Dragon Age Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Dragon Age Wiki
For the amulet, see Tranquility (amulet).
For the rite, see Tranquil.

Tranquility is an Act 1 main quest in Dragon Age II.

During this quest Hawke helps Anders, a former Grey Warden, free a fellow mage from the Templars.

Acquisition[]

This quest is automatically available after completing the main quest A Business Discussion.

Walkthrough[]

Lirene's Fereldan Imports[]

Travel to Lirene's Fereldan Imports in Lowtown and speak with Lirene. She tells you about the Grey Warden, Anders, and directs Hawke to Anders's Clinic in Darktown.

  • Promise not to harm Anders:
    • Friendship Bethany: friendship (+5)
    • Friendship Varric: friendship (+5)
    • Friendship Merrill: friendship (+5)
  • "He sounds too good to be true." without any investigation
    • Friendship Varric: friendship (+5)
  • "Tell me where he is, or else.":
    • Rivalry Varric: rivalry (+5)

Lowtown[]

A group of angry Fereldan refugees protecting Anders is waiting outside.

  • Bethany or Carver can be asked to step in to defuse the situation.
    • Friendship Bethany: friendship (+5)
    • Friendship Carver: friendship (+10)
  • A diplomatic Hawke can also get the refugees to back off peacefully with the "We're on the same side" option.
    • Friendship Bethany: friendship (+5)
    • Friendship Carver: friendship (+5)
    • Friendship Aveline: friendship (+5)
    • Friendship Merrill: friendship (+5) (does not occur after the 1.04 patch)
  • "Back off.":
    • Rivalry Aveline: rivalry (+5)
    • Rivalry Bethany: rivalry (+5)
    • Rivalry Carver: rivalry (+5)
  • All other dialogue options lead to combat.
Note: You receive the same amount of XP from talking your way out of this as you do fighting them, although fighting them may result in some dropped loot.

Anders's Clinic[]

Travel to Anders's Clinic in Darktown. Anders initially reacts to Hawke's presence with hostile uncertainty but after asking for a way into the Deep Roads, he proposes a favor for a favor. Anders explains that he came to Kirkwall to free his mage friend Karl Thekla, who is a prisoner in the Gallows. Help Anders bring Karl to safety, and he'll provide Hawke with Warden maps of the Deep Roads.

Choosing to investigate and selecting the "Help him escape the Circle?" option:

  • "The mages need their freedom.":
    • Rivalry Fenris: rivalry (+10)
  • "That's a little controversial.":
    • Friendship Fenris: friendship (+5)
  • "Mages must be contained.":
    • Friendship Fenris: friendship (+10)

When speaking with Anders:

  • "I help all my fellow mages." diplomatic option as a mage:
    • Rivalry Carver: rivalry (+5)
    • Rivalry Fenris: rivalry (+10)
  • "You want me to fight templars?"
    • Friendship Bethany: friendship (+5)
      Note: You do not get this if you Investigated and asked Anders anything after he said that he would give you his maps if you helped him free his friend.
    • Friendship Fenris: friendship (+5)
      Note: You do not get this if you Investigated and asked Anders "Help him escape the Circle?"


Tranquility2

The spirit of Justice comes forth.

Note: If you travel immediately to "Hightown - Night" from Darktown on the Kirkwall map, you will enter Hightown via the staircase just a few feet from the Chantry. This can help you avoid Guardsman Pretenders if you haven't wiped out a sufficient amount of them and enter the Chantry without injuries.


Hightown (night)[]

Meet Anders near the Kirkwall chantry in Hightown at night and head inside.

The Chantry (night)[]

There is a Crate in the southwestern room. Karl can be found on the opposite side, to the right of the entrance. He had been made Tranquil and set up as bait. Anders is enraged by what has been done to his friend, and as the party is attacked by the templars, the spirit of Justice overtakes him.

The initial wave consists of:

  • Templar Lieutenant (Elite) – drops Ser Alrik's Letter – this must be looted quickly, as below
  • 3 Templars (Normal)
  • 1 Templar Archer (Normal)

Once most, if not all, of the normal ranks are defeated (or if enough time passes), a second wave appears:

  • Templar Hunter (Elite) – drops random loot
  • 2 Templars (Normal)
  • 1 Templar Archer (Normal)

The corpses must be looted before all enemies are dead and the cutscene begins.

Once the templars have been defeated, Karl becomes himself long enough to ask Anders to kill him rather than let him live as one of the Tranquil. No matter how you advise Anders, he will fulfill Karl's request.

  • Telling Anders to kill Karl:
    • Friendship Bethany: friendship (+5)
  • Telling Anders let Karl live:
    • Rivalry Bethany: rivalry (+5)

Strategy[]

This fight is notoriously difficult on Nightmare, due to the lack of adequate stun and crowd-control abilities at such an early stage of the game. One way to win the encounter is to order your companions to hold position and move them as a group (highlight all four characters, L1/LB + R1/RB on console gamepads, select "Move to Point") either back to the Chantry entrance or across the second floor to the chamber mirroring the starting position via the walkway behind the giant statue of Andraste. If you haven't attacked them all with an AoE, you will likely pull just a couple of enemies, namely the Lieutenant, while leaving the others to fruitlessly attack Anders, who is invincible for this fight, allowing you to take out those who pursued you. You may even be able to "drop out" of combat, fully recovering and being able to save, before returning to Anders to repeat the process. The Templar Lieutenant and the Normal-ranked melee units tend to follow you to the latter position while leaving the archers behind, whereas the former position tends to pull an archer (or both) with them, not to mention the stairs and corners tend to make it difficult to target the enemies compared to a level surface on the second floor, and the walkway presents a choke point ideal for Fireball, Bursting Arrow, and Firestorm if available. Templars have no elemental immunities even on Nightmare and are especially vulnerable to Frost and Spirit, making Cone of Cold one of the most effective spells to use.

After three enemies are killed, the backup wave will spawn in, and the Templar Hunter and Lieutenant working together can easily decimate your party. The Lieutenant can pitch bombs to interrupt and slow you down while casting a health-regenerating aura on his allies, so damage him as best you can (preferably with AoE attacks to damage the other Normal-ranked units, killing one of them when their health dips low enough). Stunning him removes the aura and prevents him from using a healing potion, but odds are he will resist Miasmic Flask, thus you'll have to settle for briefly interrupting him with Pinning Shot. The Hunter, like any Assassin, can be flushed out of cover with Cone of Cold to temporarily halt his backstabbing, and can be damaged much more easily than the Lieutenant, so he will fall easily enough if all four party members focus their attacks on him. This is of course more difficult with the Lieutenant still alive and regenerating the Hunter's health. If you're continuing to have trouble, reload a save from prior to this quest and come back after fighting some Gangs in the streets to raise your level, then come back with spells like Firestorm, Hex of Torment, and Horror.

Anders's Clinic[]

The party is automatically transported back to the clinic where you can learn more about Anders's unique condition. Codex entry: History of Kirkwall: Chapter 4 can be found to the left.

Result[]

Unlocks the following quests:

Rewards[]

  • 100 XP (after the confrontation with the refugees, regardless of the outcome)
  • 200 XP (for killing the templars)
  • 400 XP (quest completion)

Codex entries[]

Codex entry: The Tranquil Codex entry: The Tranquil

Trivia[]

  • The Templar Lieutenant (Elite) that is slain is the recipient of Ser Alrik's Letter. By looting the corpse, it is revealed that Ser Bardel colluded with Ser Otto Alrik.
Advertisement