7. Dragon Age: Inquisition Story Walkthrough - From the AshesUpdate notes

Skyhold

Now that you finally have access to Skyhold, there are a few things you should take care of here before heading back out into the wilds. After being crowned Inquisitor, Varric will have told you that "he might know someone who can help you out". Hmm, who could that be? However, before we head over to Varric's visitor, go and have a chat with Josephine in her office. It's just North of the throne room on the way to the new War Room. Josephine will inform you that she is concerned about the welfare of Empress Celene. She wants you to attend a Grand Masquerade Ball in Halamshiral where Celene will be holding peace talks with Grand Duke Gaspard and Briala. She doesn't think the Inquisition has enough influence to be invited to the Ball yet.

You should now head outside and head up the western staircase to the Battlements where Varric's friend is waiting for you. Of course the person waiting for you is none other than the Champion of Kirkwall - Hawke. Hawke informs you that they have a warden friend (who the warden friend is varies depending on your imported World State) that is hiding out in Crestwood. The default "Warden Friend" is Stroud, so I'm just going to refer to them as this for the rest of the walkthrough. Hawke wants you to go and meet with Stroud because they're worried about corruption in the Warden ranks.

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After speaking with Hawke, you'll now want to go and make sure to speak with all of your companions. Most of them all have cutscene moments with you right now. Also, if you speak with some of them a second time (if you've been nice enough to them that is), then some of your companions will now have their personal sidequests available to you. So it is worth talking to each person more than once right now. In addition, you'll want to fully finish recruiting either Dorian or Cole.

You can also get a trophy real quick for getting 5 different mounts. Since you recruited Horse Master Dennet back in the Hinterlands, he now is set up at the stables of Skyhold. If you bought the Deluxe Edition, then you may already have this trophy from unlocking mounts on the war table. If you haven't gotten this already, it's now really easy. Go to the stables (Blackwall is set up over there too) and there will be a sign outside that you can click on to open up a shop. There should be one free mount and a few others that you can purchase. Buy the free one and three more and you should unlock this trophy:

Recruit: Dorian/Cole

Cole: If you allied with the Mages, there will now be a sidequest for you to find "The Forgotten Boy". If you go to the courtyard, you will be able to search for Cole. Some of your party members will be discussing what should be done with him. It's your decision on whether to allow Cole to stay or leave.

Dorian: If you allied with the Templars, Dorian will have set up shop in the library of Skyhold. Go and speak with him and extend him an invitation to stay with the Inquisition.

While in the library, you will also see that the Creature Research Table is now in this room. This is where you will have to come to turn in any research items now.

You should now head to the War Room. There will be a mission available called "Aquire the Arcanist" on the Ferelden side of the table. Do this now as it is an instant completion and requires no power. You can now head to the Undercroft area just off the throne room. The Undercroft is the new area where you will craft weapons and armor and upgrade or equip potions. The Arcanist will also be here now. You might remember Dagna if you ever played Dragon Age: Origins. She now gives you the ability to add runes to your weapons. There is also a place to buy and sell items in here and with an update, there is now a storage chest as well. Furthermore, if you happen to have any special editions of Dragon Age: Inquisition, then there will be a special chest in here where you can pick up upgraded DLC items or any items that wouldn't be available to you until now. Also, in this Undercroft area, there is a new bench for customizing Skyhold. From this bench, you'll be able to select how you want Skyhold to look from the banners to beds, thrones, drapes, windows, heraldry, and furniture.

After you're done fooling around in the Undercroft, head back to the War Room. If you've done enough sidequests, then you'll have enough power to open some new areas. If you don't have enough (What the heck are you doing?), then head back out to the areas you have unlocked and do some sidequests already. There are now 5 new areas on the map that can be scouted: Crestwood, Exalted Plains, Emerald Graves, Western Approach, and Emprise du Lion. Crestwood is the most important and easiest of the new areas right now. It takes 8 power to unlock Crestwood, but if you have more power, then by all means scout and unlock the other areas.

One last thing to note is that all of your companions now have their specialization trees unlocked. In the middle of all of these trees is a special focus talent. When you have the opportunity to unlock this talent, you will have to make sure that it is set for your companions to be able to use it. Go into each characters ability tree and make sure their focus ability is set to a checkmark or star instead of the X that it is automatically set to. By default, it will be set to your party members never using their focus abilities automatically ... have no idea why. So make sure that it's set and that your party member's can use these abilities in battle. You can also upgrade the tier of your focus abilities through the Inquisition perks. Having maxed out focus abilities available during boss fights can make this game a breeze.

You can now get another quick trophy out of the way by heading to Val Royeaux. Go to Val Royeaux and, across from the café, a shop will be open where you can buy decorations for Skyhold. Purchase one thing from this shop and you'll earn:

For me, this popped earlier for some reason. It might be due to the fact that I played The Last Court on the Dragon Age Keep which awards you with Serault Glass Windows if you completed it.

Lastly, if you're around level 10-12 right now then you can pop this trophy before heading out if you'd like:

  • Focused

    Spend 10 points in a single ability tree with any one single-player character.

    Focused

To unlock this trophy you need to spend 10 points in one single ability tree. If you want to do this on your Inquisitor and you've already spent points in several trees then you can go to the undercroft and buy an item that allows you to respec you skill tree. Alternatively you can spend the 10 points in one tree for the new companion you just recruited at Skyhold (Dorian or Cole). Or you can just wait. I think I ended up maxing out two or three skill trees on my Inquisitor by the end of the game.

When you're ready to move on with some story missions, gather your party and head to Crestwood to find Hawke's Warden friend.

Crestwood

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When you first arrive in Crestwood (Map Location #1), Scout Harding will inform you that there is a rift located underneath the big lake right next to you. Apparently, the lake was created by a flood a decade ago when the blight occurred. Since the rift has shown up, undead are now making their way out of the lake and harassing the nearby village of Crestwood. Harding also mentions that Stroud has been tracked to a cave in the East. You should now make your way to the village (Map Location #2).

On your way to the village, you will encounter some Grey Wardens fighting off some undead. Help them kill the undead and then speak to one of the Wardens. They mention that they are there looking to bring Stroud in for some questioning. They won't stay to help you fight the undead off the village either. Their only mission is to bring in Stroud.

AGENT ACQUISITION POSSIBILITY: Right after the Grey Wardens take off, you can head into the house that you are right near. In this house is Jana and apparently the Grey Wardens really impressed her. Convince her not to join the wardens (they seem to be having some issues). Also, if Solas is in your party, he can convince her to join the Inquisition as an agent.

There are quite a few sidequests that can be done in Crestwood before you meet up with Hawke and Stroud and I highly suggest doing them. The main side quest in Crestwood is quite interesting and doing it will open up a lot of the map as well as award you with lots of xp and power for the Inquisition. There is also a hold you can liberate right near the village called Caer Bronach (Map Location #3). You will need to liberate 3 holds throughout the game anyway and this is the first one you'll have a chance to capture. When you capture keeps, it also gives you access to some new shops and the ability to craft weapons and armors and such without having to return to Skyhold every time. This is what I would do, but if you're in a rush to move the story along a bit, then you can head straight to the cave where Hawke and Stroud are hiding out.

Thus, if you're done with some side missions or just moving on with the main story, then head to the cave (Map Location #4).

At the cave, you'll meet up with Hawke who will introduce you to Stroud. Stroud informs you that there's a problem with the Wardens. Everyone is hearing the Calling due to Corypheus. Because of this, Warden Commander Clarel wants to do a blood ritual to make a last ditch effort against the darkspawn in the deep roads in order to end the blights for good. Stroud spoke out against her plan and now he's on the run. Stroud now wants you to meet him in the Western Approach at a Tevinter Ritual Tower where the Wardens are gathering. Before you do that though ... do some side missions in Crestwood! Also you need to return to Skyhold.

Skyhold

After having accomplished a few things in Crestwood and returning to Skyhold, you will notice some things have changed. Slowly Skyhold is getting cleaned up and becoming more of a functional place.

The most important thing to do right now is head to the War Table. There should now be an operation for you to unlock a specialization class for your Inquisitor on the Ferelden side of the table. Make sure to do this. When the operation is complete (which is immediate), three trainers will arrive at Skyhold. You can go and talk to each of them and they will tell you why they think their specialization is the best. Decide which specialization you want to take up and then accept that trainer's sidequest. It will involve heading out to gather some components to requisition a specific item (having to kill specific enemies and harvest certain items) and reading a book about the specialization. If you haven't sent any of your companions packing, then you'll be able to find the book you need by the companion that has that specialization already. If you did happen to send someone packing, then you can acquire the required book in Val Royeaux at the book merchant. You can only choose one specialization so make sure you only complete the quest for the specialization you actually want. You can't change your mind afterwards.

Heading out and completing your specialization quest will unlock that ability tree for your character to use and grant you a trophy:

As for the actual quests, these are the items you need and where to find them:

Rogue Specializations:

Way of the Artificer: Kill Alpha Quillbacks for Alpha quillback spines in the Western Approach at Nazaire's Pass, The Canyons, and Old Prison Road. Read the book in Varric's belonging. Also gather 20 obsidian from Hinterlands, Crestwood, Exalted Plains, or Emerald Graves.

Way of the Assassin: Kill Assassins for Guild Leader tokens in Crestwood at East Side Hills, Black Fens, and The Flats. Read the book in Cole's belonging. Also, gather 20 deathroot from The Western Approach or Hissing Wastes.

Way of the Tempest: Kill Demons for Essence Containment Apparatuses in The Storm Coast at Apostate's Landing, Long River, and Storm's Solitude. Read the book in Sera's belongings. Also gather 3 spirit essences if you don't have them already (they have a chance of dropping from any terror demon or shade).

Warrior Specializations:

Way of the Champion: Duel Champions for Heraldic Symbols in the Exalted Plains at Ghilan'nains's Grove, Halin'sulahn, and the Desolate Bank. Read the book in Blackwall's belongings. Also gather 20 veridium from the Exalted Plains.

Way of the Reaver: Kill Rivals for Infusion Primers in Crestwood at East Side Hills, the Black Fens, and the Flats. Read the book in Iron Bull's belongings. Also gather 50 rashvines from Exalted Plains, The Emerald Graves, or Emprise du Lion.

Way of the Templar: Kill Demons for Broken Philters in the Hinterlands at Witchwood, the West Road, and Lady Shayna's Valley. Read the book in Cassandra's belongings. Also gather 50 embrium from The Hinterlands, Crestwood, or The Emerald Graves.

Mage Specializations:

Way of the Knight Enchanter: Kill Wisps for Wisp Essences in the Fallow Mire at the Old Thoroughfare, the Weeping Spires, and Granite Point. Read the book in Vivienne's belongings. Also gather 10 lazurite from The Western Approach, Exalted Plains, or the Hissing Wastes.

Way of the Necromancer: Kill Undead for Nevarran Skulls in the Storm Coast at Apostate's Landing, Small Grove, and Storm's Solitude. Read the book in Dorian's belongings. Also gather 20 bloodstones from the Emerald Graves or Emprise du Lion.

Way of the Rift Mage: Kill Venatori for Venatori Tomes in the Exalted Plains at Ghilan'nains's Grove, Halin'sulahn, and the Desolate Bank. Read the book in Solas's belongings. Also gather 20 ring velvet (drops from corpses in the Fallow Mire, freemen and corpses on the Exalted Plains, and from harlequins).

Other things to keep in mind when you return to Skyhold:

There are a few more trophies that you should be focusing on whenever you return to Skyhold from you adventures from now on. Mind you, some of these trophies can be completed even after you have finished the main story mission. They are not missable. First off, there is a trophy for harvesting plants from Skyhold's garden:

  • Botanist

    Harvest 50 herbs from Skyhold's garden in a single playthrough.

    Botanist

Now whenever you head out to zones and harvest plants, you have a chance of collecting seeds for those plants. When you get a seed, you can return to Skyhold and head to the garden. There will always be at least two pots in the garden where you can plant seeds you've found. So once you've found a seed, head back to Skyhold, select a pot, and plant the seed. Once you've found a seed for a specific plant, you will have that seed forever. Make sure that both pots always have a seed growing in them. You'll have to travel between two zones before you can come back and harvest your grown plant. When you harvest your plant, you don't have to do anything else. You can harvest, travel between two more zones, and harvest again without having to plant new seeds. You only need to plant a new seed if you want to grow something different. If you want to get this done even quicker, then there is a requisition for upgrading Skyhold's garden. You can upgrade the area to a chantry garden or you can upgrade it to more of a regular garden. If you choose the regular garden, then you will gain access to a few more pots making this go a little quicker. If you choose the Chantry garden, then you will still only have the two pots. Harvest from the pots 50 times and this trophy is yours.

The second trophy you should be focusing on is upgrading your potions into more potent forms:

You can also work on completely upgrading a throne. Thrones can be upgraded by sending your advisors on resource collecting missions or the gather coin missions. Resource gathering missions are faster than the gather coin mission from the War Table. More resource gathering operations open up as you unlock more areas as well. Anytime you assign an advisor to a resource gathering mission, there is a chance that they will return with some resources as well as a Throne Upgrade. The Throne Upgrade they return with depends on which area you are sending them to gather resources in. There are many different types of thrones and each one has two throne upgrades that can be found. The Dragon Maw throne from the special edition is not upgradeable and does not count toward the trophy. The easiest one to do is the Inquisitor Throne since you have it from the beginning. This one is upgraded by doing the Gather Coin mission over and over. Just remember: you need to have Throne Upgrade I and Throne Upgrade II for this to unlock:

You need a lot of ingredients to upgrade your potions. Thus, whenever you're out and about adventuring, make sure that you're harvesting any plants that you see. If you end up harvesting a rare plant and happen to get the seed, you might want to plant that seed in all of your available pots back at Skyhold. The common plants are easy enough to harvest tons of yourself or even buy some from merchants. Keep harvesting plants and whenever you head back to Skyhold, go to the Undercroft and see if you have enough materials to upgrade some of your potions. Check out the Miscellaneous section of this guide to see where specific plants/seeds can be found in order to make your upgrading easier. Perform 30 upgrades in your playthrough and this trophy is yours.

Finally, please remember that you need to befriend three members of your inquisition as well as romance it up with one person. Whenever you return to Skyhold, check with the main companions to see if they have any new dialogue or quests for you. Play nice with three of them and fall in love with someone. This is easy to do, you just pick the heart shape dialogue option whenever you're speaking with your "chosen" someone redface. These two trophies are indeed missable, so get on them:

So, now that you're "special" and everything, let's go and check out the Western Approach for a bit.

Western Approach

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When you arrive in the Western Approach (Map Location #1), Scout Harding informs you that there is definitely Warden activity in the area. She also tells you that her scouts intercepted a Venatori courier in the area. A letter they took off him can be found on a table by the requisition table to start a quest. Your ultimate goal here is to head to the Tevinter Ritual Tower way on the other side of the map. Instead of bee lining it over there though, do some sidequests, close some rifts, and set up some camps as per the usual. This is a pretty big area with lots of things to do. One thing to note is that if you head a bit North from your starting camp, then you will run into some gates that are closed. These gates can't be opened until you've explored more of the map and done some War Table operations to open up more of this area. So start off exploring by heading West wink.

One notable thing you might want to definitely do in this area before heading off to meet up with Hawke and Stroud is to liberate the keep (2 of 3) in this area. To the very Northwest of the map (Map Location #2), there is a keep that's been taken over by the Venatori that you can liberate for the Inquisition. There's also a campsite really close to the keep so you can go to the keep, kill a ton of enemies, and then, if you need to, go and heal up at the campsite. The enemies in the keep don't respawn once they've been killed. Liberating this keep also opens up a lot of sidequests in this area as well as gives you a chance to open up more of the map via War Table operations.

Once you're done with all of the side stuff, then head over to the Tevinter Ritual Tower at (Map Location #3) to meet up with Hawke and Stroud. Stroud thinks the Wardens have already started the blood ritual. Head into the tower for a cutscene where you will meet the bad guy Erimond. He'll end up running off like a baby, but not before he tells the mind controlled Wardens and some demons to attack you. Have your tank deal with the rage demon while your other party members take out the Warden Spellbinders. I believe Hawke and Stroud also help you out a little in this fight.

After you've killed everyone, Stroud will tell you he believes Erimond has fled to an abandoned warden fortress called Adamant. Stroud and Hawke will go check it out while you go back to Skyhold.

At this point in the story, the main plot splits. You can either continue on with the Warden storyline and head to Adamant by pursuing the mission Here Lies the Abyss at the War Table or you can instead head to Halamshiral and deal with Empress Celene in the mission Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts. Personally I find it a much smarter move to complete Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts first as there is not as much fighting in that story mission and you also earn some really good xp to help you with the Here Lies the Abyss mission. The Here Lies the Abyss mission is pretty much filled with fighting demons and wardens. It's your choice, but don't say I didn't warn you first.

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