Mark Plays ‘Dragon Age: Origins’: Hour 31

In the thirty-first hour of Dragon Age: Origins, Bhelen’s followers are still, like, totally obsessed with me, camp is awesome, Shayle believes I am a superior being, and Adama needs a bath. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to play Dragon Age: Origins.

Hour Thirty-One

After getting so much done in hour thirty, I was a bit frustrated by one aspect of this game that prevented me from doing much:

Traveling.

I suppose I’m used to the way maps work in the Fallout games, or perhaps how fast-travel works in Borderlands. This game? It doesn’t really have either. So unless you magically get all the right quests in the correct order and are ready to complete them as you enter into certain parts of the game, the game can lag because you have to walk to so many places. You can only access the World Map at certain locations, so once I decided to complete An Admirable Topsider, I had to walk to the entrance of the Deep Roads, then travel to Ortan Thaig, then walk to the Dead Trenches to get the last piece, then walk back to Ortan Thaig OR go through the Anvil of the Void to find a World Map trigger and travel back to Ortan Thaig, and this sentence is way too far long. But you get the point. I wanted to have more to report back to y’all, but all this walking seriously sucked away my time.

Still, I had fun regardless. I got the Topsider’s Honor, which I’ll get to later when I talk about camp. I had two interesting interactions within Ortan Thaig and the Dead Trenches because I actually missed two small areas where there were a ton of darkspawn. Both spots had at least one emissary, and I don’t know if they level up relevant to me, but I died once in each area. Jesus, I forgot how difficult it was to fight them!

Then, once I headed back to the Commons, more of Bhelen’s fanatics attacked me. Like ten of them! Dudes, your shitty king lost, and then I killed him. Get over it. I’ll just keep killing y’all and looting your corpses. I feel no remorse for doing this.

I also returned the tome that was stolen from Milldrate AND HE DIDN’T GIVE ME SHIT FOR IT. Look, I know that I’m a wonderful ~hero~ to these people, but I operate under the expectation that you’ll give me something for murdering people by request. Seriously, I killed like twenty dudes for you, Milldrate. Give me a fucking cupcake or something!

Also, I just need to note that when I finally left Orzammar, Oghren was initially overwhelmed by coming topside, but then said it was less bewildering than discovering his wife liked women. Thanks. Thanks for that, Oghren.

So let’s talk about camp! I’d been anxious to head back as soon as possible because I needed some ENCHANTING to do. Plus, I missed Alistair. I DID. I AM NOT AFRAID TO ADMIT THIS. So, I swapped out Roslin’s weapons with the following:

Topsider’s Honor with 3 enchantments (+4 electricity, +5 electricity, +4 damage to undead)

Dead Thaig Shanker with 2 enchantments (+3 fire damage, chance to reduce movement speed)

I wasn’t planning to use two runes that caused electricity damage, but they were both fairly high, and I wanted to hopefully find or buy a better rune at a later date. THIS IS A GOOD PLAN.

Morrigan had no new conversation options, but I’m not too torn up about this because her approval rating of me literally could not be any higher. I CAN ONLY LOSE WITH HER. Shayle, on the other hand, still has a bit of room to grow, but she’s pretty much in love with me. It’s lovely. She proposed this extensive theory that I am the result of “fleshy” beings consciously trying to improve their breeding. Shayle, I will accept your theory and your compliments. Plus, now she’s become a human-hater with me. YEAH, LET’S HATE OUR OPPRESSORS. I APPROVE.

After this, I spoke to Adama, and Wynne informed me that Adama smelled. Well, yeah, he’s a dog! But I allowed her to give him a bath, which is the funniest image in the world. Wynne is giving Adama a bath. PUT A BOW ON HIS HEAD. DO IT, WYNNE.

At this point, I had only 15 minutes left to play, so I only got to accomplish two things. I traveled back to the Circle Tower to find Godwin. I was shocked to run into Dagna there. I mean, I know she said she was going to come here, but I didn’t think she meant it! I unfortunately had to tell her that the Circle of Mages didn’t exist anymore, and it basically broke her heart. However, ever the optimist, she was sure she could offer up skills of her own to help rebuild the place, which is pretty damn awesome for someone so young!

I can’t say the same for Godwin. I didn’t quite remember who he was, so I actually searched my own blog for mention of him, discovering that he was the dude in the closet on the second floor. Sweet! However, aside from two chests I couldn’t unlock the first time I came through this place, I found nothing. Godwin was nowhere to be found. Confused, I went back to Dust Town to tell Rogek, and he was, understandably, a bit upset by this. He never factored in the possibility that the Circle of Mages would be destroyed. So what does he do? Fight me. Yeah, that’s not going to go over well. I did manage to get 20 gold back from him, but BOOOOOOOO I wanted to make more money! BIGOTRY!

Okay, I think I’ll be paying a visit to the Brecilian Forest for a couple missions in the next hour. Then? It’s time for the landsmeet. OH GOD, SO CLOSE!

My Character Stats

Strength: 27+6
Dexterity: 25+12
Willpower: 22+2
Magic: 14+2
Cunning: 22+7
Constitution: 26+2

Heroic Stats

Kills: 586
Damage dealt: 130828
Friendly fire: 0
Greatest damage dealt: 90
Contribution to party damage: 29
Hit rate: 87
Most powerful foe slain: Revenant
Injuries: 20

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