The Destruction of Lothering

The Destruction of Lothering is a quest that Hawke starts with at the beginning of Varric's story. It follows Hawke Family's escape from the village of Lothering and their journey to Kirkwall during the Fifth Blight.

Acquisition
Start the game as this is the Prologue, cannot be avoided.

Walkthrough
The quest begins with Varric beginning the story of who The Champion is and how it all began. Varric begins the story with a decoy which is made to trick The Seeker who is trying to get Varric to answer her questions about Hawke. Throughout this decoy you play your character but he/she will have the default looks of Hawke and have the full Champion Armor. The Decoy is also a tutorial teaching you the bare basics of combat and speech. When you start there will be a small cinematic where Hurlocks are walking across the screen, then you will attack them and just before death the Hurlock you have pinned down will scream. Either Bethany or Carver will mention scouts then the first fight begins with mainly a small group of Hurlocks and maybe some Hurlock Bolters. After this it will cut to antoher short cinematic where either Bethany or Carver will say that you cant keep fighting forever, you will have a choice out of 3 options on what to say: None of these will affect relationships with your party members, they are just their to show the difference between different speech options. You will then either get the choice to let your Brother or Sister to deal with more incoming Hurlocks or you to do it. Either way their will be a short cinematic fight scene then you will return to normal combat with more Hurlocks. After this you will have to fight an Ogre after another short cinematic, the fight will not be hard, as you have very powerful weapons and armor, and atleast 3 powerful talents or spells. Once this fight is over you will see yourself killing the ogre and more hurlocks coming in. You are surrounded, but at this point the camera shifts to the top of the mountain where a dragon will fly down breathing fire on the hurlocks, mirracurously coming to your rescue, the scene then ends with The seeker saying "Bullshit" and arguing with Varric.

The second part of the quest begins as Hawke's family escapes from Lothering and the darkspawn that has destroyed it. After fighting through a few groups of Darkspawn made up of Hurlock Grunts and conversing with your family, another group of survivors, fighting to escape, crosses your path. Aveline and her injured husband Wesley joins your party while trying to escape.

Shortly thereafter the group encounters more darkspawn, among them Hurlock Bolters & a Hurlock Emissary. After said battle, an Ogre appears which serves as the boss for the prologue. Depending on what profession Hawke has, one of his/her siblings is killed by the Ogre. If Hawke is either a Rogue or a Warrior the Ogre kills Carver while a Mage Hawke loses his/her sister Bethany.

After the battle with the ogre and waves of darkspawn, the group becomes surrounded. A great dragon suddenly appears and kills off the remaining darkspawn. The dragon then lands in front of the group and turns into Flemeth. Hawke receives the quest Long Way Home, no matter what he/she says to Flemeth.

After the conversation with Flemeth. the group journeys to Kirkwall. Upon arrival, they find out that the city is filled with Ferelden refugees and that the city guards are not letting any of them leave the Gallows Courtyard.

They talk to the Guardsman Wright, who passes them to his superior Captain Ewald. The captain will be in a middle of a conversation with some agitated Ferelden deserters. No matter what you say to the captain, the deserters will engage in combat. Hawke then mentions that they have an uncle,Gamlen, that lives in the city. The captain says that he will find Gamlen for them.

After 3 days pass, Gamlen shows up with a solution as to how the family might get in to Kirkwall. He has sold Hawke and his surviving sibling to indentured servitude. Hawke can choose between becoming a mercenary or a smuggler. Gamlen will ask you to talk to either Meeran of the Red Iron Mercenaries or Athenril the smuggler. They will give you a quest to complete as a test. After which the quest ends as you get in the city.

If you choose to become a mercenary, Meeran will ask you to kill a noble named Friedrich

If you choose to become a smuggler, Athenril will ask you to extort a merchant named Cavril

''One way to maximize profit at the start is to talk to Athenril, accept Cavril's bribe of 2 sovereign and then take Meeran's task and kill Freidrich who drops 5 sovereign for a total of 7 sovereign. Taking the bribe will set in motion an additional quest in Year 1, in which Athenril and some of her lackeys will attack you when you happen across them in Hightown. You can also alternately take Friedrich's bribe and complete Athenril's quest, though it is much less lucrative--resulting in only 2 sovereign, but 250-300 xp more from fighting Friedrich's guards. It has a similar result in that Merren and a group of his mercenaries will attack you on sight in Lowtown. AS OF PATCH 1.01 THIS DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE. If you want to get the gold then you have to install the patch after this point.

''To maximize xp take the bribe from Friedrich. You'll fight his lackeys anyway. Then go to Athenril for the smuggler's quest, and tell him he has to pay (without using Aveline). This will net an additional 600xp. You can get Aveline's approval maxed out easily later''

Result

 * , ; if you pick the Aggressive response to Wesley's threatening of Bethany, upon meeting Aveline for the first time.
 * All other responses yields: ,
 * if Wesley's fate is deferred to her
 * if Wesley is given the mercy blow by Hawke or if Hawke pressures Aveline to act fast
 * if Hawke asks for Aveline's help to deal with Cavril
 * if Hawke asks Cavril for a bribe
 * if Hawke responds aggressively to Friedrich or takes the "I'm just here to kill you" option

Rewards

 * 500 xp upon reaching The Gallows and a further 400 xp for allying yourself with either the Red Iron mercenaries or the smugglers
 * 2 if you accept the bribe from the merchant or the noble.
 * Entrance into Kirkwall