OK, go to the guild and take the "Trader Escort" quest card if you have not already done so. Go and boast if you want, when you're done use your warp ability to go to the Greatwood Cullis Gate, then go to the Greatwood Caves.
From the Greatwood Caves you can enter the Darkwood Entrance. This will begin the quest. This quest covers a lot of ground, but I will cover each area in detail, after the quest.
With the two traders behind you go down the path and you will find a badly beaten trader wanting your help.
- GOOD: take him with you and get to Barrowfields before he turns into a Balverine. If you do chose to take him, ignore all the items and just run for the Barrowfields, you can come back later for the items, but you can never redo the quest.
- EVIL: leave him to die.
If you are going to save the trader, here's how to do it. Run down the hill and through the exit. All these paths are linear; they have just the entrance and exit, with one exception.
When you exit the Darkwood Entrance you are in the Darkwood Marshes. You will encounter your first Balverine here, they are fairly easy, but they can hurt you if you don't take them seriously on your first time through.
Now follow the path into the marshes, there will be some explosive spores here, what I like to do is just run while holding Lightning, you don't need to target, it will auto-target them all one by one. Enter the Greatwood Lake.
One of the traders will warn you of bandit attacks in this area, and sure enough, the first path on your left, some bandits will spawn and attack you. Kill them and move on down the path follow this path until you hit the bottom and are standing in water. More bandits will spawn and attack. Wait until they get to you, you don't want them killing the traders. Once they are dead, get to the lower right side of the map, one final bandit attack occurs when you get near the giant rock on your left. Again, kill the bandits and then move on. The exit is straight ahead on your left, this will take you to Darkwood Camp.
This is a checkpoint where you can let the traders heal, buy some gear or, if you're trying to keep the infected trader alive, run right through and go to the Ancient Cullis Gate, it's the exit on your right.
Ignore the Darkwood Chapel of Skorm for now.
Follow the path and you will encounter some Bandits and an ancient, but un-active Cullis Gate. Keep going along the path and you'll cross a bridge and then hit some more bandits. Kill them and move on. Cross the bridge to fight some Hobbes. We're almost there, enter the Darkwood Weir.
Follow the path, cross the creek, go up the hill and meet an Earth Troll. These things are fairly easy. You can hit the rocks they throw at you back at them with a melee attack, if you're fighting them close up, just roll back when ever they jump up to slam the ground. Earth Trolls always drop an item, either a Gem or a potion.
If you didn't make it in time to save the infected trader, he will turn into a Balverine. This one is significantly stronger than the first one you fought. If the first one took 4 hits to kill, this one will take 10 or more hits to kill with the same weapon.
Enter the Barrowfields.
When you enter the Barrowfields, just follow the traders to the bridge, cross it and the guy there will talk to you to complete the quest.
Beating this quest earns you:
- 250 gold (for keeping the infected trader alive)
- 2000 gold
- 500 renown
- 1 x Trader's Feather