Dragon Age Log #4

I have made progress. YIPEE!

After practically destroying the Circle of Magi (sorry, First Enchanter Irving) I headed back to camp to plot my next destination.

The first time I played DA:O I downloaded Soldier’s Peak, Return to Ostagar and The Stone Prisoner after completing the game. M-i-s-t-a-k-e. It’s clear that certain DLC is meant to be played during the main story, not afterwards, and Soldier’s Peak, Return to Ostagar and The Stone Prisoner are perfect examples. It felt weird to be traveling and adventuring with my old companions that had supposedly moved onto bigger and better things post-archdemon. But by the grace of DLC, they had…returned? It took away from the experience of the DLC because it felt so out of place. Nahm’sayin?

Because of that, I’m trying to mix it up this time around and complete all possible DLC before I say ohai to Mr. Archdemon. So I gathered my crew in camp (which has been Lelianna, Alistair, Wynne) and went to reclaim Soldier’s Peak so I could bask in my own glory and stuff. But honestly, one of the reasons Soldier’s Peak was one of the first DLC’s I tackled (I finished Return to Ostagar first) is because of the freakin’ storage chest you can store your shit in  afterwards.

And I need that storage chest so hard.

Maybe it’s just me, but I ALWAYS find myself running out of room in my backpack at one point or another, no matter how much my backpack can carry. I keep EVERYTHING. I try to make sure I always have a spare set of armor for an upcoming party member, a few weapon options, rings, belts, necklaces, the works. But what really kills me are the crafting items.

I don’t utilize traps, poisons or enhancing items at all in DA:O. Call me lazy. Perhaps if I were to play on a higher difficulty (right now I’m cruising the casual) I would need to strategize more and be all crafty ‘n stuff, but meh, fuck it. It’s more enjoyable to go balls-crazy and just charge everything.

I finished Soldier’s Peak and got my storage chest. I was a happy camper. It’s kinda funny…I had like 10 bottles of different alcohol for Oghren  I’d been saving since I started DA:O, so it was nice to get those out of my backpack. Okay that wasn’t funny at all.

Let’s see…oh! I found Sten’s sword. His approval is at like…74 right now? So we’re not totally BFF’s right now. I’m still trying to convince him to let me braid his hair. >). …I wish that was a dialogue choice.

AND, here’s the biggie, I recruited the dwarves. I was looking forward to visiting Orzammar again because I’ve only played that part of the game once, many moons ago. Also, I was under the *very wrong* impression that Orzammar, as a whole, was a quick quest and a drop in the bucket compared to the other recruiting missions.

WRONG-O.

I forgot that Orzammar was in a state of turmoil ‘cuz King Endrin had kicked the bucket. I also forgot I had to do the Grey Warden-y thing by choosing one of two political parties to side with (HARROWMONT FTW! I did my research—Bhelen is a very bad boy) and prove to the Assembly that that whoever I chose was in the Ancestor’s favor, for without a king, Orzammar wouldn’t help me. Lazy bastards.

But nooo. It’s not that easy. I had to fight in the Proving, settle the dust in Dust Town (see what I did there?) and venture into the Deep Roads in search of Paragon Branka, who is ultimately a psychotic bitch. By the time I left the Deep Roads, Ogrhen’s approval rating was like, -13. Thank God for all of that stored alcohol at Soldier’s Peak!

Long story short, I crowned Harrowmont as King, even though I’m not entirely sure I agree with how he wanted to run things in Orzammar…ANYWAY! I have to tell you guys something.

So, you remember that SNAFU with the sloth demon in the Circle of Magi? If not, I’ll give you the short version: During the quest Broken Circle, DA:O glitched on me and I was able to entirely skip the fight with the sloth demon as well as the Fade mini-quest. This made me happy in the pants because that’s my least favorite part of DA:O.

After I realized the game had glitched, I went to see if the sloth demon was still “waiting” for me in his chambers. Sure as shit, there he was. With his back to me, the sloth demon was facing the entrance I should have come through, where we would have came face to face.

I contemplated engaging him. But I promptly said “fuck that” to myself and left him alone.. Unfortunately, I suffered a few penalties from the glitch (I couldn’t save Isolde and her son in Redcliffe and First Enchanter Irving died), but I continued on my merry way.

So, that’s the SNAFU. I thought I was done with the Circle, but while I was in Dust Town a dwarf gave me a quest that took me back. The quest itself would be easy; I just needed to track down a Mage somewhere in the tower and give him Lyrium in exchange for gold. Unfortunately the bastard wasn’t on any of the lower floors, so I kept climbing up and up…

UNTIL BLAMMO!

Ohai Mr. Sloth Demon. You were still waiting for me. Lovely.

So, at this point a million things are racing through my head.

WTFWHYISHESTILLHERE. Do I fight him and enter the fade? If I do, I’ll get those attribute bonuses I missed out on. But, if I do fight him, will it screw the rest of the game up? Now that I’m engaged in conversation with him, I’ll be forced to enter the fade. Will I lose all progress I’ve made?

Then I remembered something. I remembered that I’m a save whore and have several different save files I could boot up. In fact, one of them would take me right back to Dust Town before I even accepted the quest.

So, I did the responsible thing. I forcibly shut down DA:O (eek!), booted up my save, and pick-pocketed the dwarf that would have given me the quest.

Stupid sloth demon. Always messing my shit up.

[All log entries related to Dragon Age: Origins can be found here]