Learn to keep breathing
- Accept Edda's Lantern Road in Payon and read her warning about possession.
- Train on Porings or Lunatics on the field south of town, then turn in the completed quest.
- Meet Mera and help make the road safe by hunting Willows or Hornets. Follow the objective shown in your journal.
- Investigate the Moss-covered Milestone, then seek Iona, Lantern Keeper, in Archer Village north of Payon.
- Choose your first class at Novice Job Level 10 and prepare for the outer cave. If you already have a class, you do not need to become a Novice again.
A reason to become stronger
Iona's brother is being forgotten. Learn your class and explore the outer cave before challenging the Bell-Bearer. Level alone is not enough: your journal records the story and battle objectives.
After the first seal, a caravan investigation gives you reasons to travel toward Morroc. Speak to the people named along the route. Rell can offer earned guarded passage across the dangerous crossing; this is an NPC service, not a journal teleport.
Small stories on the way
Keepers offer local contracts, and your travels may reveal a scattered journal, satchel, or undelivered letter. Notifications call attention to discoveries, including when your companion is possessing you rather than walking beside you.
Investigate at the physical Roadside Clue or named NPC. The journal's Road section tracks the objective and can show walking directions; it does not accept, dismiss, or complete the discovery for you.
Ignoring a discovery has no penalty. If you investigate, read its destination and any time limit, then bring what you found to any lantern keeper to claim the reward.
Later in the journey, regional lantern keepers in the newer regions offer short local stories of their own. See The Ashen Covenant for details.
On open fields the road can also offer an Unmarked Dig Site or a Spring by the Road. Both are free to use on the spot, give finds, profession experience and a few soul embers, and cost nothing if you pass them by.