Asunder

Asunder
Location	Ortan Thaig Caridin's Cross Aeducan Thaig
Start	Caridin's Cross
End	Ortan Thaig
Other NPCs	Fade Beast
Rewards	Loot or 25
Appearances	Dragon Age: Origins

See also: Codex entry: Asunder

Asunder is a side quest that takes place in The Deep Roads, beneath the dwarven city of Orzammar. In Asunder, you piece together the three parts of a Fade beast. You then have the option to kill the beast or set it free for a reward.

Walkthrough

Start

You must find all three parts to start the quest.
The three parts are:

Caridin's Cross

Torso in a Bag, source: Small Bloody Sack (Found in a south-east room)

Head in a Bag, source: Small Bloody Sack (Found in a north-east room)

Aeducan Thaig

Bag of Limbs, source: Small Bloody Sack (Found at the first darkspawn clearing)

Altar

Once you have all three components, seek out the Altar of Sundering in Ortan Thaig and place the body parts on the altar.

Result

A Fade Beast with the appearance of a Pride Demon appears, and asks to leave in peace. If the Warden chooses to fight, he/she may be rewarded with a generic breastplate or possibly nothing. If the Warden allows it to leave, the demon will reward him/her with 25 50 , though others are said to ultimately suffer from the Warden's greed.

Exploit

It is possible to kill the beast and also get the 25 (or more). Once the Warden gathers all the body parts, he/she can arrange all party members around the altar, pause the game, and then activate the altar (by individually commanding each party member to press on the altar before un-pausing). This allows the Warden to summon the beast more than once. Up to 100 can be earned this way, with four party members choosing the reward. If you have one or more rangers or mages in the party, their pets or undead can also be used to gain additional rewards, meaning that with four members having a pet you can potentially activate the altar eight times in the PC version. With the 1.04 patch, even if the Warden summons the demon multiple times, it will only be displayed that the Warden received 25 despite actually gaining 75 . (PC, Xbox 360, PS3 Confirmed). Note that each party member needs to be positioned around the alter and individually ordered to touch the altar. You will be prompted 4 times (or however many times you've activated it, eight if you've used four pets in addition to the party) to place body parts and then choose reward or fight.

For Xbox 360: Move the characters around the alter hold open the command menu (L Trigger) select the alter and press A. Don't release the trigger, instead cycle to the next character with a shoulder button and repeat. After all four have selected the alter, release the left trigger. NOTE: This will not work if the command menu option is set to toggle; change options in the game if needed. Sidenote: Sometimes this occurs the other way round, and toggle must be on otherwise the radial menu will close with each click, therefore disallowing multiple clicks, even if LT is held (Xbox 360)

For PS3: Make sure your controller setting is correct Start>Options>Game>Radial Menu>Hold Open. Take your party of the default free move and use hold L2>Advanced>Hold Position. Now place all 4 party members around the altar. Now press L2 and do not let go. While L2 is depressed target the altar and then press X. Make sure you do not stop pressing L2. Now cycle to the next party member (L1/R1), press x. Continue holding down L2 and do this for the remaining party members. Once all 4 have done this you may finally release L2. This triggers the event to start. You will be asked the same question of reward or vengeance 4 times. Answer reward every time. After the cut scene is done it will shows as receiving 25 gold on the screen for items acquired but if you open your inventory you will see you did indeed collect 25 gold once per party member. I did not try this with any pets in the party to see if it worked with more then the base 4 party members. REMINDER: Restore your party back to move freely L2>Advanced>Move Freely or you will run off without them.

Bugs

• The quest completion journal text indicated that you chose to free the Fade Beast, irrespective of whether or not you actually decided to fight and kill it. Confirmed fixed in version 1.03.