Dragon Age: Origins #10 - Little Surprises

[andraste]

So, having gathered three-quarters of an army, Wulfric had no choice: it was time to go back to Orzammar and ask for aid. He honestly expected King Bhelen to have him executed on the spot - and I like to think that he left Alistair instructions about what to do in case he didn't come back - but in the end he went anyway. He even dressed for the occasion.



(Varathorn's Breastplate is really nice, and goes well with Camenae's Barbute. I don't think I've ever actually used it before. Just as well Wulfric didn't kill those elves.)

He was surprised but relieved to find the assembly still deadlocked, and amused that Bhelen's coup hadn't come off quite as smoothly as he'd hoped. (BTW, the encounter with Loghain's lackey that you have on the doorstep is hilarious if you're an Aeducan who killed Trian. His outrage that they're letting an exiled kinslayer into the city when he has to wait outside is completely fair! And entirely pointless, especially if you decide to kill him.)

Being back in the city was bittersweet for Wulfric. On the one hand, finally a nice proper ceiling of rock! On the other, you can never really go home again, and especially not when you killed your brother and got exiled. He was pretty frustrated by all the people who used to lick his boots insulting him, let me tell you. However, it turned out he had bigger problems: he didn't even make it to the Assembly to check out what was going on before he ran into Mardy and found out that he had a son!!!

I mean, he'd actually been hoping that he might get a child out of the deal - on the whole he prefers the company of men, but that isn't much help if you want an heir. Trian didn't have a son of his own, and maybe being able to produce one would have made Wulfric a better prospect for the throne, which was his main concern at the time. Which did not mean that he was exactly pleased to find out his was a dad now. Still, he had no doubt Mardy was telling the truth, and gave her ten sovereigns to tide her over until he could get things sorted out. (I have never done this quest before, and it's a shame you can't ask her to see the baby. I understand that engine limitations make babies a difficult thing to model, but it's still sad you don't get to meet your kid.) At least Zevran seemed to take the whole thing in his stride? I mean, who knows how many unknown kids he might have running around Antiva City ...

This changed his plan for how to handle the deadlocked Assembly a bit. Instead of telling Bhelen to fuck off, Wulfric went to him and said that he needed not only men for his army but also a place in House Aeducan for his son. Bhelen agreed on the condition that he get the throne.

Wulfric took out all the frustrations of the day on an entire Carta's worth of Dusters, but of course it wasn't going to be that easy. Running off into the Deep Roads to look for Branka sounded only marginally less crazy to him than searching for Andraste's ashes, but by this point he'd accepted that everyone was going to ask him to do something nutty before they would fork over the army. Bringing her estranged husband along, he set off on a long, dark journey.