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Origins | Ostagar | Lothering | Circle Tower | Warden's Keep (DLC) | Return to Ostagar (DLC) | Stone Prisoner (DLC) | Brecilian Forest | Redcliffe | The Urn of Sacred Ashes | Orzammar | Deep Roads | Denerim | Final Onslaught |
Caridin's Cross | Ortan Thaig | Dead Trenches | Anvil of the Void | Cadash Thaig | Oghren's Quest | |
ORTAN THAIG
To Ortan Thaig
Now I make my way to the Ortan Thaig via the Deep Roads map. Oghren can be plied for background information. Avoid the 'Branka and the others are dead' dialogue option if you want to avoid losing approval with Oghren.
Darkspawn and Spiders
The early portions of the Ortan Thaig consist of Darkspawn and Spiders of various sorts fighting each other. That pretty much presents a gift-wrapped opportunity to dive right in with little risk and kill as many monsters as I can to score as much xp as I can.
Lost to the Memories
This video shows the completion of a side quest called Lost to the Memories. It begins when I speak with a Dwarven woman on the left side of the Shaperate, Orta. She claims that her family descended from a Paragon and thus should have noble status. The problem is that proof is lost in the Ortan Thaig, which is now overrun with Darkspawn.
I return to the Ortan Thaig and make my way through the southeast tunnel, where I had earlier fought a lot of Darkspawn and Spiders. The tunnel leads to the central part of the Thaig. Once there I encounter several Dwarven spirits and a Stone Golem. This battle, if anything, shows the power of several sustainable abilities being activated all at once. It can reduce what could otherwise be quite a challenging battle into a casual mow down. I nonetheless make a point of killing off the Golem first as the greatest threat before going to work on the spirits.
I venture a little further into the central area. I click on the -tab- key until I can find the right chest, and then loot it for the Ortan Records.
I then bring the Records back to Orta in the Shaperate. She is immensely joyful, and tells me to meet her in the Chamber of the Assembly before leaving. I do so, and get 250xp plus 5gp for completing the quest.
A Mother's Hope
This video shows the complete solution for another quest, A Mother's Hope. I begin by speaking with a Dwarven woman named Filda, who is praying at a Shrine near where the party first entered Orzammar from the Hall of Heroes. Her son, Ruck, went missing some years ago during a Deep Roads expedition. She would like me to find him.
I return to the central area of the Ortan Thaig. I find Ruck a little north of where I found the Ortan Records. He retreats further into a tunnel to the north. I get ambushed by several Spiders, which I dispatch rather easily. I then go into the north tunnel and speak with Ruck. There are multiple ways that this can be resolved. I could do a mercy killing on Ruck, but I'll need to be a pretty good liar when I speak to Filda again. Note that Zevran will pretty much force a mercy killing if he happens to be in the party.
I prefer to let him live, but I'll need either a Persuasion or an Intimidation check to get him to calm down enough to speak with me for any length of time. One of the benefits of this is that he sells his own inventory of goods as a merchant. Ruck sells Life Stones and Deep Mushrooms without limit, in addition to other crafting components as well as weapons and armors of Dwarven make. His more notable items include:
Asunder
Now I show the completion of another side quest in this video. First I travel to the Aeducan Thaig. A Small Bloody Sack near the northwest corner has a Bag of Limbs that I now take.
I then travel to Caridin's Cross. This time I head south, and then east through a side tunnel. This brings me to a series of caves near the northeast corner. There will be plenty of Deepstalkers for me to kill, and they're quite easy by now. I find another Small Bloody Sack, and take the Head in a Bag.
I continue on to the caves near the southeast corner of Caridin's Cross. The Small Bloody Sack there has the Torso in a Bag, which I take.
I then travel to the Ortan Thaig, and make my way towards the central area. There's a sort of rocky outcropping that kind of partitions the central area into north and south halves. I make my way around the outcropping in order to reach the southern half. I end up having to fight several more Dwarven spirits and a Stone Golem. I of course make sure to kill the Golem first and foremost.
I next click on the Altar of Sundering and place the body parts on it. A Fade Beast resembling a Pride Demon (and which also has all its powers) appears, and offers 25gp if I let it go free. This choice implies that it will cause harm to others. I instead opt to kill it, which I manage to do quite quickly now that I'm higher level and with more abilities.
Spirits and Golems
There is a bridge that leads west from the Altar of Sundering. A Stone Golem is at the top, and it looks as though it's about to retreat back to the other side. Leliana makes a point of aiming her bow at it in order to get its attention. The result is that it charges me, allowing me to easily kill it by itself.
I then cross the bridge, where I encounter another Stone Golem and several Dwarven Spirits. Wynne manages to catch several of them grouped together with a Fireball. It otherwise becomes a routine physical battle.
Corrupted Spiders
A tunnel leads westwards. As I go along it, several Corrupted Spiders feign a retreat and use silk to pull themselves upwards in an obvious effort to set up an ambush. The ambush occurs on the top of a bridge at the other end of the tunnel, and that leads back east over the river. The key difference between Corrupted Spiders and other spiders is that Corrupted Spiders can use a Corruption Burst attack that can inflict continuous (albeit minor) spirit damage on multiple party members. Nonetheless, I win by killing off the ones closest to me first before the further ones close in.
I continue on and fight more Corrupted Spiders and a few Genlocks. The odd Genlock Emissary that shows up is easily killed off with Mana Clash.
Corrupted Spider Queen
I continue on to the north edge of the Thaig. I soon run into the Corrupted Spider Queen. The Spider Queen will have the same attacks as other Corrupted Spiders such as Overwhelm, Web, and Corruption Burst. It does a good deal more damage though, and has a lot more Health. It can also summon other Corrupted Spiders to its aid. It can also use a silk rope to pull itself and reappear at a distance as a method of retreat. This tactic also allows the queen to use its Poison Spit attacks at a distance. I always kill its summoned help first before concentrating my attacks on the Queen herself. The closer and closer the Queen gets to dying, the more frequently and in greater numbers she will summon more Corrupted Spiders, and the more frequently she will retreat. Nonetheless, with Wynne keeping everybody at full health, I am able to defeat her over time.
The Queen leaves behind a War Axe named Bloodline (+3 Dexterity, +10% spirit resistance, +1 armor penetration, +4 damage vs. darkspawn) as well as the Silk Weave Gloves (+20% nature damage). These will be Morrigan's gloves for the rest of the game. Morrigan already has both spirit damage and cold damage maxed out at 130% or close to, so she rounds things out with the Silk Weave Gloves. They will enhance her use of her Flying Swarm ability by adding bonus nature damage.
Branka's Journal
The north cave has several containers, most of them with random items. The cocoon has an amulet called The Smith's Heart (+20% fire resistance, -1 Dexterity), which I don't really have any use for.
In the middle of the north cave is Branka's Journal. Clicking on it will provide more back ground information.
It will also reveal the Dead Trenches on the Deep Roads map.
