What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers]

Oh shoot. That's the worse. That happened to me in one of my first playythroughs. Poor kid, I felt so dang guilty, I had to reload as well!

Nice ninja move. I've forgotten as well that I keep Amelia free, although, I've actually done that part with her dad by accident one.

Nice going with Sten as well. My Warden, given Qunari love for blood mages, is struggling a notch getting him to like her sarcasm, though, this is exactly why I appreciate Sten, he reacts well to humour. Technically, I have two blood magic skills from drinking something or other, but I went with the Arcane warrior first, so, I haven't chosen the Blood Mage spec yet, I'm close to it at lvl 10. Maybe more gifts will help with Friendship hence I found a lot of his stuff at the Tower and at the castle. I certainly miss Shale with with all her sarcasm. The place where she stays at the camp feels empty.

Castle Courtyard

Solona: Bah! When Teagan invited me join him at the windmill, meeting a woman with a horrendous banshee accent wasn't a part of what I had imagined.
Revenant: Hey! Who are you? You weren't invited to play at my Master's castle!
Solona: My Mabari just peed on that tree. It's clearly not your castle any longer.
Rev: Numerical advantage says it is.
Solona: I'll just pull a lever over there and let the Knights in.
Rev: Too bad I'm standing between you and the lever.
Solona: You're just jelly you don't have a lever to pull.
Rev: I can pull any lever I want in this castle.
Solona: Pffhhleeease, I don't see you pulling any levers. Clearly, you've got none to use.
Revenant pulls the lever.
Perth: I have an ankh and I'm not afraid to use it!
Rev: Ugh... Priest droppings.

Castle

Teagan is doing a poor version of the breakdance.

Solona: Can't say I haven't thought of using the Bann for entertainment, but you're clearly misusing his stronger points.
D. Conor: Oh look. The orchestra's here. I'll have you clapping the rhythm.
Solona: It's past your bedtime to take over the world. GO TO YOUR ROOM!
Jowan: If you get me a wagon of lyrium, I'll could atone for my crimes.
Solona: Picking up the rest of the loot I've left at the tower? I'm game!

Tower

Solona: I can't believe you've failed to pickpocket that guy after I dusted off half of the library to activate the 4th summoning!
Leli: Had you been nicer to me, maybe my skills would be better.
Solona: Excuses won't make abominations dead in place of a high tier staff I could have had had you picked extra chests at the top level.
Sten: At least we've got a new sword by killing the basement abomination.
Alistair: Can we talk to Irving yet about how Conor's about to have a 2nd attempt at eating the village?

Back at the Castle

Irving: Are you ready to face the demon? Remember, whatever you do, don't get into any conversation with it.
Solona: First, I'll make it do breakdance and clap to the rhythm... and then... ok ok I'm ready.
Demon: I'm not! Let's have a deal.
Solona: Oh GOODY! Let me get the list of all the stuff I want.
1. A necklace made of Arcdemon teeth.
2. The throne of Antiva that has a silver toilet under the seat.
... 254. A magic lockpick that isn't a party member so I could lose Leli in the forest.
Upon delivering all of the above you shall perform the breakdance and vamoose to never be seen again.
Demon: Foul human! You shall pay for making my ears hurt!
Solona looking at demon pancakes: Whelp. As my Qunari future friend says, the only choice is to exist or not.

Killed Bartrand, slept with Isabela and had some very nice heart-to-hearts with Fenris after we dealt with his old master's apprentice.

Was thinking of romancing them both independently and have the three of them as something like friends with benefits. Normally polyamory isn't my speed, but Isabela is never going to let herself be tied down anyway, Fenris is a mess in need of serious comfort and companionship and clearly isn't ready for any kind of normal relationship, and my Hawke is uncomfortable with the idea of ever having children and potentially bringing more mages into the world without being able to raise them as well as Malcolm did him. So, it seemed like it might just be a nice thing for all three of them with no real downsides.

Unfortunately the dialogue options to pull Fenris into bed never appeared during his quest, maybe because I already slept with Isabela basically in the beginning of the chapter, even though I went pretty hard on the flirting dialogue and accepted Isabela wanting to keep it casual. Thwarting my attempt to complete his goddamn buggy romance for the third playthrough in a row. Sigh.

Next time, I might just do a crazy full-on mage freedom activist Hawke and hate-screw him if only to get his pants off at least once in my gaming career. And a Brosca Warden who trolls everyone, picks fights wherever she goes, sleeps with everything that moves and makes deals with demons left and right sounds fun, pelassarias . I may co-opt that. It'd be a breath of fresh air after a string of very serious and dutiful Couslands, Aeducans and Mahariels. Brosca is the only Origin I've never finished the game with, as well.

Hmm. A pure-bred Duster Warden who'll kill the mages and the elves and give Bhelen the Anvil of the Void while gaslighting and using Alistair as her boytoy, a fundamentalist mage freedom fighter Hawke, and maybe a ruthless Tal-Vashoth or Cadash Inquisitor assisted by a hardened and insane Leliana and her Gestapo to launch the Inquisition's reign of terror... That sounds pretty close to a Darkest Timeline, and I should be able to suck up the last couple of achievements I need in each game...

Just now I'm running through a lot of the minor and incidental side quests in Act 2 so I can do Legacy at maximum level before getting too far into it with the Qunari, while playing around with my blood mage tank build a little to find a compromise between the consummate tank and support caster, and someone who might actually be able to take the Arishok on without using any Primal or Elemental spells that would give them away to as a mage. It's proving to be an... interesting needle to thread.

Decided to save Legacy for Act 3 since that's canonically the year it's supposed to happen. Just now I'm sucking up side and companion quests after helping Meredith with a bunch of rogue mages. Once again the anti-mage side of things feels surprisingly tidy and respectfully written considering how crazy everything feels if you commit to protecting mages from the templars.

Can't say anything about the ending yet, but so far she comes across as a perfectly sensible woman who just prefers not to give individual mages the benefit of the doubt unless given specific reason to. She speaks respectfully to Hawke, and every mage I've dealt with who has been innocent of demon-summoning or anything else like that to Hawke's own knowledge has been allowed to return to the Circle peacefully with no sign of mistreatment, and even after ruthlessly striking down the obviously insane and evil ones I have way less blood on my hands than I would if I chose to kill every templar who tried to do his job.

The only templars I've done in have been Alrik and his crew, who were just sick bastards abusing their positions, and they were clearly meant to be an isolated instance. Act of Mercy was interesting. I was prepared to argue for the mages to be returned to the circle with their insane leader dead, but if Ser Karras insisted on culling them I would defer to his judgement, although if he attacked Hawke along with them I would defend myself. Previous playthroughs of this quest always ended in a bloodbath, so I was resigned to it, but for once it actually worked out peacefully.

I haven't played DA2 enough to tell if the way things are portrayed is consistent across playthroughs, or if templar corruption is for some reason dialed up in a game where Hawke is sympathetic to the mages. But pro-templar is definitely turning into my favorite way to play it.

Love the spiky hair, and the blue vallaslin goes great with red.

Speaking of which... how do the Dalish cut their hair? Do you think they buy scissors from the nearby villages or do they have their own tools for it?

Considering people ir know how to cut hair with nail clippers and have it look good, I don't see it past Dalish knowing how to cut nicely with knife (which I always thought they used).

Could be a lot more than sense of direction. Navigation and travel isn't just about knowing where you are and where you're going, it's also being able to figure out and decide the best and safest route from A to B based on knowledge and information-gathering about the land and its dangers.

Except for Loghain, none of the companions are very well-traveled in Ferelden at all, whereas Mahariel's clan might have moved up one side of the country and down the other over the last decade or two. It's entirely possible that the party is using trails and shortcuts Raelyn walked with her people as a girl or young woman to move faster and avoid public notice, and her knowledge about small hamlets and prickly local Banns and patrolled trade routes to mostly stay out of trouble. 

And she's most likely had to go out and retrieve Alistair after he got lost taking a piss or trying to "hunt" once or twice.

And thank you.