Crooked Shank - Complete Quest Guide

This guide will provide you with the exact steps needed to finish all the quests in Crooked Shank. You are free however to do any of these tasks in any order you wish. I am just providing one compact efficient way (in my opinion) to do all of these.

If you are a completely new player to Shroud of the Avatar, use the https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/map and find the town of Crooked Shank. This website has all of the current adventure and (NPC) town scenes in the game currently.

With this guide (and others) I am going to now be more story-centric when doing quests. These will all be marked (optional) for the people that just want to "finish the damn quest!" people. For the rest of us that like story, I will provide this (optional) information.

Enter Crooked Shank. You can enter this town at any time.

As you enter you will see a Travelling Merchant named Erno. Speak to him. Click the Leafling and help keywords. Receive Find Leafling's Elves task.

Make sure you are out of combat mode and have no AOE's like Immolate on your character. This area contains many neutral NPC's and you can kill them if you are not careful. Of note: If you wish, you can slaughter all the people in this scene. The entire quest in here is only dependent on an item that can be found by anyone, at any time, but if you decide to kill them all, you will have to search the area carefully for this item.....

Continue to follow the road southwest. Near a Bulletin Board there will be a man with a title of Mayor of Crooked Shank. You will note, as you speak to this (and other NPC's here) when you move your mouse over him, your mouse indicator does not turn blue. It will be grey. This indicates this NPC is neutral. Speak to them.

They will give their name as Byron. Give them your name if you wish. Click the ready and house key keywords. Receive Find the Mayor's House key task. Click goodbye.

You will now see on your compass at the top of your screen labeled Search here for Mayor's Key? blue markers. Go to these areas and look for a key on the ground. Of note he does tell you these 2 places to look for it.

One of these places is The Gilded Carp*. You will see an NPC named Drunk. Speak to them (optional). You will then learn some very interesting information speaking to them (click all keywords). Feel free to speak to any of the other NPC's in the area for even more story (optional). Also as you explore around the town, you will probably notice some other very interesting things, based off this new information from the Drunk man....

Visit these 2 locations indicated, and keep looking on the ground for a key. Use the Light skill to help you see more light when trying to find this key on the ground. It is named Crooked Shank Mayor's Key. When you find it, double click it to pick it up (this key is found randomly between these 2 places that are clearly marked on your compass). A new task Return the Mayor's House Key? appears. Double click the Return the Mayor's House Key? task on your screen to open that specific journal entry. You are free to decided what to do next.

Go to the location on your compass that is marked Mayor's Home. If you click on the door, you will note it is locked. We have the key for this door now, so double click on the Key Hole that is on the door to unlock the door. Now open the door.

You will now receive a new task, Search the Mayor's House for Clues. While searching the Mayor's house, you can open many containers, and it is clearly, and specifically stated, that taking these items is "stealing". Feel free to take these items or leave them alone.

On the bottom floor of this house at this location:

Spoiler

A key sits upon the desk labeled Crooked Shank Prision key. Feel free to double click and take this item. Receive new task Learn Secrets Behind Prison Door task. Take the stairs all the way up. You will then find a prison door with an Elf Prisoner and a dead elf. Receive a new task Get Information from Elf.

Find the Key Hole on the door and double click it to use the key you found, to unlock the door. Open the door and go inside and speak to the Elf Prisoner. Click name, they will give their name Cornelia, then click prison and job keyword and then click goodbye. There is a dead elf body on the floor near by. Double click on it. You will find a Brittle Crooked Shank Elven Key. A new task Ask Elf about Elven Key is given. Speak to Cornelia. Manually type the word key in the dialogue window and press enter. Click the prison key and then elven key keywords. Receive new task Enter locked Elven tunnel.

Exit the prison and go out of the Mayor's house. Turn north and see a new marker on your compass labeled Search here for locked tunnel marker. Head toward that direction.

Spoiler: Location for the Hatch to the locked tunnel

Enter the Hatch. In this first area are several elves and they are hostile toward you. Kill them. Look northeast and see a cave opening. Go into that passage. You will come upon a locked door. Click the Key Hole to unlock the door and then open the door and go through. Receive Search Tunnels for Secrets task. Turn north and follow the passage there. You will find a passage to the southeast and follow that passage. Feel free to kill the various hostile monsters you find in here as well harvesting crystals. At the T intersection turn west and go up the passage there. At the end of this passage is a room and receive the Tell Erno About Leafling task. Loot the chest in here and make your way back out of the tunnels.

Now make your way back to town and speak to Mayor Byron. Find the house key keyword and he will ask for the Crooked Shank Mayor's Key and give that to him. Click goodbye.

Go and speak to to Erno. Answer however you wish. Click goodbye.

And that is it! You have completed all the quests in this scene, but now you can do something....

This is the only scene** in the entire game that has an actual reactive choice and consequence decision that will now an forever react to your decision (if you choose to do so). Because what you do at this point is up to you (or do nothing and just leave the area). I will tell you what I decided to do below. You can however feel free to do whatever you wish.

Return back to Mayor Byron. Remember that elf that was locked up? Manually type the word Cornelia and press the enter key. Click the I won't lie, you should free that elf prisoner keyword. Byron will become quite upset and now (and forever***) the mayor and a number of other neutral NPC's* will always be hostile to you. Every time you come back here.

** Ulfheim has a similar reactive choice and consequence mechanic, in that the player can do various things in the scene to effect the final battle (or do nothing at all). This however re-sets once you leave the area and return.
*** After angering him leave the scene. Go back and the people here will still be neutral and not be hostile (even the Mayor). However if you click on the Mayor he then remembers who you are (and the rest of the town).
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Bugs:
*Byron thinks you have returned his key to him, when you have not when clicking the house key keyword, if you speak to Erno first before giving the Mayor back his key (you can't give him the key now).
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Updates:
*Original Post posted as of QA Build 919 and this exact sequence was completed.
*Typos
*Edited the sequence to include a reward I was missing initially.
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My other guides:
Anpu's Guides to Getting Started - The Outskirts and Beyond

 

Anpu, hard at work again! 5 stars!

 

Part of this quest was quite a bit disturbing when out of nowhere one of the kids walked past and auto attack activated. I sat there staring at the screen for a few minutes. I don't think I was in combat mode when I tried to talk to them.

 

I would prefer you put that as a spoiler, as that’s why I specifically didn’t mention a thing about that for a reason. But that is fine, just a suggestion.

 

Sorry, How do you mark something as a spoiler? And I tried not to add any details like what I was doing or what part of the quest. Just something that happened that didn't seem like it should have happened.

 

To add a spoiler to your post, edit your post like this:

Code:

Here I will now post a spoiler! [spoiler] Type text in here about spoiler. [/spoiler]

You just have to manually add and type the [spoiler] and [/spoiler] brackets. 

And that’s your bbcode lesson for the day!

 

Thank you for putting these quest walkthroughs on the forum.
The way you approach the quest seems cleaner. I have completed many before but sometimes out of sequence, it seems. This leaves tasks unfullfilled even when the quest itself is complete.

BTW you can talk to the mayor, return just his house key, then talk to the Traveling merchant, then go back to talk to the mayor about the other.... You get a small amount of gold and exp for the home key. You know what happens when you go back and talk about the other...

 

Too bad it was bugged back when i did the reset. Its now forever stuck that i cannot complete this quest.

 

What part are you stuck at?

 

i would have to look. I think its something in that cave. I will check it again

 

Still have the quest to find the tunnel in my journal. I tried to go back and trigger something but not working. Everyone in town attacks me still. So done with that. It is forever stuck now

RESOLVED. Went on live and talked to Enzo or whatever. Went back through the tunnel and talked to him again....left the zone and its off my list.

 

I have had the find the Mayor's key quest since June 2018. I still cannot find the key - have covered every inch of ground at the restaurant, boathouse and road in between. I am beginning to think it is just bugged for me.

 

Do you possibly have the key in your inventory? It’s a yellow labeled key and is a quest item. Make sure you aren’t hiding quest items in your inventory.

 

I wish but no. Every few months I come back here to try and complete this one. Thanks for replying.

 

When you enter Crooked Shank do you have blue magnifying glass markers in your compass?

 

Yes the quest is behaving in the same way as other quests with the markers on the compass. There is simply nothing on the ground in the places it is supposed to be. Unless it is so small that I cannot see it laying on the ground.

 

That key IS actually very hard to see. But are you following the exact instructions I have in this guide, and visit all of the blue hourglass marker locations in your compass, have the light spell activated and search the ground very carefully. Of note the keys location is random and will appear in only one of the indicated areas in your compass.

Also, I’m going to assume you probably are running around with the Night Vision spell activated. Having that spell activated might actually make the key harder to see. I’ve never tested that however.

 

Yes, I have followed exactly to the letter your instructions. Thank you for your replies. Much appreciated.

 

Well this time I waited until night time (all the other times I have gone to look were in the daytime) and lo & behold the key was there.
Don't know if that will help any one else but night time seems to have done the trick.

 

Thanks for that specific information! I don’t believe (?) it should be doing that, but I’ll check that next time I test this.

Glad you finally found that damn elusive key!!