Dragon Age Inquisition guide and walkthrough: Crestwood sidequest
There's plenty of small quests to complete in Crestwood. Let us help.
You’ll need a power level of 8 to access Crestwood. During the main quest From the Ashes, talk to Varric in Skyhold to trigger a cutscene, then make your way to the war room, highlight the Ferelden area, and choose Find the Warden in the centre.
After arriving at Crestwood, check in with the mayor to pick up the Still Waters quest as you can get a number of other quests done while completing it. You should also pick up the Naturalist and Homecoming quest from the NPCs in town to be super efficient.
Holding Crestwood
Description: Establish camps to hold Crestwood and support Inquisition activity in the region.
Reward: +100 Influence, +1 Power Level
Requirements: None
Starting NPC: Scout Harding
Objectives:
Establish two camps
You need to set up 2 camps in Crestwood. The first will be the camp that you arrive at and you can follow the waypoint to the second.
Still Waters
Description: Undead have terrorized Crestwood since a Fade rift appeared in the lake. There must be a way to close it.
Requirements: Unlock the Crestwood area
Reward: +1,934 XP, +400 Influence, +3 Power Level
Starting NPC: Scout Harding
Objectives:
Help Crestwood fight back the undead
Speak to Crestwood’s mayor
Claim the keep to reach the dam
Enter the building on the dam
Unlock the door to reach the controls and drain the lake
Find an entrance to the Flooded Caves
Enter the Flooded Caves under Old Crestwood
Close the Fade rift
Inform the mayor that the rift is closed
Once you arrive at Crestwood and watch the cutscene, talk to Scout Harding, then follow the waypoint to the southeast for the Still Waters side quest. Along the way, we’ll gather a number of other side quests to save a lot of faffing about later, but won’t go into too much detail on them, so refer to the individual entries on each side quest for more information.
When you reach the town, save the villagers outside and enter the main gate. Enter the first house on the left to find Gauld who will give you the Naturalist quest. Exit the house, pop around the corner and head up the stairs to the map marker for Still Waters.
Enter the house and talk to the mayor, starting off the Capturing Caer Bronach side quest, then follow the Still Waters waypoint to the south of the village and at the fork in the road, foloow the left path toward the cave and landmark, which you can loot and claim, then continue to the southwest and you’ll eventually happen upon a keep that you need to clear out for the Capturing Caer Bronach side quest (see the entry for this side quest for more details).
Continuing with the Still Waters side quest, get to the top of the keep and follow the map marker through the door, down the corridor to the right, up the stairs and on through the necxt doorway. Now you’re outside, carry on heading down the southwest path until you see the sign for Old Crestwood, then go left and into the tavern. Chat to the villager then pop into the room on the first floor and go through door at the other end and interact with the wheel to initiate a cutscene that will decrease the water level.
Return to the Old Crestwood sign and make your way north until you spot a rift over to the left, then head towards it. Kill the enemies, close the small rift and loot the area before going north again, and you’ll soon come to a landmark and a small hovel you can loot. Resume your journey north and you’ll reach an astrarium.
If you want to complete the astrarium, start off in the central triangle, at the left middle point. Go down and around to the peak of the centre triangle, then move to the left and the outer triangle, circling around to the peak of the middle triangle. Now move to the right and the outer triangle to finish up.
When you’re ready to resume the Still Waters side quest, keep heading north to the waypoint until you reach Old Crestwood. There’s a demon in a house in the centre of the town and you can speak to it to pick up the Burdens of Command side quest. While you’re here, look for the piles of corpses to wrap up the side quest Homecoming.
Make your way to the Flooded Caves to the north and follow the central path once you’re inside. Light up the torches as you progress and at the waterfall, pop down the path to the left to grab some loot and go around to the right path for a chest.
When you’re ready, retrace your steps and take the path leading to the lower area of the cave and when the path splits, go right, kill the enemies and pick up any loot, then continue down the tunnel to the right at the end of the room to find a chest and item. Return to the room you just came from and continue down the path that leads deeper into the cave.
You will eventually come to a door on the left with a torch on either side of it. Ignore it for now, and instead enter the room to the right of it. When you enter, to your immediate left will be a corridor that you can follow to the end to find a mosaic piece. Double back to the outside of the room with the 2 torches outside. You’ll notice a breakable wall to the right, so have your warrior smash through to find crafting materials and a ladder that you can climb down to more crafting mateials, loot and a mosaic piece.
Return to room we’ve been ignoring and head inside to find the rift. You’ll face 3 waves of enemies before you can close it. Once this has been done, grab any loot, pop across the hall, through the northeast door and over the water, up the steps and finally, up the ladder.
There’s a lever at the end of the path that will open the door here, so pull it, go through and follow the path to exit the cave. You’ll pop out next to another rift surrounded by enemies, including a Rage Demon relating to the side quest Burdens of Command, so clear them out, close the rift and make your way west until you’re able to head south.
You’ll soon find yourself back at Crestwood Village, so return to the mayor’s house and read the letter inside to finish the quest.
Capturing Caer Bronach
Description: Bandits known as the highwaymen have occupied Caer Bronach. Without the fortifications of this legendary keep for protection, the villagers of Crestwood and the surrounding area are left exposed to undead plaguing the region.
Reward: Gain control of Caer Bronach
Requirements: None
Starting NPC: Mayor of Crestwood
Objectives:
Take back Caer Bronach
Talk to the mayor of Crestwood Village to pick up this quest and follow the path for the Still Waters side quest until you reach the keep. Attack the enemies at the gate, then proceed inside and kill the enemies here. Make your way up the staircase to the side and into the corridor that leads to the the courtyard, where you’ll be attacked again.
Continue up the stairs and around to the left and go straight on through the next 2 doors. Head to the opposite side of this area, pop through the door to the right and take a quick detour into the next room to restock your supplies. Head up the stairs and get ready for 2 waves of enemies, with the Highwayman Chief leading the second one.
The Highwayman Chief is weak against electricity, while physical effects won’t have much of an impact. You’ll want to get the barrier spells on the go as his hits pack a punch. Kick his butt, then continue ahead to the map marker and capture the keep to finish the quest.
Burdens of Command
Description: A spirit in Old Crestwood has a task for you.
Reward: +512 XP, +200 Influence, +2 Power Level
Requirements: Drain the lake engulfing Old Crestwood
Starting NPC: Wraith in Old Crestwood
Objectives:
Destroy the rage demon in the Flooded Caves
Inform the spirit in Old Crestwood of the demon’s demise
You can find the demon in a dilapidated house in Old Crestwood, and should’ve bumped into him while trekking through the Still Waters side quest. Make your way to the Flooded Caves and hand a can of whoop ass to the Rage Demon in here before reporting back. While you’re in the cave, you can attend to the Still Waters side quest so take a look at the details for the that quest in the Flooded Caves area.
Homecoming
Description: Sister Vaughn wants to cremate the bodies of people lost in a flood 10 years ago.
Reward: +512 XP, +200 Influence, +2 Power Level
Requirements: Talk to the Mayor of Crestwood
Starting NPC: Sister Vaughn
Objectives:
Find three piles of bodies
Return the remains to Sister Vaughn
After your initial pow wow with the Mayor in Crestwood, seek out Sister Vaughn in the village and talk to her. Jumping ahead to Old Crestwood where you’ll be poking around for the Still Waters quest, search the ruined buildings to find the 3 piles of bodies and report back to Sister Vaughn.
Naturalist
Description: A man in Crestwood is concerned that a friend of his, Judith, isn’t safe living outside of town. He’d appreciate someone checking up on her.
Reward: +128 XP, +80 Influence
Requirements: None
Starting NPC: Gauld
Objectives:
Check up on Judith
During Still Waters you’ll have been given the opportunity to talk to Gauld while in Crestwood to start this quest. Near the end of the Still Waters quest, you’ll be in the vicinity of Judith, so just follow the waypoint to find and check up on her. Talk to her again to initiate the Wyrm Hole side quest.
Wyrm Hole
Description: An aggressive wyvern is harassing Crestwood’s villagers. It lives in a cave up in the hills. A woman named Judith outside of town seems interested in the body if someone manages to kill it.
Reward: +242 XP, +80 Influence
Requirements: Complete the side quest Naturalist
Starting NPC: Judith
Objectives:
Kill the cave wyvern
Return to Judith
After locating Judith for the Naturalist side quest, talk to her again to begin this quest. Make your way north, dropping in at the camp to restock and rotate a mage into your party if you don’t already have one, then follow the map marker to the cave.
Deal with the enemies outside and inside of the cave and continue towards the pool. The wrym will be there with a number of other enemies, so as usual, pick off the weaker monsters first, then focus your attacks on the wyrm. Ice spells will serve you well during this bout. Report back to Judith to finish off the quest.
High Stakes
Description: Leliana’s “eyes and ears” in the region, a spy named Charter, mentions that her man Butcher seems to be running a little behind.
Reward: +128 XP, +80 Influence
Requirements: Claim the Caer Bronach Keep
Starting NPC: Charter
Objectives:
Find Butcher
Inform Charter of Butcher’s fate
Use fast travel to get to Caer Bronach and talk to Charter who will be marked on the map.To save time, use fast travel once more to zap over to the second camp you established in the area, then set out southeast to arrive at a collection of big rocks. Poke around here to find Butcher, and retrieve the note from the corpse to initiate an ambush.
Kill the enemies and head back to Charter to finish off the quest.
Weeding Out Bandits
Description: A handful of highwaymen remain on watch at farms around Crestwood and should go the way of their brethren in the keep.
Reward: +128 XP, +80 Influence
Requirements: Claim the Caer Bronach Keep
Starting NPC: Agent at the Caer Bronach Keep
Objective:
Kill all eight bandits
After laying claim to the keep, talk to the agent here to start the quest. Follow the waypoint and find and defeat all 8 of the bandits to complete the quest.