How to Find Cathan in the Goblin Castle in RuneScape: Dragonwilds

Dragon Slayer is the first primary quest in RuneScape: Dragonwilds, and its second real hurdle sends you into a goblin-held castle in Bramblemead Valley to track down a missing adventurer named Cathan. He is not there. What is there is a journal on the highest platform of the keep, a stack of loot chests, and a green dragon that shows up at the worst possible moment.

Quick answer: Bring a deer antler to the Wise Old Man so he marks the castle, fight to the top of the battlements, and read Cathan’s Journal [Castle] to complete the objective.

Gear and weaknesses to prep before the siege

The castle is packed with Goblin Runts, Archers, Warriors and Bruisers, and the Bruisers carry a mace and shield. A bow lets you thin out the ramparts before anything reaches you, and a stab weapon such as the Bone Dagger handles Archers and Giant Rats efficiently.

Crafting Bone Dagger — The Bone Dagger recipe at the crafting table, a cheap stab upgrade before the castle. Shown at 04:04 in Dahl Dantill’s video. Image: Jagex

Target	Weakness
Goblin Runt, Warrior, Bruiser	Fire
Goblin Archer	Stab
Deer	Ranged
Giant Rat	Stab

Pack healing before you leave. A Leather Shield covers the parry-heavy fights on the narrow walls, and the Ash Battlestaff works well if you have Water Magic unlocked, since water runes slow groups and drop a healing bubble you can stand in. The Enchant Weapon: Fire tutorial that pops up during the fight is worth reading, because it imbues melee weapons with fire damage on critical hits and every goblin in the castle is weak to fire.

How to get the deer antler and mark the castle

Open your quest log and check the Dragon Slayer objective. It asks you to hunt a deer and bring one of its antlers to the Wise Old Man, so nothing else in the chain will progress until that is done.

Dragon Slayer Quest Review — The Dragon Slayer objective that gates the castle siege. Shown at 01:00 in Dahl Dantill’s video. Image: Jagex

Hunt a deer with a bow. Deer roam Bramblemead Valley and Temple Woods, they spook easily, and they are weak to ranged damage. Crouch, close the distance slowly, then hold the fire button for a heavy shot, which usually drops one in a single arrow.

Take the antler back to the Wise Old Man. He is usually at the ruined church or wandering elsewhere in Bramblemead Valley, and handing over the antler triggers a locator ritual for young Cathan.

Read the new objective, “Siege the goblin castle and look for Cathan,” and open the world map. The ritual marks the stronghold in the northern part of the valley, and the quest zone stays visible on the map while you travel.

Map Location — The marked castle on the world map, with the player arrow just outside the entrance. Shown at 00:03 in GhostArrow’s video. Image: Jagex

Fighting through the goblin castle

The layout is a compact version of a classic RuneScape keep, draped in Bandosian banners, with a walled courtyard, stairs onto the battlements, and a tower platform at the top. The route is essentially vertical, so every fight pushes you one level higher.

Clear the outer perimeter before you touch the gate. Archers and Warriors patrol outside the walls, and pulling them one at a time with a bow is far safer than being shot while you fight at the entrance.

Push through the fortified gates into the courtyard. Expect a Goblin Archer near the stone fountain and at least one Bruiser that charges you, so keep your shield up and parry the heavy swings.

Read the lore notes as you pass them. The Servant’s Secret Diary sits beside a ruined archway in the courtyard, and the Duke’s Diary turns up on the rampart walkway above.

Climb the stone stairs to the battlements and work along the walkway. Archers hold the higher perches and Bruisers block the narrow sections, which is where a slowing water spell or a ranged opener pays off most.

Equip an axe and chop the Thorny Vine sealing the alcove on the wall. That opens a small stone chamber with a chest inside.

If you die on the walls, your gravestone stays where you fell, at the top of the battlements. The run back is short, but you will have to fight through respawned goblins to reach your gear.

Where Cathan’s Journal is and how to confirm the objective

Keep climbing until you reach the top stone platform of the keep. Cathan’s Journal [Castle] lies there next to a loot chest, and interacting with it is the exact trigger that completes the siege objective.

The journal explains why Cathan is missing rather than dead here. He had been playing at being a goblin prisoner, working the local goblins against Velgar, and he was waiting on a goblin named Spitfoot to deliver keys before heading for a blue-flamed door in the swamps that he believed held the secret to killing the dragon.

You know it worked when the Dragon Slayer quest text changes on screen to “Investigate the blue-flamed door in the swamp. Find out what Cathan is up to.” The castle marker clears and a new quest zone appears on your map.

Surviving Velgar’s attack on the keep

Reading the journal darkens the sky. Velgar, the green dragon the whole quest revolves around, descends on the castle and coats the roof and upper ruins in toxic green fire. The poison lingers in the area it lands on, so standing still on the top platform will kill you.

You can still grab the golden chest beside the journal if you move between breath attacks, then head straight down and out through the courtyard. Fighting the dragon here is not required, and it will not stay put for you either way.

Goblin packs regroup outside the walls once you leave, and travelling at night can trigger a “You are being hunted!” alert with Warriors and Archers converging on you. If you are low after the escape, break line of sight and heal before taking that fight.

You are being hunted event — A hunted event outside the castle, with a Goblin Warrior and Archer moving in. Shown at 11:51 in Kurigo’s video. Image: Jagex

Chests, plans, and the Sanguine Urn in the castle

Where	What you find
Courtyard corner chest	Crafting materials, barrel plans
Chest behind the Thorny Vine	Rune Essence, Law Rune, crate or barrel plan
Upper battlement ruin chest	Runes, Rune Essence, Plan: Keg Barrel
Golden chest by the journal	Runes and blueprints
Sanguine Urn on the perimeter wall	+10 maximum health, permanent

Exact chest contents shift between playthroughs, so treat the plans listed here as what the castle pool can hand out rather than a guaranteed drop order. The Sanguine Urn is the one pickup worth going out of your way for, since every urn you interact with raises your health pool permanently.

Sweep the ditches and ruins just outside the walls before you head back. Hidden chests out there hold extra runes, Rune Essence and potions, including a Weak Focused Woodcutting Potion.

Next objective: The blue-flamed door in Whispering Swamp

Once you read the journal, head northeast through the Whispering Swamp to find the blue-flamed door, which opens into a vault. Speak to the Wise Old Man, and he will mark the door’s position; it stands in the quest zone’s northeastern section.

Cathan is not inside that vault either. Past the trapped hallways and the Vault Guardians you find Spitfoot, the goblin from the journal, who explains where Cathan went next. The same run also gives you the Vault Core, which unlocks the Lodestone recipe and with it fast travel, so it is worth finishing the vault properly rather than sprinting for the quest trigger alone.