Finished DA2 and other stuff

I finished DA2 the other day, and oh my god was the ending of act 3 just a cluster of awesome. So much crap happened, that I didn't expect, some that I did expect. Either way, it was really cool. I'll start posting up the rest of that journal soon.

I also found another game called, "Bloodline Champions". It's really fun. It's an area based game with action and skill shots. You have to aim everything, and actually use skill. It's really really fun, for how simple it is.

I've been progressing a bit on my map for BB:S as well.

That's where most of my time has been going recently, and I've been called for the possibilities of being a part of a family business. It sounds pretty neat, and I don't really have much else to do other than games/this/school. Been looking for a new job anyways, so hopefully this works out!

Journal on hold

I'm currently putting the journal on hold, but still taking screenies to update after I finish. I need to finish it so I can talk about it with friends and not have the story spoiled for me >_<. I'll update his journal once I'm done, then I'll start on another one.

Haven't posted in a few days because of that, +being a Brainbread: Source dev, +work, +bit of school, +lazy

Entry 14 of Neiko Hawke. Grand Mother Cleric.

 I was coming out of my estate when Orsino was rallying some people in Hightown. He was talking about how Knight Commander Meredith has unjustly been ruling the city ever since the Viscount's death. I'd have to agree with him too. Anytime someone opposes her, she swiftly deals with them, usually in a violent way.

It wasn't long until Meredith came by to hush Orsino from his propaganda though. I was mostly inclined to agree with Orsino, until she talked about how my mother was killed by a blood mage. It was true, but the knight commander has been going to extreme means, and has been keeping mages on an extremely small leash.

It wasn't long until the Grand cleric showed up though. She quickly hushed Orsino for making such a commotion, and disciplined Meredith by telling her to go back to the Gallows. The Grand cleric thanked me for stepping in to stop the two from getting violent, it was nice to know the Grand Cleric was still smart. She then told me she had to go keep Meredith in line at the Gallows. Meredith seems to know how to get things done, but she is overzealous sometimes, as the past few years have shown.

Entry 13 of Neiko Hawke. Qunari are tougher than they look.

I went with Aveline and some guards to see the Qunari Arishok, and when we did, he didn't seem too happy. We went to go bring in elf criminals in who ran to the Qunari to follow the Qun to evade being captured, since the Qunari would defend someone in the Qun. Upon hearing their story though, they had every right to do what they did in my opinion. A guard "forced" himself upon the elf's sister, and he reported it, but after weeks to months of nothing happening about it, they murdered the guard who "forced" himself upon their sister. A little extreme, but the law was doing nothing about it. The Arishok goes on about how terrible our society is, and I agree, and ask why he doesn't just leave if he can't handle our society. He states that he cannot leave without the relic that was stolen, which Isabela now has, and he can no longer stand by and watch our society. We are instantly attacked by ranged Qunari and we have to pull out, all the guards with us sadly died.

When Aveline and I escaped, Merrill was waiting outside for me. She was afraid I was hurt and was glad that I was fine (<3). I decided to change out Anders for Fenris, since his heals do help, but killing things before they can kill us might be the easier route. That and Anders and Merrill don't exactly get along well.

We started pushing our way to the keep to help defend, and along the way there were plenty of Qunari to fight. Any time a Qunari mage showed up, he was instantly our main target, their spells are really deadly, and are usually area of effect spells. We eventually found a Grey Warden named, "Alistair". We asked him to help us fight against the Qunari, but he stated that he cannot take sides on this fight. They did that in Ferelden apparently, and the Grey Wardens didn't like that. Oh well, he gave me an item a friend of his gave him, it wasn't that great of an item, but it still holds value being from a Grey Warden and all.

I eventually came upon some Qunari dragging humans down to the keep, so I intercepted them and started to fight, but a mage showed up from behind us and blew us all off our feet. It seemed like he was about to kill us all, but miraculously a sword goes right through his chest from behind him, and his spell is stopped. It was apparently the Knight-Commander Meredith who saved us, and said she knew me since my name came up in her papers more times than they should of. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing though.

 We kept pushing up toward the keep, and found the first enchanter Orsino fighting off Qunari. We helped him defeat all the surrounding Qunari, and once he realized what happened, he asked if everyone else is ok. I look around and see that everyone else is dead. He races over to a body, and at first I don't see who it is, but then I realize it was my sister! Orsino revived her, and they have a conversation about how she should have let them take Orsino. I wasn't too worried about the conversation, just if my sister was alright.

The knight commander met up with us and Orsino, and they started fighting over who is to lead and how we attack. They eventually decided that I should lead the little group we have going on. When we arrived at the main entrance, there were tons of Qunari guarding the entrance. We needed a diversion to get inside. Orsino volunteered to distract them while we ran in to save the hostages. I wasn't sure if he would make it, but I needed to not make his sacrifice in vain if it came to that.

I barged into the main room, and saw the Arishok was giving speeches to everyone, and killing anyone who said something against him. The Viscount was also dead, with his head severed on the floor. Everyone in the room was afraid they were next, and I'm not sure how much longer they would have been alive if I didn't show up when I did.

We have a conversation about how this is ridiculous, and it's not helping him find his relic. All he is doing is pointless slaughter on our race. He spouts Qunari religion and ways, just the same things they always say. We ended up having to start fight Qunari around us as a "Test".

Right as it seemed the Arishok was about to actually fight us, Isabela showed up with the relic. She goes on saying that half way to her destination, she had to turn around because of how I've changed her. We give the relic back to the Arishok, but he said Isabela had to go with her. She would be forced into the Qun, and then punished accordingly. I of course, objected this, and we started to fight.

The Arishok was a beefy and strong mofo. Fenris would occupy most of the other Qunari while I kept the Arishok's attention. It was a long fight, but surprisingly no one on our side was killed in this fight, and we had Isabela to help as well.

(There was a neat cut scene for killing him) Before I killed him, he goes on saying this isn't over, and the Qunari will return. We'll see about that.

Entry 12 of Neiko Hawke. Friendly back stabbing.

 Upon entering my house, I found Isabela and Aveline at each other throat's over I have no clue what. Apparently Isabela found her relic that she needed to stop someone from trying to kill her, and needed my help to retrieve it. She was really dodgy on clues, and was saying that it was probably important to someone. I had to choose between instantly going to go see the Qunari, or help Isabella recover the artifact. I figured why not help Isabela right quick, we'll be done in a few minutes and I can be on my way to the Qunari compound.

 When we arrived at a foundry that Isabela said the relic was at, we found Qunari who asked if we had the relic. I was confused by this, but Isabela said right off the bat, "We don't have your stupid relic." and we were fighting a group of Qunari. After the fight I stopped Isabela before we continued, and she broke down telling me that she knew all of this, but didn't think it was important enough to tell me. She then said that she needed it to prevent someone following her from killing her, but the fact it's the Qunari artifact that they are looking for, I needed it to give back to the Arishok. She gave a very unbelievable response stating she would give it over, but I really didn't believe her. I would just have to grab it first.

We walked into the foundry and found a couple fanatics looking for the relic as well, they instantly started fighting with the Qunari here to recover it, and the person who had the relic darted off outside. Isabela gave chase as soon as he started running, but the rest of us were pinned inside to fight.

As soon as we finished the fight, I ran outside to see if Isabela had the relic. Of course she was gone. She left a note saying she was actually sorry though. I'm not sure how to feel about her, since the relic is what the Qunari were here for in the first place. Trying to talk to the Arishok about this wasn't going to be easy in the first place, now Isabela made it even worse.

Entry 11 of Neiko Hawke. Religion is bad for your health.

Even though my mother was killed, I had to keep moving forward with the Qunari threat. I was told that the Viscount's son changed to the Qunari ways, and he wants me to bring him back. I needed to go to the Qunari compound and talk with the Arishok about this.

On the way to the Qunari compound, I was ambushed by some fanatics whose purpose I was not really sure about. I'm not sure if they were for or against the Viscount's son being a part of the Qun. Either way, I found another part of this armor set, and the only thing left is the chest piece.

When we arrived, the Arishok said he was expecting me to come by. We had a lame conversation, but it made sense. He said that the Viscount's son came on his own free will. He said he wasn't going to exploit the fact that he was the Viscount's son, since once he is a part of the Qun, he is no longer what he was, only what he is now. I asked where he was, and the Arishok said he was meeting with his father because his father sent a letter. The strange thing about that is his father sent me here to find him.... Why would he send me and a letter? Something seems strange, and I feel Mother Petrice is behind this since the meeting place was at the Chantry.

Upon arriving at where he was supposed to meet his father, he was already dead. Mother Petrice then shows up with some Templars and fanatics. She tried to pin this on me, but I instantly threw the blame back at her and she accepted that she did this. She also spouted nonsense about how he denied the maker by converting, and that people need a chance to defend faith by fighting for their faith. A bunch of religious crap that just starts wars. Either way, the Templars and Fanatics tried to fight us, but they were a chore at most to fight. Such a waste of people and fight.

The Grand Cleric showed up after the fight, and Mother Petrice tried to pin this all on me. I again, threw the blame right back at her, telling the Grand Cleric how she murdered someone who was acting on free will. No one was harmed by his choices to change religions, and Petrice would start a war with the Qunari over this.

The Grand Cleric believed me, and said that she would be put in court for her crimes. The Qunari had other plans for her though. A Qunari had followed us here and killed her as the Grand Cleric was walking away. The Grand Cleric seemed to brush this aside, and just let it happen. I'm quite glad she did, and it's nice to know that the Grand Cleric isn't as stupid or righteous as Petrice was.

Entry 10 of Neiko Hawke. Love and Lost.

I was at my house when Merrill came running in all flustered and rambling, it was cute. She goes on talking about how everyone will frown upon us, and everyone that hated her will now hate me, but that didn't matter to her. I even made a little joke about making my ears pointy for her, but she said that wasn't necessary (Oh oblivious Merrill).

 We eventually found our way to my bedroom, and one thing led to another... After some things, she asked what will happen now, I told her I guess we're together now, and asked if she wanted to move in with me. She seemed ecstatic at the idea, but at the same time afraid of what people would think of me. I again reassured her that I don't care what other would think about us.

 Everything seemed to be going perfect, but that was only a false sense of security. I was informed by Gamlen, that my mother was missing for her normal weekly meeting. I rushed out to see where she would of walked through and found a child who said he saw what happened. He wasn't talking though, so I gave him some silver and he started spouting everything that happened. Sounded like blood magic was going on.

I followed the blood stains on the floor to a run down house in the back of lowtown, and upon entering Merrill said that she had a bad feeling about this place. We walked around and found some shades here and there but there wasn't anything too hard. When we found a little shrine that had a picture that looked like mother though, there was a Rage Demon, as well as a bunch of books about necromancy, as well as the other dead women that were murdered in the previous years.

What I saw a few rooms down, there was no amount of preparation I could of had to prepare me for what I was about to see. I saw my mother's head stitched together with pieces of other women. What. The. Fuck...

The necromancer hid behind an invulnerability bubble while essences from the other women showed up in the forms of Desire demons, as well as some Rage demons and shades. The fight wasn't anything too hard until he came out of his bubble and started throwing death magic everywhere and spawned undead everywhere. I eventually had the life drained out of myself, and I collapsed on the floor only to be risen again to fight my friends. Merril, Varric, and Anders all focused down the necromancer as fast as they could to release me from his grasp, but he was also the only thing keeping my mother alive...

I wasn't sure what to do, the only thing I could think of was how I should have been faster. If I was faster I might have been able to save her. Anders tells me that there is nothing he can do, since the necromancy was the only thing keeping her alive...

...

I went back to my house, and Gamlen asked where mother was, and if she was alright. There wasn't much to say, and I could only beat myself up over it. He went on a rant saying that this is why magic needs to be controlled, I then told him that it wasn't magic that killed mother, but a madman. A dagger could have killed her just as easily. He then told me even though that was true, the desecration that happened to her body wouldn't of happened without magic.

Merrill came to my room after I talked to Gamlen, and tried to comfort me. It was nice of her, and I was glad I still had her by my side.

Entry 09 of Neiko Hawke. Chantry Troubles.

I went to finally talk to the leader of the city about the Qunari, and he told me that more problems with the Qunari have come up. He told me to talk to his friend Bran about what has happened. He sounded very serious about this, so I went to go talk to Bran instantly. I was told that some Qunari went missing, no reports, no fighting, just disappeared. He said to look for guards who were weak on honor that could have done this.

I went into the Hanged man, and instantly saw someone who was throwing money around. I walked up and asked where he acquired all this money. He said he just had to look the other way for something and was payed handsomely. I tried to figure out what exactly he did, and I eventually got the word Qunari out of him.

When I tried to pry more information out of him, he started to act defensive, and eventually he started to get violent. He tried to rally his hired mercenaries, but most of them refused to fight, still a few fought with him. Isabela was drinking at the time, and helped us when the fighting started. He wasn't too tough, just being a normal mercenary and all. He eventually told us it was a mother from the chantry who was using the Grand Cleric's seal to confiscate the Qunari

I went to go see the Grand Cleric about this, but the Mother was in the way and would not let me talk to her. I eventually told her that she will eventually have to leave, and then I can talk to the Grand Cleric. She caved in and told me to meet her somewhere in darktown. An obvious trap that I needed to go to.

Upon entering where I was told to meet up with her, there were a bunch Qunari that were bound by a Templar. He was torturing the Qunari, and trying to rally a crowd for something. I walked in and told him to release the Qunari and fight someone who's weapons are not bound. He slits their throats before I could do anything, and I ended up fighting the whole mob lead by the Templar. Individually the people were weak, but in the mob, they hurt a good amount, and trying to push through them all to kill the Templar was hard. Not only that, but once we seemed to lower their numbers, more would come through to help them!

This fight was really tough, Anders was eventually taken down by archers, and Varric was literally swarmed by the mob. I tried as hard as I could to stand my ground, but the Templar was healing everyone nearby him with an aura, making it hard to kill him, and anyone else nearby.

I eventually fell, and Merrill had to run around in circles throwing fireballs, freezing them with cones of ice spikes, and sending lightning doom on them. She eventually killed them all, mostly by herself.

We were too late to save the Qunari though, and the leader of Kirkwall came to me thanking me for my help. He says that even though things are bad, they could have been much worse without my help. I'm not sure about that, but I was payed for it.

Entry 08 of Neiko Hawke. Merrill finds a friend (in me).

Merrill has been bugging me about something recently, so I went to her house to see what's up. She starts to talk about how she almost has the eluvian mirror finished, but it still needs another piece. An object their clan is currently holding on to, and she needs to talk to the keeper to use it. She says she is too afraid to go by herself, and would like it if I went with her. Of course I agree with her, and off we went.

As soon as we arrive it's straight to business and Merrill asks the keeper for the "arulin'holm" and the keeper instantly knows what we're up to. Merrill speaks some elvish and the jist of it is that any Dalish elf can ask for a relic, but have to do a favor. The keeper doesn't like this, but she has to abide by it since it is their law. She tells us we need to kill a Varterral, an ancient Dalish guardian, except this one has been corrupted and is harming Dalish instead of protecting them.

We enter the cave, and through our travels, we mostly just find some spiders. Until we came upon another Dalish elf "Pol", who was horrified to see Merrill. He instantly ran away from us and ran right into the Varterral, who then proceeded to maul Pol. We rush into the fight, and it wasn't too bad, except for when spiders would come in randomly every now and then to help the Varterral. He was pretty tough, and he would throw this goo on the floor that would slow down any movement we had, and hurt constantly like an acid. This wasn't too big of a problem for our group, as long as he kept shooting it at me. He eventually was slain, and I picked up his Heart for the Apothecary in the gallows. We headed back to the keeper to let her know it was dead, but she gave the arulin'holm to me and gave me the decision to give it to Merrill or not. Of course I gave it to her, fully aware of the consequences I may have just put on myself.

Merrill wanted to talk after I gave her the arulin'holm, so I went to her house to see what was up. She talked to me about how I am the only one who seems to understand her and believe in her. I reassured her that I really do believe in what she is doing, and threw in a little comment how, "I'm sensitive, handsome, and supportive. What more could you want?" She then went on her awkward ramblings that are just cute. She then told me that she wanted me to come back when she's worked on the mirror. So I went off to my estate for a bit before going back.

When I came back she was sitting at her table, staring into the distance. I sat down with her, and asked her what was wrong. She told me that she figured the mirror would be fixed by the arulin'holm, and all of her clan would accept her again for fixing their history. She made a sad face, and then told me that nothing has changed so far. The mirror was still broken, and her clan still hated her. I reassured her that things will eventually work out, and that I don't hate her. She then said back to me that she doesn't hate me either, with a cute little smile.

Entry 07 of Neiko Hawke. Anders Finds Himself.

We went to go track down the Templar who was using the, "Tranquil Solution". He was last seen chasing a mage in what was the mage's secret tunnel that led them out of the city. On our way through, there were lyrium smugglers. They keep a steady flow through here for the addiction that is given to Templars, but they weren't too good at combat to stop me from reaching the Templar. There wasn't anything too hard on the way through, other than a large pack of spiders that dropped from the sky, they were a little tough. They surrounded us, and I was webbed a few times, unable to help my friends in combat at least half the fight. There were also spiders that shot poison from a distance, those buggers hurt a lot more than they seem to at first.

We eventually found the templar, he was currently harassing a mage, and seemed like he was about to turn her into a Tranquil! I approached this calmly, wanting to assess the situation and area, but vengeance came out of Anders, and ran in screaming, "YOU WILL NOT HARM ANOTHER MAGE!"

The fight here was brutal, the Templar had numbers, and strength (gamer note, I died and had to restart this fight at least 5 times). There were plenty of normal templars, with a "Templar Hunter" who was pretty much an assassin in plate. It was terrible, Anders or Varric were constantly back stabbed by the hunter who would jump in and out of stealth, and the only way to kill him easily was the stun him and burst him down. After a few minutes into the fight though, reinforcements for the Templars came in! There was another Templar Assassin, with a bunch of archers and normal templars as well! We eventually pulled back a room, and I stood firm at the doorway preventing any stealthers from passing through, or anything else for that matter. Eventually the Templar commander is taken out with a headshot from Varric.

After the fight though, Vengeance was still in control of Anders, and was saying the mage was under the control of the Templars and was one of them. I tried to explain how she was the one we were saving, and now she is safe, but Vengeance didn't seem to understand. Right as he was about to strike down on the poor mage, Anders takes back control, and at first he is confused. Within seconds though, he realizes what just happened, and runs off talking about how afraid he is of himself.

I met up with the mage outside, and tell her to go see her family *that's why she was trying to leave in the first place*, but not stay there too long. I wasn't sure if the Templars would leave her alone after this. After that I went to the opposite side of Darktown to talk with Anders. He goes on telling me that he's becoming an abomination, and it doesn't feel like Justice is any better than most demons. I try to reason with him, and tell him that he can overcome this and control it. He goes on saying that it's hard and he doesn't know how. I bring up an example that he could be an example of a mage. Magic is powerful and dangerous, but if he is able to control it, maybe others will see it is actually controllable by those with enough willpower. He starts to cry a bit and excuses himself from our conversation. It is a lot to take in though, so I go shopping for a bit.

I go back into Darktown after a little potion shopping, and wanted to see if Anders had recuperated yet. When I arrive at his clinic, he's outside putting milk out. He tells me how he misses Ser-Pounce-Alot, and says there used to be cats around here, but it seems they all left or disappeared. We have a little talk about the uprising again, and I tell him that the Grand Cleric wasn't a part of this "Tranquil Solution". In fact, in the note I read, she was completely against it! Anders told me how much of a relief that was, and that since the Templar was working outside the law, that we should bring it to the Chantry's attention. 

I will go pay them a visit soon and get this all straightened out.