Watchguard of the Reaching

Watchguard of the Reaching
Location	Apprentice Quarters,Senior Mage Quarters,Great Hall
Quest Giver	Apprentice Quarters
End	Apprentice Quarters
Appearances	Dragon Age: Origins

Watchguard of the Reaching is a side quest that occurs in Circle Tower during the Broken Circle main quest in Dragon Age: Origins.

Acquisition

Finding any of the six Apprentice's Notes will trigger the quest. Note that it is possible to start or finish the quest before leaving the tower, and after the cleansing is complete as well.

Walkthrough

Finding the notes

Begin the quest by finding any of the six apprentice's notes. On the PC version you can make this easier by pressing TAB every now and then to highlight objects (such as the books containing these notes). On the PS3 version you can do this with the left and right d-pad buttons. Please see Codex entry: Watchguard of the Reaching for full text of notes; only the first few words of each note are given here.

Apprentice Quarters (the first floor)

• In an Apprentice Footlocker in the middle of the first dormitory before you meet Wynne ("No, no, no and stop asking...").
• In an Apprentice Footlocker on the south wall of the second dormitory before you meet Wynne ("I'm telling you guys...").
• Apprentice Note near 9 o'clock within the floor just across from the Summoning Font.

Senior Mage Quarters (the second floor)

• In the room south of the staircase that leads to the Third Level ("Today we passed even further...").
• In a pile of books on the floor of the room where blood mages are ambushed by an abomination ("His silver cord transmuted black..."). Just north of the First Level staircase.

The Great Hall (the third floor)

• In the room with the three statues. From the second floor exit, go west into the large Common Room. The note is on the long table in front of the first statue you touched. ("(Hastily scribbled) Whispers say Great Hall?").

Locations of the apprentice notes for the first floor

Locations of the apprentice notes for the second floor

Locations of apprentice notes for the third floor. In red is the order you need to activate the statues in

Complete the ritual

When you have the notes, go to the third floor of the Circle Tower. Right-click on the statues in the following order. Note that you can't just click anywhere, there is a very small area on the base of each statue where you will get an inspect icon. You must right-click when you see that icon. The order is as follows:

1. The statue holding a bowl in the Common Room
2. The statue holding a sword pointing UP in the Common Room
3. The statue holding a sword pointing DOWN in the Common Room
4. The statue holding a shield in the central room (this is the last room before the stairs to travel to the fourth floor, where tranquils are initially being transformed into abominations)
   

   Statue holding bowl

   

   Statue holding sword pointing UP

   

   Statue holding sword pointing DOWN

   

   Statue holding shield

Remember you get no confirmation of your click - PC only in some versions the statue locations might change - so please follow this order - bowl, top sword, bottom sword, shield statue. If you get shocked, you need to start over because you clicked too many times. In the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, you get shocked if you've made a mistake and a burst of flame if you've done it correctly - NO flame or shock if done correctly on PC. pc/ps3 You get a quest update on the final click, which says "A low rumble signals the lowering of ancient protections. Something is free in the lowest levels of the tower."

Finish the fight

After completing the ritual, you can return to the original location where you found Wynne (on the first floor, near the spot where Petra, Keili and Kinnon are). Trying to enter the basement at this point will cause Shah Wyrd to spawn. He is similar to other Rage demons, only much stronger, being a Boss. One thing that makes this fight easier is that Petra, Keili and Kinnon will attack the demon as well, and their spells really pack a punch. If you sided with the templars there will not be any mages there to help you fight. (Note: The AI on this actually makes the fight harder on a difficulty like Nightmare mode, as the NPC mages will constantly bombard the party with fireball, killing anyone actually near the boss.)

Once the demon has appeared you can no longer activate stealth unless you have all four stealth ranks. You can, however, activate stealth mode before activating the door. The demon will appear behind your character, and will attack the other mages until either the demon or the mages are dead. The fight is quite easy with the mages backing you, and you shouldn't need any special tactics to defeat it, even at a relatively low level.

After the combat, you can loot the demon for the unique two-handed sword Yusaris. If your goal is to obtain Yusaris, you may find it wise to save before actually fighting the demon, as the sword does not have a 100% chance of dropping (you may be able to actually search the demon twice, the first time Shah Wyrd's corpse, and the second time a pile of rags, and the second time he will have Yusaris).

Statue with shield.

1. Small note: on PS3 and PC it is possible to go back and finish this quest after you finish the tower completely and leave.

Rewards

Yusaris

Malachite

Fluorspar

Quartz

Chainmail

Potent Lyrium potion

Bugs

• If you allow Shah Wyrd to kill off Petra, Keili and Kinnon after Wynne has been recruited, Codex entry: Wynne may update with: "While trying to save what was left of the Circle, Wynne was cut down by (Player)."

• ps3 If you attempt to do this mission later you will be unable to get up to the third floor.- This is not a bug. You cannot access the third floor from the inside of the senior mage quarters, instead you must go around to the other side of the wall.