Duration: 15:45

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I head into the ruins and investigate the chest holding the treaties, triggering a long cutscene. The chest is empty, and it turns out we’re not alone. A mysterious woman is hiding in the ruins and asks what we’re doing in the area, much to the group’s surprise. This woman, who gives her name as Morrigan, is clearly a local witch and leaves everyone uneasy (especially Daveth, who grew up in the area and is familiar with local legends about witches). Alistair accuses Morrigan of taking the treaties, which she denies—she tells us her mother took them, and she offers to take us to her cabin to retrieve them. The cutscene shifts to the cabin where we meet her mother, who’s also a local witch with a creepy persona. Despite this, she gives the treaties to us, claiming she was only keeping them safe. We now have what we need, and Morrigan takes us back.

We rendezvous with Duncan, and the Joining ritual can begin. Joining the Wardens turns out to be highly dangerous—the local mages prepare the darkspawn blood we collected into a mysterious liquid, and each candidate has to drink it. Darkspawn blood, of course, is highly toxic—it’s why the dog we helped earlier was so sick—and plenty of candidates die on the spot from the brew. The ones who survive, though, gain immunity to the Taint and a valuable connection to the hive-mind that darkspawn share, allowing them an inherent ability to detect darkspawn. This limited connection to the Taint is why Grey Wardens are so successful against darkspawn, and they’re willing to assume the risks of exposure to stop the darkspawn. In our Joining, Daveth is the first candidate to drink the mixture, and he’s one of the unlucky ones—he drops dead. Jory is next, but he’s having second thoughts. He has a pregnant wife and isn’t willing to go through with it, but unfortunately for him there’s no going back. The specifics of the Joining are a closely guarded secret, and Duncan kills him to protect it. We’re the only candidate left, and despite a grueling experience we survive the mixture. We’re a Grey Warden!

After it’s over, Duncan welcomes us into the Grey Wardens and says there’s a lot to be explained in the months ahead. For now, though, we need to go to a strategy meeting with the king as soon as we’ve recovered from the ordeal. We’ll go soon enough, but first I need to assign points--the Joining ritual gave us enough experience to gain a level. As usual, I focus on Magic and Willpower, and now can select not one but two new spells—the game gives us a free spell just for surviving the Joining. For one of the spells, I choose Arcane Shield, the spell following Arcane Bolt in the “generic magic” tree. It’s a useful defensive spell that can give some decent protection. For the other spell, I choose Winter’s Grasp, the first spell in the cold magic chain. It inflicts cold damage and gives a good chance of freezing enemies solid, which I think should be a useful addition to our magic arsenal. It’s especially effective against fire-oriented enemies like rage demons.