Hank, the boatman at Ashen Landing, rowed across to Gallows Rest to pay Gus four gold and never got home. Somebody in Gallows Rest must have seen him go.
Quest item: 
Torn Notice
Steps
- Ask around Gallows Rest. Somebody must have seen Hank go · Gallows Rest
- Search the area where you think Hank disappeared
- The torn notice says: bring the boatman to the place it names at sundown. Find that camp on the West Isle
- Defend Hank: hold the ring round him, then finish the dead
- Find Hank at his jetty in Ashen Landing · Ashen Landing
Reward
300 gold, XP, and a place nobody's been
Dialogue
Starting it
- “You've got a boat. Good. Then you can go places I won't. Mostly places with Hank in them.”
- “Hank. Sits on the jetty over at Ashen Landing. Came over here a few days back, said he owed me four gold. First I'd heard of it. I wasn't going to argue.”
- “I was asleep when he came by. Woke up, no Hank, no gold. Now I hear his chair's empty, and he never went home.”
- “Hank's not the type to run off. Hank's barely the type to stand up.”
- “Somebody here must've seen him go. Folks in this town don't do much, but they watch you do it.”
- “Ask around. Just don't believe all of it. It's a small town. The stories get bigger to make up for it.”
Talking to them again
- “Somebody saw him go. Somebody always sees. Nobody ever says anything, but they see.”
- “Hank owes me four gold. I'd settle for the gold. I'd also settle for Hank. Mostly the gold.”
Handing it in
- “Well. You again. Still alive. That makes two of us, which is two more than I figured on.”
- “That notice. I'll take that. I'm going to frame it. Nobody's ever wanted me before. Not alive, anyway.”
- “Now, I owe you. And I don't like owing. Ask Gus. So I'm going to show you something nobody's seen.”
- “There's a rock out past the end of the charts. My granddad found it. Something lives in the water there. A crab. Big. Shaped like a bad idea.”
- “It's on your map now. Come see me any time, and I'll row you out. You just sit. People who help are how boats tip over.”
After it is done
- “Hank paid me. Four gold. It took a kidnapping to get it out of him, but a debt's a debt.”
At the hand-in without the item
- “You had a notice. With my name on it. Where'd it go? That was the nicest thing anybody ever wrote about me.”
When your bag is full
- “Your bag's full. I'd carry something for you, but I just got untied. My arms are still deciding if they work.”
abel
- “Hank. Hank... I'm sorry. I'm terrible with names. I'm terrible with faces, too. I'm good with pianos. Nobody ever asks about pianos.”
- “Oh! The man who wanted sea shanties. In a chapel. I said this is a chapel. He said that's not a no.”
- “He sat at the back a while. I think he liked the quiet. Then he went, and the sun was going down behind him.”
- “I watched him row off from the window. Alone, as far as I could tell. Toward the little rock with the crypt on it, I think.”
- “Or was it the other way? I was mostly watching the keys. The keys don't go anywhere.”
abel again
- “The shanty man. He rowed off on his own, toward the crypt rock, I think. I think a lot of things. Some of them are even true.”
hank barks
- “Keep them off me! I'm a boatman! I'm no good on land! I'm barely any good on water!”
- “Behind you! No, the other behind!”
- “That one's looking at me! Don't let him look at me like that!”
- “Tell Gus I said hello! No, don't! He'll want his four gold!”
hank nag
- “Can you untie me already?”
mags
- “Hank? Hank owes me for a herring. Three years, that herring. You find Hank, you're finding him for two of us.”
- “Stood at my stall an hour the other night, talking about the weather. Bought nowt. Never mentioned the herring.”
- “Left late. Dead of night, I'd have said, but I was gutting, and when I'm gutting the night goes on a while.”
- “On his own, rowing home, west, toward the landing. Slow, mind. Hank rows like he talks.”
- “If he never got there, love, he'll not have got far. And when you find him, mention the herring.”
mags again
- “Home, west, slow. I'd look on the water between here and the landing. And remember. The herring.”
pell
- “Who? Hank? No. I don't know any Hanks. I knew a Frank once. He's over there. Third stone from the left.”
- “The boatman? Funny hat, sad face? Oh, him. I didn't know he had a name. I've been calling him the sad hat.”
- “I saw him go, aye. It was getting dark. That's when I come out to sit. The light's kinder to the graves then. Kinder to me, too.”
- “He pushed off and went out toward the islands. Toward the sun, what was left of it.”
- “There was somebody in the boat with him, I think. Sitting very still. Could have been a man. Could have been a sack of potatoes. At my age they look alike.”
pell again
- “I told you what I saw. Dusk, the water, the sad hat and maybe someone. I don't see as well as I watch.”
saved
- “Well. They quit. Skeletons don't usually quit. You must've hurt their feelings.”
- “I'll get myself home from here. I've got a raft hid in the reeds. Every boatman does. We don't trust boats.”
- “Come find me at my jetty in Ashen Landing. I owe you a ride somewhere nobody's been.”
untie
- “Oh, thank God. Or whoever. I don't know who's in charge out here anymore.”
- “They grabbed me off the sandbar. They want a boatman to row them over to the big island. I said I don't row for skeletons. They don't tip.”
- “Here they come again. Keep them off me till they quit. Then I'll find my own way home. I always do. Eventually.”