Valmy's ADHD Dragon Age playthrough

[viper37]

The Exalted Plains was clearly supposed to be done right after Haven. It would have been nice to indicate that someplace.

as I said, the game difficulty scaling is sometimes puzzling.  The Hinterland dragon is much, much, much harder to kill than most other dragons, despite being the lowest level of the bunch.  The one in the Exalted plains is supposedly tough but it took me less than 5 minutes to get rid of him, never going down once.

[Valmy]

Well it looks like the final bit of Dragon Age Inquisition will be released soon. So much for my call for six DLC and an expansion.

It takes place two years after the main game ends and comes out on September 8th so awesomely it looks like I can just play all the way through to the end and not have to revisit this thread until Dragon Age 4 comes out.

Working on the next write up right now. Sorry it is going slowly right now. As I stated this part is a bit of a grind.

[viper37]

As I stated this part is a bit of a grind.

I look forward to a detailed description of your encounters with creatures 8 levels down from yours

[Valmy]

Ok now on to Emprise Du Lion!

First



Zevran is going to take over our hunt for the Venatori agent Lord Enzo of Rialto. This should go well.

FIRST EMPRISE DU LION CAMPAIGN

Emprise Du Lion is pretty messed up. The place seems captured in eternal winter that froze the river the town of Sahrnia depends on. Red Templars have moved in and are everywhere...oh and Red Lyrium is everywhere.

Man recruiting the Templars to the Inquisition did not do much to reduce the Red Templar population. Annoying there should be rebel mages here.



'Lovely'

At least it is fun and challenging. But the town of Sahrnia is not having much fun, it is a bit of a shithole, a frozen shithole. With a few survivors of the winter and Red Templars trying to eek out an existance amongst the rubble. Oh and the Black Wolves. Man those Black Wolf Packs were rough, lots of angry wolves with amazing amounts of hit points. But fortuantely for Sahrnia the disgraced former champion of Orlais Michel de Chevin is a one man defense force keeping wolves and demons at bay.



'Wait is Michel de Chevin Lothar's long lost twin brother?'

I mean that is just eerie. He looks just like Lothar. Now he is in disgrace so no longer Celene's champion due to some kind of weirdness involving Briala or something. I didn't quite catch it. Anyway being a badass noble knight he is here to protect the people and slay a dread demon.



'Heard of him'

Or at least I was sure I had. I went back to my notes and it seems this Imshael was mentioned in Dragon Age 2. Gaxkang, Xebenkeck, and Imshael are all part of some club of super demons.  So here is #3. And I must say he is much more exposed and less optional than the other two.

It seems the whole situation was due to a land sale gone wrong.



'Because otherwise the Red Templars are slaves to property rights.'

Yeah somehow I don't buy this little story that they swindled this noblewoman into buying her quarry and then silently stole all the people. Weird that nobody seems all that interested in the sudden cold snap that isolated and destroyed the local economy in the first place.

Loads of Snoufleur roam over the frozen river and lake and pay out like slot machines when you kill them. Sometimes 9 tier 3 leathers, rendering all the previous leathern gathering efforts almost useless. Plus they remove class restrictions from leather armor so what...now mages can wear it? Is that a good idea? Well as it turns out they later find tons of Silverite which removes all class restrictions from heavy armor. Wait so everybody is going to be wearing plate? Didn't they alreay annoy me with this crap with the arcane warrior? Anyway I think this is how this is going to go but I am not going to make new gear until right before they leave for the Arbor Wilds.

But there are other things on the frozen lake. Rift things.



'Ok Cole and Vivienne might not be the best companions for this zone'

Emprise du Lion is well named. This place is hard as balls and pretty awesome. It looks kind of like Skyrim though except for one pretty significant difference.



'A few more months and this place basically would have been one giant block of red lyrium'

You can see Lothar got a new team, they do better. Eventually they find a passage going along the edge of the zone onto the highlands to the south. Here shit gets real.



'Oh for Maker's sake Dorian the fight just started!'

The keep pushing onwards. There is a huge visible tower in the middle of the zone that keeps beckoning them on. Eventually they take it and stomp the Red Templar Behemoth guarding it.



'Well I guess we should take the quarry and the keep next.'

While we appreciate the clue there Red Templars we kind of already figured that. There is a bridge going east nearby but it has seen better days.



'Man is any infrastructure intact in these zones?'

Why would the Red Templars destroy a bridge? They cannot fly. Well the Inquisition will be rebuilding that later. Now on to Suledin Keep!



'Yeah this place is pretty rotten with red lyrium'

How we are not all drooling nutcases in a few seconds here is not explained. I think Red Lyrium got nerfed between Dragon Age 2 and 3.  Michel de Chevin can be seen there hacking his way in and Lothar and company go join him. He then informs us that Imshael has sent a large group of demons at Sahrnia to attempt to distract us. He goes back to take care of it single-handedly because Lothar's doppleganger is a badass.

Suledin Keep is a weird place. The other two keeps seemed like real keeps with high walls and small interiors. Suledin just goes on forever in a twisty path, a really bizarre layout for a keep.



'Imshael: freaks out the Red Templars'

These are guys who volunarily turn themselves into glass idols so...

By the way how annoying is that reference to 'The Order'? Um the order is supposed to be on Lothar's side. Again this should be the rebel mages. Grrrr. Anyway at least these are fun fights.



'Giants live in the Emerald Graves eh? Well that should be fun in the future and...wait it almost looks like they are making giant Red Templars...'

Weird that there are no lady giants. Man it sure would be bad if they had a few Red Lyrium infected giants and...



'Game over man! Game over!'

Yeah so a hord of Red Templars and a Red Lyrium Giant attack and Lothar freaks out and blasts them with his mark power. After they win they book it out of there. I think he needs a stronger team.

So they take a break and go explore a nearby ruined Grey Warden base covering a Deep Roads entrance that, of course, needs sealing. Ghouls and Hurlocks abound. They also find the last two Grey Warden relics for Ser Thom Rainier The Blackwall.



'Let's just say the seal didn't hold so well after all'

The Grey Wardens were, of course, all slaughtered. They have had a rough run here.

Ok back to Suledin. Lothar changes parties again and this time fights through the rest of the giants and Red Templars and make it to the central part of the keep to stand face to face with a fearsome JUMP PUZZLE.



'Yes...yes...it was all worth it!'

And man they are about to give me a whole truck load of these silly jump puzzles. Who thought the Dragon Age series needed a bunch of jump puzzles? I mean they are not particularly hard and the jump mechanics are fine but come on. I guess I just should be happy there are no racing or card mini-games like KOTOR.

Ok now lets stand face to face with the dread demon...erm choice spirit...Imshael. And it seems the choice he offers is very much like something a desire demon might offer.



'Is that the best you can do? Betray everything for that? Pretty weaksauce.'

What was not weaksauce was the fight. Oh yeah this was a good one. Not quite as great as the Nightmare Demon...erm...thing at the end of the Fade but still pretty great. He shifts between demon types like Gaxkang, between fear and rage and finally pride. And there are those little fearlings and Red Templars. Good times.



'Wait he is calling on Gaxkang and Xebenkeck? Are they the patron saints of demons or something?'

I mean seriously are they not vanquished but lurking someplace? Disturbing.



'The sweet flagpole of victory'

So now the Inquisition takes its third fortress. I couldn't help but notice the first one was loaded with spies, the second with soldiers, and the third with nobles allied with Josephine. I guess each department of the Inquisition gets their own base.



'I also scored a hat trick in game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals'

Oh wait that was Eric Desjardins wasn't it? He is a personal friend of Josephine's dad so I guess he is reliable...Edouard not Eric. Lothar and company return to Sahrnia and Michel de Chevin hears of their glorious victory and pledges his allegiance to the Inquisition.



'Perfect if Lothar ever needs a body double'

They return to Suledin Keep to scout around. Yep more jump puzzles for my loot. But they also find an interesting document:



'Ample amounts of clay, loam, and evil to ensure optimum growth rates'

You have to grind up some evil to fertilize it a bit then water it with the tears of children.

A bit to the south and east of Suledin is the famous quarry and the townspeople of Sahrnia are chained up in paddy wagons guarded by Red Templars.



'Releasing all these people exposed to large amounts of Red Lyrium for an extended period of time? What could go wrong?'

Fortunately only a few of the townspeople appear to have gone nuts so far.



'Man I am so done with you assholes.'

Seriously so over the Red Templars. They should not even exist anymore. Oh well hopefully that is that. In the quarry they also discover several incriminating documents showing that Mistress Poulin sold it to the Red Templars knowing full well they were Red Templars and let them take the townspeople instead of them just disappearing. Still do not understand why the Red Templars bothered to buy it, are they going to sue Lothar now for taking their property?



'Yeah you totally made money off the Red Templars doing what they were going to do anyway when you had no way to stop them. YOU MONSTER.'

Anyway they arrest her for being a liar and take her back to Skyhold for judgement. We also discover one of the townspeople murdered his wife's brother when he tried to rob them before fleeing the country. Well that sounds pretty insignificant compared to all the rest of the shit that went down here. But Lothar encourages him to repent and live a blameless life.



'Go forth my son and murder thy brother-in-laws no more'

And that is it for now for Emprise du Lion. Still plenty of stuff left to do but they have to get that bridge rebuilt and hey it is way past time to get back to the Storm Coast and clean out the Red Templars there (oh right...crap more Red Templars) and secure that Qunari alliance.

Oh but in gossipy news Sera let slip Thom Rainier yearns for the fair Josephine. Unfortunately a head of a powerful noble family is not going to get with a murdering ex-Warden.



'Ah the bitter sweet romance of noble snobbery.'

Well I cannot fault her that much. Even if she were not head of House Montilyet she could probably do better. She does always keep a vase of fresh flowers that Rainier sends her every day on her desk. Awwwww. Say it with me now: awwwwwww.

Speaking of soft and sentimental romantics Zevran took care of the Venatori and their Antivan ally with a little help from his old partner in crime Leliana



And they build that bridge.



Man it looked like that was going to take months. This is how government infrastructure projects should go.



Objective: acquired.

But first things first:



'Because if she didn't sell they would have just moved on to the next place with evil soil'

Seriously this is silly. But fortunately the solution is obvious.



Though really they town should be abandoned and that whole province nuked from orbit with all the Red Lyrium it contains now. And it is growing. But sure lets rebuild it, that sounds nice.

Next the merchants want Lothar to take out the trash making southern Thedas' roads hostile to trade.



'Don't worry. The government always takes care of big business.'

Thom Rainier offers the hope that his homeland is now free of civil war.



Oh how wrong you are Ser Thom Rainier the Blackwall, how wrong you are. But more on that later.

[Valmy]

THE THIRD STORM COAST CAMPAIGN

Wow it has been awhile since they have been here. Iron Bull introduces them to the Ben-Hassrath agent, who Iron Bull nicknamed Gatt after Gaatlock the gunpowder three separate dwarves in this series have been trying to steal/reproduce. He is a former Tevinter slave Iron Bull freed and was one of his comrades on Seheron. I brought Dorian along and they had some choice words with each other until Lothar put an end to it, it kind of looked like a brawl was about to break out.



'Wow being complemented by a Qunari...I am not really sure what to say.'

It says a bit that the elf members of the Qun are the nice ones. Anyway so the mission is straightforward, they are to clear the Venatori off the shore so that the Qunari Dreadnought can swoop in and sink a Venatori ship full of Red Lyrium headed for Tevinter.



'And that ladies, gentlemen, and genderfluid special snowflakes is what we call forshadowing.'

Gatt, Iron Bull, Dorian, Cassandra, and Lothar will take one side of the channel and the Chargers will take the other. Iron Bull addresses his people.



'Good luck everyone.'

Ok let's do this! I am sure this will be a slog through a whole unit of elite Venatori!



'Or it could be one shotting a bunch of under-leveled wimps'

But then:



'Wait so the boss is our level but everybody else is level 7?'

I think Bioware is just fucking with me here. Just showing they could have leveled everybody appropriately if they felt like it. Bastards.

The Chargers had an even easier time of it and have already lit their signal. Gatt remarks that Iron Bull intentionally gave them an easy job and he just smiles.



'Hey a mission where nothing went wrong! Wait did I just ruin it?'

The Dreadnought sails in and easily sinks the Venatori ship with its Gaatlock guns. But then melodrama trouble arrives. A huge Venatori reserve force is charging in to sink the Dreadnought. In order to save the ship, and the Qunari alliance, the Chargers will have to make a suicidal stand.



'I think he is taking this well, don't you Gatt?'

They fight bravely but are slaughtered, but they give time for the Qunari Dreadnought to escape. Iron Bull feels the horrible weight of responsibility sacrificing his mercenaries for the Qun.



And thus ends the Bull's Chargers. RIP Krem and company.

Back at Skyhold Gatt reports that the Qunari have given Lothar the title Basalit-an to add to his Habsburg-esque list.



'I hope they are as useful as Krem was all by himself.'

Damn everybody is pretty much allied against Corypheus now. Iron Bull feels less than celebatory about achieving his mission.



'This is probably why the Qun doesn't allow you to form connections and give people names.'

A quick check of the wartable:



'Wait she pulled a Bianca upgrade out of the fade? Dagna really is something.'

Iron Bull and Lothar have a little funeral for the Chargers:



'We shall avenge all of those murdered by Corypheus' thugs.'

Iron Bull has now remembered he is an agent of the Qun and is prepared to leave his life as a Mercenary leader behind. But he will stay in Orlais...he likes the food.

Back to the Storm Coast to defeat the Red Templars.

FOURTH STORM COAST CAMPAIGN

First thing is somewhere they got a quest to seal all the Deep Roads entrances, which answers the question I think I posed way back when how the spiders and deepstalkers were getting into those caves.



'Ready Mr. Dorian? Energize'

There were Darkspawn trying to stop them but...yeah.



'Yawn'

At least this was a low level zone so no big deal. On the west end of the zone they find the Red Templar base and man was that a tough one. It took them awhile but they fought into it, nothing really to do here but kill all the Red Templars. I guess this was the mine that was producing the Red Lyrium for shipment to Tevinter. Inside Lothar finds some old friends...well at least Isabela's old friends from Mark of the Assassin.



'How the hell did those guys end up here? So many unanswered questions...'

Obviously they pissed off Isabela somehow but man I would like to know that story. I guess she went back and got the dagger or something.

In the end they managed to beat the last of the Templars but were pretty beat up.



'Hey where does that boat go?'

Well it went to an island where that dragon they saw fighting that giant way back in the day lives. Huh. They will come back when they are in better shape.

Speaking of Mark of the Assassin Tallis is working with Lothar now. Yes I realize it is a title and not a name but it is pretty obvious it is meant to be Felicia Day the elf who worked with Urien.



And the port at the Storm Coast is now ready for Inquisition use.



Hey the Blades of Hessarian! I had almost forgotten about them. Probably still need to take care of that dragon though.



Good. Though somebody should look into that enternal winter thing. Maybe later.

Dorian has found out a bit about Corypheus:



Sethius Amladaris eh? That name was not cool enough for him so he had to invent one? Anyway this might be useful to Leliana.

In Empise Du Lion Lothar finally found some Felandris so he can finally do the last quest from the Hinterlands. Yes the freaking Hinterlands.

THE EIGHTH HINTERLANDS CAMPAIGN

The final battle happens in the Hinterlands. I just know it.

Lothar goes out to the monument to lay down the Felandris



'This is a big moment...the last quest in the Hinterlands.'

And...



'Oh come on! How would a level 11 even get Felandris?'

That should be the end of the Hinterlands unless they put another quest there. Returning to Skyhold they make the last preparations before leaving for the Exalted Plains.



'Oh no the great Sutherland!'

The Inquisition's adventure company has run into a bit of trouble. We will have to go fetch them but a wartable mission is needed to use the map Sutherland's squire gave Lothar.



'Wait a Templar Tower?'

Lothar builds the last upgrade to Skyhold. Going to go ahead and build the Templar tower to house the new Order. Not that it matters that much. Damn all these upgrades and they never did fix the huge gaping holes in the hallway leading to the War Room. One would think keeping spies from knowing when a War Room session is going on and who is there might be a priority.

On to the Exalted Plains!

[Valmy]

FIRST EXALTED PLAINS CAMPAIGN

This zone is a basketcase. We have Celene's army fighting Gaspard's army. Both of them are fighting  Venatori backed anti-Orlais insurgents. Then there are Dalish and around being all Dalish. And this zone is huge, it is like second part of the game Hinterlands. Since Lothar and company have way overleveled it this is going to be a long slog of boring. Even better there are tons and I mean TONS of jump puzzles and sections of the level that need to be unlocked at the war table. So lets get this started.



'We shall create a desert and call it peace.'

Ah nothing like pacifying uppity locals for the empire. Let's meet these men of the dales now.



'Ok guess we will be going to the ramparts and meeting this Gordian guy.'

Restoring imperial rule against a rebel named Gordian? Well just call me Maximinus Thrax. One of Gaspard's men is holding the entrance to the first rampart all by himself.



'Man I bet Gordian I wishes he could have raised the dead during the siege of Carthage.'

Anyway so it is pretty clear early on the Freemen are not Lettowist scum but Venatori scum early on. A bit south of this they find scouts of the local Dalish clan and they have been observing the war and note that the dead are rising and only attacking the two Orlesian factions.



'Yeah they are the worst...hey!'

Ah the Dalish, always winning friends and influencing people. But actually those guys were pretty nice and told us where to find their clan. It was nice to see landships actually with halla. Hey wait did they ever actually explain what killed the Halla in DA2? Speaking of halla they are all over this zone and Lothar should be butchering them by the dozen to get their hides but...eh...he already has to many Snoufleur hides and DAO had taught me that Halla are sacred or something. So I just couldn't do it.

So they go and meet the keeper and he is also a diplomat extraordinaire.



'Ok we could stand around debating who destroyed whose home all day...'

Besides they totally started that war. But anyway after reminding them of their human atrocities he asks for a favor because that is how the Dalish operate. He wants Lothar to go clear all the demons away from the sacred Elven burial grounds.



'But then artifacts in that burial ground belong in a museum!'

Fine they won't paint 'The Inquisition wuz here 9:41 Dragon' on every burial mound. Damn hippies. One of the Dalish wants to join the Inquisition.



'Hey thanks...wait what do 'they' 'say' exactly?'

So that is basically the goal here. Get the Dalish to love them and then recruit Loranil the Dalish Elf. Also help the Dalish leave. They need a bunch of gear, Lothar already had everything except three great bear pelts. Well they have no such pelts and I later discover there are not great bears in the Exalted Plains so here is hoping there are some in the Emerald Graves.

Next they find Solas' spirit friend. It has seen better days.



'Ah one of those 'Pride Demon' spirits'

So some mages summoned it to help them fight off bandits and undead and so forth as they passed through the Exalted Plains thus corrupting the spirit and turning it into a demon. Because that is what happens when you use a spirit against its purpose. Damn really? The rules for demons seem to switch around a lot because that is a new one. Anyway Solas is pissed.



'The Kirkwall Circle? Well that explains why this all went to shit.'

The insane people of Kirkwall will never stop tormenting me. Solas begs Lothar not to slay his friend but to destroy the bounds created by the Kirkwall morons.



'So glad I picked that Arcane Knowledge perk.'

The spirit is freed! But is dying...for reasons.



'*sniff*'

Solas wants to rip those mages a new asshole.



'Please understand... it was all business. It wasn't personal.
*zap*
It was all personal to me.'

Just kidding Solas doesn't go all Liam Neeson, Lothar convinces him to let them go. Then Solas storms off in a fury. Huh. Guess Lothar needs to go get Vivienne. With his new team they assault a nearby redoubt, the eastern one. The Freemen teach them their slogan.



'You have to admit it is pretty catchy.'

They slog through the redoubt and discover none other than Gordian himself guarding the first undead making trench. Ok the undead making trenches...so the Freemen have been gathering dead bodies and dumping them in these trenches which are protected by shields that mages can zap through. The magic in them proceeds to make undead...I guess there is a little rip in the fade or something there. Gordian's Venatori know-how at work.



'Yes...yes they will ruin everything. Hey look his staff looks just like Malcolm Hawke's old staff from DA2 with the naked lady on it.'

Then they have cleared the rampart. But they need to let Gaspard's army know it is back in Orlesian hands.



'Ok I guess I blow this horn and they just have to presume it is not a Freemen trap.'

Gaspard's men soon arrive and occupy the rampart. Three more of these things to go. Sigh. Back to Skyhold.
Solas comes back telling Lothar he would not abandon him now. I guess if your approval is low enough he just stays away. He went to do a little spirit funeral in the fade.



'Dareth shiral spirit'

He says the spirit will reform but it will not remember him. Granted Cole said spirits do not remember in general but that might not have been absolute. Rather that they do not learn and change I think.

Now that Enzo and the Venatori are dead it is time for Zev to bid his farewell.



I have to say he is more charming in person.

Corypheus' family disowns him and bribes the Inquisition to keep quiet.



'I will just walk away and leave this Master Spirit Rune here and maybe when I get back it will be gone *wink wink*'

Meanwhile Tallis and the Inquisition army win a major victory in the far eastern part of Ferelden.



Man what a great way to bring old characters back without having to pay any voice actors.

Solas wants a word with Lothar on the balconey.



'Actually that is the hook to my whole character...yes.'

Yeah the character I have been playing for awhile is that Lothar was a rather worthless playboy noble who fate has grabbed by the arm. And he has been completely transformed and found his inner strength and so forth. But there was no option to say 'yes it has transformed me' you could only pick 'No' or 'Why are you asking?'



'Awwww thanks Solas '

I guess Lothar's being nice to the Grey Wardens has been forgiven.

Oh and also in that last bit in the Exalted Plains they found the last magic book Vivienne wanted. So that was good, got that long companion quest done.

SECOND EXALTED PLAINS CAMPAIGN

Ok so into the Western Ramparts. Each of the undead making trenches of corpses is also protected by an Arcane horror and I have to say they still do a ton of damage and were a bit challenging supported by hordes of undead and freemen.



'Poor Iron Bull. Even things 8 levels behind him can squish him'

Lothar returns to the soldier, named Corporal Rosselin, holding the entrance and tells him the rampart has been captured for Gaspard.



'Then how did his guys come occupy the Ramparts? Oh nevermind. On my way.'

Before heading there they search the Ramparts again just to see if they missed anything and discover a bunker underneath with some loot and a wounded chevalier with a dirty mouth.



'This kind of language from a chevalier! Quel scandale!'

As she is dying, and you cannot save her, she hands Lothar a ring to hand to her commander. Her commander is Jehan who is the commander of Celene's forces. And it is kind of suggested they are an item. I guess in Celene's government it is queer women all the way down. But hey it will be an honor to deliver this final token to her true love.

Oh and let me tell you about the jump puzzles in this zone. There are lots of ruined houses in this zone that have roofs barely intact that are only accessible by jumping up the ruined walls...and it seems people in this part of Orlais always kept their loot on their roof.



'This level 11 random loot better be worth it! (it wasn't)'

Now another little problem that has come up before, but really goes nuts in this zone, is that the game cannot seem to remember whether or not Celene won at Halamshiral or whether it was a truce. Most of the time it seems it thinks Celene won.

But the first time I run into some Inquisition troops claiming that the Orlesian Empire is stabilizing after allying with the Inquisition.



So both Celene and Gaspard are positioning themselves as responsible for the truce and alliance with the Inquisition. Well that makes sense. But after that...well....more on that later.

Next they find the ruins of an old elf temple and start to uncover mysterious elf runes.



'Hey what a coincidence there is a raven right beside me holding a mirror, where is the other one holding a hear*AAAAAAAH*'

Ok no raven actually ripped out his heart but that was eerie.

Back to Skyhold.

Vivienne's schemes come to fruition:



Sutherland and company: found! But I guess they had a map but still.



THIRD EXALTED PLAINS CAMPAIGN

Back to finding those mysterious Elf runes. One thing they really try to hit you over the head with in the Exalted Plains is you need to learn about the Elf Gods. But I guess that makes sense. Viper told me I am going to meet Mythal and the Dread Wolf and I am going to be going to the Arbor Wilds to see elfy things so I guess I should get ready.

LOL at the Dread Wolf.



Lothar better not have Solas in his party when he meets Fen'Harel because he will probably want to rip his eyes out.
Anyway taking notes so I should be ready.

Anyway they find all four strange elf runes.



'Yeah! Another table mission!'

In an elfy mood they head over to the ancient Elfy burial grounds.



'Ok ok I get it. Don't fuck with the elf graves.'

Geez. Alright so they kill the level 11 demons and head back to the Dalish.



'Huh...really? Just 'thanks'? How un-Dalish.'

Well one thing is Dalish about him. Lothar asks him about the weird Elven runes.



'Oh so...you don't know anything about Elves?'

Not only does he not know but he expects that the humans will know more and he barely cares about what they are. The Dalish are such an interesting and bizarre creation of David Gaider.

Lothar is not quite done making the Dalish like him though. A young Elf mage got rejected by the Keeper to be his apprentice and fled to summon a demon.



'I will show them I WILL SHOW THEM ALL'

So his demon ate him. But he was trying to find Lindiranae's Talisman, which actually Lothar already found when he was hunting for the Elf runes. So he returns to the Dalish Camp and tells his..erm...sister I think that he is dead but that he died fighting for this Talisman.



'Solas hates white lies almost as much as he hates the Grey Wardens'

The Dalish are finally Lothar's friend...or at least friend enough to let Loranil join.



'All it took was finding a long lost Elven relic.'

At that point Lothar fights to the east and breaks into the fortress of Marshall Bastien Prouix, the commander of Gaspard's army.

Well Lothar goes and tells him the war is over and the conversation bizarrely goes as if Celene was victorious.



Grrrrr. Anyway the good marshall wants them to liberate one of his fortresses in the west part of the zone. It would be nice if he had an army or something that might handle that. Another of his people wants Lothar to recover the personal effects of some of their fallen soldiers. It just seems weird they are asking an important world leader to do these things personally.

Back to Skyhold.

The Inquisition army helps Tallis take out Venatori traitors in Val Royeaux



Inquisition experts discover the runes point out the location of an ancient temple of Dirthamen. Interesting.



Now on to the Storm Coast to rescue Sutherland and company.

FIFTH STORM COAST CAMPAIGN

They track Sutherland down and they are under siege by Darkspawn.



'No B team Adventuring company left behind!'

Well it was easy enough.



Alright Lothar expects great things from them in the future.

Back to Skyhold.

Michel de Chevin became a traitor from working with Briala where he gained some experience using Eluvians. Leliana is intrigued so he is put in her service.



Hopefully that will help as they move forward using the Eluvians.

And...back to the Exalted Plains again.

FOURTH EXALTED PLAINS CAMPAIGN

They find the last group of Venatori Dorian was looking for.



'*sigh*'

Quite a lame ending to a long quest.

The northern portion of the zone is cut off by a collapsed tunnel.



'And another table mission!'

Man this zone is long and boring...but mostly just really long.

The Inquisition goes back to Skyhold.



And back to the Exalted Plains

FIFTH EXALTED PLAINS CAMPAIGN



'Ok Bioware I know you love these interminable jump puzzles but really? An ancient elf shard on top of an Orlesian house?'
And they find a broken bridge going to the northwest part of the zone and again need to go back to the Skyhold to do a table mission.



'Don't tell me how to run the Inquisition Varric!'

But tossing Varric over will not help the rest of us.

They liberate that fortress for Gaspard as well as locate all those personal effects of the soldiers and return them to Gaspard's forces.

Closeby they go ahead and explore the newly opened area on the other end of the zone and find a elf zone that can be entered via a giant hole in the ground.



'You cannot fling the corpse of a level 11 monster in this zone without hitting an elf temple.'

Inside they find a tricky puzzle involving a giant archer statue...but first back to Skyhold...again.
Bridge fixed.



Sutherland's company back to work



Awwww my little heroes are growing up.

And back we go.

SIXTH EXALTED PLAINS CAMPAIGN

Ok so back to that giant archer puzzle.



Ok so the giant elf archer turns and shoots its bow and has to get over the pillars to light up the dreamcatcher looking things. Each pillar has a different method of raising a lowering it. It was actually kind of fun. Past the puzzle were arcane horrors and revenants and loot. Oh and more stuff on elf gods.



'Good to know since we are going to be at his temple soon...well soonish.'

North of this they find one of the rogue Templars Cassandra was looking for and...



'Oh come on! This zone is level 11-15. There is no possible way a level 7 could even get to this encounter!'

*headdesk*

Ah well. One more baddie for her in the Emerald Graves.

Further to the north they find some hot springs where something pretty awesome happens. While assaulting a fade rift they spot the snow wyvern Vivienne was hunting for (or for its heart anyway) and a dragon lands nearby. Man I so wanted to find a way to fight the dragon, the wyvern, and the fade rift all at the same time but unfortunately I couldn't figure out a way to bring them together without resetting the fade rift. So they just did two.



'Come over here and fight us by this fade rift, it will be fun.'

After that, the Dragon. This got kind of fun since it is immune to lightening and they had Vivienne who had lightening based magic.



And every once in awhile it would fly off and strafe us. Defintely the most fun to be had in this zone.

After that one last place to go...the northwest to see Celene's gang. They clear out the last Rampart and go into the castle and man that was a long twisty place full of weird traps and other fun.



'Demons demons everywhere...'

And how. Check out how much loot is in this next screenshot.



'Man bummer about that lady in waiting'

Anyway Celene's Army got trapped inside and turned on its magic elf defenses and the dead rose and hilarity ensued. Lothar disabled the defenses and eventually reached the demoralized remains of Celene's forces.



'I am sorry for your loss commander...and for the massacre of most of your army that had to suck to.'

Oh and of course...



*sigh*

So after annoying me one last time they are done for now with the Exalted Plains for the time being. They still need to find those bear pelts so the Dalish can move on.



The next target!

But first Lothar takes the Wyvern heart to Vivienne. Weirdly the game gives me the option to lie to her and give her a fake heart...why I would do so I have no idea.



'Gosh thanks...wait where are we going?'

The heart was to make a potion for Duke Bastien to try to save his life. But it does not work and he dies right in front of her.



Awwwwww. Poor Vivienne.



'Really? Because it sure seems like his wife would do that...'

Man the position of mistress is pretty important in Orlais.

Lastly...



'Even the tavern minstrel has a table mission for Lothar'

Ok so the plan is to finish all the available table missions and zones before going to the Arbor Wilds. Then the DLC then finish the game. Then the post-game DLC.

Emerald Graves
The other zone way in the west of Orlais
Finish the Exalted Plains
Finish the Storm Coast
Finish Emprise Du Lion
Lost Temple of Dirthamen
Finish Forbidden Oasis
Craft stuff
Arbor Wilds
Jaws of Hakkon
The Descent
Finish Inquisition
Post-Game DLC

So onwards!

Stuff Lothar did:



The demon Imshael was slain

Suledin Keep was captured for Josephine's people

Iron Bull saved the dreadnought at a tragic cost

Solas freed his friend

Oddly giving Vivienne the correct Wyvern Heart did not unlock a choice.

[Norgy]

I really like your AAR, Valmy. Clearly, I have more fun reading about Dragon Age than playing it. 

[Valmy]

I really like your AAR, Valmy. Clearly, I have more fun reading about Dragon Age than playing it. 

Sometimes I have more fun writing it especially that last zone.

[viper37]

Man recruiting the Templars to the Inquisition did not do much to reduce the Red Templar population.

How would you know?  Have you played with the mages before?
Actually, it does not change there, but it does change a bit in other maps.  Les templars, more venatori.  At least that was my impression of 2 playthrough.  It could simply be that the number and variety of ennemies are totally random from one game to the other.

Annoying there should be rebel mages here.

Actually, no.  I feel it fits the story either way.

Why would the Red Templars destroy a bridge?

Did they destroy it?  I thought it was something else, or someone else.

By the way how annoying is that reference to 'The Order'? Um the order is supposed to be on Lothar's side. Again this should be the rebel mages. Grrrr. Anyway at least these are fun fights.

They see themselves as True Templars.  Your pals are just heretics.
The fact they are the minority just reinforce their Faith.

So now the Inquisition takes its third fortress. I couldn't help but notice the first one was loaded with spies, the second with soldiers, and the third with nobles allied with Josephine. I guess each department of the Inquisition gets their own base.

Yes, there was supposed to be more to do with these bases, but the consoles couldn't handle it, so it was dropped.

Still do not understand why the Red Templars bothered to buy it, are they going to sue Lothar now for taking their property?

They may have wanted to avoid suspicion from the Inquisition.  Besides, they don't have the number to take the city, take everyone prisoner, keep them all under guard and feed them red lyrium one at a time.  Discretion was they key, moving small groups, etc.

[viper37]

They fight bravely but are slaughtered, but they give time for the Qunari Dreadnought to escape. Iron Bull feels the horrible weight of responsibility sacrificing his mercenaries for the Qun.

You're hearthless!

For the rest, I tought you saved Celene?

EDIT: Ah, I see.  The writers did not expect someone making the insane choice of going back to the ante-bellum position of having the 3 work togeter, plotting and scheming like the mad people they are

I can see why you are clearly upset, that would have pissed me off to.

[viper37]

Ok so the plan is to finish all the available table missions and zones before going to the Arbor Wilds. Then the DLC then finish the game. Then the post-game DLC.

Emerald Graves
The other zone way in the west of Orlais
Finish the Exalted Plains
Finish the Storm Coast
Finish Emprise Du Lion
Lost Temple of Dirthamen
Finish Forbidden Oasis
Craft stuff
Arbor Wilds
Jaws of Hakkon
The Descent
Finish Inquisition
Post-Game DLC

So onwards!

Stuff Lothar did:



The demon Imshael was slain

Suledin Keep was captured for Josephine's people

Iron Bull saved the dreadnought at a tragic cost

Solas freed his friend

Oddly giving Vivienne the correct Wyvern Heart did not unlock a choice.

You could Jaws of Hakkon before the Arbor wilds.  And the Descent to.  It does not really matter anyway.

[Valmy]

I know it does not matter. That is just the order they are going to be done in.

I hope it is not too wonky story wise. It is rather absurd we are exploring the Emerald Grave when supposedly we are in a race with Corypheus to get to the Arbor Wilds. If I ever play this game again I would not do it in this order.

[Valmy]

You're hearthless!

Mission first

For the rest, I tought you saved Celene?

EDIT: Ah, I see.  The writers did not expect someone making the insane choice of going back to the ante-bellum position of having the 3 work togeter, plotting and scheming like the mad people they are

I can see why you are clearly upset, that would have pissed me off to.

Hey the way they set it up it looked like it was the logical thing to do. In retrospect I think it was right the thing. Lothar is a foreigner and shouldn't be deciding who rules Orlais, he just made them behave.

But yeah it is annoying they cannot seem to keep it straight what the outcome was.

[viper37]

I hope it is not too wonky story wise.

Supposedly, the game adjusts itself to that.

It is rather absurd we are exploring the Emerald Grave when supposedly we are in a race with Corypheus to get to the Arbor Wilds. If I ever play this game again I would not do it in this order.

Well, see, here's the thing... We need power to get access to "story mission", so, supposedly, we need to  explore areas and build our strenght to unlock these missions.  However, you gain so much power that you could just skip 3/4 of the game to do the main missions and be done with it in 15hrs.

[viper37]

Rethinking of your order, I'd do the lost temple right away, or during the Emerald graves if you're bored.
There's some good loot there.
Forbidden oasis is tough at some place, especially the freaking dragon.

Arbor wilds isn't too hard to do, but you're given a choice, if you like misery you follow a path, if you want it easy, follow the other.
The miserable path gives you more loot, the other one gives you more interesting dialog, more money and more story.

As for companions:
[spoiler]
I would bring Solas, personally, but anyone is good.[/spoiler]