Dragon Age: Inquisition — Story Playthrough — Part Four

Iselia had just returned from an eventful outing in the Orlesian city of Val Royeaux. The templars had turned against the Chantry and gone off on their own, each man almost seeming possessed as they marched out of the city. While there, Iselia had met and recruited Sera and Vivienne into the Inquisition and was now preparing to meet Grand Enchanter Fiona, leader of the mage rebellion, at Redcliffe.

Redcliffe was located in the Hinterlands and Iselia still had much to do there. As well as finding Fiona, she still needed to help the Inquisition obtain horses from the horsemaster there, Solas wanted to investigate an artifact he had discovered thanks to his knowledge of the Fade, and there was still the matter of all the rogue templars and mages roaming the area and making it hazardous for the people who just wanted to live their lives.

As she left the Chantry to begin her trek to the Hinterlands, she was stopped by a well-armoured mercenary who was wanting to speak with someone in charge of the Inquisition.

Announcing herself as the Herald, Iselia found out what he wanted — apparently the commander of his company, the Iron Bull, was leading a charge on the Storm Coast. They wanted to show the Inquisition what they could do and prove that they would be of use to them.

It could be interesting. Iselia asked Leliana to send off her scouts to the Storm Coast and they would have a look soon. First though, it was back to the Hinterlands.

Just as they left, Leliana asked her to find a Grey Warden that a scout had seen in the Hinterlands. His name was Blackwall and Leliana had some questions for him. All of the Grey Wardens seemed to have vanished around the same time as the Divine was murdered. Leliana wanted to know if that was linked or a coincidence.

Iselia quickly found the man as he was very close to one of the Inquisition camps in the area. He was training up a few peasants to protect themselves against a bunch of bandits, and hadn't heard from the Wardens in months. Which apparently was nothing unusual; he had expected to be out on his own, recruiting for the Wardens by himself for years to come.

Considering the great good the Inquisition was trying to do, Blackwall offered to join them. The Grey Warden treaties didn't mean much when there were no blights, but the breach in the sky was a disaster all the same and maybe he could inspire people to help.

Iselia accepted his offer and sent him to Haven.

Solas reminded Iselia about the hint of the elven artifact he had found in the Fade and that they should investigate it in the physical world. He was certain it would help strengthen the veil and perhaps stop any more rifts from forming in the area.

That was definitely worthy of investigation and so they went to the area Solas had discovered and looked around. There was another elf there also searching for it. With Iselia's magic, she cleared the rubble blocking the entrance to an old elven ruin and they explored it.

They soon found the elven artifact that the elves had spoken of and Iselia managed to reactivate it. Solas closed his eyes. He could sense the veil around the area strengthening. It had worked. Perhaps there were more of these things in other areas that they could also activate — it would only help further.

Iselia agreed.

Finally they found the horsemaster and tried to convince him to allow the Inquisition use of his finest horses. He agreed, but first the Inquisition needed to do something for him: make the region safer.

He wasn't going to send horses to the Inquisition if they were going to get torn to shreds on the way to Haven. There were wolves that seemed as possessed as the undead that time Redcliffe had been under attack, and there were so many bandits on the roads... watch towers would be very useful. Once the wolves had been taken care of and the defences put up, he'd send the Inquisition his horses.

That was a reasonable request and Iselia set about it immediately. She found perfect areas for the watchtowers to go and would get Cullen to send some men out to build the towers soon. She would take a look at the possessed wolves shortly, but she really needed to get to Redcliffe first.

Outside of Redcliffe was a rift the likes of which they hadn't encountered yet. The demons that burst out from it... some seemed to move very slowly while others moved very fast. It was as though time was dilating around them. It was most bizarre.

Soon the demons were defeated and the rift was sealed. The guards called for the gates to open and now Iselia and her people could go and speak with Fiona at last.

When they entered Redcliffe Village, however, another mage raced towards them. Apparently Grand Enchanter Fiona was no longer in charge and a Tevinter Magister named Alexius was.

Iselia was stunned. The Tevinters were here? What on earth was going on?

While walking through Redcliffe, they spoke to several mages who were very displeased with Fiona's choice to ally with Tevinter. Connor, son of Arl Eamon and rightful heir to Redcliffe was also angry. His uncle Teagan, acting Arl of Redcliffe, had been kicked out along with most other non-magical people.

This was all wrong.

They found Fiona in the tavern where it appeared the woman didn't even recognise them. Apparently she hadn't been in Val Royeaux since well before the conclave and she had no idea who had told them to come to Redcliffe, she certainly hadn't invited them.

Regardless of the who's and why's, she was no longer in charge anyway. Magister Alexius was. If Iselia wanted mage help to close the breach, she would need to speak with the Magister.

Magister Alexius soon arrived and greeted Iselia.

Iselia questioned just why he was there and why had he taken these mages under his wing. Apparently he had arrive just in time to save them from a templar attack and now the mages were indentured to him. Before they could talk any more though, his son, Felix, near collapsed and Alexius quickly ferried the boy away.

Iselia very quickly realised that Felix's collapse was a ruse. He had dropped a note at her feet and it read to go to the Chantry, she was in danger.

Careful in case it was a trap, they cautiously approached the Chantry and entered... only to find another Tevinter mage fighting a rift. He looked over at her and thanked her for finally arriving; could she help get rid of this thing?

They fought the demons that spewed out of the rift, more that seemed to have time dilate around them, and then closed the rift. Then they questioned Dorian. They were to meet Felix here. What was going on?

Apparently Alexius was once Dorian's mentor, but was his mentor no longer. Alexius had been playing with time magic, a magic that he had never been able to perfect until very recently, and Dorian was trying to stop it before Alexius ruined everything. There was already a hole in the sky; they didn't need a hole in time too.

Then Felix appeared and warned them. His father, Alexius, was very, very interested in this so-called Herald of Andraste and was part of a cult dedicated to capturing her. They called themselves the Venatori. Alexius had indentured the entire mage rebellion and arrived at the perfect moment in time to do so, just to get to her.

She asked why he was turning against his father. He said that he loved his father, but he couldn't condone what his father was doing. Cults and time magic? It was madness. He couldn't bear it.

Iselia had a lot to think about. She couldn't bear the thought of her fellow mages turning to the slavery of Tevinter just to escape the templars. And the time magic and strange cults dedicated to capturing her? It needed further investigation. She'd send Leliana to spy upon this situation.

With all of this new knowledge hanging over their heads, they returned to Haven.

Blackwall had spoken with Leliana and were now going to utilise the Grey Warden treaties in an attempt to gather help in these disastrous times, and Iselia asked Cullen to get some men to build the watchtowers for the horsemaster.

Next she would go to the Storm Coast and see what these mercenaries had to offer the Inquisition.

 

Until next time! 🐲⚔️

 

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_{All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, @kaelci and are from the game: Dragon Age: Inquisition.}