84 réponses à ce sujet

[Reman]

It was a very nice deviant from the usual we get in this game. I feel that every dungeon should have a story that grabs at you like this one did. I found myself reading the letters because I wanted to know what the h*** happened there.

[Strawberry_Requiem]

This quest reminded me of the haunted hotel quest in Vampire A Masquerade: Bloodlines in the sense that the threat is minimal/non-existant, and yet it still manages to be one of the creepiest parts of the game due to atmosphere. Interestingly enough, Greg Ellis voices a character in both games, which just fuels the comparison that much more for me.

Overall, though, it's a fun dungeon that I'm ashamed to admit scared me a bit. It's nice to see a side-quest with a plot so well-developed on its own that put the atmospheric elements of the game on display.

[Moirin]

I loved that whole quest/dungeon too. Sad story but that place was so fun to walk through. I also love how the amount of undead keeps slowly increasing and they all seem to be walking towards the same place. Very creepy and fun.

[Uccio]

I was already so numb from the general mmo crap in the game that this little side quest did nothing for me. Even the dead ones inside kept respawning on me all the time. The camera distance doesn't help either, everyone are miniature characters. Pissed me off. It was a nice try but still didn´t get even close to the haunted orphanage quest in DAO.

[Poison_Berrie]

Some answers for the OP. At least my take on it all. Yeah, creepy place and for those saying it's out of place in a game like DA, I beg to differ. Isn't the entire point of the game how dangerous magic can be, how some mages can easily be overtaken and controlled by demons because they do not understand or are incapable of warding off that much power? If so, then knowing that a small child who has magical abilities but is certainly incapable of controlling them, would fit completely in with the DA universe and theme.

 

As for those answers, the child was locked away because his/her (was it a girl or a boy? I forget) frightened the bejesus out of them. Lonely, he/she turned to magic and found a "spirit" who was kind and friendly. This "spirit" was the demon who then entered this world through the child. His/her parents locked her away but continued with their lives and social connections. The party was theirs and the demon crashed it, killing everyone inside the chateau. The demon most likely consumed the young child who would have been powerless to stop it.

 

I think the real havoc began when the child left to herself with a house filled with guests that she clearly was not allowed to attend for fear of what the others might think or say, invited the demon to come play.

Actually I think it's implied that the parents viewed the child being a mage as a curse and did quite a few horrific things to "purge" her from it. Finally they hire a mage to lock her magic away. This of course doesn't work (just like the previous attempts). The child learns nothing of magic and the dangers of it, but becomes convinced that she should get rid of it. In comes a demon to tempt her with the solution. 

 

I think it's more of tale of the dangers of ignoring someone's issue (magical abilities) and valuing your societal standing over your child's wellbeing, than it is a tale of how mages are easily turned into abominations.

[caradoc2000]

This quest reminded me of the haunted hotel quest in Vampire A Masquerade: Bloodlines in the sense that the threat is minimal/non-existant, and yet it still manages to be one of the creepiest parts of the game due to atmosphere.

The ambience in that haunted hotel quest was great.

And once the chateau got filled with ever-respawning undead and I had to fight through on top of scouring every inch of every room trying to find a new key, I thought, "I'm done. I don't care anymore."

The undead will only start spawning after you pick up the clues, so you can freely loot the building before that.

[OH-UP-THIS!]

Oh yeah, first time thru there............  , flashbacks of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines- Haunted hotel.(Troika won an award for that level)

 

Hard to believe it's been more than 10 years since that came out.

[Master Warder Z_]

o.o Marik plays Vampires the masquerade

[dragonflight288]

My two cents...for what it's worth.

 

 

Spoiler

Yes it's +10 cunning. Also, What I think it's pretty good to assume is that the arcane horror was no longer...really the girl. In previous dragon ages, mages can be corrupted by demons from the fade. Which is part of why they are so feared...they can be corrupted. I suspect, the demon offered to 'cure' the girl...her parents apparently thought her magic was a sickness and instead of sending her off to the circle to be properly taken care of, decided to try to have her bound and hidden away...because she was an embarassment. Resulting in her befriending a demon who makes her a promise to fix her.

 

I agree with this, and there's something more as well.

 

Spoiler

There is a codex on how to keep magic from appearing in your kids, or to kill it if it manifests itself. And that includes drowning the kid until they are on the verge of drowning then bring them out of the water and revive them, and this should kill the magic before it kills the person.

 

It sounds to me that not only was this girl locked up because she was an embarrassment, but she was also tortured by parents who genuinely thought they were helping her.

[dragonflight288]

Oh yeah, first time thru there............  , flashbacks of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines- Haunted hotel.(Troika won an award for that level)

 

Hard to believe it's been more than 10 years since that came out.

 

That hotel, no matter how many times I played it, always gave me the creeps and severe goosebumps. 

 

Which is why I always play that level at night and with the lights off. 

[LordSeeker]

I love dungeons like this. it makes me enjoy dugeoning by adding stories to it. The fun thing is that it is all optional. You can easily miss it. It is also small enough not to be an issue, just  a simple but fun dungeon. It does help I love reading In character letters and notes and putting together what happened. 

 

and yea, get the deft hands perks, I am headed back there later once I get my next influence level to finish looting. 

This is why i like games like Dark souls and Skyrim so much..Both games are full of such secret locations...

 

Wish DAI had more such locations and less nonsense fetch quests.....

[Wolfen09]

While not too creepy to me personally, this was actually a well written side quest...  Reminded me of the orphanage in thief deadly shadows, and the asylum in the new thief... though not as creepy...  seriously that orphanage and asylum scared the crap out of me, then right back into me....

[BraveVesperia]

I loved that quest. It helped that I had Sera and Cole in my party the first time. Cole said "It knows we're here..." in this ominous voice a second after we entered, and Sera was freaking out the whole time. Even Cassandra was uncomfortable.

 

Part of what made it so creepy was the fact that the corpses just spawn randomly. Even though they're weak, it adds that element of surprise and makes you wonder what it's building up to. Then there's the fact that there's no clear plot marker, so you don't walk in and go "aha, I know exactly what to do", instead you're wandering around unwrapping the mystery slowly. The notion of what happened to that poor girl... and then to everyone else... is pretty freaky.

 

I don't think I've felt that unsettled since Hespith's poem!

[SomniariKess1124]

i was so scared when i saw the dragon. I was so afraid it would come alive and i'd have to fight it. Overall, best level design i've seen!

[Magdalena11]

Keep in mind that +10 cunning = 5% increase in your crit chance. Its valuable for any class but especially non-rogue classes since it effectively doubles your base crit chance.

I was thinking the same thing.  A mage with flashfire passive, energy barrage, and a staff packed with extra critical chance can do some pretty amazing things.  I'm using gear with cunning and critical chance, and armor that provides guard, and somebody always has something that staggers and weakens.  Wow, is combat so fun this time around.

 

I love this place, and usually save it to give to myself as a treat.  Sometimes I use it to see how massively I can overkill the undead.  Last time through, I had a raft of shocked corpses surrounding KE Inq, staggered, chilled, weakened, and blown out of existence with a single spirit blade in a light show that makes me really wish I could figure out how to unzip my photo software to upload screenies.  It was apocalyptic.

 

Next time, I'm going to make a named save for it so I can go back again and do it whenever I want to.

[Eelectrica]

Definitely one of the better done pieces of side content. Really enjoyed learning about the place and what took place there.

[thats1evildude]

I'll have to do a run-through with Cole to gain more insight, but this is what I believe happened at Chateau D'Onterre.

 

Spoiler

The D'Onterres had a daughter, one with considerable magical talent. To avoid shame to their family, they hid her away. They went to some lengths to hide her, even murdering servants to keep the secret from getting out. They hired a Circle mage to enchant an artifact — the puzzle box — that was intended to somehow siphon the girl's magic away, to "make her better." They later arranged for the mage's death.

 

However, the box contained a powerful spirit, likely a desire demon. The girl broke through the wards on the box despite her lack of training and contacted the spirit. It taught her blood magic, which she used to kill most of the people in the house. She eventually died, though whether she died of starvation or because she killed herself is unclear. When you make contact with the box, it releases the spirit and it possesses her body, resulting in the Arcane Horror.

[berelinde]

Yeah, this was a great side quest. I like that it asks more questions than it answers. Ordinarily, I am *not* a fan of horror or haunted houses and I sometimes have to hide my eyes watching ordinary television, but I was OK with this.

 

To those who asked what happened to the girl...

Spoiler

A possessed mage is an abomination. An Arcane Horror is the possessed corpse of a mage. From the journal entry in the father's study (the room behind the arcane object where you get the +10 cunning boost), it sounds as if there's a templar taking bribes and a second mage involved (a tutor, maybe?), so I suppose it's possible that the kid did break free and get away, but it isn't the simplest explanation, nor the most logical.

[berelinde]

Spoiler

I wonder if she died in the box?

 

It's even more horrifying when you don't have a complete answer. The mind can be far more dangerous than the actual story. Like when I went to the orphanage in DAO. The Rage Demon was less than thrilling compared the ideas swimming in my head as I progressed further into the place. I think what made this quest creepy though, is the more clues you find the more the corpses begin to spawn uncontrollably. You know something's trying to keep you away and it's getting desperate!

Yeah, it did remind me strongly of the orphanage quest in DAO, and that was one of my favorites (I was sad that I couldn't save Ser Otto). Having read one of the posts above...

 

Spoiler

It seems that the second mage was employed by the father to build the artifact, and that its purpose was to absorb the girl's magic. It's hard to say what happened next, whether the process of drawing off the magic killed the girl or what, but I don't believe that the girl died *in* the box, although it might have created a magical discharge strong enough to kill everybody in the chateau. I'm still not sure if the Arcane Horror is the girl or the box builder. Regardless, you can ignore the box entirely and the AH still appears. It's got that wonderful creepy-sad vibe that the orphanage had, and it works just as well.

[Krypplingz]

Theory time! Here is what I think happened.

Spoiler

The girl (let's call her "Sweets" like the cook did) is Lord D'Onterres only daughter. When they discover that Sweets has magic they go all Isolde on her and attempt to hide her away from the world. Except Isolde tried to get a tutor, they tried to remove the magic.

They try many things (maybe some of those superstition methods) but eventually hire the help of a circle mage. The mage has a magical box which he claims will lock the girls magic away. 

 

The box:

Spoiler

The box seems unassuming, but I'm told it works as intended. There's an enchantment to it; It attracted power before. If you want more details, we talk coin. There are risks in asking too many questions. - I doubt you care, so long as it helps with your little problem. I'll expect my fee in due course.

-Codex entry: Secret Reading. I'm assuming its written by the mage who had the box. And I wonder if that power it attracted before was a desire demon.

 

Anyways, the mage demands  a good deal of coin for his work, which they give him and get the box in return. The mage preforms the ritual and takes his leave. But since he knows their little secret, the mage has to disappear. (Like some of their servants who started asking too many questions).  

Thus they hire a templar to "silence" the mage. But the templar finds out/already knows the secret and starts blackmailing the D'Onterres. 

 

That Circle templar is demanding another payment. Greedy bastard. Taking advantage of us all these years, because we wanted to preserve our good family name. He promised to silence the mage once returned to his Circle...but that doesn't protect us from the templar. 

-Codex entry: Lord D'Onterres journal.

 

Sweets and the party:

Spoiler

They give the box to Sweets as a present. I doubt they stuff Sweets into it, since she is the last to die as I understand it, but it might have consumed some of her magic, maybe waking up the demon inside of the box.

Or it the power in the box might have gotten linked to Sweets, creating a magical barrier that trapped Sweets inside the house. It's sphere of influence would have been a bubble, contained inside the Chateau  so it would only work in there. So the power would keep Sweets trapped inside, but as a side effect it could have manipulated things inside the Chateau. (There is no way the child could break through. She doesn't even have training. -Codex entry Lord D'Onterres journal)

Anyways: 

Mother and father bought me a present to make me feel better. To make me better. They're just trying to shut me up. 

 

After Sweets gets the box she comes in contact with the demon.

I think the demon is a desire demon, feeding on Sweets desire to be among people and leaving the house. Notably to join the social parties that her mother is constantly throwing. 

 

I have a new friend now. She understands me. She'll help me make things fair again. 

And

I can hear the guests downstairs. Another party. There's always another party. 

 

The demon probably told Sweets to go downstairs, where it helped her to take control of the guests and force everyone to dance until they dropped down dead.  Leaving her parents alive, understandably traumatized.

I showed them. We had such fun, we did! Dancing and partying until everyone fell down; it was glorious! The best party ever! Father and Mother went to their room when we were done. Mother was crying, she was so happy. I held out the present. It made me better, just like they said. 

 

Eventually I think the demon makes Sweets kill her parents or they commit suicide. Sweets realizes that her parents are dead, but in a foggy manner. She knows something is wrong with them, but her mind can't comprehend what it is. At that time Sweets still sees the demon as a friend.

When I saw Mother and Father, I couldn't stop crying. I don't know what to do. My friend says there's a way to be less lonely.She says not to be afraid. There are other games we can try and I will feel better.

-Codex entries from A torn diary. 

 

Eventually I think she realizes what happened. That she's alone and her "friend" isn't really friendly. Then Sweets puts the box on the balcony, locks the door and commits suicide. (Maybe by drowning, since the Horror appears in the water. Or maybe she died by the fire side where you find the note.)

 

There is no one left to remind me. I can't trust the thoughts in my head. Some of them are hers. But these are mine:

Key to the balcony. Do not use.

It won't make you better.

They lied. 

She lied.

-Codex entry A reminder. I think they are her parents and the mage and she is the demon. 

 

Well, that was long winded and messy. (_{Maybe I'll edit it later so it makes some sense and to correct some embarrassing misspellings.}.)  

TL:DR

Spoiler

The D'Onterres discover that their daughter has magic. They try to remove said magic. They hire a mage who has a magical box, that attracts power, which will stop the magic. The D'Onterres then have the mage killed and get blackmailed by the templar that did the deed.

The box attracts/already contains a desire demon. The demon contacts the girl and plays on her desire for friends and company. The demon and the girl take over Lady D'Onterres party, making everyone dance until they drop down dead. The parents are traumatized and eventually die. The girl figures that her new friend is evil, locks away the box and dies.

[NWN-Ming-Ming]

Wow!   So many cool ideas and thoughts on the chateau!  I still love this part, and I am glad that so many other players also loved it too!  Do you read us Bioware?  Make more content like this!!!