Hey all. Been a while since I posted anything so how about a rant about a minor detail in the veilguard that no one else is talking about?
I really like how the Antaam "hand" cannons are designed.
It only has one visible trigger in the back that they never seem to use unless in melee nor do they ever seem to use the handle on the side, however I like to imagine how it might work in universe, without the limits of video game animation.
With that in mind, I picture it having two triggers: one in the back to fire the rocket (and trigger the short flames used in melee when the barrel is empty) and another hidden trigger on top behind the hand guard which activates the flame thrower.
No idea where they get the fuel for the flame thrower as it's clearly a muzzle loaded rpg and there's no where to store it so feel free to speculate and share your ideas about that.
Keep in mind that the Antaam do not use magic and that Venatori aid only makes the Gaatlok more volatile, they did not aid in making the cannons themselves.
The thing making me a little mad anout datv rn is that morrigan drank the well. no choice whatsoever. "we didnt want to deal with the keep" get real. My inquisitor is lavellan and has a mythal vallasin. Like come on it would be so easy for him to fill the role morrigan does and it would make him coming up to the north make even a lottle bit more sense if he was present in the fade and in thedas COME ONNNNNNNNNNNN
Through the Crossroads [DLC Trespasser]: The Darvaarad - Part2
The Darvaarad [Qunari term for a magical quarantine site] is a Qunari island fortress controlled by the branch of Ben-Hassrath called “Dangerous Purpose” who are lead by Viddasala. The Qunari in the Darvaarad investigate inner workings of the eluvians and brought in, catalogued and studied various artefacts, including red lyrium, astrariums, ocularum, ancient elven statues and murals. They stockpiled knowledge and power, which allowed them to open several mirrors.
This place is divided in the exterior areas:
Fortress Approach
Courtyard
Research Tower
And the interior areas:
Darvaarad Barracks
Study
Gaatlok Factory
Venom Extraction Chamber
[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]
[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]
Darvaarad Barracks
As we continue exploring this place, we see that they have a Vault door system that made me remember the Dwarven engineering we saw in the Awakening expansion when we reached the gates built by the dwarves under Vigil's Keep to keep the darkspawn at bay.
Cole drops here one of his lines, implying what we will know by Solas' words: the energy of the Anchor is the energy of the Veil, accumulated by millennia, so this piece of energy that the Anchor is and the Veil try to be together.
The exploration of the barracks have not much to offer.
There is a unique statue that according to the book Art of Inquisition, they belong to Ferelden art, even though I was a bit inclined to think these were part of the Qunari decoration. Of course, there are banners of the Qun everywhere.
The interior architecture of the fortress keeps showing Ferelden style. Haven had a lot of these details, specially in its basement.
Study
We find a study room where more artefacts can be seen:
We find elements that we had seen a lot in DAI, DA2 and even DAO, like these books with the windmill drawing. There is an elvhen artefact, and a very strange ball which glows in green and one may suspect it related to the Fade.
In this study we read several codices: Letters and Replies, where we see a series of letter that Josephine sent to the Triumvirate of the Qunari, who claims that the Viddasala took her own initiative to lead the operation of Dragon Breath without their approval. We also find the Dragon Breath Plan and Orders Posted in the Factory where we learn the recipe for the primers of gaatlok [big secret along the whole series of DA games].
On the main desk of the study we see a Tevinter mini-Inspector in front of the skull of the dragon.
Leaving the study and heading to the Factory of Gaatlock, we see along the corridors some side cells where we find objects like “injectors” which glow with a yellowish energy, so they may have still some kind of power, and Dragon skulls.
Gaatlok Factory and Venom Extraction Chamber
At the end of the corridor, we find a big room where a dragon is kept prisoner. Close to this place we find Animal Handler's Logbook: written by a human woman recently joined to the Qun. Here we learn that one of the components of the Gaatlok is dragon venom. We see again that the qunari appreciate the dragons, calling it Ataashi, as Iron Bull did in the game.
Once we deal with the Dragon, we cross the bridge where we find the Viddasala and several qunari in front of the eluvian that will direct us to the abandoned elven City. Behind the eluvian there is a Golden Ring and a pair of mosaics of Fen'Harel.
Here, we realise that the Qunari think that Solas is an agent of Fen'Harel. It's interesting that the Qunari know that agents of Fen'Harel gave Corypheus the access to the elvhen orb.
Thinking back on it, Blackpowder Promise (Act 1) was a hilariously dumb quest.
So this merchant Javaris assumes without even bothering to ask that a military leader is going to just sell a powerful new weapon his country has a complete monopoly on? Because that’s totally a good idea that any government would agree to.
During my first run, I thought this sounded stupid, especially since Javaris made no reference to any explicit deals or promises with the Arishok beforehand. He just insists without giving any reason that if they kill some mercenaries, the qunari will be ready to deal. Again, why would the Arishok sell the one weapon that gives his country an edge in its centuries-long war with Tevinter to a foreigner? I agreed to the quest just to see what would happen (and also because money)… and wow, would you look at that, the Arishok gave an immediate flat “No.”
I mean, imagine if some guy hired mercenaries to shoot criminals hassling Americans and was just… shocked that the US government still refused to let him buy nukes.
ETA: Okay, to be fair, there are non-military uses of gunpowder (and Javaris mostly talks about using it for mining rather than warfare), but it’s still goofy not to even consider why the Arishok wouldn’t be too keen on sharing military tech
I know many people want to see guns in the next Dragon Age game using the Qunari developed "gaatlok" but I think people should be careful for what they wish for because if they ever do introduced guns, they will likely be variations of a musket or flintlock pistol/rifle which are not automatic weapons. They take time to load. I'm hoping if they do introduce guns, they base them on the flintlock as they are more accurate than the musket.
He was uncertain what he’d expected. A room frozen in time, unchanged by the two years he’d been absent from it? An entirely different room, devoid of anything he’d recognize? The Inquisitor to be seated at her desk or leaning on the balcony suddenly turning to smile at him?
There was nothing shocking in her quarters. Perhaps that was what wounded him so. Her life went on. She grew and changed at the same rate without him. There was no sad gathering of the items he had left, no uncomfortable shrine or object placed just exactly where he had dropped it. Nor was all evidence of him erased. He could see the book he had been reading neatly shelved beside others, though there was a thin ribbon marking the place he’d left off. One of his patched cloaks hung near the hearth, beside her own. The translations he’d written were stacked neatly on the corner of her desk. She’d just— moved him gently aside and kept going. As if she knew he’d return, but not expecting him soon.
There were pieces of her, too. The pebble that held the translations down, she’d picked it up on the Storm Coast, smooth and rounded and blackened with dragonfire. A small thing that had pleased her, nothing more. The half finished staff she’d been working on in the Emerald Graves after her own had splintered. Dorian had become tired with the near-constant breakage and had given her a staff of Bronto bone before she’d finished it. It hung in the rafters above the desk, forgotten. The large map she’d been drawing hanging on the wall. There were more details now, the undefined edges pushed farther back than he had expected. She’d traveled much more than she ought to have. It troubled him. The anchor’s spread would be much worse outside of Skyhold. He had expected her to slow now that Corypheus was gone, but it seemed she’d traveled more in the past few years than when he’d been with her.
He sat at her desk, depressed by the many scrolls that lay open, all describing the Blight. Notes from Dagna about the red lyrium and tired scrawls of her own. Lists and recipes and theories each seeming more desperate than the last. If she’d been there when he arrived— he tried to reason with himself. This wasn’t something he could keep her from. The Blight would come no matter where he kept her. And yet— if she had been there, he might have drawn her back to Arlathan anyway. <I>If she’d go,</I> he reminded himself.
The door creaked and he tensed. But Jana crept in and he sank back in his seat. “I thought you might be hungry,” she offered holding out a plate toward him. “The kitchen is serving. It’ll be empty in a few hours, everyone has to get up early to see the Dalish off.”
“Thank you,” he said, taking it from her. She nodded.
“I’ll— I’ll come back when it’s time,” she said, turning to go.
“Jana—”
She turned back.
“The Inquisitor,” he waved at the papers on the desk. “Does she do this often, this research?”
Jana rubbed an arm nervously. “Some. She’s been busy with the refugees lately. It was hard to get the clans to agree to take them. She hasn’t had much time. But— it’s like an undercurrent. Always there. I think she worries over it more than we know. Since Dagna and Dorian left, she hasn’t really talked about it. But who is there to speak to anymore?”
“And the anchor? Is it worse?”
“She’s kept it covered since she returned from Tevinter. I don’t think anyone’s seen it. Gloves all the time, long sleeves. She doesn’t act as if it’s paining her though. She’s not sharp or short with anyone. Doesn’t favor it or wince when someone touches her.”
He nodded and she left the room. The room darkened around him as the sun sank behind the Frostbacks. He knew better than to light up the tower and sat beneath the wide windows watching until the light was gone. The door creaked and Jana called up to him. He met her on the stairs.
“The guards are light with no one here, but we’ll still need to watch for patrols,” she said. “If we’re stopped, just let me do the talking. Almost no one here will recognize you and there are so many elves here, most will assume you are with one of the groups already here.” She led him down the stairs, peeking around the edge of the door for a long moment. He followed her across the long throne room. The empty spot in front of the hearth where Varric’s chair had sat struck an unexpected blow and he stopped to stare at it a long moment. He regretted Varric’s anger with him. But he could see no other outcome for what he’d done.
“Are you well?” asked Jana.
“Yes,” he said, turning back to the door. They made their way down to the kitchens. The fires were banked and the slow, sweet fragrance of baked bread rose from the cooling ovens.
“Most of it is in the pantries. I found the loading list from yesterday.”
“Good, we’ll go through it as quickly as possible.”
They were about halfway down the list and his hands were dusty with a combination of flour and ground spice and tea from plunging his hands into sacks to check them, when they reached the wines. He followed Jana into the cellar, wiping his hands and stopped on the bottom step. There, gleaming in the corner beside the large barrels of mead, were three round metal urns. He’d seen all sorts of different casks in his time, even the poisonous mosswine the Carta used to assassinate their foes. None of them were ever stored in these. “These are the casks from Orzammar?” he asked as she moved toward them.
“Yes. Three of them. More on the wagon, but they were meant for Val Royeaux and Halamshiral. The dwarven delegation has been invited to the Exalted Council as guests.”
Solas pulled a barrier around them. He gingerly shifted one of the casks. A shifting rattle, like sand.
“But when I lifted it, it sounded like—”
He pushed one of the other casks. It sloshed. “A decoy. Did the merchants help you unload?”
“Yes,” she said miserably, “And one of the kitchen hands. Bran. But he never said anything—”
“They had to have an ally in Skyhold. Perhaps Bran was—”
“No! He’s devoted to the Inquisition, he’d never do that!”
Solas looked at her for a long moment. “Just as you would never join another force, Jana?” he asked.
“That’s different, you’d never ask me to hurt them…” she faltered at his expression.
“It is a matter for another day. I do not wish them hurt, that much is true. We will watch and hopefully catch the spy. But for now—” he pushed her behind him carefully and pried off the cover of one of the casks. The acrid smell of deathroot was immediate and overpowering. He peered into the dark cask. It was almost full with a silver-green sand, he pulled a handful from the cask and inspected it. He could not tell much, but poured the handful carefully into an empty wine bottle that sat nearby to take with him. He pulled one more pinch from the cask and put it carefully onto the empty stone floor across the cellar. “Stay back,” he told Jana, already recasting the barrier. He flicked a spark at it and the dust sizzled and banged with a bright flash and intense heat. Too small an amount to harm them or the stone, but he could tell it would be devastating in large amounts. Jana stared at the still sputtering sparks, but he just calmly recapped the cask. It was far too heavy for him to get up the stairs alone.
“We’ll need help,” he said, “and a way out of the keep without being seen. It’s got to be removed or it could tear Skyhold to rubble. I don’t want to expose ourselves to the spy if we can help it. This can’t be the only place they’ve targeted.”
“Farrow should be back by now. I’ll find him. The midden chute is the only way out of the keep except for the gates that I know of. But it’s close and I know the cooks ordered it cleaned a few weeks back.”
“Yes, that will work.” He didn’t relish the idea of dragging the casks through a filthy midden chute but it would not be the worst place he’d been and the work would go quickly with three. She ran off to find Farrow. He tried to examine the casks, hoping for some clue in their shape or symbols. The geometric embossings would suggest that they had some kinship with dwarven design, but the rounded shape did not. He could find no maker’s mark, no stamp or label at all. Except for the word of the merchants, it might have been anything at all. The Inquisition was slipping. A few years before, every sack was opened, every meal tested for poison before being served. Were they down to so few people or had those that remained simply forgotten the threat? <I>Jana didn’t know either,</I> he reminded himself. A clatter of footsteps made him look up. Farrow and Jana hurried down to him.
“I tried to reach you—” Farrow began.
“About Loranil and Sevren, I know. They are both safe.”
“Jana said they were explosives,” he said pointing to the casks.
“Yes. I need your aid to get them out.”
“Of course. But what will we do with them then?”
It was not something he’d considered yet.
“Could we dump them in the river? The current would wash it away,” offered Jana.
“No. It’s laced with deathroot extract,” said Solas. “It would flow down into the local fields and taint them.”
“Anywhere we dump it will do that after the first good fall rain,” said Farrow.
“We’ll need to burn it, then. Somewhere safe, away from any villages.”
They thought for a moment. Jana’s face broke into a slow smile. She glanced sideways at Farrow. “There’s the statue,” she said.
“The ambassador would kill us,” he answered, though he began to grin as well.
“She’d assume it was Sera.”
“What statue?” asked Solas.
“In the ruins of the Temple of Sacred Ashes,” said Farrow. “They built a massive statue of the Inquisitor. She tried to stop it, but it happened anyway.”
“Almost didn’t,” laughed Jana. “Sera kept stealing the requisitions for the marble. It was stalled just at the waist for months. Kept calling it the ‘Ass-quisitor.’ They finally finished it after she left. Had a big ceremony to unveil it. The Inquisitor was polite and thanked the sculptor, but—”
“She hates it. The idea of it, the ceremony, even the actual statue itself. I watched her. She stared at the face a long time while the sculptor went on and on about artistic vision and how a ‘softer’ look would make her seem more approachable. He meant ‘human.’ Looks nothing like her. But that might be a relief. Anyhow, it’d be no great loss. And the ruins are still empty. Another explosion can hardly do more damage. It’s far enough that no one at Skyhold should see it, even a large explosion.”
“Very well. If there are no settlers nearby—”
Jana shook her head. “No, the Commander was nervous about the remaining red lyrium. It’s still under quarantine.”
The midden chute was still filthy and smelled rotten and sour, but he hardly noticed. He could only think of that night on the balcony. How he’d promised to remember her as she was when the humans changed her face, her words, her deeds. The metal cask was heavy even between two of them and it was an effort not to slip in the decaying vegetable peels and old ale. Still, he kept wandering back to the idea of the statue. To how much she had longed to be more than an icon to them. How could they not see? Sera had known. For that, he was grateful. But Sera had still gone, just like all the others. Back to their own lives. Why was clan Lavellan not in the courtyard?
“Farrow,” he whispered, “Did the Inquisitor not ask her own clan to take some of the refugees?”
Farrow grunted out a labored breath. “Months ago. They’ve taken more than they are likely to be able to support. It’s only because they remain in Wycome that it was possible. She only called upon the other clans when Deshanna finally admitted they could help no more.” They heaved the cask over the lip of the chute and settled it carefully into the wagon Jana kept waiting. Solas climbed back up into the chute. One more. “She would have kept them in Skyhold if she could,” said Farrow, “but she’s been warned. The Inquisition will not survive the Council. One way or another, she will have to give it up. Skyhold may not be hers in a few months time. Or if it is, it might not be safe for them to stay. It’s by no means certain that Orlais would not return the escaped slaves to their masters if it kept the peace with Tevinter.”
They picked up the other cask. “Don’t think she means to try to hang on to the Inquisition anyway,” said Farrow, adjusting his grip. “She’s been selling off assets and using them to pay out retirements to the soldiers. Skyhold’s not just empty because everyone’s away. Almost half have already gone home. Cullen insists on an honor guard and the ambassador keeps a small staff on hand in case of visiting delegations, but this is the most crowded the keep has been in months. After tomorrow— it’ll be silent again until the Council.”
They struggled to the end of the chute and lowered the second cask into the wagon.
It was late morning by the time they reached the temple, rumbling over a makeshift wooden bridge, the planks still bright and splintery where they had replaced the broken stone. He watched the enormous statue from the edge of the valley until he stood at its foot, half fearing the sight of her face would drive him to do something foolish. Like find her in the Deep Roads. Like letting Cole help him steal her from an uncaring world. It was hard to tell whether he were relieved or saddened to see the statue held nothing of her. Still and stiff and dead. A blank stone with someone else’s features staring from it. He felt no guilt as they poured large heaps of the explosive powder at its feet.
“Go back to Skyhold,” he told them, “fill the casks with sand before you return them. We don’t want the spy to know we’ve removed it. Watch, but don’t interfere. I will return on foot.”
“We can wait at Haven—” protested Jana.
“No, I don’t know how bad the damage will be. It will require all my concentration to hold the Veil closed in this place. I would not risk you being harmed by being too close.”
He waited until the wagon was a glint upon the mountain pass before he began. Barriers and wards rose around him, around the powder, around the temple. He could not strengthen the Veil as the Inquisitor could, not without an intricate system of spells and amplifiers, but he could prevent it from tearing again. The temple ruins hummed with power, echoing from the remaining lyrium, pulsing and pressing. He held his breath and cast a flame onto the powder. A hiss that strengthened and heat flickering up the barriers. A massive crack that shook the valley and startled birds sending them in great clouds toward the sky. The statue cracked and slid, shoulder to hip, tumbling to the ground. Pockets of the powder scattered in small silver arcs. A low rumble he could feel in the balls of his feet grew until the lyrium around him began shattering. He pressed all his power into the barriers. Still, when the blast came in a wave of red light, he felt the Veil unraveling and thinning.
It cost more than he had expected to contain it. The plume of fire roiled against the ceiling of his ward and then shriveled and was gone so quickly, he might have questioned it happening at all. But he was exhausted and the stone hand of the statue rolled toward him, charred and cracked as his barrier fell. He sidestepped it easily. An ember still glowed in its palm. He crushed the coal with the sole of his foot and walked slowly away. The explosive would have leveled Skyhold. And it would not be the only time the Qunari attempted this. He needed rest. And then, he’d wait. Watch. Track them down, one by one if he had to. He found one of the draft horses that had been hitched to the wagon waiting for him in Haven. It had been tied to the far edge of the palisade. The idea that it had been so close to the edges of his wards— he was uncertain whether to feel uneasy or grateful for his agents’ trust in his abilities. He hadn’t been entirely certain of himself. He climbed up and let the horse wander slowly toward home.
He made it shortly before the gates closed for the night, shadowing his face again with his cloak. Farrow was waiting for him in the guard house. A simple gesture to signal that all was well, and Solas passed on to the stables unnoticed. Master Dennet was long gone, returned to his farm months before. The stablehands already gone to their meal. Fewer eyes to see him. Half a dozen fires dotted the courtyard and the tavern and keep blazed with light and sound. For a moment he ached again to be among them. To belong to this place as he once had. To stay.
It was easy enough to pretend. No one stopped him as he climbed the stairs to the keep, nor even glanced his way as he crossed the throne room and climbed the stairs to the Inquisitor’s room as if it were normal. As if he were meant to be there.
He pulled the cloak from his shoulders as he entered the room. He told himself it was irrational to be grieved that it was dark, that he did not find her sitting at her desk, the candlelight amber on her face, her hands. He pulled a blanket from her bed and stretched out on the floor. It was so simple to slip into the Fade here, where he most wanted to be. <I>Come home, my love,</I> he thought, <i>find me. Keep me.</I> And then he drifted into a happier memory.
You know this may never happen and I many be the only one who want this but I kind want guns to be a weapon for qunari rouges cuz let’s face it they would be the only ones who know how to use it since they would be the ones who created/made them since they made black powder which is the equivalent to our gun powder so yes I want guns to be a weapon and I’ll be okay if it is restricted only for the qunaris
I beat datv yesterday so obviously im stsrting round 2 just to check out the mages gameplay and like. The fact you cant customize what the inquisitor wears makes me a little mad. Like its not like hawke who has a defined, iconic appearance. They stick the inq in this gross nothing ass "oh its 10 but i forgot to get eggs for the secret society soiree" fit instead of even just like. One of the basic walk around fits for skyhold!!!! Come on!!!
