The Crimson Catch

Wendel Barbwick is a fishing researcher with more enthusiasm than common sense. He sends you after a tree that cannot be cut, sap that should not be warm, and whatever is moving under the roots. The journal tracks every step. This guide tells you what to actually click.

Back to the Quests hub. For skilling context see Skills Overview.

Quick look

Key items

Key scenery

These are world objects, not items. Right-click the object itself.

Requirements

Bring food for the Hookfin fight and the underwater hunts. A rune axe, yew logs, vials, and a bucket of milk matter later.

Good to know: Your quest journal updates as you play. Hints appear in red text once you have earned them in-game.

Act I — Wendel and the tree

1. Speak with Wendel Barbwick at the Fishing Guild dock (south of the bank).
2. Find the Crimson Tree in the Woodcutting Guild yard.
3. Inspect the tree (second click option). Chop does nothing useful yet.
4. Tell Wendel what you found.

Wendel only knows the tree grows somewhere in woodcutter country past the redwoods until you inspect it yourself.

Act II — Building the Crimsonbane axe

5. Ask Perry at the Woodcutting Guild about cutting stone-hard wood.
6. Find Ilmara the Runewright on the Catherby shore.
7. Bring Ilmara everything she asked for:

Rune axe

| Buy from Perry at the Woodcutting Guild | |

Yew logs

x15 | Cut them yourself | |

Hookfin scale

| Provoke

Thrashing water

on the Catherby shore and kill the Hookfin | |

Flask of deepwater

|

Empty vial

Sunken well

at the Fishing Guild | |

Bucket of milk

| The milk is not optional |

Ilmara forges the

Crimsonbane axe

. You keep the milk situation to yourself.

Act III — Sap and roots

8. Cut the Crimson Tree with the Crimsonbane axe (three chops).
9. Search the Crimson roots (see below).
10. Take the crimson sap back to Wendel.

The roots are not on the tree menu

This trips people up constantly.

Crimson Tree

| (1591, 3490) | Chop / Inspect | |

Crimson roots

| (1590, 3490) | Search |

Stand next to the tree, step one tile west, and use Search on

Crimson roots

. Inspecting the tree again only gives flavour text.

Lost your sap? The tree keeps bleeding from the cut you already made. Chop again with the Crimsonbane axe to refill the vial. No extra XP, no stage rollback.

Act IV — Wendel's experiment

11. Help Wendel run his experiment at

Wendel's apparatus

in the Fishing Guild. 12. Follow the dialogue prompts: add sap, then follow Wendel's instructions step by step.

If you log out mid-experiment, the sequence restarts when you return. That is intentional.

Act V — The escaped catch

13. Find three signs of the creature around the Fishing Guild:

Disturbed water

- Torn nets on the Catherby shore (

Torn nets

) -

Crimson slime

east of the guild 14. Follow the creature into the water at Disturbed water and kill the Escaped Catch in the instance. 15. Tell Wendel what the creature really was (it was already there; the sap woke it).

Act VI — The ledger and the shaft

16. Find the text Wendel copied his research from:

Waterlogged crate

near the guild. 17. Read the

Crimson Ledger

from your inventory. 18. Open the

Flooded shaft

slab at the Fishing Guild and climb down.

Act VII — Halvard and the Maw

19. Talk to Halvard in the Drowned Workings.
20. Prepare angling tackle: reinforced line, crimson bait (sap over a raw lobster), and an ancient hook. Halvard tells you the recipe.
21. Give the finished

Angler's tackle

to Halvard. 22. Bait the Crimson Maw with the winch and barrels in the instance, then kill it. 23. Ask Halvard to teach you the old practice. 24. Tell Wendel his experimenting days are over.

Rewards

• 30,000 Fishing XP
• 15,000 Woodcutting XP
• 12,000 Magic XP and 8,000 Crafting XP

Crimson fishing rod

• Angler Contracts unlocked + 20 angler points for Halvard's reward shop

Quest-only items are cleared from your inventory on completion. The rod and the contracts stay.

Stuck? Read this first

Crimson roots

one tile west of the tree | | Cannot cut the tree | Wield or carry the

Crimsonbane axe

| | Lost crimson sap | Return to the tree and chop again to drip a replacement vial | | Hookfin will not spawn | Use Investigate on

Thrashing water

at Catherby | | Experiment stuck | Talk to Wendel at the apparatus; re-run the sequence | | Three clues not counting | Search all three locations; journal shows signs found X/3 |

Tip: Use the in-game Quest tab for your live journal colour (red = not started, yellow = in progress, green = done). This page is the map; the journal is the GPS.