Merrill, Friend or Foe? is an Act 3 companion quest for Merrill in Dragon Age II.
Acquisition
The quest becomes available at 100% friendship or rivalry after completing A New Path.
Walkthrough
Travel to Merrill's Home at the Kirkwall Alienage in Lowtown and chat with her.
If Hawke and Merrill are friends, she believes that she had done her best to serve her people, despite her clan not acknowledging her efforts.
If otherwise, she accepts that her decisions and the Eluvian have caused much trouble; she then shatters it as a first step.
Whether the clan was killed or not, she desires to move on and asks Hawke for advice on her future course of action. Hawke can suggest her to do as she pleases, study elven history or help elves in the Alienage or complete the romance with Merrill, you have to select the special choice, "Stay with me".
Result
Ensures her loyalty for The Last Straw.
Bugs
- It is possible that this quest does not appear or Merrill is unable to talk with in her home. This is triggered by talking to Marethari in the Dalish camp at the start of A New Path, when Merrill is romanced (this can also happen if Merrill is not romanced but is not yet a full friend or rival), but not full friend or rival. If you are experiencing this bug, reload the game (did not work for PC 1.04).
- If you try to change your party, Merrill will be locked on and you can only choose two other companions. If you travel back to the Hawke Estate and re-exit, the problem is solved. Additionally, you may be able to choose another companion and still have Merril in your party for a total of five party members (only the companions you choose will have their portraits shown).
- This scene is supposed to play after this quest. It is erroneously set to trigger when it is Act 3 and Merrill's relationship with Hawke is locked (full friend or full rival). It does not check to see if the quest is actually completed. This causes the dialog to show up at the beginning of the act for those who quickly went to extremes with Merrill or romanced her. This can also cause the scene to fail to show if the relationship remains neutral. If the scene shows early, it may be necessary to begin the quest, King Alistair, return to the estate, or use the console to restart the quest. On the
, this can be fixed via save game editing. (Fixed in PC patch 1.02/console update 1.01.)