After the fantastic personal achievement of single-handedly slaying a dragon, there wasn’t really anything left to do in the Emerald Graves, so I headed back to Skyhold. And spent the whole trip preparing for the subsequent tongue-lashings I was going to receive from most of my companions and advisors. Cassandra and Josephine were particularly angry because of how reckless I’d been. The Iron Bull was also angry, but mainly because I’d had the idea before him. I decided that I needed some time away to let things cool down, and with that in mind, headed to the coldest place in need of inquisiting: Emprise du Lion. Particularly in need was the mountain village of Sahrnia, which was under siege by Red Templars, surrounded by Fade rifts, had a new demonic neighbor in a nearby castle and draconic neighbors in nearby ruins, and the river had suddenly frozen over, effectively cutting it off from the rest of civilization. The townsfolk let us know that the Red Templars had bought a mine from an unwitting local who thought they were actual soldiers, reopened it and started using the villagers as labor. At first the Red Templars paid them. Then they forced them to work. Then they started kidnapping them. Now they were coming for everybody in town, spreading red lyrium as they went.
And not spreading it gently.
So, we fought our way up to the quarry, wiped out any Reds that got in our way and freed the imprisoned villagers. And we learned something highly disturbing. They weren’t using the villagers just to mine red lyrium, they were using them as human cultures to grow it. Now, during the whole time-travel incident, I did see Grand Enchanter Fiona attached to a wall by red lyrium. But I had just thought that was some kind of torture or something, not the method of actually making the stuff. And as you can imagine, this process does not go well for the person who has evil, glowing, red crystals sprouting out of their head. This annoyed me even more than I already was, of course, so the remaining Templars were taken down with a bit more anger than usual. And by “anger,” I mean “fire.” That just left Imshael, the aforementioned demon in the keep, an old elven ruin named Suledin, for us to remove from the equation. After wading through the fortress, which was full of Red Templars and lyrium-corrupted giants, we found Imshael, who, surprisingly, didn’t attack on sight. He claimed to be a “choice spirit” and gave me the options of wealth, power, or virgins instead of fighting. I chose to shoot him in the face with fire until he stopped moving.
And it is our choices that show what we truly are.
After taking out the demon, sorry, “choice spirit,” we claimed Suledin Keep for the Inquisition. We also learned from a dying Templar that Imshael had been sent to Suledin by Corypheus to properly grow the red lyrium. Out of people. Which is wrong on every level I can think of. Back to less weird matters, before we’d stormed the castle, we’d repaired a bridge that had been destroyed by the Templars. The bridge allowed access to a trio of ruined towers sitting above Sahrnia across the valley from Suledin. Now, you may have noticed earlier that, when describing the troubles afflicting the area, I wrote “draconic neighbors” and I want to assure you that the use of the plural was not a mistake. There were, in fact, three dragons in Emprise du Lion. Add that to the two Fade rifts and the Red Templars still wandering the area, and the little strip of land on the other side of that bridge easily qualifies as one of the most dangerous places I visited and inquisited. Anyways, each dragon had claimed an elven coliseum for itself and it was only a matter of time before they started spitting ice and fire at the village below. So, it was time for us to don our dragon-slaying hats once again and take the beasts down. Metaphorical dragon-slaying hats, we didn’t actually have them. Though we should, now that I think about it. I’ll have to requisition that soon. I mean, other than Cole’s and Divine Justinia’s, virtually every hat I’ve seen has been extremely ugly. Come to think of it, maybe that's why I like those two so much. They're spectacular on their own, but comparing them to the rest of the terrible options just makes them look that much more amazing. I mean, honestly, how hard can it be to design some decent headwear? Sorry, got distracted, where was I? Oh, yes, taking down three dragons in succession. And yes, I considered going it alone. But, seeing as how there were three of them, I decided to bring my companions along this time. I had been pretty exhausted after fighting one dragon by myself, so three in a row sounded like a terrible idea. Clearing the area didn’t take long, though the second and third dragons were quite annoying. They kept calling for dragonling help and had the ability to repeatedly encase themselves in some kind of natural armor. Meaning both fights took forever despite the fact that they weren’t all that difficult.
This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them. And a third, actually, who apparently didn’t feel like flying with the group.
With Emprise du Lion secured, it was time to strike a blow against Cory. We’d tracked one of his main supporters, an ex-Templar named Samson, to a shrine across the Waking Sea. Cullen had known him as a destitute lyrium addict in Kirkwall before he redeemed himself and was re-recruited to the order, but how he had risen to be the leader of Cory’s Red Templar forces was a mystery. What we did know was that he was encased in some sort of magical, red lyrium-powered armor that I couldn’t wait to break off of him. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the shrine, the place was already on fire. Samson had fled, leaving his men behind to slow us down. He’d also abandoned a Tranquil mage named Maddox who had been maintaining his armor. Maddox, who had poisoned himself, didn’t last long, but we did find the tools he had been using. We took them back to Dagna, who used them to craft a rune that was capable of smashing through Samson’s armor and finishing him off. So, we didn’t cut the head off the snake like we’d intended, but we gave ourselves the means to do so while chopping off a decent chunk of the body as well. Not too bad, all things considered.
Utterly adorable and absolutely brilliant.
After clearing out the zone of danger that was Emprise du Lion, we were down to one location in need of a good inquisiting, and I hadn’t saved the best for last. If that were the case, I would have waited to go to the Emerald Graves. But, alas, there was more evil activity in the western deserts of Thedas, out by the already-inquisited Forbidden Oasis and Western Approach. This part was called the Hissing Wastes. I don’t know why someone had to name the different parts of this place individually, it was just one big pile of hot, sandy misery to me. After we were nearly sunburnt to death in the Western Approach, we headed into the Wastes at night. So, it was cold, sandy misery instead. Even Scout Harding couldn’t make the place sound interesting, admitting most of it was just a big, wide open bunch of nothing. But, the Venatori and Red Templars wanted something there, so we had to stop them. Okay, there were a few points of interest in the middle of all that nothing. The first one we encountered was a dwarven ruin. Aboveground. Where Dwarves don’t normally build things. Well, it, and several others, told the story of two brothers and their unprecedented surface thaig. “Thaig” being dwarven for city, in case you didn’t know. Each ruin had a puzzle that needed to be solved in order to open a door to a treasure room. Basically, four inscriptions told part of the tale of the sons of the Paragon Fairel, and we had to light their corresponding torches in the order that the inscriptions should be read. Meaning it was the only puzzle I’ve found, which is far more than most, which was solved through reading comprehension. Beyond those incredible archaeological finds, there was also a big canyon that someone had cleverly named “The Canyon.” And inside said canyon there was a store being run by a dog. So, the place wasn’t all bad.
I would definitely trust the dog over Sera to watch a shop.
We pressed deeper into the Wastes, eventually ascending into the mountains that overlooked the area. There were more Venatori there, so we kept wiping them out as we moved forward, collecting more pieces of the dwarven puzzle. Each of the treasure rooms solved by the reading challenges held a piece of a key. Once we had all five bits, we reassembled it and headed for the door. Which, naturally, a dragon had chosen to nap right in front of. Though, honestly, after the annoying dragons we’d faced in Emprise du Lion, this one was kind of a pushover. After she was dealt with, we used the key to enter Fairel’s tomb and collect the great power that the Venatori had been searching for. Which was a schematic for a rune. A rune to help kill demons. Which the Venatori don’t care about doing. I don’t get it, either. Whatever, their numbers and operation in the Hissing Wastes were decimated and I’d freed as many of the slaves they’d brought along as I could. So, confusing or not, it wasn’t a bad bit of work, in my opinion.
We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!
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