  We consider quintessence models within 4D effective descriptions of gravity
coupled to two scalar fields. These theories are known to give rise to viable
models of late-time cosmic acceleration without any need for flat potentials,
and so they are potentially in agreement with the dS Swampland conjecture. In
this paper we investigate the possibility of consistently embedding such
constructions in string theory. We identify situations where the quintessence
fields are either closed string universal moduli or non-universal moduli such
as blow-up modes. We generically show that no trajectories compatible with
today's cosmological parameters exist, if one starts from matter-dominated
initial conditions. It is worth remarking that universal trajectories
compatible with observations do appear, provided that the starting point at
early times is a phase of kinetic domination. However, justifying this choice
of initial conditions on solid grounds is far from easy. We conclude by
studying Q-ball formation in this class of models and discuss constraints
coming from Q-ball safety in all cases analyzed here.
