Lothering Village

Lothering Village

As you enter the main gates you will encounter a Templar who you can chat with.  He suggests that you move on, but as you chat with him you learn that the reason he thinks you should move on has more to do with the overcrowding than anything else.  You can learn who is in charge from him Ser Bryant who you can find in the Chantry.

To the right are some wagons and a merchant who is having an argument with a priestess the merchant is being chastised for predatory pricing, and tries to pay you to deal with the matter.  I don't know about you but the idea of profiteering under these circumstances strikes me as offensive.  Morrigan on the other hand thinks he is doing nothing wrong go figure.

This confrontation presents one of the rare intimidation opportunities there are two Achievements / Trophies connected to using that skill so if you have it, now would be a good time to use it!

Either way once you resolve the matter go chat with the Chanter Devon nearby it soon becomes evident that he can only answer you in scripture from his holy book which makes for a rather odd conversation but the young boy next to him helps to fill in the details.  I got him to say 'What?" by saying "A Chanter says what?" and you can too!

Once you are dong with this bit of silliness, go check out the Chanter's Board and see if there are any missions on it that you want to do.  You should see one called "Bandits, Bandits, Everywhere" that you can take that involves killing a certain number of bandits around the town.

Head into the gates nearby and you will find a man scaring the people by foretelling doom and gloom, and who accuses you of being darkspawn minion. You have a few choices on how to deal with him violence or persuasion I chose to talk with him.  After all it is not very polite to kill crazy people.

If you show some sympathy as you question him, you learn that the real reason he is so distraught is because of his personal cowardliness when he failed to defend his family, and instead ran away to save himself.  It turns out that he can be reasoned with and he finally stops screaming and leaves the area.  You get the chance to use your persuasion skills on a member of the crowd, and then this interruption ends.

The Lothering Chantry

After you enter the Chantry, you will hear a conversation taking place go over and talk to the speaker, who turns out to be Ser Bryant.  Once you identify yourself as a Grey Warden, Ser Bryant informs you of the price that has been placed upon your head and admits that he has trouble believing the charges himself.  While he has no plans to enforce the order, he would prefer it if you leave soon, but before you do leave, go ahead and get as much information as you can from him.

One thing that you learn is that the Templar guarding the Circle of Mages tower have asked for authorization to kill all of the mages and destroy the tower so it might be a good idea to kick them a notch higher on your plans on who to visit first, yes?

You learn from Ser Bryant that Arl Eamon has fallen ill, and has sent his knights out in search of a magical cure and one of the knights is there in the Chantry now.  Remember the items we looted from the dead Templar?  It would be an idea to have a talk with this knight but before you do that, there is a book by the far wall across from Ser Bryant that covers the blight go ahead and add that to the Codex now.

Ser Donall

The knight from Redcliffe is Ser Donall, someone that Alistair knows well.  He says that he is here searching for the Urn of the Sacred Ashes, and as you converse with him you get a better idea of why defeating Loghain may be a bigger task than you thought. 

Giving Donall Ser Henrick's locket and note let Donall know that he may as well leave now, as there is no longer a need to wait for a meeting that will never happen.  You can ask for a reward if you like I chose not to.  As your conversation ends, Donall departs and you get some Codex entries.

There are some books to the left ahead that will add Codex entries and there is a gift item in a chest behind the shelves there as well that you may want to collect.

The Revered Mother

Inside the study you will find the Revered Mother the first thing that she asks you is to make a donation to the Chantry and 30 silver does not sound like a lot to me under the circumstances, so why not?

Telling her that you are a Grey Warden puts her in a difficult position, and though she wants to help you, the only thing she can do for you is to keep your presence a secret.  You may as well ask for her blessing it couldn't hurt but now it is time to go, but before you do look to the pile of books to the left side of the room for another Codex entry you are reading these as we get them, right?

Once you leave the Chantry, head back through its gates and around to the right you see the bridge here?  There is a little boy standing at the base of the bridge who is looking for his mother.  As you chat with him you realize that chances are really good that his mother is dead she certainly has not joined him as she said she would.  There does not seem to be much that you can do for him except give him a silver piece so he can get some dinner, which is a nice thing to do.

The Bridge

On the other side of the bridge is the village proper.  To the left side is a woman named Allison who is looking for someone to make her some traps if you can make traps go have a chat with her, otherwise not.

Across from her is Elder Miriam, who asks you if you have a bed for the night?  She is coordinating aid for the refugees, and fills you in on what has been happening.

Nearby is a group of Chasind fighters who a farmer is accusing of stealing food from his cart.  They are part of a group of deserters from the army, and they are causing trouble all over the town.

Nearby on the right side of the village is a tavern called Dane's Refuge.  Outside is a Helpful Refugee who you can talk to and who will let you know that there is trouble in the tavern.  He will tell you about the soldiers, and you get the idea that you should probably look into this.  When he learns that you are the group that took out the bandits who were blocking the road into town he thanks you isn't that nice?

Dane's Refuge Tavern

As you enter the tavern you are confronted by the soldiers that the refugee was talking about. It turns out that they are Loghain's men and they were sent here to look for YOU.  A priestess named Leliana, a lay-sister of the Chantry, tries to intervene on your behalf but that does not work out.  There is no avoiding this fight, so you may as well take them out as fast as you can once you exhaust the conversation options.  Sadly you do not actually kill them they give up once you start putting the beat-down on them.

You may feel like killing these soldiers heck I would not blame you if you did but consider a few things before you do that.  You can use them to take a message to Loghain that will help to force him to grow more paranoid, and if you do that, you will not receive a negative downcheck from Leliana.  Why is that important?  Because she is one of the people you want to recruit into your party!

As you chat with her she mentions that she wants to kill darkspawn, and tells you that she is coming with you note that I said tells, not asks.  Nice.  Go ahead and go through the chat options that she has available both to get information and because doing so helps to increase your relationship levels with her. 

A NOTE ABOUT GAINING PARTY MEMBERS

Obviously you can only have three party members in addition to yourself in your party, but you can gather additional members and, at various points in the story, switch them in and out of your group as you like.  Turn nobody away there are Achievements / Trophies connected to acquiring party members and besides, it gives you more options for creating a stronger party.

Be aware though that you will need to level them up to maintain their usefulness to you...

Blackstone Liaison

On the left side of the tavern room there is an armored fighter a Blackstone Liaison go over and have a chat with him now, and learn that he represents a mercenary company that is seeking your help.  He explains that each of their posts stationed throughout the lands will be receiving letters for you from their leaders, offering missions to you. 

When you encounter a Blackstone outpost you can check it for letters (missions) and accept them.  When you complete one of these missions, you can go to any of their outposts to collect your reward and to obtain a new mission.  Simple enough, yes?

Next to the Liaison is a metal chest that is sparkling access the chest to obtain your first Blackstone mission there are actually two available:

Scraping the Barrel
A delivery job take these letters of conscription and deliver them to Dernal Garrison in Redcliffe, Patter Gritch in Lothering, and Vatel Baern in Denerim.  Sounds simple enough!

Dereliction in Duty
Track down and deal with deserters,  Punish the deserters and recover the supplies that they have stolen.

Since you are not restricted to taking only one mission, you may as well take both, right?  You are in Lothering now, so before you depart, be sure to deliver that conscription notice!

Danal the Innkeeper

You may have noticed that your inventory is just about full, so now would be a good time to have a chat with Danal, the owner of this Tavern so you can apologize for messing up the tavern and see what news and rumors he has to share.  This is a very pragmatic individual though I have to wonder just how valuable the information he has to share really is.

Barlin the Merchant

Standing in the center of the tavern is Barlin, a merchant.  Running across him is very fortuitous as our  bags are now full of loot and there are a few supplies we could use.  First though, have a chat with him  and see what he has available.

You should have already upgraded the gear for your party before selling anything if you have not done that, do it now.  Selling off the items that you cannot use makes good sense as it gains you money, space, and of course the ability to buy the things you can use.

Note: From a practical point of view you should be making the potions, poultices and salves that you need, not to mention the traps, poisons, and other craftables, because you can easily gather the ingredients as a by-product of adventuring, and it is a LOT cheaper to do it that way.  You do not have to craft, but it is not that difficult, and as long as you keep your eyes out for plans and recipes on the merchants you encounter, you should quickly amass the ones you need to make what you need.

If you are not a magic user as your main, that does NOT mean that having Lyrium related items is a waste remember you have a mage in your party and THEY can use that, so do not ignore things that are not particular to your specialization since they are still useful to the party.

A short list of items you may want to stock up on here include:

Distillation Agent
Elfroot
Flasks (empty)
Gifts
Plans
Recipes

Items you should not sell (in other words hold on to because you can use them later) include Runes, Gifts, and crafting agents that you can actually use.  The later is relative to what skills you have for instance if you cannot make traps than holding on to trap components does not make sense...

A Note on Gifts
Gifts will increase the amount of affection/like that your party members have for you.  To ascertain what that level presently is, open the Equipment menu and select each party member below their doll and load-out window is a sliding guage with dislike on the left, and like (a heart) on the right.  Their present level of affection is indicated by the arrows marking the bar obviously you want this to be as high as you can get it!

Giving a gift to them will increase their like for you and giving the right gift to the right party member can have an even greater increase on like.  If you examine each gift that can give you an idea of who it would be most appropriate for.

Back to Barlin

After you have bought and sold all that you need to, ask Barlin if he knows of any well-paying jobs in town.  First he will loudly answer that you should check the Chanter's Board but we already know about that don't we?   In a much more discrete voice he will then ask if you happen to know anything about poison?

Well as a matter of fact I do!

Barlin would like to purchase some poison from you nothing fancy, just something that he can use to and I quote "slow them beasties down."

To complete this quest you need to make three flasks of venom which means you need some Toxin extract.

You may need to purchase some ingredients from him to make the poison but you are better off gathering the ingredients yourself.  Just keep in mind that you have a standing order from him and now exit the tavern.

Sten of the Beresaad

In a cage further down the road from the tavern is a prisoner named Sten.  When you go and chat with him, you learn that he has been imprisoned by the Chantry because he slaughtered an entire family including their children and he even admits that he did do this.

He is Sten of the Beresaad, as he says, the vanguard of the Qunari Peoples.  Would it surprise you to learn that this murderer is one of the people that you can add to your group?  Well, he is but you have to figure out how to get him out of this cage and gain his willing cooperation without alienating the town, the Chantry AND your group!

Introduce yourself and feel him out he can provide you with the information you need.  As you chat with him you will notice that Alistair does not like him, and Morrigan likes him.  Leliana does not think that even a murderer deserves the fate that is in store for Sten, and you have to decide what you are going to do but the task begins with revisiting the Revered Mother.

If you have Leliana in your party, the Revered Mother will give you the keys because she trusts Leliana and because you want to put Sten under your control.  If you do not have her in your party, your options are limited.  Be aware though that if you choose to intimidate or threaten, you will have alienated the Revered Mother, the Chantry, and lost some of the respect that Alistair feels for you.

Once you have the keys, return to the cage and free Sten, adding him to your party pool if not necessarily your party.

Before you head on to complete your current missions, run back over and chat with Elder Miriam again, and she will offer you a mission to gather herbs and create some healing poultices for her.  Accept that mission, as there are quite a few elfroot plants in the area that you will be covering to do the Chanter's Board mission!

Wrapping up the Lothering Missions

The requirements for the mission you accepted from the Chantry Board are to eliminate the bandits there are three groups of bandits on the North side of the village outside.  The three groups of bandits are marked on your radar map with white arrows and labeled on the map itself as Chanter's Board targets.

Leave town and seek out these bandits and slay them!  As you move towards each group keep your eyes peeled for plants you can harvest and lootable containers there are a few in the area outside of town. 

The group of refugees that you encounter as you leave town are not part of the Chanter's Board quest, but you still need to take them out.  That is a pity since they are not evil in their own right, but what can you do?

The group of bandits with the Bandit Leader in it around the far hill were a lot tougher than I was expecting I had to burn through a large number of healing potions to defeat them and you likely will too so keep your eyes out for elfroot to replace what you use up!

After you take out the third group of bandits you can loot the two containers in their camp for some money and items, and then instead of heading straight back to the Chanter's Board, follow the river here in the general direction of town and you will be set upon by a group if giant spiders.

After you slay the spiders you will loot some toxin from each this is the ingredient that you need to make the poison that Barling wants.  After you loot the toxin, open your commands menu and select poisoning, then the poison crafting icon, and create three Venom Potions.

Now you are ready to return to the Chanter's Board, Elder Miriam, and to visit with Barlin.  Do that now.

Elder Miriam pays you a small amount of silver for helping her to restock her healing supplies.

Barlin pays you 75 silver for supplying him with the three vials of venom that he needs to poison the traps that he wants to place on his farm.

The Chanter's Board quest gives you a whopping 3 gold for completing it when you talk to Chanter Devons, who tells you that you have done the Maker's work this day!  Three gold!  I'd do that again ten times if it would let me :)

In addition to the gold you are paid, you also unlock the Achievement / Trophy "Pilgrim" (10 GS) for completing a Chanter's Board quest.  Good on ya!  That is the first Achievement / Trophy we have unlocked since the Origin Stories!

If you are in the mood to do a few more quests, the Chanter's Board now has two more: When Bears Attack, and A Last Keepsake.  Doing these quests is an opportunity to gain some XP and money, and besides, they are quests!  You gotta do quests!

When Bears Attack 
A family of bears in the North woods of Lothering have killed a boy named Eneth.  The Chanters are offering a reward for any warrior who kills the bears.

A Last Keepsake
The young boy we gave a silver piece to earlier is the subject of this Chanter's Board mission.  The Chanters would like someone to locate the mother's body and bring her effects back to give to the boy.

Head outside of town to the north and you will be attacked by a pack of wolves a large pack of wolves and once you take them out, you will discover the body of the boys mother.  Loot that to gather the items you need for the quest, and then continue towards the next quest marker.

After you take out the three bears head back to Chanter Devons and get your 50 silver for completing the two quests.  You also get some XP I got enough to put me up to the next level which is nice :)

That wraps up almost everything you have left to do in Lothering save for delivering the conscription notice for the Blackstone.  You are looking for Patter Gritch, in Lothering, but making this your active quest does not create a marker directing you to them.

You will find Patter Gritch in the read of the Chantry just past the entrance to the Revered Mother's study and he does not seem happy to get your letter!  At least he does not try to run...

Once you deliver that message you have pretty much exhausted the quests in Lothering and you can now head towards the last marker on the radar map, which is the route out of the area.

Leaving Lothering-Vegas

As you approach the exit to the zone you encounter a party of darkspawn attacking a Dwarvish trader and his son and you quickly take the darkspawn out!  There is an item that gets you a Codex entry on the body of one of the darkspawn, and as you approach the Dwarves you get a CS in which they thank you for coming to their rescue.

The Dwarves are Bodahn Feddic and his son Sandal, and they do not want to accompany you at the moment.  They go about cleaning up the mess that the darkspawn made of their caravan and you head out via the nearby zone point. Do not worry, you will be seeing them again :)

When you select the zone point you get a CS that shows the nightmare you are having, and then you wake up.  Alistair tells you about your bad dream that it is actually rather real, as it is the Archdemon talking to the hordes.   Alistair tells you that eventually you will be able to block out the bad dreams and then suggests that as you are awake, it is time to pull up camp and get moving.

Before you do that, take a look around the area you are camping in and low!  There is Bodahn and his son!  They may not want to travel with you, but they are certainly willing to enjoy the protection that camping with you brings and to show their appreciation, Bodahn is willing to give you a discount on his wares!

If you happen to have 131 gold and some change you can buy a wicked ax from him I couldn't afford it but I wish I could.  He also has some really nice armor but again, it is a bit on the pricey side, discount or no,

If you talk to Sandal you learn that while he is mentally simple, he also happens to be a savant at folding and since you have some runes that can be used to enchant your weapons, why not go ahead and have him apply one?

Next to Bodahn is a bloke named Levi Dreyden, and if you chat with him he tells you that he has been looking for you that he knew Duncan and that he had an arrangement with the Grey Warden.  He says that they were supposed to look into something important for the Grey Wardens and for himself and suggests that Duncan would want you to help him.

He tells you the story about his family, saying that Duncan wanted to reclaim Soldier's Peak this is actually the in-game link to the first DLC for the game if you have already purchased that DLC than you can trigger it here.  If not, it gives you the option of buying it.

You do not have to do this DLC quest now and as I do not presently have it, I will not be covering it right now.  When I do cover it I will update this WT with that part.

When you are finished talking to Levi, head over to the World Map zone line and assemble your party, and then select your next destination!  I chose Denerim you can choose any destination you like and simply jump to that section below.