From the Cradle to the Grave

Task	Steps	Description	Reward
From the Cradle to the Grave	Reach the Burial Cave Explore the Burial Cave Defeat the Manticore Take the Bone Cradle Bring the Bone Cradle to L'Owcrey	L'Owcrey, the occultist from the Rotten Willow Inn, promised me a sizable reward if I head to the Burial Cave and retrieve an ancient artifact - the Bone Cradle. While I'm there, he wants me to investigate the fate of his acquaintance, a mage named Venemist, who was also looking for that relic.	4000 Tanat's Skull.

Notes

This task is offered by L'Owcrey only once the player has reached Level 14 or above.

Spoiler

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After accepting the quest, head to the Burial Cave. There you'll find Venemist's camp abandoned and the entrace to the cave. You can go inside the cave, past a stone door you'll find the boss room, going inside will close the stone door behind you, locking you in the fight. You'll find the Bone Cradle on the other side of this room and going past the middle point of the room will trigger a cutscene, starting the fight against the Manticore. You'll be able to pick up the Bone Cradle only after defeating the Manticore.

Alternate path

In Venemist's camp you'll find a book, bring that book back to L'owcrey and that will trigger some dialogue. L'owcrey will explain that Venemist probably was victim of an Axonian curse and became the Bone Cradle's guardian. He also mentions about an Essence of Deliverance that could break the curse, but he doesn't know how to decipher Venemist's notes in the book to recreate the potion. Reading the book, you'll find the mention of 3 ingredients:

Petrified moment (Handful Of Amber)
Blooming sanity (Mindwort)
Eye of the many-eyed (Crawler Eye)

Bring those to L'owcrey and he'll make the Essence after showing you his secret laboratory. After waiting 5 hours and talking to L'owcrey, he'll hand you the Essence and you can then go back to the Burial Cave. The fight against the Manticore will go the same way, except for when his Health goes below 20%, a message will be displayed on the screen prompting you to throw the essence at the Manticore. Doing so will cut the fight short and revert the curse, bringing back Venemist. You can talk to him and after that you'll be able to pick up the Cradle.

Reward

Bring back the Cradle to L'owcrey and you'll have the choice to keep the Cradle to yourself or giving the Cradle to L'owcrey.
Refusing to give the Cradle results in you losing 1500 reputation with the Rotten Willow Tavern. You can later return the Cradle and get the reputation back, but no reward.
If you do return the Cradle properly you'll receive 2000 reputation with the Rotten Willow Tavern, 4000 gold, the Tanat's Skull, and an extra 2000 gold for saving Venemist.

If you've saved Venemist, you'll find him in the Close Harbor Tavern at Brynn, there he'll thank you and give you his talisman as well as tell you the location of a Distant Dungeon Catacomb.

Page last edited during patch: 0.8.2.3