His Better Half – Pillars of Eternity Quest

This guide is for a quest in Part 1 of Pillars of Eternity: The White March. The guide has a walkthrough of the area, and a map with a legend.

Map Legend

1 – Ygadr’s Soul
2 – Ygadr’s Journal
3 – Alpine Dragon’s Cave

Background

You’ll receive this quest when you interact with Ygadr’s soul in Longwatch Falls (#1).

Walkthrough

When you reach out to Ygadr’s soul, you’ll learn that he was in the area searching for his “soul twin,” aka the other half of his split soul. However, just when he was about to discover this other person, he was murdered, and you’ll decide to figure out who killed him and why.

You’ll find a clue in the hot springs to the north — Ygadr’s Journal (#2) — which will mention a cave behind a waterfall. You’ll find the cave to the southeast (#3). Inside it, you’ll meet the Alpine Dragon. If you talk to it, then you’ll learn that it is Ygadr’s soul twin — and that it killed Ygadr because that’s what it does to all of its soul twins.

You’ll have two ways to proceed:

• You can help the dragon. After learning a bit about its history, you’ll need to tell it “Don’t start a fight you can’t win” (Might 20) or “You’ll gain nothing from my soul” (no requirement). You’ll then be able to offer to use your Watcher abilities to sever its connection to its remaining soul twins, but to convince it you’ll need Resolve 17. If you’re successful, then the dragon will give you Ryona’s Vambraces, and it will leave you in peace.
  
  
• You can attack the dragon. The Alpine Dragon would be a tough foe all on its own, but it’ll have ice blights and spirits helping it out, making your life even more difficult. We’d recommend sending your best tank to distract the dragon (turning it to face west) while the rest of your party kills the helpers as quickly as possible (on the eastern side of the cave). This is because the dragon will breathe frost, so if your keep your party bunched together, then it might be able to kill you in one attack.
  
  Once the helpers are down, you’ll just need to stay alive long enough to defeat the dragon. Anything you can do to make yourself more powerful — resting bonuses, Potions of Major Endurance, Dragon Meat Dishes, Scrolls of Revival, summoned creatures, fully enchanted equipment — are useful to try here. We couldn’t tell if there’s any difference between the regular dragon and the high-level version, so it’s possible you’ll simply need to wait until you’re level 12+ to have a chance against it.
  
  When you’re able to kill the dragon, you’ll find a bunch of Dragon Meat on its corpse, and you’ll also find the war bow Sabra Marie, the shield Black Sanctuary, and Ryona’s Vambraces in the treasure hoard behind it.

1 – Ygadr’s Soul


2 – Ygadr’s Journal


3 – Alpine Dragon’s Cave