Mages in the distant past tried to do something fairly dodgy and were turned into the Darkspawn.
They came back to the planet and started taking over. Grey wardens fought them and prevailed.
Four centuries later there has been peace. However the darkspawn is stil around biding it's time.
There are few Wardens left and they are not heeded very well. We see one fighting two darkspawn and he knows that they are getting ready to attack again.
Now character creation. Male or female. Dwarf, elf or human. Warrior, mage or rogue.
You can play with your characters appearance in many ways.
Difficulty level is next, I choose normal.
Tutorial mission
I am introduced to our family the Couslands. Our brother is preparing for a fight with the darkspawn that is rising in the south.
Our father talks about the impending battle. My character walks in, we get to speak to them.
A selection of choices is given in this idle chit chat.
A man called Howe is visiting. He has his soldiers with him. They seem dodgy.
Our father leaves us in charge when they go out to war.
The grey warden, Duncan is brought in to chat. He is interested in us as a recruit.
Conversation choices are the usual mix of middle of the road, nice or argumentative.
We are now in control of our character.
Left stick to move, right for camera.
A is interact.
Back brings up a map.
I walk out the door and find a person called Ser Gilmore
He tells us that our Mubari war hound is in the kitchen. We have to go and control it.
On the way our mother interrupts and seems to be trying to marry us off.
I manage to get to the kitchen.
The cook is angry, The dog is trying to tell us something.
There are giant rats in the larder.
I find it hysterical that after the fight the two characters are spattered with blood.
Fighting is a matter of hitting X so far. I am sure it will get more comlicated.
The cook starts of indignant still, then end up giving the dog a treat.
I am back to looking for our brother to tell him to send the army out.
I manage to find the map and get to him.
Fergus is saying goodbye to his wife and son, of course he is going to die soon, he has redshirt painted all over him.
Mom and pop turn up for a family scene.
That seems to be an end to this section.
Mission 1
A cut scene starts.
It's night time. The dog wakes us up barking.
Howe's soldiers are attacking in the absence of the castle troops.
I have to fight a few of them.
Mother arrives Father is missing.
She joins us as we go looking for him.
Dead bodies can be looted.
There is a complex inventory system. Also in fighting skills can be mapped to the xyab buttons.
At the moment I have a shield bash. Once these are used they have a cooldown period.
Fergus's wife and son have been killed.
When you level up you can spend points on attributes.
The castle is overrun, Mother suggests that we leave and fight another day.
We progress through the castle fighting. A big fight in the throne room.
Here we meet mages for the first time.
Archers also stand apart from the fight and fire into the melee.
Father went to the kitchens.
I fight my way there and find Father bleeding to death.
He is mortally wounded. The grey warden arrives and suggests that they need to leave.
Duncan wants to take us to be a grey warden, that way revenge will come.
Mother stays with father. Duncan and Elissa leave.
Mission 2
We meet a king, who is unaware of Howes treachery.
He pledges to help.
The king seems to think they are winning, he is even disappointed that there isn't any arch demons.
We have a joining ritual to perform.
We are left to explore a little first.
The stat screens are daunting in their complexity at first.
I enter Ostagar and explore.
There are mages practicing that can't be interrupted.
I meet Wynne a mage, she tells us of the fade, which is a realm where spirts dwell. There is a dark city there which is the source of the darkspawn.
I find Duncan and need to find someone called Alastair.
One of the wounded soldiers is despondent after a fight with the darkspawn.
I find a deserter in a cage, he needs fed, I have to ask his guard for food for him. He won't give me any.
The quartermaster can supply us with weapons.
I eventually find Alastair, he is a new Grey warden too, I go back to Duncan with him.
we meet Daveth and Sejury. The joining is a test of skill.
We have to go out into the woods and get a vial of darkspawn blood.
We have also to find scrolls left in an abandoned outpost.
Mission 3
I go out into the Kocari wilds.
I fight some wolves.
I find some soldiers who have been attacked.
I save one and Jury get scared because a whole bunch of soldier got killed, what chance do four recruits stand.
Alastair tells us that Grey wardens can sense darkspawn.
I find a camp filled with them it's a hard fight and once over only one of my team is left standing. The rest get back up but they have injury flags.
I find the archive, a woman appear who is named Morrigan. After much banter she tells us that her mother had the scrolls we seek. She takes us to her, and she gives us the scrolls.
She also fast travels us back to camp.
The joining ritual is explained, Alastair takes us to the old temple.
We have to drink the darkspawn blood and master the taint.
Daveth drinks it and dies. Jory does not want to do it and Duncan kills him.
I then take it and survive. I see a vision of a large dragon.
We have to meet the king next.
I give a flower I found in the wilds to the kennel master to cure the dogs.
I can now buy the meal from the guard to give to the deserter.
I find the king.
The king wants to go on the frontline, his advisor does not want him.
The Orlesians it seems are an old enemy, The king wants to unite with them against the darkspawn, the advisor is a staunch traditionalist.
The king wants us to light a beacon during the battle.
Logain the advisor seems dodgy, or is it the foolhardy king that is going to be the problem.
Mission 4
We have to go to the tower next.
A cut scene shows the army awaiting the Darkspawn attack.
Duncan and the king are confident.
The darkspawn appear in large numbers, snarling and orc like. Giants and dwarves amongst them.
Archers and hounds are set loose.
Then the battle is joined.
We start at a bridge we crossed entering the city and have to cross it under fire.
When we get across we are told that the tower has been taken, the darkspawn came up through the sewers.
I get into the fight, here i experiment a little more with controlling other characters, I have a mage and ranged fighting is fun.
There are traps here, which explode or produce clouds of gas that slow your character.
After around three floors of tower we come to the top and find our first boss battle.
A large Orge appears and it is a close fight.
A cut scene shows Logain retreating on the signal rather than attacking. We see the king slaughtered by and Ogre which Duncan then kills single handed. He can't win though huge numbers of Darkspawn overwhelm the army and kill them all. We see our gang being attacked and our character being shot with an arrow and falling.
She wakes in a bed naked and Morrigan is there.
Morrigan tells her that her mother saved them. She fills them in on what happened at the castle.
Mission 5
I meet with Alastair and Morrigan's mother who reveals her name as Flemeth.
The dicussion her centres on what to do next. Loghain has obviously betrayed the king for his own ends. Alastair wants to go to the Arl of Redcliffe who was the kings uncle. He thinks that he will bring Loghain to justice.
Flemeth suggests that the Grey wardens have treaties with the elves, dwarves and mages which bind them to aid in times of trouble. Flemeth suggest that an army be raised to fight the Darkspawn.
Morrigan is tasked with joining the grey wardens in their quest.
I now leave Flemeth's hut and come to a world map.
Here we can choose to go to certain places. Though only one of the icons is available.
A cut scene shows Loghain talking to a crowd. Loghain has declared himself regent for the new queen.
A crowd member challenges him on his withdrawal and policies. The queen defends him.
We come to a bridge on which thieves have set up an ambush. I kill them. They inform us that grey wardens are traitors and there is a bounty on our heads.
We have a discussion amongst the party, seems we need to visit the elves, dwarves, mages and human's to seek their help.
I am now in a village. There are arguments amongst villager over food and lots of lost children and begging people stripped of their wordly goods by the flight from the Darkspawn.
I find man called Sten in a cage who it seems will join us if we get him free.
I find a man called Donal who tells us that the Arl of redcliffe is ill. It seems to be a magical poision that is affecting him.Possibly Loghain is to blame.
An urn of sacred ashes might be able to cure him.
I meet the priestess in charge here, she won't give up the Qunari until I exhaust all option other than threatening to kill her. what the hell.
She gives us the key.
I release Sten and he joins us.
I can only have four in my party. I get rid of the dog.
On leaving the village I find some dwarves being attacked by darkspawn.
After leaving a cut scene shows a dragon and loads of darkspawn. It is a dream and Alatair talks to us after we wake. Seems that the dragon is the archdemon.
Mission 6
I find myself in the county in a small camp.Seems that this is a base hub, it has the two dwarves in it as a shop. Though there gear is expensive.
Naughty Naughty, I find a man offering to send me on a quest to an old warden's keep, after a bit of chat about it I find that it's dlc and get sent to the buy page when I accept the task. Sure have DLC, but only mention it when people have bought it. it's a bit jarring to be given an in game advert for something, especially early in the game.
I take myself out of the camp and have to select my party. There are a lot of options here.
I decide to go to redcliffe to get the human contingent to help.
On the way I am ambushed and have to fight some darkspawn.
Alastair reveals that he is the bastard son of the king. The arl of Redcliffe took him in, until his wife heard rumours that he was her husbands bastard. Alastair thinks the arl will help him now because of this.
I enter Redcliffe, seems that monsters are coming from the castle at night to attack the villagers. We are taken to a leader to learn more.
We meet Teegan, who was the man we saw disagreeing with Loghain.
It seems zombies are attacking from the castle. I agree to help defend the village.
Murdoc is the mayor and we have to go see him to aid the village.
The blacksmith is despondent and depressed and won't help. We have to get him to help.
I have to break his door down and he has been drinking.
In conversation with him we learn that the arlessa is involved with black magic and may be responsible.
The smith's daughter is in the castle and this is why he is so despondent.
I promise to save her and he will do the work.
We have to speak with Ser Perth as well. He is one of the knights sent looking for the urn which may save the arl. I have an argument with the priestess who won't lie to the troops and tell them that the maker is protecting them.
I then trigger the fight with the undead. Night falls and they attack.
A horde of undead come from the castle and fight. Then we have to run back into the village and defend against a flanking attack.
Once done we see the villagers celebrate.
Mission 7
Teagan tells us of a secret passage into the castle which we can use to investigate.
Isolde the Arless appears, she wants Teagan to return to the castle with her.
There is an evil in the castle, a mage released it.
Seems Loghain hired him to posion the Arl.
Isolde and Teagan will return, he wants us to use the secret passage, while he distracts the evil.
Inside the passageway we find some corpses, then the mage in prison. He tells us that he was hired to poison the arl, but has nothing to do with the evil demon.
Isolde hired the mage because he was a disgraced mage, outside circle or apostate.
Just like Morrigan. He thinks that the son has opened the veil to the fade and let the demons in.
I let him out.
Inside the castle there is more fighting with the undead and new enemy, the ghostly lesser shades.
I find the smith's daughter Valena, she goes back to her father.
After some more corridors we come out into the courtyard and find a new enemy, a revenant.
which is killing me dead with ease, hmmmm. I manage it without any real change in tactics, seems luck is a big factor along witht the ai of your enemies and allies.
I enter the main hall and find that Connor the son is possessed by something.
After some chit chat we fight with the posessed guards and Teagan.
Then have a chat with Teagan, the mage and Isolde about who is to blame for all this.
The mage may be able to break the demon's connection.
However, he will steal someones life energy to send another mage into the fade to kill the demon. The merits and demerits are discussed.
There is a way to avoid death, if more mages are sought. I take the option.
Jowan and Teagan will stay and keep the demon at bay.
I go back to camp and organise weapons and armour.
On the way to places in fast travel it seems that ambushes are regular.
Mission 8
I go to the mages tower, a guard gives us grief before taking us across the lake to the tower.
I find the leader of the templars in the tower and it seems that things have gone wrong here as well.
The tower is also brimming with creatures escaped from the fade.
We have some chit chat, the templar agrees that if we clear out the tower he will join us against the darkspawn, of course he does not expect us to live.
Inside I find a mage called Wynne, we met her earlier.
We join with her to go into the tower.
After a fight on the first floor we get to the second and find Owain, he tells us that blood mages are involved and someone named Niall is setting out to fight them.
I find a mage and fight them, once defeated we chat. Seems the mages involved wanted rebellion against the templars and the Chantry.
Aldred is their leader and he has gone mad.
I find a love demon who has a man in it's thrall. It's a hard fight but I kill it.
We are given the opportunity to just walk away here, as it seems like the man is getting everything he desires. Of course the demon will be free to enslave others if we do.
I come to the boss of the baddies here, it's an abomination of flesh, crudely shaped into a man.
Mission 9
It uses magic to get into our minds and tries to make us sleep. I find myself in my dreams.
I find myself with duncan and some other grey wardens in a warden castle.
Duncan tries to make me think that the war is over.
I obviously know not to trust him.
I fight him and the other wardens.
A portal takes us to another place. Are we in the fade?
I find Niall who was also fighting the demon. Seems he is caught in the fade as well.
We have to break through the fade world to get to the demon and fight it for real.
I find a mouse who grants me the ability to shapeshift into a mouse.
I can then enter small mouse doors here in this strange landscpae.
I enter the burning tower and after a few fights find a templar who gives me the power to shapeshift into a fire immune form.
I go through a portal to a place named the mages asunder.
I find mages attacking here, at one point a bunch of them attack each other rather than me.
Servants also attack, I can pass through fires using the fire shape and also fight with fire.
Lots of loading screens in this game.
There are places here where instat death can easily occur, gangs of mages can hit you with spells that see it impossible to even stand up again and all you can do is watch as your health plummets to zero.
I find a mage under attack by mages and stone golems. Once he is saved he give me his pwoers.
He has the ability to turn into a stone golem, which gives me some good strentgh and health.
I move through the mages area some more and fight more golems and mages as a golem and get some nice loot and bonus stats. Then onto the Templars nightmare.
Now the Darkspawn invasion. I move through more corridors and find a templar attacked by darkspawn and save him to get his power. This is spirit form which is good with magic and can see hidden things in the fade.
I come to a large boss named something the crusher, it's is a big horned demon, running in circles and waiting until your golem powers charge is enough to kill it easily.
They increasingly seem to be taking the piss with the difficulty here.
I find a door in templars nightmare that can only be seen with the spirt form.
This leads to the boss battle with one of the love demons.
I go back to the burning tower, since I have the ability to enter the blocked doors I can now go and find the boss there.
I find the demon Rhagos in the burning temple.
Back to the mages Asunsder to find it's demon.
I do and that is all four guardian demons destroyed.
I can now access the three nightmares that are surrounding the circle of islands on the map.
These are the nightmares of our companions. Looks like we will get them back to help at last if we can release them from their nightmares.
I find Morrigan arguing with her mother. After killing the mother Morrigan vanishes.
Then Sten and Wynne.
Now we can reach the inner sanctum of the demon and have a boss battle with it.
It's a hard fight but I manage it. It takes four forms and each one has a health bar.
In cut scene Niall appears. He tells us to take the litany of Adralla from his body. Niall thinks the demon has been feeding on him for too long and he will die if he wakes.
He does and we find ourselves back in the mage tower.
We fight more of the demons and then find a templar called Cullen in a cage. He is being tortured it seems. The other mages that are left are being tortured as well.
The templar wants us to kill everyone of the remaining mages.
In the tower Uldred is torturing the mages until the turn in monsters in his service.
I have a fight with Uldred who turns into a large demon. Using the Litany seems to prevent his spawning extra enemies.
I kill Uldred and speak to Irving who goes to speak with the templars to tell him that the crisis has been averted.
Gregoir is happy to see Irving and stands the templars down from nuking the tower.
Irving pledges to aid us against the darkspawn.
Wynne joins our party.
I ask for help at redcliffe with the connor possesion.
I go back to Redcliffe to see if the child has been freed from posssesion.
a cut scene is triggered and we see Loghain being given bad news. Seems some people aren't buying his story and are going to stand against him. He is also told by Howe that there is still Grey wardens left. He sends an assassin after us.
Mission 10
Back at redcliffe castle we find Irving and his gang in the throne room.
We get to choose who goes into the fade to kill the demon.
In the fade the landscape is familiar, there are ghostly people wandering about who do us no Harm. I find arl eamann. He is lost in the fade as well.
I find the boy and he turns into the demon and after a little fight it flees.
It makes us run around for a while before seeing that we aren't going to give up.
We then get a boss battle with the demon.
I kill her on the second attempt but it is close.
We see the castle being tided and bodies being sent out on burning boats.
Teagan and Isolde chat, Connor is fine and remembers nothing. Teagan asks what is to be done with Jowan, the mage who poisoned Eamon. I leave it up to him.
We have to find the urn to revive Eamon.
On the way to places seems to be the excuse needed for cut scenes showing exposition.
I see Loghain, Howe and his daughter chatting. The daughter seems to be realising that Loghain is screwing things up. It appears that we are being asked to feel sorry for him, maybe even suggesting that the king got what he deserved for being an airhead. However Loghain is trying in his own way to be in charge and the civil war coupled with the darkspawn seems to be making double trouble which is maybe more than he can chew.
On the way to the next map location the assasin Zevran appears with an ambush and I manage to kill him.
We get to chat, seems he is only loyal to whoever is paying him. Since he has failed his masters the Antivan Crows will kill him anyway. So he may as well tag along with us.
I accept, though I will probably regret it later.
I find the dalish Elves and get taken to their camp by a rather hostile guard named Mithra.
Zaphrien is the leader, he tells us that the elves can't help and shows us why.
Werewolves have been causing them big trouble.
Looks like we have some werewolves to kill. A great wolf called witherfang is the source of the curse. If witherfang is killed and his heart brought back to Zaphrien he may be able to undo the curse.
I explore the elf camp and find that the elves hold deep seated grudges towards humanity. Seems that humans once enslaved the elves. The chantry and the templars freed them and since then the elves have been at war with humans and lost. Over the the need to worship the Maker.
There is an injured animal that seems to be a side quest. along with an elf who might join us later.
Mission 11
I enter the brecilian forest and it's only a few paces in when we are attacked by wolves and werewolves. Seems very fable like here.
I come across a bunch of werewolves who want a chat. They are angry sounding and really hate the elves. They seem to be ambivalent towards our gang and give us the chance to go. When I continue to try and chat they seem to be hard of thinking and decide to just attack anyway. After a few second beating them up they retreat telling us that the forest will make us pay.
I find some more werewolves to fight then some ent like trees attack.
One of the trees is willing to chat an elder oak. It apologises for it's younger more aggressive kin.
his elder oak wants it's acorn back, which was stolen.
I find an empty camp, which is a trap and a shade attacks.
Then I move into another area of the forest. There is a mist blocking a path. entering it makes you come back out the way you came in.
I find a mad old hermit who stole the oaks acorn. With some chat I get it back in return for a silver ring. He won't tell us how to get past the mist though.
I try and take the gear, but he has very powerful magic. I leave him to it after getting the acorn. I find a dying werewolf. It is one of the elves sent here to find Witherfang. It asks me to tell her husband what happened and want us to kill it. I refuse and it attacks forcing our hand.
I take the acorn back to the oak and it gives us one of it's branches. This will allow us to pass through the barrier.
Inside the barrier I find the werewolves from earlier, they profess that witherfang keeps them safe here and that they are the ones who are being preyed upon. However, they attack us anyway when I make every indication of just wanting to chat about the problem peacfully.
As before during the fight when I am getting the upper hand a cut scene starts. I see a white wolf appear and knock over one of the party and allow the werewolves to flee.
Another set of wolves appear and flee, saying something about going to protect the lady.
I find some ruins and enter.
Inside are werewolves and giant spiders to fight. The werewolves have barricaded a door.
I come to a large church like area and have to fight a dragon, it isn't that hard of a fight though.
There are dead knights and dwarves lying around.
I find a small ghost boy, he is looking for his mother, he does not seem to be hearing us.
Skeletons attack here on mass and it's a hard fight, which is at odds with the ease so far.
I move on through this long and now hard dungeon. Lots of fight, too much loot and eventually a pool of water which I presume we swim under into the werewolf lair.
This is more corridors filled with werewolves.
I come to swiftrunner and he finally seems ready to talk, since we are at the door of his secret then he has no choice. We are taken to meet the lady of the forest, who is a naked half woman half tree. She tells us that it was Zathrian, the elf leader who made the curse of the werewolves. Long ago humans and elves lived in the forest. However, the humans raped his daughter and he took revenge on them by creating Witherfang. The plan worked and the werewolf curse eventually drove the humans from the forest.
The werewolves found the lady and she helped them. They went to Zathrian in the present to ask for his help. However he refused and they only attacked to spread the curse to the elves to force Zathrian to undo his magic.
The lady wants us to bring Zathrian to her, to talk. I agree that this should happen.
I leave the ruin by a new door, and find Zathrian waiting. He is still angry, he tells us that Witherfang and the lady are one and the same.
He agrees to go down into the lair with us and talk.
In the lair the lady reveals that Zathrian needs the curse too, it is tied in to his immortality. He won't end the curse, the wolves are getting restless and the lady has nothing to add. It is down to us, a choice. Killing Zathrian seems to have no point, he is stubborn, however his pain is just. The wolves are talking, but they are still very savage. The lady offers no plan. I can't really choose. I have to though, so I go against Zathrian. Both the lady and Zathrian will die when the curse is ended. This seems the best way.
I challenge Zathrian and have to fight him. Once done we see Zathrian end the curse, her dies and the lady vanishes. The wolves all become human again.
They are happy and leave to go and join society again.
I go back to the elves and they are happy that the curse has been lifted. The new keeper Lanaya, pledges to help us in the battle with the darkspawn.
I go back to the camp.
Morrigan tells us that she read a book we found in the mages tower. It tells us that Flemeth has managed to stay alive for centuries by basically having a daughter then when she dies posessing the daughters body. She is bascially an abomination.
Morrigan is angry and want to kill Flemeth.
She tells us that we need to go to Flemeth's hut without her and kill her. Morrigan will need her grimoire to prevent her return and her own possession.
I go to a new locationa and am attacked by darkspawn on the way. Wynne collapses, she makes light, but tells us that next time we are at camp she will tell us what is going on with her.
I find a merchant named Felix, he has lost his mule. This is more DLC being introduced as a tasks to accomplish. A bridge too far here EA/Bioware.
I go to Denerim, a city. I am to find a scholar regarding the urn.
Brother Genetivi has went missing on the search for the urn.
Weylon tells me he went to an Inn near lake Calenhad.
I go to the inn. The Innkeeper is very dodgy when asked about Gentivi. Nothing seems to work so I leave the inn and am attacked.
Looks like an ambush. Back inside the innkeeper tells us that he was threatened to keep quiet. I don't know what to do next. The quest log tells me I have to go back to Weylon.
Weylon is a cult member he attacks us and dies very quickly for his trouble.
I find a book in his room which tells us to go to a village called Haven.
In the village the guard is very hostile and basically tells us to leave.
Sten decides we aren't doing a good job and challenges us for leadership.
I fight him alone and win, he then gets back in line.
I find the village shop, the shopkeeper gets angry when I look around the shop.
He seems to be hiding something, when I go towards a door he attacks.
After killing him I find one of eamon's knights slain in the back room.
Outside in the village a gang of cultists attack.
I go to the chantry and find their leader, He suggests that they are guarding something important, presumably the urn of Andraste.
They all attack and it's a good fight.
I find Gentivi behind a brick wall that moves.
He wants to help, though is injured.
I go back out and make sure the villagers are all cleared out before taking gentivi with us.
We arrive at the temple, Gentivi lets us in using a medallion taken from the cultist leader.
Inside the temple Gentivi lets it slip that there will be loads of traps, he wisely wants to hang around by the door and lets us do the hard work.
Inside the temple is lots of corridor and dungeon, some keys to find and lots of cultists.
Then we have some caves, with cultists and dragonlings.
There are and awful lot of caves, and drakes and cultist, a bloody army of them.
Now they want to talk, why do they always want to talk after I have killed every one of their soldiers and am about to slit their throats.
The leader here tells us that andraste has risen again. Though a guardian of the urn of her ashes is keeping her at bay. He wants us to kill the guardian and if she drips some blood on the ashes she will gain her full power.
Whether this is really Andraste or not is the question, seems like blood magic and a demon posing as Andraste.
This is an impossible fight, two mages raining fire from a distance and three heavy hitters make short work of my party despite a few different attempts at strategy.
No matter how I play it Kolgrim still survives and kill what is left of my party.
I decide the ony way forward is to choose the other option, to side with Kolgrim.
I do and Wynne and sten disapprove strongly. Morrigan is ok with it though.
Kolgrim lets us pass and we go out onto the mountain top and the temple.
The Dragon is here and Kolgrim stops it toasting us.
I try fighting him here again and it's just too hard. I don't have the correct strength or party mix to kill him.
This game is unsure of it's difficulty curve, easy easy hard easy hard hard. With no consistent system.
I can only go forward, it's either that or abandon this quest line.
I suppose I could go and do something else and return once levelled up a bit.
I decide to try with an alternate save to see what the guardian says in the temple.
Maybe he can get rid of Kolgrim for me.
No, I won't be dictated to by this character, this is a game about choice, and I want to choose to kill this Kolgrim character.
I am leaving to go and do another quest, hopefuly to come back and melt this guy next time I face him.
I go back to camp to heal my many wounds.
Wynne tells me that she died during the battle in the tower, she was saved by a demon and brought back to life. Apparently this spirit is keeping her alive, it may be a good spirit. Wynne reveals that this spirt is weakening and she is living on borrowed time.
I do a side quest where I go and see what happened to a caravan. They are all dead, slain by genlocks.
Then one to help a settlement in trouble.
Another to investiagte what happened at a battle, both armies were wiped out by wolves and bears.
Mission 12 possibly?
I go to the frostback mountains. There are bounty hunters outside that are a tough fight.
The dawrves look down on surface dwelling dwarves, though they are needed as ambassadors for the underground dwarves.
I come to the main doors and find a dwarf barring entry to one of Loghains men. The dawrves have lost their king to illness. They are in flux about choosing a new one.
Loghains man gets stroppy and we fight them.
The dwarf lets us in.
Inside the first hall are some statues called paragons, a scholar tells us that the dwarves don't like to be seen to be in disarray by outsiders.
I enter the main area called the commons. In a cut scene we see two sides clash and one dwarf is killed by the others.
There are two sides vying for the kingship, both are using proxies to do their dirty work.
Bhelen is the son of the king who was called Endrin, however it appears that Bhelen is a bad egg and may have organised the deaths of the real heirs to the throne.
Lord Harrowmont appears to be the one who should be king.
A dwarf commander won't let us down into the mines, apparently there are darkspawn down there.
There is a place called the proving grounds where disputes are settled in the dwarf world.
I eventually find the diamond quarter and Bhelen's helper. He wants us to out that Harrowmont has bribed two people to vote for him, with the same money. Obviously he does not intend to pay.
I speak to Dulin, Harromont's aide. He wants us to enter the proving in Harrowmont's name.
I decide to go with Harrowmont.
I go to the proving grounds and have to fight a succession of one on one battles.
Once done I am champion of the proving. The ancestors are now said to be in favour of Lord Harrowmont.
I have to find Dulin at tapsters Tavern, he now knows we are on his side and takes us to Harrowmont.
Harrowmont wants us to clean up the slum called dust town, this will seal his way to becoming King.
Jarvia is in charge of Dust town. I find some of her men after asking around, they try to kill us. I take the key from their corpses to jarvia's hideout. There is a suspicous door in the dust town main area.
Inside the door is a labyrynth of caves filled with carta members. I eventually fight my way through this lot and seem to have murdered more dwarves than there is in the city above.
I eventually come to Jarvia and kill her.
Back at Harrowmint we have more issues. The vote has been asked for and now the assembly is locked for days. The only way we can get a decision forced quickly is to find a lost paragon called brankha, who went into the mines and has got lost down there.
More dungeons to crawl eh!
Brankha's drunken husband Ogrhen wants to help find her.
Brankha was looking for the anvil of the void, which can be used to make Golem's.
I go back into mine door towards the deep roads.
Here I find tunnels that the darkspawn have dug into the dwarf mines to attack them.
This cardins cross is a big area with lots of darkspawn to clear out. New enemies are shrieks, and darkstalker, they are like little dinosaurs.
I enventually find the road to Ortain Thaig which is where branka is meant to have gone.
On this road there are lots of darkspawn corpses, seems the spiders down here have no love for the darkspawn.
I find evidence of a long disused dwarf settlement. A golem attacks here along with indignant spirits.
A dwarf runs away from us and tell us that this claim is his.
I find his camp and he won't believe that we aren't there to steal from him, he attacks and we have to kill him.
I find Brankha's journal and the spider queen for a boss battle.
The journal tells us that she is deeper into the mines.
The dead trenches starts with a cut scene, we see the darkspawn massive army and the arch demon itself. We are in the heart of enemy territory.
I find some dwarf suicide warrior cult down here fighting the darkspawn and help them out.
The dead legion leader isn't much help but does tell us that Brankha is dead.
I come to some large gates which seem to be an old dwarf structure.
we start to see the fleshy growths again which were seen in the mages tower.
I find a mad woman called Hespith, who is reciting a grisly rhyme. She seems to be from Branhka's party.
Looks like something nasty has befallen them.
I come to a shrine, or what looks like a church. There are ghostly dwarves standing around, however they don't react to our presence, yet.
I find a key on an altar and then the spirits attack.
Seems Hespith's pal lauren was forced to eat the males that were with them by the darkspawn.
She became a brood mother and made more Darkspawn.
We see a cutscene and find a monster made out of tits and tentacles.
I kill the broodmother by hiding up the side of it's cave and using area effect spells using Morrigan.
Hespith tells us something about the darkspawn but it's garbled ravings.
seems they need humans to make broodmothers to make more darkspawn. Brankha may have had something to do with the creation of this one.
I come to a new area aptly called the anvil of the void and we meet Brankha, she seems grumpy.
She tell Oghren her husband to turn back and is flippant about the needs of the dwarf lords.
She is preoccupied, in trying to get the anvil. She thinks that it can create an army of golems to aid against the darkspawn.
Seems that the person who made or last had the anvil has set a lot of traps.
Brankha has been making darkspawn using the broodmother in order to get past the traps.
The traps include a room full of gas and golems. Which need the gas valves to be switched off before you can survive long enough to fight the golems.
Then a room with loads of golems.
We then reach the anvil. It is a large lyrium vein with four anvils around it. Enraged spirits appear and fight you, once they are downed you use an anvil and it shoots at the stone statue that appears to be producing the spirits. It seems you have to do this an awful lot before winning. I used a glitch which sees the spirits leave morrigan alone if she was far enough away.
I enter a room with a lot of golems, their leader approaches. He is Caridin, one of the dwarf Paragons.
Caridin tells us that he was once a dwarf who created the anvil. The anvil turns anyone put on it into a golem. The king of the time used volunteers for his army at first, however soon people were forced into it. Caridin was as well, however he retained his mind as he has no control rod. The anvil was sealed away by Caridin, now a powerful golem, and he has sought to destroy it. He asks that we help him destroy it. Brankha is nuts, she may have wanted the anvil for good reason, but her means have not been good.
I decide to help Caridin destroy the anvil. This of course puts us at odds with Brankha.
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Brankha fight is very very hard, she has a huge amount of health. She has around four golems on her side. My team are decimated almost entirely in seconds.
There is no way to go back out of here and come back at a higher level for the fight which is a cardinal RPG sin. Bioware should know better.
I work on my strategy and try hard to defeat Brankha, she just kills my team as quick as I can heal and revive them, I am not taking her health down fast enough.
This is an admission of defeat and it makes me hate the game, but I have to lower the difficultty level to get past this fight and progress. I turn down the difficulty and win the fight almost without trying.
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After Brankha is defeated I speak to Caridin, he makes a crown for the king of our choice. I then destroy the anvil and he jumps into the lava.
I find a golem registry which shows the names of all the dwarfs who were turned into golems.
I take a tracing as Oghren thinks it will be valuable.
In cut scene back at Orzamar we see the assembly
I get to choose who to give the crown to, I choose Harrowmont.
Bhelen tries to fight his way out of losing and he gets taken down easy.
Harrowmont pledges to aid us against the blight and we get a staff from him.
I go back to the guardian on the mountain, hoping to kill Kolgrim, however, I can't fight him as he is locked out of conversation. I have to go and speak to the guardian.
The spirit asks about our parents and is happy when I say I am guilty about leaving them to their fate.
Sten and Wynne and Morrigan are asked questions as well.
I pass the guardian and then find a locked door and eight spirits who have riddles for us.
If you get the riddle wrong you have an enemy to fight. Correct answers open the door without a fight.
Inside the door I meet Elissa's father, who gives a gift.
We then have to fight invisible versions of ourselves.
Now we have to make a bridge appear by placing party members on floor tiles.
We then have to get naked and walk through a fire.
I come to the urn and take a pinch. There is no way I am going to do what Kolgrim wants.
I come out to meet and enraged Kolgrim and it is very satisfying to takje him down.
I have a go at fighting the high dragon and it's too much.
I find Genetivi at the door and tell him that he can share the discovery with the world.
I go back to Redcliffe and meet Teagan, he starts a cut scene where we see Eamon being woken and told about what happened.
He pledges support and gives us a shield. He then discusses the future. He feels that a campaign against Loghain is a waste of life and counter productive when darkspawn are attacking as well. He suggest alternative means other than direct conflict.
Loghain's sister has claim to the throne, however Alastairs is much more direct.
He suggests a meeting of the nobilty, where the matters of who is to lead can be judged in strict council.
We also have to decide Jowan's fate, the blood mage who started all this. I play for his life and Eammon sends him to the mages to decide his fate.
I decide to go back to Flemeth's hut and do Morrigans quest. No I won't, she turns into a dragon that is beyond me to kill.
I go back to the mages and do small small bits and bobs, telling the mages of the dwarf that wants to study magic etc.
The Landsmeet
I go back to the main plotline and we see Loghain meet with us in denerim.
There is a tense meeting, Howe is there and I tell him I will have revenge for my family.
Loghain tells us that we are dividing the country and that we should essentially watch our backs.
I find myself in denerim at Eamons house there.
One of the queen's maids who is Loghains daughter by the way come to eamon and tells him that the queen has been imprisoned. It appears that Loghain is going to kill his own daughter and blame it on Eamon.
We are to go and rescue the queen.
On the way we meet one of the crowes an old friend of Zevran, he turns on us and we have to fight a large number of assassins and Zevran.
I arrive at the place and we have to sneak around back.
Some soldiers to fight then we have a hide and seek bit where the elf maid distracts the guards and we go inside.
We are disguised as guards and can move freely. Inside we come to the place where Enora is being locked up. A spell has been cast on the door. We need the mage who cast it to undo it.
Looks like scerecy is out the window.
I go to the dungeons and we find a grey warden imprisoned. I let him out and he goes.
I go through the dungeons and eventually find Howe and kill him.
I get his key to the door. Anora comes out, and is ready to come with us.
I meet a templar horde just outside. The fight is over in seconds. I am about to curse the game for yet another uneven difficulty bump when a cut scene kicks in.
The warden has been captured and Anora goes to eamon with the rest of our party somehow.
I find myself in a cell, there is another prisoner nearby. A guard comes by and we can tempt him to come in. I end up bare knuckle fighting with him and get his keys.
Our gear is nearby in a chest.
Occasionally there are long long load times after a death.
ooohh look a big difficulty spike, suddenly along my warrior can't take on two dogs and a guard without dying like a wimp.
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Again I have to knock the difficulty down to the insulting casual to take out two dogs and a guard!!!! This is how to make people hate your game!
I get to put on a guard uniform and walk about unmolested.
I find a door with two guards at it. They want a password.
Here we are supposed to find a guard commander who sends us to a patrol and then we go with the patrol. However I broke the quest by killing the two guards I was meant to patrol with.
Stupid stupid game.
I manage to get an autosave a little while back by pure luck.
I get to the commander and he sends me to the guards, the guards have done something wrong and need the quartermaster to give them their blades back.
He won't no matter what I say. looks like fighting is the only way out, so back to casual difficulty as there is no way otherwise.
There is still no way, even on casual difficulty I can't fight past the four guards that attack in the courtyard.
I officially detest this stupid game.
I go to a map location and find a brothel. I meet a duelist in here, who want to play cards.
I do some small chantry quests, which basically see you go around small areas of the city and kill gangs.
I find a gang of blood mages hiding under the city in a hideout as well.
I manage to defeat the guards at the Howe estate this time, which I only mangage due to the fucked up a.i. I hide my warrior at the end of the corridor and they all stay in the room.
I manage to lure one at a time and kill them that way.
Back at Eamons house we speak with Anora, she tells us of his madness.
Seems we will still need to get more of the nobles on our side. The elves in the alienage are all stirred up and it seems Loghain may have a hand in this.
Anora wants us to join with her and keep her as Queen. Eamon thinks that Alastair is still the better choice. Though if they were to marry and he become King with her as queen then the bloodline would be maintained.
I speak to Anora, she wants us to support her at the Landsmeet.
I try and get her to marry Alastair.
Alastair on the other hand isn't having any of it.
I enter the Elf alienage, which seems to be a chinatown style ethnic district. There is a plauge here however. The elves are being treated by Tevinter's who have came to cure them.
There is some doubt that any curing is going on however.
I try and enter and am barred, not for long as I kill all the guards.
Inside is empty but for a few more guards to kill, a note suggests that people are being taken as slaves.
I meet ser Otto, a blind templar sent to investigate what is going on here.
I go into the back alley and find an elf who tells of the soldiders taking loads of elves away.
I find out that the Tevinter Imperium soliders have been told to come in and take the elves. They have Dispensation, maybe even from Loghain.
I cut through the many rooms and eventually find their leader. He tries to deal, I don't and take him down.
I let him live though.
I find a pool of blood that smells of rotten eggs. A beggar is rambling about bad men in the orphanage. I think this is what Otto was talking about.
I talk to him and he wants to go to the orphanage.
Inside the orphangae are rabid wardogs and ghostly children.
Oh and some demons. I clear out the demons, Otto vanishes, maybe he died.
I go back to Eamon and tell him of Loghain's involvement with the slavers.
Now It's time for the landsmeet to take place.
It does not go well. Loghain refutes our claims with some actual sense. Calen was stupid to charge the blight head on. Did Loghain really save a good portion of the army by retreating.
He also questions Alastairs lineage.
The crushing blow comes when Anora comes in on Loghains side and tells the gathering that we kidnapped her.
Thing go pear shaped and we have to fight. It's a hard fight but it seem to end if you concetrate on Loghain himself.
A cut scen shows the fight being stopped by the chantry and they suggest single combat should be the way forward. I get to choose who will fight Loghain.
No saving allowed so you can backtrack and choose a better fighter, in case Loghain turns out to be super powered.
No worries actually, Loghain is a pussy and falls to Morrigan quickly.
We get to choose wether he lives or dies, actually I really want to kill him as he has done his best to kill me and screw up the world. He really does deserve it along with his daughter.
Fuck it, it's a game, why not do the wrong thing once in a while.
Riordan the Grey warden intervenes and suggests making him a grey warden.
The joining would either kill Loghain or make him at least sympathetic to the cause against the darkspawn.
Alastair disapproves of even thinking about it. I am trying to navigate an good path here and it seems there is no winning if you try and be merciful. Time for Loghain to die.
I name Alastair as king, then execute Loghain.
Alastair locks Anora up rather than execute her.
He makes Eamon regent until after the darkspawn. Now It's time to take on the blight.
I go to Redcliffe and find the darkspawn already there.
At the castle we have a big battle in the courtyard.
Inside we meet Riordan and Eamon. The horde are not heading to redcliffe. They are going to Dennerim.
The archdemon is at the head of the demon army.
We now have a choice. Worry about redcliffe, March to Denerim with army we have? Is it possible to reach the city in time? Do we even have enough forces to do the job.
I ask a side question and Alastair decides anyway.
Looks like we are going to Dennerim to take the blight on head on.
I go to meet with Riordan, who tells us of the Grey Warden's real role in ending a blight. It seems that the Archdemon can body hop when it's body is slain. If A grey warden does the Killing then they can absorb the Archdemon's soul. The Grey warden will die in the process finally killing the Archdemon. If anyone else kills it then it will come back again.
I go to my room as directed and Find Morrigan waiting.
She gives us a new option, she can perform a blood magic spell which will see her having sex with alastair and conceiving a child with him. This child will have the taint as it is Alastairs, essentially a grey warden. Morrigan is convinced that the child in her womb will be chosen as a target by the free soul of the Archdemon. She thinks that the child will kill the Archdemon and not be destroyed itself. She then thinks that this child will grow to have the power of an old God.
Morrigan reveals that flemeth planned this from the start and that is why Morrigann is with them.
I agree and am urged to go and speak with alastair.
Who takes a little Persuasion but the deed is done.
A little cut scene shows Morrigan climb into bed with alastair and blow out the candle.
A cut scene shows the armies gathering and leaving for Dennerim.
Then alastair making a rousing speech, we see the battle start and our group enter the city.
Inside the city we fight alone with lots of allies against a horde of Darkspawn.
after that we speak with riordan and he tells us the plan. The army won't be able to take out the darkspawn horde, it's too big. The Archdemon must be the target adn quickly.
The plan is to lead it to a fight and kill it. It will call it's generals to it. If we take them out first then we may have a chance.
I get to choose my party.
Now inside the city we fight hordes of orges, however we can summon around 12 of each army to help us in the fight.
I then switch to the other three team members who are guarding the gate and have to stop an influx of darkspawn.
A cut scene shows Riordan jumping on the archdemon's back and stabbing it before falling to his death. He has wounded it severly though.
We have some large scale fights leading up to the royal palace. Then onto fort Drakon.
Inside are some more fights, what would you know, I never expected that.
After much fighting we come to the roof of fort drakon and the Archdemon. Inn cut scene we see it making a mess of about twenty soldiers.
Now it's our turn to fight it.
Boy this is going to be hard, even on casual.
Each time I get so far and it calls in some aid. I thought I had taken out the aid. Obviously not.
The question is will I be able to go back and get them or am I stuck again. This is casual you know?
No I can't get back out of fort Drakon, again unexplained and unhelpful design has ensured that I can't progress.
I manage to find a glitch, if you get yourself far enough away from the battle the a.i. stops, if you can't see the fight then it isn't happening. This means that the horde of darkspawn and soldiers are simply paused.
I use the ballista to pound the dragon, it takes ages and eventually it goes down.
We see some congratulatory scene's Alastair gives us a wish. I ask to keep on keeping on.
We go down the hall chatting to everyone then out to meet the adoring public. A series of images accompanies text telling us what happens next. While some of it is good the dwarves seem intent on making a mess of things.
The credits roll.
430 Achievement points
48 hours on the in game timer. Though I think it may acutally be more than that.
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