What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers]

I took a break Mattias' run to finally finish Jaws of Hakkon with my DW Assassin Natalia mark 2.0. Taking down Gurd Harofsen and Hakkon Wintersbreath was too easy. Especially when it came to stacking Mark of Death + Hidden Blades (Overkill upgrade) + Mark of the Rift

I also switched Twin Fangs with Death Blow (upgrade included) to try it out on a few snoufleurs in Emprise du Lion. Love the animation sequence on that move. I think I'll use Death Blow more moving forward. Also got two fade touched snoufleur with the 1% heal on hit.

Next up for Nat is Descent. The darkspawn, sha-brytol and rock guardian boss won't know what hit them

The journey of Warden Commander Drako Amell, The Hero of Ferelden: (DA:O, DA:A, and Witch hunt)



The Chronicles of Tyros Hawke, Champion of Kirkwall:



The Journey continues,

I went to see Merrill this morning. Just wanted to check on her and make sure she was alright. I found her crying in front of the Eluvian I don't think she ever went to sleep last night. Can't say I blame her, the poor girl's heart was broken. Marethari was like a mother to her. A pain I can relate to. I stay with her for a couple of hours. We do talk some about what happened and about the clan and the Eluvian... mostly I just let her cry. I'm still not sure how to feel about Marethari's death. If she had told Merrill what she knew, this might have never happened... When Merrill finally falls asleep I put her into her bed and leave quietly. We're all she has now. If she tries to go back to her clan, they'll kill her on sight. I wish I knew how to help her, but there are some things that even I can't fix...

...The Hanged Man was my next stop. I walk in certain that I will find Varric on the Bar chewing on that Lyrium shard in his small clothes... Thankfully, I am wrong. He was actually rather calm. He just wanted to chat about old times. It had been six years to the day that I met that stubby runt. Carver and I didn't have a full silver to our name then. We're joined by Anders and even Fenris shows up and grabs a mug. I make mention of Orsino's letter from the other day which launches Anders into a rant. Had we been on the main floor, I'm sure people would have gotten nervous and called for the guard or a Templar when his eyes began to glow, but as it was just the four of use in Varric's room in the back of the bar, we just let him go. After a few minutes I say, "If you shut up, I'll go see what Orsino wants. Hey, we might help a mage find freedom. Yay! Right?... yay?" Okay, not my best pitch, but it got Anders to stop...

...We reach Orsino's office and he tells us about some of his students that have been going out at night and he fears they may be doing something horrible. I told him to tell the Knight Commander, but he only had suspicions. "They could just be going to see their families." he said. I considered telling Meredith myself until he mentioned the Rite of Annulment. She sent for it and he suspects she is just waiting for an excuse to use it. I agree to look into the matter "quietly". One condition, "If these mages start hurling demons at me, I'm telling mommy Meredith on you..." The look on his face as I walked out was priceless. We follow an apprentice to an alley in High Town. A few mages and Templars were gathered there. I assumed the Templars were there to break the meeting up, but when we stepped out they all attacked together. The Templars were meeting WITH the mages. There's a head spinner. They leave us no choice, but to fight to the death. Anders spends most of the battle begging them to stop, but they just keep going.

A note on one of the bodies leads us to a Warehouse on the Docks where we find more mages and more Templars... And Karen. The recruit I saved years ago. He's the only one that doesn't fight us and thus is the only one still breathing. He told me that this was a plot by Ser Thrask to overthrow Meredith as Knight Commander of Kirkwall. That these mages didn't want to flee from the Circle, but that they just wanted it to be a safe haven rather than a prison. He also tells me that the rest of his fellows kidnapped Carver and were holding him out on the coast. He told me he had nothing to do with taking Carver and... I believed him. Karen didn't matter. We raced to Wounded coast. I couldn't lose Carver. He may hate me, but he's still my brother...

...As we approach the area Karen mentioned we are met by more conspirators and the undead. It was the first sign of blood magic I had seen, but no demons... yet... even when we reached the leadership of this rebellion, Ser Thrask and Grace from Stark Haven, the only demon was within Grace herself. She was an abomination. How long that thing had been inside her, I have no idea. She killed Thrask, used his blood to warp the minds of the remaining Templars, and then they attacked us. (Not sure if that's cannon, but it's how I explain the other Templars not helping Hawke)... When the battle was over and Carver was free, we handed the few survivors over to the Templars. I didn't mention the use of blood magic. As far as I know, Grace was the only one corrupted by a demon. The mages still alive were just sick of living under what they saw as Meredith's tyranny. Can't blame them for that. At least I can't...

...We return to the Gallows and inform Orsino of what happened. As we were leaving, I heard Meredith in her office talking. I thought she had someone in there with her, but I never heard another voice. The old bat may actually have gone crazy... We leave quickly after that. I don't know what exactly is going on in that Circle, but things are coming to a boiling point. Isabella's ship will be ready in few more days. The fuse is burning... Time to go...

After a few days without much play time (had to do some things away from the PC, the horror!) I finally finished of Jaws of Hakkon. Just had a couple of side quests to do and the story to finish off, but I FINALLY got the Firestarter achievement. I've played the DLC four times before and never managed it, and I thought I'd missed it again because it didn't pop up or make the telltale bleep-bloop, but when I looked in Origin it was actually there! W00t! Now I've only got three achievements to get. (I don't try to rush and get them all at once. Gives me something to do on my eighth and ninth runs if I've still got a few left ...)

This in Inquisitor was the first one to lie about Ameridan. She wouldn't have minded admitting the mage thing - she's a mage herself - but there was no way she was going to tell everyone he was an elf. (Alas, she's the kind of human that starts sentences with 'I don't have a problem with elves, but ...')

The other new thing I saw today was the wedding between Celeste and Lord desRossier. I was expecting it to be a sad occasion where Trevelyan would have to encourage her to put duty ahead of love, but I was delighted to find that you can tell her to marry the lord for the family alliance and keep Jecin as her bit on the side. Better still, desRossier enthusiastically agrees to this eminently sensible arrangement! The only person who's upset is Lady Richelieu. DesRossier calls her a 'joyless old bat' and I can't say I disagree. I have made it my mission in life to make sure she's pissed off in every single world state of mine.

Here's my Qunari Inquisitor, Katara. She's the one that I'm playing through Nightmare with. My first time creating a Qunari character and I think I did well.

Just started In Hushed Whispers. Still pondering on whether to enslave or free the mages after this.

Decided I was bored of my Blackwall romance (seriously, I... Just don't have the strength to do it...), so I switched over to my Dorian Romance. William is currently at the Winter Palace right now - and he's collecting things against the nobles, meh meh meh, all boring. Will is okay though, he just got his spec as a Templar all finished though, so all if fine with him.

To be honest, I just don't think I'll have the strength to go slogging through Blackwall's romance - he bores me to tears, and yeah.... Basically, my rogue is at a standstill until I have some interest in doing his romance.

The journey of Warden Commander Drako Amell, The Hero of Ferelden: (DA:O, DA:A, and Witch hunt)



The Chronicles of Tyros Hawke, Champion of Kirkwall:



The Journey continues,

For the past two days I have been fighting off Carta dwarves. The timing couldn't be worse. So close to getting free of Kirkwall... No idea what I did get their attention though. I didn't really think anything of it until they went after Carver as well. They actually broke into the Templars barracks in the Gallows to get at him. Varric assures me it's not the Carta as a whole that's after us. He did some digging and found their base of operations. A blighted hole in the ground. Some run down old ruin in the middle of no where. Carver gets leave from the Knight Captain and we head out there together with Varric and Anders. Not sure why Anders wanted to come. We haven't been exactly "friendly" lately. He just said he wanted to go... Carta means Deep Roads access. Deep Roads means Darkspawn. Having his Grey Warden Darkspawn alarm could prove useful so I don't fight him on coming. Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll get lost down there...

...Run down old ruin doesn't quite describe what we find. It's a damned fortress built into a mountain. Carta are crawling all over the place making mad rantings about wanting "The blood of the Hawke". None of them make any sense. They're suffering from what looks like the blight, but it doesn't explain everything else. We continue on chasing after them in hopes of finding this "Corypheus" they keep babbling about. All we are met with is more and more mad men. Even the head of this band of Carta Dwarves is just a drooling lunatic, but he did have something ... interesting on him. Some sort of arcane tool. When I touched it I felt like it reached into my soul. A blood seal. Without the right blood line, this would be little more than a giant rusted paperweight. No idea what this thing is for, but I know my own fathers magic with I feel it. Father created this thing... What is this place?...

...As we continue down we find small scarps of paper scattered around. Pieces of a journal about this prison. Built to house an ancient evil. We follow the dwarves and get trapped behind a magical barrier. I hit it with as much power as I dare to throw away, but nothing. Not even a ripple. Whatever is causing that, it's old world magic. With no way back, we press forward only to find Darkspawn and Demons and a blighted man in some worn and rusted Grey Warden Armor. Probably picked it off some corpse. With no other options, we follow the creeper as he claims to know the way out. No reason to trust him, but nothing to lose at that point. He takes us to a set of mystical seals that are powering the barrier. No wonder I couldn't scratch that thing. It was powered by trapped pride demons. Warden Commander Larius, or what's left of him, was the name of the blighted man. He sealed Corypheus away with fathers magic long ago. If you can believe anything Larius says, he claims the Wardens have been doing this for 2,000 years. For some reason, the crazier this place gets, the less skeptical I become...

...Floor by floor, horror by horror, seal by seal, we push through this prison. Darkspawn, Demons, deepstalkers, giant spiders, and more blighted Dwarves... What else could this prison have to throw at us? More Wardens. Not the gross drooling sort, just your average crazed ones. They were here to free this ancient evil. Their leader claimed she could control it. Madness. I've been finding scraps of notes all over this place of the Wardens attempts to control this thing. one nightmare after another. This creature had to die. It was too dangerous to be let loose on the world. This was not an argument Warden Janeka was willing to hear. We raced to the top of the tower to where this Corypheus was being held. Once we were beyond the death traps and maddening puzzles and reached Corypheus' cell, we find Janeka waiting. She revealed the truth of our Fathers involvement with this place. Larius blackmailed him into reforging the seals here. His methods were disgraceful, but the danger was still very real. We had to fight our way through the Wardens to get to the cell. Time to see what this monster really is...

...A Magister. And not just any Magister. A Magister of old. One of those that crossed over into the Black City and brought the Blight to Thedas. I never believed the Chantry's ramblings about how the Taint came about, but if this creature can be believed then... it's true. Atleast the parts of his babble that were coherent. I was more certain than ever that we had to kill him. This evil could not be allowed to survive. The devastation he could unleash on the world once his mind could focus would be world shattering. During the battle he release powers unlike anything I had ever seen. It was a maelstrom of magic. If not for the talents Carver had gained from becoming a Templar and Anders healing abilities, we would not have survived. But we did. We survived and ripped that monster to pieces. I found an Amulet on what remained of his body. Anders recognized it as an amulet worn only by the ancient Magisters. What he claimed about the black city, it was all true. The mad man actually did it and was rewarded by being turned into a twisted freak. Can't say if the rest of what the Chantry says about magic is to be believed, but the part about the Magisters bring the Blight to the world, That part is true.

With the death of Corypheus, Larius changed. He was clear of mind and seemed like a completely new man. I wasn't sure what to make of this, but I really just wanted to get as far away from this blighted hole as fast as I could. With the wards down, the way out would be open. We started back to Kirkwall immediately. I didn't think about it at the time, but as I sit in my study watching the flames in the fireplace dance I think back on some of the notes we found. The Wardens of old said they couldn't kill Corypheus. I shredded and torched his corpse, but they had to of done that at some point. Killing Darkspawn is what the Wardens do and they are very effective at it. What if he wasn't really dead. Could he heal from so much damage? Or were the Wardens talking about something else. I sent word to Feynriel in Tevinter to look into anything having to do with a Corypheus in Tevinter records. He couldn't find much, but said that anyone he asked of any importance become very uncomfortable at the mere mention of the name. I'm certain Croypheus was dead when we left, but... I have a knot in the pit of my stomach that is telling me that this isn't over... One more day. Just give me one day of no one else trying to kill me. Isabella's Ship is finished and tomorrow the supplies will be loaded into the hold and we can get out of here... One more day...

Today was the first half of Trespasser for me - catching up with everyone, then the first Eluvian area and the Deep Roads. First time I've seen Human!Cole in action in the DLC. (I've got one other world state where he was recruited and became more like a human, but I haven't played Trespasser on that save yet. I had four characters already by the time it came out, so it's take me a while to catch up while also playing new characters.) His relationship with Maryden is pretty cute, but on the whole I still prefer Spirit!Cole and Maryden getting together with Krem. Oh, and I married Cullen, so that's another romance I can tick off my list. It was OK. I like that the dog came to the ceremony.

I've already started to get that melancholy feeling I experience in my last few runs - this is probably the last time in a long time that I'll have Cole or Vivienne in my main party, or make Vivienne the Divine.

I bought a roomba. And my husband suggested I name him Alistair. And I was like...no. This Roomba is no King.

This roomba will probably make me curse occasionally. So, I decided to name it Anders. So, that everytime it's annoying, I can yell, "D@mn it, Anders!"

When it happened to me, I can't remember what I said. I know there was a lot of screaming. Why. What did you do. Why.

More yesterday but... I got the Belle of the Ball. Fricking owned them!😀