Kintsugi Plays Dragon Age 2 (a winner is me!)

I don't know what the actual dialogue is, but it seems to me that "I want to help Feynriel" could be interpreted as either "I want to help Feynriel escape the templars" or "I want to help Feynriel, by bringing him to the Circle, which is obviously the best place for mages."

 

Huh. possible! but i'd still go with the first option, just because the other sounds so much like fraternizing with the templars :I

 

Whatever the first option says, I still maintain that we should lie to templars on GPs.
#and it's not like anders is around to get pissy and trash our attempt

 

I doubt any option would lead Hawke to be quite dumb enough to tell a templar to his face that she wants to help an apostate escape.
#and anders may not be but what will merrill think?

 

Well, I think Officially there are more votes for help rather than menace, so. I would also like to register that, after having played Origins with its lovely extremely-clear dialog options, DA2 annoyed the heck out of me. :P
>I want to help Feynriel.

Well, that's sufficiently vague.




In addition to our normal blue-purple-red on the right, we can ask Aveline to help, if we wish.
>_?

 

>And you don't need help?

 

Ooo let's ask Aveline to help! She has authority and shit.

 

Stand by, folks, we're having some technical difficulties. (Also this image is sideways and I don't know why.)

 

CUTE KITTY!

 

He keeps putting his butt on the trackpad, which is making it a bit difficult to click things :P

 

ask aveline for help when your too much computer kitty intervention is over!

 

>The city guard might help.



I WONDER WHY...




See, if we hadn't picked "I want to help," we might not have got those Sweet Sweet Friendship Points. :P
While we're in the Gallows, we could..

Talk to This Dude about our dad (although maybe we want to bring Carver for that..)

Ask these baby templars about Keran..

Or talk to this merchant guy who, iirc, just wants to send us to go find weird alchemical materials. Or we could just go find Samson right away, idk.
>_?

 

In the meantime, I ran around and found a bunch of codex entries!

Spoiler: The Cardinal Rules of Magic

You must not be under the misimpression that magic is all-powerful. There are limits, and not even the greatest mages may overcome them.

No one, for instance, has found any means of traveling-either over great distances or small ones-beyond putting one foot in front of the other. The immutable nature of the physical world prevents this. So no, you may not simply pop over to Minrathous to borrow a cup of sugar, nor may you magic the essay you "forgot" in the apprentice dormitory to your desk. You will simply have to be prepared.

Similarly, even when you send your mind into the Fade, your body remains behind. Only once has this barrier been overcome, and reputedly the spell required two-thirds of the lyrium in the Tevinter Imperium as well as the lifeblood of several hundred slaves. The results were utterly disastrous.

Finally, life is finite. A truly great healer may bring someone back from the very precipice of death, when breath and heartbeat have ceased but the spirit still clings to life. But once the spirit has fled the body, it cannot be recalled. That is no failing of your skills or power, it is simple reality.

--From The Lectures of First Enchanter Wenselus.

And also, an alarming relief.

Spoiler: The Seekers of Truth

Ser Whitmore,

When I mentioned powers greater than the templars, I didn't mean the Chantry. Sure they command the templars, but that was not always so—the Inquisition once hunted heretics and cultists as well as mages, and their reign of terror ended only with the inception of the Circle of Magi. They became the Templar Order, for good or ill the watchers of the mages and the martial arm of the Chantry.

It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, but few know that the Chantry created yet another order to watch over the templars: the Seekers of Truth. I know little of them myself, but I can say the following things with certainty: they serve the Divine and they are feared. When a Seeker steps from the shadows, templars run for cover—because why would he come unless the templars somehow failed in their duties? Seekers are extremely effective investigating abuses within the Circle and hunting particularly evasive apostates. It's said they are immune to a blood mage's mind control and possess the ability to read minds or erase memories, but this is likely exaggeration.

So we return to my original dilemma. Who watches powers greater than that of the templars? One assumes it's the Divine, but how much could She know about their activities when their very existence is a mystery to most?

—A letter from an unknown priest, found in the Grand Cathedral archives, 8:80 Blessed

Like Cass!

Spoiler: Kirkwall - The Gallows

Statues of tortured slaves fill the Gallows courtyard, a ghastly memento of Kirkwall's history. Fifteen-hundred years ago, Kirkwall was the Tevinter Imperium's largest quarry, feeding the construction of the Imperial Highway.

The Imperium's hunger for expansion led to legions of slaves forced into working the quarry. When the empire's construction phase ended, Kirkwall slid naturally into its new role as the capital of the slave trade—the Gallows at its heart.

The statues are not monuments to the suffering of slaves. Every inch and angle of the courtyard was designed by magisters bent on breaking the spirit of newcomers. Executions here took place daily, sometimes hourly, and corpses were hung from gibbets throughout the yard. New slaves trudging in from the docks saw what awaited them.

When Our Lady turned her armies against the Imperium, the slaves of Kirkwall revolted and claimed the city for themselves. The Gallows stood empty for two hundred years, not to be reopened until the crowning of Divine Justinia I. The Gallows transformed the city again when the abandoned prison tower became the home of Kirkwall's Circle.

—From In Pursuit of Knowledge: The Travels of a Chantry Scholar, by Brother Genitivi

Spoiler: The Enigma of Kirkwall

Ancient Tevinter lore is hard to come by, but there's history to be had here in Kirkwall, the city once home to the Imperium's slave trade.

What answers does Kirkwall hold? Why look here instead of Perivantium or Vol Dorma? The Imperium does not give up its secrets easily. Even with the magisters centuries dead, our journey is perilous. Here on the dock of the Gallows, we renew our vows.

And should we fail, search for the markings of the Band of Three.

—A tattered letter found under a cobblestone. It has curious markings and is signed, "The Band of Three"

 

hmmmm let's go on with the quest immediately

 

it chrismas
merr chrismas

(translation: I am distracted by the holiday season, expect irregular updates until the new year)

 

Merr Chrismas!

(also the new thread title is hilarious)

 

Hmm, some of the images in the first few pages are broken. :|

 

>Continue with the quest!

Lezgo.

A routine Lowtown gang fight...

was derailed by my being distracted by watching Person of Interest, causing first Isabela to fall..

..And then Hawke.

But it worked out, and we got a tip to a random gang hideout.

Here's the man himself.

You look way better here than in Inquisition, buddy.


>Investigate
>Are you Samson?



>What do you mean?



That's a variant of "mage" I've never heard before. :P

>Investigate
>So you help mages?




Noooooo, I can't empathize at all. Not me. Nope. X)
>_?

 

>Tell me what you know.