Snakes Among the Trees is a sidequest which can be started after A Tale of Two Kings by talking to the scout master Tara Merwynesdohtor. She believes that one of her scouts is giving information to Osred II. She wants you to find out who it is. The only information Tara has is that the scout is going to meet the tanner Willibrord, who is coming to Yngilwood. Your first mission is to intercept the tanner on his way to Aethelred's camp.
Intercepting[]
You should head south to intercept the merchant. To start the interception, click on the the pile of wood near the path. The game will then fast-forward four hours to the moment when Willibrord arrives. You have two turns before the tanners and his guards arrive, so plenty of time to set traps and take positions.Since you need to question him, make sure that you switch to Non-lethal mode when you attack the Tanner. The other men can be killed without consequences.
After the battle, you can convince the tanner with 2 diplomacy or by bribing him with 200 valuables to give the information willingly. He will give you the token which should be given to the spy.
- Killing Willibrord after he gives you the information results in loss of morale with open-minded followers.
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There are three scout in this area. Ceoflaed Eoforwulfesdohtor can be found near the Great Oak, Baldred Cenredessunu can is watching from the hill in the northeast and Hildmer Idrissunu is located on the hill in the south. With medium perception, you can gain additional information from observing the scouts.
The scout you should pick depends on the information which is gained from Willibrord and the short description of the scout can be found in the journal. If the description mentions a scout who has experienced much hardships despite a young age, then Baldred is the scout to whom the Spy's Token should be given. If the description mentions a smith, the spy is Hildmer and else its the only female scout.
After giving the token to the correct scout, the scout will admit to being a spy for Osred II.
- Letting the scout leave results in loss of morale with conceited followers.
- Killing the scout results in loss of morale with altruistic followers.
The scout mentions that he/she became a spy because Osred holds hostage a few family members. These mentioned family members can be liberated during the quest Dungeon Crawl later in the same storyline if the thegn gets captured after completing the quest Ghosts of the Empire in Eoforwic (York).
After that, head back to Tara to collect the reward. If you pick the wrong spy, you will lose the token and fail the quest as a result.
Rewards[]
- 600 valuables.
- 3 skill points.
- 5 reputation with the Northumbria faction if your main character has at least healing 1 and heals Willibrord
- 5 reputation with the Northumbria faction if you tell Tara you killed the scout (whether you did or not).
- 1 reputation with Northumbria if you reveal you let the scout go.