What Is the Dragon Slayer Quest?

If you've just finished the tutorial line in Ashenfall, the Dragon Slayer quest is the moment the game stops holding your hand. It's the fifth primary quest overall and the true opening chapter of the game's first major narrative arc, known as Kuldra's Saga. The premise is simple on paper — you're recruited with promises of glory and told to defeat General Velgar — but the actual journey spans a goblin-infested keep, a poison-soaked swamp dungeon, and a shattered region called Ghornfell before you ever see the dragon up close.

Unlike a lot of traditional RuneScape questing, Dragonwilds drops relatively few hard markers on your screen. You're expected to explore, read environmental clues, and talk to the right NPCs at the right time, which is part of why this quest trips up a surprising number of players.

How to Start and Progress Through the Quest

You begin by speaking to the Wise Old Man in Bramblemead Village, but he won't send you after Velgar until you've built a shelter with a bed roll you can claim — at minimum a foundation, three walls, a ceiling, and the bed roll itself. Once that's done, he reveals that a young adventurer named Cathan has gone missing, and he needs antlers from a deer to cast a locator spell that will point you toward him.

| Stage | What Happens | Location | |---|---|---| | Part I | Build a shelter, hunt a deer, deliver antlers to the Wise Old Man | Bramblemead Village | | Part II | Siege the goblin castle, read Cathan's journal, flee Velgar's first attack | Keep of Blue Flames | | Part II (cont.) | Enter the vault through the blue-flame door, speak to Spitfoot | Whispering Swamp (Vertentis Kara) | | Part III | Track Cathan's ghost, learn how he tried and failed to kill Velgar | Ghornfell / Velgar's Rise | | Part IV | Craft the Challenge Horn, summon and fight Velgar | Fractured Plains |

The locator spell points you to a castle that looks eerily like a familiar Lumbridge-style keep, except it's flying Bandosian-style banners and crawling with goblins. Climbing to the top nets you Cathan's Journal next to a loot chest — read it, and Velgar himself descends to spray poison across the keep, forcing you to either dodge his puddles or make a run for the exit.

The journal points you to a "blue-flame door" in the Whispering Swamp, which leads into the Dragonkin Vault. Deep inside, an NPC named Spitfoot explains Cathan's betrayal and his plan to head into a dangerous region called Ghornfell to find a way to beat the dragon. Report back to the Wise Old Man, and he'll send you into Ghornfell yourself, ultimately leading you to Velgar's Rise, where Cathan's ghost recounts exactly how he died trying to fight the dragon alone.

Required Items and Preparation

Because so much of this quest revolves around combat and crafting, showing up under-prepared is the fastest way to get stuck or die repeatedly. The official required items list is short but specific, and several of them can only be gathered with the correct tool tier.

| Item | Notes | |---|---| | 1 antlers | Obtained by hunting deer; needed for the locator spell | | 23 ash logs | Used earlier in the quest line for crafting | | 1 coarse animal fur | General crafting material | | 1 dragon tooth | Requires an iron pickaxe to gather from a Dragon's Skull | | 1 bloodwood sap | Requires an iron logging axe to gather from a Bloodwood Tree | | 5 bronze bar | Used to craft the Challenge Horn |

Beyond the hard requirements, the quest strongly recommends good armor and weapons, a stockpile of food, a ranged or magic weapon for killing the fleeing deer early on, and antipoison potions before entering the swamp dungeon. That vault is guarded by vault guardians, sentinels, and an Archon-tier mini-boss, so a Tier 2 weapon and a supply of poison cures make the difference between a smooth run and a frustrating wipe.

Once you reach Velgar's Rise, Cathan's ghost gives you the recipe for the Challenge Horn, the item that actually summons the dragon for the final fight. Gathering its three components — bloodwood sap, a dragon tooth, and bronze bars — is effectively a mini side-quest of its own, since two of the three require specific iron tools you may not have crafted yet.

Facing Velgar and Claiming Your Rewards

Once the Challenge Horn is crafted, you sound it to summon Velgar for the actual boss encounter. The fight draws on everything the earlier chapters warned you about — poison puddles, aggressive melee lunges, and phases that ramp up in intensity — so most guides recommend bringing antidotes and a ranged option to whittle down health from a safer distance. After the dragon falls, you bring its head back to the Wise Old Man in Bramblemead Village to close out the quest.

| Reward | Type | |---|---| | Tome of the Dragon Slayer | Quest item | | Anti-Dragon Shield | Equipment | | Dragon Visage | Trophy/item | | Masterwork Recipe: Dragonblight Shield | Crafting recipe |

Completing Dragon Slayer immediately unlocks the next primary quest, Withering Heights, continuing Kuldra's Saga into its next chapter. Given the shield, visage, and masterwork recipe on offer, this is one of the more rewarding early-game quest completions in Ashenfall, especially for players planning to keep fighting draconic enemies later on.

Known Bugs and Community Fixes

Not every player has had a clean run through this quest. Shortly after launch, players on Steam's discussion boards reported getting stuck with no visible marker, no nearby NPC, and no way to progress after clearing the swamp dungeon. The fix that consistently worked for affected players was simple but easy to miss.

  • Look for an NPC named Spitfoot sitting against the wall right next to the lever that opens the boss room in the swamp dungeon — he's easy to walk past.
  • If the quest circle appears at the castle, it's usually asking you to interact with the lore book at the top of the tower, not anything at ground level.
  • If the circle appears in the swamp, check for both a lore book and a vault marked by blue flames — some players only found one and assumed they were stuck.
  • Relogging, switching between online and solo modes, or repeating the dungeon rarely fixed the issue on its own; talking to the correct NPC did.

If you've cleared a dungeon and the marker still won't budge, it's worth backtracking through every room rather than assuming something is broken — in most reported cases, an easily missed NPC was the actual culprit.

FAQ

Where does the RuneScape: Dragonwilds Dragon Slayer quest start? Speak to the Wise Old Man in Bramblemead Village after completing the "Rune Mysteries" quest. You'll need a claimed shelter with a bed roll before he sends you after Cathan.

Why is my Dragon Slayer quest stuck with no marker? This is a known issue reported by multiple players. In most cases, an NPC — often Spitfoot near the lever in the swamp dungeon — needs to be spoken to directly rather than just having the area explored.

What tools do I need before starting the final steps? An iron pickaxe to gather a dragon tooth and an iron logging axe to gather bloodwood sap are both required to craft the Challenge Horn that summons Velgar.

What do I get for finishing the quest? Rewards include the Tome of the Dragon Slayer, an Anti-Dragon Shield, a Dragon Visage, and the Masterwork Recipe for the Dragonblight Shield.

What quest comes after Dragon Slayer? Completing it unlocks Withering Heights, the next chapter in Kuldra's Saga.