Mark Plays ‘Dragon Age: Origins’: Hour 32

In the thirty-second hour of Dragon Age: Origins, I clean up Denerim and learn why the Antivan Crows sent Zevran after me in the first place. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to play Dragon Age: Origins.

Hour Thirty-Two

The depth of this game will always astound me. It’s been at least two weeks since I last wrote about the Antivan Crows or spoke about the blood mages in the Deserted Building in Denerim. Yet because Dragon Age allows you to discover this story in whatever order and way that you want, I get to decide how it’s told. I mean, hell, isn’t that one of the best things imaginable? You get to decide how much of the story you get. I choose to interact with characters often, but I’m not one to sit and read all the Codex updates that I get. For some players, that is your thing, and it gives you a deeper understanding of this world. And you can certainly play the game without doing anything but the major Blight missions, too, and that story will be different than mine.

THAT IS JUST SO AWESOME TO ME. I really do want to wrap up as much as I can before I do the Landsmeet only because… well, this is it. This is the only time I can play this game truly unspoiled, and while I’m sure I’ll discover plenty of other rad things with a different origin story, it’s never going to be like the first time. So I want to experience as much of this as possible! Anyway, here’s what I got done this hour:

• I hadn’t left Orzammar yet when I realized that one of the Trial of Crows contracts was in the Royal Palace. Did you know I had never once been inside the Palace??? OH SHIT, MORE FUN STUFF TO DISCOVER. OFF TO MURDER AMBASSADOR GAINLEY!
• Hahaha, you bet I activated that Revenant, and you bet my party slaughtered the fuck out of him. I can’t believe there was a time when Revenants were the most difficult enemies in the game.
• Ran into someone named Vartag in the palace, who called upon his fellow Bhelen followers to try and kill me. DUDE, YOU ARE LITERALLY IN THE PALACE OF THE NEW KING, DON’T YOU THINK THIS IS RATHER TERRIBLE OF AN IDEA? Oh wait, you can’t, you’re dead.
• All right, time to return to Denerim. Why can’t I go back in the Alienage??? Still? Ugh, there better be a reason for this.
• OH SHIT, STOPPED ON THE WAY TO DENERIM AND FOUGHT DOUBLE OGRES. There’s a double rainbow joke in there somewhere, but I’m too lazy to make it.
• Gave Sister Justine some scrolls I found. She was stoked, but got mad when I asked for money. For real? I died like thirty times since I got those scrolls. I WORKED HARD FOR YOUR MONEY.
• Oh yes, gave Wade some more dragon scales CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT HE MAKES FOR ME NEXT.
• Okay, went to visit Master Ignacio, having killed Gainley. I was excited to see what he’d give me for completing all my tasks, but then he tells me he has one more: stop a ransom swap organize by Arl Howe. All right, that shouldn’t be too hard, right? Kill a few dudes, get some treasure and shit, and be on my way.
• NOPE. NOPE. Holy fuck, why are Arl Howe’s men so fucking difficult to kill? After dying four times, I gave up and reduced the difficulty to Casual. I care not about my pride. I wanted to get the hell out of this place and move on. That made it somewhat easier, but half my party STILL died. Jesus. It’s so strange when the game becomes so challenging this quickly!
• Before I headed back to the main part of Denerim, I thought it would be wise to visit that Deserted Building I passed up weeks ago because it was too hard to beat. My party was much stronger, so I figured we’d make a clean sweep of the place. AND I WAS ACTUALLY RIGHT! I noticed that most of the corpses of those I killed hours upon hours before were still laying around. That’s kind of fascinating to me, that there’s a history to the various places I’ve visited that’s permanent. So I breezed right through this, killing all the blood mages, including Luther. TAKE THAT. I RULE, YOU DROOL.
• I returned to Master Ignacio to receive my reward and ask him what the fuck was up with that bizarre ransom hand-off. He was fairly tight-lipped until I convinced him to open up, and I’m glad I did. The Antivan Crows initially supported Loghain, and that’s why they took a contract out on me. Unfortunately, once they realized how awesome I was, they couldn’t cancel it. Ignacio explains that it’s a cultural standard that the Antivan Crows follow through with every contract, no exceptions. And while that certainly sucks, I’m stoked that the game provides me with a context for Zevran’s behavior.
• God, I want to do a playthrough with a mage and have Zevran be my rogue. THIS WOULD RULE.

For the next hour, I’m heading out to the Brecilian Forests to wrap up a few missions, and then it’s time to go to Redcliffe. Oh god, IT IS ENDING.

My Character Stats

Strength: 27+6
Dexterity: 26+12
Willpower: 22+2
Magic: 14+2
Cunning: 24+7
Constitution: 26+2

Heroic Stats

Kills: 602
Damage dealt: 136453
Friendly fire: 0
Greatest damage dealt: 90
Contribution to party damage: 29
Hit rate: 87
Most powerful foe slain: Revenant
Injuries: 21

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