#daiwen mahariel

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 3.

Daiwen is spending a lot of the conversation with Greagoir quietly facepalming and wondering what the point of shem customs around mages are if this is what happens. Alistair, these are your people, explain it to Daiwen like he’s five.

Welp, time to solve some more shems’ problems for them, because apparently, whatever Duncan may have said about the Wardens’ mission, this is his job now. Talk about offloading grunt work onto the new boy.

Really, Morrigan? Lecturing a Dalish about how people who “allow” themselves to be oppressed deserve death? What happened to having more in common with his people than your own kind, hmm?

You’re lucky he’s a) tentatively filed you under “ally, do not punch” and b) a little too scared of Flemeth to get violent.

Game, I have no need for this many Apprentice Cowls. More to the point, I have no inventory space for them, not least because I couldn’t afford the backpack the quartermaster was selling and will have to grab it on the way out or come back for it later.

I cordially loathe everything about the implementation and use of desire demons in this game, just for the record. Everything. Later games started to make up for some of the ick a little bit, but here? Please just stop.

Yay, time to run in circles around the Fade for approximately forever! *pulls up walkthrough*

There are a fair few quests that I can do cold now that I’ve done them before, but not this one. Oh no.

The thing about the golem form is that an attack that misses does 0 damage. And that’s a lot of them. (Shout-out to the spirit form’s surprisingly effective bitchslap.)

Oh, Cullen.

I certainly never expected to get this protective over a Templar who goes on to tell us that mages aren’t people, but a) apparently he’s 19 here, for all that he certainly doesn’t look it, and I fly into a protective rage over characters who have bad trauma in their late teens because personal-history reasons, and b) DAI saddled him with a writer who seemed to think him getting sexually harassed/assaulted was hilarious, which *demonic screeching noises*.

We’ll come back to Cullen and his mage trauma throughout the series, but for now, I’ll just say that someone please get this boy some therapy.

Uldred was deliberately made this annoying so that we wouldn’t be tempted to take his side, right?

“Your Chantry vilifies us” I’m sorry, whose Chantry?

Alistair’s “You’re cute when you get all irritable” speech doesn’t change for a male Warden, apparently. Aww.

Get your cute in while you can, kid, I’ve got plans to be a bit of a meaniepants later. :D

Wait, I have the option to send Morrigan into the Fade? She’s not even in the party. Well, I sent Wynne last time, so why not? :D

Oh, OK, I have the option to go get her first. Let’s do this.

As irritating as Morrigan can be, I hate desire demons far more, so seeing her give that thing a good scolding was deeply cathartic.

So I guess it’s time for a trip to Denerim to look in on Genitivi and Goldanna and pick up a whole fuckton of sidequests. As one does.

Hello, Zevran. Meet your future boyfriend. Some meet cute this is, huh?

As I’ve said elsewhere, Zevran holds little interest for me the player, but he made the most sense for this character, and he’s not completely devoid of appeal.

As massively out of character as the “Everyone is out for themselves” line is for Daiwen, Alistair has now been hardened. Bets are now being accepted on whether I end up regretting every last one of my life choices down the line.

Look, I know I’ve got a skewed view of what constitutes “romantic” because of the whole “aro and maybe a tiny little bit romance-repulsed” thing, but Alistair going on about how “we’ll have to think about having a real home again” sounds a bit...married. Sweet how he doesn’t stop being just as much of a love interest just because you happen to not be romancing him. (I refer you to my recent activity in Pillars fandom for more on my opinion of the whole “tanky blond platonic love interest” thing. Suffice it to say I enjoy it quite a bit.)

I’m in for a lot of “Insufficient skill” messages until Zevran gains a level and I can load him up with some lockpicking skills, aren’t I?

And more will have to wait for tomorrow.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

*cracks knuckles* Porting over my answers from Discord, with a shout-out to the folks who patiently sat through multiple walls of text while I hashed this out in real time, and assuming that none of these characters' canonical romances are a thing in these AUs because Reasons:

Alix Cousland goes for Nathaniel in DAA (of course), probably Anders in DA2 (by which point he's mostly shed the traits she found so annoying when they knew each other), and...is there a good fit for her in DAI? Blackwall would be great if their differing views of aristocracy weren't likely to cause problems, the otherwise compatible Josephine and Cassandra are off the table due to an orientation mismatch, and I don't think she'd have as much power in a relationship with Cullen as she'd like. She might still go for Cullen, though. Or Blackwall if she could talk him around, but I wonder.

Daiwen Mahariel might eventually go for Velanna in DAA, Merrill (an old friend who he fooled around with at least once pre-Blight) in DA2, and I don't think there are any good options for him in DAI—shems aren't his type, he's not a big BDSM guy, and Solas' comments on the Dalish would put him off even if we posit that the egg would be interested in a man.

Isaura Amell goes for her old buddy Anders in DAA and DA2 and Blackwall in DAI, both people who'll make a priority of keeping her safe. She was told all her life that the outside world was scary and bad, and then she stepped out the tower door into a Blight, so it was even kind of true.

Wenthelen Andras is getting on in years and doesn't have time for nonsense anymore, so she goes for Zevran in DAO, Anders in DA2, and Blackwall in DAI.

Taran Hawke is the charming one so often, he goes for Sigrun in DAA, Leliana in DAO, and Josephine in DAI, who'll be charming back.

Pavey Hawke goes for Zevran in DAO, possibly Velanna in DAA, and Blackwall or Sera in DAI, who would understand the anger she's carrying around.

Gabran Hawke goes for Leliana in DAO, Anders in DAA, and Dorian, Cassandra, or Josephine in DAI, who'll be happy to be flirty and romancey and make it clear they want him too.

Linniva Trevelyan goes for people who are understanding about her trauma-induced grimness: Leliana in DAO (or maybe Alistair if she can be convinced he's not a complete Templar at heart), Nathaniel or Sigrun in DAA, and Fenris or maybe Isabela in DA2.

Avasis Adaar wants people who can match his youthful enthusiasm: Zevran in DAO, Anders in DAA and perhaps DA2.

Anchoret Lavellan feels the most kinship with people who fight, especially but not exclusively fighting for something, which means Alistair or Zevran in DAO, Nathaniel or maybe Velanna if we squint (she's not telling me her orientation yet, so I don't know if I should be considering women) in DAA, and...hm, sure sounds like Anders or Fenris ought to be the DA2 pick.

Which DA2 and Inquisition companions would your Warden romance?

Which Origins and Inquisition companions would your Hawke romance?

Which Origins and DA2 companions would your Inquisitor romance?

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 8.

Heh, Alistair got in the killing blows on both dragons this time. Good for you, kid. Especially in light of certain planned future developments.

Daiwen was frankly horrified by Oghren’s attempts at flirting with Felsi and was in no mood to do his work for him, so I deliberately threw the quest to get them back together. Not that it ultimately matters, aren’t they married by Awakening regardless?

OK, now let’s go get Shale.

Daiwen’s default team for much of the game has been Alistair/Zevran/Wynne, aka Team Three Men With Very Sharp Blades And Their Spell-Slinging Grandma. I was about to give them another nickname, but apparently I’d forgotten that Zevran was an elf? Whoops.

Oh Maker, this puzzle. Time to make good friends with the walkthrough again.

And Shale has been grabbed, and several inventory slots blessedly freed up. Well, let’s start winding this up and go talk to Arl Eamon.

*sigh* Fine time for the game to get the crashies. I’ve had to play through the conversations with Eamon and Loghain three times so far, please let it not be more.

Hey, it’s Riordan! Time to have a nice long conversation so I can listen to his voice.

Oh look, it’s Anora. Wearing some absolutely unnecessary boob plate.

Under other circumstances, Daiwen might stand down, but Cauthrien was patronizing enough before that he at least wants the chance to punch her in the face. Churl? He’ll show you churlish.

OK, time to escape Fort Drakon. As funny as the rescues are, let’s try Warrior Boys Doing It For Themselves this time.

Well, that was quite amusing. Thanks, game.

And now we start getting the wheels turning on our Landsmeet plan. First up, convincing Anora and Alistair to get married. Oh, kid, I’m sorry.

It definitely adds to the creepy atmosphere in the orphanage when the game gets the graphical glitchies and refuses to load any of the floor or wall textures, so everything is just floating in an inky void.

Welp. Landsmeet time.

Cauthrien. Cauthrien. Looking a Dalish in the face and telling him that selling elves into slavery is fine if you really need the money? It’s like you want to die.

Oh shit, Wynne and Zevran are down, time to break out some health poutines. (What? That’s their name now. I have spoken.)

This is...quite a moment for you to be giving Daiwen that earring, Zevran.

Is that bird in the rafters meant to be a raven? A large-beaked, melanistic sparrow? An especially svelte kiwi?

Loghain has now been recruited. Oh, my heart. Oh, Alistair, I’m sorry. I am never doing this again.

I’m not sure how well I can justify it with this character, but fuck it, it’s done now. We’ll just say Daiwen has grown patient enough that the temptation of shoving Loghain in the path of some darkspawn for proper poetic justice became stronger than that to simply kill him like he would’ve a few months ago.

I am, as it happens, a sentimental old fuck with an overfull inventory, so I was half tempted to let Alistair keep Cailan’s armor as payment for being so mean to him, but...nah. Maybe Daiwen will wear it in Awakening and pass along the Juggernaut armor to Justice or something, I don’t know.

Welp. Dark Ritual time. Yep, I still hate this.

The point of recruiting Loghain was always to push him onto the grenade. It’s just a very differently shaped grenade now. Much more...curvaceous. (For me the player, half the reason I made Daiwen was to play through Awakening with him, so he can’t die, and the reason I wanted to try out recruiting Loghain was to see him as the Warden ally in II and Inquisition, so he can’t die either. So, Dark Ritual it is.)

It’s certainly not sparing Loghain’s life Daiwen cares about—he wants the extra insurance for his own. And Riordan’s, he supposes. He seems nice, and keeping one of the Wardens’ elders around can only be a good thing.

You know, as much as I loathe absolutely everything about the Dark Ritual, I have to give a special mention to the fact that the sex scene uses the same music as the ones from the romances. NO. GAME. YOU DO NOT GET TO DRAW PARALLELS BETWEEN THE ROMANCES AND THIS RAPEY-ASS BULLSHIT. STOP IT. NOW.

Whoa, when did it get to be after midnight? I guess I’ll continue the process of ripping my own heart out and stomping on it tomorrow.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 4.

*siiiiiiigh* The computer rebooted and wiped out all my typing again. At least this time I saved my game before it did that.

...ugh, no I didn’t, it threw me back to shortly after I retrieved the ashes and started exploring the bits of cavern I missed. *headdesk*

Anyway. Zevran has been bedded, and I have to say, Wynne has some weird ideas about love. Does her lecture come off less bizarre if you’re, y’know, a normal person? And considering some of what we learn about her in supplementary material...

You know that kind of uncomfortable feeling when you’re in a place of worship of a religion that isn’t yours, and nothing is familiar and you’re constantly aware that this place isn’t for you? Daiwen had about thirty of that at once in the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Helped along by the cultists trying to murder him every time he took a step.

Misclicking and starting a conversation with a companion when you meant to loot a chest or something is always awkward, but Alistair, do you really want to rant about how you don’t trust anyone in the party aside from Daiwen, Wynne, and the dog now?

The creepy immortal guardian walking in on the party while they were all naked was kind of awkward. Especially with the “Hey, this god you have no connection to whatsoever approves of you! High-five!” factor.

Whatever Daiwen’s feelings (or lack thereof) about shem polities before, he’s now actively gritting his teeth at the mention of the kingdom of Ferelden, which has consistently been a problem since he joined the Wardens and is now about to do something very annoying to his friend. If the Blight weren’t just as big a problem for the Dalish, he’d be tempted to tell Ferelden to go hang.

It’s interesting that the same writer gave us Leliana’s quest (what would you do if you came face-to-face with someone who harmed you) and Wynne’s (what would you do if you came face-to-face with someone you harmed). Very cathartic, both of them, and we all remember how she took such wonderful care of me in DAI.

I suppose it’s time to go home—well, home-ish—and go after the elves.

It’s not his own clan, but it’s a clan. Things make sense here. Mostly make sense. Some sense. More sense than out there in Shemlandia.

It was looking like it’d be Leliana for a while there, but some well-timed bribery has made Zevran the first bipedal companion to hit +100 approval. Appropriate.

Note to self: Save before waking any revenants. *sigh* And it’s after midnight, so starting the elves’ questline over again can wait for tomorrow.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 2.

Flemeth, who to all appearances is just some human who’s maybe a mage or something, going on about Daiwen’s “elven mind” is making his teeth itch, and make no mistake.

While I like the sound of the Violent voice, goddamn does he have some silly lines.

He sounds familiar. Does he maybe share a VA with Hiravias from Pillars?

Whew, good thing I saved after entering the Tower of Ishal, because the game crashed right afterwards. You won’t get me again, you stupid crashy game!

Daiwen takes things like the Joining or the Tower assignment in a spirit of “welp, I’m the new guy here, of course I get the minor but arduous tasks while I prove myself, now if only these shems would stop whining about it so much.”

Just as well, too, considering what happened in the main battle.

I spent most of my first playthrough thinking everyone was saying “chastened” rather than “Chasind”, which left me a bit confused, to say the least.

OK, I think I’m getting the hang of this: Don’t alt-tab away from the game window without saving first, it likes to crash when I pull it up again.

To Lothering, then.

Aww, doggie! This one’s going to be named Falon, I think.

Ring the “Morrigan is Morriganing again” bells. *sigh* Look, the only way I’m ever going to be on board with her is if I do a playthrough where I specifically force myself to, and I can think of better ways to spend my time.

Daiwen found it in him to not kill all of Loghain’s men in the tavern on the spot—I suppose because he still remembers the clan having to move because of the group he killed in the origin.

What a relief to have picked up Leliana. I can open things now!

She’s going to be a lot more undroppable now than last time, at least until I pick up Zevran. And Alistair a lot less so, which I’m still adjusting to.

Speaking of whom, Alistair, kid, the point of being a tank is that you don’t go down like a sack of bricks halfway through any moderately difficult battle. We’re not going to have Wynne for a little while yet, please try not to clean all of Thedas out of elfroot making enough poultices to keep you standing.

Morrigan is giving me a “discuss something personal” option already? Damn. Down, girl.

Well, now I’ve got a decision to make. RP considerations would suggest going after the Dalish first, but do I really want to be doing their questline without a healer? No, I do not. I could be boring and go for Arl Eamon and then the mages again, or I could metagame and go for the mages first. (Or go after the dwarves, in theory, but I have no earthly reason to do that.)

*sigh* Boring it is. There’s at least an RP rationale for that with a Warden who likes and trusts Alistair, which Daiwen finds he does.

Daiwen is having a hard time caring that much about the reveal of Alistair’s parentage. Just because he’s growing fond of the individual shems following him around doesn’t mean he can summon all that many fucks to give about shem institutions. And as he learns more and it becomes clearer that those institutions failed his friends pretty badly, that opinion is only going to get stronger.

Alistair, you’re lucky Eamon’s help is so necessary for the Blight stuff, because going to all this trouble just to help your foster family and make you happy is asking a lot of someone you haven’t been friends with long.

Morrigan doesn’t even have any healing spells, why did I bring her, again?

OK, now she has a healing spell.

I do wish Dwyn’s “Do I look like an elf?” had some kind of variant, or possible response, for an elven Warden, because come on now.

For the record, the courtyard fight is still bullshit and I hate it, but I managed to get through it on the third try with a whole lot of poultices and careful elimination of the archers first. Alistair and Morrigan tried valiantly, but it was just Daiwen and Leliana taking down the revenant.

Uh, Leliana, I know you’re trying to be complimentary, but “I have not seen you snatch away women and children without provocation” is...goodness me.

Yeah, if I’d decided to romance her, I’d be reconsidering my life choices right about now.

“I believe I have more in common with your people than my own kind” oh shut up, Morrigan. Really, Daiwen would dearly love to know, are all shem women so blithely racist?

In light of, ah, certain knowledge that we have about Alistair’s real parentage, it’s kind of funny that he’s never terrible about elves (that I’ve seen so far, anyway).

And it’s time to head for the Circle. I fully expect hilarity for having Morrigan along, game. Make with the funny.

And the rest can wait for tomorrow, because it’s gotten rather late.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins (and DLCs), day 12.

Aw, Varel. Bless you, you did good.

The “little self-righteous baby of Justice crawling around the Fade” line makes me laugh, I’ll admit.

The squishies were fine, it was Justice of all people who went down at one point during the fighting. Come on, dead boy, do keep up.

Anyway. There’s no way I’m getting Oghren’s approval high enough to finish his quest, not without going to trouble I don’t care to go to, so off to go pay the Mother a visit it is.

OK, yeah, the Architect is pretty stretchy. Original-Recipe Stretchy Man it is.

Decision time: Kill the Architect or ally with him? I allied with him last time, but both are tempting, and the companions who’d be able to influence his opinion are split. Like, yes, stopping all Blights forever is an excellent cause, but a) do we believe he’s telling the truth, b) do we believe success is possible, and c) that’s a darkspawn.

...I tried to talk myself into killing him, but I couldn’t. If my Amell survives into Awakening, I can have her do it (though if she doesn’t, the Andras I’ll be sending in is definitely the type to ally with him).

I’m very nearly certain that my Inquisitor this run will be packing Blackwall off to the Wardens; if he ends up at the Vigil, he’ll be in for quite a surprise to see the order he so idolized led by an angry, guilt-ridden Dalish who found it in him to make friends with darkspawn and allow them to requisition Wardens’ blood.

Mother time.

Whose idea was it for her to look like that, anyway, considering what every other broodmother in the series looks like? What was the idea behind that? Whoever you were, please get in the trash can.

We all remember how this went last time, right? Three rogues and Anders, Sigrun doing her best to tank and kind of failing, Mother eventually taken down by archers. Let’s see if this party does better. Or differently, anyway.

Justice, don’t be smug, it’s not a good look. Too late to do much about this, anyway.

Welp. Like last time, Nathaniel was the last companion left standing, because a) he’s badass like that and b) aggro management meant most enemies were leaving him alone and attacking Daiwen, who could take it. Unlike last time, I only needed the healing tower once, nearly at the end of the fight when it was only the Mother left to take down, and that more as a precaution (and a way of speeding up the rest of the fight) than because Daiwen and Nate couldn’t have hacked it by themselves. I didn’t even use the other three towers, though I did throw one of Dworkin’s grenades.

Endings: Architect does the thing, anti-Warden sentiment and conspiracy theories about the burning of Amaranthine being some kind of elven revenge plot that end up with another uprising (though public opinions of the Wardens is better in the rural areas), the Vigil as a more important trade center than Amaranthine, “But prosperity bred scheming and treachery between merchants and nobles” oh Maker more politics, Alec founding a knightly order, Dworkin gone into hiding, the Silver Order being super awesome, Velanna’s killings still causing bad blood between Dalish and humans, Kal’Hirol resettled, the Blackmarsh also resettled, Anders came back after an attempt to bang out, Velanna stuck around for a while and started being nicer to humans but eventually disappeared to chase after Seranni, Nathaniel threw himself into Wardening, saved Fergus Cousland, and got what I’m sure was a very nice statue at his nephew’s new castle, Justice stuck around until Aura got too disgusted with the state of his body then disappeared, Sigrun was induced to stay around with a string of totally important and urgent assignments, Oghren kept right on Oghrening and his relationship with Felsi and their child eventually dissolved, and game, are you quite sure about this “banged out of the Wardens and fucked off to Antiva to chase after Zevran” thing? Pretty sure that’s a rumor they started to throw people off the scent. Pretty sure Daiwen will still be on the books as Warden-Commander by the time of Inquisition, for one, and it’d be far more like him to bring Zev to rejoin his clan if he did have to go to ground.

Anyway, time for Witch Hunt. Should be fairly quick.

So, who do we say got twitchy and sent Daiwen on this mission? Loghain, through Anora? The leadership at Weisshaupt, having heard something about eluvians? Either makes more sense than Daiwen giving enough of a shit to track Morrigan down.

Good to see you again, doggie.

Hello, Ariane. Wow, you’re a lot friendlier to a Dalish Warden.

Daiwen never exactly loved Morrigan, but this business with the book has him wanting to punch her in the face. And hey, this time she no longer falls under “ally, do not punch.” :D

So, uh, my party for this DLC is apparently going to be three warriors and a mage. Hope we don’t come across anything that needs unlocking!

Circle tower: *is full of locked doors and chests*

That business about the lady pirate and the three greased nugs is a scurrilous rumor, girls. And I suspect you’d be surprised to learn who that is in the armor walking past you.

Ooh, a fourth specialization? For me? You shouldn’t have. And I can’t help reading “flirt with inhabitants of the Fade” literally and giggling.

Ah, yes, Witch Hunt, a whole DLC of random humans running rings around the Dalish when it comes to researching and reclaiming their own past. Not annoying in the least, of course not, what would give you that idea?

On that note, no, I am absolutely not giving Finn the Keeper specialization.

See, the thing is, I’m not here to kill Morrigan. I’m here to punch her in the face. And there’s no dialogue option for that.

And Morrigan has been given a good stabbing. I suspect she’ll recover, considering her role in Inquisition.

Golems of Amgarrak is too frustrating to bother with again, so now on to II!

And since we’re saying goodbye to Daiwen, a picture of the baby.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 7.

Zevran, triggering the traps you just detected and getting the entire party engulfed in a fireball is generally considered somewhat impolite.

Hello, Oghren. I look forward to giving you all your gifts and freeing up a half dozen inventory slots.

I’m definitely going to thank myself for running a warrior, specifically a tanky sword-and-board type, when I get to Awakening, where Oghren, who’s both irritating and absolute crap at tanking, is the only warrior companion until rather late on, but for now, with Origins’ surfeit of warriors, I’m having less fun with party selection than I might be. Specifically, I like Alistair and don’t enjoy leaving him at camp, but since I need a rogue and a mage—let’s be realistic, a rogue and Wynne—in the party at all times, the second another warrior needs attention, I have to drop him. Giving two warriors attention at once—like, say, bringing both Oghren and Shale to go after Branka—is effectively impossible.

...so I guess there’s no real reason to get Shale now and not just bang this out and be done with it first, is there.

Oh, hey, I hear Hespith. Great. This part. The writer responsible needs to get back in the trash can and stay in there until they’ve fixed their misogyny problem.

Especially if it’s you, Mr. I’m Perfectly Capable Of Writing A Healthy Relationship As Long As It’s Het.

What was all that about genlock emissaries being an impossibility? Because this game is full of them.

Broodmother time already? Let’s get this over with.

Any of you try to be funny and start talking like “oh how dare you body-shame the broodmother, she’s a beautiful creator of life uwu”, I will eat you.

You laugh, but someone tried that on Twitter. Not with me, or I would’ve given them what for.

Hello, Branka. *siiiiigh*

Zevran, supporting Bhelen was one thing, but you really don’t need to defend the Anvil’s honor, please stop.

And that’s that for Orzammar, whew. Now let’s go grab Shale and then start wrapping this up.

Wait, don’t helmets usually get turned off for conversations? It’s a little unnerving talking to Oghren and looking into the glowing red eye-slit of the Blood Dragon Plate Helm.

OK, there we go. Now that we’re done with the chat about Felsi and have moved on to a regular conversation, the helmet has disappeared like normal.

Level 18-19 is dragonslaying time, right? Let’s go bag ourselves some dragons. First up, Flemeth. I didn’t stab her last time, and she needs a good stabbing to remind her what’s what.

Well, that wasn’t bad. A little tedious, with the way she kept turning around, and keeping Alistair standing did require a couple of health poutines, but it was over pretty fast.

Nice try, Morrigan, but flinging yourself at Daiwen isn’t going to work. You can call yourself his friend if you feel the need, but smug shems who swear up and down they’re more elven than him aren’t exactly his type.

Dear sir, the “I’ve never had a friend before” stuff was enough, the “Friendship with a man? I did not know it was possible!” business is unnecessary and makes my skin crawl. Please stop.

And now, back to the Temple of Sacred Ashes for dragonslaying round 2.

That went nice and quickly. Now to go get something made out of the scales.

The city of Denerim clearly hates me. I’ve lost count of how many times the game has crashed while trying to leave the Market District. Ugh, that reverted both dragon battles and some other tedious stuff, too.

Well, I’m almost caught up, but it’s now after midnight, so the dragon at the Temple and any further progress will have to wait for tomorrow.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 5.

I didn’t recognize the individual VAs (though in the case of Tim Russ, I watched enough Star Trek: Voyager when I was younger that maybe I should have), but I was able to pick out that both Zathrian and Lanaya were voiced by black actors. Which was a little weird to not be able to unsee, given both characters looking like they do.

Daiwen is having a grand old time at the Dalish camp. It’s like the theme park version of going home: Everyone is nice to him because he’s a guest but not strained and closed off the way they’d be with a non-Dalish, he can choose exactly how much to care about the clan’s mundane interpersonal issues, and he’ll be gone long before he can start getting properly sick of any of these people.

Does Sarel have stubble? Huh, early installment weirdness.

*sigh* Everyone, just stand behind Daiwen and keep your comments to yourselves. You too, Alistair.

Kid, if you have questions about how aravels work, you could just ask. And Daiwen didn’t particularly need to know that about the halla horn market.

Huh, how’d I miss unlocking the Arcane Warrior last time? Welp, enjoy, Wynne.

That Arcane Horror in the Lower Ruins. You know the one. *demonic screeching*

Chasing after it was so frustratingly fruitless that I had Daiwen break out his crossbow for literally the first time all game and let Alistair and Zevran worry about engaging the thing in melee. Despite his only archery talent being Pinning Shot, which a Dalish Warden starts the game with. And yes, I made sure to save after the fight so I wouldn’t have to do it again when the game inevitably gets another case of the crashies.

Ah, I’d almost forgotten why the elves’ questline wasn’t one of my favorites. The weird gendered stuff, the casual fridging/use of rape and suicide as a plot device, and generally, the constant sound of the White Cis Dude White Cis Dudeing Again klaxons in my ear the whole time.

And I think that’s enough for tonight, I can start banging out side quests and DLCs tomorrow before I commit to doing Orzammar.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Well, I survived my last day of work before going into hiding, had a phone session with my therapist, and now I’m apparently on leave for the next five weeks unless something changes, so now it’s time to open season two of Brightoncemore Opines Loudly And At Great Length About Dragon Age by firing up DAO.

You’re getting the abbreviated version, since a crash rebooted my computer and I lost everything I’d typed. *scrème*

After another crash wiped out my entire game because I hadn’t been saving.

So. Meet Daiwen Mahariel. (It’s a medieval Welsh form of Dave, if I’m not mistaken, though I think the spelling is modern.)

His first duty is to guard the camp, right? Well, he’s damn well going to guard the fucking camp. Sorry, random humans.

Tamlen, I swear to all the gods.

American-accented Dalish will never not be weird after spending so much time with DA2 and DAI.

Wow, all the clan members look different. And sound different. And Merrill has a rather different personality.

Merrill’s romance in DA2 makes me think she has at least a little prior experience. During the planning phases, I was waffling over whether to make Daiwen part of that, but I think I can still make it work with this Merrill.

Huh, Duncan’s version of Eluvians 101 sure is different. “Tevinter in origin”, huh, big man?

I wasn’t expecting Daiwen to end up being such a good little boy, but he was already on the serious and dutiful side, so why not?

So, my choices are to be deferential to His Royal Shemliness here or to show him a degree of rudeness that seems frankly suicidal when surrounded by powerful shems with weapons, no longer under the protection of the clan, and dependent on Duncan, clearly buddies with the king, for a cure for the taint?

Well, the failure mode of “goody-two-shoes” is “coward”, so let’s be nice to Cailan this once.

At least I get to snark at him a little. That’s important.

I really am glad to see Alistair again. I’ll give you another girl to romance next time, kid, but you and Daiwen will be friends in time.

Hello, Morrigan. Your creator clearly loves you very much, but my opinions on edgy occultists (and on his views of women) are well-known by now. In conclusion, please lose the superior tone and/or fling yourself into the sun. And take that mother of yours with you!

And it’s now after midnight, so finishing up the Korcari Wilds again and finding my way back to the Tower of Ishal will have to wait for tomorrow.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins (and DLCs), day 11.

Loghain? What are you...sure, let’s talk.

Orlais, huh? And somehow both Daiwen and his player are supposed to not die laughing?

Loghain seems appropriately grateful for the whole “not being executed at the Landsmeet or pushed in front of the archdemon” thing, at least. See you in DA2, old man.

You know, I never did go deal with that Deep Roads entrance in the basement. Let’s go do the thing.

No, Sigrun stays in the party. Velanna wouldn’t enjoy herself much in the Deep Roads, I suspect.

Nate, sweetie, what the fuck did you have living in your basement all that time?

Sigrun’s quest is done. For the first time, since I threw in with the city guard last time and didn’t get it. Aww, Sigrun. Someone hug her. And give her some fun novels to read.

And the basement is now the rest of the way cleared out, so it’s time to head for the Blackmarsh. Welp. This is going to be fun. The free spot in the party is being occupied by Velanna, because reasons.

It’s really terribly weird to imagine Rendon Howe telling stories to his children. Not surprised some of them were apparently a bit morbid.

You know how the basic idea of running a melee character is that you take care of your ranged squad so they can take care of you? It’s always so, so nice to see a reasonably formidable enemy going down aflame and full of arrows while Daiwen is busy with a different one.

FADE TIME AGAIN YAAAAAAAY

Dalish boy over here would like to let us know that it’s Beyond time again, thank you kindly.

Nate, sweetie, you are an archer. You do not belong in melee range. If you must close to melee range to stun something, you need to get out of melee range again once you’re done.

Velanna, please shut up about Daiwen’s penchant for walking into traps. Have you ever seen him not walk back out again largely unscathed? No, you have not.

Hello, Justice. Sorry about the body you’re about to be shoved into, but, uh, it’s temporary?

And his quest is done. Uh, hi, Aura, your husband is dead and his body is being puppeteered by a Fade spirit with an iffy understanding of what humans are. Have a nice day!

I think a level 30-31 party should do OK with that dragon in the Blackmarsh, how about it?

Not bad. Took a little while and one of Dworkin’s explosives, and I did have to use one poutine on Justice, but no one was ever in any real danger.

Huh, so that’s why Anders is so insistent on the distinction between good spirits and demons in DA2. He used to think spirits were all basically the same, but then he talked to one, who absolutely insisted that he was something entirely other than a demon. Heh. How’s that working out for you, Anders? And Justice, for that matter?

The approval meter is doing a glitchy thing where Anders and Justice, and no one else, have theirs labeled as “(Love)” where everyone else is at “(Warm)” despite several others being maxed or at least well north of 90. a) Love the accidental foreshadowing, and b) easily one of the most Anders things in the universe.

So, I’m out of quests, and there’s nowhere for me to gain enough levels to pick up Master Runecrafting and get those last two shinies made, so let’s start winding this up.

Welp, decision time. Anders and Nathaniel are of course undroppable, but who gets the last spot? Justice probably has the best chance of staying upright in the hard fights at the end; Sigrun is generally pretty useful and specifically requested to come, but I remember her going down distressingly quickly against the Mother last time. Velanna is right out, I need a combat wombat. Oghren qualifies, but he’s not easy to keep upright either. Well, I’ve talked myself into it, Justice it is.

Decision time again: I fully upgraded the Vigil, so it’ll be OK either way, but I saved Amaranthine last time; do it again, or head back to the keep? You know what, I’ll go back to the keep, I haven’t done that before and it’s in character for Daiwen. And the party member with the most personal connection to the city just straight up gave him permission.

Wow, the game really wants me to hate myself for this, doesn’t it?

Aww, the other three babies are happy I came back for them. Let’s make this count, babies.

Oh, cool, kind of like the Battle of Denerim, then. Well, I’ll finish it up tomorrow, it’s after midnight.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins (and DLCs), day 10.

Daiwen is very politely waiting to roll his eyes at Nathaniel’s complaints about his family legacy and all that until the man’s back is turned; it’s not like he doesn’t understand family ties and the value of reputation, and his new friend is clearly in the process of gaining at least a little perspective, but he’d still like to forget about the existence of shem nobility, much less Rendon Howe in specific, unless it’s absolutely necessary. He’s not even muttering “Dread Wolf take you and your nonsense” under his breath—well, not loudly enough for anyone to hear him, anyway—he’s grown so much!

I just banged out Anders’ quest, and his approval is now at “+91 (Love)”. I see, ah, certain quirks of his aren’t unique to his DA2 incarnation, heh.

I mean, look, it’s a short DLC, so the characters are all on the flat side. At their best, they’re rough sketches of potentially interesting and complex people that indicate the places where there’d be more to dig into (as angry as I get at G**d*r sometimes, he brought his A-game to Nathaniel). At worst, well, yes, Oghren also had to be flattened somewhat, but was “lol, he’s a homophobic harasser who blew past “functioning alcoholic” three years ago” the best flattening that could’ve been done? (Don’t get me wrong, I still deeply respect the writer in question, she’s taken far too good care of me over the course of the series for me to get properly mad about this, but I don’t love it, and I don’t like Oghren here any more than I did in Origins.)

Well, now that things are properly underway, let’s head for the Wending Wood. Daiwen is comfortable in forests, after all, and I’m eager to form a new perspective on Velanna, who left me cold the first time around.

Wow, Velanna sure starts out friendly to a Dalish Warden. She is still causing problems on purpose, but Daiwen finds her a lot more understandable and has a lot more faith in his ability to resolve this than Alix did.

That said, he’s more inclined to believe that it really was the shems who took Seranni, because fucking shems, amirite, so it may be a whlie before it actually gets resolved.

I am slightly uncomfortable with the differences in accent between the Statue of War and the Statue of Peace—you’d think they’d sound the same, what with being brothers and all, but Peace uses RP while War has certain features associated with West African accents, among others.

Well, Velanna has been talked down and recruited. Things may get hairy with one melee fighter to three ranged, but Anders and Nathaniel are both undroppable for healing/unlocking reasons, and Oghren is both expendable and annoying. Let’s do this.

Velanna, can you wait until after this guy is either dead or out of earshot to make fun of his hackneyed sentiments? Matter of fact, has Daiwen properly explained the whole “the Wardens are basically our clan now, and sadly for us, that does include the shem members, so please try and refrain from being awful to your brethren” thing yet?

Oh, look, it’s the...I was about to say “original-recipe stretchy man”, but no, that’s not right, he’s not stretchy. Melty man? He is pretty melty. Fuck it, he’s the melty man now.

Babies, please. Daiwen is happy to keep the nasties off of you—he’s built and kitted out to not even feel attacks that would floor some of you—but you have to hold up your end of the bargain and at least try to stay out of melee range of the nasties. Please don’t make his job harder than it has to be, there’s only one of him.

Looking forward to gaining enough levels to start trying out some of those Guardian powers.

What’s all this about a court session? Will any of this lot even listen to what Daiwen says? Well, here goes.

Conspirators dispatched. That was satisfying. I didn’t get a chance to do it last time, I left paying the Dark Wolf so late that he didn’t have time to track them before the Crow attack.

Hello, Sigrun. You seem nice. The Legion has done good work for Daiwen in the past. And he has some, ah, positive associations with dual-dagger rogues (and could do with your help on the melee end of things).

Sorry, Nate, we’ll have to drop your girlfriend for a bit. The new girl’s less tiresome, anyway, she’ll be good company.

Yay, I found the side entrance this time instead of barging in the front door and praying that Alix had disarmed enough of the traps to get through safely! (She missed a fair number of them, but we managed.)

Today on Item Names That Sound Like Euphemisms For Something Filthy, I just picked up a Staff of Vigor.

Yay, childer grubs! And by “yay” I mean “oh gods, these fucking things”.

Broodmothers squished. And oh, hey, it’s the Mother. *siiiiiigh*

Yay, a peasant rebellion! Yes, I mean the same thing again by “yay”. Neither Daiwen nor his player particularly enjoys killing people who just want to feed themselves, you know.

More tomorrow, it’s late.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins (and DLCs), day 9.

A poorly-timed crash last night—there’s no such thing as a well-timed crash, of course, but an especially poorly-timed one—meant I had to play through the Dark Ritual again. Augh. Really not what I needed in my life.

At least I didn’t have to do the Landsmeet twice. I don’t think I could’ve taken that. Not on this route.

Well, I’ve got a decision to make: Bring Zevran with me, or leave him at the gates? Leliana can keep herself safer in a hard fight by virtue of being a ranged fighter, while Zevran takes careful management to keep upright, but...love interest. You know what, fuck it, I’ll bring him, we’ll see if I regret all my life choices. I’ve certainly regretted enough of them this run!

So, that rounds out the party with Loghain (Maker help me) and Wynne.

Ye gods and little fishes, it's unpleasant to see Loghain standing in Alistair’s place in the party selection screen.

While I’m implementing bad ideas, have Sten lead the defense again, or use Oghren this time? I think I’ll be boring and go with Sten.

Well, to the market district to bang out the first general.

Market district general dispatched, without allies, while being attacked from behind by two ogres, because a) easy mode is exactly what it says on the tin and b) Daiwen is legit tanky enough to not care. Like, we’re talking spectacular levels of tank here. I love it.

Now for the one in the alienage.

Calling in the Dalish to help with this one. It feels appropriate.

And now for the palace.

Well, the palace went easily enough, but the entrance to Fort Drakon got really hairy for a while there. By which I mean Daiwen had to take down the last quarter of the darkspawn by himself, including three emissaries, and used up more poutines than I’d like. (I probably could have called allies in to help, but...why?)

Loghain. Loghain. You’re meant to be a tank, right? So be a fucking tank. Which involves living long enough to keep the nasties off of Wynne so she can take care of the rest of the party. You understand this, yes? Do you need better armor? Because that can be arranged, but not until you gain a level so I can give you enough Strength points to wear the good shit (that isn’t Cailan’s war gear, because I am, once again, a sentimental old fuck, and I will not be allowing you to lay a finger on that). Which there isn’t time to do.

And now, archdemon time. Let’s do this.

Calling the mages in again, because they worked well last time. If they fail, I can always call the rest of the elves in.

Is that the Legion of the Dead? Nice. I was wondering where they’d turn up since I successfully persuaded them to help.

Archdemon down, whew!

Daiwen has told Anora he’s going to rejoin his clan, though we know how well that’s going to work out. He’s had a miserable few days, he wants to go home. Just for a while. Please?

He’s still terribly, terribly sorry, Alistair.

...really? Crashing as I’m ending the game? I hate you, game.

OK, I don’t hate you, looks like you still registered that I’d finished.

So, it’s time for Awakening. WHOOOOOO.

This “ex officio Arl of Amaranthine” thing sounds like a bad joke as far as Daiwen is concerned. The one time he got involved in shemlen politics, he got talked into ruining his closest remaining friendship and letting Morrigan run off somewhere pregnant with an Old God in the body of the Queen of Ferelden’s half-sibling, because that’s going to go amazingly well for everyone. He’s really not looking forward to Shem Politics Lead Daiwen Mahariel To Fuck Up His Entire Life 2: Electric Boogaloo.

(Relax, kiddo, it’ll actually be less horrible this time! You’ll make friends you get to keep! Some, anyway. At least one.)

Hello, Anders. Fuck it, you’ll do. Not like Daiwen particularly loves the Chantry either, thanks to the whole Dalish thing.

Hello again, Oghren. Welp, this may as well happen!

When Daiwen drops to his knees in front of Alistair, it’s not in deference to a shemlen king, but to beg his friend’s forgiveness. Not that he gets the chance to. At least his majesty seems to have calmed down.

Oof, all warriors except for Anders is a fine party in combat, but I’ll be well pleased when I pick up a rogue. Unlocking things is useful!

Speaking of which, hello, Nathaniel. It’s good to see you.

Daiwen is well aware of his mixed record when it comes to co-opting people who once wanted him dead, but that is one goddamn tempting skillset. Shouldn’t have bragged, Nate. Welcome to the Wardens. You’ll learn to like your lot in time.

This boob splint is even sillier than the boob plate. Please stop, game.

With Nathaniel’s whole “Does this please you?” shtick, Daiwen isn’t sure if he’s being sassed, flirted with, or submitted to. Or all three. Zevran is going to get some terribly amusing letters.

Supporting evidence: I’ve picked up his quest and gotten him to +41 approval already. It’s been, what, a couple of days in-game?

Daiwen is absolutely, 100%, definitely not using Anders and/or Nathaniel as a do-over of his friendship with Alistair. Nope. What could possibly give you that idea, aside from him doing exactly that and being super blatant about it?

Good thing the only one in a position to notice is Oghren, and first he’d have to a) sober up and b) care.

Daiwen is so in for it when Anders does the thing and leaves, isn’t he? Maybe keep him away from anything alcoholic for a few days after that.

Running the numbers in my head, it’s bizarre to think of Nathaniel being right around the same age as Blackwall (41 vs. vaguely early 40s during the main game of DAI). Comes with meeting them at such different life stages, I suppose.

And before I get off the subject of him, his quest is done, the hug has happened, and it was all very cute and I wish there were more hugs around.

It’s gotten late, so more tomorrow.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 6.

Ooh. Enjoy your drakeskin armor, Zevran.

Daiwen is feeling like a bit of a failure after a) letting darkspawn find and attack the camp and b) seeing what became of Tamlen. Thanks for, uh, all of you coming running to help put him down, babies. Very...helpful. (Alistair, your attempt at being comforting is very sweet.)

First up, Return to Ostagar. Alistair, Wynne, of course you’re coming along, that’s why you’re in the party in the first place.

I presume making Wynne 49 was an accident—someone chained a bunch of events and ages together and didn’t run the numbers to make sure they made sense. But here we are, and this series has now lost the right to have anyone make cracks about her being old. Especially the one where she says she’s old enough to be Zevran’s grandmother.

Look, I like numbers, I pick up on them. And now that Wynne has been pinned down as being forty-goddamn-nine, it turns out I’m closer in age to her than to the likes of Alistair, so hey, Bioware, what exactly is your intended messaging here?

Wynne is being written by her normal writer here, so of course she doesn’t feel any different. Alistair feels very slightly off, but it’s no terrible thing considering my love-hate relationship with his usual writer. We’ll see what feeling I get from Zevran, who’s rounding out the party.

I always give Cailan a proper funeral. Not least because I always have Alistair along, and whatever else may have been the case, that’s his brother (and I don’t love not being able to point that out—Daiwen could give a shit about Cailan’s “royal blood”, but his friend deserves a chance to do what his culture says is the right thing here).

Zevran, please place your disapproval somewhere uncomfortable. This isn’t your affair.

For the record, I still really dislike the banter where Alistair and Wynne flirt with each other. For multiple reasons.

I will be well pleased when Alistair’s Strength score gets to the point where he can equip the good armor and I can get rid of the stuff he’s wearing now and free up a couple of inventory slots. Just two more levels!

Welp, time for Leliana’s musical number.

I...no. Especially not in light of some of her earlier comments. It does comfort me to imagine Daiwen spending the whole time thinking “OK, clearly the ‘wise elven woman’ she learned this from knew a very different version of this part of the melody...nope, pretty sure that’s wrong...what word is she even trying to pronounce here...”

Level 14-15 isn’t dragonslaying time, and I don’t want to do Orzammar just yet, so let’s head for Soldier’s Peak.

“Gee, I’m taking Sten, the dog, and Leliana on a quick jaunt to Redcliffe to knock out a no-combat sidequest, hope we don’t get into any fights!” *cue darkspawn ambush*

After all this time, I still keep reading “poultice” as “poutine”. Fuck it, they’re health poutines now. Makes at least as much sense as drinking a poultice, ahem.

Oh, fine, before going after Shale I’ll take a quick look at Orzammar. Got a couple of side/companion quests whose next step is there, anyway.

We know we’re getting into the later game when the graphics start doing the glitchy thing. You know the one, where the game gets confused about what textures to load and stuff gets flickery and wrong-colored.

Tends to be comorbid with the crashies, too. As I’m finding out the hard way.

Clearly shemlen polities don’t have a monopoly on being incredibly tedious; now Orzammar is drawing Daiwen into its own succession crisis, and he has even less time for this one than for Ferelden’s.

He may be taking his cue from his player here; I’m kind of ready to be done, and a third of my mind is already on Awakening, but this has to get done first.

Zevran seems to be coming down on Bhelen’s side, so that solves (well, justifies) that.

Nug acquired. Hello, Schmooples.

YAAAAAAY DEEP ROADS *headdesk*

At this point, it’ll be weird if I ever hear Tara Platt in something where she doesn’t voice a woman whose only concern is motherhood and who says “child” a lot.

Anyway, Zerlinda has been convinced to emigrate, and no, of course this doesn’t remind me of anything, why do you ask?

Jarvia’s hideout, AKA the mini-Deep Roads! Yaaaaay! *wail*

And dealing with Jarvia herself can wait for tomorrow, because it’s gotten rather late to be starting a big fight like that.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

...goodness, I’ve acquired a few new readers lately, haven’t I. Well. A couple of the main tourist attractions around here:

Forbears, short for Forbears of what will be, is a behemoth of a fic series about the origins of the Jedi Order that I spent several years helping plan and edit for @bloodilymerry (actually making the words go is deep sorcery beyond my ken, so the actual writing was left to her). It began life as a fix-it of the Dawn of the Jedi comic, then it...got away from us a little. Come read, we’ve got murderbabies.

I know a bunch of you got here via RPG fandoms and may or may not have noticed my habit of documenting my playthroughs in some detail, both to tell the nice people on the Internet what I think of it all and to have something to read back over later and smile at the memories. There’s a second Dragon Age run and probably a sixth Pillars of Eternity run coming sooner or later, but for now, I’ve got:

Dragon Age run #1, December 2019-January 2020: Warden Alix Cousland (rogue/Alistair romance/queen), Taran Hawke (warrior/snarky/Merrill romance), Inquisitor Linniva Trevelyan (mage/Blackwall romance, pardoned and took him back/disbanded)

ETA: DA run #2, March-April 2020: Warden Daiwen Mahariel (warrior/Zevran romance), Pavey Hawke (mage/aggressive/Anders romance), Inquisitor Avasis Adaar (rogue/Dorian romance/kept the Inquisition going)

ETA: DA run #3, August-October 2020: Warden Isaura Amell (mage/Alistair romance/left him a Warden), Gabran Hawke (rogue/diplomatic/Isabela romance), Inquisitor Anchoret Lavellan (warrior/Cullen romance/disbanded)

Pillars of Eternity run #1, September-November 2018: Clelia mes Rèi (Old Vailian moon godlike cipher/Galawain/Huana/Tekēhu)

PoE run #2, December 2018: Oriol Gori (Deadfire ocean folk Darcozzi Paladin/Hylea/Furrante’s Príncipi/Xoti)

PoE run #3, March 2019: Aegen Mar (Living Lander wood elf ranger/Berath/Castol’s VTC/Aloth)

PoE run #4, May 2019: Sikkerneq (Rauataian boreal dwarf chanter/Galawain/RDC/Maia)

PoE run #5, November-December 2019: Eiheune Manoi (Ixamitec coastal aumaua priest of Wael/Wael/Huana/Serafen)

NB: I did something a little different with Eiheune; her playthrough is primarily documented in a Twitter threadzilla rather than the usual daily Tumblr writeups. Turns out I’m even more verbose on the site with a strict character limit, who knew?

Yeah, the other thing about Twitter is all the writers are on there. Had a little brush with celebrity for a moment. :)

ETA: PoE run #6, April-May 2020: Anlaf (Aedyre fire godlike rogue/Hylea/solo/no romance)

I’m really bad about tagging anything else, so you’ll have to let me know if there’s something you want me to tag for consistently.

I’m 100% OK with being unfollowed or blocked at any time, for any reason. You curate your own experience on here, I’m not the boss of you.

I try to be personable, but I’m a weird little ball of anger in real life, and sometimes the seams start to show. Sorry.

ETA: Remember, I’m closer to 40 than 30, and my target audience is people my own age. Exercise discretion.

Anyway. Welcome to the readership. Let’s be friends.

ETA: Pinning this, now that it's an option, rather than keep re-upping it every time I pick up some more followers.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age II, day 5.

Augh. Got the ingredient-hunting quest for Anders. Oh, Anders.

Next in the series of companions I didn’t do much with last time but who are positively in love with me this time out, Sebastian’s friendship is so close to pinned I can taste it. Come on, Seb, just a little more...

And pinned. Nice.

Sebastian asking who would dare attack Elthina and swearing he’ll keep her safe when Anders is standing a few feet away, ahahahaha.

And today on Romanceable Companions Making Comments About Hawke’s Love Interest That Are Pretty Obviously Projection On Their Part, Sebastian, do you really think that if it were you in Anders’ place, you could promise to put her above your commitment to the Chantry, or to Starkhaven?

Aveline, insofar as people “choose” to live in Darktown, I’m pretty sure it’s because the alternatives they have available to them are worse. Unless that was just a thinly veiled jab at Anders, in which case, carry on.

Welp. I was at the Bone Pit anyway, and it’s apparently now dragon time.

Got it on the first try, awesome. Sebastian appears to understand concepts like “get out of melee range, please”, which is nice of him.

This is the part where Anders gets evasive about what he’s planning, and it’s leaving Pavey kind of scared.

See, Zevran, Daiwen told you you could hide out with his family if need be.

Eurgh, the varterral again. Dragon time was easy by comparison, Fenris had to solo the last third of the varterral fight.

Zevran! I legit didn’t recognize you until you started talking, that’s how different you look. Even though I’ve played through this before and should’ve remembered.

So, uh, Sebastian and Fenris may not have been the most supportive team to bring along on Merrill’s quest, but here we are.

Look, I don’t love taking a 15-point approval hit when I was making good progress with Merrill, but it’s better than having to kill the whole clan again, that was depressing. Especially in a timeline with a Mahariel Warden—they’re his family, too.

You know what, I think it’s time for some Deep Roads as a palate cleanser.

We walk in on Nathaniel, and what’s he doing? Shooting darkspawn from within melee range, because of course he is. Love you to bits, Nate. Miss you when you’re not around, refusing to get out of melee range of enemies and giving your protagonist friend a headache.

Yeah, his voice is badly off—it was a bit deeper and much less raspy in Awakening—but I suppose we can chalk that up to the very rough shape he’s in here.

Oh, he’s back to normal by halfway through the conversation. Well then.

Aww, Sebastian. Enjoying the meeting with your probable inspiration?

Honestly, Anders and Nathaniel give me zero indication that they’re into each other. Sebastian is more enthusiastic to see Nathaniel than Anders is, and Nate shows more interest in Hawke than in his old annoyance friend. I may be biased, as my opinion of Awakening!Anders is well-known.

Oh, Carver.

Last time, when it was Bethany I’d packed off to the Wardens, I was so sorry for making her miserable that I started shipping her with Nathaniel just so she could derive at least one nice thing from her membership in the Wardens. Carver doesn’t need the same treatment, he’s clearly doing OK, but I wouldn’t half mind seeing him and Nate together, either.

Speaking of people who were good friends with Daiwen once upon a time, hello, Alistair.

Not sure the “swooping is bad” callback works quite as well as desired, hm.

Aw, looks like the questline with Gamlen’s daughter is bugged.

Hybris the jumped-up pride demon has been dispatched, excellent. Annoying thing.

Welp, Grand Cleric distracted, bomb planted. Pavey is trying very, very hard to signal that Anders can trust her and his shutting her out is leaving her scared and hurt, but it’s not working.

I’d heard that Pull of the Abyss was highly effective. What I didn’t realize was how funny the effects were.

And the rest of Best Served Cold will have to wait for the morning, as it’s after midnight. I’ll probably finish up tomorrow.