Category: Dragon’s Dogma

A little group gossips in the town square as we come down from our castle visit. (These people and this quest are easy to miss.) The Duke is sending troops to question the Witch. We already know that Selene is alone in the Witchwood and that she doesn’t understand Wyrmspeak.

Off we dash.

Outside of her treehouse a mob clambors at her door. “Hang the witch!”

As we rush forward, a rock formation activates and rises up. It’s a golem monster that had been sleeping peacefully as a boulder. That sends the mob scurrying, and we’re left alone to do battle with it.

The trick to a Golem is to hit its glowing discs, and this can only be done with brute force. Magic is useless, and I’ve just idiotically changed my pawn into a sorcerer. I have arrows and daggers, though, so up I climb.

When it’s defeated, we see that it guarded a gated passage. At the end of it, in a graveyard, we find Selene safe with a glowing, ghost-like woman. With no lead up, these two drop some plot bombs:

Continue reading “Saving Selene”

We’ve finished the Wyrm Hunt quests and are now invited to enter the castle and meet the Duke. Well, I’m invited. Pawns aren’t allowed.

At the door to the entrance chamber a little jester man in the full bell cap outfit stops me. He’s deeply unpleasant, over-animated and suspicious. (Another unfortunate trope deployed, this time of a dwarf or Little Person who plays the backstabbing Fool.) He puts something on my head.

When I enter, everyone in audience turns and scowls. Reverse angle and I can now see I wear a clown hat with pom-pom topper. The Duke frowns at first, then responds.

I’m welcomed to continue to assist the Duke. More missions to come! As I leave the castle, a cut scene takes over. Someone is in the garden.

Gender is immaterial. Whatever toon I play, they swoon at this Aelinore meeting. She’s blonde, she’s tender, and she’s innocent. She’s also new to the castle and in over her head. More plot to come for our prototypical Damsel in Distress.

Two more points dropped randomly about the mysterious Duke:

“His Grace is unwell,” Aldous the Chamberlain says to me. He looks hale, but I guess I’m supposed to notice that the Duke is failing in some way.

“He must be a wizened old man by now. He’s of an age with me, if not older,” Iola the hometown shopkeep says. Well, I have a photo and he doesn’t look anywhere near as ancient as Iola does. 

Swarming with goblin and cyclops monsters, the Fort is a bastion the military wants to retake. We’re here to help!

Of the four Wyrm Hunt missions, I saved this for last as it can be tricky. Ballista fireballs rain down and vermin come from a tunnel system under the fort. At the end we face a Goblin VIP who taunts us, saying “Humans want destruction, too!”

I swear I’ve managed to kill him before, but he escapes underground this time. Good game. We didn’t lose the troop commander, which is actually hard to do. He’s a bit of a dolt who insists on standing in the fire.

Finding a chimera in the world is always fun when travelling with pawns who know what to do.

Cleave the poison-spewing snake tail, silence the magic-casting goat head, and kill the lion. It’s fast, satisfying work with plenty of climbing, clinging, and hacking.

When we popped by the Abbey to check on Quina, she said she’s still seeking information about our wound.

After Elysion runs away and we kill the zombies, who should be left but Mason. He calls Salvation a “skulk of foxes”. I don’t think he’s playing a double game, but I’m not sure what his agenda is. Investigating evil? Is he the voice of the common man in a medieval world of princelings? He’s portrayed with a sinister edge, and I’m not sure what the developers had in mind with him.

Regardless, he has a captured acolyte and he expects me to deal with it.

(Me? Why me?)

The acolyte has “seen the two of us together”, which is apparently bad. The quest is murky, but basically I must decide to free this fellow or kill him. My Pawns say things like, “It’s your decision, Arisen,” and “We support you whatever you decide.”

Thanks, guys.

Meanwhile, the acolyte is trying to bribe me while saying he was just there for fun with this whole perdition thing. A LARPer, lol. I kill him.

It seems evident that Mason would’ve killed him if I didn’t, and now I’m someone who Mason can trust. I just wish the intention behind this scene had been clearer. I don’t even know what I’m risking!

We wend our way down, fighting skeletons and the undead. Until we arrive at the Gathering Hall this mission is just a straight-up dungeon.

When we’re close, though, we begin to overhear the Elysion. This is the high officiant, presumably, giving his sermon or lecture. It’s an incredibly dense speech, with ten cent words and a ranging philosophy.

Basically, the soul is incomplete in this world of the mortal coil. “Whence, then, is salvation?” Not in pleasure. Equilibrium comes from the dragon. Freedom from pain makes the soul complete. Fear distills the soul to its lofty character. You’re duty bound to cede your souls to it.

You get the idea.

A group of people in creepy robes end up . . . eaten? killed? . . . by the undead who rise from the dirt floor of the catacombs. And Elysion, laughing, escapes.

Is the dragon our main antagonist, or is this fellow?

Before I can delve into the catacombs for the Salvation quest, I need to start a new vocation. As a Magic Archer I gain the ability to do this:

Also, when one is facing the undead, Holy Light is an important weapon. Level up once or twice, and the Magic Archer acquires an essential skill.

Magical Flare is light in a dark place, and one that can be shot to a distant corner where the creepiest enemies hide.

And now I’m ready for the catacombs.

I can’t help myself. I must step into the Bitterblack DLC, just briefly, and experience the high-end fighting. Of course, I’ve cheated and taken two experienced pawns with me, so the danger is minimal. One of the monster-monsters shows himself long enough to intimidate us. Death is the trickiest boss in the game.

After this thrill, I return to the castle and turn in my completed Wyrm Hunt quest and take on the next. Investigate a cult, it says. Now I will dive into the Salvation mystery.

I’m told it’s a secret society that worships the dragon. They like the “perdition” it brings.

Mason has been asking questions about Salvation but no one will confide in him. As he says, he’s “cursed with a villain’s mien”. 

He’s not. I have his screen grab as evidence.

It’s my job to investigate. After asking around, I learn that the “gathering” will have a “high officiant presiding” and will be held in the catacombs. If that sounds creepy, it’s because it is.

Preparing to leave Gran Soren I hear the town crier: “Can this Arisen slay the dragon as our Lord Grace did?” Duke Edmun continues to reveal his backstory via dropped asides.

Also, no pressure lol.

The second Wyrm Hunt quest involves helping The Faith survey an ancient ruin hidden behind a waterfall. Upon entering I am told by the pawns that this was once “a place of worship and training for clerics of the old gods.” 

Apparently The Faith has supplanted or incorporated elements of an older religion? And this earlier, presumably more nature-based, worship knew about the dragon?

Don’t try to understand too much. Just go with it.

We find poor Brother Jean dead on the ground. And it becomes obvious what caused his demise.

The cyclops drops an orb (was it in his eye socket??) that unlocks a mysterious door. We drain the water in the lower levels, fight some skeletons, and recover five ancient texts.

These slates may have “revelations of vast importance”, which The Faith will decipher.

Someday maybe I’ll know what they said.

Remember when Mason asked us to shadow Salvation’s spy as he left the castle? Well, I was near the gate at night when a cut scene took over. I pursued the quest, following a manly man in a blue cape.

I hate following someone in a game.

He did pause and look back. Hah — missed me. I did not have to start all the way back at the beginning of the trail. Eventually he knocks at the door of an abandoned house and we peep through the window.

It’s a shop owned by Madeleine. She seems to be passing him a scrap of paper, although it ends up in her cleavage for a moment. He rebuffs her overt advances, leaves, and the sneaking is over. I report my finding to Mason’s agent — A Knight is the spy — and that’s it for now.