Co8 New Content: Hickory Branch

Hello, er'body. I'm aware the forums aren't especially active these days seeing as both the game and its mods are getting on a bit in years, but the enjoyment of playing through with a fresh party has never waned for me and I've lost count of how many times I've done so at this point. I've just reached Hickory Branch with a merry band of rogues and am as excited as ever to take on the horde, but it's also reminded me of something that's always perplexed me a bit. Namely, where in the world is Captain Krunch supposed to be?

Of the 9 primary individuals of power and influence within the camp, 8 of them are always easy enough to find and identify. The hill giant sergeant never fails to greet me when my group marches in, and the others are always hanging around about where you might expect them to be. But not so with Captain Krunch. In all the times I've gone through this scenario, no matter how carefully I scour the map, Krunch has never been anywhere to be seen outside of Hungous's cave; he only ever appears to show alongside Hungous when it's time for the big showdown.

Since Hungous of course initiates conversation followed by battle with the party as soon as he sees them, this means that the only way I've ever found to talk to and thus identify Krunch for Bethany is by having everyone hide in the back of the cave and sending an invisible character to speak to him directly before engaging Hungous. The resulting dialogue leads me to believe that Krunch is meant to be encountered outside somewhere, but if so, I have never been able to find wherever it is that he might possibly be lurking. If he's ever out there, he's harder to spot than the darn lich's phylactery.

Is sneaking up on Krunch after he enters the cave with Hungous actually the intended method of identifying him, or is he just not showing up outside where he's meant to? I can't really tell, with TOEE being as eccentric and buggy as it often likes to be.

 

So that's why I have never completed that quest

 

It's been a while since I was in Hickory Branch, but I don't ever recall having that particular problem.

 

I have played the game quite a few times myself and remember only one or two times I could gather all the names. I'm really not sure about that anymore but I think I met Krunch right ouside of the cave at times.
But since:
You talk to her (Bethany) in order to complete this quest (but be warned - as soon as you talk to her and complete this quest, Bethany charges your party a fee (of 200 gold?) EVERY time that your party arrives at Verbobonc for the rest of the game! (and maybe EVERY time that your party exits a building in Verbobonc!)).(Quote from walkthrough)
I never finish the quest by giving the final report. But it would naturally be a little bit mor satisfying to fullfill all quest to full extent.

 

Ye, it's a wonky quest in more ways than one. I've had the hill giant sergeant speak to me twice for whatever reason on one play through, for example, which the game apparently interpreted as my having identified two separate individuals. And if I have an invisible character talk to Boonthag instead of Kallop when they find them together, it only registers one identification even though she quite literally points at the latter and says "this is Sergeant Kallop", presumably because he doesn't actually initiate dialogue with you if you do this. The mechanics of how the quest seems to actually work aren't exactly logical, so it's easy for something to go wrong even if everyone is where they should be. I always consider not messing with it, but my completionist side compels me.

Ruff is always the one waiting outside the cave in my games. I wonder if the time of day affects who is where, or if there's any other randomness involved. Weird!

 

IIRC you'll find him outside if you don't take a rest while c learing the map.

 

That's probably why I never had a problem...

 

Hm...that may sometimes have been the cause for my not finding him in the past, but I know for certain that I did not rest or leave the map at any point during the quest on this particular run, and I still could not find him anywhere outside of the cave.