# Eldenwood Quest Design Notes

Working writeups for the two launch quests of the Bracken Vale arc.
Dialogue keys reference `data/dialogue.csv`; drop tables reference
`data/loot_table.json`.

## Quest 1: Mist Over Bracken

**Quest id:** `mist_over_bracken` | **Level:** 3+ | **Type:** main story

An unnatural mist has rolled off the Eldenwood and swallowed Bracken Ford.
Captain Vane has closed the crossing, Old Bramm's son is missing inside the
fog, and the chapel records hint this has all happened before.

### Beats

1. **The closed ford.** The player hits Vane's roadblock (`ew-005`, `ew-006`).
   She will not open the crossing without evidence about the mist.
2. **Gathering wards.** Fenn gives the silverleaf lantern (`ew-008`), which
   lets the player see through the fog volume. Sister Odele's burned records
   (`ew-009`, `ew-010`) plant the arc-long mystery of "the waking."
3. **Into the mist.** Inside the fog the player tracks Bramm's son past
   moving-tree ambushes and a first, scripted encounter with a Hollow
   Warden (`ew-011`) that cannot yet be killed, only escaped.
4. **The rescue.** Finding the son (`ew-012`, `ew-013`) starts an escort
   segment back to the ford. The mist recedes from the road as they walk it.
5. **Resolution.** Bramm gives the compass that points home (`ew-014`);
   Vane reopens the ford and unlocks bounty work (`ew-029`).

### Rewards

| Reward | Source | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Grandfather's Compass | Old Bramm | Trinket: shows heading to last inn visited |
| Silverleaf Lantern | Fenn (kept) | Required later to enter the Outer Rings |
| 350 XP + 40 copper | Quest completion | Scales with escort health remaining |
| Seventh Ring access | World state | Gates region `eldenwood_deep` in `world.yaml` |

### Failure and edge cases

- If the escort dies, the quest resets to beat 3 after a day-night cycle;
  Bramm's dialogue swaps to a grief variant (do not reuse `ew-014`).
- Players who sneak past Vane without the license flag get the mist without
  the lantern: intended to be survivable but miserable, not blocked.

## Quest 2: The Silent Anvil

**Quest id:** `the_silent_anvil` | **Level:** 5+ | **Type:** side story

Torvald the Smith has stopped forging: every strike of his anvil rings with
a voice instead of iron. The new ore vein under Cairn Hill was never a vein
at all. Something buried is singing through its own stolen bones.

### Beats

1. **The wrong ring.** Rumor at the inn (`ew-015`) leads to Torvald's
   demonstration (`ew-016`): the player literally hears the anvil sing.
2. **The confession.** Torvald admits the ore came from under a barrow
   (`ew-017`) and pays the player to carry every ingot back (`ew-018`).
3. **The return.** At Cairn Hill, the Cairn Shade rises (`ew-019` through
   `ew-021`). The player may fight it or, if carrying all seven ingots,
   simply bury them and end the encounter peacefully.
4. **Clean iron.** Torvald's anvil rings true again (`ew-022`) and he
   becomes the town's endgame crafting vendor.

### Rewards

- **Peaceful route:** full smith payment, the `shade_lantern` guaranteed,
  and Torvald's "honest iron" discount (10 percent, permanent).
- **Combat route:** rolls the `cairn_shade` drop table instead; the
  `singing_ingot` drop keeps crawling back to Cairn Hill if dropped, which
  is the game quietly telling the player they chose wrong.
- Either route unlocks the forged blade from `ew-022` and `ew-039`.

### Design intent

This quest is the tonal thesis of Eldenwood: the wood and the dead are not
evil, they are owed. Violence works, but restitution works better, and the
loot tables are tuned so players discover that economically, not through a
lecture.