which means time to move on Aelia

...it's fascinating and fun that for once there is no Templar character or build in the party

first rule of Minrathous: pet the cats for luck

okay. cats for luck!

evil blood mages are so WASTEFUL with it

for fuck's sake

I mean, makes sense, since blood magic as the first resort of the powerful is wielded by people who don't know what a budget is and refuse to learn

I can't wait to do this quest with a saved-Minrathous timeline to compare

frankly, I wouldn't have walked away while Aelia was still alive

no matter how pithy a line I had for it

Hadassah didn't. no line, no weapon - don't make a blood mage bleed. but she has magic, and a cube of ice is hard to breathe through

lmao this banter

"what is gruel, anyway?" my darling writers. it is oatmeal.

it's not mystery meat

you know what it is it just sucks

it's unfortunate that I can only meditate at Solas when the plot says

I want to harass him regularly

also unfortunate that being a mage means I end up using warrior/rogue combos pretty much never

because counting me there are FOUR MAGES

this secret passage has a switch puzzle that I can't quite grasp

there are six in here and a seventh behind a portcullis, and the thing above each has to be...what order to pull them in? but I can't verb it

it feels kind of forced that none of these assembled necromancers can resist Johanna's nonsense

all of you together? totally helpless?

Manfred with the save...

oh it kind of makes sense that you can't become a lich if you start raising your friends from the dead

or "may not", to be precise

not because the magic doesn't allow it, but because the people don't

I said, bring back Manfred

because what I love about Emmrich is his compassion, his love

the role of a distant watcher wouldn't suit the best parts of him

but I do approve of the policy

you have to be cool with your loved ones dying, because if you're immortal it's going to happen A Lot

now I'm on Davrin's quest and look. look.

"crusade" is not a term that Thedas has

the term they have is "exalted march"

and I like that, so I object to whoever wrote this line forgetting

and no one catching it

AUGH this Na-Than has a shield and a spear and UNFORTUNATELY there's a reason it was the preferred combo of infantry for centuries

...these guys have had some MASTER crafters down here

these walls aren't just cobbled together

"profane city approach" my guys all cities are profane

or almost all

profane isn't "unholy" it's "not holy" which is very different

huh

the First Warden

well, game, I would argue that he gave no evidence that he could see reason before I hit him

he sounded like this and with this level of grasp of the situation

I put the griffons in the forest

give them a fuckin break

not that that doesn't also have plenty of dangers

but the griffon genocide is something the Wardens can't take back, I think

I also sent the griffons to arlathan

It seemed happier for them