Valmy's ADHD Dragon Age playthrough

[Valmy]

Of course I am bringing Solas to the elf temple. You think I am nuts?

[Jaron]

I think you're nuts!

[viper37]

Of course I am bringing Solas to the elf temple. You think I am nuts?

you never know

[Valmy]

I thought it was all over yesterday when I got loaded it up and my character was had some russian name and was a female mage. But fortunately I could just restore from my local saves and took care of that.

Damn Marty's neighbors, hacking my EA account.

[viper37]

wow.  I'm lucky, it never happenned to me in Steam or Origin.

[Valmy]

wow.  I'm lucky, it never happenned to me in Steam or Origin.

Yeah I was going to let it go but Marty's neighbor did it again today so I guess I have to spend my time telling EA about it. Meh.

Not that it impacts my game at all but, you know, probably is not a good thing.

[viper37]

When you do Jaws of Hakkon, if you're like me, and it seems you are , you'll be tempted to do most of the sidequests before advancing on the main quest.  Reflecting on it, I think a better way to do it would be: (don't read until you have met scout Harding in the area).
[spoiler]
- Reach the Avvar village, explore.
- Procede down the path, toward the sea
- Reach the Island
- Complete the quest(s) there, it will grant you one useful power that you can upgrade to a more powerful version later on
- Do the rest, it's a huge area
[/spoiler]

[Valmy]

Thanks for that. I hope I remember to go read that

Finished Emerald Graves. I expected to finish the Hissing Wastes (nice name! Damn three boring ass desert zones in western Orlais?) this weekend but I got busy. Should have it done soon.

I thought the Russian Hacker had gone away but it seems he is still at it. Meh.

[viper37]

Thanks for that. I hope I remember to go read that

Finished Emerald Graves. I expected to finish the Hissing Wastes (nice name! Damn three boring ass desert zones in western Orlais?) this weekend but I got busy. Should have it done soon.

I thought the Russian Hacker had gone away but it seems he is still at it. Meh.

someone trie to hack my account yesterday night, unfortunately for them, they were unable to crack my password.

[Valmy]

Ok before they depart for the Emerald Graves there is a little business left from Thom Rainier's deception.



'Why do I see the 'Tale of Rainier' as Varric's next big seller?'

But the Inquisition had to return all the goods collected from his Grey Warden treaties, since they were not actually the Grey Wardens.



'So sorry honest mistake'

Hopefully that egg in the face will not set them back too far. Meanwhile Tallis and the Inquisition move in on the Venatori spy network:



And Dagna is doing a very scientific study of the fade using remnants collected off Lothar when he got back after Adamant fortress.



'So...maybe doing your research while taking PCP is not the best idea'

Somehow she made a rune out of that.

So with that they are off!

FIRST EMERALD GRAVES CAMPAIGN



'Why? Too good to deal with anybody but me?'

Seriously what is up with this guy?



'Oh yes...those guys again.'

Hopefully they are more fun this time. Also, given what they found in Suledin in Emprise Du Lion, we can expect the Red Templars to be here as well as Giants. Probably a Dragon as well since there always seems to be.



'Ok the Freemen definitely not the biggest fan of Fairbanks'

At this point Lothar figures Fairbanks must be some secret Imperial agent or something...but no he is just some dude trying to protect refugees. Why is this guy so desperate to deal with only Lothar and why are the Freemen trying to kill him? No idea. But he knows things.



'What could be in those crates? I bet it is Red and rhymes with Helium.'

Fairbanks has them look at his papers to see all his info on the Freemen.



'An evil demonic aligned nun...not surprising to any Catholic school child.'

So basically the Freemen are led by four leaders in the Emerald Graves. Killing these four leaders should hand victory to Fairbanks and his refugees: A traitor knight, an evil nun, a vicious thug, and a rather unpleasant general. Now they were supposed to go after the nun first but Lothar decided to check out the nearby noble estate figuring that would be a more likely place for the leadership to hang out instead of a Veridium mine, where the nun is. There they find a ton of freemen, a pretty tough bunch of fights actually. And hey look there is the thug.



'Stupid mortal enemies always trying to stop us'

They search everywhere on the outside of the Villa and find a clue!



'Well Auguste won't have to worry about his jealousy anymore.'

Auguste is the knight and Maliphant is the general. They are looking for a treasure under some glyphs somewhere in the Emerald Graves....interesting.

Oh and they have some nice stuff for the Red Templars here:



'So how many metric tons of this stuff do they need?'

And with that a quick trip back to Skyhold.



So...close...

Cullen's boys investigate some local elven ruins, probably the place where the Freemen are looking for their secret weapon under those glyphs.



Lothar talks to Morrigan about Kieran...



'Oh Lothar if only you knew...'

She also says Kieran was at first a means to an end...what end? Probably some big plot by Flemeth. She has still not made an appearance in this game but I bet she will be showing up soon.

Speaking of people who plot Vivienne has invited her dead true love's son and sister to Skyhold.



'Well my condolences. This must be a difficult time for this purely social call.'

They seem quite star struck. Bastien's sister is a member of the Council of Clerics so that's a thing. His son is on the Council of Heralds. Good going Viv, good people to have. Vivienne is very grateful for Lothar's continued support and gives him a gift.



'Wow a powerful magical ring? That sounds like something incredibly useful.'

But it never shows up in your inventory so maybe it is some kind of plot item that will have an impact later.

Iron Bull is fully embracing his new full time secret agent role and keeps Lothar up to date on Ben-Hassarath actions in conjecture with the Inquisition.



All business now.

Sutherland and his company pay Lothar back his investment but eh...he tells them to sponsor more adventurers with it. They will start a whole adventuring pyramid of powah or something.


'And don't you forget it scrub!'

Lothar actually says 'pay it forward' which made me wince as a corporate jargon type word. I just hope Lothar can monetize their efforts and leverage their competencies in the next Emerald Graves campaign.

A new Red Jenny contact gets in touch with the Inquisition:



Charade huh?



Damn! So close but no cigar. Too bad they were doing so well in the other missions. Cannot win them all I guess.

SECOND EMERALD GRAVES CAMPAIGN

Ok now on to the Veridium Mine.



'Ra ra ree! Kick her in the knee! Ra ra rass! Kick her in the other knee!'

So two leaders down, two to go. While searching the place Cassandra asks Iron Bull about how he is taking the loss of the Chargers. Man this group really knows how to jump up and down and scream about the elephant in the room.



'Mission. Duty. Qun.'

Hmmm I cannot but feel part of Iron Bull died that day. We will see how things go.

They find Fairbanks' people and free them.



'Man what a demanding whiner'

It seems they were to be sent to the mines in Emprise Du Lion.

Next Lothar goes back to the Villa and goes inside this time, just in time to interrupt a meeting between the rather unpleasant general and the Red Templars. What timing!



''Take them down'? Well no wonder the Freemen are so effective being led by a tactical genius like yourself.'

So that is three leaders down. One to go, the knight Auguste. They find a note from the Red Templars:



'Samson? Who the hell is Samson?'

Samson? This is the first time I have heard of this guy. Unless it is that washed up ex-Templar (and then later current-Templar) from DA2. Actually it would not be too big of a surprise if that guy became a Red Templar he was getting a little Templar-extremist there at the end. But man he was already kind of an old dude to be the leader of the Red Templars.

They find Maliphant's office. Well they already knew the Venatori were behind the Freemen but it was nice to find a letter from Calpernia.



'I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further.'



'Oh yeah I am sure you can get it past customs in that box.'

Where are they smuggling it? Probably not to the Storm Coast, since that is too far and obviously for the Red Lyrium they were pulling out of the ancient thaig from DA2. Oh well wherever it was going it was probably not good.

With that they quickly return to Skyhold for a few Table Missions and to sell all the loot they were carrying. Also Thom Rainier learns a new trick:



'+10% to defending America from Socialism but tendency to drunk post.'

Ok back to deal with the last Freemen redoubt...or stockade as it turned out.

THIRD EMERALD GRAVES CAMPAIGN





Fortunately their basis for this claim was just as empty as it had been towards Gandalf.



'They can ruin all of our plans and destroy all of our leaders but they can take our FREEDOM! Is just not that inspiring of a slogan.'



'Holy hell Chevalier Auguste is a giant.'

Well without their 9 foot tall knight the Freemen have been all but beaten except for those trying to find that thing in the elf ruins. Lothar rushes to tell Fairbanks.



'It is nice to be appreciated.'

Fairbanks becomes an agent of the Inquisition and moves his refugees to the Freemen stockade. One of his lieutenants has a theory about Fairbanks:



'Hmmm a secret noble? Maybe he is an agent of Celene after all.'

I don't know he has not exactly said nice things about his fellow nobles...

Oh look!



'I know a whole clan of Dalish who are doomed to never move again unless they get your pelt. Yeah I don't get it either.'

Back to the Villa to see if there is proof of Fairbank's fatcat background there.



'Ah ha! A secret Midwife's journal.'

Man everybody in this world writes everything down. Must be great for Historians. Anyway so here we learn that Fairbank's actual name is Everiste and his mother, Bernice, gave him a medallion...which matches the one Fairbanks wears around his neck. Why this book is here is unknown since there is no indication Bernice ever goes back to her family or takes this midwife with her.



'A striking family resemblance to the LeMarque family...is the seed strong?'



'Ok this is getting British 19th century novel-esque.'

So yeah the medallion Fairbanks wears has that symbol and motto. And his mother was Bernice. And his name is actually Everiste LeMarque. He also seems to know it somehow, because he tries to hush up the rumors which might be more successful if he was not always wearing that medallion.



'Ok in retrospect taking Sera and Rainier with Lothar to do a pro-nobility quest was not the best idea.'

Back to Skyhold.



Damn they have pieces of thrones just laying around out there.



More fun with Charade Amell. Huh I wonder if Gamlen is a Red Jenny as well. Maybe he was just trying to destroy a noble family.



Josephine finds a way to use Fairbanks' heritage to our advantage.



Cullen finds a way to draw out Maliphant's Red Templar contact. He knows him? Is it Samson? Go go team!

Quick stop in Val Royeaux on the way back and there is a wedding going on. One that Lothar was partially responsible form thwarting the evil lord and allowing the one true love pairing to happen. So he shows up and delivers a stirring oration.



'That's right! Let's not get carried away with this true love stuff. We are all still nobles.'



'No problem kid. Just name your first born Lothar Bernard Anthony Ferdinand Aurelian Tythas Trevelyan.'

FOURTH EMERALD GRAVES CAMPAIGN

So they find the Templar and he is not Samson but Carroll. Who the hell is Carroll? He is not in my notes anywhere. Cullen knows him so he must have been in DAO or DA2 someplace.



'Corypheus asked for Red Templars that could shoot freaking lasers.'

Well huh. They beat everything but there is still a big unexplored part of the zone in the north and the east. So they go east and find...a really messed up castle.



'Ah damn never say it is too quiet.'

When Cassandra said that at the Shrine of Dumat all hell broke loose about 2 seconds later. Anyway the plot of this fucked up chateau is a familiar Dragon Age trope. Kid with magical powers...who again writes everything down conveniently.



'Magical child finds demonic friend...must be tuesday.'

Ok so noble family has a kid who is obviously a mage. But they cannot bear the shame of having a mage in the family so they decide to DIY it.



'What to expect when you're expecting your child to be possessed by demons'

So they tried to contain the magic kid in a magic box and it didn't work and made the evil more powerful than ever...and everybody fled. I can only assume hilarity ensued. Anyway this box o' magic is attracting demons who are presently haunting the place. Lothar makes his way up to the top of the place and finds the box.



'Well I am shocked this ominous thing didn't work.'



'And of course a very powerful Arcane Horror, formerly little girl, was inside.'

Hate those things.



Basically a more evil version of Isolde Guerrin. Not sending your kids to the Circle is just a bad idea folks. Bioware has told us this many many times. And back to Skyhold.

Dagna wants Lothar to send a message to her estranged smith caste father. She kind of turns out to be smith, funny how that works.



'Actually this is the least strange quest he has had in months.'



Cullen pulls it off. He sends her a family crest. Nice. Of course he still acts all gruff and disapproving because dwarves.

FIFTH EMERALD GRAVES CAMPAIGN



'Hey look one of the guys Cassandra needs to kill and he is NOT level 7!'

Well that finally finishes Cassandra's unfinished business quest, where she had to take care of some Templar and Seeker business left undone. No fanfair or anything, sort of like when he finally finished Dorian's Venatori quest. Ah well maybe she made it up to him later. They reach that elf ruin where the secrets are to find the Freemen/Templars massacred a Dalish clan outside.



'Man this is just not a good place to be an elf'

Speaking of which the actual Emerald Graves are close by so they explore that first.



'I claim this morbid landmark in the name of the Inquisitor! Hey that's me.'

This is not a great place for mourners of elf warriors though. The Giants, whose family members the Red Templars were kidnapping to make Red Giants, live here.



'We are all gathered here today to remember our fri*splat*'

That sure made claiming all those grave landmarks fun.

And with that into the elf ruins. The Inquisition occupation did not go well.



'Man if you want a job done right...'

I guess the Red Templars are running this operation now. They soon come across a behemoth and he has seals that are going to be needed to open the tomb at the bottom. Oh and this is a tomb of the Emerald Knights, the guys who defended the Dales and committed an atrocity at Red Crossing that triggered the Exalted March.



'Must get...plot coupon'

Ok so they need to fight through Red Templars to get the emerald seals. I guess the Templars moved in once the Freemen got wiped out.



'Ok this crest is driving me nuts'

It is everywhere. It looks like the Crest of Kirkwall but it just makes no sense in the contexts it is found and it is slightly different. But damn it looks like something out of DA2. It must be related to the ancient elves somehow or the Dales. Just by the context. Maybe this will be made clear later.

Anyway at long last they find all the seals and reach the doors to the tomb.



'Wait a wooden door? Hasn't this been sealed for centuries? Must be magical elven wood.'

There is a welcoming committee inside.



'After seeing all the horrors that hang out in tombs I think Ferelden has the right idea by burning their dead.'

Anyway so there is no secret weapon or anything in the tomb just a Emerald Knight named Elandrin with a tragic past. It seems he accidentally triggered the showdown at Red Crossing by attempting an inter-racial relationship with a human woman. The whole sorry story is the only thing in the tomb (well besides loots). Not sure how the Red Templars or Corypheus was attempting to use that.



'And we get the return of our beloved evil Buddha.'

Well that is that for the tomb. Just north of that and the Emerald Graves (the actual graves, not the zone) they find the High Dragon which seem to be infesting south Thedas in shocking numbers. This one breathes ice so Lothar brings Dorian along to roast her.



'Burninating all the dragons'



'Five more of these things to go...'

Not even 200,000 HP? Bah what a wimpy High Dragon.

After that there are a ton of little annoying puzzle quests to do. Bioware really got excited about their puzzles in this zone, each one more esoteric and time consuming than the last.

Dorian is not amused.



'A pot of chocolate battle fairies!'



'Ok ok we get it. You think doing pointless quests for questionable rewards when the fate of the world depends on us is a bad idea. Bah you just don't get adventuring.'

And at the end they finally find the treasure. And it is a demon...named treasure.



'Good one Bioware...you bastards.'

There was a quest that involved finding boxes with numbers on them, sticking flowers in a hole, and lighting torches in a certain order. But they did them darnit. And that should wrap up the Emerald Graves. Whew.

The next zone is the...erm....



Hissing Wastes. Man who comes up with these names? Orlais geography classes must be colorful.

Dagna thanks Lothar for helping her reconcile a bit with her father in her own special way:



And Solas mentions dreaming about an abandoned hut in the Kolcari Wilds that the tribemen refuse to loot and the vegetation studiously avoids.



'Yes...where is she hiding these days?'

Funny he does not name Flemeth but seems to know of her.

Finally Josephine mentions something about Duke Bastien's sister:



'Of course she is.'

Oh Vivienne you really are the perfect person for this gig. She never stops playing the game even when the love of her life dies.

Are you ready to see some wastes that hiss in some way? Come back here in a couple days and it should be up

Things Lothar did:



Fairbanks was discovered to be the lost heir of fancy pants nobility.

Fairbanks bravely defeated the Freemen leaders by asking Lothar to kill them all. Brave brave brave Sir Fairbanks.

I guess Bastien's relatives have to visit Skyhold before you get credit for giving the Wyvern heart to Vivienne.

The Inquisitor is working with Charade Amell.

[Jaron]

UPDATE?

[Valmy]

UPDATE?

Um...went into the Emerald Graves and did stuff.

[viper37]

'Samson? Who the hell is Samson?'

Samson? This is the first time I have heard of this guy. Unless it is that washed up ex-Templar (and then later current-Templar) from DA2. Actually it would not be too big of a surprise if that guy became a Red Templar he was getting a little Templar-extremist there at the end. But man he was already kind of an old dude to be the leader of the Red Templars.

Yes, that's him.
Had you sided with the freedom loving terrorist mages, you would have met him.  Charming fellow.  Intent on killing you for some reason, like most people you meet in this game

and Caroll only appears in this series, I think.  Otherwise, it was in a book I did not read.

Cullen pulls it off. He sends her a family crest. Nice. Of course he still acts all gruff and disapproving because dwarves.

She's a Topsider now.  Even if she's in the basement, she left Orzammar to travel on the surface.  That's a capital sin.

'Wait a wooden door? Hasn't this been sealed for centuries? Must be magical elven wood.'

They had a very good wood treatment on it.

Not sure how the Red Templars or Corypheus was attempting to use that.

Either to drive a bigger wedge between elves&humans by rewriting the story or they thought there was something else.

And at the end they finally find the treasure. And it is a demon...named treasure.



'Good one Bioware...you bastards.'

I do not recall that one, nor the boxes.  Must have missed it.

[Valmy]

FIRST HISSING WASTES CAMPAIGN

Ok so the Hissing Wastes...well it is a third desert on the western edge of Orlais zone. I guess we get three Orlais zones in the dales and three in the western deserts without any in Orlais proper.

Ok so Scout Harding indicates the Venatori are here digging up ancient ruins. Damn if they spent as much time taking over Orlais instead of digging up ancient shit they would probably be winning this war.




'Pfffft talk to Urien about dwarven ruins on the surface sometime.'



'Maybe you should have led with that. Good work Harding.'

The Hissing Wastes is unlike any of the other zones in the game so far. First it is huge, things that appear really close on the mini-map are actually a long run away. Secondly there are very few quests and puzzles and all that. Lots of Fade rifts though, which is fun in a repetitive and predictable way.


In short...well I will let Iron Bull spell it out.



'Yep heaps and heaps of nothing.'

Though check out this moon.



'And you thought the giant blood moon eclipse was impressive.'

It must be too hot to explore this place during the day or something because this entire campaign takes place at night.

The Venatori have camps and slaves everywhere so that is the main thing. Well that and the dwarf ruins. The Inquisition has a shocking six camps to set up here and I feel bad for the poor bastards who get assigned here.



'Venatori scholar trash talk.'

At this point Lothar finds the first dwarf ruins and he realizes he was an idiot for not bringing Varric along so he runs back to a camp and gets him. I guess Viper's concerns I might forget to bring Solas to elf ruins was well founded



'I am sure it will be riveting.'

So Fairel and his house flee civil war in the deep roads caused by weapons he invented and they set up shop on the surface and built the only surface Thaig called Kal Repartha. And here they were until Fairel's sons killed each other trying to rule the Thaig after his death. That is basically the whole story. Somewhere here is Fairel's final resting place and the secrets of all of his weapons which the Venatori are after.

In each ruin there are these pillars that contain part of the story and you have to arrange them in order or demons will spawn and try to eat you. If you get it right a door opens and you get part of the key to Fairel's tomb.

Man I guess the Emerald Knights and Kal Repartha got together and decided breaking apart keys to tombs was a good idea. Where is the tomb? The locals know.



'Ah thanks for the tip random ranger lady.'

But granted what else would anybody be doing out here?



'I suspect it is because they have all the world's lyrium to play with.'

Varric believes it is how they cope with their mage envy they have of other races but damn being a mage seems like it sucks.

Ok so I wondered about the hand grabbing the snake flag I saw back in the Hinterlands and elsewhere. Well it is here again so I guess it is the flag of the Venatori?



'The white on black looks evil enough but I don't get the symbolism.'

Varric gets angry at the prejudices of his people at the realization an ancient dwarven Thaig was built on the surface and by a Paragon.



'Take that you Shaperate assholes!'

With that the inventories are getting full so back to Skyhold.



'Ok why would a piece of a Qunari throne be in the middle of an Orlesian desert hundreds of miles from where any Qunari have ever been?'

I swear there is no logic in where a lot of this stuff is found.

SECOND HISSING WASTES CAMPAIGN

They find the Venatori Headquarters in the Hissing Wastes.



'Damnable rogue? Oh hell yeah.'



'Wait I thought this was the symbol of a bandit group...damn I cannot remember the name.'

That suddenly makes me theory about the black flag seem doubtful. Damn heraldy and symbols driving me nuts in this game.

Within they find the Venatori leader in the Hissing Wastes.



'Greetings from your favorite damnable rogue!'

Anyway proof that the Venatori are after the inventions of Paragon Fairel:



'Do the Qunari have any tombs you guys plan on looting?'

There is exactly one side quest in this entire zone, at least one not directly a part of the race for Fairel's Tomb. And that was one of hunters telling Lothar of a super wyvern.



'Well took care of that. Side quest done.'

Oh and in one of the Venatori camps they find the last...BOTTLE OF BOOZE!



'Wait I found all 29 obscure bottles of booze and all I got was 200 influence? What a rip!'

At least Lothar can celebrate winning the game with a wide variety of alcoholic beverages. though they might want to pass on the 'Dragon's Piss'.

They start closing in on the tomb.



'Well think of how much Sera loves being dragged to Elf stuff.'



'Boom! Nothing between us and victory!'

Well not quite...



That's right. The freaking high dragon of the zone is sleeping right in front of the tomb. Well hell if they had known that they would not have bothered stopping the Venatori from reaching it.

And boy is this a tough dragon fight. This dragon summons full guard far more often than the ones before AND as the fight goes on she starts doing a stunning roar that also summons dragonlings and heaven help you if you do not get rid of those dragonlings before she does the next stunning roar.



'Let's just say this is an ominous sign of some truly hair ripping fights to come.'

They slay the beast and use the key they assembled from the ruins to open the tomb of Fairel.



'Yes I believe two empires have been doing that this entire zone.'

So now the secrets are OURS! To what purpose I don't know.

There are still a few loose ends to tie up so they run around the Wastes getting the last few shards and other goodies.



'Cassandra being so passionately into Varric's smutty novels combined with her being his jailor (for awhile anyway) makes me relieved a version of the movie 'Misery' didn't break out. Or disappointed. Not really sure.'



'Yes...finally...the last mosaic piece.'

So they explored every area, found all the collectibles, closed every fade rife, and found every shard. This AAR might not adequately convey how long that took

Anyway farewell to the Hissing Wastes and back to Skyhold.

When they get back they get the Inquisition perk 'Elite Clientele' which opens up a vault full of gold in the basement of Skyhold (take the stairs down from Josephine's office). Inside is a strange man asking trivia questions.



If you went through the Temple of Sacred Ashes in DAO you should know this one...take a second.
...
...
...
It's Maferath.

Beside the vault is where Lothar keeps all the booze he collected.



'Behold the intoxicating power of this full STOCKED and OPERATIONAL booze cellar!'

Ok one more:



If you played DA2 you should know this one...I'll wait.
...
...
...
The Battle of the Squealing Plains.

Good stuff. Back for more later.

SEVENTH EXALTED PLAINS CAMPAIGN

Ok back to deliver bear pelts to the Dalish.



'These giant bear pelts have released the Dalish Elves from their bondage.'

Gosh I hope so, for a nomadic people they never go anywhere in Dragon Age games. Lothar also shows the Dalish the true account of the massacre at Red Crossing.



'These are the nicest most polite Dalish ever.'

Seriously if you just played Inquisition you would think the Dalish were swell and not the paranoid loonies you find in DAO and DA2.

Oh yeah one more quest Lothar left undone here. He was supposed to capture some supplies for the Imperial Army as they re-occupied the region.



'Takes care of that.'

Ok that should finish the Exalted Plains.

SIXTH STORM COAST CAMPAIGN

On to the Storm Coast to finally face that dragon. Sure the boat to the island the dragon lives is way at the end of the Red Templar base but fortunately the Templars have been wiped out...



'GODDAMN IT!'

But fortunately just the ones outside respawned. Lothar and company were going to be seriously screwed if they had to fight through all those guys again to get to the dragon. So they get back to the boat and row back to dragon island. And there she blows folks.



'Oh yes I have been waiting for this since level 7.'

Fortunately she is not nearly as tough as the Sandy Howler as she lacks that 'stunning roar + dragonling rush' ability which I was relieved to find since the island is full of dragonlings.



'Seven down! Three to go!'

I was frankly puzzled where the other three were. I was wondering if it meant there were two more zones I didn't know about. But boy would I find out soon.

Back to Skyhold.

The Dalish wanted Lothar to set up a monument to the tragedy of the massacre of Red Crossing. So they sent a halla statue of mourning. But the locals are extremely anti-elf thanks to said massacre. So Leliana hatched the scheme of telling the locals it is a trophy symbolic of the elves defeat in order to manipulate them into allowing the Inquisition to fulfill its promise to the Dalish.



'I am sure this will end well.'

SECOND EMPRISE DU LION CAMPAIGN

Ok so there is this little ridge just south of Sahrnia Lothar tried unsuccessfully to climb over the last time he was here. So this time I had a plan: I would try to jump over it using a mount. Now this feature is completely useless for various reasons I will talk about when I am done with the game but I thought hey maybe this is one spot where I need to use a mount.



'Success! He scaled to rock!'

Then Lothar jumped about two feet down onto the ledge and....



'Ok I guess he was just not supposed to go there.'

Well that was weird, that was the only time he got dinged for all his health when he didn't fall off a cliff or get dragged out to sea or something. Well I guess mounts not only have no use but they can get you almost killed as well

Just a bit south of that there was one other region just past the Grey Warden cave he had not explored yet so they went there. There he found lots of Silverite, essential for my future equipment plans, and a dead elf.



'The Cradle of Sulevin? How intriguing.'

Lothar's advisors will have to work on that. He next goes to Suledin to see Baron Desjardins. Judicael's Crossing has been repaired and he has a few reports for Lothar.



'Ah well it looks like all three remaining dragons are there. Joy.'

Oh man if I only knew the hours ahead...

But that is not all.



'And by 'we' I mean 'you'.'

The Red Templars have three more strongholds over there. Oh and there are also the last bunch of shards and the last two fade rifts. So...lots of stuff and it is all hard.



'Wait they didn't just repair Judicael's Crossing, the completely restored it?'

Wow maybe the Inquisition should be in the historical restoration work. That is astounding, you cannot even see where the ancient stones end and the new construction begins. Amazing because in each future job they had used wood to make ruins functional again but here they went all out.  Pity they could not have restored the statues as well.

Ok there are three huge reservoirs connected by aquaduct looking things in this zone and each one has a dragon living in it. The first one is right by where you arrive after crossing the bridge.



'Well geez Cassandra try to show a little excitement.'

I guess this whole dragon slaying stuff is getting old. This dragon is nothing tough, 230K HP were a little hard to wear down but it did nothing special.



'That's right Hivernal...I said NOTHING SPECIAL.'

And then the first Red Templar. Horrors AND Behemoths? Oh joy.



'This is going to hurt isn't it?'

Behemoths with their huge clubs and guard and Red Lyrium prisons. Horrors with their AoE damage and freaking lasers. I guess I had to know that combination was coming eventually. Alright on to the next reservoir.



Now Dorian has proven his tendency to complain loudly when he does not approve of what Lothar is spending their time doing but he is really onto something here. This fight was hell. Not only did Kaltenzahn have nearly 270K HP but she flew around alot and even perched out of reach and breathed ice on them the whole time but she used guard a ton and did that devastating 'stunning roar + dragonlings' attack. This was a badass dragon fight and she did a great job ruining their day a few times.  But cold resistance belts + potions along with liberal use of focus abilities eventually carried the day.

Damn.

Lothar and company closed the last currently known fade rift.



I will not miss those things they were really getting tiresome. Especially after Lothar and company had to close about a dozen of them in the Hissing Wastes.

They found the last known shard.



Hopefully the Solasan Temple in the Forbidden Oasis will soon be sharing all its secrets.

They defeated the last of the badass Red Templar groups. And just one challenge left. The Highland Ravager in the last reservoir. After how frustrating and long the Kaltenzahn fight was I was not looking forward to it

It is not like the Dragon fights take a ton of strategy or thinking now that I have done nine of them (they are mostly the same, the only really cool one was the very first one in the Hinterlands) but man are they long and require tons of clicking.

This reservoir is hollowed out.



'There rests the last obstacle in their path.'

She was actually easier than Kaltenzahn as she did not fly around. But everything else was the same. Except 310K HP. Holy crap was this fight long.



'Oh my God! You killed Varric!'

She summoned so many dragonlings that when she died there was a bit of stress hoping we could take them all out without having to refight the whole damn thing.



'No regen or healing potions left? Um...ok let's not mess this up.'

Fortunately they got the job done. BOOM the dales are complete.

The Dales were interesting since they tied into the lore very well and had a linked story of the Orlesian Civil War and how it was being used by the Venatori and Red Templars to cover up their activities. Granted I did them all out of order and all. And they were really long. But hey they are the only group of zones with tied stories and enemies so that was fun.

Leliana uses her connections with the Dalish to find one clan, Ralaferin, who knows something about the Sulevin Blade.



All the Keeper does is tell Leliana the story of the blade but nowhere here does it say where it is yet the location, on the edge of the Arbor Wilds, unlocks. Weird but I will take it.

Coming up next: three of four straight elf temples. That is right four elf temples in a row. Say what you want about the ancient elves but nobody can deny they were extremely religious.

Solas will be along to express his contempt for his people. Maybe Sera will be blowing raspberries as well.

Thing Lothar did:



He found the secrets of the Paragon Fairel. Maybe it will matter at some point.

[Valmy]

Yes, that's him.
Had you sided with the freedom loving terrorist mages, you would have met him.  Charming fellow.  Intent on killing you for some reason, like most people you meet in this game

and Caroll only appears in this series, I think.  Otherwise, it was in a book I did not read.

Which book did Cullen appear in? I am guessing Carroll was in DAO since the only Templar's name besides Cullen's I remembered was Greagoir and Cullen said he knew him a long time ago. I will look him up once I am done with the game (I just know once I start looking up stuff on the game on the internet I will not stop until I have revealed everything )

She's a Topsider now.  Even if she's in the basement, she left Orzammar to travel on the surface.  That's a capital sin.

Yes but not. The perverse ways of dwarf society.

They had a very good wood treatment on it.

Yet more of the glories of Arlathan lost to us

Either to drive a bigger wedge between elves&humans by rewriting the story or they thought there was something else.

Maybe they are expending massive amounts of manpower just to break into every ruin in Orlais on the off-chance there might be something valuable inside

I do not recall that one, nor the boxes.  Must have missed it.

You find a notebook by a skeleton near the river, that starts the quest.