A Whole Lot of Silence and Trousers - Redcliffe, Recap

DRAGON AGE ORIGINS [DAO] GMAEPLAY/STORY - REDCLIFFE
Content - Recap

I feel like a recap is in order, since I've spent most of the new year, in true corporate fashion, cleaning up lingering action items from the previous year while hung over.  When last we left Sooney, she'd stopped in Lothering to supply up and listen to Alistair and Morrigan make her wish she'd just taken the dog.  We retrieved delusional church lady Leliana and grumpasaurus rex Sten and abandoned the village to its fate.  Harriet got through her harrowing, narced* on her turns-out-he-was-a-blood-mage Ron Weasley expy (and you can take as rote went to Ostagar and things went just as badly for everyone as it did for Warrior!Sooney and Rogue!Sooney).

So the king is dead, betrayed by his father-in-law.  All the Grey Wardens except Sooney (or Harriet**) and Alistair died with him.  Said father-in-law took over the country, sort of, but made decisions along the way that proved or will prove to be disastrously wrong and cause untold death and magical fuckery along the way.  The two Littlest Wardens were snatched from certain death by the captain of the USS Voyager/an inmate at Litchfield Correctional**, supplied with the most condescending misanthropic version of Officer Aeryn Sun and sent along their way.  Their mission consists of knocking on the doors of the Elves, Dwarves and Mages to make them help stop the Blight and the dragon-looking jerk who runs it, as well as maybe rounding up some sympathetic human Fereldens at Redcliffe.  And, you know, taking the country back from Teyrn Loghain.  And getting me a milkshake.  Chocolate.  With whipped cream.

Our party consists of:

Sooney Cousland - Batmanned scion of a noble house, looking for revenge on Arl Pennywise the Clown, but not her brother, who was the other sole survivor of the line, missing in action after Ostagar.

Alistair - Slightly glib would-be Templar who is absolutely allergic to authority and decision making to the point that he put Sooney in charge of fighting the Blight, even though he's the senior Warden in Ferelden.***

Morrigan - Sooney's self-appointed shoulder devil, witch of the wilds, Peacekeeper officer of the Klaizar regiment, whose two favorite hobbies are being condescending and docking you reputation for every non-shitheel choice you make.

Leliana - The last person you'd expect to turn into Pope Vader by the end of the third game, but there she is.  Slightly dotty seeming chantry sister who talks to the Maker and implies that, for all Andrastianity is crystal dragon Christianity, it lacks it's real world counterpart's tradition for mysticism.  I suppose it's also important to note that in other game worlds influenced by uncles Gary, Dave and C., Leliana would be a cleric as a character class, with magical powers, distinct from those Morrigan has, which were given to her by the Maker.  In Thedas, Leliana has to content herself with being a rogue**** and having been given unlimited arrows.

Sten of the Barasaad - There are actually a lot of seven foot tall, gray-skinned dudes in the Barasaad named Sten; it's a rank and a job.  He's the only one without horns, though.  Also, the only one in Ferelden, the only one who got sentenced to death in a gibbet for murdering a whole family with a grumpiness flare.  He's a fighter, in case you were wondering.

Mr. Bitey - Sooney's faithful doggie who does not get used the moment Sten and Leliana show up because you don't need to win his approval.  He loves Sooney unconditionally already.

That's a lot of recap.  I'll be launching into a more thorough introduction of each of Sooney's companions, actually, probably after this post.

Anyway, Sooney chooses to go to Redcliffe first, for reasons.  First, she thinks it's what Alistair would choose to do if he wasn't allergic to choosing, and Sooney is still looking to him for cues on how to Warden.  Second, the idea of dropping in on Orzammar, the Elves or the Magi - each of those is more imposing than dropping in on an Arl to see how he's doing.  I suspect she's at least seen her dad do that last bit, if not been involved.  Lastly, the forest is a pain in the ass, Orzammar has this sort of ...reputation in my household and the circle is a good place to die a lot if you don't have a couple levels under your belt*****.

Actually, along the way, Sooney decides to take a detour to Honnleath to get my favorite character in DAO, but that's for later.

* Narcked?  There doesn't seem to be a way to render the past tense of "to narc" in a way that looks right.

** By the time you get to Ostagar, the only difference between the different origins in story is the occasional line of dialogue and how much of a son of a bitch the fade sequences are, we can just assume that Harriet is there in spirit.  That said, I wish she was there in Sooney's run, or Sooney was there in hers.  Mages are hard to come by in DAO, annoying to maintain and easy to lose.  Darkpaisley's final confrontation with the archdemon was mageless, thanks to Petal Pie's poor decision making skills.

*** In his defense, he's been on the job like two weeks longer than Sooney.  Also, he has good reason to fear being seen as someone who could lead buzzards to a cooling body.  Okay, he's been on the job more like six months longer.  In my position, he'd still be processing the trademarks, poor boy.

**** The concept of character class and the Rogue in particular is something that probably deserves its own post, but I trust everyone to intuitively accept the fact that the difference between Warriors and Rogues is that Warriors use heavier weapons and heavier armor and have more hit points.  Rogues use daggers (one in each hand, natch) or bows and lighter weapons, and have special skills.  Still, we shoudl come back to this sometime.

***** Also, the fecking fade.  And it's insta-kill fire.