While inside the temple, we were accosted by the spirit of my deceased brother. I have to confess to a pang of guilt as I recalled the events leading to my exile from Orzammar and how I had treated him. Despite our differences, he had some sage advice for me. I have to wonder though - did I judge him too harsh or is he simply eager for me to exact vengeance on his behalf?
In the end, it is irrelevant. We parted on good terms and although I swear to the Stone that Bhelen shall fall before my axe, it will be for my own vengeance and not for my brother.
Trian, my dead brother, makes one last appearance
The second encounter was truly memorable. Just before we reached the Urn, we came across an impenetrable wall of flame. There looked to be no way through and I was beginning to think that our journey had been in vain when Leliana spotted some writing on a stone dais. I cannot remember what the carving said but it appeared to be some kind of riddle.
I have to admit that the riddle stumped me and it was Leliana who was able to read some meaning into the words (in my defence, she is a bard!). She told us that we would need to strip naked in order to cross the flames safely.
I took off my armor eagerly. What a shame that neither Leliana nor Morrigan decided to join me (now that would have been a sight worth dieing for!). I tried to reason with Leliana, tell her that if she expected me to have any confidence in her solution to the riddle that she should strip off as well. Alas, she was resolute and in the end, I made the journey with just Alistair as company.
Alas, this just serves to remind me of missed opportunities
In the end, Leliana's intellect was proved as we made it safely through the fire. The guardian of the ashes showed up as we passed through which signalled the end of our quest.
The Urn of Sacred Ashes
With a pinch of the ashes in hand, we made our way back to Redcliffe Village. Despite my initial doubts about undertaking what seemed like a quest for fools gold, I was now pretty certain that the ashes did indeed hold some kind of mystical healing power. There was no other explanation for the amount of difficulty in obtaining them.
And sure enough, the ashes did not disappoint. We melted the pinch of ashes into a bowl of water and fed it to the Arl who immediately stirred and recovered from his malady. Unfortunately, the Arl himself was less impressive.
I had hoped that the Arl would take command and lead his troops against Loghain. Instead, he proposed to put Alistair on the throne. Ha - I almost fell over laughing! Can you imagine Alistair as a king? In any event, Arl Eamon intends to call a landsmeet to try and force the issue.
Truly, these humans are fools. The land is under siege by darkspawn and all they do is sit around and talk. Do they not realise that this is the time for action? If it were not for my exile to the surface, I would gladly let these fools talk until the darkspawn knocked down their doors.
But the only action that will be taken is by myself and my band of warriors. While the Arl prepares for the landsmeet, Alistair and myself will travel the lands in search of an army to take on the darkspawn. I guess those treaties we recovered in the Korcari Wilds will have some use after all.
Alistair is "happy" to learn of the Arl's plan
Still, at least I will finally have a chance to return to Orzammar.
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