Curious Shipment is one of the two Payoff Transports in Bakir’s half of the Court menu, and it is among the fastest activities in his region to clear. There is no dialogue, no puzzle, and no branching choice. You walk into a group of Bakir’s men on a mountain road, kill them, and open the barrel one of them is hauling.
Quick answer: Track the activity northwest of Rockfalls, defeat all three of Bakir’s lackeys, then loot the wooden barrel carried on the back of the corpse and read the Orders: Carrion note. The activity closes out immediately and pays 50 XP and 1 Skill Point.
Where to find Curious Shipment and what it costs
The encounter sits on a snowy path northwest of Rockfalls, up the slope from the Jogged Rocks shrine. Court Activities are not pinned to your map by default, so the marker only shows up as an “Available Quest” icon once you have discovered the area or synchronized a nearby tower. Open the map, put the tracking marker on it, and follow the path uphill.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Court group | Bakir — Payoff Transports |
| Region level | Bakir’s territory is tuned for level 20+ |
| Nearest landmark | Rockfalls, near the Jogged Rocks shrine |
| Time cost | 3 time segments |
| Enemies | Three of Bakir’s lackeys |
| Reward | 50 XP, 1 Skill Point |
The quest title only appears on screen once you get close enough to the group to trigger the encounter. Until then it is listed as an unknown activity, which is normal for everything in the Court system.
Killing the three lackeys
All three escorts are armored and they engage together the moment you close the distance. One of them is visibly weighed down by a large wooden barrel strapped to his back, and that is the one who holds the quest item, so there is no way to skip the fight by grabbing the cargo early.
Sword fighting works fine here, and Perfect Blocks into ripostes are the safest way to break the armored ones down. If you try to fire off an ability and get a “Not enough Activation Charges” warning, that is your charge meter being empty, not a bug. Land normal attacks to build charges back up before you rely on an ability again.
What the transport drops
Loot all three bodies before you touch the barrel. The drops are a mix of vendor trash, consumables and one genuinely useful pickup, the Perfect Riposte Manual, which is worth grabbing given how much of Bakir’s region rewards defensive sword play.
| Item | Type |
|---|---|
| Perfect Riposte Manual | Skill manual |
| Denarius | Currency |
| Adventurer’s Cuffs | Gear |
| Broken Boots | Gear |
| Golden Cross | Valuable |
| Mead, Moldovan Red Wine | Consumables |
| Cave Fungus, Rotten Meat | Ingredients |
| Linseed Oil, Parchment | Crafting material |
| Bounty Announcement, Orders: Carrion | Documents |
Investigate the cargo to finish the activity
Once the fight ends, the journal switches the objective to “Investigate the cargo.” The barrel is not a separate world object lying on the ground. It is still attached to the body of the lackey who was hauling it, so walk up to that corpse and use the loot prompt on the cargo itself.
Inside is the Orders: Carrion note, signed by Captain Ion. Reading it is what actually closes the activity.
Dispose of the collected carrion in the vicinity of the cave entrance, during daytime. Afterwards, make sure to wash your uniforms thoroughly and then observe the clearing from afar, until all the cadavers are removed from view.
The orders go on to instruct the men to hunt down any kobold that breaks from the pack during feeding, and to kill witnesses and dump their bodies with the rest. Coen’s reaction to the smell confirms the point of the shipment. Bakir’s people are feeding carrion to kobolds to keep them underground and out of sight, which is why the barrel stinks and why the transport was moving quietly along a back road.
How to confirm it worked
You will see the completion banner for Bakir’s Transports: Curious Shipment on screen the moment the note is read, followed by the 50 XP and 1 Skill Point payout. Bakir’s Anger meter in the Court menu also ticks up.
If the activity is still sitting in your journal, the cause is almost always one of two things. Either one of the three lackeys is still alive somewhere on the slope, or you looted the bodies but never opened the cargo on the barrel-carrier specifically. Killing the escort alone does not end it.
Note: Curious Shipment costs 3 time segments, the same as the other Payoff Transport, Fools’s Gold. Because these two sit in the same category, it is worth running them in one trip rather than making a separate journey for each, since your 30 in-game days are spent rather than counted down.
Compared to the rest of Bakir’s list, this one has no follow-up. There is no prisoner to spare, no treasure map handed over, and no hidden sub-quest tucked behind a well or a barn. Read the note, pocket the Perfect Riposte Manual, and move on to the next marker in his region.
