A Prince's Favor: The First Task

"Harrowmont has engaged in a campaign of bribery and coercion to ensure that every house serves him. But if a neutral party, a stranger, were to approach certain key members, perhaps with irrefutable evidence of Harrowmont's deception..."

- Vartag Gavorn

This quest is part of the A Paragon of Her Kind main quest.

Background
A Prince's Favor: The First Task is the first quest of three which will lead to The Warden supporting Prince Bhelen as the new king of Orzammar. The two quests that follow this one (A Prince's Favor: The Second Task and A Prince's Favor: The Third Task) are identical to the second and third stages of the Lord Harrowmont line of quests.

Walkthrough
The Prince's Steward, Vartag Gavorn, can be found in the Assembly Hall (Chamber Of Assembly) in the Orzammar Diamond Quarter. He will ask The Warden to prove his good intentions by carrying out a favor for Prince Bhelen: deliver a set of documents proving Harrowmont's false promises to Lady Dace and Lord Helmi. You may choose to press Vartag for more information on the documents, though he won't be very forthcoming; the Shaperate will help determine the veracity of them, though this is a completely optional part of the quest.

Should you by chance have chosen the "Dwarf Commoner" origin story, you will be met by your sister Rica when you enter the diamond quarter for the first time. You'll discover that she has been accepted as consort to Prince Bhelen and has bore him a son, thus elevating your house to the status of nobles. She will offer to take you to Vartag and introduce you.

Lord Helmi
Lord Helmi can be found in Tapster's Tavern in the Commons, drinking away his time. It is fairly easy to convince him to swing his vote Bhelen's way, although asking him about his political views can shed some light on the different candidates.

Lady Dace
Lady Dace is found in the Diamond Quarter. She is eager to change her vote once you have delivered the document... but she cannot without her father's permission. He is currently in the Deep Roads, exploring the Aeducan Thaig. She will write you a permission note which lets you head into the Deep Roads.

Lord Dace himself is found one of the large caverns fairly early on in the area. He will be surrounded by Deep Stalkers; defeating the first wave will trigger a second wave to appear. There are a lot of them, so make sure not to go in unprepared. Once you have defeated all of the Deep Stalkers, Lord Dace will thank you. You can tell him of what has transpired in Orzammar, and ask for a favor in return. Lord Dace will suggest a discount with the merchants he knows above ground. (It is also possible to ask him only for his support for Bhelen.) Lord Dace will offer to take you back to Orzammar with him; decline if you wish to explore the area further. Once you are done though, you will need to return to speak with Vartag.

The discount he offers applies to Gorim (but no other surface dwarves, and it's unknown if it applies to non-dwarf surface merchants), it is 25% off all of his goods. You can pickpocket a Thorn of the Dead Gods (dagger, tier 3 in this case) from Lord Dace before returning to Orzammar, and after.

Returning to Orzammar
Vartag will be very pleased with your work, and take you to see Prince Bhelen. The Prince will now tell of his troubles in rising to power, and mention that the only way he will gain more support is if he deals with Jarvia and her Carta. This task will fall to The Warden. (See Entering Jarvia's Hideout or A Paragon of Her Kind.)

Bugs

 * If you start both A Lord's Trust: The First Task and A Prince's Favor: The First Task, complete the Proving without finishing A Prince's Favor: The First Task, then persuade Vartag that you want to spy on Lord Harrowmont for him and then persuade Dulin that you want to spy on the Prince, both quests become impossible since both Vartag and Dulin want you to find out what the other wants you to do next. Your only response becomes "I haven't seen him yet." More specifically, if you deliver the letters to both Lady Dace and Lord Helmi and fight at least one match in the Proving on behalf of Lord Harrowmont, you have broken both quests and will be unable to complete A Paragon of Her Kind no matter what dialogue options you choose when speaking to Vartag and Dulin. [The most you can play both sides on this quest is to talk to Harrowmont's fighters and convince them to fight, getting 15 from one of them if you convince him to fight and choose the right dialogue options in solving his blackmail problem.]


 * It's also possible to have A Prince's Favor: The First Task left unresolvable as a quest, with it instructing you to return to Vartag in the Assembly Hall with your decision, even after Harrowmont is crowned king, and even after you kill Vartag in a hostile encounter. (Encountered on the PS3, Xbox 360 & PC version)


 * If you start both quests but only play the A Lord's Trust: The First Task to completion this will stay in your codex and you will be unable to complete it (PS3)
 * As of patch 1.03, none of these bugs appear to occur any longer, at least on the PC. Following all of the steps laid out here, I don't get any of these bugs: the moment you agree to fight for Harrowmont in the Proving (you don't even have to fight a round, just tell the guy you will fight for Harrowmont), A Prince's Favor: The First Task is closed and you can no longer deliver the letters, and the moment you deliver the second letter for Vartag, A Lord's Trust: The First Task is closed and you can no longer fight for Harrowmont in the Proving. Looks like these bugs were stealth fixed in one of the patches. Confirmation would be great, of course.
 * Possible correction on the previous point: It seems that it is still possible to deliver both documents to Lady Dace and Lord Helmi AND fight in the Proving for Lord Harrowmont. In one playthrough, using patch 1.03 on a PC, it was possible to deliver a document to Lady Dace. You get the "Find my father" request and the Deep Roads pass. If you then deliver a document to Lord Helmi he says "I'm not surprised this has happened" or something along those lines, and he departs from the Tavern. Delivering the two documents does not seem to directly close the "Lord's Trust" route, because you can still enter the Proving. When you do so, the "Prince's Favour" quest will be closed however, and you are working for Harrowmont. (That becomes apparant when you get access to Harrowmont himself, and get attacked by Bhelen fanatics.) To permanently close the "Lord's Trust" quest, it seems that after the delivery of the two documents another action is needed, but it was not tested what this would be. Addition: While it is possible to deliver the documents to Lady Dace, for which you get the Deep Roads Pass and the information that Lord Dace is in Aeducan Thaig, you are not able to find him there if the quest is closed by entering the Proving. The possible routes to the North-West end of Aeducan Thaig all seem to be blocked.

Result

 * Access to Prince Bhelen and the rest of the Royal Palace is granted.
 * Discount with Gorim (if a reward was requested from Lord Dace).