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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 19, 2021 10:44:20 GMT -8
Anyway, Fenris and the group went into his old master's mansion and cleared it out from its occupation by shades. Unfortunately, he wasn't there, but Fenris agreed to follow me. (Yeah, you're gonna regret that soon, buddy) Then, we tracked down Feynriel, and Merrill and Iris convinced him to escape to the Dalish camp. While we were there, we rescued the Viscount's son from the Winters, who sadly killed his Qunari friend. And it seems the Free Marches attitude to Qunari is "They're dangerous because they're mindless savages," not "They're dangerous because of their rigid societal structure and cruel treatment of mages." Which is interesting and all.
We also rescued the Blood Mages in the Sundermount Cavern that...well, that looked exactly like the old Qunari one. What can I say except BLOOD MAGIC FOREVER WOOT
Iris also recruited Isabela, and started searching for some missing Templars. After finding one that was possessed, we tracked down a connection: a...woman. In the...place. (With that many ellipses, it's either prostitution or William Shatner) She turned out to be a Blood Mage herself, and nearly forced Iris to kill herself. Thankfully, she's familiar with the idiosyncrasies of that school, and managed to break out. She learned of a secret mage plot, and then turned her over to the Templars. Though I daresay Iris would have preferred the option to let her go free, because BLOOD MAGIC FOREVER WOOT
Anyway, the Templars were rescued, and Iris promised not to tell their bosses that they were all possessed/nearly possessed by demons. Along the way, Iris also got a job tracking down a small group of missing ladies. The fact that the quest is called "First Sacrifice" is a bit...well. Have you ever heard of an "interface spoiler?"
Also, it's worth noting that I mostly play the game on Hard, but I turn it down to Easy when I run into a stupid and unfair fight. so, naturally, I play on Casual a lot.
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Post by Daos on Jan 19, 2021 12:45:45 GMT -8
And it seems the Free Marches attitude to Qunari is "They're dangerous because they're mindless savages," not "They're dangerous because of their rigid societal structure and cruel treatment of mages." Which is interesting and all. That's more or less all of the Chantry's lands attitude toward the Qunari, really. Fereldan was something of an exception, because it is so far away from Par Vollen, that most people there don't even know what a Qunari is. (As I recall, most people's reactions to Sten were something along the lines of, "What the flame are you even?" Most folk just called him a 'giant.') It's terribly ironic, though, because the Qunari are anything but mindless savages. In fact, their technological level is higher than any other race. They have gunpowder, for instance. But yeah, their treatment of mages is... woof. Makes the Templars seem like cuddly teddy bears in comparison. We also rescued the Blood Mages in the Sundermount Cavern that...well, that looked exactly like the old Qunari one. What can I say except BLOOD MAGIC FOREVER WOOT Yeah, a lot of the dungeons in this game are literally copied and pasted from previous dungeons. To the point you'll often come to a dead-end that looks like it should continue, but it doesn't. Another reason this game could have used another year or so of development. Iris also recruited Isabela, and started searching for some missing Templars. Ah, yes, your second rogue (and the melee one), Isabela the Rivaini pirate. Weird to think she's from the same country as Duncan, huh? Like Merrill, she gets a makeover and a new voice actor. She has the Swashbuckler specialization, which is basically Duelist but with a naval twist to it. It's kind of funny that she is all about the sea, but we never actually get to see her on a boat. Anyway, Isabela is the standard Chaotic Neutral character. She loves freedom, having fun, not getting involved in other people's messes. If you like to help people without a reward or you tend to butt in on other people's problems, you'll likely earn rivalry with her. On the other hand, if you always charge for your services and ignore people in distress because it's none of your business, you'll probably earn her friendship. After finding one that was possessed, we tracked down a connection: a...woman. In the...place. (With that many ellipses, it's either prostitution or William Shatner) She turned out to be a Blood Mage herself, and nearly forced Iris to kill herself. Thankfully, she's familiar with the idiosyncrasies of that school, and managed to break out. She learned of a secret mage plot, and then turned her over to the Templars. Though I daresay Iris would have preferred the option to let her go free, because BLOOD MAGIC FOREVER WOOT Let her go? But she tried to kill you? Anyway, the Templars were rescued, and Iris promised not to tell their bosses that they were all possessed/nearly possessed by demons. Along the way, Iris also got a job tracking down a small group of missing ladies. The fact that the quest is called "First Sacrifice" is a bit...well. Have you ever heard of an "interface spoiler?" Yeah, there is a lot of possession and blood magic going on in Kirkwall. If you read the codex often, you find out why. The entire city is basically the equivalent of a Native American burial ground. Turns out in areas where people have suffered and died in great numbers, the Veil becomes thinner. Which means more demons are attracted to that area from the fade. Which means more blood magic and abominations than normal. Which means the templars have to come down harder. Which makes the mages rebel more. Creating a sort of feedback loop. It makes the Circle in Fereldan actually seem a nice place to live, in comparison. |
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 19, 2021 13:07:27 GMT -8
After finding one that was possessed, we tracked down a connection: a...woman. In the...place. (With that many ellipses, it's either prostitution or William Shatner) She turned out to be a Blood Mage herself, and nearly forced Iris to kill herself. Thankfully, she's familiar with the idiosyncrasies of that school, and managed to break out. She learned of a secret mage plot, and then turned her over to the Templars. Though I daresay Iris would have preferred the option to let her go free, because BLOOD MAGIC FOREVER WOOT Let her go? But she tried to kill you? Well, because BLOOD MAGIC FOREVER WOOT. That's Iris' main flaw, I would say: an excess of sympathy to anyone working against the Templars, even to the danger of herself and others. Anyway, the First Sacrifice did end in a sacrifice, sadly. But I'm glad they at least came up with an explanation in-universe for why every mage is an abomination in this game. As for the quest with the kidnapped Templars, because of the quest marker, I forgot that I promised I wouldn't tell the captain. And I ended up telling the captain. But although Keran ended up losing out on a promotion for ten years, I got a good laugh out of Cullen missing the giant staff on my back, and I got a huge boost with Merrill for defending mages. Actually, for the quests with a heavy emphasis on the mage-templar conflict, I tend to bring along the "mage squad;" that is, Anders, Merrill, and Fenris, the three companions who are most invested in what happens to mages. So that they can start hating/loving me quickly and uniformly, of course. This means that the three have a lot of party banter with each other, and I find the talks between Anders and Fenris unintentionally funny. It's basically a whine-off between two teenage edgelords. Which is about what happens whenever trauma is poorly-written, in my experience writing bad fanfiction. Oh, and we also killed two cabals of thieves roaming the streets. I presume how it works is that once you've killed enough of them in the city zones, you get a letter detailing their location, you kill them, and the attacks stop. Hopefully, no new gangs pop up between acts, but I daresay I'm not that lucky. Right now, I'm just going around mopping up the various quests before we head to the Deeproads. I've recruited all the companions (except Sebastian, who's locked to Act 2) gotten almost maximum Friendship with Merrill (no substantial quests before Act 2), and done most of the interesting quests, unless I'm really lucky. For example, Aveline is now prospect Captain of the guard, and she'll almost certainly hold the title by Act 2. Actually, I'm pretty sure we get our old house back in Act 2! And all that stands in my way are a bunch of boring quests. |
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Post by Daos on Jan 19, 2021 14:14:23 GMT -8
Well, because BLOOD MAGIC FOREVER WOOT. That's Iris' main flaw, I would say: an excess of sympathy to anyone working against the Templars, even to the danger of herself and others. Well, fortunately, I can't think of a single instance where relying on blood magic has ever resulted in something bad happening. Look how well it worked out for Jowan! And Zathrian! And Uldred! Err...anyway, best of luck to you!  I got a good laugh out of Cullen missing the giant staff on my back... Oh, man. I totally forgot Cullen was even in this game. That's right. Cullen was actually in Origins, too. He was the templar trapped behind the forcefield just outside the Harrowing Chamber, who had snapped a bit and thought you were all hallucinations. You can interact with him a bit in the Mage Origin, too. But yeah, I was never clear if his inability to recognize that Hawke is a mage was intentional or not. Like, did the writers just not include different dialogue in case you were a mage, or is Cullen meant to be really thick? (To be fair, he does seem pretty thick to me.) Actually, for the quests with a heavy emphasis on the mage-templar conflict, I tend to bring along the "mage squad;" that is, Anders, Merrill, and Fenris... Three mages and one two-handed warrior? Must be tough to keep the enemy from swarming at least one of you. But you probably have some great healing between the three mages. Oh, and we also killed two cabals of thieves roaming the streets. I presume how it works is that once you've killed enough of them in the city zones, you get a letter detailing their location, you kill them, and the attacks stop. Hopefully, no new gangs pop up between acts, but I daresay I'm not that lucky. You know, now that you mention it, I think that is the case. I vaguely remember something like that. I had all but forgotten it until just now. I've recruited all the companions (except Sebastian, who's locked to Act 2)... Wait, did you already get Varric, too? I know you meet him very early on, but I can't remember if he actually joins you until the Deep Roads trip or before that. |
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 19, 2021 16:08:32 GMT -8
Well, because BLOOD MAGIC FOREVER WOOT. That's Iris' main flaw, I would say: an excess of sympathy to anyone working against the Templars, even to the danger of herself and others. Well, fortunately, I can't think of a single instance where relying on blood magic has ever resulted in something bad happening. Look how well it worked out for Jowan! And Zathrian! And Uldred! Err...anyway, best of luck to you! Actually, for the quests with a heavy emphasis on the mage-templar conflict, I tend to bring along the "mage squad;" that is, Anders, Merrill, and Fenris... Three mages and one two-handed warrior? Must be tough to keep the enemy from swarming at least one of you. But you probably have some great healing between the three mages. I've recruited all the companions (except Sebastian, who's locked to Act 2)... Wait, did you already get Varric, too? I know you meet him very early on, but I can't remember if he actually joins you until the Deep Roads trip or before that. Oh, for sure. Merrill and Iris' romance will most likely end in tragedy as both are possessed and birth little abomination babies. ...uh...well, you see, Anders is the only one with any healing spells. Merrill can't learn any and Iris has been focusing on entropy and blood magic. Also, Varric joins you as soon as you meet him. The fact that I have to tell you this speaks wonders about how much you've played Exodus. |
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Post by Daos on Jan 19, 2021 17:22:52 GMT -8
...uh...well, you see, Anders is the only one with any healing spells. Merrill can't learn any and Iris has been focusing on entropy and blood magic. Wait...you're right. For some reason Merrill can't learn Creation spells. I had completely forgotten that until just now, but I remember now how incredibly annoyed I was by that. Unless you are playing a mage yourself, the only companion who can heal at all is Anders. So I felt obligated to take him with me on every mission, for that reason alone. (Then became far more annoyed when Inquisition came out and there was no healing magic whatsoever.) Also, Varric joins you as soon as you meet him. The fact that I have to tell you this speaks wonders about how much you've played Exodus. It has been awhile, I guess. Well, Varric has the Marksman specialization. It's a new one; although it has some similarities to Bard. When you think about it, Varric is kind of a bard; one who tells tales instead of sings songs or plays instruments. Varric likes talking your way out of stuff (regardless of whether it's persuasion, intimidation or outright deception). He also likes being nice to dwarves, listening to his tales, and taking care of family. This kind of stuff leads to friendship. Being a brutal thug who solves everything with violence, not caring about Kirkwall or your family or friends--e.g., basically being a murderhobo--earns his rivalry. Some fun facts: * Varric is the last dwarf companion you'll ever get (at least until DA4, maybe?). Yep, Oghren, Sigrun and Varric are the only dwarf companions in the entire franchise so far. Kind of sucks if you're big on dwarves. Dwarves are also the only race to never have a romance option, so that sucks, too. * Varric has nicknames for every single person in the party (even temporary companions), except Aveline. See if you can learn them all through dialogue and banter. * There are a handful of Dragon Age novels; I've mentioned them before. One of them is actually written by Varric. It's one of the two I haven't managed to collect yet. I genuinely liked Varric. One of my problems with Exodus is I just didn't 'click' with many of the companions the way I did with Origins or even Awakening. I romanced Merrill, but I honestly wasn't even that into her. The only companions I really liked were Varric, Bethany and Aveline. It's not that I hated the others, or that they annoyed me or anything. For whatever reason, they just didn't resonate with me like the previous games. I'm still not entirely sure why. I should really start up another playthrough some day. Just to see how much my tastes and preferences have changed, and whether I would feel any different about it now. Out of curiosity, I booted it up and looked at my save files. My original playthrough, Garrett Hawke, where I played a warrior, romanced Merrill and made it to the very end of the game (52.5 hours logged) was last touched in 2011. My second playthrough as Saren Hawke, where I played a mage, tried to romance Isabela and only made it about 36.5 hours in before the file corrupted and I couldn't continue, was from 2015. So it's been awhile! Speaking of forgetting stuff, remember the Sacred Ashes trailer I showed you when you started Origins? I totally meant to show you the trailer for Exodus when you started, entitled Destiny. Well, better late than never. Narrated by Flemeth, and basically just showing what an anime badass Hawke is. 'This ain't your granddaddy's Dragon Age!' it seems to say. (Also worth noting that Hawke is not only a mage, but a blood mage, in the trailer.) |
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 19, 2021 18:14:20 GMT -8
Well, thankfully for my opinion of Bioware, I'm not a big Dwarf fan. (I blame Dwarf politics and the Deeproads) But I do like Varric, although he's probably my most useless companion in combat (aside from Carver, who doesn't count) In fact, I do feel like I connect, whether by liking or being annoyed by, all of the companions. Perhaps it's because I'm a member of the new, hip generation of gamers they were marketing towards.
These days, I barely take enough damage to warrant a heal, so I feel no obligation to take Anders. What little scrapes I do get can be fixed with the Elfroot potions, even though the cooldown is ridiculously long.
Also, that feeling when you just want to get some herbal ingredients, and you end up killing a dragon, pissing off the magistrate, and owning a timeshare in a mine. *Sigh*
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Post by Daos on Jan 19, 2021 20:22:52 GMT -8
I'm not a big Dwarf fan. (I blame Dwarf politics and the Deeproads) But I do like Varric, although he's probably my most useless companion in combat (aside from Carver, who doesn't count) In fact, I do feel like I connect, whether by liking or being annoyed by, all of the companions. Perhaps it's because I'm a member of the new, hip generation of gamers they were marketing towards. It makes sense then, that you would like Varric. Although racially a dwarf, he is culturally a Free Marcher. He was born on the surface and has no interest or even real knowledge about Orzimmar or its politics or religion. He doesn't even have a beard (just epic chest hair instead). What makes him useless in battle, though? Anyway, I'm glad you're connecting with the companions. You have everyone now, except Sebastian, who I really don't know anything about, because I don't have any DLC for Exodus. What little scrapes I do get can be fixed with the Elfroot potions, even though the cooldown is ridiculously long. Oh, no...you just triggered another memory. I suddenly recall how annoyingly long that cooldown really was. No spoilers, but there's a point in the game later on where you have to face a very tough boss by yourself (Hawke only). I suddenly remembered running around in circles, the boss chasing me, as I was waiting for that darned cooldown to lapse so I could heal again.  |
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 20, 2021 7:25:34 GMT -8
I'm not a big Dwarf fan. (I blame Dwarf politics and the Deeproads) But I do like Varric, although he's probably my most useless companion in combat (aside from Carver, who doesn't count) In fact, I do feel like I connect, whether by liking or being annoyed by, all of the companions. Perhaps it's because I'm a member of the new, hip generation of gamers they were marketing towards. It makes sense then, that you would like Varric. Although racially a dwarf, he is culturally a Free Marcher. He was born on the surface and has no interest or even real knowledge about Orzimmar or its politics or religion. He doesn't even have a beard (just epic chest hair instead). What makes him useless in battle, though? Anyway, I'm glad you're connecting with the companions. You have everyone now, except Sebastian, who I really don't know anything about, because I don't have any DLC for Exodus. What little scrapes I do get can be fixed with the Elfroot potions, even though the cooldown is ridiculously long. Oh, no...you just triggered another memory. I suddenly recall how annoyingly long that cooldown really was. No spoilers, but there's a point in the game later on where you have to face a very tough boss by yourself (Hawke only). I suddenly remembered running around in circles, the boss chasing me, as I was waiting for that darned cooldown to lapse so I could heal again. Oh, I'm probably just having trouble using him properly. Poor build, things like that. (I've been putting all his points into Cunning and Bianca) He was dying a lot back when I first started the act, mostly because I never let him heal his injuries. So, it's really my fault. Actually, I took an instant dislike to him once me met, but he's rapidly grown on me. Mostly because I realized he's one of the three companions who don't hate me. Oh, Sebastian I liked instantly. He's a cool Irish prince archer dude. Unfortunately, he can't join until Act 2 and he hates me because he likes the Chantry. But perhaps he'll hate me so much that he has sex with me. Or something. The Rivalry mechanic really confuses me. It's definitely better mechanically, but...well, perhaps I'll understand it better when somebody actually starts hating me. (Fenris is already quite a ways towards that) The Boss wouldn't happen to lean heavily on Cold attacks, would it? Because the Frostwalker Boots and the Apostate's Hope staff together give 99% Cold Resistance, so Iris can just immediately become immune to Cold in an emergency situation. Anyway, I convinced the miners to get to work and rejected the deal from Bartrand's shady ex-boyfriend former partner. I currently have 70+ sovereigns. In fact, if I tried hard enough, conserved money, and sold everything I didn't need, I could probably pay for two expeditions. But we set off nonetheless. Carter desperately wanted to come along, but I gave him a hard no. He's basically a worse Fenris at this point, and the fact that he has no unique specialization with the little bonus skills for max friendship and rivalry does not bode well in his future. Your uselessness probably saved you from a horrible death, Carver! I didn't actually bring along Anders, because I'm suicidal I probably don't need him. Instead, I took along the three characters I've been using the least: Aveline (for tanking), Isabela (for DPS), and Varric (for ranged support) Unfortunately, a cave-in happened, and Sandal ran off by himself!  I mean...we'll probably find him in another room filled to the brim with dead Darkspawn again, but still! Bodhan was incredibly worried. Also, Cassandra doesn't seem to like mages, because in the flash-forward, she listed off all the mage-helpy things Iris has done and pointed to them as evidence that she's a dangerous Apostate with an agenda. Which she is, but not yet. Also, we apparently find something sinister and dangerous in the Deeproads. I fear for my life. By the way...how would you recommend the playing of the two Campaign DLCs? There's Legacy, which is about Hawke's past and the story of their father, Malcom. And there's Mark of the Assassin, which is about Felicia Day's Dragon Age OC a character from the live-action series that was made for some reason. I've been told the character and campaign are quite annoying, but maybe I'll just play it anyway. I'm currently thinking of playing Mark of the Assassin after the Deeproads (and pretending it happened between Acts 1 and 2) and playing Legacy after Act 2 (and pretend it happened before Act 3). |
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 20, 2021 13:54:32 GMT -8
So...Varric's brother was a total jerk, and he locked us into a Thaig because he didn't want to split the reward. Jokes on him, though: we ended up double-crossing a demon and ended up with a ton of treasure. Iris certainly has some experience with Demons, given the whole "Blood Mage" thing. You know how the players are supposed to come up with the backstories for Specializations? Well, Iris's is that she made a deal with a "Spirit of Lust" in her teenage years. Everybody tries to tell her that it was a Desire Demon, but she always insists, "NO, she was A SPIRIT OF LUST" Then, Carver went and joined the Templars. ...huh. Well, have fun, buddy. (Also, his psychology is really messed up in that he joins an order dedicated [more or less] to killing a group his sister is part of, she points this out concernedly, and his reaction is "OH YOU ALWAYS GOTTA MAKE IT ABOUT YOU HUH") Two years later, a message from a contact of Varric's led to an escapade with one Tallis. My thoughts are detailed and organized below. - The dialogue was wonderful. The whole thing was so enjoyable, especially the party, where we met Teagan! AND LEILIANA! who apparently
got jiggy with *wiggles eyebrows* met with Tallis at some point. It was so hilarious. - The combat was terrible. Not that it was particularly unfair compared to the base game, but it was HARD. Most of the difficulty in the base game was fake--as in, it wasn't hard because it required skill, it was hard because of cheap tricks the game played on you *cough cough* reinforcements. But Mark of the Assassin just had ridiculously strong enemies. The Sky Cult bonus boss creamed me in a manner of seconds. ON EASY. I'm pretty sure this DLC was designed for higher-levelled characters, but unlike some games where DLC doesn't scale with difficulty, it doesn't warn you at all. But, playing on a mixture of Easy and Normal, I made it through.
- This has nothing to do with the DLC (except that they were the Companions I took), but Merrill and Isabela have some of the most adorable and funny banter in the game.
- Iris and Tallis got along splendidly until the job went wrong. She wasn't mad because she tricked her--oh, no. She was mad because she was a Qunari. And after the incident with Keetojan, Iris HATES Qunari. Their relationship was no more adversarial then a lot of passive-aggressive quips about mouth-sewing, but once she started passionately defending the Qun? Saying that life is better under it? She left. She didn't care. Let her die, for all it matters to Iris.
- In an odd twist of fate for a Bioware game, your choices didn't matter. If you left Tallis, you still had to fight against the Duke with her. At the end of the fight, Iris pushed him off a cliff. She was very tempted to do the same for Tallis. Anyway, she returned to Kirkwall, never wanting to see her again. Fun times!
- Also, Isabela got a legendary dagger and left her old crewmates petrified. Iris had a lot of opportunities to be hardcore in this DLC.
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Post by Daos on Jan 20, 2021 14:08:35 GMT -8
Oh, I'm probably just having trouble using him properly. Poor build, things like that. (I've been putting all his points into Cunning and Bianca) He was dying a lot back when I first started the act, mostly because I never let him heal his injuries. So, it's really my fault. Actually, I took an instant dislike to him once me met, but he's rapidly grown on me. Mostly because I realized he's one of the three companions who don't hate me. It's been awhile, but yes, putting points in Bianca is a good start. If you get a chance, upgrade Miasmic Flask, if you haven't already, in the Sabotage tree. I remember it being quite useful. By itself, it stuns normal enemies every time, which can be really useful for crowd control or to get in some free attacks. Upgrading it makes it last longer and reduces the cooldown. There's also a passive in Scoundrel I found really useful, called Blindside. It gives a boost to damage (over 100%) against enemies already engaged with your allies. Oh, Sebastian I liked instantly. He's a cool Irish prince archer dude. Unfortunately, he can't join until Act 2 and he hates me because he likes the Chantry. But perhaps he'll hate me so much that he has sex with me. Or something. The Rivalry mechanic really confuses me. It's definitely better mechanically, but...well, perhaps I'll understand it better when somebody actually starts hating me. (Fenris is already quite a ways towards that) He's Irish? But he's a Free Marcher. Man, now I'm even more confused as to what the equivalent of the Free Marches is supposed to be. Ah, well. The Boss wouldn't happen to lean heavily on Cold attacks, would it? Because the Frostwalker Boots and the Apostate's Hope staff together give 99% Cold Resistance, so Iris can just immediately become immune to Cold in an emergency situation. Sadly, no. Just massively damaging melee attacks. Hence all the running. Anyway, I convinced the miners to get to work and rejected the deal from Bartrand's shady ex-boyfriend former partner. I currently have 70+ sovereigns. In fact, if I tried hard enough, conserved money, and sold everything I didn't need, I could probably pay for two expeditions. But we set off nonetheless. Carter desperately wanted to come along, but I gave him a hard no. He's basically a worse Fenris at this point, and the fact that he has no unique specialization with the little bonus skills for max friendship and rivalry does not bode well in his future. Your uselessness probably saved you from a horrible death, Carver! Carver does have a specialization, it's just...well, actually I'll let you discover that one on your own. Suffice to say, there are consequences for taking Carver with you, and consequences for leaving him behind. I sure hope he doesn't do anything rash while you're down there! I didn't actually bring along Anders, because I'm suicidal I probably don't need him. Instead, I took along the three characters I've been using the least: Aveline (for tanking), Isabela (for DPS), and Varric (for ranged support) Unfortunately, a cave-in happened, and Sandal ran off by himself! I mean...we'll probably find him in another room filled to the brim with dead Darkspawn again, but still! Bodhan was incredibly worried. En-CHANT-ment! Also, Cassandra doesn't seem to like mages, because in the flash-forward, she listed off all the mage-helpy things Iris has done and pointed to them as evidence that she's a dangerous Apostate with an agenda. Which she is, but not yet. Also, we apparently find something sinister and dangerous in the Deeproads. I fear for my life. She doesn't like mages, as she's a templar. Or specifically, she's a Seeker of Truth. The Seekers are a sort of sub-group of elite templars, usually specializing in intelligence and internal investigation. Basically the templar version of the CIA. They weren't always called Seekers, though. Originally, they were known as the Inquisition...but that's not important now.  By the way...how would you recommend the playing of the two Campaign DLCs? There's Legacy, which is about Hawke's past and the story of their father, Malcom. And there's Mark of the Assassin, which is about Felicia Day's Dragon Age OC a character from the live-action series that was made for some reason. I've been told the character and campaign are quite annoying, but maybe I'll just play it anyway. I'm currently thinking of playing Mark of the Assassin after the Deeproads (and pretending it happened between Acts 1 and 2) and playing Legacy after Act 2 (and pretend it happened before Act 3). Full disclosure, I've never played any of the DLCs for Exodus, so I can't be sure. But based on the research I just did, most people seem to agree that you should wait until Act 3 for either. Both for story reasons, but also for difficulty reasons. However, you can do them whenever you like. But from what I've read, Legacy in particular is a lot easier if you're higher level, and you get some decent endgame gear from it. |
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Post by Daos on Jan 20, 2021 14:19:14 GMT -8
Oh, I guess you updated again while I was writing that last post. So...Varric's brother was a total jerk, and he locked us into a Thaig because he didn't want to split the reward. Did you get kind of a 'my precious' vibe from him with that idol? Then, Carver went and joined the Templars. ...huh. Well, have fun, buddy. (Also, his psychology is really messed up in that he joins an order dedicated [more or less] to killing a group his sister is part of, she points this out concernedly, and his reaction is "OH YOU ALWAYS GOTTA MAKE IT ABOUT YOU HUH") Yep. Carver's specialization is Templar. Some interesting facts: If you leave Carver behind, he joins the Templars. If you leave Bethany behind, the Templars find her and force her to join the Circle. (Weird that they find her, but remain oblivious if Hawke is a mage.) If you bring Carver/Bethany with you, but leave Anders behind, then your sibling contacts the taint and dies. If you bring Carver/Bethany with you, but also bring Anders, then your sibling contacts the taint, but Anders knows of some Grey Wardens nearby and leads you to them. They perform the Joining, and your sibling becomes a Grey Warden. Whichever one happens, your mother is deeply disappointed in you for not doing a better job of protecting your little sibling. - Iris and Tallis got along splendidly until the job went wrong. She wasn't mad because she tricked her--oh, no. She was mad because she was a Qunari. And after the incident with Keetojan, Iris HATES Qunari. Their relationship was no more adversarial then a lot of passive-aggressive quips about mouth-sewing, but once she started passionately defending the Qun? Saying that life is better under it? She left. She didn't care. Let her die, for all it matters to Iris.
Ah, yes, she's Viddathari, correct? In fact, if I remember right, Tallis isn't even her name, but her title, just like Sten. To be fair to her, you saw how rough elves have it in Thedas when you were playing Coriander. I can see how someone growing up an alienage might see the Qun as a savior...so long as she's not a mage, at any rate. In an odd twist of fate for a Bioware game, your choices didn't matter. If you left Tallis, you still had to fight against the Duke with her. At the end of the fight, Iris pushed him off a cliff. She was very tempted to do the same for Tallis. Anyway, she returned to Kirkwall, never wanting to see her again. Fun times! Nah, that's a pretty common theme in Exodus. A lot of your choices don't matter. Some say this is intentional, because in real life sometimes there are things out of your control, and Hawke is meant to be a tragic character who is unable, no matter how hard they try, to avert disaster. Others say the choices were supposed to matter, but the game was rushed and they had to cut a lot of the branches to get it out in time. |
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 20, 2021 14:57:43 GMT -8
- Iris and Tallis got along splendidly until the job went wrong. She wasn't mad because she tricked her--oh, no. She was mad because she was a Qunari. And after the incident with Keetojan, Iris HATES Qunari. Their relationship was no more adversarial then a lot of passive-aggressive quips about mouth-sewing, but once she started passionately defending the Qun? Saying that life is better under it? She left. She didn't care. Let her die, for all it matters to Iris.
Ah, yes, she's Viddathari, correct? In fact, if I remember right, Tallis isn't even her name, but her title, just like Sten. To be fair to her, you saw how rough elves have it in Thedas when you were playing Coriander. I can see how someone growing up an alienage might see the Qun as a savior...so long as she's not a mage, at any rate. see it, and you see it, but Iris doesn't see it. She just sees another person who would opress mages, who doesn't see her as a person. So she sees her as a corpse waiting to happen. That's what separates Iris from Coriander. The Hero of Fereldan she may be, and fierce in battle, but she's kind and diplomatic. She reserves her rage for people who have committed terrible crimes against the Elves--Vaughan, Howe, and Caladrius. Iris, though? She's dangerous. She's vindictive. She's scary. And she's no hero. She's a powerful Blood Mage with a deceptively affable attitude who thinks she's a hero. |
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 21, 2021 11:37:43 GMT -8
Well, since you haven't played Exiled Prince, I'm in the unique position to explain something about Dragon Age to you! Sebastian, heir to the city of Starkhaven, found out that the mercenaries who killed his parents were hired by another noble family, one that had been friends with his family. When he joined Iris to investigate, they found them all acting crazy, the estate full of shades and demons, and the Lady of the house consorting with a Desire Demon to acquire Starkhaven. They were both killed, but doubts were cast on Sebastian's wish to take the throne. Iris decided against encouraging him to take it, and let him talk himself out of it.
After that, we met with the Arishok, who told us about how the Dwarf man we met earlier had stolen some dangerous Qunari poison. (Isabela declined to enter the compound, which concerned me at first, but she soon coyly noted that she had stolen from the Qunari at some point.) We tracked him down, but it turned out he had nothing to do with it. Iris resisted the urge to kill him and tracked down the real culprit: a City Elf who feared that Elves were abandoning their heritage for the Qun. Along the way, she also stumbled upon a plot by the Templars (specifically, Mother Petrice) to kidnap the Qunari. Great...Iris' two least favorite groups, duking it out.
Along the way, we also completed some companion quests. In hindsight, I took an embarrassingly long time to realize that Varric was embellishing his epic fight against his brother's guards. The real story was no less epic, though. At the end, we found that he had gone crazy--driven by the lyrium idol. (You were right about the "my precious" thing) We also did the Long Road, Aveline's personal quest. I must say, it was the most hilarious quest I've done in the game. Thankfully, it turned out all right.
Also, Merrill has the Eluvian from the Dalish Elf Origin! Sweet! ...well, I didn't play Witch Hunt, so... Anyway, she did some repairing of it with Blood Magic, but she needs the help of the Keeper to fix it completely.
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Post by Daos on Jan 21, 2021 12:52:55 GMT -8
Well, since you haven't played Exiled Prince, I'm in the unique position to explain something about Dragon Age to you! Sebastian, heir to the city of Starkhaven, found out that the mercenaries who killed his parents were hired by another noble family, one that had been friends with his family. When he joined Iris to investigate, they found them all acting crazy, the estate full of shades and demons, and the Lady of the house consorting with a Desire Demon to acquire Starkhaven. They were both killed, but doubts were cast on Sebastian's wish to take the throne. Iris decided against encouraging him to take it, and let him talk himself out of it. Interesting! I don't know a lot about Starkhaven. Do you actually visit it? I've always wondered how it compares to Kirkwall. Or Tantervale. Which I know even less about. Great...Iris' two least favorite groups, duking it out. Iris:  Along the way, we also completed some companion quests. In hindsight, I took an embarrassingly long time to realize that Varric was embellishing his epic fight against his brother's guards. The real story was no less epic, though. At the end, we found that he had gone crazy--driven by the lyrium idol. (You were right about the "my precious" thing) We also did the Long Road, Aveline's personal quest. I must say, it was the most hilarious quest I've done in the game. Thankfully, it turned out all right. Ah, yes, the red lyrium idol. I remember that part quite well. I loved the Long Road, because it was sort of hilarious for me in another way. See, I didn't know at the time that Aveline was not a romance option, and she was who I was pursuing. There was a sequence of dialogue where I (Hawke) was trying to express jealousy about Aveline's feelings for Donnic, and she was so thick-headed about it. I eventually just gave up and agreed to help her, but I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing. To this day, I was never sure if she was that naive or she knew what I was saying, and was deliberately playing dumb to spare my feelings (a situation I've run into more than once in real life  ). Then I settled for Merrill instead. Also, Merrill has the Eluvian from the Dalish Elf Origin! Sweet! ...well, I didn't play Witch Hunt, so... Anyway, she did some repairing of it with Blood Magic, but she needs the help of the Keeper to fix it completely. Yep, the Eluvian plays a big role in her arc. I spent most of the game trying to talk her out of messing with it. |
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I mean...we'll probably find him in another room filled to the brim with dead Darkspawn again, but still! Bodhan was incredibly worried.
). Then I settled for Merrill instead.