An Academic Interest is one of many quests in Dragon Age: The Veilguard built around the power of spirits and themes of legacy. It involves exploring the further reaches of the Hossberg Wetlandsmap on the hunt for Gaspin Manor, where you'll find yourself gaspin' for an answer to the puzzle as you fight off spirits.

Oh, we have fun here. Since it is Shades, Demons, and Venatori you'll be fighting, we suggest taking Neve and Lucanis or Davrin, as they can exploit the enemies' Vulnerabilities to Cold, Necrotic, and Fire while also inflicting helpful (or, more literally, hurtful) status afflictions on the foes you fight.

Get To Gaspin Manor

When you head to the quest marker, you will see a Venatori wall. The crystal powering it is shielded, and if you follow the beam of light off it and around the corner, you will see the next three are too. Eventually, you will come to an unsheilded crystal. Destroy it, then go back along the corridor, destroying each one. You can now attack the wall to drop the barrier.

Destroy The Crystals

Inside, there are more shielded crystals, but also Darkspawn. Thankfully, the first few Ghouls are weak. Any Fire Abilties should make short work of them, or just rushing them with Heavy attacks. A bigger threat are the two ranged Darkspawn.

You should rush the one up the stairs, pinning them in. This takes you out of line of sight for the other. You can then sneak around the back, past the shielded crystals, to take out the other with a ranged Charged attack at its boil. Going this way also puts you right next to the unshielded crystal on the ledge.

There is another crystal, now unshielded on the ledge for you to destroy, and another directly up - hit it with a ranged attack. This drops the shield around the large central crystal below, and destroying this means those crystals in the corridor can also be destroyed.

In the next room, it's the same idea but with no combat. Destroy the crystal to the left of the stairs, and the one it connects to, then go up the stairs and destroy the crystal on the ledge, plus the one it connects to. You can now destroy the large crystal in the middle, and the one connected to it, to open the door.

You can also go through the blue barrier across the bridge to find a chest with a weapon. Playing as a Rogue, we got Cold Steel 4. There's also a Caretaker Memento.

Enter Gaspin Manor

You will appear in the Gaspin Manor Courtyard, where you will immediately see an unshielded crystal to your left down the steps, and a Venatori to your right. Take out the crystal with a bow attack then deflect when the Venatori attacks to make short work of them.

The large crystals explode if you get too near, but this does not destroy them. When the ground around them turns red, dodge away.

The second crystal is directly above the fountain, and then the Venatori will attack. Switch attention to defeat them with ranged attacks, ADD Abilities, and any area control Abilities as they rush down the steps.

You can then go up to the raised hut on the right as you face the Manor. Another crystal is waiting here, and destroying it lets you destroy the next two going down the steps. After this, go to the top of the courtyard steps and destroy the next crystal, at which point you hear a spooky voice from the Manor.

This crystal starts a chain going back to the fountain, and with that you'll be able to destroy the large crystal in the corner. This lets you destroy a crystal under the building on the right, which leads to a wooden barrier. Break it to reveal a Venatori wall, and you're halfway done.

After this, run to the castle walls at the back of the area. Inside, there is a crystal, and another chain can start. This takes you through the archway on the right, down the steps, and back to the Venatori wall, which can now be destroyed.

Defeat Consuming Obsession

After using R1/RB to bring down the blue wall, interact with the cracked wall at the back of the cellar. This reveals a hidden room where a Consuming Obsession demon awaits. This is Vulnerable to Necrotic damage, so any Necrotic Abilities are useful here.

Since the Consuming Obsession has both Armor and Barrier, ranged and Heavy attacks are useful. However, since the hidden room is so small and the demon is so big, it's not wise to fight it in there. Instead, use Neve's Blizzard to trap it as soon as you find it, then inflict as much damage as you can before retreating and drawing it into the open.

Most of the Consuming Obsession's attacks are melee sweeps, so you should keep your distance from the demon at most points in the fight. It also uses flaming orb hazards, but these are only destroyed when it falls or they time out, so avoid rather than attacking.

It also summons two Shades, which are Vulnerable to Neve's Cold damage. These are nusiances more than true threats, so should be dealt with by you and Neve after the first Blizzard spell has worn off the Consuming Obsession.

Consuming Obsession dropped a Viridian's Tusk 4 axe for Taash when we killed it, while the chest held a Griffon's Talon 4 longsword for Davrin.

Back at Bastian, the quest rewards are 200 gold, 100 Mourn Watchers strength, 100 Grey Wardens strength and 5 Fade-Touched Ore, as well as 500XP.