Grandda's Trail

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

This is Thistle's personal quest (the Human Ranger). It starts by itself at the very beginning on The Old Svalich Road: when you look back into the mist at its east end, or, if you never do, when you reach the wolves in the narrows, with Thistle in the party. A custom hero in her place never gets it. The blazes and Fen Burley himself only appear while Thistle is in the party.

There's no level or approval gate on starting it, but Fen is in the werewolves' den, a level 7 area. After a Long Rest, "Thistle wants a word" up a tree about her grandda; "We'll help" is +2.

Step by step

1. The first blaze. At The River Ivlis Crossroads, examine Notches in a dead tree by the signpost: three notches and a crow feather. Thistle presses a fresh feather into the cut. The quest moves to The Blazes (+2). Once you've been to Vallaki, this also puts The Hill Trail on your travel map.
   
2. The second blaze. On The Hill Trail above Lake Zarovich, examine A blazed pine. It's cut left-handed, with RUN scratched under it, and it points up into the hills. The quest moves to The Wolf Road (+2), and the blaze puts The Werewolf Den on your travel map. While you're there, searching under a stump (DC 13) finds a hunting trap.
3. Find the den. Travel to The Hills above Lake Zarovich and go down into The Werewolf Den. If you walk into the cave mouth before Zuleika Toranescu has vouched for you on the hillside (and before Emil is free), the guards attack: three Werewolf and a Dire Wolf, or four werewolves and two dire wolves at level 7, or five and two at level 8. Werewolves have Pack Tactics, so don't let two of them gang up on one hero. The Pack in the Hills covers the den itself.
4. Grandda. Fen hangs in silver chains in the west alcove, beside Emil Toranescu. He's half wolf now. Talk to him and the quest moves to Found Him (+3).
   
5. Decide what to do for him. His menu offers:
   • (Cast Remove Curse on him.) Someone in the party has to be able to cast Remove Curse right now; Liriel's level plan prepares it from level 6. This lifts the wolf out of him and gives the Fen Cured ending.
   • (Use the key on his chains.) This needs Emil's key. Examine A peg of keys in the caves first; the peg is gone once Emil is freed. This gives the Fen Freed ending.
   • Athletics DC 15 to tear his rings out of the rock, or Sleight of Hand DC 14 to pick his cuffs. Each gets one try (Fen tells you to find the key), and success gives the Fen Freed ending.
   • What can we do for you? Fen asks to be let out of the chains, or failing that for "the other thing", done quick. Thistle's option (Do the other thing, the way he taught her.) gives the Fen Rests ending.
   • We'll be back for you. This leaves him chained and waiting. He stays until you decide.
6. Kiril's offer (in passing). Once Emil is free, Kiril Stoyanovich comes up the passage to answer Emil's challenge. The first time, with Thistle there, he offers her a place running with his pack, and she turns him down to his face. That earns Thistle Heroic Inspiration.
7. Afterwards. At the next Long Rest, Thistle wants a word about how it ended.

Optional, Madam Eva: Thistle's truth (she likes towns and fits nowhere) gives +3 and Heroic Inspiration, but then her camp talk about the jam cakes doesn't come. Spending the one question on "Is Grandda Fen alive?" is +3.

Choices and endings

All three endings count as success:

• Fen Cured (Remove Curse, +10): the wolf goes out of him and leaves an old trapper, who says he'll wait for Thistle in Krezk. If Thistle is Close or better (approval 25 or more), he gives her his trapper's cloak, a Cloak of Elvenkind. If she's Strained or worse (-25 or lower), she stands between you and Fen and won't let the party's magic near him. The key and the two checks still work, and the spell comes back once her approval recovers.
• Fen Freed (key, Athletics or Sleight of Hand, +5): he leaves on four legs for the high woods. "Don't follow my blazes this time. Make your own."
• Fen Rests (mercy, +2): Thistle does it the way he taught her and buries him under a rowan.

Fen doesn't appear anywhere after this, not even in Krezk. What changes is Thistle's camp talk afterwards: she braids feathers for him, answers his howl, or sits silent by the fire.

If you're stuck

• The den isn't on the map. Examining the lake blaze with Thistle (step 2) marks it. Other ways to hear where it is include the Krezk gate watchman's news, saving Bluto at Lake Zarovich: the Fishers' Landing, and the howls or the wolf on the ridge on the lake roads (Survival DC 13 for the howls).
• Fen isn't there. He only appears with Thistle in the party, and he's gone once you've chosen his fate.
• Remove Curse doesn't show. Nobody in the party can cast it right now, because no one knows it or there's no slot left. A Long Rest restores the slot.

Rewards

• Cloak of Elvenkind

What your companions think

• Thistle: +2 you found Grandda's first blaze with me; +2 you followed Grandda's blazes up from the lake with me; +3 you found Grandda with me; +10 you lifted the wolf out of Grandda; +5 you took the silver off Grandda and let him go to the high woods; +2 you let me do what Grandda asked, the way he taught me

Journal

Related

• People: Kiril Stoyanovich, Fen Burley, The Wolves
• Places: The River Ivlis Crossroads, The Hill Trail above Lake Zarovich, The Werewolf Den, The Old Svalich Road
• More in Companions: A Knight, More or Less, A Seat at the Table, Aurel's Last Chapter, Carry the Dawn, Cold Prayers, Count Off, The Fine Print, The Last Lesson