Dust Town.
Dumb meat learns the hard way.
Let's talk to the locals.
Rogek: Who're you? You don't look like any guardsman I ever saw, and that's not much of a uniform.
Bro: (Persuade) I'm Bro, a Grey Warden.
Rogek: Oh? You looking for a chance to bring in some coin?
Rogek: Could be I have the opportunity. Especially for someone with a few connections above-ground.
Bro: I'd have to hear what you're asking.
Rogek: Human kings, you know, they make these ridiculous laws.
Rogek: Like about who gets to buy and sell lyrium, the sacred gift the Stone provides us to show her love. Now law should regulate that.
Rogek: The laws are meant to keep mages away from the stuff, so there's always buyers in the Circle Tower. I've got one man, name's Godwin, he's expecting a delivery of a stone's weight.
Rogek: You want an investment opportunity, I could see fit to, say, sell you that lyrium instead -- at the reasonable price of fifty sovereigns.
Rogek: You can keep it or -- since you can travel freely from here -- sell it to Godwin, who you know is buying.
Rogek: And, uh, if you bring back his return order, I could pay you... say twenty sovereigns as a finder's fee?
Bro: (Persuade) Fifty's a bit much when you've got no options. Forty.
Rogek: (Sigh) You haggle like a merchant-born. Deal.
Rogek: Here's the lyrium, then. You, ah, probably don't want to take it out of the box.
Rogek: I'll be waiting for the next order somewhere out of sight. Say... just around the corner?
This dude was a thief in the house of learning.
Shady Corebit: What do you want, Warden? You're out of your element down here.
Bro: I'm looking for a thief who dared steal from the Shaperate.
Shady Corebit: Is that so? What makes you think anyone here would turn me... I mean, this person in?
Shady Corebit: You've walked into a sodding fight, Warden, and I've already passed your stupid tome along. Too bad for you.
Receipt on his body reveals that he's passed the tome to someone who's currently at the Proving Grounds.
Suspicious store and it's grumpy owner.
Alimar: What are you looking for? We got nothing to buy for the likes of you. Or maybe you wanted to sell?
Bro: Let me see the wares.
Alimar: Of course.
He sells tool of the trade for thieves.
Alimar: You're back. You got more business for me?
Bro: What do you know about Jarvia?
Alimar: Enough to know she don't fancy strangers asking questions.
Bro: I'm looking for the carta's base.
Alimar: Best way to find it is stand on any street corner in Orzammar and insult Jarvia's mother.
Alimar: You'll wind up there quick enough. And have a real long time to get to know the place.
Bro: Would you know more if the question came with silver?
Alimar: Could be if thirty silver came my way I might know a bit.
Bro: (Intimidate) Here's twenty. If I like your information, you may get more.
Alimar: Fine.
Alimar: Only Jarvia's men know all the entrances to her base. Bit I tell you, I've watched them, they go up to what look like bare walls and poof! Gone.
Alimar: Like there's a secret door. There's one just across the way. Watch long enough and you'll see.
Alimar: Now, you owe me thirty silver.
Bro: Actually, now's when I kill you so you don't tell anyone.
Alimar: Mother of dust!
:twisted:
Let's continue our quest probing all-knowing hobos for relevant info.
Nadezda: Well, look at that. It's not often ol' Nadezda sees a fine-dressed stranger here in Dust Town. Help a poor cripple?
Bro: I might have money if you have information.
Nadezda: What are you looking for?
Bro: Do you know woman named Jarvia?
Nadezda: Know her? I used to run with her.
Nadezda: Jarvia took over the carta not more than a year ago, and already she's got every duster with both legs bearing swords for her.
Bro: Where could I find her?
Nadezda: Won't be easy. She's gotten real careful since Beraht died, real paranoid.
Nadezda: She's got carta members all carrying these finger-bone tokens. She scratches some mark into them, so she'll know they came from her.
Nadezda: There's doors to her base all over the city, but only one is ever open at a time, and if you show up without a token, you'd never know it was there.
Bro: Where do I find one of these tokens?
Nadezda: Can't help you there, salroka. The carta members keep them real tight.
Nadezda: Now how about that coin you promised?
Bro: If you can't get me Jarvia, you don't deserve my coin!
Nadezda: B-but, you promised! I got nothing more to give! Where are you going...?
Another one.
Zerlinda: H-have you as coin to spare, m'lord?
Zerlinda: It's for my son. He's sick. He hasn't any clean clothes to wear, or anything to eat today. N-neither have I.
Bro: Ugh. Get a job!
Zerlinda: And what would you have me do? With a sick infant and no husband to help! When my very family has disowned me unless I--
Zerlinda: But no! I can't bear to even think of it!
Bro: What does your family want you to do?
Zerlinda: My son's father is casteless, as is he. I used to be a miner, but my parents stripped my caste and refused to accept me back.
Zerlinda: Unless I agree to abandon the child in the Deep Roads and pretend I never bore him.
Bro: That does sound like the best option, I'm afraid.
Zerlinda: How can you say that?!
Zerlinda: I cannot abandon my baby.
Zerlinda: The shapers teach that only children of true lineage exist, not those born casteless. But they never carried a child.
Zerlinda: He cries like any other infant and smiles when he's warm and full. I can't kill him because of an accident of birth. An accident I forced on him!
Bro: (Persuade) What kind of life will he have? Spare him that pain.
Zerlinda: Maybe it would be better to spare him that, let him join the ancestors. I could go home...
Zerlinda: I-I have to be alone now. Excuse me.
The only accessible house in the whole "town" location.
Thug: Well, look what we have here.
Thug Leader: Jarvia said you were looking for trouble. Congratulations, you found it.
A few cuts and he begs for mercy.
Thug Leader: D-don't kill me! Sodding ancestors, what do they teach you on the surface? You fight like a bleeding archdemon!
Thug Leader: Sweet bloody Stone, look at them all!
Bro: (Intimidate) Tell me how to find Jarvia, or you join them!
Thug Leader: The base is below the city. Y-you can get to it through the wall of the third house on this row. Put this token through the slot and it'll open.
Thug Leader: Will... will you let me go now?
Bro: No. Now you die like all of Jarvia's lackeys!
Thug Leader: No!
YES! :D
Here's the secret door.
Suspicious Door: This door appears to be made of solid stone. There are no visible means of opening it.
On closer inspection, there is a small slot concealed in a fold of the stone, just big enough for a finger.
Bro: Put finger bone token in the slot.
Suspicious Door: The door unlocks.
Carta Hideout
Carta Doorman: What's the password?
Bro: "Jarvia sucks lizard eggs?"
Carta Doorman: Looks like we have a martyr, boys.
This dungeon is one of the most boring in the whole game easily beating majority of Derp Roads locations.
You'll encounter the samey mobs of lightly armored dwarves and traps. Lots of traps.
Jammer's Stash - the only sidequest available here. Pretty simple - you must take cheapest item from three different boxes to circumvent DRM on the real stash.
Running carta is siriuz bizness - sometimes you'll encounter mercs from the surface.
The first box - Bro takes silver ring.
More hack'n'slash
Zevran is pretty useful here thanks to easy xp from disarming traps.
Carta even had its own small prison for poor fuckers unable to repay their debts.
The second common box. Iron dagger is the item to pick.
The last box and the last item - garnet trinket.
Pressing forward.
And here's the stash. It was barely worth the hassle: only 7 sovereigns and longrunner's cap.
Finally, we reached the goal of our tunnel crawl.
Jarvia: So, Harrowmont finally realized we're taking the city, yet he still can't be bothered to send his own men.
Jarvia: Well, you picked the wrong side, stranger. It doesn't matter who's king, as long as there's a queen!
Bro: Shut up and die!
Jarvia: An excellent idea. Boys, why don't we help him take his own advice.
The real enemies here are the traps - Jarvia and her goons can make a short work of you while you are on the ground.
Bro fulfilled the task.
Key from Jarvia's body unlocks the door leading to the alternative exit to Orzammar.