Dragon Age 2 Walkthrough - Shepherding Wolves
Shepherding Wolves - Introduction
This is actually a surprisingly easy mission for the point that it’s in in the game. The only challenging part is the battle with the Qunari at the end. Note that bringing mages will introduce some complications, and you may want to stick with 3 fighters and a healer. Any combat group should be fine, and you should have a pretty good feel for the group by this point.
Shepherding Wolves - Petrice
You can get this quest toward the end of Act 1. You’ll know that it’s available, because the rumor will finally update to tell you where the woman is. You’ll need to go to Lowtown in the dark for this one. Walk over to the exclamation point, but be careful. I hope that you’ve cleared out Sharpe’s Highwaymen by now (through Sharp Little Pinpricks), but if you haven’t, the path might still be dangerous.
Approach the woman from the chantry to trigger a fight with a group of street thugs. The fight is fairly easy by design, and there shouldn’t really be anyone that challenges you. Just use a few crowd control abilities and tear the weak thugs to shreds. The chantry official, Petrice, will thank you and reveal that you just passed your first test. Agree to follow her to find out more about her unique mission.
Shepherding Wolves - The Path
It seems like we need to drag this Qunari with us to get him to safety. That’s a bit of a tall order, but it’s actually not too difficult except for the final fight. I think any basic party combination will work. Agree to take him with you, and then head out the hidden tunnel to Darktown.
As a rule, the battle is just a long series of engagements with spiders. The giant spiders are just basic grunts, and the poison ones are only a bit of a danger. It’s just a basic soldiers and archers setup. Have a fast fighter tear apart the poison ones while someone else grinds down the giant spiders and protects the mage/Varric. There don’t appear to be many large or real engagements, it’s just a long enemy filled corridor. Move forward carefully, and avoid targeting too many enemies at once, and you’ll be fine.
As you reach the end of the tunnel, you’ll find some more thugs. Regardless of how the conversation works out, you’ll end up in a fight after your friend’s display of power. They’re just street thugs though, so I don’t think it will challenge you. The only thing to note is that there is a second wave, so you’ll need to plan (unlike the spiders before them).
Go out the exit to reach the Wounded Coast, and run right into a Qunari search party.
Shepherding Wolves - The Qunari
There appear to be a few outcomes to this one, but they all end in a fight. Even handing over the mage will end with a battle. I’ll confirm that pointing out any of your mages will just enrage them, so don’t point out that you have other mages with you. It doesn’t offer much of a benefit. You can try to talk them down if you want, but it’s not going to end well.
The basic qunari with him aren’t a real threat. The grunts go down quickly. Have a tank engage the leader, and keep a fighter free to engage the javelin throwers that show up on the sides of the battle. If you can keep them down, then your ranged fighters (if you brought any) will be free to engage the leader. He can do a lot of damage to non-tanks, so either keep him engaged with a well protected Aveline or use spells and abilities to keep him disoriented and stunned. Horror may work, although note that he’s fairly resistant to most direct attack abilities.
Once the coast is clear, you will have an opportunity to talk to the Qunari mage. Regardless of your choices in the conversation, he will set himself on fire and die on the coast. There’s no way to recruit him.
This will officially wrap up the quest, although as you may have guessed, we’re far from done with the quest line.
References
All screenshots and references from “Dragon Age 2.”
All information comes from a “hard” difficulty playthrough unless otherwise noted.
This post is part of the series: Dragon Age 2 Walkthrough - Act 1 - The Main Quest
As you go about raising the money for the expedition, you will also need to deal into the issuing surrounding the mages, templars and Qunari and repay your debt to Flemeth. If you need help with Long Way Home, Enemies Among Us, Wayward Son, Shepherding Wolves or Tranquility, look here.
