Felicia Day takes us through Dragon Age 2: Mark of the Assassin

Felicia Day likes Dragon Age 2 so much she almost got me killed.

In Dragon Age 2, I mean.

Last week I hung out with the actress as she showed me Dragon Age 2's new DLC, Mark of the Assassin, starring ... well, her. "I created the character with BioWare inputs," Day told me. "I played through the game several more times, you know? It was the best kind of research."That character is Tallis, an elven assassin of sorts looking to use the Champion of Ferelden to crash an Orlesian's noble's hunting-oriented shindig. And there are other uses for the Champion, it seems -- the first thing Ms. Day did while controlling the male hero was flirt with with her own character in the dialog tree. We joked about it as she followed the heart-shaped selection with a deadpan "if I had a clone, I would totally make out with myself" crack.

Then there was a joke about the aggressive conversation options and how she just isn't into the whole "fisting" thing. That's because aggressive conversation choices are represented by a fist, pervert.

Things got a little blurry around then.

If you played the last major Dragon Age II DLC release, Legacy, you've got an idea of how Mark of the Assassin is folded into the game proper. The dwarven companion Varric is being interrogated by the Seeker Cassandra about yet another piece of the Champion's puzzle, which he again neglected to spill the beans on. The DLC starts here, along with Tallis interrupting a pesky Champion ambush with an awful lot of murder.

"You don't have to watch the webseries and play the DLC together," Day said, "but it will give a better insight into the character." Tallis is recognizably Ms. Day, save for "lots more cleavage." Mark of the Assassin's tone is also recognizably in line with her persona. "It's very quippish," she tells me. "There's a heavy moment, and then someone has a one-liner."

There's more than one, in what I saw in my brief time with the game. The Orlesian nobility on display have a distinctly... Holy Grail sensibility to them, if you catch my meaning. There's a lot of fodder for comedic relief, even when things are serious.

Starring in the DLC was "a dream come true." She explained the appeal, saying "there's a lot of lore in this, which is why I love Dragon Age." Day isn't kidding -- she's played through the original Dragon Age all the way through twice, and through every origin. She was obsessed with seeing as many of the different character reactions as possible, and the same applied in Dragon Age II. And that's how she nearly got me killed.

Day picked my party loadout for the DLC based on character interactions she hadn't seen yet. After all, there's over 12 hours of additional dialogue in Mark of the Assassin. But, unfortunately for me, there wasn't a healer or mage in the bunch she did pick, which was a problem when it came time to fight the wyvern.

Like Legacy before, Mark of the Assassin's big battles are designed to be more tactical in execution than the main game, and proper class selection, positioning, and ability usage is key. Which I found out the hard way as my party quickly had its collective ass handed to it. I spent a few minutes doing the Benny Hill shuffle, running from the wyvern with the Champion, and hitting it a bit where I could, just barely squeaking out a victory -- and this was on easy.

Then we got attacked again.

Dragon Age II - Mark of the Assassin is out on October 11th, the same day the Dragon Age Redemption web series launches. Convenient!