Can’t See The Forest for the Iron is the side quest that opens up the Old Mine in the Forest, and it hinges on a single crafted item. Sven, one of the forest bandits, wants Larry the skull to pose as Robert the skeleton, and Larry will only play along once he has a candle burning inside his head. The tricky part is that the candle sits behind two separate tech tree unlocks and two materials you probably have not touched yet.
Quick answer: Craft one Simple Candle from 2 Beeswax and 1 Flax thread, give it to Larry in your bedroom, then walk south into the Forest and take the explosives from the bandits at their camp.
Can’t See The Forest for the Iron: quest details and rewards
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Quest giver | Sven, Forest bandit |
| Type | Side quest |
| Steps | 3 |
| Unlocked by | Forest Pass |
| Hand-in | 1 Simple Candle (step 2) |
| Rewards | 1 Dynamite, Dynamite technology revealed |
The journal breaks the quest into three objectives, and they run in a fixed order:
- Persuade Larry the skull to impersonate Robert the skeleton.
- Hand a candle to Larry; you’ll find him at home or somewhere within the Inquisition Base.
- Get the explosives from the Bandits at their camp in the Forest.
Unlock requirement: Finish the Forest Pass quest first
Sven’s quest does not appear until you can walk freely into the Forest, and that means clearing the Forest Post checkpoint. The guards there turn you away outright until someone from the village vouches for you.
Tech tree unlocks: Church Lighting and Spinning wheel
You cannot buy your way out of this one. Both halves of the candle recipe are locked behind research, in two different branches of the tech tree.
| Node | Branch | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Church Lighting | Theology | Blueprint: Formulation Bench, Create: Simple Candle |
| Spinning wheel | Farming & Nature | Blueprint: Spinning wheel |
Church Lighting is the important one. It hands you both the Formulation Bench blueprint and the Simple Candle recipe in a single unlock, and without it the recipe simply will not appear anywhere. Build the bench in your Writing Basement so the crafting menu is close to Larry.
The Spinning wheel sits over in Farming & Nature and is the only way to turn raw Flax into Flax thread. Place it in the Yard once the blueprint is researched.
Where to get Beeswax and Flax thread
To craft one Simple Candle, spend 2 Beeswax and 1 Flax thread. Since shops do not stock either material, you must collect both.
Beeswax from wild beehive trees
Leave the house, cross the Yard and follow the path out of the Inquisition Base towards the cliffs on the edge of the Forest. Wild beehive trees grow along that route. Interacting with one gives you Honey and Beeswax together, so a couple of trees is enough for a single candle.
Flax thread from the Spinning wheel
Use the Spinning wheel in your Yard to turn 1 Flax into a Flax thread. Grow the Flax in your garden: visit the farmer at the farm located south of the village, buy flax seeds, plant them in a garden bed, and harvest them after they mature.
Start the flax growing before you go hunting for beeswax. The crop takes real in-game time to mature, and the beehive trip is quick by comparison.
Craft the Simple Candle and give it to Larry
Get the explosives at the Bandit Camp
With Larry packed away, walk south out of the Inquisition Base and into the Forest. The Bandit Camp is a clearing with a campfire outside a wooden shack, the same spot where you first met the bandits after clearing the Forest Post.
Talk to the characters gathered around the fire and let the exchange play out. Larry does his impression of Robert the skeleton, the bandits are satisfied, and they hand over the explosives.
How to confirm the quest is complete
The journal marks the explosives objective complete with a note saying, “I have the explosives. I can now enter the Old Mine in the Forest,” while 1 Dynamite is added to your inventory. At that point, Dynamite technology appears in the tech tree too, allowing you to craft additional sticks instead of depending on the one you received.
That dynamite is the key to the Old Mine, which is where the Forest’s iron finally becomes accessible without paying a trader a silver a piece for it.
