Every RPG needs to have its dreary swamp level that nobody really likes exploring and nobody misses, but everything can’t be tranquil forests and sunswept grasslands. The Hossberg Wetlands fills the “dreary swamp level” archetype quite well, with a bit of blight thrown in to make it feel proper Dragon Agey. It’s a miserable, darkspawn-infested slog that also happens to be haunted, and surprisingly many of the early side quests in this region involve dealing with ancient, buried, forgotten spirits dwelling here. Well… okay, it happens twice, but it still seems odd for it to pop up in two different quests! This page will provide a walkthrough for the side quest Only an Echo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Page Breakdown¶

Starting Only and Echo¶

You can pick this quest up shortly after your first visit to the Hossberg Wetlands, which will become available after the main quests The Dragon Slayer and Where the Dead Must Go. After your introductory chat with Antoine and Evka you’ll be free to explore the village of Lavendel. Head downstairs from Grey Hold and you’ll find a farmer named Ida - the exclamation point over her head should make her easy to spot - who tells you about another farming family who knew of the blight ahead of time, yet somehow didn’t escape. Rook agrees to investigate, starting this quest.

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(1 of 3) Talk to Ida and she’ll mention the absent Voss family,

Clear the Blight and Reach the Voss Farm¶

Before you can do any exploring in the Hossberg Wetlands, you’ll need to advance the main quest Something Wrong by destroying some blight cysts. Head southeast through Lavendel until you reach the Blighted Tunnel, where you’ll find a blight cyst to destroy and a sample to collect in its wake. Kill any darkspawn that show themselves, be wary of explosive blight growths falling from the ceiling, destroy a second blight cyst to the north before destroying a blight passage to the south and claiming a second sample.

Through the blight passage you just cleared lies the Old Crossroads area. Turn north, kill another group of darkspawn, then destroy the two smaller blight cysts and collect a third sample to make another blight passage to the north vulnerable. Destroy it and continue north to reach the Flooded Farmlands, but do not destroy the large blight cyst in the Old Crossroads - doing so will unleash a darkspawn champion, the Disciple-in-Ichor (Lv30) - which is not on the agenda right now.

Investigate the Voss Farm¶

Once you’ve reached the Flooded Farmland you can get started on this quest proper-like, but there are more blight cysts lying around as part of the main quest Something Wrong, so it’s easy to get distracted. There are also darkspawn prowling around that need to be put down and the odd treasure to find, but we’re going to do our best to ignore all of that and focus on the task at hand.

First up is investigating the Voss family farm - head north, kill any darkspawn you find, and you’ll find the two halves of the Voss house, ripped in half and thoroughly coated in blight. Not an encouraging sign. To get in you’ll need to destroy more blight cysts, so hit the one in the basement and the one on the elevated first floor, in the eastern half of the house (you may need to go behind the house to get a decent shot at it). Once done, follow blight tendril from the stairs at the front of the western half of the house (presumably leading to what was once the front door) and it’ll lead you west and over a wall. Go through a gate to get around the wall, then up some stairs to the north to find the blight cyst, destroy it, vault over the wall and destroy two more blight cysts, then head back to the front door to find that the blight covering it can now be destroyed as well.

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(1 of 5) Find the Voss household, now torn asunder by the blight.

Find the Voss Family Letters¶

Enter the house and read a note on a table, then destroy yet another blight cyst so you can cross a beam over to the eastern half of the house. Use Neve’s “Unbind Wards” ability to open a chest, climb a ladder, then read a note on a table near a bed. The contents of the note, the strange drawings on the wall, and of course, the corpse on the bed all bode poorly for the Voss family.

Exit the farm and head south to find two more search areas on the southern edge of the Flooded Farmland. Find some stairs leading to a shack on a cliff, ascend them, then head inside and pop another blight cyst to grant access to a ladder. Climb it, then loot west to spot a blight cyst ahead of you. Destroy it, and note if you climb the ledges to the southwest you’ll find a large chest to loot. In any event, once the previously mentioned blight cyst is destroyed another will become vulnerable below you. Jump down and pop it to reveal the third Voss family letter.

This one mentions a well, and there’s only one search area left, so make your way northeast and sure enough, you’ll find a well. Northeast of this well lies the fourth and final letter, which strongly hints at the culprit behind the Voss family’s foresight - and their disappearance. Search in front of the well to talk to the Echo and seal with well, then return to Ida back in Lavendel to get your reward: 500 EXP, 200 gold, and +50 Grey Wardens Strength.

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(1 of 6) Find the first note on a table in the western half of the Voss household,

Find the Echo in the Crossroads¶

If all that seemed rather anticlimactic to you - good news! The quest is over, but there is an unlisted, unheralded followup, and a proper conclusion that yields some loot. Fast travel to the Crossroads and from there to the Heights of Athim island. You need to make your way to the blighted tree on (4F), along the southeastern edge of the island, where you’ll find a rather large well on the eastern edge of the island. Get close and Rook will comment on it, and sure enough, if you jump down you’ll encounter the Echo of Echos (Lv35). This creature fights like your standard Despair Demon, save it echoes some of Rook’s own words during the previous quest. Defeat it and you’ll obtain an accessory (our mage obtains a Sightless Skull.

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(1 of 3) Find a well on the Heights of Athim island in the Crossroads, near the blighted tree.