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 his men. When spoken to, he will proposition the Warden to deliver smuggled lyrium to Godwin in the Senior Mage Quarters of the Circle Tower. He will ask the Warden for 50 as a guarantee and he can be persuaded to lower this to 40 . If the Warden doesn't have the gold Rogek will inform you that you cannot accept the deal and he will leave permanently.

If you have not started Broken Circle yet but plan to side with the templars then you should start this quest first and make the deal with Rogek when you first meet him. However, if you have already sided with the templars in Broken Circle, the only profitable outcome is to engage with him in a fight. If you accept his deal and later tell him the Circle is gone, you will not get back your money - not even if you sell the smuggled lyrium you're given - and he will still attack you.

Godwins Location — Godwin's Locker Location

Walkthrough

Deal with Rogek

There are four ways of completing the initial meeting with Rogek:

Refuse and walk away. This gives you nothing and Rogek disappears.
Refuse and try to turn Rogek in, causing Rogek and his bodyguards to attack with the reward of experience points and some money. This will result in the quest being inaccessible.
Rogek 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.
If you have a high leveled thief with 60+ cunning you can steal the smuggled lyrium from Rogek, thus avoiding paying him for the package. However this is not possible in the patched versions of pc.

Make sure you save before entering Dust Town because it may take several attempts to steal the smuggled lyrium. Also, it is recommended that you have 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.

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 go back to Rogek, a fight will ensue.

NOTE: When speaking to Godwin, make sure to make the trade first before inquiring about the trade (or persuading/intimidating for the additional 8 ) or you will only be able to end the conversation and Godwin will disappear.

Godwin will offer 50 for the lyrium, but can be persuaded to pay 60 , or even 65 and a Crow Dagger (by selecting the 75 dialogue option) if you pass a very hard coercion check. If he cannot be persuaded, he will offer 53 instead so it is still worth trying to persuade a higher price even without any points in coercion. 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.

Back to Rogek

After successfully delivering the lyrium, return to Rogek, who will offer a 10 finder's fee. He can be persuaded that the deal was for 30 , 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.

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 a Crow Dagger.
When selling the lyrium to Godwin you get 100 XP for every possible deal except if you persuade and ask for 60 which gives you no XP.
When you get your finder's fee from Rogek you also get 100 XP.
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.
If one pick-pockets Rogek to gain 20 , reducing the cost of the lyrium from Rogek to 20 , sells the lyrium to the Quartermaster for 12 and 50 (which labels the quest as complete but still allows one to sell the lyrium to Godwin), persuades Godwin to pay 65 , blackmails Godwin for 8 , and convinces Rogek to give a 25 finder's fee, one can gain a profit of 91 and 50 and a Crow Dagger.
Alternatively, if the Warden is a Dwarf Noble, they can take advantage of Gorim, as he would buy anything from the Warden for double the price most merchants would pay. This means, if one pick-pockets Rogek to reduce the investment to 20 , sells the lyrium to Gorim for 25 , persuades Godwin to pay 65 and proceeds to blackmail him for an additional 8 , then convinces Rogek to give a 25 finder's fee, the total profit accumulates to 103 and a Crow Dagger.

Notes

It is possible to pickpocket 20 from Rogek even before talking to him, which may help you with accepting his offer. It may display as a comparatively low amount (around 40 29 ), but checking one's inventory confirms that the theft added 20 .
If the Warden completed the Broken Circle quest line and sided with the templars, Godwin may not 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, which might make it possible to finish the quest.
pc It is possible to sell the lyrium to the Quartermaster in the Circle Tower, which will trigger the quest as completed, but still sell the lyrium to Godwin. This does not work on any other platforms, as you will complete the quest and not have the option of completing the deal with Godwin. You can however still ask why he needed the lyrium and blackmail Godwin for 8 .
If you want 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.
If the lyrium isn't in your inventory when meeting Godwin, you can still sell it to him and even blackmail him. The quest will end in failure, but it is still possible to collect payment from Rogek.
Godwin may disappear after the conversation is ended, but he will reappear upon reentering the area.

Bugs

If Entering Jarvia's Hideout is active and the Warden chooses the 15 reward for information about Jarvia and then thanks him for the tip, it makes Rogek walk away and thus renders the quest inaccessible; the only solution is to ask him if he has anything else - instead of thanking him - in which case he will tell you about the quest.
pc Stealing the lyrium from Rogek might not be possible in patched versions of the game.
Sometimes Rogek walks away after accepting his trade offer. You should reload a savegame from before making the deal and try it again.
ps3 Killing Rogek may result in the quest being listed as having failed.
pcxbox360ps3 The quest will immediately fail if the smuggled lyrium is removed from the inventory for any period of time for any reason, including but not limited to:

Selling it to someone other than Godwin, even buying it back in the same shop window
Storing in the Party Storage Chest at Soldier's Peak (requires Warden's Keep DLC) or with Bella or Lloyd at the Redcliffe tavern (storage operates on mechanics similar to buying and selling)
Removing your equipment during the final part of A Test of Faith
Getting imprisoned during Rescue the Queen
Having sex with a prostitute at The Pearl

You might still be able to finish the quest and get all of the gold, but the quest will remain marked as failed. On xbox360ps3, removing the lyrium for any reason immediately removes the dialogue option to sell to Godwin and leaves one's only option to tell Rogek, "I sold your lyrium. I'm not your delivery mule," leading to a fight. It is still possible to blackmail Godwin for 8 .
When successfully blackmailing Godwin and then ending the conversation, the amount of gold shown is just 8 .
If 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, only the 8 through blackmail. If this happens, load a previous save and engage in a conversation again.
When trying to turn Godwin and Rogek in, the dialogue 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.

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.