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

And, while I'm here, here's my Successful Friendmance Checklist - some spoilers about the general gist of a couple quests (like, "it ends with a broadly pro-mage and anti-mage option!") but no specifics.

Spoiler: vagueries (chuckles at own dumb pun)

Act 1:
We've either succeeded at or missed a lot of the approval-gain opportunities with Fenris in Act 1. The one remaining opportunity is in Act of Mercy, but getting it involves sending mages to the Gallows, which seems unlikely for Sparrow. So probably we should just leave him home to avoid getting rivalry.

Act 2:
Ok, so Fenris' quest structure in this act is a huge pain. In "Speak to Fenris," his conversation at the beginning of the act, we can get .. oh, shit, the best we can get is +5 approval, because flirting adds rivalry if you've already got rivalry. That bumps us up to a lovely zero.

Then there's "Questioning Beliefs" and "A Bitter Pill." "A Bitter Pill" can be triggered basically whenever, and will allow us to rake in a bunch of friendship points (like.. >50) if we so desire, but the issue is that doing "A Bitter Pill" before "Questioning Beliefs" causes us to miss some of the romance's content. And "Questioning Beliefs" doesn't trigger until we get him to 50 friendship. :|

We can get +5 friendship from Fenris if we pick the choice in Merrill's personal quest that CATAPULTS HER INTO RIVALRY, but.. while I haven't rivaled her before and it would be fun, you guys seem unlikely to pick that. :P An easy +15 from giving him a gift .. if having zero approval counts as being on the friendship path, which I'm not sure of. A possible +15 if we take the broadly anti-mage option on Anders' personal quest, but, again, unlikely. +5 for a choice that seems reasonable to make and which I will thus not spoil for you. That's. Not exactly a lot.

Here is my questionable plan:
We retcon a few choices in Hawke's initial conversation with Fenris. Lemme grab the relevant screenshots:



We picked "Why bother?" which resulted in ten rivalry:


If, instead, we'd picked "Good plan," we would have got ten friendship.
Next we picked "I'm sorry," which got a zero approval change and prompted this:


When, instead, we could have picked >You could make a home here for +5.

If that's retconned, we end up with 25 more approval. I can't actually go back and change it, but I can look at the old save and get screenshots of the alternate timeline conversation, and then add that much approval with his debug menu. That will.. uh, fix the problem, look in this second vague-spoilers spoiler tag for specifics:

Spoiler: vagueblogging (not really)

Then we can get +10 in Speak to Fenris since we're already on the friendship path, +15 from his gift, and +5 from the reasonable decision I am not spoiling, which will trigger Questioning Beliefs so that we can do it before A Bitter Pill.

This has been: Blue's overthinking hour. :P
But seriously, I think this is a good plan, and otherwise everything will be a huge pain or impossible. Opinions?

 

I'm for it!

 

... I think I'm gonna put John arm sprites in the bits of conversation I retcon out. :P

 

do eeet

 

Retcon!

 

Let's meddle with time!

Spoiler

DAI tells me that nothing can go wrong with that!

 

My primary fandom is 100% about time travel, sooo....

 

>Hawke: Dip briefly into another franchise.
What? I-
doooWEEEEOOOOOooOOOOOO

weeeEEEEOooooooooo

woooOooooOooooo
Ahem. Let's get this back on track.












(satisfied sigh)

 

Hey, that's against the rules of Doctor Who time travel! Go back in time in Doctor Who and there are two of you! Did you tie up past!Sparrow and take her place just to flirt with Fenris.

I admit, I was half-expecting John hands clicking the choices in the screenshots

 

That would have been brilliant, and maybe when I feel less lazy I'll make the images for it. :D

 

And now, through the slightly creepy blood magic appropriately performed in Merrill's house of ~runscript zz_fen_debug...



That's much better.

Now, which of our actual quests should we pursue next?

 

>Hawke: Write Fenris/Anders blackrom slashfic

(Or Loose Ends if you're boring)

 

Fenris little smile killlllllls me
yeah let's do loose ends

 

Didn't we talk to this guy already? Did I fail to save after it?







She says this in a VERY RUDE TONE. :|

>_?

#kpda2banter #isabela+varric

 

"What's the job?"

(I love Varric.)

 

>What's the job?
...wait, which worldstate are we playing in?

 

The "Fenris likes us back" history, I assume. :::PPP

(Oh, Merrill. Complaining about how messy her house is when it's, like, 90% bare and empty.)

 

In terms of worldstate, the default pre-made one, which I'm having difficulty finding details on. In terms of Fenris - our save file still has us picking relatively unfriendly options in the conversation, I didn't go back and play everything over again; I just went back to an old save file, got screenshots of the alt!conversation, and closed without saving, and then added 25 approval with the debug window.

>What's the job?


Ha ha, you are hilarious.


>Investigate
>Who's missing?



I feel like I offended her during our offscreen year??
>Investigate
>Where do I go?



>Investigate
>What kind of goods?



>I'll do it.

 

Spoiler: Codex - The Carta

The casteless dwarves of Orzammar have few prospects. Consigned to live in a crumbling ruin on the social and economic fringes of the mighty dwarven capital, most resort to begging, prostitution, or crime.

Just as all rivers eventually join the sea, all casteless who turn to crime eventually become part of the Carta. The Hero of Fereldendecimated the ranks of this ancient gang while rallying the dwarves to join in the battle against the Archdemon Urthemiel. Unable to recover the power they once had in Orzammar, they turned their attention "topside," using groups of surface-dwelling dwarves to smuggle weapons, lyrium, surface luxuries, people, and other goods between Orzammar and human lands.

Despite the flow of business, its members are still desperate and violent. With no strong leader to rein in their excesses, they have little sense of dwarven honor, and freely break their word, double-cross allies, and renege on deals.

—From The Stone and Her Children: Dwarves of the Dragon Age, by Brother Genitivi

Dammit, Crow!

Spoiler: Codex - Kirkwall - Hightown

At the height of the Tevinter Imperium's slave trade, Kirkwall's elite prospered beyond dreams of avarice. Hightown was built for the wealthiest slavers, its glitzy mansions rising atop a great wall of rock that borders, on one side, the Waking Sea. Lowtown cowered on its other side until Kirkwall's slaves rose to plunder and destroy Hightown's riches.

Today, Hightown's prominent buildings are the Keep, home to the ruling viscount, and the chantry, home to the grand cleric and the city's religious center. Both are converted estates that once housed wealthy magisters, rebuilt and converted after the uprising.

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

 

Maybe she's mad because we put this quest off until we had more party members. :::PPP

IT'S A METAPHOR, GET IT.