Did you know it’s been over a month since I posted the previous installment of this series? Well, it’s finally back. If you read yesterday’s Circling Forward post, you know that I actually did the play session for this post way back when it originally was supposed to be written. As a result, none of what I’m about to write is fresh in my mind. This is going to be a very rough blog post and will almost certainly contain several inaccuracies. I also expect it’ll end up being pretty short, because if I can’t remember the details, what am I going to write about? But, if all goes according to plan, things will be back to normal next week.

Before I start incoherently babbling about what I vaguely remember happened a month ago, we should go over some numbers. As of right now, I have played about 17 hours and 20 minutes. Ivan Ooze, my main character, is level 13. That being said, when I booted up my save file today to check his level, he actually had a level up waiting for him. So I guess he’s actually 14?

I did a bunch of side quests in Denerim, and for the life of me I can’t remember what any of them were. I don’t think any were too important to the plot. At one point I was in a bar for a side quest involving beating up some bad guys that were causing problems, I guess. This led to me talking to some pirate lady, who I tried to have sex with. She agreed, but Leliana made a big stink about it. Kind of weird because, sure, I’ve been flirting with Leliana, but we aren’t dating or anything. Jeez.

Anyways, onto the main quest. I decided to get Arl Eamon cured, which meant finding the ashes that Brother Genitivi had been looking for. I get pointed in the direction of one of his students, but when I get to the house he’s staying at, it’s clear that something is amiss. He’s acting a little weird and really doesn’t want me going into the back room. Of course, I ignore him and head into the back room anyway. He attacks me, I kill him, and it turns out he was an impostor. The body of the student was hiding in the back room.

After poking around for a little bit, I learn of a village that Genitivi had gone to in his quest for the ashes. So that’s where I go next. To no one’s surprise, there’s something weird going on in the village too. I go into a shop and the owner super doesn’t want me going into the back room. I head that way anyway, and get into a fight. Turns out everyone is an impostor!

After leaving the store, I’m suddenly attacked by everyone else in the village. It seems a cult has taken up residence. I fight through them all and find my way to a church. Genitivi is being held prisoner there, so I fight more cultists and free him. With Genitivi saved, we head to the temple where the ashes supposedly are.

The temple is a pretty straight-forward dungeon. I kill off a bunch more cultists and eventually fight a dragon. Apparently, the cult believes that the dragon is the reincarnation of some sort of holy figure, and I’m really blanking on that figure’s name. I told you this was going to be a rough one! Anyway, the dragon’s just a dragon, and we fight it. It’s actually the first real difficult fight, even with the game set on easy. I lose my first attempt at the fight, but win the second time. Even that second time wasn’t easy, though.

The rest of the dungeon is pretty weird. There’s a bunch of ghosts that all ask me riddles. I get them all pretty easily. Then there’s the ghost of my brother, who’s still kind of a jerk, but seems more or less cool with me. Then I have to fight myself. I sure do wish that I remembered the flow of the dungeon a little better. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t as seemingly random as I’m making it sound.

There’s also a couple puzzles I had to do. I had to stand on certain panels on the floor in a certain order to make a bridge appear. I remember this being pretty annoying and not very fun. Then there was a fire at the end, and I don’t remember why, but we had to take all our clothes off to get through. And with that, we found the ashes, and everything was great.

My party returns to Arl Eamon, and we cure him using the ashes. Now that he’s all better, we tell him all about what happened with his son being possessed and the castle being overrun with zombies or whatever, and all that fun stuff. In any case, the Arl’s on our side. So, that’s one more main quest done. I just have the dwarves to convince now.

Before doing that though, I head back to camp. After flirting with Morrigan for a bit, I end up sleeping with her. So, that’s neat. I also end up unlocking both Alistair and Leliana’s loyalty quests. Alistair’s takes me to meet his sister. She’s not very happy to see him and is kind of a jerk. That’s about all I got from that quest.

Leliana’s quest is a little bit better. In it, we learn that before she joined the chantry, Leliana was an assassin. While traveling about, we get attacked by an assassin, who after we defeat, tells us that Leliana’s old boss was the one who hired her. We track her down and beat her up. Now hopefully, Leliana won’t be bothered again.

Afterwards, I return to camp. I talk to Leliana, and she opens up about really liking me. I end up sleeping with her. So, that’s neat. Then I talk to Morrigan and sleep with her again. This is weird game. I mean, it’s not a very big camp, everyone should be able to tell that I’m sleeping with multiple girls in my party, but no one seems to care. Oh, well.

Oh, and somewhere along the way, I ran into my friend from the very beginning of the game. Apparently he was also banished when I was and has now set up a shop. That’s pretty cool.

And that’s week 5 of Dragon Age: Origins. I apologize again for the constant delays and the resulting incoherence. But hey, it ended up not being a short post, it’s actually longer than a lot of mine are. So, that worked out at least. Next week, we’ll be back to normal. Hopefully I didn’t scare all of you off.