when he saw Merrill, he ran back the way he came. In a cave that seems to only have one way forward or backward. Wasn't the gang here to hunt a giant monster? A couple of seconds later, it turned out they were, and that the Dalish hunter had run right into it. The group managed to kill the "varterall," which looked like several trees grown together into a spider-monster, and then found the hunter (who Merrill referred to as "Pol") under it. Merrill asked Anders to heal him, and Anders said it was too late for that. Merrill broke down, and Hawke offered her a minute to grieve, but she said they'd wasted enough time. She did give a little of Pol's backstory, however: he'd come from Denerim, rather than being born Dalish. As they walked back (and fought their way through undead periodically) Merrill asked repeatedly why Pol had been so afraid of her that he'd run straight back into the varterral. That's... actually a good question. It might have been that he was even more scared of blood mages than the rest of the clan, since he was born to the Andrastian elves... but is that a sufficient reason to run straight into a horrible monster to get away from Merrill, when she's not actively threatening him? Anyway, they arrived back at the clan's camp... but Thomas suddenly doubted Anders would approve of getting the arulin'holm for Merrill, since he didn't approve of any of what was going on here. He decided to look for a horn to switch Anders out for Fenris (since he was trying to annoy Fenris) and Aveline for Isabela (since Thomas didn't know whether or not Aveline would approve of this, but doubted Isabela would care.) But there didn't seem to be one in the camp.
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Post by Rascoth on Aug 25, 2020 7:24:23 GMT
It is done. First try to load Trespasser - infinite loading. I rememebered it could be caused by formal wear mod, so I removed it and tried again. It loaded, but hair returned to their vanilla version. Oh hell no. After checking both mod, comments on it, as well as some posts about Trespasser and mods (it was my first time trying to bring modded character to Trespasser, those few times I modded in main game/other DLCs, I removed mods before starting Exalted Council), I rememebered about Black Emporium mod I installed and that it had Trespasser file as well. And it made not only hair work, but also formal wear, so that's great. He looked strange without his fringe Catching up with everyone took longer than I remembered, thought no complain here though. From notable things, Aien agreed to help with Red Jenny stuff, got a bit too excited about having the key controlling Kirkwall's chains and pouted a bit once he learned Dorian was leaving (I don't blame him). Contrary to what Dorian says, statue with that pout immortalized would be glorious.Then Exalted Council officially started. Political bullshit (I'm looking mostly at you, Teagan) got disrupted by sudden dead body, danger of Qunari invasion, elven spies, assassination attempt, visit to ancient library, even dragon... In the end, Aien decided to try to redeem Solas and disband the Inquisition. Of course I had to pick aggressive option, there is no other way to disband. I didn't bother with trying to get everything, so no harlequin tag, Veilfire puzzles or backtracking with Anchor Blast this time around. But I did gather notes to unlock Solas' special dialogue at the end. I had Cassandra, Bull and Dorian with me through whole Trespasser, so there was a lot of insight from Bull, as well as a lot of freaking out. Don't worry, I have stick ready to hit you with later. Anyway, I'm done with this pt. I still need to make screenshots of Aien's sliders, but aside from that everything's done. As I said before, I'll most likely replay him soon, but before I even think about that, I need to adjust the Keep a bit and sort my screenshots folder *eyes it suspiciously* When did I make so many of them?
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