Denerim Part 3

Denerim Part 3

Your arrival in Denerim begins with a cinematic CS that is impressive and as the Arl assesses the situation, we see the army marching into the city.  Next we see Loghain in an audience with the Arl and Loghain is not happy!  Here is where we inform Loghain that there is a better hier to the throne already, but Loghain is not backing down.

The Arl lays the cards on the table, and Loghain takes his leave, declaring that he will not go down without a fight!

At this point you earn the Achievement / Trophy 'Standard-Bearer' for using the treaties to recruit all possible allies.  The Arl gives you instructions and advice, and you are now once again free to adventure.  One important difference is that now that you have completed the Arl quest line, the Alienage is reopened.  It is time to venture forth into the city, mate but first let's explore the estate and loot what there is to loot!

The Arl's Estate

Your party is here instead of in camp this is now your base of operations but that only makes sense.  Leliana is in the next room go have a chat with her to learn what she knows about the city and estate.  Now would be the time to do the leveling stats and skills stuff for any of the party that has leveled as well.

You will find an Elf named Nigella you can chat with briefly she is from the Alienage in Redcliffe! 

There are a bunch of Codex Entries to be had here, a Love Letter, and some odd kit to be looted, and when you get to the Arl's personal chambers you get a CS with him, and are introduced to Anora's handmaiden, who has been sent to request your help.

It seems that Loghain may be considering killing his daughter to remove the impediment that she represents to his claim on the throne. Anora wants your help to keep that from happening.  This flags the quest 'Rescuing the Queen' and then the handmaiden departs.  Talk to the Arl again and he will give you his opinion on the nature of this quest and it is clear that he is hoping for the best here.  Head to the Estate Exterior to get the party formation screen and select your party, then we have some minor chores to attend to.

First we visit the Tavern, and talk to the Bartender to turn in our outstanding quest 'Correspondence Interruptus' for our reward.  He now has two new quests for us False Witnes, and Dead Drops.  Take them both.

Step outside and look at the cages by the Square for the first Dead Drop location and click it.  Next step over and chat with Slim Couldry to get the final break-in assignment, called 'The Private Collection.'

Head over to the City Map and you will see that the Arl of Denerim's Estate is now selectable so go ahead and select it!

Arl of Denerim's Estate

On the way to the Estate we get a combat interruption it is the Crows!  And they want Zeveran back or dead it is all the same to them.  I guess their appreciation and fear of us only extends so far.  If Zeveran is not in your party, the game forces him into it, and you have to select the other two members who will be assisting you.  It is situations like this that are why you should always be upgrading skills, stats, and kit on all of your party members!

Soon enough the Assassins are dead Taliesen is dead, and Zev feels that he is now free of the Crows.  He wants to leave your party now but leaves it up to you.  We have another Rogue to use if you are not that class, so there is no real reason why we have to keep him. I elected to persuade him to stay just because I think he is funny, but you can safely let him go if you like.

When you have looted all of the bodies and containers, head to the City Map to continue your journey.  If you kept Zev but do not want to have him in your active party for the next mission you will need to visit your camp and change him out.

Erlina is on the left as you approach the barricade waiting for you.  After you talk to her, head to the left and sneak through the side of the Estate, and when you get to the back section Erlina will distract the guards to that you can slip inside.  Put your disguises on, and tell her to distract them.

Inside the Estate

Once you are inside, walk forward for a CS in which Erlina gives you more instructions.  You get a quest update and she tells you where the Queen is.

Basically you just run North towards the icon on the map following the quest arrow.  When you arrive it appears that some sort of magical seal has been placed on the door to her chamber!  We have to find the mage who cast this which means seeking out Howe hey maybe we will get to kill him after all!

On your way into Howe's chamber there is a chest with some Grey Warden Documents be sure to grab those!  When you pass through the door you get a CS, and then the stranger recognizes Alistair he is a Grey Warden from Orlai! 

We talk with him and learn his story and then we give him the papers we just looted as they are his.  Warden Riordan is not destined to join us now he is going to escape and heal up, and then perhaps join us later?

There is a treasure room on the other side of the hall from where we entered Howe's chambers that has a lot of loot in it including a gift so we should empty it out as a favor to Howe, yes?  Now back to the Dungeon door and down, and we see quest markers on the radar plus enemy markers oh joy!  A fight!

Take out the guards and mind the traps so you do not set them off.  Basically what you are going to do is clear each room and then loot them.  When you reach the torture chamber you release the son of a Noble and Clan Leader named Bann Sighard who provides you with some more intel and his rescue and release can only help our cause so good on ya mate!

Deeper in the Dungeons are some cells one of them has a prisoner from the Battle at Ostagar who has gone quite mad.  This tuns out to be Rexel, the missing soldier that the Chantery is seeking!  You have a choice kill him to put him out of his misery, or free him. 

Now head into the room with Howe and it is evident that he was expecting us...  So yes, we do get to kill him!  Sweet!

We get a nice CS of Howe bleeding out and then we loot his body for his key and some valuables.  Now head to the cells in the very back and release another prisoner a Templar named Irminric who was captured during the search for Jowan.  He wants you to deliver his signet ring to his sister, Bann Alfstana.

Now we retrace our path back upstairs and release the Queen. 

Observation: When the Queen exits her chambers you may notice that one of the dialogue options you have is "Aren't you a little short for a guard?"  That is a line from the all-time epic blockbuster film Star Wars!  When Han and Luke release Princess Leia from the cell on the Deathstar, that is what she says to Luke...

Escape!

As you try to leave, you are stopped by that female warrior that was at the audience earlier and told to surrender or die!  I choose Die!

And I did...

Yeah this is a tough fight.  My party wiped and we all got captured... And I got a CS in which Wynne reports our capture to the Arl the thing is, Wynne was WITH me when I got captured so...  I know that this is part of the story line, but it sorta sucks to get P0wn3d like this.

Now the thing is, this is one of those spots where you have two possible outcomes, and since I am carrying enough Elfroot and bottles to make 200 healing potions, there is no reason why we cannot experience both outcomes!  And so here they are:

Confrontation: Victory!

As you step out of the hall into the chamber you are cornered by Ser Cauthrien, Loghain's General Commander of the Royal Guard and a dozen of her knights, with a few mages to boot!  She demands your surrender, but you try to talk to her to help her see the truth.

You tell her that the Queen was being held captive here and of course she says that is a lie, because Loghain would never tolerate that.  You are to be charged with Howe's murder, she declares.

So you point to the Queen and say she is right here, ask her yourself!

Anora steps forward and cries that you tried to kidnap her oh that double-crossing bitch! 

Once she says that, the fight is on!  You are heavily outnumbered, they are really good at fighting, so you must stay on top of your party health.  As soon as one takes damage, hit them with a healing potion in fact you should have the healing potions on your first page macro button so that you just have to hit it without having to think about it!  You are about to burn through a huge number of potions but that should not be an issue for you...

By now you should have healing capped at Master, and you know that you can buy an unlimited supply of Elfroot as bottles from the shop in the Dalish Camp, right?  If you run low during the fight, you can use the menu to make more during the fight.  I started with 95 potions made 55 more in the middle of the fight, and ended with 41, so that should give you an idea of how hard this fight was!

Right so we have won the battle, but the Queen has escaped!  Well, at least you had the satisfaction of killing Ser Cauthrien, right?  Her body has a sword on it called The Summer Sword and it has pretty good stat's on it!  It is a two-handed sword, with two available Rune slots so if one of your warriors is using two-handed style, you may want to grab this.  Looting it gets you a new Codex Entry called The Summer Sword.  Read the Codex Entry on it, it is pretty cool.

Since we are already here, and Howe is dead, we may as well loot the rest of the Estate, right? I mean why not?  Don't forget to look around the grounds on our way back to consult the Arl too...

When you arrive at the Arl's Estate he greets you happily, relieved that you are not dead.  Well, me too, really, but anyway, the Queen is standing here, unapologetic, and actually knocks on you for outing her to the guards.  Despite the acidic feelings in the room, she asks you to hear her out while she explains what her plan is...

She begins to talk about the situation in the Alienage she is not sure what exactly has been happening in the Alienage, but she believes that it is the key to this mess.  The Arl points out that the Queen could have simply communicated this through a message from her handmaiden, but the Queen insists that to attain victory over her father, we need a stronger candidate for the throne her in just those words.

She has a point about the matter of neutrality or lack thereof putting a Grey Warden on the Throne would not be well received by all.  With that she takes her leave, and we are left with the Arl, who it seems may admire Anora more than he should.  Still, the Arl warns us not to trust her too much, and that sounds like sound advice to me!

During the conversation we suggest that perhaps Anora and Alistair should get married but Alistair really does not like that idea at all.  The Arl tells us why we should keep pushing for Alistair to be king it is the Royal Bloodline don't cha know?  The conversation ends on the Alienage just to remind us that we have some things to do there... And then the Arl tells us to go have a chat with Anora which we planned to do anyway, right?

The two story divergences converge here please jump to "Deneim Part 4" now.

Confrontation: Captured!

As we step out of the hall to escape we are confronted by Loghain's Commanding General, Ser Cauthrien, and told to surrender or die!  She orders her troops to attack, saying "Loghain wants the Warden Dead or Alive!"

We get a CS in which the Queen reports that we have been captured.  The Queen tells the Arl that they must rescue you err you and Alistair! 

Next CS is a cinematic tour of the dungeon, and we wake up wet, sticky, confused, and nearly naked in a cell.  Alistair has been worrying about us, but he is happy that we are now awake and of course we ask where are we?

Alistair deduces that we are not in the Royal Palace and speculates that we are in Fort Drakon.  We tell him not to worry, that the others will come for us, and Alistair wonders out loud just who is it that we think will come?  The thing is, whoever we pick and it lets us pick two will be who actually shows up to rescue us!  So pick with care...

I picked Leliana and Calvin (Calvin is my dog) and she ends up doing this cute little bluffing routine where she tries to convince the guards that she is delivering Calvin to the garrison.  The guard ends up going for his Captain because hey, low-level non-com's do not make that sort of decision, right?

When the Captain shows up, Leliana bluffs her way past the guards and she is in! 

When we reach the door that leads to the rear section and presumably the dungeons, Leliana stops and observes the guards, thinking it might be a bit tricky getting past them, and then she notices a scaffolding nearby with a Ballista on it.  I know what she is thinking and it is wicked!

We turn the nearby Ballista towards the far wall and fire it and the guards all run in the direction of the noise made by the bolt hitting the wall, leaving the door unguarded.  How cool is that?  Through the door we go, and up a short hall to another door, but when we enter the next chamber the guards here immediately attack us!  Well, there are only four of them, so with Calvin's help we take care of the situation.

It is still a long way to go to get to where we are being held captive through the next door and then turn right, and head along the hallway here, and according to the radar map there is a group of guards on the other side of the Metal Door at the end of the hall...  There is nothing for it we have to go in so fight we do!  But it is not guards, it is guards AND war dogs!  Well, we kill them anyway, and proceed down the stairs you have been saving after each fight, right?

When Leliana reached the cells where we are being detained, she picked the lock on the door and opened it causing the game to bug so that we could not speak to our main character only to Alistair, and that did not progress the mission!  I had to re-load from a save, re-fight the guards, and then loot the key to the cell and use it to open the door to the cell in order to get the mission to progress...

We will need to clear each room systematically and loot to find the Colonel or the Captain we need to kill to get one of the keys to the front hall door in order to escape but hey we are here anyway, right?  And it would be good to know if there are any Codex Entries or quest items here too.

When we reach the front door with the key we get the City Map, and select the Arl's Estate in Denerim.  We arrive there and run straight to the Arl's quarters, where he and the Queen are waiting for us.

The Queen is happy to see us and we are happy to see her!  Our relationship is cordial, and Anora provides a tactical assessment of the situation with her father, and tells us that we need her as she is a stronger candidate for the throne..   She has made her case, and now she retires to her quarters, and the Arl gives us his assessment of our situation. 

The difference between this line and not being captured appears to be the quest "Captured!" and the fact that there were Codex Entries in the other line and not in this one, so you have to decide which you want to do...

The two story divergences converge here please jump to "Denerim Part 4" now.