Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen – Rumbles in the North Walkthrough (Rivercave Campground and the Fallen Dragon)

In Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, Rumbles in the North ranks second among the Forsaken Dominion main quests. It appears in your log immediately after Chilling Tidings ends at the Norgandian Settlement, beginning with one task: “Make for the campsite Dorin mentioned.” The campsite is a place to rest before the stronghold. The main encounter is a rotting dragon inside the Mountain Stronghold hall, but killing it is never part of the quest.

Quick answer: Follow the Valgr Ravine trail north-east to Rivercave Campground, climb to the Mountain Stronghold, and fight the dragon until a scene takes over. Wake in the inn, watch Dorin’s confrontation, then hold the talk key on Dorin to finish for 100,000 XP and 2,000 RC.

Before you set out

Chilling Tidings must be complete. That quest ends in the Norgandian Settlement and pays 5,000 XP, 10,000 G and a Norgan Portcrystal. As soon as it closes, Rumbles in the North sits under Current with its tracker reading “Make for the campsite Dorin mentioned,” and you can set it as your priority quest.

The hall fills with ghouls and the dragon’s stamps can kill you in a single bad moment, so pack healing food and carry Wakestones before you leave.

Route to Rivercave Campground

From the settlement, the path runs through Valgr Ravine and climbs into snow. Watch for direwolves along the way, and note that a large enemy’s health bar may flash on screen in the pine woods near the end. You can keep running past it.

Pass through the settlement’s stone arch, beside which a torch stands. Once you reach the other side, Valgr Ravine appears as the area name.

Head downhill toward the river, passing a stretch of water with a snowy bank and a hut across it. Winterweed grows beside the route. Stay on the trail beyond the waterfall to your left; the road then bends into a rutted dirt climb between boulders.

Cross the arched stone bridge with low parapets once the ground turns to snow, then continue through snowy pine woods.

Wade across the shallow stream where Syrupwort Leaf grows, then climb the open snowy slope. At the top, pass through the stone gate with long teal icicles hanging from its lintel. Your objectives then become “You approached the campsite Dorin mentioned.” and “Make for the mountain stronghold.”

Beyond the gate, a few stone steps lead past a turquoise ice sheet. On the snow before the cliff stands a dark stone stump on a round base, marked with faint purple runes. The cave entrance beside it is the campsite. Enter, and Rivercave Campground appears as the area name along with “You found the campsite Dorin mentioned.”

Inside Rivercave Campground cave — Inside Rivercave Campground, the rest spot just below the Mountain Stronghold stairs. Shown at 37:36 in Shirrako’s video. Image: CAPCOM Co., Ltd.

Inside the cave, you can pick up a Heatstone and find a wooden chest containing Dried Hare Meat; a Warming Salve is also nearby. A Heatstone weighs almost nothing and wards off chilled debilitation temporarily, making it useful to take before climbing. Rest here so you begin the fight at full health.

Climbing to the Mountain Stronghold

From the cave, cross the frozen pool. A pawn will note that the ice looks fragile.

Ascend the stairs carved into the cliff, go beneath another set of icicles, then keep climbing the broad, lengthy stairway. Mountain Stronghold appears as the area name on the way up.

A snowy yard lies at the top, with a gated wall ahead. Pass through it and climb the following steps, which are scattered with rubble. Pale figures resembling ghouls descend toward you, though you can sprint past.

Enter the shadowy doorway at the summit. A cutscene begins: a massive, decaying dragon plunges through the shattered roof and covers the floor in blue fire.

The Arisen stands in the dark doorway of the Mountain Stronghold hall, with a pale gap in the roof ahead — The doorway at the top of the Mountain Stronghold. Walking through it starts the dragon scene.

Repelling the dragon

Once its health falls by a little more than one quarter, the encounter ends automatically; no further damage will bring it down.

Repel the dragon objective appears — The objective reads "Repel the dragon." as the fight begins — a signal that this is a survival encounter, not a kill. Shown at 40:08 in Shirrako’s video. Image: CAPCOM Co., Ltd.

No name shows on the bar, though the story later calls this the Fallen Dragon. Its health is 500,000, shown as one long bar with 9 dots under its left end — ten full bars in all. It is immune to Blighted, Sleep, Caught Fire, Drenched, Tarred, Frostbite, Unconscious, Petrification and Silence.

Quest banner reading You encountered a dragon at the stronghold, with a long purple health bar and nine dots at the top of the screen as the dragon breathes blue fire — The quest line “You encountered a dragon at the stronghold.” and the dragon’s health bar: one long bar with nine dots under its left end.

What the dragon does

It sends a broad fan of blue fire sweeping over the floor.
Stamps, claws and sweeps its tail at anyone standing underneath it.
Before using a magick attack, it draws swirling blue light into its claws.
A shockwave sends you sprawling.
Pink-purple fire ignites on the floor around its legs.
As it gets back up after collapsing, it blasts everyone away.

The dragon rears in the dark hall with swirling blue light gathering at its claw — Blue light gathering at the dragon’s claw, the sign of a magick attack.

Ghouls fill the hall within moments of the fight starting, and the dragon keeps spitting out new groups from its mouth. They pose the main danger, pinning you in place as the dragon stamps. Take cover behind the hall’s stone pillars to avoid both its breath and the ghouls’ charge.

A crowd of pale ghouls closes around the Arisen beside the dragon's leg on the snowy hall floor — Ghouls crowd in under the dragon within moments of the fight starting.

How to deal damage

Your pawns identify the head as its weak spot early on; blows to the chest are turned aside by the heart, so leave the torso alone. One practical sword-and-shield Fighter tactic is to attack the raw, blistered flesh on a hind leg until the dragon falls. Then dash to its head, hold Grab to climb aboard, and stab.

Step into a pawn’s healing circle when it appears on the floor, and use Revive (Hold) to raise any downed pawns. If you die, the prompt reads “Use Wakestone?” with the number you hold, and offers Yes or No. Choose Yes to revive where you fell, with the fight still in progress.

At seven dots remaining, with the bar around one-third full, the dragon begins to glow and restores its health bar to full. A pawn warns you that it can heal itself. This is expected: you have not lost your progress, and a scene is about to play.

After its health refills, the dragon flies up toward the roof opening and forms a sphere of blue light. Take cover behind a pillar. The blast triggers a scene: you are knocked to the ground as a cloaked warrior carrying a sword and shield moves between you and the dragon. The dragon survives, leaves no drops, and grants no XP for this fight. You face this dragon again later in the story, in the quest Reunion.

The dragon rises under the broken vaults of the hall, lit blue from above, with blue flame at its claws — The scene that ends the fight: the dragon rises toward the roof opening in blue light.

Reporting back to Dorin

You come to on a cot inside the Norgandian Inn. Dwayne stands nearby and says his father discovered you outside the village. His prompt is “Hail (Hold to Talk)” — press F on PC.

Inside the Norgandian Inn, the quest line You encountered a mysterious stranger is on screen with a Hail (Hold to Talk) prompt — Waking in the Norgandian Inn: the log adds “You encountered a mysterious stranger.”

Cross the inn’s doorway to enter the settlement. A scene triggers as you leave: Dorin confronts a small party newly arrived from Vermund, consisting of soldiers escorting an elderly scholar who is also searching for the other Arisen. Your objective then changes to “Report back to Dorin.”

Seen from above, Dorin faces a party of soldiers and a scholar beside the settlement bonfire while Wash speaks — The scene outside the inn: Dorin and the party from Vermund by the bonfire.

Find Dorin in the settlement and hold the talk key — a tap only hails him. He and Jiera hear what happened at the stronghold, and Jiera brings up Norgan’s sage and a spirit compass kept in a tower.

Dorin cannot receive your report before the arrival scene plays. If holding the talk key gets no response, re-enter the inn, then leave through the door once more to trigger the scene.

You know the quest is done when “Completed: Rumbles in the North” appears, paying 100,000 XP and 2,000 RC. The next banner follows at once: “Seeking the Sage / Travel to the tower with Dorin.” Right after completion, Ilda may walk up and offer the side quest Oh, to Be in Vermund, which opens with “Obtain a rabbit pelt.”

Banner Completed: Rumbles in the North in front of a wooden hall in the Norgandian Settlement, with +100000 XP and 2000 RC at the right edge — “Completed: Rumbles in the North”, with +100000 XP and 2000 RC on the right.

Objective order for the whole quest

Make for the campsite Dorin mentioned.
You approached the campsite Dorin mentioned.
Make for the mountain stronghold.
You found the campsite Dorin mentioned.
You encountered a dragon at the stronghold.
Repel the dragon.
You encountered a mysterious stranger.
You witnessed Dorin confront the commission.
Report back to Dorin.
Completed: Rumbles in the North.

The second and third lines appear together as you pass through the gate hung with icicles, shortly before “You found the campsite Dorin mentioned.” appears inside the cave. By the time you register the campsite, the objective to reach the stronghold is active.

Forsaken Dominion quest rewards for reference

Rumbles in the North belongs to a sequence of northern quests, and its surrounding rewards are fixed amounts to keep in mind while plotting your route through Norgan.

Quest	Type	Rewards
Chilling Tidings	Main	10,000 G, 5,000 XP, Norgan Portcrystal x1
Rumbles in the North	Main	100,000 XP, 2,000 RC
In for a Hare, in for a Hound	Side	10,000 XP, Scrag of Beast x3
Oh, to Be in Vermund	Side	5,000 XP, 1,000 RC, Boreal Tuber x1, Frigid Fungus x1

In for a Hare, in for a Hound needs Chilling Tidings and leads on to A Direwolf Delicacy. Oh, to Be in Vermund opens once Rumbles in the North is complete and continues into Flight in the Night.