To finish Into the Den, defeat the Ravenous Bear west of Northern Foothills Shrine, enter its cave, loot and read the Tattered Letter from the body, then travel to the old logging site. The cache is inside the western hut: find the large X painted on the wall, interact with the flat stones below it, and loot the newly opened pile. The quest is complete only when the cache contents are taken and the journal shows Into the Den ended.

Check time before accepting the cache interaction

  1. This optional quest can be done during the Prologue or afterwards. The bear, body, and cache remain accessible after the Prologue, so do not force it just because you first see the route.
  2. The cache interaction costs one Time Segment. Read the hourglass before opening the stones; the cost applies to this committed action, not the walk to the den or the logging site.
  3. During the Prologue, keep enough remaining time to uncover and loot the cache. The cited route warns that opening it with only one segment before the Mass can close the quest while pulling you away before the rewards are collected.

If time is tight, leave the cache untouched and return later. You do not need to fight the bear again merely because you postponed the final interaction.

Start at the correct bear den

  1. Set out from Northern Foothills Shrine and travel west, following the map's quest marker toward the cave. A bear near a different cave is not enough by itself; use the quest marker and the den interior as your route checks.
  2. Defeat the Ravenous Bear at the entrance. Make room to dodge: on default PC controls, hold a movement direction and press Space to dodge; current Controls settings override any default.
  3. Go inside after the fight and look for the mutilated body on the floor. Fireflies hover above it, and the correct corpse highlights in Focus if the cave is too dark to identify it normally.

Do not leave after looting the bear. The corpse inside the den, not the bear drop, is what starts Into the Den.

Loot and read the letter so the search zone appears

  1. With the weapon sheathed, hold right mouse for Focus if needed, then use the interaction prompt to loot the body. The relevant item is the Tattered Letter.
  2. Open the letter and read it from inventory. That action changes the objective to “Find a secret cache marked with X” and creates the marked search area on the map.
  3. If the cache stones do not react later, return to this check first. Taking the letter without reading it does not create the route to the cache.

Find the one hut that contains the X

  1. Open the map and travel to the old logging site inside the shaded search area. The map gives a large circle instead of an exact pin, so do not spend time sweeping every building.
  2. Ignore the eastern structures and move to the western huts. Look inside the small hut for a large X painted on the wall and flat stones piled directly below it.
  3. If the marking is difficult to see, sheath your weapon and use Focus; the interactable stones can highlight. Containers outside the hut are not the secret cache.

The wall X plus the flat stones is the location check. The camp area, an outdoor chest, or a generic building without that pair will not advance the objective.

Open the cache, loot it, and verify the quest end

  1. Inspect the flat stones under the X and read the time prompt before confirming. This exposes the hiding place and uses the documented Time Segment.
  2. Loot the uncovered pile afterward. Opening the hole and taking its contents are separate actions, so do not leave after only exposing it.
  3. Check the journal or the QUEST ENDED — Into the Den banner. The cache includes Letter With a Tip, which later opens the Silver Trader dialogue in Svartrau without requiring the alternative Infamy route.

Use the Silver Trader guide after taking the letter. For this quest, the practical completion check is cache looted plus journal closed, not the value or level of any equipment that happened to be inside.

Fix the three common failures

If the quest did not start, return to the bear den and inspect the body inside it. If the map only shows a search circle, go to the western hut instead of trying to search every structure. If the cache opens but the quest is not complete, make sure you looted the pile after uncovering it.

If the cache time cost would collide with the Prologue deadline, back out before confirming and return after the Prologue. That preserves the route without inventing a shortcut or risking a cache you cannot empty.