Dead Drops is a quest received from the Favors for Certain Interested Parties Quest Board at the Gnawed Noble Tavern.
Walkthrough[]
The objective of this quest is to discreetly drop off "payment" for certain individuals, as contracted out by the rogue "K". The locations the Warden must visit are:
Redcliffe Village - Past Owen's blacksmith shop, near Dwyn's house.
Lake Calenhad Docks - At The Spoiled Princess inn.
Frostback Mountain Pass - Near Ahren, the surface dwarf who is waiting outside the gates of Orzammar.
Denerim Market District - Near Cesar and a cage.
After planting the last drop, it will detonate accidentally, causing an injury, and the Warden will realise that the recipients of each drop were to be assassinated.
The Warden will have two choices at this point, either to leave the drops as they are, as suggested by the journal entry, or to return to each and disarm them. Both will have its rewards, but if the Warden chooses to disarm the drops, then K will not offer his final job.
The most profitable course of action is to leave them all to detonate, but to complete and turn in False Witness at the same time as this quest. This will default the final quest to Harsh Decisions, during which the Warden sides with "D" to eliminate "K." However, this requires the first two quests for each rogue to be completed immediately and the third for each to be accepted prior to finishing one.
Note: It is possible to "fail" to disarm the traps (with a low enough Trap-Making skill) or poke them with sticks, which instead causes them to detonate. This has no adverse effects on the player character and technically "spares the intended target" (a plot-telling device for the purposes of this quest) while also not updating the journal with the "chose to disarm" condition. This can be done on two of the outstanding barrels, but detonating the third (fourth counting the delivery that detonated on its own) will fail the quest, as it would for successfully disarming any one of them.
Choosing Sides[]
If you've been doing quests for both rogues, you'll have to choose for whom you want to complete the fourth quest, as it involves killing that rogue's rival. It's not a choice made in-game, but rather depends on whose quest gets turned in first. Should you turn in both quests at the same time, it will default to Harsh Decisions as mentioned above.
If you wish to leave your decision of which rogue to side with to the absolute last moment while still maximizing your gold, it is best to complete the Denerim drop last and leave Cam of Redside alive while False Witness is active. Then, if you wish to side with "K," turn in Dead Drops, accept New Ground, then kill Cam and turn in False Witness before moving against "D." Technically you can place all four barrels, but this prevents you from turning in other Favors to the bartender, such as Correspondence Interruptus, if you have not decided on a rogue to side with. New Ground will become the final quest.
If you wish to side with "D" while maximizing your rewards, simply finish and turn in both quests at the same time. Even though the game only shows the reward for one quest, as is the case with any other collection of quests in which multiple can be turned in simultaneously to a single NPC, the inventory shows that sovereigns have been added for all completed quests. Harsh Decisions will become the final quest.
Rewards[]
Completing Drops
3 98 0 and 100 XP- 3 98 0
98
0
Disarming Drops
- 3 98 0
Warning![]
If you kill K, after you have a run-in with his Lieutenant, the quest cannot be completed
Bugs[]
- Under the 1.04 version of the game (PC) the Redcliffe dead drop may not be accessible and the quest can not be completed. This is a regression from 1.02a that remains unaddressed by the developer. This seems to have been fixed in version 1.05.
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