What's up, gamers? I hope everyone had an incredible New Year's celebration! Today we're continuing our Path of Exile journey, and let me tell you, things are about to get real twisted. My adventure picks up right where we left off in the Western Forest, but this time I'm diving deep into one of the most morally ambiguous questlines in the entire game—the infamous Bandit Quest. Spoiler alert: we're basically Eramir's personal hitman, and we don't even realize it until it's too late.
Discovering the Menagerie: A Beast Hunter's Paradise
Before I jump into the main story, I need to talk about something absolutely fascinating I stumbled upon during this session—the Menagerie. This place is seriously one of the coolest side features in Path of Exile, and I honestly didn't expect to get so hooked on it.
The Menagerie is this mystical area where all the beasts you capture with Einhar, the Beastmaster, are stored. If you haven't met Einhar yet, he's this larger-than-life character who randomly appears in zones starting from Act 2, shouting enthusiastic lines about capturing beasts and preparing for "the end." The guy's personality is absolutely incredible—equal parts terrifying hunter and wholesome animal caretaker. He feeds the beasts, cleans them, and apparently reads them poetry he writes himself. The dude is a legend.
When you first explore the Menagerie, you'll notice it's filled with empty cages and holding pens—44 of them, to be exact. Each pen is designed to hold different types of creatures based on their species: spiders, insects, amphibians, you name it. It's like a zoo, except every animal wants to rip your face off. At the center of this whole operation sits the Blood Altar, and this is where things get really interesting.
The Blood Altar is essentially a crafting station where you sacrifice the beasts you've captured to create powerful items and equipment. The crafting recipes vary wildly—some let you create unique flasks, others allow you to add modifiers to existing items, and some of the more advanced recipes can even fully link a rare item or create six-socket gear. It's an entirely different crafting system from the standard currency items, closer to essence crafting or master crafts, but with a brutal twist: you have to fight and kill the beasts you're sacrificing in an arena surrounding the altar.
During my first visit to the Menagerie, I performed my inaugural blood ritual at the altar. I had captured a single beast during my travels, and I decided to use it immediately just to see what would happen. The beast spawned in the arena, and I had to take it down in combat to complete the recipe. It was exhilarating! The problem is, that was my only beast at the time, so my Menagerie went right back to being completely empty.
What I've learned is that the Menagerie evolves differently for each player based on what you capture. As you progress through the game and encounter Einhar in various zones, he'll appear and start throwing nets at weakened beasts—specifically when they drop below 50% health. Yellow beasts have one special modifier, while the more dangerous red beasts have two modifiers and periodically spawn additional monsters during the fight. These red beasts are the ones you really want for the more powerful crafting recipes.
The whole Bestiary system is something I'm going to explore much more deeply as I continue playing. Right now, my Menagerie is basically barren since I used my only beast, but I'm excited to see it fill up with all sorts of deadly creatures that I can eventually sacrifice for some truly game-changing gear. The possibilities seem endless, and from what I've read, some of the late-game beastcrafting recipes are absolutely insane.
The Journey to the Wetlands: Following the River to Oak's Domain
After wrapping up my Menagerie experimentation, I decided it was time to tackle the main quest objectives. According to my quest log, I needed to travel through the Riverways and eventually find my way to the Wetlands. Now, if you've been following my Path of Exile posts, you know I already discovered the entrance to the Western Forest through the Riverways in my last session. This time, I had to find a different path.
The Riverways is one of those zones that branches out in multiple directions, and it can be genuinely confusing if you're not paying close attention to your minimap. I decided to explore the map vertically, working my way from bottom to top, systematically clearing out enemies and hoping to stumble upon the entrance to the Wetlands. After what felt like forever—but was probably only fifteen minutes—I finally reached the northern tip of the map and found the entrance I was looking for.
The Wetlands itself is exactly what it sounds like: a damp, miserable swamp filled with enemies and treacherous terrain. The atmosphere is oppressive, with murky water everywhere and twisted vegetation that makes navigation a genuine challenge. But the real reason I was here wasn't to sightsee—I was hunting for Oak, one of the three bandit lords terrorizing the Forest Encampment.
The Bandit Quest: Eramir's Hidden Agenda Revealed
Here's where things get really interesting, and where the dark heart of this questline reveals itself. I hadn't really been paying attention to my quest log until I arrived at the Wetlands, but when I checked it, I saw something that made me pause: "Eramir wants you to kill Oak."
Now, who is Oak? He's described as the last great king of the Wetland bandits, a powerful warrior who's been terrorizing the region along with two other bandit leaders: Alira and Kraityn. Eramir, the scholar who's been giving us quests from the Forest Encampment, has been carefully positioning us as his personal problem-solver. But what he doesn't tell you upfront is that he's essentially hired you as an assassin to eliminate his competition.
The quest is officially called "Deal with the Bandits," and it's one of the most pivotal decisions you'll make in Act 2. Here's how it works: There are three bandit lords scattered across different zones—Kraityn in the Broken Bridge (accessible through the Crossroads), Alira in the Western Forest, and Oak in the Wetlands. Eramir wants you to kill all three of them, but here's the twist: each bandit lord will offer you a deal when you meet them.
When I finally tracked down Oak after fighting through hordes of his minions, I expected an immediate boss fight. Instead, Oak surprised me by proposing a truce. He didn't want to fight—he wanted to form an alliance. Oak explained that there's something much bigger going on, a mystery behind who really controls the Western Forest, and that fighting each other would only play into someone else's hands.
The game gives you a crucial choice at this moment: you can either kill Oak as Eramir instructed, or you can accept Oak's deal and help him eliminate the other two bandits instead. In my case, I decided to accept Oak's offer because I wanted to see where this rabbit hole would lead. Plus, something about Eramir's constant requests for murder was starting to feel suspicious.
The moment I accepted Oak's deal, my quest status changed immediately. Instead of "Kill Oak," it now read something along the lines of "Retrieve Alira's Amulet." Oak explained that finding Alira's amulet would be the key to unraveling the mystery of who's really pulling the strings in the Western Forest. This is where I realized that Eramir isn't the benevolent quest-giver he appears to be—he's manipulating us into eliminating his rivals so he can control the Apex artifact for himself.
The Three Bandits: Understanding Your Choices and Their Consequences
Let me break down what makes this quest so fascinating from a game design perspective. The Deal with the Bandits quest is one of those rare RPG moments where your choice has permanent, meaningful consequences for your character build. Each bandit offers a different passive bonus if you help them, and these bonuses stay with you for the entire playthrough.
If you help Kraityn by killing Oak and Alira, you gain 8% permanent movement speed. This is actually really useful during the campaign when you're constantly running through zones, but it becomes less impactful in the endgame when there are better ways to increase movement speed through gear and passive skills.
If you help Alira by eliminating Oak and Kraityn, you get a massive 15% boost to all elemental resistances, plus some mana regeneration and critical strike multiplier. This is arguably the most popular choice among experienced players, especially after you fight Kitava at the end of Act 5, who applies a permanent debuff that reduces your resistances. Having that extra 15% elemental resistance can be absolutely crucial for surviving the transition into Act 6 and beyond.
If you help Oak by killing the other two bandits, you receive 40 maximum life, 2% life regeneration, and 20% increased physical damage. This is solid for tank builds or characters that focus on physical damage, but it's generally considered the least versatile option of the three.
Finally, if you kill all three bandits and bring their amulets back to Eramir, he rewards you with two additional passive skill points. This is the most flexible option because it lets you customize your character however you want through the passive tree, but you miss out on the immediate, powerful bonuses that the bandits provide.
What makes this quest brilliant is that there's no objectively correct answer—it entirely depends on your build, your playstyle, and your long-term goals. For my current character, I went with Oak because I wanted to see his storyline play out, but I'm already thinking about whether I should use the respec option later in the game.
Eramir's True Colors: The Conspiracy Unfolds
Here's where the plot thickens even further. After I accepted Oak's deal and the quest updated, I eventually made my way to the Western Forest to track down Alira. Guess what? When I checked my quest log again, I discovered that Eramir also wants me to kill Alira.
This is the moment when it became crystal clear: Eramir is playing us. He's not asking us to restore peace to the Forest Encampment or protect innocent people—he's sending us on assassination missions to eliminate anyone who stands between him and the Apex artifact. The Apex is this powerful mystical object that's created by combining the amulets of all three bandit lords, and whoever controls it gains access to the Ancient Pyramid where the act culminates.
Eramir is basically using us as his personal death squad while maintaining this facade of being a peaceful scholar. He sends us after Oak, then Alira, and presumably Kraityn as well, all while acting like he's doing us a favor by "rewarding" us with passive skill points. The dude is manipulative as hell, and I love it. It adds this whole layer of moral ambiguity to the game that you don't usually see in action RPGs.
The fact that the game gives you the option to side with one of the bandits is Path of Exile's way of acknowledging that maybe—just maybe—the bandits aren't the real villains here. Sure, they're criminals and killers, but they're upfront about it. Eramir, on the other hand, hides behind his scholarly demeanor while orchestrating murders. That's some seriously good storytelling.
What I really appreciate about this questline is that it forces you to think beyond just "good guys versus bad guys." Oak, Alira, and Kraityn are all morally gray characters with their own motivations and philosophies. Oak represents strength and traditional warrior values. Alira is all about knowledge and magical power. Kraityn values speed, cunning, and survival. None of them are purely evil—they're just competing for control in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where the rules of civilized society no longer apply.
What Comes Next: Unraveling the Mystery of the Western Forest
So where does this leave me? Well, I've accepted Oak's deal, which means my next objective is to track down Alira in the Western Forest and retrieve her amulet. Oak believes this will reveal the true nature of whoever's been manipulating events behind the scenes. Part of me suspects that even Oak doesn't fully understand what's going on—he just knows that something larger is at play.
The Western Forest is one of those zones that's deceptively large and filled with dangerous enemies. It's also where you can find the entrance to the Weaver's Chambers, which is an optional side area with its own boss fight. I'm planning to clear that area as well while I'm hunting for Alira because, let's be honest, you can never have too much loot or experience in Path of Exile.
What's fascinating is how the game layers these different questlines on top of each other. You've got the main story about the Vaal Oversoul and the Ancient Pyramid. You've got the Bandit Quest with all its political intrigue. You've got Einhar and the Bestiary system operating completely independently. And then there are the various optional dungeons and side areas scattered throughout Act 2. Path of Exile doesn't hold your hand—it trusts you to explore, experiment, and make your own choices about what content to engage with.
I'm genuinely curious to see how the Bandit Quest resolves. Will Oak keep his word, or will he betray me the moment I bring him the amulets? Is there some third option I haven't discovered yet? What role does Eramir ultimately play in the larger story? These are the questions that keep me playing, and they're what separates a good action RPG from a great one.
My adventure in Path of Exile continues to surprise me with its depth and complexity. What I initially thought would be a straightforward "kill the bad guys" quest has turned into this intricate web of betrayal, manipulation, and moral ambiguity. I'm not just mindlessly slaughtering enemies—I'm making decisions that have real consequences for my character and the game world.
The Menagerie and Bestiary system add another dimension to the gameplay, giving me a completely different way to engage with crafting and progression. The Bandit Quest forces me to think critically about what kind of character I want to build and what values that character represents. And the slow reveal of Eramir's true nature adds a layer of narrative sophistication that I didn't expect from a free-to-play action RPG.
As I continue my journey as an exile, I'm excited to discover more secrets hidden in the Western Forest. I've made my deal with Oak, and now it's time to follow through on my commitment—even if it means defying Eramir's carefully laid plans. The mystery of who truly controls the forest awaits, and I'm ready to uncover the truth, one bandit amulet at a time.
So, gamers, that's where I'm leaving things for now. My Path of Exile adventure has barely begun, and already the game has thrown some seriously compelling story beats at me. If you've played through Act 2, I'd love to hear which bandit you chose to side with and whether you regretted your decision later. Did you trust Eramir, or did you sense something was off about his constant requests for assassination?
Stay tuned for my next post where I'll dive deeper into the Western Forest, confront Alira, and hopefully get some answers about what's really going on in this twisted region. Until then, keep grinding, keep looting, and remember—in Wraeclast, everyone's got an agenda. The trick is figuring out whose agenda aligns with yours before it's too late. See you in the next one!