Herbalist's Tasks (Act 1)

Herbalist's Tasks
Act	1
Location	Gallows Courtyard
Quest Giver	Solivitus
End	Solivitus
Previous	Long Way Home
Next	Herbalist's Tasks (Act 2)
Appearances	Dragon Age II

Herbalist's Tasks is a secondary quest in the Act 1 of Dragon Age II.

Acquisition

This quest is only available after you have completed the quest Long Way Home. Talk to Solivitus in the Gallows, who will ask you to gather three herbal resources for him. This quest is offered in each Act, with different resources to find each time.

Walkthrough

You need to acquire the following resources for Solivitus:

Spider's Silk Gland — looted from the venomous spider in the Abandoned Ruins as part of the Magistrate's Orders quest.

Dragon's Fang — looted from the mature dragon as part of The Bone Pit quest.

Pure Ironbark — Hawke must first talk to Master Ilen in the Dalish camp on Sundermount. He will mark a new area, the Ironwood Clearing, on your map. After killing all the darkspawn in the area, mostly hurlocks and hurlock bolters followed by an ogre (see below), the Ironwood will be marked with a plot point and can be collected.

To avoid possible bugs, it's best to return to Solivitus each time you've obtained an item, before going to collect the next one. After all three have been delivered, you will get the reward.

Darkspawn on the Clearing

Note: For more detailed advice on obtaining the Spider's Silk Gland and Dragon Fang, refer to their respective quests.

The Ironwood Clearing is only available during this quest, and the sheer number of darkspawn here can be overwhelming on higher difficulties.

The first wave spawns after a short stroll into the area (resembles the "coastal cliff" map used in Shepherding Wolves), and they can be fought by luring them back to the southern path leading away from the entrance. After defeating them, take a moment to breathe, save, and mend injuries, because the second part sends two consecutive waves from both exits, with many Hurlock Bolters at Normal rank (thus ranged attacks and large health pools), culminating with an Ogre. The fight won't actually begin until Hawke approaches the campfire at the westernmost point of the map. The best way to corral the darkspawn is to fight them at the northern exit. It's much longer than the southern exit's path, providing a greater buffer from the encroaching southern group, as well as a hill to help break the Bolters' lines of sight and sets the party up behind the second northern group's spawn point. Set Aveline here to take the hits while mages and archers snipe them as they come. If you maintained a good pace of killing them, the Ogre should be stunned with your strongest crowd control ability (Horror is always a viable option) while the remaining hurlocks are cleaned up. After that, a full party assault should take down the ogre and free you to claim the Ironbark.

Rewards

• 3
• 400 XP

Notes

Solivitus has the following comments when handing in the items on the list:

• (Handing over the Dragon's Fang) - "The dragon's fang! It's larger than I expected.”
• (Handing over the Spider's Silk Gland) - “The spider’s silk gland! I hope the fellow you took this from didn’t give you much trouble.”
• (Handing over the Pure Ironwood) - “Pure ironwood! It's perfect!”
• (Handing over two items at once) - “Thank you, my friend! Only one thing on the list left to find!”
• (Handing over the final item) - “You’ve brought back everything on the list. I’ll get to work immediately! And of course, here is the reward I promised!”

Bugs

• Sometimes when trying to turn in more than one item at once, the quest can fail to turn in and you won't gain the XP or Gold. The only known fix is to reload an earlier save, and the best way to avoid this is to hand in each item as soon as you obtain it, or at least before picking up another.
• If you leave the Abandoned Ruins without collecting the silk gland from the venomous spider, you won't be able to collect it upon re-entering. The only known fix is to reload an earlier save. ps3 (Appears to have been patched; the Abandoned Ruins and Ruined Passage remain accessible until after Magistrate's Orders has been completed, the silk gland has been looted from the venomous spider's remains, and Herbalist's Tasks has been officially added to the journal)