Side Quests (Recommended Level 8-10 and 12-15)

1: Holding the Mire

Description: Establish camps to hold the Fallow Mire and support Inquisition activity in the region.

Quest Giver: Scout Harding

Requirements: Started as soon as you arrive in the Fallow Mire

Reward: 50 Influence and 1 Power per camp, except for the starting camp

Objectives:

Establish two camps.

There are only two camps to establish in the Mire, and one of those you start with right away. You’ll likely take care of this objective after taking care of the the second monument on the Beacons in the Dark side quest. Head for the second camp as early as you can, so you can set up a forward base much closer to your final objective.

2: Lost Souls

Quest Giver: War table

Description: Inquisition soldiers are missing in the uncharted marshes of southern Ferelden.

Requirements: You will hear about soldiers gone missing in the Fallow Mire when you return to Haven after your first expedition to the Hinterlands. Investigate the mire from the war table by expending eight power to unlock the Fallow Mire for exploration, and you will be able to personally see to the rescue of the soldiers.

Reward: 3 Power, 1,025 XP, 400 Influence

Objectives:

Go to the war table to locate the soldiers.

Travel to the Fallow Mire.

Locate the Avvar outpost.

Open the gates.

Defeat the Avvar leader.

Release the Inquisition hostages.

The path to the Avvar outpost is fraught with danger and holds a number of side quests. So long as you follow the main road south, through all the veilfire beacons, you’ll easily make your way to the castle outpost while accomplishing nearly every major side quest in the Mire.

Things get very exciting as you approach the castle far to the south of the first Inquisition camp. You encounter a horde of undead near the front gates, and more keep coming once you start fighting them. Listen to your party members when they tell you to run: The undead will not stop coming until you enter the dilapidated castle.

As you enter Hargrave Keep, the Avvars shout that the Herald has arrived, and the fight for the Inquisition soldiers begins, with an Avvar defender and bowman as your first obstacles. Take out all the Avvars beyond the front gate, then climb up the wooden ramps to the castle walls so you can use a switch to open the gate to the next section of the keep. Beyond the newly opened gate is another group of Avvar warriors. They are the last line of defense between you and the Avvar leader.

The Avvar leader announces himself as the Hand of Korth as soon as you climb up the final staircase into the Avvar base camp. The Hand fights like the enforcers you may have faced in the Hinterlands, and his massive axe hits for very high damage. Get a warrior to keep his attention while the rest of the party silences the Avvar defender and two bowmen that support their leader in this fight. Killing the Hand earns you his axe: the Gift of the Mountain Father. After you have negotiated the Avvar’s permanent leave of this world, release the hostages from their prison cell. Your work in Fallow Mire is complete.

3: Beacons in the Dark

Quest Giver: Approach a beacon in the Fallow Mire

Description: The Fallow Mire is plagued with demons. Lighting veilfire beacons should draw them out. Defeat the demons to make the area safer.

Requirements: Available as soon as you enter the Fallow Mire

Reward: 967 XP, 200 Influence, 2 Power

Objectives:

Clear four beacons.

Light the beacons and defeat the demons.

There are four stone beacons placed around the Fallow Mire, and their locations are revealed on the quest map when you approach one of them. Have a mage in your party light the veilfire torches mounted to the beacons. This triggers an ambush of undead, led by demonic terrors. Killing the terrors at each beacon will cause the undead to die along with them, so if you want to end these fights quickly, focus your party on the demons!

The beacons become more challenging to clear the farther you progress toward the fortress where the Inquisition soldiers are being held, with more undead coming out to try to distract you from the demons. Focus on the terrors to put an end to the fights as quickly as possible.

4: Beneath the Mire

Quest Giver: A rune planted on the stone beacons scattered in the mire

Description: Mysterious veilfire runes are inscribed on rocks and ruins in the mire. Perhaps they can be deciphered.

Requirements: Available as soon as you enter the Fallow Mire

Reward: 2 Power, 512 XP, 200 Influence

Objectives:

Find all four veilfire runes.

Recover the apostate’s journal.

This quest is taken on simultaneously with the Beacons in the Dark side quest. Using a veilfire torch from one of the beacons, look for the runes on the beacons themselves. The first one you inspect begins the side quest. Each rune you light up with the veilfire will reveal more lore about the Fallow Mire. Finding all four runes will grant you a recipe that allows you to make the Tears of the Dead tonic.

5: Cabin Fever

Quest Giver: A lost cabin key buried in the marsh

Description: Explore the Fallow Mire to find a way inside the locked cabin.

Requirements: Available as soon as you enter the Fallow Mire

Reward: 128 XP, 80 Influence

Objectives:

Unlock the cabin door.

As you travel down the road from the third beacon on your way to the fourth, your Search ability will begin pinging at a point to the west of the path. This search takes you through deep water, so be sure to deal with the undead threat as you look for the hidden item. It turns out to be a cabin key, and it’s very close to a cabin that conveniently can only be unlocked with that key.

6: These Demons Are Clever

Quest Giver: A journal left on the ground near one of the veilfire beacons

Description: A journal recovered in the mire suggests a rather unstable apostate is roaming about somewhere. The apostate, apparently named Widris, seems to be mixed up with some demons and could be dangerous.

Requirements: Available as soon as you enter the Fallow Mire

Reward: 967 XP, 200 Influence, 2 Power

Objectives:

Find Widris.

Kill Widris.

After you recover Widris’s journal, a search area is revealed on your quest map, to the west of the veilfire beacon at Misty Grove. Enter the circular stone formation where the Granite Point landmark waits to be claimed; you can close down one of the Fade rifts in the mire on your way to Widris. Be sure to search the area around Granite Point thoroughly for resources.

On the west side of the Granite Point clearing, a passage leads out into a side area that will take you through water toward another clearing where the hidden apostate’s camp awaits. As at all other bodies of deep water in the Fallow Mire, undead will attack when you disturb it. Make sure you clear the undead as best you can before proceeding to the camp. Widris awaits, and she’s not friendly.

Apostate Widris can be a bit of a shock for players entering the mire early in the game. She’s level 15, well above the average threat in the Fallow Mire, and she’s got the support of a pack of wraiths, also level 15. Poorly prepared parties can find themselves dead very fast. Remember; the wraiths don’t have much in the way of health or defenses, so you can destroy them pretty quickly if you’re well geared, making it easier to focus on taking down Widris. Her campsite is very well stocked with loot, an additional reward for the trouble.