A Bitter Pill

A Bitter Pill is a companion quest for Fenris in Dragon Age II. This quest becomes available when Act 2 begins.

Acquisition
Leaving Kirkwall with Fenris in your party headed to the outside areas in Act 2 will trigger an ambush by slavers and begin the quest. You do not have to do the companion quest Speak to Fenris in order to trigger the event.

Ambush
When the slavers hold your way, a short dialog will start.

'He's not a slave!'

'Let's work out a deal!'

'Die, slaver!'
 * No change in friendship/rivalry

The dialogue will end either way with Fenris yelling enraged that he's not a slave, and the combat begins. After you kill them another dialog with Fenris will start.

'We go after them.'

'And now they're dead.'

'Calm down, Fenris.'

NOTE: If you take too long to visit the Holding Caves, it's possible for you to be ambushed within the city (if Fenris is in the party). You'll fight a couple of Tevinter Mages, Slavers, Corpses and an Arcane Horror. After the battle, Fenris will blame the situation on Hawke for not heeding his warnings about the tenacity of Danarius' men. He will then give Hawke an ultimatum: go to the caves with him now, or he goes by himself. If Hawke chooses to go with him, the current party immediately travels to the Holding Caves and gain when leaving the ambush area (by taking a combative tone with Fenris before agreeing to help him, one may increase the rivalry gain to ). So it's still possible to loot all corpses, before leaving. If Hawke decides to let Fenris go alone, he leaves for the party for good and the quests ends. The Holding Caves can still be visited at this point, but the resulting scenes and quest are bugged. The quest is still updated in the Journal, but it's always listed as complete. At most parts the quest continues as normal, even Fenris can be heard miraculously as ghost, in some scenes. You do not however, gain or lose Approval with Fenris (at least the game does not tell, that you do) and he does not come back.

Holding Caves
Visit the new area on the map outside of Kirkwall, Holding Caves. There will be a couple of groups of slavers, they should be easy to take out. Before you enter the Abandoned Slaver Den Fenris will start a dialogue.

Abandoned Slaver Den
You will come upon a room where there is an elven slave surrounded by slavers. Kill them. Once you do that, a dialog with Orana will begin. If you chose to answer in the course of dialogue:

If you answer "I'm sorry":

When she asked what she should do, if you answer "Come work for me" and select "I will pay her" If you select "Slaves are useful"
 * "Do you want help or not?"
 * "What else will she do?"
 * "Do you want help or not?"
 * "What else will she do?"
 * "What else will she do?"

'Not our problem'

If you give her money then:

Proceed until you reach Hadriana. The battle is not very hard if you concentrate all your damage towards her. Once she's down a dialog will start. She says that Fenris has a sister and offers information in return for her life. If you let Fenris decide he'll promise her to spare her life for the info, but afterward he will kill her.

If you choose the star answer, and the romance option:

If you choose the star answer, and the top dialogue option (if you don't plan on romancing Fenris) which is "We can still find her"

NOTE: If you choose the star answer, and the romance option with a low approval, you net

Result
Diplomatic ("I understand") / Top right answers ("Its not a burden") yield
 * Fenris will leave your party temporarily. You will find him at the Hawke estate the next time you return.
 * The next time you talk to Fenris it will be a key relationship conversation.

Rewards

 * The crafting materials Embrium and Glitterdust (needed for the Supplier achievement) are found in the Holding Caves during this quest.
 * The Tevinter Amulet gift for Anders is found in a chest in the Abandoned Slaver Den after you talk to Orana.

Bugs

 * PC version 1.00 and PS3 and Xbox version (confirmed)- It is possible to begin the quest without Fenris in your party. After entering the Holding Caves it is impossible to leave the area to reform your party. During cutscenes, you will hear Fenris' voice and the camera will pan to where he should be standing, but there will be nothing there. You can still receive friendship and rivalry points with him, despite his not being there. However, killing Hadriana will not trigger a cutscene and it is then impossible to finish the quest, even if Fenris is later brought to the caves. This can be avoided by adding Fenris to the party through the use of "runscript zz_dae_debug" in the developer console prior to defeating Hadriana.