Act of Mercy

Act of Mercy
Act	1
Start	Gamlen's House
End	Wounded Coast Approach
Previous	Wayward Son
Next	The Midnight Meeting or Bounty Hunter
Appearances	Dragon Age II

Act of Mercy is an Act 1 main quest in Dragon Age II.

Acquisition

Hawke will find this quest on the Writing Desk in Gamlen's House at some point after completing the quest Wayward Son. Hawke also receive 50 for accepting the quest.

Walkthrough

Wounded Coast Approach

Go to the Wounded Coast Approach and talk to Ser Thrask, who informs Hawke of some apostates hiding in the Runaway's Cavern behind him. Ser Thrask will then request help in resolving the situation peacefully, before another group of more violent templars arrive to kill the apostates.

If you agree to help him:

• Aveline: friendship (+5)
• Anders: friendship (+5)

If you choose to belligerently ask Thrask about payment from blackmailing him before going in:

• Varric: rivalry (+10)

If you choose "Do it yourself.":

• Anders: rivalry (+5)
• Aveline: rivalry (+5)
• Merrill: rivalry (+10)

Runaway's Cavern

Upon entering the Runaway's Cavern, Hawke's party will be attacked by several apostate mages and weak undead. Eventually Hawke will run into a mage, Alain, who informs Hawke that the apostate leader Decimus has turned to blood magic. Choosing the last aggressive answer will result in Anders: rivalry (+5). Alain will then appear as if he is going to join Ser Thrask at the cavern's entrance so he can return to the Circle.

Note: If Hawke heads back to check whether he's indeed with Ser Thrask, Ser Thrask will still be alone without any acknowledgment of Alain. However, upon completing the quest, Alain is present in the cutscene with Ser Karras.

The cave contains one Standard chest and no traps. Make sure to grab the Raw Lyrium west of where you met Alain.

Decimus can be found at the end of the cavern, and he will attack under the belief that Hawke is working for the templars. This battle will include numerous undead, as well as three other apostate mages. After Decimus is defeated, Grace will approach and request that Hawke kill Ser Thrask so the surviving mages can flee to the outskirts of the Free Marches.

Choice 1

• "I'm sorry."
• "So raise him from the dead."
  • Merrill: rivalry (+10)
• "He was a blood mage."
  • Merrill: rivalry (+25)

Choice 2: no effect

Choice 3

• "I won't help you."
  • Bethany: rivalry (+5)
  • Carver: friendship (+10)
  • Aveline: friendship (+10)
  • Anders: rivalry (+10)
  • Fenris: friendship (+5)
• "I'll convince him you're dead."
  • Aveline: friendship (+5)
  • Varric: friendship (+10)
  • Anders: friendship (+5)
  • Merrill: friendship (+20), Merrill: friendship (+10) on pc version 1.03, Merrill: friendship (+20) on pc version 1.04
  • Fenris: rivalry (+5)
  • Isabela: friendship (+5)
• "I will kill Thrask."
  • Aveline: rivalry (+15)
  • Carver: rivalry (+10)
  • Varric: rivalry (+5)
  • Anders: friendship (+5)
  • Merrill: friendship (+10)
  • Fenris: rivalry (+5)
  • Isabela: friendship (+5)

PS3 Tested: The Dialogue options marked with Bold font are not available to a Mage Hawke regardless of intended dialogue path. Instead, Grace will note how Hawke attacks fellow Mages, skipping the "Choice 1" list entirely. Choosing the following aggressive choice will net Anders: rivalry (+10). Choosing "I won't Help you" after this exchange also gives Merrill: rivalry (+10)

When Hawke returns to the entrance of the cave two groups of skeletons attack, unless Hawke agreed to kill Ser Thrask in which case two groups of templars will attack instead.

Wounded Coast Approach

When Hawke returns to the entrance of the cave a second group of templars, lead by Ser Karras, will have arrived and will be arguing with Ser Thrask. The dispute varies slightly depending on the previous choices made, but all quarrels seem to indicate that Ser Karras intends to simply execute the mages rather than return them to the Circle.

If the decision to return the mages to the Circle was made, Hawke will be given the opportunity to:

• Return the mages to the Circle. Ser Thrask will promise to return them unharmed and Ser Kerras implies that Ser Thrask will not survive long enough to do so.

• Fenris: friendship (+10)
• Carver: friendship (+10)
• Aveline: friendship (+5)
• Bethany: rivalry (+10)
• Merrill: rivalry (+10)
• Anders: rivalry (+15)

• Free the mages instead, resulting in a fight with the templar reinforcements.

• Fenris: rivalry (+10)
• Carver: rivalry (+10)
• Merrill: friendship (+10)
• Anders: friendship (+15)
• Aveline: rivalry (+5) (tested on PC 1.03)

If the decision was made to lie to the templars, then the party has the following options:

• "I killed the mages." All subsequent conversation options lead to combat with the templars.
• "I'm a friend of Thrask's." Leads immediately to combat.
• "I'm a friend of the mages." Leads immediately to combat.

• Fenris: rivalry (+5)
• Anders: friendship (+5)
• Varric: friendship (+5) (with "I'm sorry Ser Thrask")

• Defer to Varric if he is in the party. Varric will tell the templars that Hawke is a foreign templar that Knight-Commander Meredith specially requested to help investigate the situation. Alternatively if Hawke is a mage, he'll tell them you are Enchanter Hawke from Ferelden who came to root out rebel mages. He then says that some of the mages are dead and others escaped to the coast. The templars will leave and the mages can escape without any form of combat.

• Fenris: rivalry (+5)
• Varric: friendship (+5)
• Isabela: friendship (+5)
• Anders: friendship (+5)

• "I'm your best friend." This option is only available to a sarcastic Hawke. Hawke will claim that Kerras has been done a favor, and that some of the mages are dead but their leader fled towards the coast. The templars will leave in pursuit and the mages can then escape without a fight. There is no variation for a Hawke mage and Ser Karras ignores the fact.

• Fenris: rivalry (+5)
• Isabela: friendship (+5)
• Anders: friendship (+5)

If you choose to defer to Varric, you will have the option to tell the templars how they died.

• They killed each other.
• Their leader escaped.
• We killed them.

Varric will explain that a couple may have fled in "back-passages" to the sea prior to Hawke's arrival. If Hawke is a mage, the templars express surprise that mages are capable of cooperating with the templars.

Ser Thrask will always assist Hawke in the combat with the templars. If the templars are slain, they can be looted for the Edge of Song and Glory and the Dragon Hunter's Hauberk. If Varric takes care of the situation, he will automatically succeed at fooling the templars. As long as the apostates are freed, Grace will give the Chanters' Staff as a reward regardless of the action taken.

Notable items

Looted from Decimus' body:

The Hypnotist's Staff

If the templars are killed:

Edge of Song and Glory

Dragon Hunter's Hauberk

If you are seeking the Supplier achievement, be sure to grab the Raw Lyrium in the Runaways' Cavern.

Rewards

Chanters' Staff, if the apostates are freed.

Result

The decision of how to deal with the mages determines which of two quests will be available in Act 2. If the mages went to the Circle, Bounty Hunter will be available. If you fight the templars which leads to Karras's death, it will be The Midnight Meeting. Letting Grace go opens up the quest The Underground Railroad in Act 2.

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This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age II.

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If the mages are returned to the Circle, Hawke can talk to Thrask in Act 1 in the Gallows courtyard to learn that Meredith ordered three Starkhaven mages executed at random. If Grace is allowed to escape and is not sent back to the Circle, she will eventually be caught and returned to the Circle in the next three years. Regardless of Hawke's decision in this quest, in Act 3 she will team up with Ser Thrask to rebel against Knight-Commander Meredith. She will, however, kill Thrask with blood magic when Hawke comes to intervene.

Notes

• Fighting the templars yields 318 XP on top of the 400 XP for completing the quest, while lying results in no additional experience.
• Due to the way in which the quest progresses, you will be unable to change party members between the two largest friendship/rivalry gains, which are speaking to Grace and making your final decision. Therefore, certain party members such as Carver, Anders, and Fenris will be subject to a double-check no matter what and must either add to their gains or have them reduced. In Carver's case, for example, the (+10) from refusing to kill Thrask is negated by (+10) if you decide to let the mages go. In short, between these two scenarios and despite your dialogue choices he may only gain +20 Friendship, +10 Rivalry, or no change at all. There is no way around this.
• During the quest Hawke has the option to ask who Knight-Commander Meredith or what a phylactery is, despite knowing enough speaking about it to both Emeric and Cullen before this mission.

Bugs

• In some cases, the rumor about this quest may remain in the quests list. This seems to happen if Act of Mercy is accepted before completing A Business Discussion. To fix this you can use gffeditor -> SAVEGAME_CAMPAIGN -> SAVEGAME_JORNAL -> SAVEGAME_JORNAL_ACTIVE_LIST -> 0 -> rumors_act_of_mercy. If you find it, you can right click on full tree of 0 -> delete. You can then add your save back to your savegame folder.