haha, awesome! Did Wynne leave you in the end btw? And I'm pretty sure one of the consequences of the Ashes being tainted was that Leliana wasn't their caretaker anymore at the (now non-existing) pilgrimage.

And a title and richess? Meh! MOAR DWARVEN RIGHTS!! No but cool...I wonder, the Dwarven chick you knocked up, was her name Rica or something like that? And was she a redhead? Because that would be interesting.

I'll post a screenshot of my own new character...he looks completely depraved and evil. And yes, he's headed for Redcliffe as well. Actually took some ranks in Consitution in order to balance out the blood magic (blood magic doesn't use mana but health to power spells, in case you didn't know).

Yea, you mentioned the constitution thing. For now I'm pouring most of my points into magic as I unlock the more powerful spells. The one where you make people explode is pretty freaking cool, btw.

Leliana still became the caretaker for the ashes, btw.. or at least went with an expedition of templars and priests. I never did end up going to camp, so Wynne never left. Thankfully right at the end you can buy stuff and do enchantments without going to camp. BTW, on that note, be sure to pick up grandmaster runes you like when you can for your characters. I ended the game with over 240 gold.

I have no idea who I knocked up. Does it matter?

Currently I'm at Ostagar fighting my way through the tower. My disregard for my fellows has ended in quite a few injuries already. Oh well. It's hard for me to care about disposable teammates. The origin story in the tower was pretty cool though.

*spoiler*

What'd you do? I totally betrayed what's-his-name. Loved the Harrowing though.

Oh yeah, gotta love all the "necromantic" spells...I never even really noticed them much before tbh. And yeah, the gold hoarding issue is a recurring RPG theme for experienced players like us.

SPOILERS

I haven't even finished the entire origin quest yet, actually. You play too fast for me. That and I'm juggling two girls, MP sessions and drinking. I did like the Harrowing too, though, and I was pleasantly surprised at seeing the 'mouse' character again from the stint in the Fade from my first character. I unmasked him as a demon, but now I'm not sure if he was just posing as the dude from my first char's run-through or actually IS the same dude.

re: why I asked who your dwarven babby mommy was...as a dwarven commoner, your sister Rica gets knocked up by Prince Bhelen and gives birth to a son (who is elevated to noble status according to Dwarven society, as you know). It was an interesting enough parallel for it to be possible. It was the entire reason why I backed Bhelen...he was my brother-in-law. And I loved my sis.

lol, possibly. I also work 40 hrs a week and go to school 3 days a week. Oh, and I exercise 6 days a week. What's your excuse?

Hey, I'm in my mid 30s and in the best shape of my life.

Call now and get my video and I'll show you how. How much would you pay for this? $100? $200? $500? For the limited time, get my educational video for $19.99!

But wait, there's more!

Order now and get a vial of honest-to-god Satis-semen, absolutely free!

Here's how to order...
.....

So anyway, I'm in Redcliffe. I let the village get wiped out. I'm now in the castle. The part of the dungeon where you go to loot some bones and a bunch of skeletons pop out of the ground... more are there, with names of villagers I abandoned. muhahahah!

On a negative note, my 'raise skeleton' or whatever spell doesn't work on skeleton corpses. WTF?!

so, anyway, I got my blood mage specialization. I need to level before I can do anything with it (I didn't save the spells I got from levelling due to the difficulty of the fade for my mage). The castle is a lot harder when you let the village die... you end up having to fight a lot of extra dead villagers.

The fade was rough for my main, since the only damage spells I had were the two ticking bomb ones (that you can't stack) and the arcane bolt thing every mage gets. The other spells (like spell might and whatnot) didn't really help much. I ended up spending a spell point on heal

Haha, I'll make sure to pick up one or two good one-on-one spells with my mage before going to Redcliffe myself then. Can't wait to see the carnage when you let the village get raped. I don't think many people realize(d) it's even a real option, you know? That's one of the reasons it's such an amazing game, to me.

Oh, do you remember that there's a revenant in the courtyard? I didn't remember until I got there... what a rough freakin' fight. I did manage to beat him, but only after losing myself, Sten and Morrigan. Only Leliana was left standing.

Also, I finally registered my game key and got the blood armor and shale DLCs as a result. That was easier than I thought it would be, since I just had to paste in my CD key. Well, one of the two... the whole situation could still be done a lot better. But whatever.

Now that I've finished with Redcliff for now, I think I'll grab Shale, though I don't really want to get rid of Sten. Damnit, so many characters.

Cool. Yeah, redeeming the free DLC is easy. That's why I still wonder at the need for making you go through the motions (cfr. jumping through hoops for EA in other thread).

But whatever, you'll love Shale, he's awesome. And no, I didn't know about the revenant, but then I barely saw anything of the Redcliffe castle last time...I stumbled almost immediately unto the main room and triggered the excorcism event, thereby clearing the castle of all baddies.

Won't that mistake now!

err.... you can't miss the courtyard. It forces you to go through it... in reality, while you're clearing the castle it's just a long, linear progression. Unless your game bugged or something.

Meh, whatever. I only remember fighting out of the cellar and then going around 2 corners and getting there, weirdly. Maybe I took a shortcut somehow? like with the blood mage imprisoned in the cellar? I forgot. No matter.

The blood mage was originally meant to be an NPC btw, which explains why he has so much "talk" for a minor character. Shame they cut him, it's not like you're drowning in magic users in DA as it is if you're not a mage yourself.

There's a serious dearth in rogues as well. Only 2 rogues, only 2 mages available. How many fighters? 3, not including Shale or the guy at the end. Plus the dog, I would almost lump him in with the fighters. Ah well. DA-2 will probably be better in this regard. When it comes out in 2015.