Chapter 1: Building my Character (Kinda)

Now, don't trip. Watch out for that tree root. Spider web! Whew, that was close. Stupid spiders.

I was on fire today!

Not that I expected anything less, it wasn't my first time camping, thank you very much. It was my first time camping solo though. I wasn't scared. Just a little… on edge.

Okay, so I was jumpy as hell. I did realise it was unjustified; I knew these woods like the back of my hand; been camping here for years. Sometimes, though, people just don't make much sense. Well, no, that wasn't entirely true. There was always an explanation for what people felt, a cause-effect thing, if you will. It just took our brains a while to understand what we already knew, that we were safe; in this case, even if I was alone.

It didn't help that I kept thinking I'd forgotten something -surprise surprise- but I just couldn't figure out what. Tent? Check. Sleeping bag? Check. Food and water? Flashlight? Lighter? Extra cell battery? Check, check, check and you can take the girl outta the city but not the city out of the girl, so check. I had all my gear and the tools I needed to do some maintenance work on an old climbing route my friends and I used. I wasn't actually going to climb on my own -never without a spotter- but the ropes needed to be replaced and the carabiners and stuff checked, and the way the route was laid out, it wasn't all that hard to manage on my own. Nobody could come with me this time, but I had wanted to try my hand at soloing for a while, so it seemed like the perfect chance.

And to face my unjustified fears. A little exposure is always good.

I saw the familiar clearing and felt my fear ebb a little, to be replaced by relief and anticipation. I loved this place, it's fresh air, beautiful greenery, sparkly stream and best of all, not a soul in sight. I'm quite the contradiction, I know.

I ran the last couple steps, goal in sight, when a bright red light surged up around me and stopped me on my tracks. Literally, froze me on the spot. I had a split second where I inappropriately realised I'd forgotten the six-pack of beer I'd bought on the kitchen table and very justifiably feared for my life, then passed out.

I woke up right where I fell, on a patch of soft grass. Except that when I looked up, I didn't see the camp-side. I was on the gentle slope of a small hill; my backpack still hanging off of my right arm. I looked up at the sun. Was it going up or down? How long was I out? What time was it anyway? I checked my wrist watch. 3pm, so not that long.

I sat up and looked around. Yup, this wasn't the same place I was at before collapsing. Why did that happen, anyway? And that freaky red light? All kinds of weird.

And yet, I didn't feel particularly panicky. Oh, I was scared, alright. I could feel that familiar sensation of dread in the pit of my stomach, but I was eerily calm, my head clear. Like I could just acknowledge the fear and move right on.

As such I supposed, odd as it was, I could deal with -and celebrate- my newfound inner peace later. After I figured where the hell I was. I looked around some more but could find nothing like a landmark. Trees and hills everywhere I looked. I had a compass but without knowing where was what I could only pick a direction and stick to it. Ugh, I really wanted a map right now.

Right as I was thinking that, I heard a shuffling noise, like paper being unfolded, and next thing I knew, a bright screen opened up before me, with a map detailing mountains, oceans, cities and towns and all that jazz. And in the middle of it all, in big letters, read Ferelden. What.

WHAAAAT?

Okay, wait. No, no, no. Full stop. Ferelden? As in, Ferelden? Dragon Age Ferelden? No. Fricking. WAY! How the…?

I spent all of five minutes asking all those fun questions one asks when finding oneself in an impossible situation, adding some face rubbing and floor rolling here and there. After which I went back to business.

First, I checked my iPhone. As expected, no signal. I looked at the screen map again. It was gone.

Well, this just went from bad to worse. Clearly, I was having a full psychotic break.

No, okay, hold on.

"Map"

And there it was. A map of Ferelden. I sighed, rubbing my face again. Was I in the game or…?

I tried to touch it but my fingers just passed right through it, as if nothing was there. Unlike the game, every settlement was already laid out and fully labeled for me -so not places like fight bandits here and the like, but proper places with proper names- from Flemeth's Hut to Soldier's Peak. As for me, the map showed my location; I was somewhere in the Southron Hills.

Something at the bottom of the map caught my eye. Sort of like a black stain, south of the Kokari Wilds. I realised it must be the Blight. It hadn't occurred to me to wonder when in the timeline I was, but it seemed to be just at the start of the Fifth Blight. That gave me pause. On one hand, it was the very start of the game, so I basically knew the future, spanning all three games. On the other hand, I was in the middle of a Blight. Not good.

Mm? If I knew the future that should mean I could prevent stuff from happening, right? Save a lot of lifes? Make a better future for Ferelden and all that? Assuming this was real, and I hadn't gone bananas, of course. Or maybe I was dreaming. I pinched myself. It hurt. Great. And I was stuck, wasn't I? I mean, in stories people usually had to complete the quest, beat the bad guy, and then they got to go home. Or find out they couldn't.

I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. Crap, my family. And my friends. And my patients. Double crap. How was I going to get home?

I forced myself to stop, I was going in circles. One problem at a time. Beat the game, and go home. Right?

I opened the map again and looked at the Blight's advance. Mm… I hadn't played DA:O in a while but it didn't seem as bad as when the Warden gets to Ostagar. So, I was still in time to prevent the battle. If the king didn't die, that was a huge improvement over the events in the game. Perfect! I had a goal. I estimated it'd take me a couple of days to get to Ostagar and I had more than enough food and water to last me through that and then some. Things were looking up already!

Now then, the moment of truth.

"Status"

Nothing happened. Okay, don't panic.

"Character Display"

Nothing again. Ugh, wait that wasn't it… Oh!

"Character Record?"

The screen changed, and instead of a map, there was a display of myself in my current clothes, my wavy brown hair tied in a ponytail on one side; statistics and resistances on the other, and on top my name: Maya.

I stared at it for a while. It sucked to be trapped in a forsaken land, alone and with no modern technology.

But this was soooo COOL!

Okay, fangirl moment over. Moving on.

So, Maya. Level 1. Human. I expected as much. No affiliation. Mage. MAGE?!

I looked at my hands, as if expecting lighting to shoot from them. It didn't happen. But holy molly I was a mage?!

Soooo COOOOOL!

Next, I checked my stats.

Attributes

Strength 10

Dexterity 9

Willpower 12

Magic 17

Cunning 17

Constitution 9

Hmm… so my stats probably depended on my actual attributes. I wondered what magic stood for.

A thought struck me.

"Spells"

The screen changed again, and the entire list of spell trees appeared before me. Mmm… but Origins spells only huh? Damn, I wanted the Barrier spell. Still, this was so awesome, I had to supress a girly squeal. My suspicions seemed spot on too; upon closer inspection, I realised I didn't have a single spell.

"Level up"

And there we go! No specialization points, but I had all of five points to spend in stats. Score! Now then, what kind of build was I going to make? I've tried tanking as an Arcane Warrior and Spirit Healer before, and I enjoyed it immensely. And I've always wanted to try playing as a Blood mage. However, that was in the game. I wasn't so sure about pushing my luck with the forbidden arts if this was real life. And I really didn't fancy the thought of injuring myself on purpose, even if it was to cast a powerful spell. Or by being down at the frontlines. Blood Magic was pretty OP but…

I sighed. Having accepted that I was gonna be battling sooner rather than later had come as a given, but I had no desire to put myself in harms way. If possible, I'd like to avoid pain as much as possible. And as I already was an apostate, technically, it really seemed too stubborn of me to be a Blood Mage because I wanted more power. Like Jowan, ugh. Not to mention if I joined the Warden's party, like I wanted to, being a Blood Mage just wasn't gonna fly. I definitely wanted power, but I'd have to get it another way.

If I teamed up with the others, I wouldn't have to worry about being in the front lines, either. I could just hang back and use support type spells. That didn't sound fun at all, but my main objective was staying alive. Then again, until that happened -or if, God forbid, they didn't want me- I was going to have to get my hands dirty.

"Next"

I decided to go to the spell page, see if that gave me any ideas, and was greeted by a pleasant surprise I hadn't realised before. I didn't have Arcane Bolt. Instead, I had an extra spell point, for a total of three. A few ideas began to take shape in my head.

By the time I had mapped out the way my character was gonna go, my stats ended up like this.

Attributes (3)

Strength 10

Dexterity 9

Willpower 12

Magic 18

Cunning 17

Constitution 10

Yup, I was saving three stat points. I wanted to first get a feel of what they felt like; though my instinct was to put them in Constitution, to raise my chances of staying alive, so I went for one there. I also wished to have a bigger mana pool, so Willpower was always an option. I did spend a point in Magic in order to have access to second tier spells. Eighteen Magic was the requirement.

I had chosen three spells.

Spells (-)

Arcane

.

Primal

.

Creation

.

Spirit

Walking Bomb

Mind Blast. Force Shield

Entropy

.

Something interesting had happen when I reached skills. Instead of having three points I could place anywhere, I had two, with one already selected and unchangeable: Combat Tactics.

You have the mind of a tactician. You can now formulate strategies quickly in battle.

That was it. I spent a minute pondering about it but figured I'd find out eventually, so I let it be. Anyway, my skill points went like this.

Skills (1)

Coercion 0

Stealing 0

Trap-Making 0

Survival 1

Herbalism 0

Poison-Making 0

Combat Training 0

Combat Tactics 1

Why this, you ask? Heh heh, because my main concern was to survive, of course! Survival was a must have!

You have the basic skills necessary to survive in the wilderness. You can now detect the presence of nearby creatures below your own level. This skill also grants a small bonus to nature resistance. (+5% Nature Resistance)

Pretty good huh? And exactly what I needed. As for the leftover skill point… I debated a bit on that one. In the game I'd normally go for Coercion, but as I didn't now if I was gonna run into anyone anytime soon, I wasn't sure I'd need it. I thought I might pick Herbalism anyway, figuring potions where a good way of earning money, but again, that was for when I came across people, so I could afford to wait. Unsure, I decided to save it for now.

As for the Awakening spells and skills, I figured I'd have access to them once I got to the appropriate level.

"Okay, I'm done"

The screen disappeared, and a bright white light surrounded me. While it faded quickly, the light on my right hand was slower, becoming brighter for a split second before finally disappearing.

Oh God don't tell me I was becoming the Inquisitor as well.

I wasn't. It turned out the light gave way to a drawing on the back of my hand, of a simple golden ring-like design filled half in red and half in blue. My health and mana bars. Okay then, I'd have to start wearing gloves around people. Moving on…

I was officially a Mage, hurray!

Another thought had occurred to me, and it was time to try it out.

"Inventory"

The screen changed yet again to show myself on one side, and a full account of the items in my backpack. Huh, I guess an item box would be too much to ask for. But at least I knew what I had in there. Oh! What if…

"Armor" I still couldn't touch the damn thing, so I guess everything was to be through verbal communication. I supposed I could just think the verbal command as well, but there was something fun about saying it aloud. I was surprised to note that all the items now had names "Equip blue windbreaker jacket"

Once again, I was enveloped in a soft white glow, which faded quickly to revel myself wearing the very same jacket I had wanted to equip.
I chuckled, then laughed out loud when I went to check my resistances, only to find out I was 5% more resistant to cold.

By then I had spent enough time playing with the new mechanics my body was subjected to and was eager to get going, promising myself to try out my spells along the way to the Kokari Wilds.

Before leaving, I took one thorough look at my whole inventory, laughing again at another pleasant surprise.

I didn't forget the beer!

Fresh air, beautiful greenery, sparkly stream and best of all, not a soul in sight. Ah, the irony.

I'd been walking for a few hours -I wasn't discarding a psychotic break yet- and had discovered a couple interesting things.

First, I'd tried my spells. They worked just fine, if a little differently from the game. I remembered there being a duration time for each spell, and some variables depending on the spellpower of the caster and the strength of the target. Here, similarly, if I casted a spell, it would consume a fixed amount of mana. A noticeable difference was Force Shield, in that I was unable to move outside the shield or cast while it was active, but I was not paralyzed the way the game made it seem. This meant I could still drink potions or equip stuff while it was active and that I could dispel it before it collapsed, if I chose to. That was absolutely something I was gonna exploit along with Walking Bomb, which I'd tried on a tree -I'm sorry tree!- and needed only to find someplace my enemies couldn't reach. I did need to wait for a bit before casting the same spell again, so cooldown was a thing. If I tried casting before that, the spell simply fizzled out.

Another problem was my mana regeneration. A bit of testing reveled it to be 1pt -I figured- every two seconds. If I ran out of mana and couldn't get away, I was doomed. If my spellpower was good enough, though, I'd have killed my enemy before my time was up. Investing more in my mana pool also seemed wise, although stacking up on potions could be a suitable alternative. Then again, I was hoping my mana regen would become better with level ups and equipment.

I also had my first battle. It was a Genlock.

How could I tell, you ask? Well, to begin with, it was short, like a dwarf. Unlike a dwarf, it had a grotesque, black and bloodstained appearance.

I felt its presence first, which put me on guard. I hid and waited until the lone darkspawn appeared. After considering for a bit, I casted Walking Bomb. A one on one battle is exactly what I needed to start with, right? And if I could feel its presence, it had to be weaker than me. This was a Godsend -or a Makersend?- and I went with it. The darkspawn soon noticed where the spell had come from and went for me. I ran to buy time, but it was faster. How it ran so fast with those short legs was beyond me. As soon as the cooldown period was over, I casted Walking Bomb again. The damned thing was still gaining on me, so I let it get as close as I dared, and casted Force Shield on myself.

The image of the Genlock bashing uselessly against my shield was the most disturbing, vomit inducing sight I'd ever seen.

As I waited, after the first wave of nausea had passed, I began to asses my condition. I had a little mana left. Upon closer inspection, it seemed like the Genlock was getting tired. As it was, I estimated the Genlock would die a little before my shield did.

But of course, I wasn't gonna be that lucky. Not half a minute later, another Genlock came rushing into my field of view. I hadn't sensed him, so it had to be stronger that me. Furthermore, as soon as my shield disappeared, I'd be defenseless.

Craptasitic.

Okay, think. Think.

The second Genlock had begun attacking me, to no avail thanks to my shield, I was at least glad it worked well. Now, the first one was gonna explode as soon as its health run out, which would cause a fair amount of damage to the second one. It'd also knock him off his feet. I was going to use that moment to my advantage.

I opened my inventory and equipped my climbing gloves. Then I waited.

Eventually, the first Genlock exploded. Even before the spray of blood and gore was gone, I dispelled the shield, turned tail, run to the nearest tree and quickly climbed as high as I could. I looked down to see the darkspawn making its way to me and hit him with Walking Bomb. Then held on as it tried to get at me. I had Mindblast on reserve, which wasn't as costly as my other two spells, ready to be used as soon as it got up, but it wasn't necessary. The Genlock exploded, and after checking for more lurking monsters, I slumped against the tree trunk.

I sat there, breathing heavily. My thoughts, which had been mostly organized while in battle, came rushing in with vengeance. My emotions escalated fast and thinking coherently became difficult.

So I stopped and did what I told my patients to do. I breathed.

In and out, counting the seconds, holding my breath for a bit before letting go and starting again. I was surprised at how fast I regained my wits after that. I waited a few minutes for my mana to replenish, so I took a much-deserved break. I killed two darkspawn. I'd taken no damage at all. I had survived.

Thank God.

A relived tear rolled down my cheek. I gently swiped at it and allowed myself a smile. I had survived.

As soon as I'd replenish my mana, I climbed down and recovered my backpack from were I'd left it before engaging the first Genlock. I checked the map and compass to make sure I was still going the right way and began walking again.

At one point I felt a presence again and hid for a while until I saw a little animal resembling a fox run by and the feeling subsided. What was it called again? Fennekin? No wait, that was a Pokémon. Whatever. What I gathered from that was that I could sense every creature, not just the hostile ones, and that they all felt the same. That got me wondering if maybe I should invest my remaining skill point in a Survival upgrade. I checked the skill screen as I walked. The upgrade would let me check on creatures of up to my level and I'd be able to recognize it's type.

Mm… it was very tempting, but I had a suspicion that Combat Tactics was the more useful skill. I still couldn't say for sure, but if my guess was right, then the reason why I'd been so cool under pressure until now was that skill. It was the only one I had no choice in taking as well, which hinted that whatever or whoever gave me these powers and presumably brought me here was cluing me in on the advantages of Combat Tactics.

In the end, I went for Survival. Combat Tactics was gonna be great later, but for now, my main concern was staying alive. Checking my resistances also reveled that the nature boon also stacks up, making me have +10% nature resistance. Nice.

I found some elfroot and deathroot along the way, which I recognized from the pictures in the game. I also ran into a big ass rat and killed it. I'm not gonna lie, it was harder than killing the darkspawn, seeing how it hadn't attacked me and it was just an animal. I love animals. I did it for the EXP. I was halfway to lv. 2 and needed to get there as fast as I could. I did notice when I felt its presence, it was different than before. That probably was what "revealing the type of creature and its hostility" on the Survival skill meant.

I kept up the pace, killing the odd rat I could find until the sun went down. I thought I'd better not walk around too much at night, even with Survival, and decided to go to sleep early. I found a suitable tree and climbed up -feeling very Hunger Gameish-; it was harder when hauling up my backpack with me. Once I reached what I deemed the most comfortable branch, I tied my stuff and myself with the climbing rope. I tried to summon my sleeping back from my inventory and I couldn't. My inventory was almost empty. The problem was easily fixed once I came into contact with my backpack. Having learned something new about my abilities, I arranged the sleeping bag so it wouldn't fall off of me and contently went to sleep. Except I couldn't, cause it was freaking early, so I took out my book and my led reading light and quickly attracted every bug in the damn forest. I gave up and tried to sleep again.

It was the most uncomfortable night I'd ever had. It was cold despite the sleeping bag -and it was a good one too-, and I was scared something would attack me while I was out, but I managed to catch a few hours of sleep before I climbed down upon de first rays of sunlight. I had an apple and an energy bar for breakfast -I was trying to ration- and went on my way after doing my business on a nearby bush. Thank heaven I'd brought toilet paper; I dreaded the though of what I'd do when it ran out.

On the second day -my second day in Ferelden, holy crap- I found a stream, where I refilled my bottle, placed it on my backpack and proceeded to brush my teeth. Hygiene above everything, people. My inventory made this very easy, taking stuff in and out with the "equip" feature. It also made it easy to recognize which bottle had stream water and which one was unopened, what with the labeling system. I hoped my +10% nature resistance was enough to withstand any bacteria in the water. Yikes.

Later that day, I felt several presences. They didn't feel hostile, but there were a lot of them, and I figured better safe than sorry. I quickly hid my stuff and climbed a tree. I pondered the feeling a bit more, and soon after I saw a pack of wolves; six of them to be precise. They hadn't notice me and I thought maybe I'd just stay hidden, but then they went sniffing near where I'd hidden my backpack.

Now it was personal.

"Walking Bomb!"

I targeted at random, noticing all of them where around the same level. Soon, I had all five plus the infected one slashing and barking up my tree, all of them feeling hostile. Thanks, Survival, what would I do without you. The wolf exploded after a while, damaging all the others. I repeated the process thrice and soon enough I was down the tree and surrounded by gore. I was surprised they hadn't run away after I killed the first, actually, but I guess they just didn't understand the concept of magic very well?

I realized then that I couldn't loot here, unless I wanted to do it the old-fashioned way and skinned the wolves. I wasn't going to. It was bad enough I had to kill them, and I didn't have the time or the skill necessary to pull it off.

I briefly wondered if Survival would have given me the know-how on that, but let it go, since I wasn't gonna try anyway.

"Level up" I called out, and the screen appeared before me.

That's right my peeps! This mage is now level 2! Woohoo!

Silver lining, eh?

Hello! And thank you for giving my story a try. I've read some great Dragon Age fics and figured I'd try my hand at one. I wanted to read something a little more game-inclined, but couldn't find it anywhere, so I ended up writing it myself. I thought it wasn't half bad, so, hey, maybe I'll share it and see how that goes. Feedback is much appreciated!