Precious Metals

Precious Metals is one of the most lucrative quests in Dragon Age: Origins, in terms of pure currency. Rogek in Dust Town is in dire need of help. He needs someone to get his lyrium to the Circle Tower.

Acquisition

When the Warden enters Dust Town, Rogek will be waiting near Alimar's Emporium with other casteless Dwarves. If spoken to, he will proposition the Warden to deliver Smuggled Lyrium to Godwin in the Senior Mage Quarters of the Circle Tower.

Do not take this quest on if you have already sided with the Templars in Broken Circle. There will be no one to sell the lyrium to, and Rogek no longer drops gold when he's killed.

Godwins Location — Godwin's Locker Location

Walkthrough

Deal with Rogek

There are four ways of completing the initial meeting with Rogek. You may as well reveal that you are a Grey Warden which will need to persuade him and requires one point in Coercion:

Option 1: Refuse and walk away. This gives you nothing and Rogek disappears.

Option 2: Refuse and try to turn Rogek in. This causes Rogek and his bodyguards to attack. This option gives you experience points and some money. (Note: Killing Rogek forfeits the initial sequence for triggering the beginning of Precious Metals. You will not have the option to undertake this quest. Additionally, the ensuing conversation with Godwin is simply that, an interesting banter.)

Option 3: Before talking to Rogek, be sure to have at least 40 , otherwise Rogek will not sell the Smuggled Lyrium. He may then leave the area and not return. It is possible to pick-pocket 20 from Rogek before talking to him. He will ask for 50 , but with high enough Coercion he can be persuaded to make the deal for 40 . The agreed upon price will be removed from the Warden's inventory and the smuggled lyrium will be added.

Note: After Patch 1.04, 20 cannot be pick-pocketed back from Rogek.

Option 4:

You will need a high leveled thief with a 60+ Cunning to steal the smuggled lyrium from Rogek. Which means you pay him nothing.

Make sure you save before entering dust town because it may take several attempts to steal the smuggled lyrium and not the cheap gold. Also, it is recommended that you have the skill Master Stealing and equip any items that improve your thief's cunning like: Duncan's Sword, Quicksilver Arming Cap, Dusk Ring, The High Regard of House Dace and Silverleaf. If Leliana is used, Marjolaine's Recurve and Seeker's Circle can be used as well.

Bug!

If the Smuggled Lyrium is stored in any storage chests, the quest will be marked as failed and the journal will update, stating that you failed to deliver the lyrium.

Deal with Godwin

After receiving the smuggled lyrium, travel to the Circle Tower. If the Broken Circle quest has not been completed, it must be undertaken to meet Rogek's contact, Godwin. In the Senior Mage Quarters there is a closet that can be activated. Godwin is hiding in this closet and will come out to speak with the Warden. If the Broken Circle quest had already been completed, Godwin may be approached and spoken to at any time. If, however, when dealing with the events in the tower, you chose to side with the templars, by the time you come back for this quest Godwin is no longer in the closet, and is nowhere to be found. When you come back to Rogeck, a fight will ensue.

Note: Godwin will disappear after the conversation is ended, but he will reappear upon re-entering the area.

Godwin will offer 50 for the lyrium, but can be persuaded to pay 60 , or even (By selecting the 75 dialogue option) 65 and a Crow Dagger if you pass a very hard coercion check. If he cannot be persuaded, he will offer 53 instead. He will disappear if this offer is not accepted. In addition, Godwin can be blackmailed for an additional 8 when asked why he needs all this lyrium then threatening to report him to the templars. The blackmail option requires two additional successful persuasion checks.pcIf you ask why Godwin needs the lyrium before saying that you met a dwarf who mentioned him, you will not be able to collect ANY money from Godwin through the trade (50, 65, or 53) except for the 8 through blackmail if you pass persuasion checks. If this happens, load a previous save and initiate in conversation again.

Note: If Alistair is in the party when you ask what he is using the lyrium for, he has a very strong reaction to the answer.

Back to Rogek

After successfully delivering the lyrium, return to Rogek, who will offer a 10 finder's fee. He can be told the deal was for 30 (Persuade), and he will reply that he cannot believe he would offer that much. This will result in 25 , or no change at all if you fail the persuasion check. Depending on the Warden's coercion, there may only be the option to try and persuade him it was 20 . You also have the option to intimidate him for 20 - if one doesn't work, try the other.

Should the coercion attempt fail, Rogek can be killed and looted of 20 , but there will be no gold on his corpse if the Warden pick-pocketed the 20 earlier. Which means if you chose option 3 or 4, you can still get experience.

Bug!

If you tried to steal from Rogek a second time and failed (because the second steal has apparently been fixed), his body has no money on it if you kill him. So the only way to get money is for him to hand it to you voluntarily.

ps3 Killing Rogek may result in the quest being listed as having failed.

Rewards

This can be one of the most lucrative quests in the base campaign. If the correct choices are made, the Warden's investment can be nearly tripled.

If persuasive enough, one can receive a total of 98 and a Crow Dagger. Subtracting the initial investment of 40 yields a profit of 58 , plus the dagger.
Pick-pocketing Rogek effectively reduces the initial investment by 20 , yielding a gain of 78 and a Crow Dagger.
Without taking advantage of persuasion, blackmail and pick-pocketing, delivering the lyrium only covers the initial investment. The only gain will be Rogek's 10 finder's fee.

Notes

It is important to note that if The Warden completed the Broken Circle quest line and sided with the templars, Godwin is not likely to be available to purchase the lyrium. (However, this is not always true, as long as Godwin was not threatened, intimidated, or otherwise harassed. He may reappear near the closet on subsequent visits.) If this happens, Rogek can be told the circle has disbanded. He assumes the Warden is attempting to defraud him, however, and proceeds to attack. 20 will be found on his corpse, regardless of what he was paid. If the Warden sided with the templars before receiving this quest, the only way to profit is to threaten to turn Rogek in for smuggling and loot the 20 from his corpse after he attacks.
Certain quests strip the Warden's inventory, which will be interpreted as failing to trade the lyrium. While the lyrium is in the Warden's inventory, hiring one of The Pearl's "workers", removing equipment for the final stage of The Gauntlet, and being incarcerated while rescuing Anora should be avoided.
Selling the smuggled lyrium to a merchant or placing it in the party chest at Warden's Keep will result in failing the quest.
It is possible to sell the lyrium to Quartermaster in the Mage's tower, which will trigger the quest as completed, but still sell the lyrium to Godwin. (PC 1.04)
There are a variety of results for this quest, which depend on specific dialog choices. In order to receive the most gold, and turn Godwin in to the templars, the lyrium must be sold first. Once Godwin is threatened, he may be turned in or he may be dealt with, but not both.
Trying to turn Godwin and Rogek in, the dialog with Godwin gives the option to tell Greagoir about the operation. When talking to Greagoir, however, this option doesn't appear. The quest stays active, and unable to be completed, as Godwin will be gone forever. In the event this happens, the lyrium can be sold to a merchant, but for less than half of what was paid. The quest will update as complete, stating the lyrium delivery was failed.
If the lyrium isn't in your inventory when meeting Godwin, you can still sell to him, and even blackmail him. The quest will end in failure, but it is still possible to continue to collect payment from Rogek. If placed in storage, the smuggled lyrium can still be sold.
When coercing out the blackmail money when you end the conversation the amount of gold shown is just 8 for the blackmail.
Sometimes Rogek walks away after accepting his trade offer. You should reload your savegame made before doing the deal and try it again.

Trivia

If Alistair is in the party, he will be outraged that Godwin is using lyrium to profit from the Templars' addiction. His approval rating will not change however, no matter which course the Warden chooses.