https://www.graffes.com/forums/blog.php?304-Ikeya en Wed, 13 May 2026 21:29:51 GMT vBulletin 60 https://www.graffes.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg https://www.graffes.com/forums/blog.php?304-Ikeya https://www.graffes.com/forums/entry.php?232-Ikeya-s-Quest-To-Save-The-World-The-Harrowing-Part-3 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:51:48 GMT

And shit. It's him. The whinest mage in the entire tower. His first question isn't "Are you alright?" or "Are you possessed?" No, no. It's "What's the Harrowing like?" I just struck up a conversation with a blacksmith intent on creating a WMD (Thankfully, I intervened and put a stop to this before he had a chance! Truly, I am a hero!), a mutant bear, a rat-turned-human-turned-rat-turned-human-turned-bear-turned-human-turned-bear-turned-human-turned-demon-turned-black-out. Seriously? Screw the Fade. Screw the Harrowing. Screw the Coventry. Screw the Circle. And screw you, you annoying little whiny jerk. Thanks for calling me a terrible friend, too, for not telling you about that horror-filled fest that was the trial. I'm not telling you jack about the Harrowing and I hope I get to be present when you get possessed and the templar stab you in the back. Hopefully I'll get to be the one to do it too. Oh? And the first enchanter, who just gleefully agreed to send me through that hell and let me get murdered by the templars if I didn't succeed, wants to see me? Undoubtedly he wants to congratulate me on a job well down, welcome me into the Circle as a full fledged magi, and rub my success in the face that geezer templar who would probably break a hip if he ever saw actual combat again.



And no. You just wanted to tell me that you've shipped my blood off to the keep of the Coventry, where they can use it to hunt me down and brutally murder me in some sadistic manner in the event I ever do something that is not in line with The Vision. Oh, and you want me to escort the Grey Warden, whoever and whatever the hell that is, to his guest rooms, because walking in a straight line is evidently too difficult of a concept of these valiant defenders of the realm and vanquishers of darkspawn. Swell. Thanks a lot, really. This was totally worth waking up from my coma. Seriously. Alright, Duncan, let's go. I'm sure this is going to take awhile, with the difficult task of putting one foot in front of another.



Aw hell, it's you again. And some lapdog of the Coventry. Swell. What do you two want? Oh, you're in love. How sweet. Seriously, this was totally worth dragging me away from my chore of teaching Duncan how to walk from one end of the tower to the other. You realize important that is? Yeah, blah blah blah, you're in love. You realize this is forbidden, right? Besides, she's with the Coventry! You know what she's going to do? She's going to murder you at your Harrowing, so congratulations on falling in love with a sociopath. I'm sure you'll make a sweet couple. Oh? You're not taking the Harrowing? She saw documents that said they were going to turn you into one of those Tranquil automatons? Ha! Although, I'm sure even without memories or emotions and being an empty husk of a human, you'll still be annoying. But hey, at least you won't remember you once loved the woman that was going to murder you, right?

Oh, what's that? You want to escape? Oh, sure, I'll gladly help you do that! I helped that valor spirit with making that weapon! I'm a hero, after all! It's my duty to help those in need! Especially my friends! Just let me go collect a few things... like an arrest warrant... ]]> Ikeya https://www.graffes.com/forums/entry.php?232-Ikeya-s-Quest-To-Save-The-World-The-Harrowing-Part-3 https://www.graffes.com/forums/entry.php?231-Ikeya-s-Quest-To-Save-The-World-The-Harrowing-Part-2 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:49:56 GMT


Naturally, getting a twig was not the greatest gift. Sucked for him, tho. Somehow handing over a plank of wood caused him to suddenly die. For being a valorous spirit, he sure didn't put up much of a fight. The fact that I was still stuck in the Fade seems to imply he was not the demon I was meant to kill, despite being a murder-enabler. Evidently, he was a friendly murder-enabling spirit. Whoops! Oh well, you live and learn. I guess. Back to the demon hunting!



Now this looks like a demon! It's a bear with bones growing out of it covered in blood! I'm sure there was something about uh, stuff, but I really didn't care! It was time to kill the demon, escape the Fade, and become a full-blown mage! Or be possessed. That would be pretty sweet too. Instead, he teaches my rat to become a bear after I try to kill him and then he tells me to leave. For being such a supposedly demon-infested place, the Fade is full of helpful little creatures. Oh well, back to adventure.



Now here we go! This is has got to be the demon! I mean, look at it! It even looks like a demon! But, he starts striking up a conversation with the rat! The rat double crossed me! Oh man, time to kill the demon and then the rat. Who cares if he can turn into a bear. This demon is made of lava and fire! If I can kill lava and fire, what chance does a bear have? And here we go...



Surprise and shock. The rat reveals himself to be the demon hunting me! And he wants out! Cool, cool. I'm sure we can reach an agreement. After all, those templar guys are kind of assholes? I'm sure if we made some exchange of "You keep my body, and in return, you kill all the templars in the world" would be worth it. But, alas, no. The demon won't agree to any deals, commends me on overcoming the trial, and then reminds me that a true test never ends. Hopefully he'll be back! I blacked out at this point. Apparently a compliment from a demon causes the Fade to tear asunder and rocket you back to the safety of reality, where I am considered an aberration and everyone wants to kill me. ]]> Ikeya https://www.graffes.com/forums/entry.php?231-Ikeya-s-Quest-To-Save-The-World-The-Harrowing-Part-2 https://www.graffes.com/forums/entry.php?230-Ikeya-s-Quest-To-Save-The-World-The-Harrowing-Part-1 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:44:57 GMT

Like all good stories, our tale begins with a test. The man on the left is as old as dirt and about as interesting. The man on the right is not quite dirt-old, but still up there. He insists I'm ready to take the Harrowing - a test of apprentice mages to see if they are ready to assume the full mantle of magehood by entering the magical realm of the Fade and avoid being possessed by a demon. I'm not entirely sure how a templar, a non-mage, knows when a mage is ready to take the trial. I'm also kind of sketchy on the failure part of the test. You fail if a demon possesses you and then they murder you in cold blood. The reasoning behind the trial is also somewhat of a mystery. Presumably apprentice mages apparently don't have to worry about steeling themselves against demons until this trial. After all, they never seem to freak out about apprentice mages swinging magic about and you never hear about them killing possessed apprentice mages. Only possessed-soon-to-be-in-the-middle-of-their-trial mages. Or, maybe the Coventry is just full of murderous jerks looking for an excuse. It'd probably be faster and easier if they just skipped out on the justification - it's not like anyone would think less of them.


So, into the Fade we go! Let's do this!



Oh, yeah, I can tell this is going to end so well. Why can't magical landscapes ever be happy and welcoming? And not so twisted. Well, I'm meant to find a demon, murder it in cold blood (since that's the day-to-day business of the circle of magi and its templar, apparently), and then leave. Time to start looking.



A rat. Okay, no one ever said demons had to be big and monstrous. Well, time to lops its head off. Or freeze it off. Or blast it off. Whatever works! Regrettably, I can not. It turns out the rats name is Mouse and he's apparently a shapeshifting human and the templar murdered him and he's stuck in here and something about fairness and I don't know what. He wants to tag along, because apparently sticking close to a mage being hunted by a demon is a great idea. Off we go, the brave mage and his rat companion to slay the forces of evil!



We come across a friendly spirit! His name is Valor and he is attempting to find the perfect expression of courage, bravery, and, well, valor by creating the ultimate murdering weapon. Seriously. The magical realm is full of murderous sociopaths. Naturally, since I need to kill a demon, the ultimate murdering weapon would be great for this! I ask for his help, he refuses, I call him a coward, we bicker for a little bit. The rat said something here and there, but frankly I didn't care. After some more arguing, he coughs up some lame staff. Yup. Ultimate expression of valor indeed: A wooden stick. ]]> Ikeya https://www.graffes.com/forums/entry.php?230-Ikeya-s-Quest-To-Save-The-World-The-Harrowing-Part-1 https://www.graffes.com/forums/entry.php?229-Ikeya-s-Quest-To-Save-The-World-The-Precursor Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:33:14 GMT So, a bit of a precursor. Having just recently picked up Dragon Age: Origin's, I'm more than a little bit behind the curve. I started off trying to be a nice guy in it, more as a "Screw you" to the game's claim that "Not every hero is pure." If you're a WoW player on Silver Hand, you may have heard my lamentations about how these attempts have gone less than ideal for me. While at first it was all approval points this and approval points that and oh man, everyone loves me, things started to take a drastic turn for the worse after the monumental screw up at around loathing. At which point it was all down hill. Threaten a revered mother. Disapproval. Let Sten out, despite knowing he's a murdering sociopath. Disapproval (Except with Liri, who's all "Second chances!"). Camp banter. Disapproval. Agree to help Redcliffe to secure the Arl's help. Disapproval. Keep a gifted sword. Disapproval. Not agree to killing the demon possessed child. Approval. Sacrificing the mother instead. Disapproval. Murder Sten when he tries to kill me. Disapproval. And keep in mind I'm trying to pick what I feel are mostly neutral or good dialogue options. I was really walking away with the impression that "flawed characters" in this game translated directly into "stupid characters." I understand not wanting to make "Mary Sue" characters, but seriously, Bioware? These characters are about as bright as bricks and often far less helpful. I really don't think Sten should be chastizing me for agreeing to help Redcliffe out to save the Arl to secure his support to fight the darkspawn. Particularly when his scorn is about me ignoring the darkspawn threat. The fact that I don't have a dialogue option to call him an idiot and explain why this is responding to the darkspawn threat is all the more infuriating.

So, slightly frustrated by my experiences the game and how it's painting me up as a bad guy with everyone, despite my best intentional, I lamented about how I should just re-roll the mage as the Ikeya from Everquest. For those who are unaware, my wizard, Ikeya, in Everquest had a fairly unique thing going for him: I was the only character on the server who was Kill On Sight with pretty much every faction in the game (Including the Temple of Solusek Ro after I got my epic). Even my hometown hated me after I learned that Felwithe guards were pretty awesome experience and had no competition. Shadowhaven avoided my wrath, mostly because the guards ran fast and were pratically immune to magic. So I figured if the game was going to paint me as an asshole, I might as well just flat out be an asshole.

Ringo wanted me to keep a record of this new play through, so I figured I'd oblige and knocked out the first part of the origin story for the mage. I figured if Ringo has Flinthammer Hall, I've got Graffe's blog-space. So, to be upfront, there will be spoilers as I play through this, if you are someone who is going to be late to the game like I was. And thus begins the tale of Ikeyaeq (other character was named Ikeya already, so was trying to avoid confusion between intentional asshole Ike and unintentional asshole Ike). ]]> Ikeya https://www.graffes.com/forums/entry.php?229-Ikeya-s-Quest-To-Save-The-World-The-Precursor