Broken Strings Quest Guide
Broken Strings is a ghost story with a clean payout. Two dead harpist sisters, Aine and Aideen, haunt the Harpist's Tomb in the Horns of the South, estranged in life and still apart in death. Your job is to hear both their stories, collect both sets of ashes, and bury them together so they can rest. Do it right and the quest hands you a solid chunk of experience, around 2,300 XP. Here is how the tomb works and why the time of day you enter changes everything.
The setup
The sisters were harpists who fell out years before they died and never reconciled. Now they are stuck in the Harpist's Tomb, each tethered to her own half of it, each carrying the weight of the falling-out. They want what they could not get in life: to be reconciled and buried side by side. The tomb is built to keep them separated, and the only way to reach both is to come back at two different times of day.
Day path versus night path
The Harpist's Tomb opens different halves depending on when you enter, and this is the mechanic the whole quest hinges on.
- Enter by day and the left path opens, leading you to Aine.
- Enter by night and the right path opens, leading you to Aideen.
You need both, so plan on two trips, or one trip with a wait in between. There is no way to grab both sets of ashes in a single pass without crossing the day-night line, because the tomb physically gates each sister behind her own time window. Knock out one sister's half, rest or wait until the clock flips, then come back for the other.
Fighting the Wyrdlike spirits
Each half of the tomb puts a fight in front of you. The sisters' vices have taken shape as Wyrdlike spirits, and you have to put each one down to free the sister and learn her side of the story. These are the embodiments of what kept Aine and Aideen apart, so beating them is both a combat check and the way the quest hands you the narrative. Clear the spirit on the day side to settle Aine, clear the one on the night side to settle Aideen.
As you work through each half, you collect that sister's ashes. The fights also dole out the story in pieces: Aine's side and Aideen's side of the falling-out come through as you clear their spirits, so by the time both are down you understand why the two never made up. By the time both stories are told you are carrying both sets of ashes, which is everything you need for the final step.
Burying the ashes at the All-Mother Statue
With both sets of ashes in hand, leave the tomb and head to the burial spot. The sisters want to be laid to rest together, and the place for it is the great tree beside the All-Mother Statue, east of The Menhir. Bury the ashes there, under the tree, and the two sisters are finally reunited in death the way they never managed in life.
That completes Broken Strings and pays out the experience.
Quick reference
- Region: Horns of the South
- Location: the Harpist's Tomb
- The sisters: Aine (day, left path) and Aideen (night, right path)
- Enemies: the Wyrdlike spirits embodying each sister's vice
- Collect: both sets of ashes, one per sister
- Burial site: the great tree by the All-Mother Statue, east of The Menhir
- Reward: roughly 2,300 XP
Why it is worth doing
Broken Strings asks for a little planning around the day-night cycle and a pair of fights, and it gives back a story with a real resolution plus a respectable experience reward for an early-game side quest. There is no moral fork here, no faction you can sour, and no one you can fail by choosing wrong. You either reconcile the sisters or you do not, and the only way you do not is by leaving the quest unfinished. If you are clearing the Horns of the South, fold this one in alongside the region's other early work. The walkthrough hub lays out the rest of the South's side content and which quests carry the heavier choices.