Valmy's ADHD Dragon Age playthrough

[Valmy]

THE BATTLE OF THE BUCKLES PART THE FIRST

Ok first sorry for taking so long life circumstances have conspired to give me even LESS time for gaming. Plus when I moved my computer into the living room it meant my kids bother me every couple minutes. Anyway onwards there are buckles to be investigated!

So he arrives in the Frostback Basin and gets the traditional greeting from Scout Harding. He also meets the good Professor Kenric studying the buckles.



'An exchange program eh? Are you adjuct or tenured? Do you get along well with the dean?'

Actually the game makes a rather absurd amount of anachronistic University comments during this adventure...in a way that it almost seems like Thedas really does have a modern University system complete with peer reviewed journals and publishing credits. Like they play it straight instead of having it be a joke.

Lothar's ambitions go beyond simply investigating a few buckles to secure a few articles in the latest issue of the quarterly Divine Age Studies Review. No sir he is looking for a book deal. No wait. I mean...



'And I will find him and talk to him because...of course I will. This is a Bioware game.'

It must be awfully boring for all these ancient figures waiting around for centuries for the protagonist to find them.

But that is more fitting of an adventurer than all this book learning. Like Scout Harding became one of the world's formost archers and scouts by...pegging local children and wild life.



'Practical experience. Take that you ivory tower intellectuals!'

Lothar goes on to speak with Kenric about his studies. He has studied tons of local artifacts, mostly Tevinter Imperium era stuff with Avvar stuff but then...a breakthrough!



'Whew good thing buckle makers are such slaves to fashion.'

And all evidence suggests a major discovery awaits on a small island off the coast.



'Aha! The superstitious tribesmen are staying away! Surely a great discovery awaits professor, shall we be off?'

Well actually no he is going to stay behind and study buckles while a total amateur rampages through all these historic and sensitive areas. Some scholar.

So anyway Lothar heads off following the coast to the South East. The Inquisition has a massive army and all this infrastructure but not a boat. On the way he sees a lone giant walking around so rushes up to engage and HOLY SHIT WAS THIS A TOUGH GIANT. The thing had more hit points than the toughest boss dragon and hit like hell.



'Wait so...are all Ice giants like this?'

So silly me I saw it said 'Ice Giant' and just thought it was a giant not some badass boss. Welcome to DAI DLC I guess. But they got him.



'Ah yeah you might be able to one shot the rest of us but Cassandra stands strong.'

And a handy plaque from the Frostback Basin historical society nearby informs us he is not an Ice Giant at all but the legendary Ice Troll Hryngnar. Huh. Weird I usually magically know everybody's name when I fight them.



'Gosh I hope this guy wasn't sacred to anybody'

Fortunately, despite being a legendary beast of legend and tourist attraction, nobody seems to miss him. He had some nice loot to.
Now I have to say I was hoping for a plot driven area similar to the main quests in the main game but instead this is another outdoor zone with all the stuff I thought I was finally finished with.



'Hurrah! More fade rifts!'

And remember when i was so happy to have found the very last shard? Well...



'Oh by Andraste's tight buttocks'

So yeah not my favorite part of DAI. But at least surely THIS is the last of these collections.

Oh and I forgot to mention something. The Inquisition is moving into the Basin and establishing bases and is in contact with the local Avvar but there are two factions. A reasonable bunch in the eastern part of the zone and a group of homicidal maniacs to the north called 'The Jaws of Hakkon.' Since this is the name of the DLC you have to figure these guys are pretty important as is their reason for being homicidal maniacs.

And when Lothar reaches the docks in the south east, finding boats that will hopefully take him to the mysterious island, he meets his first Avvar.



'Well I hate to judge to quickly but you guys seem like you are one of the bad Avvar.'

So after he dispatches those guys he finds out the docks are owned by the other reasonable Avvar who are not allied with The Jaws of Hakkon but are not hostile to them either. So that might be complicated. Now I thought I had run into Hakkon worshipping Avvar before but it turns out it was Korth, another of the Avvar Gods. If you recall both in DAI and in DAO: Awakenings where Vigil Keep stood above a shrine sacred to Korth. But nothing about Hakkon but he seems unpleasant.

Lothar talks to the local Avvar but they are too wimpy to let him take the boats to the island.



'I say 'feh' to your barbarous ways savage, civilized men are here!'

Though this is Dragon Age so this is probably good sense. But Lothar is going to go there anyway. The Avvar will not budge without a direct order from their chieftain so Lothar will have to visit their village to the East. Well nobody said this was going to be easy.

[viper37]

Nothing is easy in this DLC.  Wait 'til you meat the real baddies, these guys were just low level thugs sent to scared armless peasants.  Be prepared. 

[Valmy]

THE BATTLE OF THE BUCKLES PART THE SECOND

So after a quick change of parties Lothar heads out to find the reasonable Avvar village. Earlier Professor Kenric said his research assistant, a city elf named Colette, was in the area doing some research so Lothar decides to check up on her. Let me just say she is a little more committed to this research business than Kenric is.



'What the hell is she researching? Gruesome places to die in the Frostback Basin?'

Of course she is desparetly trying to fight off vicious beasts when they arrive and Lothar and company swoop in to save her life.
Literally publish or parish in Thedas academia.



'You do? I hate to see what the other Profs at the Université d'Orlais have you doing.'

Anyway she has discovered the location of a major Tevinter ruin to the north and is heading up there to further her studies. Lothar is invited to join her later. Then she heads off to almost certain death. Now that is some commitment. Lothar will head up there to recover her remains for burial later on.



'Thanks I anticipate seeing your corpse...er...your corpus of research soon.'

Pushing a bit further to the east Lothar finds the village of the reasonable Avvar, known from now on as Stone-Bear Hold. Just as Lothar arrives there is a sheer wall climbing contest, as you might expect, going on between Stone-Bear Hold and the Jaws of Hakkon. The leader of the Hakkonites, Gurd Harofsen, is present and trash talking the Chieftain, one Svarah Sun-Hair.



'Not that I would know anything about your Hold-Beast or anything mwahahaha'

Anyway despite his biting wit the Stone-Bear Hold guy wins and...actually I do not know the implications of that. Maybe it was a friendly match? Anyway Gurd regrets he cannot rip out Lothar's living guts and use them to grease the treads of his tanks while standing in Stone-Bear Hold and then departs.

Lothar meets with Chief Sun-Hair and she lets him know the Inquisition is welcome as guests thanks to all their hard work plugging the fade rifts. I knew that would pay off eventually! But she asks him why the decadent soft lowlanders have trespassed into the mountain lands of the noble savage barbarians. So Lothar informs her they are there to find the remains of the previous Inquisitor lost 800 years before. This appeals to her superstitious notions of giving rest to the dead so she says that is a worthy quest...but then drops the bomb. Yes the Jaws of Hakkon are not going to be so friendly.



'You don't say?'

Oh and her name is Sun-Hair because once an enemy archer lit her hair on fire during a fierce battle in case you thought it was due to some other girlie reason. Having a moniker like 'Sun-Hair' is considered a great honor amongst the Avvar. I bet Gurd is jealous he doesn't have one. These Jaws of Hakkon are not the first group to be called that. There was another group many ages ago that thought of nothing but bringing war to soft decadent civilized peoples...huh was it maybe 800 years ago coincidentally?

Speaking of Gurd he seems to have gone nuts after his tribe was decimated during the Blight and now wants to...destroy the world in revenge for some reason so has taken up the Jaws of Hakkon's ancient banner. What a fruitcake.



So yeah they have forsaken all other Gods and only worship Hakkon and desire to bring death to everybody Lowlanderish. But Stone-Bear Hold will not help the Inquisition since they have a peace agreement with the Jaws of Hakkon. But she would appreciate it if Lothar finds their Hold-Beast, who is kind of their living totem and who is missing. Gosh you mean the Hold-Beast Gurd was trash talking about is missing? I wonder who could be responsible? So that is something Lothar will be working on.

Oh and she gave Lothar permission to go to the Island to the Southeast and said the guy running the docks was a wimp for being too scared to let Lothar go in the first place. Well that is nice but Lothar is first going to explore and deal with all the side quests and collections and the like first so he does not get distracted with that shit later on when on the trail of the last Inquisitor, whose name was (and I suppose still is) Ameridan by the way.

There are a couple things of interest in the village itself. First there is a crazy conspiracy Avvar whose house looks like Russell Crowe's character from A Beautiful Mind lives there. He also sells knick knacks including a Avvar throne...for some reason. But buying it completed the Throne collection.



'Yes! Completing this collection did me barely any good at all! Yet I feel a strange sense of accomplishment.'

I wonder if he has discovered any connection between the Jaws of Hakkon and the Kennedy Assassination? Was kidnapping the Hold-Beast a false flag operation?

The leading holy man in the village is called the Augur and he talks to their gods...or demons as we civilized folk know them. And he is a mage.



'Wow the Chantry must love you guys.'

So all their gods and spirits are demons and spirits. Good to know. Despite his ability to talk to the spirits the Augur cannot tell me where the Hold-Beast is so meh. But I suspect he will come in handy later.

Finally there is an injured warrior whose father has died and he has to honor him in burial but his father is specially blessed or something so he needs to slay three special beasts in order to properly lay him to rest. But he is injured so cannot so he has failed his family and is about to be dishonored because of his people's bizarre savage ways. But fortunately a loop-hole exists.



'Oh so...I have to do it. Somehow I saw that coming.'

Lothar's status as a guest enable him to get around their laws to help out Finn. And he will. Because...why not?

In the meantime back to the swamp where they found Colette earlier. They find Jaws of Hakkon all over the place as well as located the site of some of their insidious rites.



'And they made cute little holders to hold them. The Jaws of Hakkon are quite craftsy.'

The Jaws of Hakkon are out in force protecting their magic bone totem things and man are they a tough bunch. First there are the bruisers who do the 'poof full guard' thing and swing huge mauls that can kill anybody not-Cassandra/Thom Rainier in one shot. Then they have rogues that can backstab and mages. Just a pain in the ass. I can run through half my healing potions in one fight easy. This is also why I brought Solas and Varric, so they can freeze and shoot the bastards.

After finding all the totems they locate a Tevinter ruin in the north section of the swamp...and a large rolling cage that once held an animal of some kind.



'What could it all mean?'

Well inside the ruin they hacked through some tough motherfucking Jaws of Hakkon and broke the Stone-Bear Hold Hold-Beast out of his cage. I thought maybe the bear was being held hostage or something but that would be too logical. No they were going to sacrifice it to Hakkon because they are all loony tunes.



'Dammit! You cannot jump us now! We only have one healing potion left!'

Yeah that ambush took a few reloads. See how all their weapons glow silver? Yeah frost magic damage...that sucks.

Lothar and company take the Hold-Beast, whose name is Storvacker and whose codex entry entirely consists of Chuck Norris-esque memes, back to Stone-Bear Hold.



'Ah yeah! In your face Gurd!'

The Inquisition has gained a powerful new ally.

[viper37]

There will be some table missions to do, related to JoH, so return to Skyhold from time to time.
Visit the island as soon as you can, there are nice rewards and one hell of a fight, but although sorta related to the main quest, it will not trigger anything, it's only part of it, and you can't "accidentaly" finish this quest of, and nothing you do elsewhere will prepare you for this terrible fight over there anyway, but what you find will help you in your further quests.

[Valmy]

BATTLE OF THE BUCKLES PART THE THIRD

Now that they are allies Chieftain Svarah lets Lothar know the Avvar's little dirty secret. Hakkon Wintersbreath is here, bound in mortal form, in the Basin ready to destroy the lowlands. In fact the old Jaws of Hakkon did the same waaay back in the day and ever since Hakkon has been stuck here in the Basin, unable to be a God to his people. Huh. No wonder Korth is more popular. So where might Hakkon Wintersbreath be?



'Why one would almost need divine ice powers or something...'

Huh so ancient ice god disappears long ago...ancient Inquisitor hunting a monster disappears long ago...both vanish...magical ice fortress...

I don't see any connection.

Oh and the magical skulls Lothar and company found? They are why the Augur couldn't find the bear himself.



'Well ok but next time I expect competence.'

After leaving the village again Lothar explores the hot springs and the trees in the lower middle part of the Basin. And they find more Astrariums. Ah well I really enjoy the little connect-the-dots puzzles, quite relaxing. Thom does a little small talk with Varric



'Yeah you never brew any ale Varric what is up with that?'



'Touché...wait dammit Varric we agreed never to speak of him again!'

With that Lothar gets the odd idea to return to Sky Hold and do some table missions...wonder where he got that idea.
Solas has some advice for Lothar



'I will be prepared my friend. Hakkon Wintersbreath will use every trick to...oh wait you mean that other guy...what was his name again?'

Hard to keep track of all the gods Lothar is fighting these days. Now on to those Table Missions.

Leliana is researching the Well of Sorrows and hiding the results from leading scholars.



Her thinking on this seems a little off to me. Shouldn't we be getting this stuff in as many hands as possible instead of keeping it secret? Ah well...maybe putting her in charge was a mistake.

They send some of the relics of Tyrdda Bright-"Ax" to Stone-Bear Hold as a way to strengthen their alliance.



Wait Guerrin? They have a relative of Eamon and Teagan working for them? Huh...I don't remember that at all...did I miss something?

Finally they send their own Avvar, the Skywatcher from the Fallow Mire, to Stone-Bear Hold to act as an ambassador.



And it seems Svarah thought he was some kind of boy toy offering of some sort and helped herself. Well here is hoping she is grateful. Back to the Basin.

In the western and northern part of the zone there is a great river that serves as the highway to the northern areas. The Jaws of Hakkon have set up bases to attack anybody attempting to make headway up the river system. The Inquisition forces have moved in and the battle is on.



'Alright soldier, move your troops out and take those camps. The mission depends on it...oh what is that? I have to take them?'

Yes well I forgot the saying in Thedas is 'the General conquers, the infantry occupies'. So yeah there are some tough fights but they are making headway.

[Jaron]

Love reading this!

Keep it up, V!

[Valmy]

Love reading this!

Keep it up, V!

Thanks pal

And I shall. Still lots of questioned unanswered in this game.

[viper37]

Huh so ancient ice god disappears long ago...ancient Inquisitor hunting a monster disappears long ago...both vanish...magical ice fortress...

I don't see any connection.

It's all purely coincidental, for sure

'Touché...wait dammit Varric we agreed never to speak of him again!'

Sometimes, I wonder which is the most lethal weapon: Bianca or his mouth?

With that Lothar gets the odd idea to return to Sky Hold and do some table missions...wonder where he got that idea.

A wizard told you!

Her thinking on this seems a little off to me. Shouldn't we be getting this stuff in as many hands as possible instead of keeping it secret? Ah well...maybe putting her in charge was a mistake.

You put a spy as head of your research, what were you expecting??

Wait Guerrin? They have a relative of Eamon and Teagan working for them? Huh...I don't remember that at all...did I miss something?

I don't think it was hinted at before.

Yes well I forgot the saying in Thedas is 'the General conquers, the infantry occupies'. So yeah there are some tough fights but they are making headway.

Psst!  Hey you!  over here!
The island.

[Valmy]

It's all purely coincidental, for sure

Yeah pity all this Hakkon Wintersbreath stuff is distracting me from the totally unconnected search for Inquisitor Ameridan.

Sometimes, I wonder which is the most lethal weapon: Bianca or his mouth?

Well I know which is the most lethal to his companions

Psst!  Hey you!  over here!
The island.

I will get to it

[Valmy]

BATTLE OF THE BUCKLES PART THE FOURTH

Ok so while advancing they find traces of Grandin. Oh wait I haven't mentioned him yet...so he is a friend of Scout Harding whose patrol was ambushed by Hakkonites and they killed his buddy Jace. So Grandin has been taking it kind of hard but they had to send him out on patrol anyway because of manpower shortages and the like. But then he went AWOL. So Harding wanted Lothar to check up on him.

Well they find a pile of scorched Hakkonite corpses and a note.



'You left your orders behind soldier!'

I think he has gone rogue all revenge on the enemy psycho like. And somehow he gained super destructive powers...somehow...

Continuing to strike north Lothar comes across a lone Stone-Bear Hold woman...



'Wait he didn't say anything about an appr...wait is that one of those shard finding skulls behind you?'

Yeah so a mysterious apprentice who had not been mentioned before...and she refused to say more. Might there be intrigue? DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN.

Ok so after following the piles of corpses they find a small Tevinter...um...I guess a drain of some kind. Grandin seems to be an abomination now, complete with creepy abomination voice. Huh? How did a scout become an abomination?



'Ah a secret mage. We really have to do better background checks.'

I mean the Tevinter military has a freaking doctor doing physicals.  Anyway so Lothar tells him he cannot just allow an abomination to wander around murdering people.



'A rage demon eh? I guess we all saw that coming.'

I remember when demon possession used to be kind of freaky. It is pretty old hat by now. So that was the sad end of Scout Grandin.

The river eventually reaches a very steep canyon and wow does this place suck. The spiders just jump in plus other monsters and Hakkonites and it quickly gets out of control like the western section of the Hinterlands. Actually it gets rather comical how tiny fights quickly explode. Any trip up this canyon always wears me out. And due to not knowing everything I had to do in there I ended up having to go up it several times. Meh.



'Ok there is one the fade-touched monsters I need to kill for the sacrifice for that Avvar's dad...should be easy just attack and SO MANY SPIDERS.'

At the end of the canyon Lothar establishes a new Inquisition camp and then finds the Tevinter ruins Colette mentioned earlier. He starts hunting around for her corpse...and almost leaves his. There is a staircase with some Hakkonite archers, Lothar attacks and wow they just keep coming.



'So um...anybody bring one of those confusion grenades?'

Complete with an boss Hakkonite Champion at the top. WOW SO MANY HAKKONITES. The Champion was a super bruiser who, of course, could one hit us. And lots of Hakkonite rogues backstabbing and archers firing and mages and...well this fight was brutal as hell.

After many reloads...er...I mean after our glorious victory Lothar is eager to open the door they were guarding.



'Ah...so...I guess I open this later? Ok then.'

At that Lothar falls back...he will hunt for grad student corpses later. He finishes off the rest of the Hakkonite positions on the river system and returns to the Inquisition forces.



'After I have cleared out all the enemy? So glad I have a mighty military organization like you guys backing me up.'

While grabbing the last few shards Lothar comes across the ruins of a Tevinter Aquaduct. Nearby are some wacky drawings by conspiracy Avvar and his nutty notes making fun a certain novel.



'These lines show Andraste had children with Marty Magdalene!'

There was another crazy conspiracy paper back where Lothar saved Storvacker. It made fun of the lizard people conspiracy theory.  Another one they later find has a UFO conspiracy spoof. Another is a Cthulu reference I think. They are hilarious so well done Bioware. Anyway more on this later.

Now with all the shards in the Basin Lothar journeys back to the door it opens...which is in that stupid canyon of death. It takes two efforts but they make it to the door and open it. Inside there is another weird elf temple just like the Temple of Pride. It seems to actually serve a similar purpose, a rather atheistic rejection of the Elven Gods. It was in an ancient elf language so I wonder if Lothar could only read it since he consumed the Well of Sorrows.



'God is dead and so is Nietzsche!'

The cold resistance was nice. This guy seems to want to steal the power of the Gods for himself, probably a clue to the later degeneracy of the Elven Empire and how they ripped each other apart in their lust for power. Or maybe not. Don't care, had cold resistance.

So after that back to the northern Inquisition camp to refresh and then back to the Tevinter ruins to search for Colette's body.
But in a shocker she is very much alive.



'Ok first tell me how you got through the canyon of death in one piece.'

She has discovered a burial site where two of Ameridan's companions, the dwarf Orinna and Ser Haron (one of the founders of the Templar Order), perished taking out sixty Avvar in a bid to buy Ameridan time for...whatever he was doing. Ser Haron was Ameridan's best bud from youth. He met Orinna during a demon hunting trip to the Deep Roads.



'Orzammar eh? I wonder what the Shaperate has to say about this.'

As it turns out you can take the path to the east from the Inquisition camp so you do not have to approach the Tevinter ruins through the canyon of DOOOM. I guess that is how Colette got there. Down this path Lothar discovers the frozen Tevinter fortress.



'Sometimes a giant icewall is just a giant icewall Varric.'

Ok so long as we are doing conspiracy theories there is another trope in another quest: a cryptozooligist named Baron D'Amortisan. He wants Lothar to locate his assistant, who he suspects is killed, and help him test some herb wards to drive off vile beasts. Well his assistant is just fine. Huh I guess he and Professor Kenric have similar personnel policies.



'What clued you in? He might not be the only crazy cryptozoologist in this Basin you know.'

I have to say living in a world with actual dragons and demons it seems weird to be obsessed with obscure animals. But anyway once Lothar returns the Baron lets him know his true obsession: Big Foot! Wait no...the Nox Morta! Whatever that is.



'We will show them all Baron! The whole world will be amazed when we prove the existance of...um...whatever it is.'

And what follows is probably a spoof on cryptozoology hunts. Lothar finds a trap with a piece of paper that the beast supposedly chewed on...and these teeth marks are all the good Baron needs to make a lure. Lothar goes into the swamp, where they rescued Storvacker, and places the lure and viola.



'Um it is Bogfisher only really big. The world cannot handle knowledge of an animal that is a bigger version of a common animal!'

Well hey so one pseudoscientist has been vindicated. Huzzah!

Back to Skyhold now to look into this Orinna business.

Oh right was I supposed to check out an island? Maybe later.

[viper37]

I remember when demon possession used to be kind of freaky. It is pretty old hat by now. So that was the sad end of Scout Grandin.

Nobody expects the Inquisition!

Any trip up this canyon always wears me out. And due to not knowing everything I had to do in there I ended up having to go up it several times. Meh.

Told you so

It was in an ancient elf language so I wonder if Lothar could only read it since he consumed the Well of Sorrows.

My character was of elven (Dalish) origin and muttered something about decyphering the old language.  I also had the option to ask Solas.  Don't know how it works for a non elve who hasn't drank from the well of sorrow.

She has discovered a burial site where two of Ameridan's companions, the dwarf Orinna and Ser Haron (one of the founders of the Templar Order), perished taking out sixty Avvar in a bid to buy Ameridan time for...whatever he was doing. Ser Haron was Ameridan's best bud from youth. He met Orinna during a demon hunting trip to the Deep Roads.

Here, I do wonder if you did not miss something.  I can not remember where exactly, but there's a place where you will learn a bit more on those two.
[spoiler]
You are supposed to find the remains of their camp[/spoiler]

I have to say living in a world with actual dragons and demons it seems weird to be obsessed with obscure animals. But anyway once Lothar returns the Baron lets him know his true obsession: Big Foot! Wait no...the Nox Morta! Whatever that is.

We do have weird animals.  It does not prevent some of our people to look for other weird animals

[Valmy]

BATTLE OF THE BUCKLES PART THE FIFTH

Said the Grey Warden to the Fereldan King

Do you see what I see?

Way up in the sky, Fereldan King

Do you see what I see?

The Archdemon, souring through the night

He will bring us destruction and Blight

He will bring us destruction and Blight

Ok so Lothar sends Josephine to evil King Bhelen and he has no problem letting Kenric come do research in Orzammar. Stuff is learned from some documents Bhelen sent ahead, like Orinna was a member of the Warrior Caste and not the Noble Caste. Interesting I guess.



'Lord Harrowmont would NEVER have let surfacers come read at the Shaperate no sir. Bhelen's evil knows no bounds.'

Lothar goes back to Stone-Bear Hold and instead of delivering the fade beasts for the barbarian ritual for Finn's father, he takes them directly to Finn and gives them to him as a gift. Now Finn can honor his dad and not be kicked out of his family and dishonored forever. This is allowed but everybody lets Lothar know this is a disturbing breach of etiquette.



'But...my beautiful angst has been ruined. Thank you for ruining my culture you soft decadent lowlander.'

There is just no pleasing some people. In an arena thing nearby Lothar makes it up to Stone-Bear by beating all their best warriors to the point of death in a weird ritual in honor of Hakkon. Um...hasn't he been missing for centuries because he is stuck in that ice fortress thing?



'I hope beating the shit out of you guys will make you think better of me'

Note that you can light people on fire in non-lethal combat. These Avvar are hardcore. Speaking of Avvar's being hardcore Lothar asked the Augur about his apprentice. Well he learns that all young mages are possessed by spirits during their training and do a ritual to separate from their spirit when they complete it.



'Well color me shocked this little tradition sometimes goes wrong.'

So they go down to where she performed the ritual and...well...



'Probably because she never did the ritual? Maybe?'

So she lost her nerve and decided to stay possessed by the spirit. Like Solas they are her only friend. She admits to all of this when presented by the evidence and says she just cannot bear to be separated from her best bud. She offers to serve the Inquisition but Lothar decides that that would probably go poorly. So he convinces her to go back to her people.



'Yeah so...I am not sure really what I contributed to this situation.'

But that is everything (ok there were a bunch of other quests as well). Lothar now heads back to the docks and that superstitious Avvar lets him use his boats. Lothar arrives on the Island to the Southeast and it is obviously a very haunted place. Spirit memories are everywhere, Ameridan's lady friend is clearly trying to reach him. There is nothing particularly interesting besides that on the island besides a building and a...um...interesting dead guy and his piles of gold.



'Murderer's Gold? What is the worst that could happen?'

Yeah ok just leave Murderer's Gold alone. Trust me on this. So they make their way over to the shack and there is a fade rift...or more accurately a sorta closed fade rift where fade stuff is pouring through. A spirit representing Ameridan's elf lady love's memories is reaching through it still trying to reach Ameridan after 800 years. Lothar opens the fade rift and talks to her.



'Um yes hello nice to meet you to'

Telana is a dreamer like Feynriel in Dragon Age II. Which I guess I should have figured out since Dorian was talking about how she was influencing the minds of anybody who stepped onto the Island. She came with Ameridan to hunt a dragon...which it seems is the form Hakkon Wintersbreath took. A massive dragon. Well I am getting pretty good at killing those.



'An Inquisitor has to risk his life doing favors for the rulers of Orlais eh? The more things change...'

They did this under the orders of Ameridan's good friend the Emperor of Orlais. Well there we go so all the stories are connected. The fact he was working for Emperor Drakon is a new twist. The histories say he abandoned Thedas right before the Blight on some daft beat hunt, but instead he was saving Orlais on the orders of the Emperor.

Anyway she says they battled Hakkon by the coast and then fled up the river system to the Tevinter ruins. Where Telana and
Ameridan found a way to stop him. So that was what Ser Haron and the dwarf Orinna died for. To hold off the Jaws of Hakkon while Ameridan and Telana did whatever they did at the ruin. After that Ameridan seems to have gone on alone to stop Hakkon and Telana came to this island to try to wait for him. He never came back and in despair she tried to reach him in dreams and eventually died here. Lothar lets the spirit go back to the fade and seals the rift, removing the 'curse' plaguing the island. He searches Telana's belongings and finds a critical piece of historical evidence.



'Wow that scroll case has some amazing preservation properties.'

Anyway this document proves what spirit Telana said so Lothar is eager to get this to Professor Kenric. The Jaws of Hakkon are less excited about this prospect and have a huge ambush waiting for him on the way out.



'Come and get me bitches!'

So yeah that was a tough fight. Dorian was in the party so at least the vultures got a cooked meal.

Lothar returns to Kenric and eagerly tells him how Ameridan sacrificed himself to save Orlais. That has to be good propaganda for the modern Inquisiton...especially being true and all.



'The public must realize that Inquisitor = benevolent hero.'

Also there was a lot of debate about Telana existed so more truth being served by the Inquisition. So after dropping some knowledge for posterity, Scout Harding is going to bring Kenric up to the Tevinter ruins and he is going to investigate it with Lothar.

This explains why the Jaws of Hakkon had such a formidable force protecting it, if it contains the means to defeat Hakkon. Fortunately Lothar already defeated them and, even more fortuantely, they remaind defeated. The door opens this time to reveal....MORE LOCKED DOORS. Damn no wonder Ameridan needed time.



'All cultures in Thedas are apparently united in their love of unnecessarily complicated lock schemes.'

So after some trial and errorbrilliance



'Yes my intimate knowledge of Tevinter culture enabled me to replicate this simple pattern.'

This leads to a barrier that was easily dispelled by veilfire. I getting behind this lock and barrier gave them time to avoid the Avvar.



'Ancient religious shrines? Well actually I do kind of see this sort of thing everyday.'

Yeah so Ameridan and Telana set up shrines here I guess to pray for success. Ameridan set up one to Andraste and Telana set up one to Ghilan'nain. Kendric forgot Ghilan'nain's name which I found rather absurd for a historical scholar but it gave Lothar an opportunity to appear wise and learned. Bitterness about elves from right after this period led to Telana's memory being expunged by the Chantry...more on this crap later. So they discover Ameridan used powerful magic to seal away Hakkon in the Tevinter fortress. But Tevinter itself made the wall of ice.



And what was the method?



Freaking laser beams that's what. They shoot from the trail markers Lothar had been finding around the Basin. So they follow the laser beams from one trail marker to the next until the last one takes down the barrier.



'Pfft where is your god now Jaws of Hakkon? Oh right he is right inside isn't he?'

So with the wall down Lothar returns to Stone-Bear Hold to scheme the attack. On the way he combines all the crazy conspiracy theories he found into a book and gives it to the conspiracy Avvar.



'Yes we have a severe insanity deficit.'

Hell he will fit in great. Ooooh a conspiracy theorist working for then government? The other conspiracy theorists will go crazy with that one.

Anyway on to Chieftain Svarah.



'Have fun storming the castle!'

So next time: inside the fortress with Hakkon and friends.

[viper37]

'Murderer's Gold? What is the worst that could happen?'

Yeah ok just leave Murderer's Gold alone. Trust me on this.

Told you to come prepared!  You need fire to vanquish them.  Bring fire potions and a mage specialized in fire.
I did it on my second attempt.

A massive dragon. Well I am getting pretty good at killing those.

You will be afraid.  You will be. 

'Have fun storming the castle!'

So next time: inside the fortress with Hakkon and friends.

Don't do the fortress right now, finish your other quests.  It's one hell of a fight, you will need everything on your side to win, maxed out experience, max potions, top gear, etc.
IIRC, there is some excellent metal in this region.

[Valmy]

Told you to come prepared!  You need fire to vanquish them.  Bring fire potions and a mage specialized in fire.
I did it on my second attempt.

I took one look at the small horde of Despair Demons and decided 'F This'. I might come back later but I am so sick of freaking Despair Demons and I never liked fighting them to begin with.

You will be afraid.  You will be. 

Ah yeah!

Don't do the fortress right now, finish your other quests.  It's one hell of a fight, you will need everything on your side to win, maxed out experience, max potions, top gear, etc.
IIRC, there is some excellent metal in this region.

I have already done all the other quests. Sorry Viper but I am going in.

[Valmy]

BATTLE OF THE BUCKLES PART THE LAST

Maker Rest ye merry Kirkwallmen

Let nothing you dismay

For Urien Hawke, your champion

killed Anders on this day

To save the Chantry from his fire...

*ahem* oh right...

Well better than never to be late

Oh tidings of a glorious day!

Glorious day!

Oh shit the war is starting anyway

The Stone-Bear Hold Avvar attack the ancient wall at night. They scale the walls, clear the Jaws of Hakkon off, and then open the gate. They are in!



'Our friends came through Varric! I know that is a new and scary experience for us.'

It appears this is a perimeter wall though because there is a big court yard inside. One of those Jaws of Hakkon super champs met them right at the gate and numerous Hakkonite assassins and archers harrass them the whole way before a big fight right at the gate of the interior fortress...or temple...or whatever the hell it is.

Around there are these floating ice shards that when hit freeze everything around them...so naturally we take them out from afar. Don't want to be caught by that stuff. Probably a less risk averse player would use them as a tactical advantage but I like predictable battle conditions.

Inside there is a magical cold that threatens to kill them. Fortunately there are bonfires around to keep them warm, I guess the Hakkonites did not have time to put them out since they were attacked so suddenly. They also find some really cool (in more ways than one) tier 4 Hakkon gear schematics but unfortunately they turned out to not be better than the stuff I made earlier. They look nice though.

Gurd is chanting some sort of religious rite inside, talking trash about the other Gods and praising Hakkon.



'Sounds like a great Nordic Metal song.'

Lothar, of course, finds a journal where Gurd explains himself. Everybody in this world loves to pour out their inner most thoughts in their journals. Must be therapeutic. Anyway Gurd and his people were massacred during the Blight so they became angry at the Avvar Gods for abandoning them. So, in revenge, he sought out the only God who was innocent of screwing him over...the guy trapped in this Ice Temple. So now he is going to fulfil the destiny of the old Jaws of Hakkon and destory the Lowlands. Now normally you need a Hold-Beast to draw out an Avvar God, which was why Gurd befriended Stone-Bear Hold and stole Stovacker. But Lothar screwed that up so now Gurd is going to use...himself. Well no real leader asks somebody else to do what he would not do himself.

Lothar and company reach the inner sanctum where Gurd is doing his Rite. They dash in to stop him!



'What is that Cassandra? I cannot hear you with this Bruiser Hammer in my ear.'

So yeah two freaking bruisers at the same time. Hate those guys. Then four Hakkonite mages. But then...they show up just as Hakkon has descended into Gurd turning him into a fearsome Revenant of frozen evil. The battle is on!



'Really? Because it really seems like my predecessor trapped you in here for 800 years.'

Lothar has a rift saved up just for him. They really unload everything on this dude but the fight quickly gets complicated as Gurd/Hakkon starts calling in undead and more Hakkonites. The fight gets crazy so Varric throws a confusing grenade and....



'Go get 'em Gurd!'

That's right. Hakkon gets confused himself and rips up his own minions. So that was awesome and lucky. It is going to be close though. As Gurd gets beaten on more minions charge in and it looks like our heroes are about to be beaten but then...all the bad guys start catching on fire. I was so confused.



'Dorian? Is that you?'

But no. It is non other than the Inquisitor Ameridan. So yeah the founder of the Seekers and the Templars was a mage. And elven mage. I bet you never saw that one coming eh?



'Lucky guess. Half the people I know are Inquisitors.'

So Ameridan assumes we are from the Emperor Drakon come to rescue him, as he assumed Drakon would. Unfortunately for Ameridan the second Blight struck Orlais from the Anderfels and Orlais was overwhelmed so Drakon was unable to help him. Lothar then lets him know that his lady love Telana died trying to reach him in dreams. So tough couple minutes for Ameridan.



'That is as crazy as finding out the founder of Torquemada's religion was a Jew.'

Anyway so history got rewritten a bit. He was also disappointed to hear how the Templars and the Seekers abused the Rite of Tranquility. Damn you almost get the feeling everything went to hell almost because this guy went missing. He tells Lothar being Inquisitor is horrible and try to have as much fun as he can. Lothar tells Ameridan he will not be facing Hakkon alone this time...



'Yeah I should have known'

Ameridan gives Lothat something that allows him to retrieve his memories. He will have to follow Ameridan's footsteps in the Basin to get them. Should be fun. Ameridan then distintigrates, freeing Hakkon in Dragon Form who promptly flies off...which is lucky since Lothar was weak with no healing potions. Silly bad guys.

So they go around finding Ameridan's memories. He also had a fade spirit guiding him around and the spirit was what told him how to trap Hakkon. Then he sent Haron and Orinna to distract the Avvar. He has been trying to get his homeland, the Dales, to help Orlais against the Blight. But first he had to deal with the Avvar threat.



'Damn everything really did go to hell because this guy went missing.'

So instead the elves said 'wahoo Darkspawn! Slaughter those Shem!' and started a bitterness that eventually led to conflict and the end of the Dales. Huh. That part tends to be left out by the Dalish.

So after that bombshell Lothar goes back to Kenric to fill him in on all the interesting information he just uncovered. Lothar informs him that Ameridan was kept alive because of his magic. Kenric is shocked at the revelation that Ameridan was a mage...oh but it gets better.



'You will either be the scholar of the century or beheaded for heresy for this discovery. You're welcome.'

So they recover the rest of the memories and locate Hakkon. He has frozen a section of the lake right around where he fought Telana, Ameridan and company originally. Well um...I will be right back.

Back at Skyhold crazy conspiracy Avvar is let loose on the world under Leliana's supervision. There he confers with a lady who writes in a secret script...well actually a three year old girl who makes illegible scriblings. However Leliana is able to turn what the little girl tells the crazy Avvar into useful info. Yeah we see opportunity everywhere in the Inquisition.



'Wait did the little girl make us a Dragon rune?'

Weird.

A prominant Orlesian family claimed descent from Ameridan and had been locked in a dispute with Ameridan's actual family for centuries. Well Lothar and Cullen take care of that.



'Want to hear about how your clan betrayed his legacy in the Second Blight? No? Ah well.'

Alright. I craft and sell and get our potions back and get ready for a tough fight. Back to the Basin.



'Yeah? And I am a guy who loves to stab Dragons in the hind legs.'

This fight combines every annoying dragon fight together. There are adds combined with stunning roars, full guard pops, and he likes to fly around and attack and land in random places. But eventually Lothar's ability to dash around and hammer Dragon's legs while dodging blows wears him down.



'Hang in there Dorian...just a bit longer!'

And finally the beast falls and Hakkon is returned to the fade. Scout Harding watched the whole thing and comes in to have a little heart to heart with Lothar over what just happened.



'Really makes you think...maybe Lothar will die forgotten and unappreciated as well...woah forshadowing!'

Lothar then heads back to tell Svarah Sun-Hair everything is cool. She makes Lothar an honorary Avvar and gives him a legend mark.



'That's right Gurd. I even have one now.'

Then um...things get weird. Storvacker is to put on trial for surrendering to the Jaws of Hakkon and not dying resisting. So Lothar has to judge her. Well Lothar is not one to look a gift bear in the mouth.



'This new ally will be more than Corypheus can bear...ok I'll get my coat.'

Storvacker is soon a new ferocious member of the Inquisition military. Cullen is happy...and Leliana shares Lothar's talent for puns.



'Somewhere in Alberta a lawyer is slamming his head into a wall.'

Well just one little thing to handle before I go talk to Morrigan...



How long could this take?

Stuff Lothar did during the Battle of the Buckles:



He met Inquisitor Ameridan in the rather temporary flesh

He slew the dragon, thus restoring Hakkon to the fade for Avvar to worship before killing Lowlanders

He earned that Legend Mark Gurd never got

He discovered the Bogfisher of Unusual Size

He told everybody what really happened with Ameridan