Doma Played Dragon Age: Origins Blind. (Non-Players Welcome.)

[DomaDoma]

So, about a month ago, the announcement that game six of Elder Scrolls isn't coming for years drove me into the arms of Evil Arts. The Dragon Age series, I knew, had a lot of fandom overlap with Elder Scrolls. I knew nothing else about Dragon Age, really, but I figured I'd go all in and play as my dominant Elder Scrolls persona, which I like to call Walker.

A word of warning: I'm one of those people who played Oblivion first. In comparison with the rest of the fandom, we're... a little bit . Bottom line, expect a lot of HONOR and FEALTY and LEGACY and MUST SAVE EVERYONE.

In this, Skyrim did not exactly allow Walker a full rein.

Spoiler: Oh, this is doubling as a way for me to get in some art practice, so warning for bad art here.

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No, Tamriel is definitely not going where he might like. But another world? Why, that's a different story. Or could be.

This is a replay. From scratch: it turns out my print-screen key was nonfunctional this whole time, so resorting to savestates to make up the difference is not really an option. The general lay of the path will be the same - any decision I agonized over, which is to say all the major decisions, will be set in stone in my brain - but I can't guarantee an exact replica. A lot hinges on dialogue trees in this game.

This is intended to be written so non-players can follow along. Therefore, two rules are in order:

1) If it involves a part of the game I haven't covered, it goes in spoiler tags. (Even my own minor deviations will be noted in spoilers.)
2) If non-players aren't following what I have covered, they should probably ask.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Character Creation (Below)

1: At Least I'm Not The Heir

2: At Least I'm Not A Murderer

3: At Least Prison Is Still A Good Sign

4: At Least I Made The Cut

5: At Least We Weren't Too Late

6: At Least We Qualify as a Ragtag Band

So, we begin with a infodump by this gruff-voiced grimface:

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(Hmm. Okay. Update after next, I guess I'm going premium to ditch that watermark.)

The Chantry teaches us that it is the hubris of men that brought the darkspawn into our world.

The mages had sought to usurp Heaven, but instead they destroyed it. They were cast out, twisted and cursed by their own corruption. They returned as monsters, the first of the darkspawn.

They became a Blight upon the lands, unstoppable and relentless.

[Here the illustrations stop being a stylized montage of a roughly illuminated manuscript and start showing fairly regular FMV of the mortal races getting their asses kicked by darkspawn. Think orcs and goblins with hideous, permanent grins.]

The dwarven kingdoms were the first to fall, and from the Deep Roads the darkspawn drove at us again and again, until finally we neared annihilation.

Until the Grey Wardens came.

Men and women from every race, warriors and mages,

Ah, so mages aren't a completely lost cause. Good to know.

barbarians and kings... the Grey Wardens sacrificed everything to stem the tide of darkness... and prevailed.

[The music gets unspeakably kickass at this point, as the tide of battle turns. This theme goes in about the same scenes Howard Shore's main Lord of the Rings theme goes, and justly so.]

It has been four hundred years since that victory and we have kept our vigil. We have watched and waited for the darkspawn to return. But those who once called us heroes... have forgotten.

Isn't that an oddly specific recurring trope, though. After four hundred years - no more, no less - the ancient order is still around, they're still clear on their original mission statement, but the neighbors resent the heck out of them.

That seems a rather long time for most organizations, but rather short for your sane religious institutions. Maybe a ceremonially revered institution based on a very apparent threat to life and limb strikes the middle ground there? I don't know.

[Grimface finds several of his men dead, is attacked from behind by a couple darkspawn, hands their asses to them.]

We are few now, and our warnings have been ignored for so long. It may even be too late, for I have seen with my own eyes what lies on the horizon.

Maker help us all.

And now, the character creation screen. Very basic fantasy types to choose from here: Human/Elf/Dwarf, and Warrior/Mage/Rogue. Warrior is pretty much a gimme for Walker here, but let's go over the races:

-Humans are noted to be variable. As humans are. Also, they're defined by their worship of the Chantry. Which is apparently monotheistic. Walker's not sure he's ready for such an abrupt transition there.
-Elves' big schtick appears to be being oppressed. I guess this gives Walker a bye from giving all elves the detriment of the doubt, but it's not really his style all the same.
-Dwarves are hidebound and live in what little fastness remains of their lost former glory. Now we're talkin'! (Also, should note, they're incapable of magic.)

Dwarfdom gives you the choice of two backstories: Dwarf Commoner and Dwarf Noble. Commoner requires you to start as a crime lord's hired thug, which Walker would under no circumstances be. Noble gets you entangled in intrigue, which Walker knows full well he'd fail at, but he is prepared to manfully fail at it, to the hilt!

Dozens of Sims-style sliding bars later...

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Notes on the design:

This doofy mustache is the closest I can come to the mutton chops previously illustrated. Mostly it's intricate dwarf beards all down the scale.

I was a bit thrown by the fact that your last name is set in stone. I was expecting to be Raemond Walker. Ah well, Walker Aeducan it is. The name "Walker" isn't too out of place in any setting, after all.

Spoiler: Note from the future

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Except in this. It turns out that not a single character you encounter has a name that can be mistaken for anything but a proper noun. Ah well. Walker it remains. I can't imagine him as anything else at this point.

And then there's gameplay stuff to consider. Big warning here: I won't concentrate too much on gameplay, partly because I'm story-centric and partly because I am awful at gameplay. I'm playing on Normal difficulty, because I've actually got a handle on how this thing works, but the first time through I played almost entirely on Easy and still got my butt handed to me times beyond counting.

But, anyway, he's going to be largely a two-handed fighter. And I give him skill in Herbalism, to help with his incurable saving-people-thing.

Now to plunge our dispirited hero into this brave new world...

(Updates every Monday. This game consumed my life when I was playing it, to such an extent that I think I need to go easy for the replay.)

[Amaril]

Oh, yes I'm always in the mood for more Dragon Age. You've got yourself a sub.

[DomaDoma]

...So, I think there must be some sort of hubris effect afflicting those who make major projects of a forum thread. Because I just dropped my laptop monitor-side-down on a hard tile floor, and it evidently lacks a traditional monitor hookup, so I can't even make a sad excuse for a desktop computer out of it.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me, and it sure as heck isn't the first time it's happened to other people with cool if time-wasting threads. Do you vote hubris? I vote hubris.

EDIT: False alarm, actually. I've got a monitor with an HDMI cable, and we're good to go.

[JadedDM]

That seems a rather long time for most organizations, but rather short for your sane religious institutions. Maybe a ceremonially revered institution based on a very apparent threat to life and limb strikes the middle ground there? I don't know.

The opening doesn't go into detail, but the war he mentions that happened 400 years ago was actually the Fourth Blight. There were three more before it. That's why the Grey Wardens are still around, because they know that someday there will be a Fifth Blight (and a Sixth and Seventh). Enough time has passed that most people figure that the Fourth Blight was the last one and we're good now, but the Grey Wardens know better.

The Grey Wardens were formed during the First Blight, which means the organization is actually well over 1,000 years old.

[Yana]

In war, victory.
In peace, vigilance.
In death, sacrifice.

[Psyren]

You're in for a treat Welcome to Thedas!

[DomaDoma]

Sorry to delay this right out the gate: the family vacation went on twelve hours longer than anticipated. Not a sign of flakiness, but alas, it is a sign I'm pretty disorganized. Like you haven't had twenty already.

So, shall we?

PART ONE: AT LEAST I'M NOT THE HEIR

NARRATOR [not Grimface]: Deep beneath the Frostback Mountains sits Orzammar, the larger of two known remaining dwarf cities in the world.

Spoiler: Pictured: Orzammar

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Orzammar was once the seat of a major empire connected by tunnels, called Deep Roads, which stretched for thousands of miles. The city now stands alone, cut off from the rest of the dwarven ancestral lands by the darkspawn incursion.

Secure in Orzammar’s impregnable construction, the dwarven noble houses continue their centuries-old power struggles. Assassination and blackmail are commonplace, but the appearance of honor is paramount.

If the appearance of a virtue is paramount, that is due to a thirst for the genuine article. Why dispense a counterfeit?

You are the second child of King Endrin of House Aeducan——the ninth Aeducan ruler elected by the Noble Assembly. You grew up in a world rife with political intrigue and have struggled against brothers and cousins for honor and prestige.

At any rate, I have struggled for honor and prestige. But against my own standards, thank you very much. I am very relieved that I don't actually stand to inherit the throne, or that would likely not cut it.

(...So, this is a LOT of stone-engraved backstory with which to saddle a poor hapless persona accustomed to starting games as Anonymous Prisoner. But we'll roll with it.)

This is the day Walker is granted his first official command, and is greeted by Gorim, his second (which here means something like "squire"):

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GORIM: Do you wish to wear your shield to the nobles' feast?

A simple matter if ever there was one, and yet my finger is bated on the mouse button. Here's a sample dialogue tree for your edification:

1. Yes. Let them see me as a warrior.
2. Better safe than sorry. Shield me.
3. Leave it. I don't want to look fearful.
4. I wouldn't even wear the armor if not for tradition.

There's a lot of blending and saturation going on, but there seem to be three basic primary colors of response for this segment:

1. Klingon warlord.
2. Cowardly milksop.
3. Ned Stark.

Well... let no one claim that Walker doesn't go under the banner of the Wolf.

GORIM: Of course, if every other noble has a shield and three swords, you'll look awfully underdressed.

[There is an option here to tell Gorim that he should know his place as your lackey. This miiiight retroactively define your relationship as a whole. Naturally, I instead choose:]

WALKER: You, my friend, are ridiculous.

So, there are three basic things to do today:

1. Go straight to the feast.

(Where, apparently, there is a great queue of nobles seeking official backing for their revenge against one another. No thank you.)

2. Fight in a blood sport called the Proving.

(We are about to go on a raid against the darkspawn - the darkspawn that destroyed our empire, lest we forget - and we're spending it battling some of our best warriors to the death? No. I refuse. I absolutely refuse.)

(Gorim mentions, when I say words to that effect, that my brother Trian is also fond of discussing military resources.)

Spoiler: Note from the future

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It turns out that the Proving is not, actually, a fight to the death. But this is in no way made clear here.

3. Check out the merchants.

Merchants it is, then.

But first, to navigate the console.

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I won't lie: it seems a lot clunkier than TES at first. The right-click button is key, as is jerking around the camera. Menus are far from intuitive. The portraits on the left side of the screen are giving me a Pavlovian urge to pause with tilde and resume with 1. I have no idea where I am and need to fill in the map as I go, which is kind of bizarre seeing as it's my palace.

But not to worry: Gorim is remarkably forgiving. Not only does he forgive that I'm stumbling around like a drunk amnesiac in my own home, but he also helpfully fills me in on who he is - read: my Warrior Caste boon companion for my entire life.

Along the way, a woman pops out of Bhelen's room and back in, looking rather abashed. It seems she is involved with my brother Bhelen, and whatever has transpired, it doesn't seem to be making her happy. I direct her to the feast. Poor girl. I hope my brother sees sense, if only to prevent a public spectacle on her part.

Out, after much fumbling, to the Diamond Quarter, where they have evidently allowed the shopkeepers for the festival. Barely out of the palace gates, this scene awaits:

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See, the fellow to the left is a Vollney descended from Paragon Vollney. Every noble in the city follows that pattern. The term "Paragon" signifies sort of a vote-by-assembly for low-key deification. Now, the Paragon in question squeaked in by one vote, and there was a smell of foul play all around it. It's a matter of public record, no one contests the truth of it, and the scholar, pictured to the right, is about to print it in a book. And Vollney here is quite anxious to kill him for it.

I manage to convince him to put a rosy spin on it and Vollney not to kill the poor sod. I think my concern for the scholar's health goes right over Vollney's head, though he is disappointed even so.

Spoiler: Minor divergence note

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Last time, I weighed in unabashedly for the scholar. Not entirely sure what changed.

It should be noted that everyone in this city, barring something on their mind like the above, is a tremendous, ritualized boot-licker. You can't speak two sentences without someone telling you what an honor it is to be in the presence of an Aeducan. And the kitchen staff are plainly terrified of me.

While I'm browsing wares (which I am programmed to be unable to afford), I overhear some ambient dialogue about some expedition that claims to be doing something else but is really looking for a bronto. Or something. It totally slides off my brain the first time through, but that's replay value for you.

Now, it isn't long before I'm confronted by these two:

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These would be my brothers. The one on the left is Trian, and the one on the right is Bhelen. They both come off as a bit snotty, but Trian is definitely taking the lead. He demands to know why I'm not at the feast. I figure I'd probably better go there at once to appease him. He remarks to Bhelen that maybe (as Bhelen apparently suggested) I'm not a total lost cause.

TRIAN: I'll be along later to toast your command.

This line is delivered with such sheer and utter contempt that I had to note it specifically.

After he leaves, Bhelen in tow, Gorim takes issue with the future king's attitude.

Rejected dialogue option: He means well.

We run into a couple of commoners - "noble-hunters" - who hope to have my baby, thereby making them concubines and raising them to de facto nobles. I politely decline.

Still bumbling my way around the city as though I don't know where everything is, I come to the door of the Proving Grounds, where a guard absolutely insists on escorting me for reasons having to do with the cranky merchants who didn't get into the Diamond Quarter. Agh, no, I don't want to go to the Proving, we've been over this! Well, he gets me in the gate, but fortunately the game will let me go back.

So, back to the palace and the feast.

Gorim notes that the feast is attended by Grey Wardens. In fact, they stand out a good deal. Literally: they're the only humans in the room.

GORIM: The raid tomorrow must be more than a standard mission. The Wardens only go where the darkspawn is the greatest threat.

Fascinating! But first, a noble by the name of Dace wants a word with me. He is going to propose a measure to welcome surface dwarves back to their home caste (currently, they are regarded as "lost to the Stone", which is a Very Bad Thing. Think of how the Jews treated marrying a non-Jew in Fiddler on the Roof, and you've got the general idea.)

I say yes, because that's the right thing to do. There is apparently another dwarven noble in possession of a name, but I don't even take the first step toward her before she drawls, "You're a fool." Okay, then, never mind.

The Grey Wardens, labeled as such, all seem very well-versed in How To Lick The Boots Of An Aeducan. On the one hand I was hoping for some fresh air out of the surface, but on the other it's rather impressive that they're so studied in dwarven ways.

Now, there is a Grey Warden here with a name: Duncan. On closer inspection...

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...Duncan turns out to be the badass formerly known as Grimface! This is fantastic.

He is apparently very interested in meeting me, specifically, because my father dropped a rather complimentary mention.

WALKER: My father does me great honor.

DUNCAN: I have no doubt it is deserved.

(I get the feeling that he knew my own doubts were pretty high there.)

DUNCAN: We need more Grey Wardens like you, and quickly. Even as the darkspawn weaken here in Orzammar, they are stirring on the surface. A Blight has begun. Soon the fight must go beyond the Deep Roads, lest the darkspawn threaten all the world.

Ultimately, the answer to his offer I settle on:

WALKER: I am an Aeducan. Orzammar needs me here.

Duncan seems to reluctantly accept this. I am fighting the darkspawn, after all.

As I approach the throne...

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...it seems that my father, King Endrin, is embroiled in discussion about how to deal with the other dwarven city, Kal Sharok. He seems to want to strong-arm them into accepting Orzammar's supremacy, or cut them off entirely. He specifically mentions the possibility that they might just throw themselves to the darkspawn instead.

I am really not a fan of prevailing dwarven priorities.

Anyway, I come off as the dutiful son. As agreed, I announce in public that I'm in favor of de-excommunicating the surface dwarves (which the quest log suggests was a good way to anger every noble other than Dace), and then I am sent to go fetch Trian at the Proving Grounds.

ENDRIN: Walk well, Commander.

Spoiler: Bad art warning

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And there he is at the entrance, Bhelen still in tow. There is a minor snit-fit in which I note the two of them never came to the feast after all that, Trian counters that the world doesn't revolve around me, and then he leaves - evidently to plan the strategy for tomorrow's raid. Which, he stresses, makes him far more important than me.

And then I'm left with Bhelen.

BHELEN: I honestly don't know how you put up with him.

WALKER: Smile, nod, do my duty.

BHELEN: I wish that sense of duty and family loyalty was shared by our elder brother.

OHSNAP

WALKER: You sound serious, Bhelen.

BHELEN: Big brother... Trian is going to try to kill you.

WALKER: How do you know?

(I can't speak with total surprise here.)

BHELEN: Trian's decided you're a threat to his taking the throne. Maybe he's right.

This, on the other hand, comes fairly out of left field.

I mean, I'm not the heir. I never wanted to be the heir. Not being the heir is the only thing enabling me to get away with being such a soft touch.

Spoiler: Bad art warning

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Bhelen thinks that my "personable" qualities, as he puts it, will endear me to the Noble Assembly, which has a habit of voting in younger brothers when the Crown Prince puts them off. I desperately hope he's wrong on that. Ruling over Orzammar? Is there anything more thankless? And can't they see I'm not cut out for it?

But I can easily enough believe that Trian might believe I'm uncomfortably kingly material.

Rejected: I can't fight my own brother. Chances are I'll have to.
Rejected: Then... Trian dies. No matter what the danger is, I cannot afford to be the first actor in this.
Let's just wait and see what Trian does.

...I would guess what he does involves that darkspawn raid he's planning for tomorrow morning.

BHELEN: You should get some sleep.

"Should" and "will" are two very different things, Bhelen.

[Phoenixguard09]

I've not played a dwarf character, and I'm enjoying your quirky take on it. Subbed.

[Psyren]

*resists urge to list several Chuck Norris-themed Duncan facts*

[Grif]

Dwarf noble was definitely one of the better origin stories. Good choice.

[lord_khaine]

Im really interested in how this turns out, i must confess my own personal preference for mages has lead me to play them mostly.

[GloatingSwine]

Im really interested in how this turns out, i must confess my own personal preference for mages has lead me to play them mostly.

The problem with playing a mage is that it has more Fade than everyone else's origin story and the Fade is brown and dull and terrible.

I played the City Elf more than the other origins, it's one of the more dramatic openings in terms of stakes, means you get to shock Cailan into silence when you first meet him, has a decent thematic synergy with stabby rogue (which I liked playing) and has more weight in its homecoming because the alienage is an area you can regularly visit and get to quite early.

[Psyren]

I like Dalish because it ties you more to the setting. But it is easily the most boring origin.

Mage's Fade opener is hardly worth grousing about, it lasts all of five minutes. Running around in the Tower basement takes longer and is more annoying.

I agree that City Elf has the biggest WHAM moments, followed closely by Human Noble.

[Amaril]

See, I think the Mage opening is by far the best. Yeah, it's visually ugly, but so is the rest of the game. And it's the only one that presents the kind of difficult moral dilemma that makes Bioware RPGs interesting.

[lord_khaine]

Well.. i cant comment on how exiting the other classes openings were, mainly because i though the Mage class is a lot more interesting, and has far more diverse options than the other classes. Sadly for them a lot of their skills are mainly "hit someone a little harder" Or substained skills that drains so much stamina that they cant really do much with their active skills.

[Psyren]

Rogues have plenty of options too. Melee combat, ranged combat, traps, grenades, plus having one early on means less backtracking for locked chests. And their PrCs/specializations are solid too - you can buff the party as a Bard, summon disposable backup as a Ranger, even be a semi-respectable tank with Duelist + Legionnaire.

Warriors are pretty bland in comparison to the other two though.

[lord_khaine]

Well.. im not saying there were not options in what you could branch out to do with your rogue, mainly that a lot of the skills did not really seem like they did much, and that it felt like specialising in fx ranged combat felt like it limited you from doing much in melee. Ranger were an absurdly useful specialisation though, having an additional body on the team worked wonders for some of the harder battles.

[Aeson]

Personally, I tend to feel that there are two things wrong with the mundane classes in Origins. Firstly, I get the feeling that they have too few useful abilities to choose from relative to the number of abilities they'll eventually have; the abilities in the groupings for each fighting style generally do not work unless you're using that fighting style, and with only 12 abilities in each fighting style you're likely going to have all of them eventually, and you'll probably get them in more or less the same order, too, because of how the trees are structured (well, if you can call three unbranching non-interdependent lines of four skills each a 'tree'). Archery has the additional issue that many of its abilities don't really feel like they do enough to be worth using, at least not in my experience. Secondly, Rogues and Warriors feel like they're basically the same class, except that Rogues get to pick locks and disarm traps for some reason. This causes Warriors to feel a little redundant, at least to me, because Rogues and certain Mage builds can do most of the things that Warriors can about as well while offering utility that the Warriors cannot match. While I don't particularly care for DAII, I will say that I think it did a much better job of making Rogues and Warriors into distinct classes, even if I don't necessarily care for how it did so.

[Dienekes]

Dwarf noble was definitely one of the better origin stories. Good choice.

My personal favorite of the bunch. Though City Elf, Human, and Low Class Dwarf are also good. I found Mage and Dalish Elf just boring as hell.

Enjoy the game, Doma, this one has some of my favorite companions and moments in the series. The best strategic gameplay (but also the worst action gameplay, and most terribly balanced of the bunch).

[GloatingSwine]

I tried starting as a dorf first, but then found that I didn't care about stupid surface people with their stupid surface problems.

Well.. im not saying there were not options in what you could branch out to do with your rogue, mainly that a lot of the skills did not really seem like they did much, and that it felt like specialising in fx ranged combat felt like it limited you from doing much in melee. Ranger were an absurdly useful specialisation though, having an additional body on the team worked wonders for some of the harder battles.

Dual wield rogue is the horrible DPS monster class. Lethality, Exploit Weakness, Mark of Death, only just enough strength for your chosen swords, then drop all your points into Cunning. Your normal attacks will be doing damage in the hundreds easy, backstabs will probably hit 250-300. Assassin/Bard (for Song of Courage for more crit chance) is the way to be a murder machine. Coup de Grace will get you free backstabs on any target hit by Dirty Fighting, and you can use a controller mage for mass paralysis to get even more backstabs.

You can melt enemies with a rogue.

[Amaril]

Dual wield rogue is the horrible DPS monster class. Lethality, Exploit Weakness, Mark of Death, only just enough strength for your chosen swords, then drop all your points into Cunning. Your normal attacks will be doing damage in the hundreds easy, backstabs will probably hit 250-300. Assassin/Bard (for Song of Courage for more crit chance) is the way to be a murder machine. Coup de Grace will get you free backstabs on any target hit by Dirty Fighting, and you can use a controller mage for mass paralysis to get even more backstabs.

You can melt enemies with a rogue.

Or you can be an arcane warrior with the heal spell, a.k.a. "party? I don't need no stinkin' party!"

[GloatingSwine]

Or you can be an arcane warrior with the heal spell, a.k.a. "party? I don't need no stinkin' party!"

Yeah, but you sacrifice sufficient DPS that "wait for enemy to die of old age" is a viable strategy now. (Admittedly, that is the best way to deal with the Harvester)

[Amaril]

Yeah, but you sacrifice sufficient DPS that "wait for enemy to die of old age" is a viable strategy now. (Admittedly, that is the best way to deal with the Harvester)

Funny, I never noticed my warriors and rogues adding all that much to my DPS--probably because I had basically zero party optimization (I discovered the arcane warrior's broken-ness on my own character purely by accident).

[Dienekes]

Funny, I never noticed my warriors and rogues adding all that much to my DPS--probably because I had basically zero party optimization (I discovered the arcane warrior's broken-ness on my own character purely by accident).

Mathematically ridiculously high dex dual dagger rogues have the highest single target DPS in the game, and become pretty much immortal because of how defense is calculated (high dex means no one hits you). Though they do have a tendency to suffer from area attacks, but it's not like they can't deal with them. I've seen people do the high dex double dagger build solo through Nightmare mode.

Mages, on the other hand, do everything. They have the best burst damage, they have good single target damage, arcane warriors are about as durable as warriors, they can heal, they can do spell combos that just get ridiculous. They can also solo the game on nightmare, but their real benefit comes from taking 2-3 mages with your group and have them work together. 2-3 mages in a group is basically playing the game on easy mode. If you lose an encounter with 3 mages, you either are horrible under-leveled, or you're just very, very bad at the game.

Warriors, well, shield warriors can tank for awhile with taunts, and can survive for a bit. Two-handers suck, you can make them suck less by realizing Sunder Armor strikes twice so you just spam that. Archer and dual weapon exist, but I think rogue does them better.

[DomaDoma]

In light of the way I divided in- and out-of-character knowledge, I find we need to add one more thing to the rubric before it's too late. Blue will henceforth stand for Walker's IC perspective.

...Such as it is.

PART TWO: AT LEAST I'M NOT A MURDERER

Next morning, the raiding party meets in the Deep Roads. A soft-voiced, big-shot dwarven authority, whose name is apparently Harrowmont (a reassuring name if ever there was one), agrees with the Grey Wardens that the Wardens ought to clear out the tunnels leading to the surface themselves, because those would be the most infested at the moment.

Bhelen thinks this comes off as cowardly, and isn't afraid to border on insolence saying so. He's probably right, all told. But at least this part of the battle plan has kept Trian from an obvious means of legitimizing my assassination, and I think I can trust the Grey Wardens when they say they can handle themselves.

HARROWMONT: Your father has a special mission for you.

ENDRIN: Trian and his men will clear the way for the Grey Wardens to descend into the easternmost caverns. In the eastern Deep Roads, there is a secret door carved into the stone.

HARROWMONT: The door leads to a thaig [underground city] abandoned long ago by your ancestors. The darkspawn have made it impossible to reach.

I rescind everything I thought about the battle plans half a minute ago.

Purported purpose of the mission: find the shield of the Paragon Aeducan. I can't very well refuse that - and Trian no doubt knows it, too.


Off we go, then.


(I slow Walker and Gorim to a walk for drama's sake, and set our battle tactics to "defensive". This is not the proper way to avoid getting led into an ambush, but let's take it as a given for the next few updates that I am incapable of finding my ass with both hands where the gameplay mechanics are concerned.)

Spoiler: Behold the fallen glory of the Deep Roads!

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(Maddeningly, it turns out there IS no premium version of my printscreen app.)

"Deep Roads" is, properly, the term for the sort of grand hallway you're seeing here. But that tunnel off to the left, which you will gather is an artifact of the darkspawn corruption, is a much more representative sample. Grey, twisty caverns. Darkspawn live in them. Not worth a screen, really.

The fights that ensue are definitely warmups. One giant spider; two haphazard genlocks (these are the goblin-analogous darkspawn); a swarm of high-health but rather ineffectual miniature longneck dinosaur things, which are called deepstalkers.

There are two dwarven corpses along the way. Which I do not loot, frankly on account of the beguiling golden sparks surrounding all lootable objects. Oh, and the way that corpses, once looted, instantly decay to skeletons in puddles of blood. And the fact that you can't put anything on a corpse. And the fact that if a corpse is not lootable, it doesn't even come with a label telling you who's dead.

TES is far superior in respect for the dead, is what I'm saying here.

Anyway, amid a lot of bumbling about - dwarven maps of the Deep Roads and associated caverns, as portrayed on my minimap, seem to miss a good many recent obstructions - we come to a nicely preserved circular crossroads, where we meet up with one of the two scouts meant to join us on the way. His name is Frandlin Ivo:

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We must assume that Trian, by his input to the battle plan, arranged for the presence of these scouts.

And yet this Ivo raises a fair point: we really haven't met any significant fight from the darkspawn yet. And he's warning me that there is much stiffer resistance ahead. If there is a game here that ends in my death, I cannot fathom its reasoning.


The second scout is simply named "Scout." ...Okay.

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SCOUT: You're here! I thought the darkspawn had got you for sure!

WALKER [no longer misliking Frandlin but still operating under the assumption that this scout is a traitor for sure]: I'm not that easy to kill.

SCOUT [faux-affably]: Then I'll make sure I'm behind you if we're swarmed.


He will stay close with the rest of us. I don't care that he is an archer: he will not be far from my blade, should he turn on us.

His skillsets include poison-making and "Dirty Fighting." I deeply mislike this character.

Around the corner is some definite sign of former dwarven habitation, and our first serious fight: a band of genlocks with a leader, denoted in threatening yellow text as a "Genlock Alpha".

Given the fact that I've just shown I'm so clueless I don't even know what the rogue class entails at this point in the game, you'll probably be unsurprised to hear that I assumed the GIANT LEERING PINK-MIST-COVERED SKULL that replaces your party members' portraits when they fall in battle means that they're permanently dead. First time through, Gorim "died". UNACCEPTABLE. I reload the game at once. Next time around, "death" came to Scout the scout. Moderately acceptable. And, lo and behold, at battle's end he sprang back up again.

Worth a commemorative snapshot, I think (if only because I haven't actually shown you any darkspawn yet):

Spoiler: (Apologies for lack of thaigishness in frame)

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At last we get to the door.

It is severely open.

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SCOUT: Looks like someone beat us to the door.

WALKER: They had to have an Aeducan signet ring to get in.

FRANDLIN: It could have been stolen, recently or generations back.

SCOUT [sounding like he's reached Maximum Cynical for possible scenarios]: Or it could be an ambitious cousin out for his own glory.

WALKER [significantly, furtively signaling Gorim to stay close]: We'll see soon enough.

And soon enough, what we see is this extravagantly sneering schnozz and his band of mercenaries:

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Needless to say, these men were sent to kill me. Also, though admittedly the point is made rather moot by that consideration, I don't in fact know where the shield is. Battle is joined: we prevail, though our victory was hard-pressed.

My scouts do not turn on me in the battle, and the knavish, barely-bearded one makes himself quite useful in pointing out traps. I feel I have sorely misread them.

And yes. If there were any remaining doubt, when we get to the mercenary's body...

GORIM: Is that really Trian's signet ring?

WALKER: Yes. My brother has been sloppy this time.


A profound relief. Presuming that this was Trian's sole game, then not only have I kept my life, but I may win by the peacable means of Orzammar's justice, and it need not come to blood after all.

Presuming.

GORIM: It must have been a major victory for Trian to get that shield. But he showed his hand, and failed.

(Dangit, Gorim, you were right there when Bhelen told me what Trian was up to. Don't play ignorant on me now!)

As for the shield itself: it is hidden in a sarcophagus activated by an Aeducan ring and a highly straightforward switch puzzle. Walker and (by extension) Gorim are much taken with it, but Scout, unimpressed, points out that it's an ancient shield, which, compared to modern dwarven work, is frankly shoddy.

On the way back to the crossroads, Gorim expresses his concern that we may be ambushed. This is a very good point. At the very least, Trian will want to check on his mercenaries' success.

The archer butts in, demanding to know what we're talking about. Well, he has after all proven himself to be on our side. And even if there's some crucial reason I'm missing for why he saved our lives back there, what action can he take? Alert and abet the ambush party more? I tell him the whole truth.

[There is, after this exchange, a sound effect I am quite certain is a glitch of some kind. It is not. More momentarily.]

There is no ambush in the narrow cavern. But when we get to the crossroads:

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[img]

We heard these dwarves' dying screams, all in unison. We... simply didn't know what to make of it.

GORIM [approaching one of the bodies]: By the Stone, it's Trian!

(The scouts hasten to inform us that it wasn't the doing of darkspawn, either.)


[There is a dialogue option here where the penny drops as to what, exactly, has transpired. I would be lying if I said it registered.]

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I have spent the last sleepless night steeling myself for this. Or imagining I was. But now that it comes to seeing my brother slain - and he might not have meant my death by his actions today, either - now that I look back, there were so many opportunities he had and didn't take...

He may simply have wanted the shield, to show me up. That would be like him. And he could have had the shield. He is an Aeducan as much as I - was - and the heir If he'd come in person, I would probably have given it to him. Only no, I wouldn't have, not today. I only mean, if he'd not been here, if he'd come in person and I hadn't been turned paranoiac by some off word Bhelen sorely misinter--

Spoiler: OHSNAP

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ENDRIN: My son. Tell me this isn't what it looks like.

WALKER: It's not. I assure you.

GORIM: My lord is innocent!

ENDRIN: Sir Gorim, your loyalty makes you a useless witness. It falls to others to tell the story.


And so my scouts betray me to a brother, after all. I cannot fight the accusation. All I can do is accuse Bhelen in turn, before I am borne to the dungeons of Orzammar.

Let the truth be heard.




[The intended segment was going to contain my weekly art practice, but you know what, this is a much better dramatic pause than the one I decided on when I made the sketch. We'll leave it here for now.]

[DomaDoma]

PART THREE: AT LEAST PRISON IS STILL A GOOD SIGN

And so there is nothing left but to await judgment. The bones in my cell do little to make me confident of the wait, but the fact of imprisonment itself...

There are voices from the hall.

Gorim!

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"Trian is dead. How do you think I am?" [This being the closest available option to "Bhelen betrayed us."]

GORIM: I understand. It's going to get worse, though. Bhelen has taken Trian's place in the Assembly. He introduced a motion to condemn you immediately, and it easily passed. He... had fully half the Assembly ready to vote on something completely against tradition and justice!

He must have been making deals and alliances for months, if not years.

Whatever these treacherous nobles may think of me, however they may laugh, shame at being outmaneuvered is the furthest thing from my head. I have never been a diplomat, and am quite at peace with the fact. Occasionally, I wallop the proper things to please the right people, and people mistake this for diplomacy - but the reality is that I couldn't negotiate vital intelligence into the hands of my own commanding officer.

(No, that incident is still cause for shame.)

No. My mind is staggered with one thought only:

We are betrayed, we are usurped, and no good can come of a rule like that.


Gorim says that the succession is somewhat contested, highlighting the name of Harrowmont, but firmly considers it too little, too late.

GORIM: The Assembly has already sentenced both of us.

No. No, is it not enough...

WALKER: What's going to happen to you?

It's exile to the surface for him. For me, Bhelen insisted on exile to the Deep Roads - meaning, of course, a fairly inevitable death by darkspawn.

WALKER: It's a warrior's death, at least.

And here Gorim pulls out the ace. He's passing on the word from Harrowmont: the Grey Wardens are still on the Deep Roads, in tunnels connected to the one I am banished to. If I manage to get to them, there's a way out for me after all.

GORIM: I'm going to try to go to Denerim, the human capital. If you make it out, find me.

WALKER: Goodbye, Gorim.

GORIM: I will always be your man, my lord Aeducan.

And here is a path to redeeming my past failures that I had never considered. For I can think of no task less enviable, yet more necessary, than the one before me.

Spoiler: Last Week's Bad Art

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With that, they take me to Harrowmont. Which would go some way toward explaining why I'm being thrown into this particular cave network.

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HARROWMONT: Having been found guilty of fratricide by the Assembly of Orzammar, you are hereby sentenced to exile and death.

(Death by exile!)

Your name is, from this point forward, stripped from the records. You are no longer a person, nor a memory. You are to be cast into the Deep Roads with only sword and shield, there to redeem your life by fighting the enemies of Orzammar until your death.

Do you have anything to say before the sentence is carried out?

WALKER: Bhelen will destroy you, as he did me.

(You had better believe that this verbatim dialogue option warrants the blue text.)

Harrowmont, just to be sure, tells me to look him in the eye and declare my innocence. I fancy Walker isn't quite up to the steady eye contact at the moment, which may, frankly, be why he believes me. Have you guys ever met a hard-core liar? All about the clear, sincere eye contact, even when the accusation is serious enough it should be seriously upsetting them that anyone would even suggest it.

HARROWMONT: Believe me, I will spend the rest of my days making sure Bhelen does not profit by his deeds.

I expect his days to be short-lived. I expect no one to be surprised, or suspect foul play. Harrowmont is an old man.

[Rejected dialogue option: Tell my father
I went to a warrior's death. Already I know I must return, and soon.]

Upshot: for a guy with the word "Harrow" in his name, Harrowmont is really not bad. At all.

Spoiler: Dramatic screenshots

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The Deep Roads are as quiet as I've ever seen them. Quieter even than yesterday, thanks to the Blight in the surface. Truly, Bhelen cannot have picked a better time for this coup. But then, when it comes to captivity, when it comes to chances that save my own skin, fortune does seem to smile on me. This is less a comfort than a quiet affirmation of the status quo.

Did I believe I was too good to loot the bodies of my dwarven brethren? Desperation gives me the lie. I must survive, get to Duncan, return to Orzammar as soon as I can be made credible. And so I take what measure of protection I can.

(Note: when you loot these bodies, you'll observe that the bodies do not dissolve into skeletons, but on the other hand, when you take off the helmet, you'll see they didn't actually bother to program in hair. Oy.)

Eventually:

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DUNCAN: Lord Aeducan! What are you doing alone? Where are your troops?

WALKER: I am Lord Aeducan no longer.

DUNCAN: Ah. You have been made to walk the Deep Roads, then.

(Seriously knowledgeable about Orzammar's culture.)

NAMELESS GREY WARDEN: You mean you were exiled? What happened?

DUNCAN: I do not think matters of dwarven honor are any business of ours, friend.

You think wrong. You think deeply wrong.

WALKER: My brother betrayed me.

DUNCAN: Lord Trian?

(Duncan leaps to that conclusion too? I don't feel quite so much like a sucker now.)

Walker, of course, gets the story as straight as he can.

DUNCAN: You have already proven yourself both resourceful and skilled, and I would expect nothing less from an Aeducan. I have been searching for those with your level of ability. Your exploits in the Deep Roads set you apart. As leader of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden, I would like to formally invite you to join our order.

WALKER [bowled over by this extravagant welcome at this juncture]: I would be honored.

And if I spend the days from now to my return fighting darkspawn on the surface, I can't count that time wasted.

DUNCAN: We leave immediately for Ostagar to join with the human forces facing the darkspawn hordes, led by King Cailan. Stay close. There are still darkspawn around every corner...

...So, to be honest, this is, again, a pretty good place to leave off. Which is good. My drawings for yesterday's replay session were wretched. My drawing of Balgruuf in particular makes the first sketch on this thread look like a freaking masterpiece, and there are flagrant traces of the erasure of stupid things everywhere.

But here, take this as a good-faith token that I've actually done the work (there exists a chance that this panel, I'll actually keep as drawn:)

Spoiler: Bad art teaser, I guess?

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By the way, can I just note the way Duncan trills his R's? Majestic. In fact, you can just take it as a general assumption that, where voice acting is concerned, DA knocks TES clean out of the park.

[GloatingSwine]

By the way, can I just note the way Duncan trills his R's? Majestic. In fact, you can just take it as a general assumption that, where voice acting is concerned, DA knocks TES clean out of the park.

It helps they hire more than a dozen people to do all the voices in the game.

[lord_khaine]

And just wait until you meet your different companions, their voice does a lot to add distinction and personality as well.

[Cozzer]

As a fan of the series, I'm really enjoying this take on its first game. I hope you will like it enough to do something similar for the sequels. :P

[Dienekes]

I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say you do eventually return to Orzammar, and I cannot wait to see how Walker deals with it.

But yeah, when it comes to voice acting and general characterization, Bioware is close to the best in the business.