The Assault on Amaranthine

The Assault on Amaranthine is a quest in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening. It is one of the two quest options for the Commander during the Mother's darkspawn attack, the other being The Siege of Vigil's Keep. The prelude is the same for both quests until the decision whether or not to attempt to save the city is made.

Prelude
The following steps are identical to The Siege of Vigil's Keep.

Preparations
Make sure the following is completed or acquired before talking to Varel, as this is a "point of no return" quest. Everything listed is optional.


 * All side quests, including fully upgrading Vigil's Keep and its soldiers.


 * Buying/Selling items (including in the City of Amaranthine).


 * Getting what you want to keep out of your Personal Storage container in the Throne Room of Vigil's Keep.

Vigil's Keep
After the quests The Righteous Path, Last of the Legion and Shadows of the Blackmarsh have been completed, speak to Varel to initiate a confrontation with the nobles in Vigil's Keep - Throne Room. There will be a messenger reporting an attack on the City of Amaranthine. The Warden-Commander will have to select up to three companions to march with him/her to the City of Amaranthine.

The companions, if taken to the city, will gain approval:

If left behind at the Vigil:
 * (Anders is the only companion that has an approval gain for not being taken to the city.)

City of Amaranthine
The Warden arrives at the city to find that the city is stormed by darkspawn. After a small fight the city's commander, Constable Aidan, greets you and The Messenger, a talking darkspawn sent by the Architect, arrives. The Warden is informed of an attack on Vigil's Keep, and both the messenger and Aidan urge the Warden to return to defend the keep.

At this point the Warden has two options:
 * 1) Fight to save the city and the remaining survivors (leads to The Assault on Amaranthine)
 * 2) Set Amaranthine on fire thereby destroying the city and the darkspawn inside, and return to the keep (leads to The Siege of Vigil's Keep)

Approval changes should the Warden-Commander choose to save the city:


 * , but if persuaded
 * , but if persuaded
 * , but if persuaded
 * , but if persuaded
 * , but if persuaded

If the Keep's defenses and soldiers have been upgraded enough, the Keep will stand on its own for a week. However, the Warden-Commander cannot return to the Keep for the remainder of the game. If something was not optimized (e.g. no granite to upgrade the walls), the Keep will fall and the companions who were left there will die (although their codex entries and the epilogue may contradict each other).

Save the City Guard
If the Warden-Commander decides to save the city from the darkspawn, then the pockets of darkspawn fighting the surviving members of the city guard must be eliminated. The darkspawn messenger can assist. Around the city in a clockwise direction, there are encounters with groups of darkspawn and children that must be defeated.

After saving the city guard, approach the City Guard Commander (marked with a yellow icon above his head). He will tell you that another wave of darkspawn are coming and will arrive in Amaranthine within a day. He also recommends you go to the chantry to rest and resupply. After this conversation, you will re-appear in the Revered Mother's bedchamber in the Chantry.

NOTE: As of PC V1.05, when fighting the Genlock Shadows in the western portion of the city, there is a chance an Animated Dead will spawn, and it will be invincible to all attacks. Because of this, your party and the nearby city guard will continuously attack it. Even though this can impede your progress, simply force your entire party to move on, and save the rest of the city. You will then be able to speak to the City Guard Commander and proceed on with the game.

Chantry and the Crown and Lion Inn
In the Revered Mother's chamber is a chest for you to loot. Immediately after leaving this room, a cutscene will begin, and a soldier will inform you of yet another darkspawn attack, this one emanating from the Crown and Lion inn. After assuring him that you will take care of the matter, you will be free to loot the rest of the Chantry.

The Revered Mother is standing on a dais in the front of the room. To her left is a locked cabinet and to her right, a locked chest. At the front of the cloistered section on the Revered Mother's right is a wooden crate. And further back in the same section, closer to the main door, is a pile of books.

Finally, Glassric the Weaponsmith is also in the main room, although his selection of items is quite limited. (You will have one more chance to buy from him after you have saved the city, at which point his stock will be completely replenished.) Do whatever trading you need to do, then head out to the inn.

Immediately after emerging on the other side of the chantry doors, you must fight through several groups of darkspawn, including one of three Disciple Generals. There are several more darkspawn waiting for you in the Crown and Lion. After the fighting inside is finished, and before heading down into Smuggler's Cove, take time to loot the inn. In addition to the darkspawn remains, there's a barrel in the kitchen, a chest in one of the bedrooms, and a sack next to the entrance to the cove.

There are more darkspawn waiting for you in the cove. Among them is a second Disciple General who drops Flemeth's Broomstick, as well as other loot and coin. Lootable objects here include a locked chest which you find as you enter the cove, a pile of books in the elevated office area facing the dock, and a wooden crate on the dock. When you've finished looting, follow the tunnel on the other side of the office area to an exit which takes you to a hovel outside the city walls.

As you emerge from the hovel, the last Disciple General (who will drop Lamppost in Winter) is standing menacingly at the end of the lane. When you begin attacking him, he quickly runs off, leaving an Armored Ogre to cover his retreat. Once these last two enemies are killed, the city is saved.

Finale
There is a short cinematic where everybody cheers the Warden-Commander. Constable Aidan informs the player that the darkspawn messenger has revealed the location of the Mother's lair. At this point the Constable asks the Commander about what to do with the darkspawn messenger. The messenger can be killed, imprisoned or released. If you release him,, , and.

It is possible to purchase more supplies from Glassric the Weaponsmith before leaving. Glassric will be waiting at the side of the road and will have his whole stock again, including all unique items that have already been bought from him before. There will also be an enchanter standing next to him who will offer you his services.

Rewards
The three Disciple Generals each carry one unique item (in addition to other loot):
 * 1st Disciple General


 * 2nd Disciple General
 * (optional)
 * (optional)


 * 3rd Disciple General
 * (optional)
 * (optional)

Result
The Warden-Commander will recieve news that the Mother's lair has been found in the Dragonbone Wastes. With the city secured, the Warden-Commander decides to head there to confront the Mother and end the war starting the quest Depths of Depravity

Bugs

 * Possible Bug: If you look at your codex or the world map after saving the city, it appears that Vigil's Keep has been destroyed and all of the companions you left there have died. If you keep playing through to the epilogue, however, you may discover that this is not the case (depending on whether you got all the upgrades, etc.). On the other hand this codex entry might be intentional because you would have no way of knowing whether the Keep survived the attack or not. If you save the City you should think that the Keep would fall - just as your companions commented before you made the decision. You would discover the survival of the Keep only after you return to it - which is during the epilogue.
 * A sure note that the Vigil is safe despite what the codex and the map icon say is the ACHIEVEMENT "The Enduring Vigil" the player gets when the Vigil is fully upgraded. If the achievement is there then the Vigil was able to survive the siege and the player can ignore the false codex entries and the map icon (unless the achievement was earned in a previous playthrough).
 * For people planning to import to Dragon Age II: Everyone that stays at the keep will be flagged as dead, regardless if the keep is fully upgraded or what the epilogue says about a specific character's survival, but Nathaniel's death is the only one that impacts the game. Anders and Justice will survive regardless of your decision (or what the epilogue says), while Oghren, Sigrun, and Velanna do not appear in Dragon Age II at all. If Nathaniel lives (that is, if he went with you to save Amaranthine) then the quest Finding Nathaniel will be available in Act 3, but if he does not survive, then the quest Fool's Gold will be available instead, in Act 2.


 * During the Save the City Guards subquest, you may encounter an animated-dead darkspawn at the northwest corner of the City of Amaranthine. It does not move or fight back, but it cannot be killed either.  Your party members won't stop hitting it until you order them to leave the undead target out of the sight. (It's actually a new Rogue Specialization skill: Decoy, placed by Rogue darkspawn). However, it is possible to continue the battle solo, with your party returning after the short cut-scene involving the Officer in charge of the Defence.
 * Confirmed: It is possible for this unkillable Decoy figure to lock everyone into combat mode regardless of position or lack of legitimate enemies; if this occurs, you cannot complete the battle portion of the quest and will be forced to restore and try again.
 * I was able to continue past the unkillable enemy without reloading. Tell your team to hold and then move them individually. It's not long before they'll come out of combat. Needs to get as close to the chantry to fix the bug. (Unconfirmed for )
 * I did as said above, battle solo and after the shortcut your party returns. But I  encountered something else, after the warning about Darkspawn emerging from the Inn(Smuggler's Cove), I couldn't enter the Inn. I think it's because I never (after killing the smugglers previously) asked the bartender to open the tunnels. So this is possibly interfering with the flow of the plotline.