The Gravekeeper's Summons
Category: medium
Prerequisites: complete heir_of_the_wild
A Letter Sealed in Black Wax
A rain-spotted letter reaches you in the vale: 'The bells of the Hallowed Barrows toll on their own. The dead are restless and my order is too few. Come north. — Maren, Gravekeeper.' The road north runs past the old dungeon; clear the skeletons that have wandered onto it, and keep what bones they leave.
Objectives:
- KILL: kill skeleton_1 ×15
Rewards:
- 2,000 gp
The Gravekeeper's Gate
Mist hangs over the barrow-mounds like held breath. Maren meets you at a lychgate of grey maple, a bell-key on her belt. 'You came. Good. First lesson: the dead sleep when the living do right by them.' Cut maple staves to mend the lychgate, and she will teach you the rite of offering. You can train PRAYER now — bury bones to give the dead their rest, and their strength becomes yours.
Objectives:
- CHOP: Maple Logs ×80
Rewards:
- Unlock skill:
Prayer
Small Bones ×60- ✨ 30,000
Woodcutting XP - 2,500 gp
First Rites
'Every bone you bury is a debt repaid,' Maren says, handing you a worn brass trowel. 'The mounds will feel it. So will you.' Perform your first offerings at the barrow shrine.
Objectives:
- BURY: bones_small ×30
Rewards:
- ✨ 1,500
Prayer XP - 2,500 gp
The Quiet Bell
The lychgate bell rings softer tonight — Maren swears it. 'The rite is taking. Tend the grave-lanterns till dawn and let the mounds learn your name by their light.' Keep the lantern-fires fed with oak through the night.
Objectives:
- BURN: Oak Logs ×60
Rewards:
- ✨ 6,000
Firemaking XP - 3,000 gp
- 💎 20 gems
Coal for the Grave-Lanterns
Bell-ringer Tobin, Maren's apprentice, hauls an empty coal-scuttle up the hill. 'The grave-lanterns burn all night, every night, or the fog comes down the mounds. We're out of coal. We're always out of coal.' Fill the store.
Objectives:
- MINE: Coal Ore ×120
Rewards:
- Unlock skill:
Smithing - ✨ 6,500
Mining XP - 3,000 gp
Wolves on the Mounds
Something has the wolves bold — they dig at the barrows by night, dragging out what should stay buried. Drive them off, and gather what bones they've scattered for reburial.
Objectives:
- KILL: kill dire_wolf ×25
Rewards:
Small Bones ×50- 3,500 gp
Yew for the Biers
'Barrow-biers are yew. Always yew,' Maren says, running a thumb along a cracked rail. 'It holds the shape of grief without breaking.' Fell seasoned yew for the bier-wrights.
Objectives:
- CHOP: Yew Logs ×120
Rewards:
- Unlock skill:
Fletching - Unlock skill:
Crafting - ✨ 60,000
Woodcutting XP - 3,500 gp
Laying the Scattered to Rest
The wolves' diggings left bones strewn across three mounds. Tobin walks beside you with the bell, ringing each one down as you return it to the earth.
Objectives:
- BURY: bones_small ×60
Rewards:
- ✨ 2,500
Prayer XP - 4,000 gp
The False Miners
Maren narrows her eyes at the camp below the ridge. 'Miners, they say. But they dig at night, and never haul ore.' Lighten their pockets — whatever they're really digging for, the proof will be on them.
Objectives:
- THIEVE: miner ×120
Rewards:
- ✨ 8,000
Thieving XP - 4,000 gp
A Supper for Mourners
A funeral came down from the hills — forty mourners and nothing in the order's pantry. 'Feed the living first,' Maren says. 'The dead are patient.' Bring in a haul of swordfish for the wake-table.
Objectives:
- CATCH: raw_swordfish ×100
Rewards:
Small Bones ×60- ✨ 55,000
Fishing XP - 4,500 gp
Known to the Mounds
'The fog parts for you now. Notice that?' Tobin sounds equal parts impressed and unnerved. Deepen your devotions — give the mourners' offerings back to the earth, mound by mound, until every plate at the wake-table sits over settled ground.
Objectives:
- BURY: bones_small ×70
Rewards:
- ✨ 3,500
Prayer XP - 4,500 gp
- 💎 24 gems
Coffin Nails
The bier-wrights are out of nails and the smith who served the order died last winter — his forge stands cold. Maren hands you his apron without a word. Smelt steel for coffin nails.
Objectives:
- SMELT: Steel Bar ×60
Rewards:
- ✨ 4,000
Smithing XP - 5,000 gp
Grave-Robbers
The 'miners' were fences. The papers you lifted name a crew of grave-robbers working the far mounds — and tonight they're digging. Maren doesn't ask you to be gentle.
Objectives:
- KILL: kill bandit_1 ×40
Rewards:
Small Bones ×60- 5,000 gp
Mending the Broken Biers
The robbers smashed two biers for torch-wood. Tobin nearly weeps at the sight. Cut fresh maple and help the wrights rebuild before the next funeral comes down the hill.
Objectives:
- CHOP: Maple Logs ×140
Rewards:
- ✨ 55,000
Woodcutting XP - 5,500 gp
The Heavy Dead
What the robbers pulled from the deep mounds is worse than gold: the great bones of the barrow-kings' hounds, meant to stay buried a thousand years. Return them to the earth with full rites.
Objectives:
- BURY: bones_small ×80
Rewards:
- ✨ 5,000
Prayer XP - 5,500 gp
Gold for the Shrine
'A shrine kept dull invites dull faith,' Maren says, surveying the tarnished altar. The order's ledger is empty, so the gilding falls to you — dig gold ore for the shrine-smiths.
Objectives:
- MINE: Gold Ore ×80
Rewards:
- ✨ 7,000
Mining XP - 6,000 gp
Timber Tithes
The lumber-camp beyond the ridge owes the order a decade of unpaid burial tithes — and its foreman laughs at invoices. Collect the debt your own way, one pocket at a time.
Objectives:
- THIEVE: lumberjack ×130
Rewards:
Small Bones ×70- ✨ 8,500
Thieving XP - 6,000 gp
The Mounds Remember
At dusk, Maren leads you to the oldest mound and hands you the brass trowel — yours now, she says. Bury the hounds' last bones as the whole order rings the quiet bell. The fog lifts off the barrows for the first time in a year. Somewhere below, something notices.
Objectives:
- BURY: bones_small ×100
Rewards:
- ✨ 8,000
Prayer XP - 8,000 gp
- 💎 30 gems