Allied Supply Crates

The Allied Supply Crates, located in the Party Camp, allows the Warden to invest in the equipment of the Army that will battle the Blight.

Interaction
If the Warden has the appropriate items in their inventory, interacting with the crate opens a menu whereby investments can be made. In total, there are several allies you can invest in (depending on the path you have taken through the game thus far), each of which requires a different set of items - some of the more exotic allies require/desire no items.

Emissaries
Depending on your path through the game, Emissaries of the various factions will be standing near the Supply Crate. Speaking with them, you can tell them to be ready and glean information about what kind of items they require.

Allies

 * Tried giving 1000 elfroots/deathroots to the elves, 400 gold to Earl Eamon's knights. There's no max limit to invest.
 * Possibly unintended (?) easy leveling: once the Dalish camp quest is done, the Warden can buy unlimited elfroot in the Dalish camp at 60 copper each. These can be donated back to the Dalish Elves for 10 XP each. At that rate, it takes less than 100 gold to reach the maximum level 25. After that, further investment is indeed pointless. (Either currently Patched over, or doesn't work on the Xbox 360 version, as no experience is given) [Works on 360 & PC as of Dec 31, 2009, requires many stacks of elfroot or deathroot though (50 stacks of 99 gave 5.5 'bars' of XP at level 13)]


 * As of Jan. 6th, 2010, I bought 10 stacks of 99, roughly 12 gold or so and only got about half a little bar of exp at level 13. And it only gives exp to The Warden (main character).  Not to the others... they probably patched this because of the exploit.  It's really not worth it in my opinion, I'd rather just go buy a bunch of elfroot and make some healing potions.  Sucks it doesn't work as well anymore.  ****

Effects
Investing resources into the various factions will (where applicable) generally result in improved weapons, armor, or both. It can also grant substantial XP.