The Fade: Lost in Dreams

"I never thought I'd die like this, in this cold, forsaken place. Alone."

- Niall

Lost in Dreams is a quest in Dragon Age: Origins and part of the Broken Circle quest line. It also calls on the use of several abilities not available to certain classes. This quest line utilizes the mechanics of shape shifting and other spells, even if the Warden is not a mage. It is possible, however, to get by with a minimal use of these abilities, as they are only strictly required for small portions of the quest. (Or, for someone who has yet to play a mage but may do so in the future, it can be considered practice.)

Background
This quest is initiated during the Broken Circle quest line. After fighting their way through most of the Circle Tower, the party is put to sleep by an abomination of sloth. Their conscious selves are thus cast into the Fade, a realm of dreams and spirits, usually consciously accessed only by mages. The sloth demon has actually cast the Warden and their companions into its own domain within the Fade. To escape, the Warden will have to travel throughout the domain, acquiring a set of special skills to gain access to specific areas. Ultimately, the Warden must fight a set of mini-bosses to gain access to the Sloth Demon, then defeat it to escape the Fade.

Companions
The Warden wakes up alone in the sloth demon's domain, and travels alone for the majority of this quest line. Any companions in the Warden's party at this time will also be trapped in dreams individually tailored to their fears, hopes, regrets, and so on. Freeing these prisoners before confronting the Sloth Demon will hasten its defeat, after which the party will recover control of their physical bodies (whether or not they were freed from their 'nightmares'). If you do not free the companions they will disapear after being freed, only reappearing during the fight with the sloth demon.

If the Warden is a Rogue with the Ranger specialization, the "no companions" rule extends to the animals the Warden can summon.

Quick Overview



 * The Warden will wake up alone in The Fade, a dream-like place.
 * The Warden should travel through different areas of the Fade to gather different Forms necessary to travel through certain obstacles:
 * Mouse Form gained in The Raw Fade;
 * Spirit Form gained in The Darkspawn Invasion;
 * Burning Man Form gained in The Burning Tower;
 * Golem Form gained in The Mages Asunder;


 * Find and kill each of the 5 Guardians protecting the Sloth Demon:
 * Yevena in The Raw Fade;
 * Slavren in The Mages Asunder;
 * Uthkiel the Crusher in The Darkspawn Invasion;
 * Rhagos in The Burning Tower;
 * Vereveel in The Templar's Nightmare;
 * Optionally free your companions from their own dream realm;
 * Optionally explore every section and region to find and use the various Essences and Fonts granting bonus points to the Warden's attributes.
 * Reach and fight the Sloth demon.

Weisshaupt


The Warden wakes up alone in the Fade, within a large chamber. Duncan will greet you, explaining that he survived the Battle of Ostagar. Furthermore, the Blight was defeated and the Grey Wardens have retired to Weisshaupt, recording and sharing history instead of preparing for battle. The Warden won't fall for this story, and the conversation will eventually become a fight. Duncan will be aided by two allies, while the Warden can only count on his or her own abilities, and a Lyrium vein.

Once the Warden has defeated the Duncan impostor and his aides, a Fade Pedestal will appear; clicking on it will display the [[Media:Map - Fade.jpg|Travel Map]] for this portion of the Fade.

The Raw Fade


The Warden enters this section of the Fade in the southwest corner. There is a Spirit Door to your right, but you won't be able to interact with it without Spirit Form. There is also an inactive Fade Pedestal.

Of more immediate interest, you will find Niall, a mage who has been imprisoned in this realm much like the Warden. A mage Warden may remember Niall from their origin. Niall will share his experiences in the Fade - mostly his failed attempts at escaping it. Amidst the gloom and doom, he'll hint about small passages he could not fit through. That is, in essence, your hint for the first section of this quest line: you need to travel through the areas you can reach, and gather more forms in order to access more sections of the Sloth Demon's realm.

The first form you need is the Mouse Form. Use the Fade Portal behind Niall to reach the central section of the Raw Fade (the largest "island" in the map). While this looks like a large area, you will have access to a limited portion of it for the time being: just a few feet around the south of the island. Here you will find a Lyrium vein, a Mouse Hole, a mouse, and a rage demon. Take care of the demon first. Use the lyrium if necessary, and talk to the mouse after winning the fight. The mouse will grant you the Mouse Form. This will give you access to Stealth, but most importantly, it lets the Warden travel through the Mouse Holes you'll find on your way.

Turn into a mouse and travel through the Mouse Hole. You will find yourself in the northern corner of the same central island of the Raw Fade. Be prepared to fight more rage demons. Interact with a nearby statue to gain a codex entry. A Fade Portal will take you from here to the northwest island. You will pass by a shimmering Spirit Door on your right that you can't use yet, and further on another Fade Portal that returns you to where you met Niall.

Talking to Niall once again should activate the Fade Pedestal next to him. At this point the Warden can use the pedestal to reach four more sections of the Fade, in any order. The following walkthrough is only one possible sequence, with minimal backtracking. Whether you follow this sequence or devise your own, the objectives are as mentioned above: gather all four Forms, kill the five guardians around the Sloth Demon, optionally free your companions from their Nightmares (a good idea, unless you want to face Sloth alone), optionally grab all possible essences and fonts, and eventually find and face the Sloth demon. Until you obtain all of the forms, your path will be blocked by one of these obstacles:


 * Mouse Holes require the Mouse Form
 * Spirit Doors require the Spirit Form
 * Fire Barriers require the Burning Man Form
 * Massive Doors require the Golem Form

The Darkspawn Invasion


This section of the Fade is populated with various darkspawn enemies. The first time you enter it, you will be in the southernmost room marked as Entrance. Depending on the forms you already obtained, you'll be able to explore only certain portions of map.

Going by this Walkthrough, you'll first enter this area with nothing but the Mouse Form at your disposal. Go through the mouse hole in the northeast corner of the entrance room. This will send you to a room with two more mouse holes. Head through the mouse hole straight ahead, and right-click the Essence of Cunning to permanently gain +1 Cunning. Head back to the fork and enter the second mouse hole. Here you will be attacked by some darkspawn. Dispatch them quickly, and head through the northern doors. Kill the darkspawn here, and head into the mouse hole on the west side of the room. You can enter the room on the left here and take care of the Darkspawn if you wish. Either way, head through the mouse hole at the end of the hall and you'll end up in a room with pillars, a templar spirit and a group of darkspawn attacking him. Help the Spirit of the Templar and be rewarded with the Spirit Form. Among other useful abilities, this form gives you access to all Spirit Doors and certain essences and fonts which are inaccessible to all other forms.

The Spirit Templar also leaves behind a new Fade Pedestal. Before using it, grab the Essence of Willpower that is in the same room (which requires your new Spirit Form). The rest of the area is blocked by a massive door and a fire barrier; for now, use Spirit Form to do a bit of backtracking and finish up the areas already visited.

Weisshaupt (2)
Once you have the Spirit Form, make a quick trip back to Weisshaupt, since there is an Essence of Willpower you could not interact with until now.

The Raw Fade (2)


Return to the Raw Fade to find and vanquish one of the Guardians blocking your path to the Sloth Demon. On the way you can grab an Essence of Dexterity by following the path you walked the first time around (Fade Portal to the area where you learned the Mouse Form, Mouse Hole to the northern corner of the largest island, Fade Portal to the northwest island with a simple path). This time, when you are on the northwest island you can activate Spirit Form and go through a Spirit Door. This will lead you to the northeast island, where you can grab the essence). Apart from that the island holds a derelict ship and two wisps, which you will have to battle.

Next, continue along the path until you return to the starting point, where Niall is. Activate the Spirit Form and you will see a Spirit Door to your right. This door will lead you to the central region of the biggest island in the area, where you will face Yevena and a couple of shades.

Guardian: Yevena
One possible strategy is to cast both Crushing Prison and Winter's Grasp, then switch to your regular form and finish her off. Casting both these spells should leave her with about 25% health on normal difficulty. Mage tip: Mana Clash should kill Yevena and both minions with one shot.

When the fight is won, turn to Spirit Form and check around: you should find an Essence of Willpower and (if not acquired during a mage origin) Codex entry: The Black City. Please note that once Yevena is killed and the essence collected, the x mark on the map will state "Hidden Room" where the essence was collected. Go back through the Spirit Door to where Niall is, then use the Fade Pedestal again.

The Burning Tower


This section of the Fade is filled with fire and fire-based creatures. Expect most to be resistant to fire-based attacks - and in some cases, magical fire may heal your enemy. The Winter's Grasp spell provided by the Spirit Form is a much better option.

The room you arrive in has a Mouse Hole that leads to an Essence of Cunning.

Exit through the door in the north corner of the room and follow the path (avoiding the Fire Barriers) and you will come to a room with two Burning Templars and a massive door. After defeating the Templars, go through the door to the right of where you entered the room - at the top of the small staircase. Past this is a large, square-shaped set of corridors with a Fire Barrier in front of you; turn right at it and defeat the two Burning Hounds that attack. After that take a left at the next corridor, fend off the burning templar and two burning hounds, then go right, stopping at the lyrium vein if needed. There will be two more burning hounds and then a mouse hole. Change into Mouse form and go through the mouse hole. Eventually you will find a room with a Dreaming Templar and a lesser rage demon, both of which will attack you. After the fight, the Templar will reward you with the Burning Man Form. You now have access to a couple of fire-based spells, and most importantly the only way to pass through Fire Barriers. Note that while in Burning Man form, you will wield whatever weapon is equipped, but will not benefit from enchantments placed on it, nor from weapon talents.

As usual, you should explore as much of the realm as you can. In the room after the Dreaming Templar, take the southern door, back to a square-shaped hallway containing a Spirit Door, which leads to essences of Cunning and Constitution. Back in the room of the Dreaming Templar, the Massive Door to the north leads to Rhagos, Guardian of the Burning Tower. You won't be able to reach him until you obtain the Golem Form.

The Mages Asunder


This section of the Fade is populated with various groups of Mages, Chantry Priests and Golems. Careful use of Spirit and Burning Man forms should see you through the various encounters. The Burning Man will allow you to walk through the Fire Barriers on the other side of some doors, and the Fireball knock-down effect can be quite handy. Be wary of the mage opponents' frost-based attacks, which the Burning Man form has a reduced resistance to. In addition, Golems are strong melee fighters with melee and ranged knock-down effects.

When arriving in the first room, enter the Mouse Hole directly to your left. This leads to a Font of Strength and Codex entry: Hierarchy of the Circle. Now return to the first room.

Step out of the first room into a circular hall. The room to your left has two mages who will attack immediately when the door is opened. It is possible to sneak in via the mouse hole and get the jump on them.

The third room (continuing clockwise around the tower) contains two more mages. Once they are dealt with, switch to Spirit form and you can interact with the glowing pile of books, an Essence of Magic. Also you may find Codex entry: History of the Circle in a bookcase. Pay attention to the last room in the hall, with an open door. As you approach this room, the four mages within will begin an exchange that escalates into a fight. If you approach the room in stealth mode, you can wait until some or even all of the mages kill each other, making this encounter much easier for you (though worth less XP).

In the large room at the end of the hall are three servants (two in stealth mode). Change into Burning Man Form prior to entering the next room, due to a fire barrier on the other side of the door. In the next room are four lesser rage demons; they attack in pairs and are fairly easy to dispatch.

In the next room there are several mages waiting to attack as soon as the door is opened. They have strong attacks but low health. If you can freeze them or otherwise immobilize them it helps a lot. It is also possible to sneak in in rat form just past the fire barrier and wait for them to kill each other like in the previous room. One other strategy is to open the door (as Burning Man), then immediately retreat back to the previous room. Only two of the mages will follow you, and you can dispatch them with a Fireball plus Flame Blast. Then you can return to the doorway with a simpler fight to finish.

In the very next room you will encounter a mage instructor and four mage pupils. This can be a very hard fight, especially when unprepared. They are very strong offensively. Be especially mindful of the instructor. Several of his spells may kill you in one hit, and he has access to Inferno. Try to get the instructor to cast this near the door and duck around it in Burning Man form. The mages will follow and probably die before reaching you.

If your main character is a mage, casting an area of effect spell such as Inferno or Blizzard from just inside the door will cause them to take damage once you approach them. They have low health, and should die quickly. Another useful addition to this tactic for the Arcane Warrior is to use Shimmering Shield, which should make sure that you will sustain almost no damage at all.

After the fight, grab the codex on the right side of the stairs (Codex entry: The Cardinal Rules of Magic) for some easy experience and then go up the stairs.

The next room has a group of Chantry Priests and Golems attacking a cursed dreamer. Help the dreamer out and you'll be rewarded with the Golem Form, with the all-important Hurl ability that will let you smash through those previously impassable Massive Doors. In order to pass these doors, you do not actually use the ability; simply walk up to the door in Golem Form and try to open it like any other, and your stony self will automatically pick up a rock and proceed to bash the door down. Doing this does put the Hurl ability on its cooldown, however. You can now backtrack to other areas of the Fade and finish exploring each remote corner. However, while you're here in The Mages Asunder, you might as well finish this area first. Explore beyond any enemy and (finally) any obstacle (assuming you've collected all of the Forms you will need), and eventually you will find the Guardian of this area: Slavren.

Guardian: Slavren
Slavren is a lieutenant-grade abomination that should be easy to handle using the various abilities provided by the Forms necessary to reach him. In particular, consider the Spirit's Crushing Prison and the Burning Man's Fireball.

After the fight, use the Fade Pedestal to backtrack to the Darkspawn Invasion.

The Darkspawn Invasion (2)


After acquiring all of the available Forms, the Warden should return to the Darkspawn Invasion area and explore each room to find all available essences and fonts. In addition, the Warden can now find and fight Uthkiel the Crusher, the Guardian of this area.

Guardian: Uthkiel The Crusher
Uthkiel the Crusher is more powerful than most ogres and hits very hard. However, the various abilities you collected before reaching him should make it relatively easy to put the Crusher in his place.

If you are a mage with Blizzard, Earthquake or Tempest, these can be placed over the unopened Massive Door in a way such that Uthkiel will be in the area of effect but unable to retaliate. A less exploitative (and lower-level) option is Cone of Cold followed by Stonefist. If he seems resistant to shattering via Stonefist, freeze him with Winter's Grasp and follow with Crushing Prison. Then switch back to your normal form. You can use Burning Man to damage him, but he is immune to the knock-down.

The Burning Tower (2)


With all Forms at your disposal you can easily get to the last few rooms of this area. Use Burning Man to pass through Fire Barriers and protect yourself from fire-based attacks. Burning templars, a burning hound and shambling corpses will stand between you and the Guardian of the Burning Tower: Rhagos. Note that the burning man's spells are useless against the burning enemies - the Golem form works best.

Guardian: Rhagos
Rhagos is a lieutenant-grade Rage demon. He may have more health than his critter-grade siblings, and may hurt a bit more, but the Warden has obtained the Burning Man form by now. This means you can ignore almost all damage Rhagos can dish out, and a warrior or rogue should easily be able to auto-attack him to death. On the other hand, Rhagos has a similar level of protection, so you may consider hopping into other forms to deliver some damage—a combination of unleashing both Spirit form attack spells (Crushing Prison first) and then all of Golem form's abilities quickly dispatches Rhagos before he can attack. The Spirit form, in particular, is useful, as Winter's Grasp takes advantage of Rhagos' weakness to frost. A combo of Spirit Form's Crushing Prison & Winter's Grasp(in that order), and then pound away in "normal" form will dispatch him quickly as well. If you're a mage, the Crushing Prison/Winter's Grasp one-two should suffice.

The Templar's Nightmare


The enemies in this area are stronger than those in the other parts of the Fade, and the "special doorways" (Mouse Holes, Spirit Doors and Fade Portals) are not all two-way, so proceed with caution. Check the Navigational Map to see the one-way trips.

As far as your enemies, the first encounter in The Templar's Nightmare is with an Arcane Horror, and the second is with an Ogre. These may be difficult foes to face, but you should have all the required Forms by now and quite an array of abilities at your disposal. Watch out for a few traps on the ground, and behind some of the doors. More enemies of comparable or lower level will follow. To get to the third hub (the bottom of the circle on the map) you need to pass through the Spirit Door in the second hub area, on the left of the circle. Eventually you will reach the Guardian of this area: Vereveel.

Guardian: Vereveel
Your best bet will be to burn it down as fast as you can. Like all desire demons, it particularly likes to employ Winter's Grasp and Cone of Cold, both of which inflict high damage and freeze you; the Spirit form can be useful because Regeneration continues even when you're frozen. Crushing Prison + Fireball should take her out quickly.

Companion nightmares
Once the Warden has vanquished the five guardians, you have access to the Inner Sanctum of the Sloth demon. However, there are three more areas that become accessible during this process. Each holds one of the companions (whoever was with the Warden when the demon put the party to sleep), each trapped within A Nightmare.

Each Nightmare is a very small space, where a close-quarter fight will take place. See below for details on each nightmare.

For each nightmare the Warden visits and defeats, the corresponding Companion will meet the Warden in the Inner Sanctum. Unless the Companion's approval rating is too low, they will then join in the fight against the demon, providing valuable support since that fight can be quite challenging to a solo character. If you do not rescue a companion, they will not be available for the fight against the Sloth Demon, but they will awaken unharmed when you return to the real world.


 * Alistair believes he is spending time with his sister and her children. The Warden may be able to persuade him that it is all a trick through proper dialogue options, or simply attack Alistair's sister and her children (which turn out to be demons). If Alistair is persuaded, he will help the Warden in this fight, but a few extra 'children' will spawn in an attempt to even out their odds.
 * Dog is simply enjoying a nap; no fight is required to rouse him.
 * Leliana is praying with a 'Revered Mother', "finding peace" - she won't remember the Warden. The Warden need only remind her of her vision, and because of the demon's response she will realize something isn't right. Not speaking about her vision seems to result in her not helping in this fight.
 * Wynne believes she is surrounded by apprentices that died due to her negligence. The Warden must convince her that she is in the Fade.
 * Shale is frozen as a statue again; no battle necessary to wake Shale up.
 * Sten is with the Qunari soldiers he came to Ferelden with. He is actually aware of being locked in a dream, but seems content with this. The Warden can remind Sten he has given his word to follow him, and Sten will decide to abandon the dream; the Warden and Sten will have to fight, but Sten's approval may be increased if the correct dialogue choices are selected.
 * Zevran is on a rack being 'trained' by two Antivan Crows. When you convince him he is already a Crow, you will fight the two false Crows, but Zevran doesn't help.
 * Oghren believes he is in a tavern, being constantly mocked by other dwarves.
 * Morrigan is with 'Flemeth', but already knows it is not her and tells the Warden to kill the spirit. She will comment that the demon is even more annoying than her mother and that it cannot even achieve a passable impression of Flemeth.

When the Companions are convinced that they are in a dream (and, with few exceptions, the ensuing fight is won), they will disappear, only to re-appear at the most opportune moment (see Inner Sanctum).

Inner Sanctum
After defeating the five guardians, the Warden can access the central portion, marked on the Travel Map as Inner Sanctum. Here they will face the Sloth Demon that is keeping them in the dream realm. If the Warden has freed any of his companions before reaching this destination, they will appear during the introductory cut-scene and dialogue. Unless their approval rating is too low, each of the freed companions will join the Warden in the fight.

Sloth demon
The sloth demon fight is a multi-stage fight. Every time his health is reduced to zero, he will transform in his next form (with replenished health). The Forms he goes through seem to be:
 * 1) Ogre
 * 2) Rage demon
 * 3) Abomination
 * 4) Shade
 * 5) Arcane Horror

Use the standard strategies that you will use when fighting monsters of each of these types, but remember that each iteration has 'boss'-level stats.

It is worth paying particular attention to the Demon's final form (the Sloth Demon form proper), since he will try and cast a Blizzard which can freeze and dish considerable damage to the party (whose resources might be running thin at this stage). The usual means of interrupting the enemy spell casting should be used, as well as the various abilities that the Warden has access to through the Forms acquired in the Fade.

Particularly important to those non-dwarves using large amounts of mana/stamina: the lyrium veins in this area can respawn during the fight.

Sloth demon (Solo strategy)
Trying to solo Sloth demon is surprisingly easy, if you exploit shapeshift healing.

Ogre form is able to deal some heavy physical damage, and all of his special attacks cannot be evaded by high defense. This makes golem form the obvious choice, for its increased health and armor. Simply smash at the Ogre until your health drops to half, and then use slam ability to knock him back. Shift to normal and back to golem to reset your health to full. Slam gives you just enough time to do so while Ogre is running back to you. Repeat until the ogre dies.

Rage demon form is easily countered with burning man form, which gives you immunity to all of his special abilities, thus protecting you from almost 80% of damage the Rage Demon can cause.

Abomination form is basically your standard abomination with lots of health. It suffers from fairly bad attack score, so any dexterity based characters are able to hack at him and take no damage themselves.

Sloth's Shade form is perhaps the most complete melee fighter, with its high defense and attack, slam, leap and drain life abilities. Repeating the Ogre tactics always works, though your standard form might be able to do just fine, depending on your defense.

Sloth's final form, Arcane Horror, is the most dangerous. The worst of his spells is of course Crushing Prison, which will, if it catches you unprepared, result in certain death. Winter's Grasp and Cone of Cold will be repeated as soon as the cooldown period expires, making Ice Salves and Spirit Balms a must for this fight. The best strategy here is to change into spirit form. Not only will you gain additional spell resistance, you can heal yourself as needed. Another strategy is to achieve very high spell resistance (80%+, preferably 100%), use the salves, and shift to golem form for increased health. This should be enough to survive crushing prison and everything he throws at you while immobilized. When his initial barrage of spells has passed, you can shift back to normal form if you prefer and keep attacking until he dies, drinking health poultices as necessary. Alternatively, if you planned ahead and got yourself Mana Clash, this will one shot this form.

Result
After defeating the demon, a final conversation with Niall will ensue, where the Litany of Adralla is mentioned (it will be a critical element in the next section of Broken Circle), and the party is released from the Fade.

Exploit

 * You can spam the essence pools by clicking fast on them. Doing so, on PC version, it is possible to get more than one point from each essence/font. When it works, you should see many times the indication saying you won a skill point. Using a macro to right click fast, and clicking pause key fast you can get a lot of skill points. There was a max of 99 in each attribute, but currently (patch 1.04) that is not the case. There have been cases of getting higher than 200.