Mark Plays ‘Dragon Age: Origins’: Hour 14

In the fourteenth hour of Dragon Age: Origins, my party battles the Sloth Demon, Drake, Edward Cullen, wins by failing, wants to kill their mother, gets an enchantment? Enchantment!, and otherwise is awesome. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to play Dragon Age: Origins.

Hour Fourteen

It was time for me to travel to the Inner Sanctum to escape the Fade. I knew that fighting this particular boss wouldn’t be easy, but I did not expect rage-inducing levels of difficulty. I was stoked that my party was eager and willing to fight, and talking to the Sloth Demon was H I L A R I O U S. He shakes his head side-to-side when he sasses you!

AND THEN HE KICKS THE CRAP OUT OF ME. Okay, I know you’re going to laugh at me, but the first time I faced this demon, all my party members died except Morrigan. Then I proceeded to run around his little area, avoiding him until her spells and hexes recharged, then I’d do two quick little attacks, then run away, then access those Lyrium Veins if I needed health, and this was the only way I could stay alive against him. Was it repetitious? Oh, certainly. I’m sure you can see the mistake I made. See, he was in his sloth form, so once I defeated that form, I ASSUMED HE WOULD DIE. Nope, he had a FOURTH form waiting for me.

DEAD.

So I was much, much smarter about my party in attempt #2. Roslin was set up behind him to butt stab, Alistair had a proper tactics menu set up and was using Shield Bash to stun him, and I had the other two mages using spells that would stun and harm him. Basically, I needed to stun him to keep from moving around and fucking us up. And this worked! It worked beautifully.

And then that son of a bumblebee cast his fucking BLIZZARD. What the fuck is that thing??? In just a matter of seconds, he annihilated my entire party. Oh, so that’s how you’re gonna play this thing?

What made this section so entertaining is the fact that the game forces you to rethink the same part over and over again. It’s like a fighting puzzles. Where do the pieces go? What techniques work best? Where can you place your warriors and your mages? And honestly, I know Dragon Age isn’t the first of its kind, but I’ve never played a game like this before. It’s fun! It’s challenging without it being so difficult that I want to stop playing.

So, after utilizing the Golem to stun the hell out of the Sloth Demon and destroy him, I discovered that Niall could no longer come back with us. The demon had literally used up his body while he was in the Fade. He gifted me the Litany that would protect me against the blood mages, and then it was time for me to destroy Uldred. OH, THAT’S RIGHT. HE’S THE REAL BOSS.

It was weird being out of the Fade, and I instantly missed my shapeshifting abilities. Ugh, I had gotten used to them over the past few hours! WHERE WERE THEY? Oh, lost in the dream world with bigot demons. :( :( :( Still, there was a lot to experience back in the Tower. First of all, I had to fight a dragon named Drake, and all I could think of was Jimmy from Degrassi. Sorry! This is now my headcanon. As I got closer to Uldred, there were more bodies and body parts spread about the halls. Ew. Then there were dragonlings!!!! Noooo, why do I have to kill them? They’re so cute. Why can’t I have one as a companion???

I was utterly confused by my conversation with Cullen. (Edward Cullen SORRY I CAN’T HELP IT.) This game really likes giving me horrific moral conundrums, and I am all for it. It’s not often that a game makes me think so hard about the implications of my actions. Do I kill all the mages because of their potential for evil? Do I only kill Uldred? What if the blood mages attack me? What if I spare some of the maleficarum, but then they escape and cause more havoc?

Ultimately, when I faced Uldred, I really tried to spare the mages. My character, being an elf, tends to err on the side of compassion. But I was even more conflicted when the Abominations would gang up on my party, nearly killing us all. In the end, I did end up killing everything up in that room, though I didn’t feel good about it. Greagoir was, at the very least, grateful that the entire tower was rid of these abominations, and he’d start rebuilding the Circle as soon as he could.

High five, Wynne, for choosing to stay with me. I mean, I was super nice to her because I want to marry her forever. But she’s a great addition to the party, and I wanted to keep her around. Morrigan, on the other hand, was rather pleased with what happened, and I gained +12 to her approval of me because I killed the mages. Well, damn, getting approval from a religious bigot isn’t all that great, is it? Still, as conflicted as I am about her since she apparently likes nothing, she’s staying on my party. For now.

I took a brief detour to take care of the Reaching side quest and fought Shah Wyrd, who was super easy to defeat. And he gave me three runs, three gems, and a super huge health poultice. After this, I headed back to my camp to buy more supplies, get some enchantments, and chat with all my part members. As soon as we got there, Morrigan revealed that she’d read her mother’s grimoire.

what

what

WHAT?

FLEMETH RAISES DAUGHTERS AND THEN STEALS THEIR BODIES TO STAY ALIVE FOREVER

Okay, OKAY WHAT. WHAT???? But I liked Flemeth!!!! NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING. Ugh, I can’t believe this plot twist was just casually handed to me. Morrigan asked me if I’d go kill her, and I was SO CONFLICTED. I liked Flemeth a great deal, Morrigan’s gotten a little trigger-happy lately, and it didn’t seem right. But I ended up agreeing to it solely because I’m not into body stealing. No matter how annoying Morrigan can be about her beliefs, I’m not letting her get her body stolen away from her.

I took some time with Sandal to swap out my enchantments. Now, I’ve got Oathkeeper with a +5 electricity damage, +1.5 armor penetration, and +10% to healing effects. I bought Beastman’s Dagger from the Templar in the lobby of the Circle of Mages Tower, and it has TWO spots for enchantments, so I enchanted it with +3 fire damage and chance to reduce movement speed. It also has +10% to BUTTSTAB DAMAGE. FUCK YES. Oh god, THIS IS SO EXCITING.

Camp now has TWO Emissaries in it, one from the Dalish clan and the other from the Circle of Mages. OH MY GOD THIS IS AWESOME.

So, I decided to change things up. I’m going to head up to Denerim to do some of the Circle of Magi side missions, so my party is now Wynne, Adama, and Sten. I really want to spend time with Sten because he’s the only member at camp who feels entirely indifferent about my whole existence. Sten, I will get you to love me, just you wait and see.

My Character Stats

Strength: 24
Dexterity: 23+1
Willpower: 17
Magic: 14
Cunning: 17
Constitution: 19

Heroic Stats

Kills: 238
Damage dealt: 37782
Friendly-fire: 0
Greatest damage dealt: 90 (BOOYAH)
Contribution to party damage: 39
Hit rate: 86
Most powerful foe slain: Uldred (TAKE THAT, ASSHOLE.)
Injuries: 4

Currently, all my party members have mid- to high-range approval ratings of me except Sten, who utterly does not care about me. Adama loves me so much that his bar cannot go any higher. That’s right.

SOME MORE GOOD NEWS! Thanks to all the wonderful support y’all have given me, I was finally able to afford some tech gizmos that will allow me to record my gameplay WITH voiceover commentary! I will test out with all of my gameplay for next week’s posts, and as long as it comes out fine, I’ll start taking commissions for Mark Plays videos.

EXCITE!!!

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