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Background

You'll receive this quest when you talk to Captain Garavel in the throne room of Vigil's Keep.


Walkthrough

Garavel will tell you that a pair of hunters named Colbert and Micah supposedly stumbled upon a cave full of darkspawn, and he'll recommend that you travel to the city of Amaranthine and question them about their claim. You'll find Colbert and Micah near the entrance to the city. They'll be happy enough to tell you about the chasm they stumbled into, and how the darkspawn there seemed "occupied" and didn't attack them. Then they'll mark Knotwood Hills on your world map, and you'll earn 1000 xp. It doesn't make any difference if you pay the hunters for their information or not.

When you explore Knotwood Hills, you'll find an entrance to Kal'Hirol, a dwarven city that was overrun by the darkspawn during the previous Blight. Inside Kal'Hirol, you'll have to battle lots of darkspawn, including, curiously, some "invading" darkspawn attacking the other darkspawn. But eventually you'll come to an Inferno Golem and a darkspawn called the Lost. The Lost will indicate that there is some sort of battle going on between the "Mother" and the "Architect," and then he and the golem will attack you.

The battle with the Inferno Golem and the Lost can be difficult. The golem is a big melee boss, and it will cause patches of fire to appear in the room, and the Lost is a spellcaster with a specialty in fire. Obviously, it's a good idea to build up your fire resistance before attempting the fight (Immunity Runes are very helpful), but otherwise you should keep your tank on the golem while the rest of your party disrupts and takes down the Lost. You should also keep a careful eye on your party, and move characters out of the way whenever they end up in a patch of fire. When the dust clears, you'll find a Staff of the Lost, a Battlemage's Cinch, a Flawless Ruby, an Inferno Golem Shell, and more on the corpses. Picking up the Inferno Golem Shell will trigger the quest Golem's Might.

Finally, past the Inferno Golem and the Lost you'll reach the Breeding Pit, where you'll encounter a trio of broodmothers. You won't be able to attack the broodmothers directly, but they'll be able to attack you using a never-ending supply of tentacles. To defeat the broodmothers, you'll need to dodge their attacks and destroy two of the four chains in the room. Doing this will drop a huge structure onto the broodmothers, killing them and ending the battle. Defeating the broodmothers will complete the quest and earn you 6000 xp.