The Nest Above the Clouds – Pillars of Eternity Quest

This guide is for a particular side quest in Pillars of Eternity during Act 3. The guide has a walkthrough of the area, and a map with a legend.

Map Legend

1 – Casfath and Onwen
2 – Teir Evron

Background

There are two ways to receive this quest. You can trigger it by talking to Casfath and Onwen in Oldsong (#1), or by praying to Hylea inside Teir Evron in Elm’s Reach (#2). Either way, you’ll learn that a dragon has taken over the Temple of Hylea, and you’ll be asked to defeat it.

Walkthrough

The Temple of Hylea is located to the north of Twin Elms. When you get to the top, you’ll find a Sky Dragon there. It will talk to you rather than attacking, and you’ll learn that it came to the temple to protect its young. Since Hylea is the goddess of motherhood and of winged creatures, you might decide that the dragon deserves to be in the temple as much as anyone else. This will give you two ways to complete the quest:

• You can side with the dragon, which means you won’t need to fight it.
  
  
• You can attack the dragon. For the most part, it’ll just breathe fire on you and try to knock you down, so if you can keep your party separated, then you should be able to withstand its damage and wear it down. When the dragon dies, it’ll drop several pieces of Dragon Meat and two Sky Dragon Eyes (which will allow you to enchant weapons to “superb”), and you’ll find the war hammer Godansthunyr, the ring Pensiavi mes Rei, and the spellbook Willbreaker in the bone piles around it (you might be able to steal some of these things if you let the dragon live). You’ll also earn an “extraordinary” amount of reputation with Twin Elms.

To complete the quest, you’ll need to talk to Hylea, who can be reached inside Teir Evron in Elm’s Reach. If you haven’t met her yet, then you’ll need to pick up the Luminescent Adra Shard from the altar on the eastern side of Teir Evron and place it on the pedestal in the center of the room. That will cause the room to light up and the gods’ shrines to become interactive. Then when you click on Hylea’s shrine, you’ll need to say the words: “Live every note of life’s song.”

If you killed the Sky Dragon, then Hylea will immediately give you her favor, which you might need for the quest Council of Stars. But if you didn’t kill the dragon, then you’ll have to convince Hylea that you made the right choice. To do this, simply avoid the dialogue options that involve “might” or “death,” and Hylea will see the wisdom of your reasoning. If you say the wrong thing, then Hylea won’t give you her favor, and you’ll fail the quest.

Note: You can also get a reward from Casfath and Onwen, provided you killed the dragon. When you talk to them, they’ll give you 7000 cp, and then they’ll make their way to the Temple of Hylea.

1 – Casfath and Onwen


2 – Teir Evron