Still Waters

Still Waters
Location	Crestwood
Related	Capturing Caer Bronach Homecoming Burdens of Command
Appearances	Dragon Age: Inquisition

Still Waters is a side quest in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Undead have terrorized Crestwood since a Fade rift appeared in the lake. There must be a way to close it.

Besides freeing the area from undead and closing a Fade rift, the Inquisition will also uncover the truth behind Crestwood's and its mayor's story about antecedents during the Fifth Blight.

Acquisition

This quest is automatically obtained when the Inquisitor first travels to Crestwood.

Walkthrough

Defend Crestwood from undead

As you approach the Village of Crestwood, you will see undead and demons attacking the town gates. Help the defenders and then enter the village to speak with Crestwood's mayor, Gregory Dedrick.

He will tell you that the only way to get to the rift in the lake is to drain it using the dam controls. However, to do that you will need access to the nearby keep, which is overrun with bandits.

Capture the keep

Approaching the keep begins the quest Capturing Caer Bronach. You must fight through the bandits and claim the keep to proceed with Still Waters.

Once the keep has been captured, enter the door that is labeled "Dam Access". It is located to the right of the merchant on the keep's second level. Follow the path outside the keep until you reach the Rusted Horn, a tavern on the dam which houses the controls to drain the lake. Enter the tavern and speak to the surprised lovers for some approval changes (see the Approval section below). Note that the codex entry: The First Blight: Chapter One is placed on the top floor of the tavern.

The dam controls are in a small room at the back of the tavern. Surprisingly they do well, despite the mayor's statement, they were wrecked by darkspawn ten years ago, so the question rises of who repaired them. Using the controls will drain the lake – but this will also disturb the Northern Hunter, a high dragon who will fly overhead as you exit the tavern and take up residence on the ruined building in the Black Fens by the Fereldan Wyvern Statues. If you want to claim the landmark and close the nearby rift without fighting the dragon, make sure you do it before draining the lake.

Return to the mayor and mention the controls, and he will assume that Crestwoods wheelwright, Robert, who kept busy mending things after the flood, must have fixed them back then. Robert later was found having hanged himself on a pine.

Old Crestwood

Proceed to Old Crestwood, south of the North Gate Camp.

The now drained region is haunted by demons and wraiths, though there are some of the latter kind who don't attack the Inquisitor's party. One of them can be spoken to, to obtain the Burdens of Command quest which can be completed on your way to the rift in the lake. You will also find the bodies for Homecoming in three different houses within Old Crestwood.

A scrap of paper, written by some Robert

The entrance to the cave, the objective of your task, lies north of a ruined home that bears a plaque which identifies it as the "Mayor's House." There's also the Mayor's Old Home landmark right in front of it. Discovering Dedrick's former home will trigger some dialogue with your companions, but you have to look into the chest inside and find a scrap of paper, written down by the wheelwright Robert, to be able to talk with the mayor again about it.

Collect the three bodies, Sister Vaughn is waiting for, and travel back to the Village of Crestwood. Return them at the cemetery, then go tell the mayor, you found his old home. He will explain that there was not much inside because he was cleaning the place just when the flood happened, then telling he didn't want to think of that place again and having nothing more to say.

Head back to the old village ruins and eventually enter the Flooded Caves.

Note: Once you enter the Flooded Caves, Jana will no longer be available as an agent. If you want to recruit her, make sure you speak to her in the Village of Crestwood before and choose either the Nobility Knowledge dialogue option or have Solas talk to her for you.

Flooded Caves

The cave leads down into some dwarven ruins. Several chests are hidden in small nooks along the way. As you progress further down, you will come to a section of the cave where you will have to fight several corpses and a despair demon. After the fight, search to your right to find a small area set back from the main cave, with a chest and some bones you can examine for more dialogue with your companions. As you leave this area, climb over the rocks to your right to find a chest containing a Master Spirit Rune.

From this area, continue down into the deepest tier, the dwarven section. A locked door on the left side of the first corridor hides the note: The Lost Outpost Plaque and the codex entry: Paragons Known and Lesser Known, as well as a chest with some random loot. Just past this door you will find the rage demon for the Burdens of Command quest, if you accepted it before entering the caves.

The rift beneath the lake

The Fade rift is in a room on your left as you proceed into the ruins. There are two unlit torches and a Supply Cache right outside. Before you close the rift, have a warrior bash down the nearby wall and climb down the ladder into a room that has some loot and a piece of the Freed Are Slaves mosaic. Climb back up and head to the Fade rift.

Close the rift

This rift is tough, particularly if you're not prepared. Unlike most rifts, it has four waves of enemies. Having a mage use Dispel or Cassandra use Spell Purge to stop some enemies spawning in each wave is extremely helpful, as well as a well filled focus to once use the Mark of the Rift. Enemy levels will scale from 8 to 11, depending on your party's average level.

The rift will spawn the following enemies:

• Wave 1: Wraith (4)
• Wave 2: Lesser Shade (2), Wraith (2)
• Wave 3: Lesser Terror (2), Lesser Shade (2), Wraith (2)
• Wave 4: Rage Demon (1), Lesser Terror (2), Wraith (2)

There is a chest at the back of the room with some random loot, you can claim once the rift is closed.

Report to the mayor

Now that the rift is closed, you can continue on through the ruins to the exit. Along the way, you will find another piece of Freed Are Slaves on a table and an elven artifact nearby. There is a chest half-hidden behind a rock, outcropping in a corner of the room.

As you move through the ruins, one of your companions will query whether you're going the right way. The Inquisitor will respond that they feel a draft. Continue through the door at the back of the room. Right after this door on the left side, there is another chest with random loot. Nearby you will find a family of three nugs that will trigger more dialogue. You can kill these nugs if you want, but note that most companions will disapprove if you do so.

Note: It is possible, for example by re-entering this room through the second door near the nug family, that the companion reactions are triggered, although the nugs are unharmed. So it's best to avoid coming too close to them, especially as there is nothing to be found in the nugs' proximity.

Head through either of the nearby doors and up the ladder out of the Flooded Caves. You will still be in a cave at the top, but this one is part of the Crestwood area. Climb up the next ladder and pick up a third Freed Are Slaves mosaic piece and the loot nearby. Use the lever to open the door and head outside.

Note: If you haven't already closed it, a Fade rift near the North Gate will be just outside the cave exit. If your party is low on health and/or healing potions, consider quick travelling to an Inquisition camp.

As you leave the cave, you will see that the sun has come out and Crestwood is looking altogether less grim. Return to the village and head to the mayor's house. Two villagers outside will comment that the mayor has left, so look for a letter on his desk to complete the quest and reveal what really happened ten years ago in Crestwood.

Note: Closing the rift in the lake will remove the wooden boards from the front of the locked house in the Village of Crestwood. If you have the Deft Hands, Fine Tools perk, you can now have a rogue open the door to claim an Amulet of Power for the Inquisitor, and Malika's Guard if you have patch 10 installed.

Rewards

Closing the fade rift yields:

• 512 XP, plus 1,934 XP
• 600 Influence
• 2 Power, plus 3 Power

Axe of Green Edges

There are no additional rewards for completing the quest, aside from the standard XP awarded for codex entries and notes, found on the way.

Results

• Finding the mayor's letter in the end unlocks the war table operation Find Crestwood's Mayor.

Approval

When talking to the Mayor for the first time:

You'd have to evict the bandits in the old fort to use the dam. I can't ask you to risk your life.

• Please, let me help. – Blackwall Slightly Approves, Cassandra Slightly Approves
• I'll be fine. – No approval change.
• Admit you need the help. – Dorian Slightly Approves, Sera Slightly Approves

Talking to the two villagers in the Rusted Horn tavern:

We didn't know you were here, ser. Please don't tell anyone!

[Investigate.] How did you get in here? – Solas Slightly Approves

• I won't. – Cole Greatly Approves, Blackwall Slightly Approves, Iron Bull Slightly Approves, Sera Slightly Approves, Cassandra Slightly Disapproves
• This place is hardly romantic. – Dorian Slightly Approves, Solas Slightly Approves
• Why the secrecy? – No approval change.

Destroying the Fade rift:

Cole Approves (doesn't have to be in the active party)

Killing the nug family (3 nugs) at the end of the Flooded Caves:

Sera Slightly Approves, Vivienne Slightly Approves

Cassandra Slightly Disapproves, Cole Slightly Disapproves, Iron Bull Slightly Disapproves, Solas Slightly Disapproves, Varric Slightly Disapproves

Notable items

Axe of Green Edges – Always dropped by the Fade rift.

Master Spirit Rune – In a chest in the Flooded Caves.

• Three mosaic pieces for the Freed Are Slaves collection are found in the Flooded Caves. See the walkthrough for their locations.
• The caves contain multiple deposits of Stormheart, a tier 3 crafting material. This is likely to be the first tier 3 metal you will come across in the game.

Codex entries

Codex entry: The First Blight: Chapter 1

Codex entry: Letter Of Confession

Codex entry: Paragons Known and Lesser Known

Other texts

The Lost Outpost Plaque

Mildewed Diary

Scrap of Paper

Notes

• The triggers and points of time for dialogue with the mayor, as they are mentioned in the walkthrough, have to be done in that exact order to be available. For example, if the note in his old home is found before he was asked about the working dam controls, that option is no longer given.

Trivia

• The idea and themes of a village buried underwater by the action of a dam, and populated with undead is very similar to a quest in a previous BioWare game, Jade Empire. See The Great Dam for a comparison.
• In the dwarven caverns, the Inquisitor may say, "I feel a draft," a reference to the pit message in the classic computer game Hunt the Wumpus.
• After exiting the flooded caves and going up the following ladder and set of stairs, there is a pile of abnormally large skulls, with a cheese wheel on top, behind a rock formation on the left of the final platform.
• The lovers in the tavern, Milton and Lonnie, have carved their coupled names into the bench at Wyvern's Watch and the message board in the Village of Crestwood.

Bugs

• It is possible to bypass the keep on the way to the dam. If you descend into the valley from the Hilltop Farm and follow the path while staying close to the dam wall, you will come to a large rock which is almost jumpable. On occasion your party members will end up on top of the rock which leads to the back door of the fort and the dam. This is not really a bug as the keep can be claimed at any time afterwards while Capturing Caer Bronach is listed as a side quest. However the keep must still be captured to complete this quest. ^{[confirmation needed]}