Dragon Age: Origins ~ Helping Lothering

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(Edited)

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After falling in battle, Caelyra's mind swam through a deep darkness. Hushed whispers perforated her dreamscape, visions of darkspawn monsters and twisted dragons seeped over everything, she didn't know what was real and what wasn't...

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Her eyes snapped open, awake. She wasn't in the tower anymore and there were no darkspawn around, only the strange woman from the wilds: Morrigan.

Morrigan told her how her mother, the woman who spoke in riddles, had rescued Alistair, herself, and her dog from the tower before the darkspawn descended upon their fallen bodies. Her mother had healed them and brought them back from the brink of death.

Caelyra asked about the battle, but learned that almost everyone had fallen. Loghain was meant to respond to the signal she and Alistair had lit, but had quit the field instead, effectively murdering everyone. It was horrible!

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Climbing back into her awaiting armour, Caelyra headed outside and gave Xander a big hug. Morrigan's mother and Alistair were also outside. He was grateful Caelyra was okay, but filled with grief for he, too, had learned the fate of all who had been at the battle.

Duncan was dead, the king was dead, all the men were dead; only Loghain and his forces yet lived, thanks to their treachery.

Treachery... there seemed to be a lot of that going on these days, Caelyra thought, her rage still inwardly bubbling for Howe's head.

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While talking with Morrigan's mother, they soon discovered that her name was Flemeth... she was the fabled witch of the wilds. The most powerful mage anyone had ever known. Caelyra had heard so many stories about this woman when she was a child... it was hard to believe the woman of legend was really real.

As the last Grey Wardens in Ferelden, it was up to Alistair and Caelyra to continue fighting the darkspawn and convincing all the peoples in the land that the darkspawn threat was real and that the blight was upon them. And both of them had a personal stake in this too, as Alistair wanted vengeance against Loghain and Caelyra still sought vengeance against Howe.

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To help with their quest of gathering all the forces in the land to help fight the blight and bring Loghain to judgement, Flemeth pushed Morrigan at them and suggested they would need her help. A powerful mage by their side would make things a lot easier.

Alistair baulked at the idea, but Caelyra thought it was a good one. They needed all the help they could get, after all. Morrigan didn't seem too pleased with the idea, but grudgingly went along, and suggested they should visit the nearby township of Lothering to gather some supplies.

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They farewelled Flemeth and went on their way. To Lothering.

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As they approached the township of Lothering, they were met upon the bridge by a group of men who considered themselves toll colectors. They were really highwaymen, preying on the weak who were fleeing the evils surfacing in the world.

Caelyra would have none of it. She demanded none of their nonsense then they had the gall to attack. They were soon put in their place, dead, upon the bridge. They would fleece the worldly belongings of refugees no more.

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With the bandits out of the way, Alistair and Morrigan started arguing. They clearly did not like one another. She seemed perplexed that he would be wasting time mourning the dead and he was perplexed that she seemed to have no soul.

Finally Caelyra butted in and they started planning their next steps. They would gather some supplies here in Lothering then go to the Circle of Magi to seek help from the mages. Alistair wanted to go to Redcliffe first, and Morrigan suggested cutting off Loghain's head first, but the final decision was up to Caelyra. Magic was power and they needed power.

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Once plans had been made, Caelyra thought she'd have a little one-on-one chat with both Morrigan and Alistair. She sympathised with Alistair over his loss, Duncan had been a great mentor to him, and she chatted with Morrigan about her life in the wilds. Morrigan definitely had a different point of view on things, and it was quite interesting to learn.

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Heading into Lothering to get their supplies, they were accosted by a templar who told them to keep moving, that Lothering was pretty much lost. The darkspawn were heading this way, refugees were fleeing before them, and there was no where to turn to.

Caelyra explained that they weren't refugees but were just seeking supplies and perhaps to offer some help before moving on.

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They helped a family of elves reclaim their belongings from the highwaymen they had just killed. They sorted out a squabble between a profiteering merchant and the people. They stopped a madman from shouting and scaring all the people, and they promised a little boy that they'd help look for his mother.

Two other women needed traps and poultices crafted, so Caelyra got started on those too. The woman who needed traps needed a lot of them, it turned out, and Caelyra made quite a bit of gold off the woman. She'd spend that wisely, later.

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As they were about to leave the village, they came across a strange looking man in a cage. Turns out he wasn't a man, but a qunari and he had been arrested for murder.

Caelyra couldn't get all the details out of him, but surely a creature of such might and strength would be useful against their upcoming troubles. She went to the Chantry to appeal to the Mother to release him into her custody.

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The Mother was hesitant to release him, but after explaining to her that she was Caelyra Cousland of Highever, daughter of one of the Lords and could keep the qunari on her political leash, the Mother agreed.

While they were in the Chantry they came across a knight of Eamon, Arl of Redcliffe, the man Alistair had wanted to see to gain help to serve vengeance upon Loghain. Apparently the Arl was sick and the knights were out on a miracle hunt, searching high and low for anything to do with the fabled Ashes of Andraste; ashes that were said to cure any illness.

It was worrying that the Arl had fallen sick; they were going to need him. Caelyra re-evaluated her plan to go to the Circle of Magi first, but decided to stick with it. There wasn't much they could do if the Arl was sick.

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Outside of the Chantry was a board where the citizens placed pleas for help and assistance. Apparently more bandits had taken up in the area. Caelyra decided that removing the bandit threat was only the right thing to do before leaving Lothering.

But first, a trip to the tavern. There could be someone in their drinking away their sorrows — Caelyra wanted to help everyone!

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Unfortunately, instead of finding people to help, Caelyra instead found Loghain's men who were hunting her and Alistair for being "treacherous Grey Wardens." Evidently they didn't know the truth of the matter. Refusing to be taken into custody, they fought the men to the last who quickly surrendered. Caelyra told him to take a message back to Loghain, to tell him that the Grey Wardens knew what really happened at Ostagar.

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A Chantry sister had involved herself in the altercation. Her name was Leliana and the Maker himself had told her to find the Wardens and help them.

Though Caelyra was well-versed in religion, she wasn't entirely sure she believed that the Maker had told this random woman to accompany them, but, help was help, and the sister did know how to fight by the looks of things. Caelyra welcomed her to the group.

There were no lost drunkards in the tavern seeking help, so Caelyra set forth to eradicate all the bandits in Lothering and rescued the Sten from the cage at the same time, telling him that he had been placed under her custody.

He seemed grateful and ready to fight the blight to seek atonement for what he had done.

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On their way to eradicate the bandits, a group of villagers descended upon them. They had heard what Loghain's soldiers had said in the tavern, that they were Grey Wardens, and were ready to kill them for the bounty that was on their heads.

Apparently word was going around that the Grey Wardens had killed the King! Preposterous! They didn't want to fight the villagers but they had no choice. Soon villager bodies lay scattered across the countryside and they proceeded to do what they were out there to do — kill all the bandits.

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Returning to Lothering to inform the Chantry that the peasants were now safe from all the bandits, they were given two more objectives. To kill some bears and to find the mother of the lost boy they had met earlier.

They could do these last couple of things for the village before moving on. Morrigan thought these were pointless activities, but Caelyra needed to help. She had been raised this way.

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Just as they were leaving they found a couple of dwarves. Bodahn and his son, Sandal. On the outskirts of town, they were being attacked by darkspawn!

That didn't bode well for this little village of Lothering, having the darkspawn practically on their doorstep. Sadly, that was going to be a more regular occurrence these days.

They rescued the two dwarves from the darkspawn and bade them farewell. They had done all they could for Lothering, it was time to leave, set up camp for the night, then move on to the Circle of Magi.

 

Until next time! ⚔️🐲

 


 

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



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5 comments
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Very nicely written post.I can't believe I have still never gotten around to playing any of the Dragon Age games. I will try and find the time to check out Origins before Baulders Gate 3 drops later in the year. If I don't get around to playing Origins at least I can experience it through your well-written playthrough.

Are you recording video footage of this or just taking screenshots in game?

This past week or so Ive been messing around on the Vanguard Saga of Heros emulation project. I have a few videos to post this week . If you find the time it's well worth checking out the project, I'm sure you would enjoy the game.

It's easy enough to get set up, you can find out more here if your interested.
https://vgoemulator.net/

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I can't believe you haven't gotten around to Dragon Age either! 😱 It seems like it would be right up your alley. 😊

I'm not doing a video playthrough, just screenshotting and writing. Trying to get back into the writing groove. I haven't done enough of it lately and this is perfect for writing up! Even though if I went into explicit detail, it would be a full-sized epic-length novel. 😅

I can't wait for Baldur's Gate 3!! 😁 I never dabbled in the early access beta so it's going to be a wholly brand new experience. Looking forward to it!

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This game is looking really interesting with nice graphics and good quests!

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It does have nice graphics for its time. 🙂 The quests are pretty standard but the overall story is fantastic!

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The plot is pretty good. But you can't save everyone. The good thing is that despite this, they do not stop trying.

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