During my first run of Dragon Age: Origins I missed a bunch of side quests all over the map. Most of the quests I missed though were in Orzammar line. If you’re a min-max junkie, then you’ll probably be interested in doing all of the content available. Doing side quests gives your party more experience, items, and abilities that you can use when you face the harder challenges down the road. Anyway, this short guide won’t be 100%, but I’ll try to tackle the quests that are easy-to-miss, especially the ones in the Deep Roads.

DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS ORZAMMAR SIDE QUEST GUIDE

Caged in Stone
Did you know that you can actually fight a dragon inside the Orzammar throne room? Hahaha! Anyway, to start the quest, just examine the throne at the Royal Palace. After doing so, have your main character stand at the throne and then have two of your characters stand at the arrow plates to the lower left corner of the room. Then have your last party member stand at the big square plate at the main hall (not in the throne room). Switch back to your main and examine the throne again and this will “unleash” a dragon on your party. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as Flemeth or the High Dragon. It’s actually easy and you can get a really nice 2H sword as your prize. Note that in order to have your characters stand in place, you’ll need to select “HOLD POSITION” in the advanced tab.

The Key to the City
I haven’t tried doing this but I read about it on one of the forums. Basically all you have to do is to collect Orzammar documents scattered all over the city. After you collect all 5, just go to the Assembly and look for the diplomatic cache. You’ll get your reward there. Here are the docs as well as their general locations:

Council Writ (Diamond Quarter, behind the doors leading to Commons), Writ of Censure (Fighter’s area in the Proving Grounds), Commission Report (Hall of Heroes), Assembly Directive (Dust Town), & Document (Commons, bridge to Proving Grounds)

Precious Metals (EASY GOLD QUEST, MUST DO!!!)
This is one of my favorite quests ever. It’s so easy to do and you can earn up to 40+ gold. Basically talk to Rogek in Dust Town and take the Lyrium off his hands. This will cost you 50 gold but you can use Persuasion to bring it down to 40. After that, head over to Godwin in the Circle Tower (they mage who was trapped inside a closet in the second floor), and sell it to him. First price is 40 gold but you can use persuasion to jack it up to 60+. Easy profit!

But wait, there’s more. Head back to Rogek and then collect your finder’s fee. You can get up to additional 20-25 gold if you have high persuasion. If you don’t, then just kill him and get the gold after.

Exotic Methods
I almost missed this quest completely during my second run (missed it the first time). If you picked Bhelen, you’ll have access to the Royal Quarters. Just look for Herbalist Widron who’s attending to some noble who’s poisoned. Just have your herbalist make a potion with 4 elfroots, 2 lifestones, 2 concentrator agents, and a flask. Use the quest on the woman and she’ll get cured. If you didn’t side with Bhelen, you can still do the quest when you finish everything with Harrowmont.

Proving After Dark
Look for the Proving Armsman in the Proving Grounds. You’ll find him in one of the rooms in the Fighters Holding Area. He’ll explain that there are illegal fights going on in the arena during the evening and that you can participate in it. If you win, you get some cash and EXP. You’ll get a nice prize for Blood Mages in the end.

Thief in the House of Learning
Another easy quest, just begin it by talking to Milldrate. Look for Shady Corebit in Dust Town. You’ll have to fight him and then get the proving receipt. After that, head over to the Proving Grounds and look for Fixer Gredin. Ask for the book and you can either sell the book to Jetrin or you can give it back to Milldrate.

An Unlikely Scholar
Dagna is a dwarf who wants to study magic. Just talk to her and agree that you’ll bring this up with the Circle of Mages. Talk to Irving at the tower and he’ll accept Dagna. Head back to Orzammar and deliver the good news to Dagna to end the quest.

Zerlinda’s Woe
Look for the dwarf beggar girl named Zerlinda in Dust Town. She’s been disowned by her father because she had a child outside her caste. If you agree to help her out, talk to her father Ordel. You can find him in the Tapster’s Tavern. You’ll need to pass a persuasion check to be able to get him to agree to take her back in. If you fail, you can be very evil and you can persuade Zerlinda to leave her child in the Deep Roads (lol).

The Chant in the Deeps
Another simple one. Just get the quest from Brother Burkel in the Commons area. He wants to put up a Chantry but he needs the approval of the Shaper. If you agree to help him out, just talk to the Shaper and pass either a Persuasion or an Intimidation check.

DEEP ROADS SIDE QUESTS
The following are quests still in the Orzammar arc but most of the work will be done inside the various locations of the Deep Roads. Some of the quests here have REALLY GOOD rewards but there’s a BIG chance you’ll miss them unless you read the codex that you pick up.

Asunder
Basically all you have to do is pick up three Small Bloody Sacks. You’ll find two of them in Cardin’s Cross and one is in Aeducan Thaig. You’ll get Bag of Limbs, Head in a Bag, and Torso in a Bag. After getting all three, set the pieces at the Altar of Sundering (Ortan Thaig). You’ll summon a gigantic kick ass demon that you can fight for experience or you can just get gold from him and leave.

Legion of the Dead (Forgot the name of the quest)
Gather all pieces of the Legion of the Dead Armor and have someone wear it. After that examine the Legion of the Dead relic in the room beside the area which goes to the Broodmother. This will summon a shade which you can easily kill. Defeating it will end the quest. Note that you can pick up a sigil in a sarcophagus leading up to the Broodmother if you do this first.

Lost to the Memories
Get the quest from Orta in the Shaper’s area. She needs some proof that her family is actually of noble caste. You’ll find the documents needed for this in a chest in Ortan Thaig very near Ruck’s cave. Just give the documents to Orta and then meet her at the Assembly for your prize.

A Mother’s Hope
You’ll find a dwarf mom praying her heart out in the Commons area. Talk to her and you’ll find out that she’s missing her son (who ran away). You’ll find the guy in Ortan Thaig but he’s already insane. Talk to him and just go back up later and tell his mother that he’s already dead. You can also be evil and kill actually KILL Ruck. Lol.

An Admirable Topsider
Another item gathering quest! Just get the Topsider’s Hilt from a Genlock Emissary which you’ll find somewhere in the southern area of Caridin’s Cross. You’ll find Topsider’s Pommel in Ruck’s cave (Ortan Thaig). After that you need to examine a Warrior’s Grave again in Ortan Thaig and you’ll then have to get the last piece from an Ancient Darkspawn in the Dead Trenches. After collecting all three, head back to the grave and examine coffin for one kick ass sword reward (3 slots babeh)!

Wall of Memories
Examine the Wall of Memories in the Shaper room. It’s at the back near the books so make sure you don’t miss it. That begins the quest. Look for three rune stones in the following locations: Mines Commander in the Commons, Dead Trenches, and lower right section of Caridin’s Cross. After checking all three rune stones out, head back to the Wall of Memories and complete the quest.

The Golem Registry
After defeating Caridin or Branka, examine the stone structure near the back of the room. Get a tracing from it and bring it to the Shaper. This is basically a list of all the dwarves who have given up their lives to become golems.

And that’s that. I’ll look for more quests and just update this later on when I find the time to do so. Hope this helps you guys out since I really missed a lot of these quests during my first run.

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