Forbidden Knowledge — dragonage

Forbidden Knowledge is an Act 2 side quest in Dragon Age II.

Note: This quest is bugged. Choosing any option other than destroying the initial five books will leave you unable to complete the quest (see #Bugs for details).

Acquisition

If Idunna was spared during Enemies Among Us, she sends a letter to Hawke at the beginning of Act 2. If she is dead, the quest is received upon finding any Evil Tome.

Walkthrough

There are five Evil Tomes scattered throughout and around Kirkwall as well as the Fell Grimoire.

You can choose any of the following options when selecting a book (they are all mutually exclusive):

Destroy the book:
- Merrill: rivalry (+10)
- 750 XP for each Evil Tome. No XP for Fell Grimoire
Read the book, then accept the book's deal (can only be done once):
- Merrill: friendship (+5)
- Greater Tome of the Mortal Vessel which gives +2 attribute points
- Book of Forbidden Lore, worth 86 0.
Read the book, then take it (can only be done once):
- Merrill: friendship (+5)
- Book of Forbidden Lore, worth 86 0.
Take the book:
- Book of Forbidden Lore, worth 86 0.

In order to progress the quest and access the Fell Grimoire, all five Evil Tomes must be destroyed. Taking or reading any of the Evil Tomes will make the quest impossible to complete. However, the Fell Grimoire can be read without interfering with quest completion.

Note: To achieve the largest possible amount of experience as well as gaining the stat boost, "Exorcist," and Voracity, destroy all five Evil Tomes. The quest will proceed and you will be led to the Fell Grimoire. Then choose to read the grimoire to gain the stat boost. This will let you complete the quest and gain the stat boost as well as the "Exorcist" trophy/achievement and unique staff.

Evil Tomes

The order in which you find the Evil Tomes is irrelevant. Upon entering an area with a tome, it will be marked on the map. Interacting with the tomes will cause shades, demons, and abominations to attack. The tomes are located:

In the chantry on a table near the top of the southern stairs.

Note: If Sebastian is not in the party, he will join in as ally in the ensuing fight if you lure the enemies to him.

In eastern Viscount's Keep, on a bench near the throne.

Note: When the enemies spawn the door closes. It can be unlocked during combat only (50 cunning to open - 250 XP).

Note: The tome in the keep cannot be used immediately upon arriving in Act 2; Hawke must leave the area and return to use it.

Note: If Aveline is not in the party, she will join in as ally in the ensuing fight if you lure the enemies to her room.

In the Rotting Cave (if Idunna did not give you this quest then this location will not be accessible until another tome is read/taken/destroyed), whose entrance is found at the far-eastern end of The Bone Pit at surface-level, at an otherwise dead end (see map below). A Corrupted Lyrium is also in the cave.

In the Abandoned Thaig, whose entrance is shown as "Recently Opened Passage" in the game, and is near Sundermount's western exit to the world map. The tome is found in the main room of the thaig, along with the Nexus Golem's wares. There is a battle in this room before getting the tome; see abandoned thaig strategy if you have trouble.

In a Dank Cave (if Idunna did not give you this quest then this location will not be accessible until another tome is read/taken/destroyed), whose entrance is found in the north-central area of the Wounded Coast (see map below). A dragon guards the tome and a modest treasure. There is also Raw Lyrium at the beginning of the cave.

The Fell Grimoire

The Fell Grimoire can be found in the Forgotten Lair, which is an area in Darktown near the Northwest entrance next to a barrel and labeled as Evil Pit. It will not be unlocked until all the Evil Tomes have been destroyed.

Note: You cannot complete this area without a Rogue in the party, as there is a locked door which you must get past to finish the quest.

Note: A rogue with 40+ cunning and "Bonus to disarm traps" gear will be effective at disarming the master traps listed below that normally require 50 cunning to detect and disarm.

As soon as you enter the Forgotten Lair, there is a master trap (50 cunning to detect and disarm - 250 XP) blocking the hallway and a golem down the hallway to the left.

Note: If you set off this trap, poison gas is released to the north and east of the first intersection you encounter, and disarming switches appear in the passage of this intersection (one at the intersection, one at the northern end). Using this switch turns off the poison gas.

The first door you encounter has a simple lock (10 cunning to open - 50 XP), so be sure to bring at least one rogue or you cannot proceed. After fighting some corpses in the first room, there are 2 complex traps (30 cunning to detect and disarm - 150 XP) and a master trap* (40 cunning to detect and disarm - 200 XP) at the beginning of the short hallway before the open doorway, and a complex trap (30 cunning to detect and disarm - 150 XP) and 2 master traps (40 cunning to detect and disarm - 200 XP) just before the doorway.

Note: * This master trap can sometimes spawn as a complex trap instead. Some of the other traps in the area could be master traps, netting your group a very large amount of xp for disarming them all.

Just past the open doorway there are three more master traps (50 cunning to detect and disarm - 250 XP) as well as an arcane horror and three skeleton archers. Ranged attacks can draw enemies into safe areas where they can be defeated and then the traps can be disarmed. Just before the passage turns north there are three more master traps* (50 cunning to detect and disarm - 250 XP) with an Arcane Horror and two Skeleton Archers waiting around the corner.

Note: * These master traps shoot a one-time flame-burst from the south wall of the upcoming corner; they also release poison gas west of the traps and north of the upcoming corner where the passage turns north (the gas eventually disappears). If you set off these traps and release the poison gas, the gas can kill the Arcane Horror and two Skeleton Archers around the corner as long as they do not see you.

In the next room you find the grimoire. No matter what you do with the Fell Grimoire, you will confront Xebenkeck, a powerful desire demon. The boss will summon hordes of rage demons and abominations, as well as a revenant in the second wave. See the article on Xebenkeck for strategies to defeat them.

Result

Tarohne's tomes and potentially the Fell Grimoire are destroyed.

Rewards

Exorcist achievement or trophy
From 3 to 7 on Xebenkeck
1000 XP (after reading/destroying the Fell Grimoire - quest completion)
(optional) 750 XP/book destroyed and (about) 260 XP/demon fight (for the "other" five books)

Notable items

Voracity, looted from Xebenkeck

Notes

If you are seeking the Supplier achievement, be sure to grab the Raw Lyrium from the cave on the Wounded Coast and the Corrupted Lyrium in the cave in The Bone Pit.
Even if you read the Fell Grimoire, or you read any of the other Evil Tomes, you still get Book of Forbidden Lore trash item to sell.
You gain Merrill: rivalry (+10) for each book that is destroyed, resulting in a whopping Merrill: rivalry (+60) if she is in the party when destroying all Evil Tomes and the Fell Grimoire.
Oddly, Fenris has no approval changes from any actions during this quest.

Bugs

This quest will not advance to the next stage if any of the five Evil Tomes were read or taken. It will stay in the journal and remain incompletable.
If you've read any of the books and are playing on the PC version it is possible to use the "runscript zz_lgt_debug" command from the console, select Act 2, and then more choices, and then forbidden knowledge. Then you can select the final phase of the quest and complete the quest despite having read/taken a book.
- You might need to be somewhere other than Darktown when you use the command for it to work, since it teleports you to Darktown right next to the entrance.
- Do not use the command while in the Hawke Estate, or you will spawn alone and in your Finery, with all your talents disabled (except for sustained effects that are already turned on). Items can still be used. While you can easily grab/change your party members at Anders' clinic, and while you do retain the stat bonuses of your equipped gear (such as the attack rating of your weapons or a bonus to disarm traps), this state, to put it mildly, makes the battle against Xebenkeck much more difficult. (Verified on PC.)
  - To fix this, return to the Hawke Estate and then leave normally for another area. It's still enough of a bother that you might as well just go somewhere other than the Hawke Estate to run the script.
- If you have read one of the Evil Tomes, debugging only the final phase of the quest still does not let you read the Fell Grimoire. (Verified on PC.) This makes sense, since you got the extra stat point earlier.
Even if you decide to read or take the Fell Grimoire, the journal will still say that it was destroyed.