Dragon Age Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Dragon Age Wiki

NPC-Messenger Boy

Messenger Boy

The Trial of Crows is a quest received from Master Ignacio and performed on behalf of the Antivan Crows. The Crows are seeking to turn a new enemy into a new friend.

Acquisition

By design, this quest should only be available after first encountering Zevran (whether you choose to recruit him or not). However, it is possible to acquire this quest before even seeing the Zevran "cutscene" if the The Warden completes the Master Tilver section of the Crime Wave quest line, as the Messenger Boy that gives the quest is also able to be paid to distract the guards in that quest.

There are several ways to acquire this quest:

  • The Warden can speak with the Messenger Boy, who is located just past the chantry and in front of The Mages' Collective bag in the Denerim Market District. It is also possible to begin this quest by stealing the letter from the messenger boy.
  • After speaking with Master Ignacio, if you attempt to leave the Denerim Market District area the Messenger Boy will catch up with you and give you a message. After speaking with the boy, a quest will be added pointing you to a back-room in the Gnawed Noble Tavern, where you'll meet Master Ignacio.
  • Go and look at the poster located on the wall near the Elven Alienage gate. Then as you leave the area the Messenger Boy, catches you and tells you to go the the Gnawed Noble Tavern.
Note: It's possible to refuse working for the Crows, in which case Master Ignacio will leave peacefully and will not be available to give any of the quests, or to kill Master Ignacio who has mercenaries concealed about the room. In accepting Master Ignacio's quest, you will lose Disapproves (-1) approval from Wynne

.

Walkthrough

The First Test

The player is asked to kill a man called Paedan in The Pearl, Denerim's brothel. The player will first, however, have to find a Grey Warden poster, since that is the only way to collect the password needed. A poster can be found near the Alienage entrance, in the Markets. In the Pearl, it is revealed that Paedan is actually trying to kill all Grey Warden loyalists, and attacks the Warden. After killing his band, the Warden can return to Ignacio to claim his reward. Note that it is possible to kill Paedan before actually accepting the quest. If this is the case, you can just speak to Ignacio again to claim your reward. Regardless of whether you killed Paedan before accepting the quest or not, the "reward" is only two new assassination scrolls located in the chest behind Ignacio. These open up two new quests for you to complete for him.

Mercenary Hunt

This part requires you to go to the Kadan-Fe mercenary hideout where you will encounter a band of Qunari mercenaries. Once all these are killed, the Warden may return to Master Ignacio for a reward. If he refused to acknowledge their demise, revisit the Kadan-Fe camp and leave from the second exit.


An Audience with the Ambassador

The player is required to kill Ambassador Gainley, who resides in the Ambassador's quarters in Orzammar Royal Palace. The ambassador will attack The Warden on sight, and once he is dead, the Warden may return to Ignacio for his reward.

To achieve this task you must begin the main quest A Paragon of Her Kind in Orzammar. Then, there are several options to deal with Ambassador Gainley:

  • If you have sided with Bhelen, you need to have completed both part of the quest handed by Vartag (in the Assembly) to speak with Bhelen (and thus have access to the Royal Palace to kill Ambassador Gainley).
  • If you have sided with Lord Harrowmont, you need to finish the quest Entering Jarvia's Hideout, which is A Lord's Trust: The Second Task, before getting access to the Ambassador suite.
  • If you've already completed A Paragon of Her Kind and decided on a new King, just go back to the Royal Palace and kill him.

The Ransom

See Ransom Drop Location for the map and more details.

Ignacio informs the Warden that Arl Howe has kidnapped a boy, and is willing to give him back to the Crows. The Crows will attempt to kill Howe's men, and need your help. The showdown will take place in the Ransom Drop location, but it appears Howe was expecting the betrayal, and his men have not brought the boy. After killing Howe's men, the Warden may return to Ignacio for a reward, who also mentions that the boy has been taken care of.

Result

After completion of all assassination quests, Master Ignacio will reward you with a pair of gloves called Red Jenny Seekers. The Warden can then choose to fight Ignacio, but doing so will cause Cesar to leave.

Ignacio should mention that you might be interested in Cesar's special stock items. That allows you to purchase the Quiet Death Recipe which includes the chance to kill low health opponents outright, when you ask to see his "special goods".

At the Landsmeet, if you completed all the assassination quests, an unidentifed noble will support you in the voting, claiming that the Warden helped him in a 'family matter', implying he is the father of the child rescued from Howe.

Notes

Screenshot20091206185208309

Noble Clothing

After the fight with Howe's men, it is possible to loot one of the dead Crows which can yield Noble Clothing. This clothing as of patch 1.01 has a 'unique' look when worn by women.

You can still complete this quest even after you have killed Arl Howe during The Landsmeet.

It's worth noting that even though Master Ignacio says that the Crows will no longer accept any new contracts on you, you should still expect to get a non-random encounter in Denerim where one of Zevran's old buddies (Taliesin) and a group of Crows attack The Warden. This is the end of the contract where Zevran was contracted to kill the Warden, and if Zevran has low enough Approval he may help Taliesin in the attack. However, in Awakening, the Crows still accept a contract to steal the Warden's sword Vigilance.

Bug icon Bug! If you have the developer console enabled on the PC, it seems impossible to get the Messenger Boy to show up.

(This could be a random problem or have something to do with what mods may be installed. I have been unable to duplicate the issue. My game patched through V. 1.04, and I regularly run the game with the developer console enabled. --Jannifer (talk) 13:22, October 31, 2011 (UTC))

Bug icon Bug! If you open the chest in the room where Master Ignacio is supposed to be before the Trial of Crows quest begins, it is possible you will not get the documents in the chest needed to continue the quest after disposing of Paedan.
Advertisement