Here you will find the grave of a warrior remembered as the Topsider, and a Codex entry for "Topsider's Honor." Bring the Topsider's Pommel, the Topsider's Hilt, and the Topsider's Blade, and you will get the sword, Topsider's Honor (Dragonbone). It is advisable to click on the grave itself in order to trigger the quest, "Topsider's Honor". The reason for this is that the monster carrying the Topsider's Blade won't actually appear until you've clicked on the grave here and triggered the quest.
Here you will have to fight several Indignant Spirits, Forgotten Spirits, and a Golem. There will be various containers with random items throughout this large cavern.
Here you will find a rather raving and paranoid Dwarf named Ruck. When you first meet him, he will blather on about how he found it so it's his. He then bolts down the tunnel, leaving you to deal with a large number of spiders.
You can chase Ruck further down the tunnel here to his campsite. He's apparently gone insane from years of feeding off of Darkspawn carrion.
Persuasion or Intimidation can be used to get him to calm down, at least somewhat. A dialogue option then becomes available to ask whether he's willing to trade with you, which he is. He has an apparently limitless supply of magical rocks like Life Stone, Frost Rocks, Fire Crystals, Spirit Shards and so on. He may also sell some armor or weapons of Dwarven make. The more notable items in his inventory include:
Here is the Organ Thaig chest. Inside is the Ortan Records. Bring them back to Orta in the Shaperate for your reward.
Here is a book that provides a Codex entry for "Caradin's Journal."
Here is the Altar of Sundering. If you bring the Bag of Limbs, the Head in a Bag, and the Torso in a Bag, and place them on the Altar, then a Fade Beast resembling a Pride Demon will appear. You now have two choices. One is to kill it. Another is to let it go free in return for about 25 gold, though this implies that it will cause harm to others.
Incidentally, it also happens to be one of the four mystical sites of power for purposes of the "Places of Power" quest on behalf of the Mage's Collective.
Here you will have to fight several more spirits, as well as a couple of Golems that patrol the area. Chests in both the north and south corners of this area will have random items.
As you make your way towards this bridge, you may notice beforehand that Corrupted Spiders seemed to be avoiding you by taking their silk strands up and away. The reason is to lead you into an ambush. Once you're at the bridge, you'll have to fight both the Corrupted Spiders on the other side of the bridge, and the ones behind you. There will also be a Genlock Emissary here.
Here you will have to fight the Corrupted Spider Queen, who presents a challenge even for high level parties. She can use powerful poison spit attacks at a distance, web from a distance, and can overwhelm a character for massive damage. She'll start off with several other Corrupted Spiders to help her. If you surround her, she will often use a silk thread to climb up and then appear at a distance in order to use her ranged attacks. When she gets low on hit points, she'll start climbing and appearing away more frequently, and call in more Corrupted Spiders to help. The key to this fight is to take out the rank-and-file spiders as quickly as you can whenever they appear, and persistently pursue her for opportunities to score melee damage. Also, keep a diligent eye on your hit points. She'll leave behind Bloodline (Red Steel) and the Silk Weave Gloves (Inscribed). A cocoon nearby holds the Smith's Heart.
There will also be several containers with random items about here.
Finally, Branka's Journal is here. Reading it reveals that the Dead Trenches are your next stop in your journey to find Branka.
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