Quests in Lark
There are 60 quests in Embermere, worth 83 Quest Points between them. Set the 18 bounty-board contracts aside and almost none of the rest are "kill ten rats and come back" — a story quest is a staged line that walks you somewhere, introduces someone, and often asks you to decide something. This page is orientation, not a walkthrough: what the systems are, what gates what, and where to go looking.
How a quest actually runs
You get story quests from people, not from a menu. Walk a town and look for the exclamation point floating over an NPC — that marks someone holding a quest whose requirements you already meet. A question mark means you have business with them: either they gave you something that is still open, or the stage you are on says report back to this person. The quest log is a record of what you have picked up, not a place to pick things up.
Each story quest is a line of stages, resolved one at a time, and the vocabulary is wider than fetch-and-slay. A stage can send you to a place (a named city, or the nearest ruin, shrine, cave or pyramid), ask you to reach a skill level, have you bury bones, make you search three pots in a flooded cabin, hand you a quest item and then ask you to use it on a specific person, drop you into a quest-only dungeon that exists nowhere else, or spawn a named boss that is yours alone to fight. Most stages end with a report-back, and that is where the writing lives — several stages open into multi-speaker scenes with named characters rather than a single line of dialogue.
You can track up to three quests at once from the log. Tracked quests get a numbered, colour-coded pin drawn on the world map and the minimap, plus a progress bar in the on-screen tracker, so "where was I supposed to go" is answerable at a glance. Every quest also lists a recommended level — First Steps is 1, The Ember Crown is 55 — but that number is advice only. It is shown on the board and never blocks you from accepting anything.
Quest Points, and the gates they open
Finishing a quest pays Quest Points. Most pay 1; the spine quests, the Trail steps and the biggest town quests pay 2; three pay 3 (The Ember Crown, The Champion's Trials and the Trail's finale, At the Mountain's Foot). Across all 60 there are 83 to earn. Your total is derived from your completed quests rather than stored as a number, so it can never drift out of step with your save.
Quest Points are the spine of the whole progression. A quest's start gate can require completed prerequisite quests, minimum skill levels, a minimum Quest Point total, or a specific earlier decision. Four gates sit on the main story:
- The Goblin Tide — 8 Quest Points
- The Steward's March — 15 Quest Points
- Heart of the Mountain — 24 Quest Points and Mining 15
- The Ember Crown — 33 Quest Points
That means you cannot mainline the story. Following a sensible order you will be holding around 39 points by the time the finale opens, so the wall is real without being cruel — you have to go and do the side content, but you are never short by much.
Quest Points also pay on their own ladder, independent of any single quest: 10 opens the Adventurer's Stock row in the general store — bulk solarite bar over the counter, 25 adds 30 more distinct kinds to your bank, 50 opens the Champions' Hall in Goldhaven, 60 earns the title "the Proven" plus a grand lamp, and 70 releases the champion cape and circlet from the Hall's outfitter.
The main story, Goldhaven to the Ember Crown
Seven quests form the spine, and they hand off cleanly: each one ends by naming the person you should find next. It starts in the capital with a guide who thinks you look like a hero, if a green one, and it ends with a warlord under a volcano. Hooks below are deliberately light — the surprises are the point.
After the finale there is one more: The Champion's Trials (recommended level 65), which sends you after six world bosses — the Magma Colossus, the Ancient Ice Wyrm, the Plague Hydra, the Scarab God, the Tidal Leviathan and the Void Titan — for the Champion's Cape. See the bestiary for what you are walking into and the combat guide for how to survive it.
| # | Quest | Town | Given by | Level | QP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First Steps | Goldhaven | Guide | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | The Cook's Feast | Goldhaven | Cook | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | The Lamplighter's Warning | Goldhaven | Mira the Lamplighter | 10 | 2 |
| 4 | The Goblin Tide | Goldhaven | Captain | 25 | 2 |
| 5 | The Steward's March | Goldhaven | Lady Senna | 35 | 2 |
| 6 | Heart of the Mountain | Ashreach | Cinderwidow Yara | 48 | 2 |
| 7 | The Ember Crown | Goldhaven | Lady Senna | 55 | 3 |
The Trail: the road that always points somewhere
Running alongside the story is a seven-quest breadcrumb chain marked Trail in gold in your quest log. It opens after The Cook's Feast and routes you hub to hub in level order: The Open Road (Goldhaven) → Wolves of the Greenwood (Oakvale) → The Salt Road (Tidehaven) → Through the Mire (Saltmarsh) → The Frozen Frontier (Northwatch) → The Sunscar (Sandmere) → At the Mountain's Foot (Ashreach).
The middle Trail quests all run the same shape: clear a little of the zone, then a scene with the local NPC that is usually about the cost of what you just did, then a travel objective on the next hub which completes the moment you arrive. The first (The Open Road) skips straight to the road, and the last (At the Mountain's Foot) has nowhere further to send you. Finish the last one and you earn the Trailblazer's Network — free, instant hops between any cities you have discovered, from anywhere, not just from a road or a town. If you only ever follow one thing, follow this.
Don't confuse the Trail with a Treasure Trail. Those are the clue-scroll hunts (sepia, silver, gold and star tiers, two to five passages each) that drop from bounties, quests and ordinary play. Different system, same word.
Side quests, and choices that stick
Thirty-five story quests sit outside the spine, and the best of them end on a decision rather than a hand-in. The Bogwitch's Bargain in Saltmarsh lets you smash Granny Sedge's cauldron, take her coin, or spare her outright. Jungle Predators in Greenhollow asks whether to raise or burn the last spider egg-sac. Khaef the Unsleeping asks whether the Circlet of the Last Watch should be shattered or vaulted. The Wreck of the Solace asks whether to destroy the Drowned Bell or keep it. Into the Ash asks whether to send a rider to warn the capital or hold your nerve.
These are recorded and reread later. A choice can change the completion reward outright (mercy, coin and the grove's way pay three different things), change how an NPC greets you in a later quest, unlock a follow-up quest that the other branch never sees — Sedge's Standing Debt only exists if you took her coin or spared her — or change the opening of The Ember Crown itself, which reacts to what you told the Lavakeeper. The Bog Parliament goes further: it tallies how gracefully you handled a run of concessions and resolves into a peace or war ending, one of which skips a boss fight entirely.
None of that can lock you out of completion. The quest log's Quest Point denominator excludes any quest a past decision has permanently closed off, so 100% stays reachable on whichever road you walked.
Bounty boards
Eighteen contracts are posted on bounty boards across the realm — the one system here that is a straight kill-N or gather-N task. You accept and hand in at the board itself — no stages, no report-back chain — though the NPC named on the contract will also offer it and take the hand-in if you happen to talk to them. They scale to their town's biome and level band, from Cellar Rats in Goldhaven (10 rats, 240 coins) up to Troll Toll at Northwatch (5 mountain trolls, 1,520 coins) and Salamander Scourge in Ashreach (6 magma salamanders, 1,900 coins).
Six of the eighteen also pay a Treasure Trail clue matched to their difficulty band, so a ten-minute contract can turn into a whole side-adventure. Open the board from the quest log, or click one in a town.
What quests actually pay
Coins, yes, but three other things matter more. XP lamps are the flexible reward: rub a small lamp for 3,000 XP, a large for 10,000, a grand for 25,000, then choose which skill it pours into — and backing out of the picker gives the lamp back, so you cannot misfire it. See the skills guide for where a big pour is worth most.
Unique gear is quest-only and does things ordinary gear doesn't: the Tempered blade you forged yourself, Gortak's Cleaver, Honed (hits 60% harder below a quarter health), the Vanguard's Cape, The Emberbrand, the Circlet of the Last Watch, Coralind's Song (beasts won't attack you unprovoked), the Sunspear Talisman, and from the finale the Ember Crown and the Embermere Signet (the fire cape comes with them, though that one also drops from dragons and world bosses). The equipment guide covers how these sit against the tier ladder.
Capabilities are the quiet ones. Eight of the town teleport spells — Oakvale, Riverford, Greenhollow, Greenmaw, Sunspear, Whitepine, Northwatch and Lastwatch — cannot be cast until the matching quest has taught them, on top of their Magic level requirement. The Courier's Run opens the Tidehaven coastal ferry at a flat 30 coins. The Wreck of the Solace waives Tidehaven's fast-travel fare forever. Brokering peace at the Bog Parliament opens Granny Sedge's super-potion stock in general stores.
Where to pick quests up
Fifteen towns hold quests. Goldhaven is far and away the densest — 24 of the realm's 83 Quest Points start there, including six of the seven spine quests (only Heart of the Mountain starts elsewhere, up at Ashreach) — and it is where the Guide, the Cook, the Captain and Lady Senna all live. Saltmarsh, Tidehaven and Ashreach are the next deepest. Saltmarsh is one long chain end to end; the other two pair a chain with a standalone quest or two. The far towns hold one entry each: Whitepine and Sunspear give a single story quest apiece — the one that teaches their teleport — while Greenmaw and Lastwatch have only a bounty contract, their teleports being taught by quests in Frosthollow and Ashreach instead.
If you are unsure where to go next, the answer is almost always: open the quest log, look at the Trail, and walk to the pin. The world guide covers what is between the towns.
| Town | Quests | QP | Quests here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goldhaven | 11 | 21 | First Steps, The Cook's Feast, Rat Catcher, Copper for the Forge, The Lamplighter's Warning, Forged in Steel, The Goblin Tide, The Steward's March, The Ember Crown, The Champion's Trials, The Open Road |
| Tidehaven | 4 | 6 | The Drowned Sailors, The Wreck of the Solace, Master the Rod, The Salt Road |
| Oakvale | 2 | 3 | Timber for the War, Wolves of the Greenwood |
| Sandmere | 4 | 6 | Caravan Guard, The Sleepless Tomb, Khaef the Unsleeping, The Sunscar |
| Frosthollow | 2 | 3 | The Long Winter, The Frost-Troll's Lair |
| Saltmarsh | 5 | 8 | Cleanse the Mire, The Bogwitch's Bargain, Through the Mire, Sedge's Standing Debt, The Bog Parliament |
| Stonewatch | 2 | 2 | Crossroads Patrol, Stone and Steel |
| Whitepine | 1 | 1 | Snowbound Beasts |
| Ashreach | 5 | 8 | Heart of the Mountain, Runic Mastery, Into the Ash, At the Mountain's Foot, The Cost of the Warning |
| Riverford | 1 | 1 | The Courier's Run |
| Sunspear | 1 | 1 | Deep Desert Dig |
| Greenhollow | 2 | 2 | Jungle Predators, The Green That Remembers |
| Northwatch | 2 | 3 | Frontier Supplies, The Frozen Frontier |
Common questions
Do I have to do quests, or can I just skill and fight?
You can ignore them, but you will notice what you're missing. Eight of the town teleports are locked behind their regional quest, free courier travel comes from the Trail's finale, 30 extra bank kinds come from 25 Quest Points, and the strongest early-to-mid unique gear — Gortak's Cleaver, the Vanguard's Cape, Coralind's Song — has no other source. Quests are also where the XP lamps come from, which are the fastest way to move a stubborn skill.
A quest says locked. How do I unlock it?
The log tells you exactly what is missing — a named prerequisite quest, a skill level, or a Quest Point total. If it's Quest Points, the fix is side content: bounty boards pay 1 point each and take minutes, the seven Trail quests pay 2 each, and most town story quests pay 1 or 2. If it says a skill level, the in-line ones are Mining 5, Woodcutting 20, Fishing 20, Firemaking 30, Mining 30, Mining 45 and Smithing 70; the start gates are Smithing 10 (Forged in Steel), Magic 20 (Runic Mastery) and Mining 15 (Heart of the Mountain, alongside its 24 Quest Points).
How do I find the next quest?
Look for the exclamation point over an NPC's head — it only appears when you already meet that quest's requirements, so anything marked is genuinely startable. Beyond that, your quest log lists every available quest with its giver and town, and every locked one with the reason. Finishing a quest that opens another also tells you directly who to go and see. Bounties are the odd one out: the board is where they're posted and where you'd normally take and clear them, though the NPC whose name is on the contract will also hand it over if you happen to be talking to them.
Do my choices in quests actually change anything?
Yes, in four different ways. They change the completion reward — The Bogwitch's Bargain pays a different item and a different amount of coin per branch. They change later dialogue, including the opening of the finale. They gate follow-up quests: Sedge's Standing Debt only exists on two of the three branches. And in The Bog Parliament, the accumulated tone of your negotiation decides a peace or war ending, one of which skips a boss fight. Nothing can lock you out of 100% completion.
What is the difference between the Trail and a Treasure Trail?
The Trail is a seven-quest chain marked in gold in your log — a guided route hub to hub through the realm in level order, which ends by granting free instant travel between discovered cities. A Treasure Trail is a clue-scroll hunt: you get a sepia, silver, gold or star clue as loot or a quest reward, and follow two to five cryptic passages across the map to a buried casket. Same word, unrelated systems.
Are there quest bosses, and can I fight them normally?
Five quests spawn a named boss just for you: Coralind at the wreck off Tidehaven, Khaef the Unsleeping beneath Sandmere's pyramid, the Great Frost Troll in the Frosthollow deep vein, Matron Bogwitch in Saltmarsh (skippable on the peace ending), and Gortak the Ember-Crowned in the Cinder Citadel. They are transient — spawned when the stage begins and respawned if you leave and come back — so a failed attempt can never permanently block the quest.
Read next
- Getting startedYour first hour: waking in the cottage, the controls, and what to do first.
- SkillsAll 17 skills, what each is for, and how to train it to 99.
- CombatHow a fight resolves, the triangle, prayers, food and dying.
- BestiaryEvery creature by danger tier, what it drops, and what to fight next.
- EquipmentThe seven-tier gear ladder, unique effects, rolled loot and rarity.
- The worldEmbermere end to end: biomes, towns, caves and the frontier.