Wool's Errand

Side quest, level 6. 24th of 102 in play order.

Quest giver: Anaoc, Lower La Noscea (X 32.4, Y 20.0).

Next: Flour Power ›

Steps

Obtain the sack of fleece.
Deliver the sack of fleece to Weitzaren at the Grey Fleet.

Journal

Anaoc seeks an adventurer to assist the Red Rooster Stead.
Anaoc asks you to deliver wool to the Grey Fleet. Retrieve the sack of fleece from the sheep's pen.
You have obtained the sack of fleece. Deliver it to Weitzaren at the Grey Fleet.
Weitzaren receives your delivery with equal parts exasperation and delight. Thanks to you, the miller may now begin making his felt.

Hidden

Easter egg Weitzaren

, the 'manic miller', is wildly happy over just a sack of wool when you deliver it. Weitzaren acts like a villain in a play, evil laugh and all.

Easter egg Count the sheep puns. Anaoc

hopes you don't 'feel sheepish'. Weitzaren

tells the courier, whose only wool is 'his blanket', to 'count sheep in his bed'.

In-game text The sightseeing log says the Grey Fleet's mills use the steady winds of the Strait of Merlthor. The winds help them grind wheat and full (clean and thicken) the region's wool.

Title reference The title is a pun on 'a fool's errand', which means a pointless task. Here, the errand is a wool delivery that the lazy courier skipped.

Characters 3

Anaoc
Anaoc has a sack of wool from the Stead's sheep, shorn and cleaned, ready to go north. He needs someone to carry it.
What you know from earlier quests 1
- #23 Cry Me a Liver: Anaoc sighs that he should not have sent Ancreta, and apologizes for the trouble. He heard the New Worlders use fish livers as fertilizer, so he is trying toad livers. He says a farmer must keep learning; that is how his farm grew.
Weitzaren
Weitzaren is the miller at the Grey Fleet, north of the Red Rooster Stead. Anaoc calls him the "manic miller". He is waiting for the Stead's wool.
Niniya
What you know from earlier quests 3
- #2 Making a Name: Niniya sends you to collect herbs that might be illegal "dream flowers" and hand them in. They are only common lavender: Niniya was playing a joke on you. Niniya says adventurers have met at this place for almost twenty years.
- #10 Close to Home: Baderon points Niniya out and suggests you hear what she has to say. Small errands like hers, he says, build your name as someone folk can trust, and then the jobs get harder and pay better.
- #22 Fool Me Once: Niniya says the key lesson for new adventurers is to question everyone's motives. Niniya sends you to Ancreta at the Eyes for work, but it is a second prank, after the quest Making a Name: Ancreta cannot hire you directly.

What happens in this quest spoilers for this quest

Anaoc grumbles that the courier who usually takes the wool is lazing in bed. He asks you to bring the sack of fleece to Weitzaren, the miller up north who turns the Stead's wool into felt (thick pressed cloth).
Weitzaren rants that a miller with no fleece is like an artist with no canvas, and curses the lazy courier. Once the wool is his, he is delighted and laughs like a villain in a play. Now he can make his felt.

What the Japanese, French and German versions say 5

Japanese

EN Wool's Errand

JA 「ラノシア名産ふわふわウール」, 'La Noscea's Famous Fluffy Wool' · 名産, 'a region's famous product' · ふわふわ, 'fluffy', a soft sound-word

The title reads like a shop label.

EN 'But it seems the only wool his courier's tending to today is his blanket, the lackadaisical loafer.' · 'Curse that blasted courier! Do the sheep stop growing? Does the mill stop churning? What entitles him to rest?'

JA 「荷運び役が、過労で寝込んでしまってのう。」, 'The courier is laid up from overwork, you see.' · 「おや、いつもの荷運び係は、ダウンしちまったのか？羊毛刈りの時期で、休みなしだったからな。」, 'Oh, the usual courier has collapsed? It's shearing season, and he had no day off.'

The courier is not lazy but sick from work, and Weitzaren feels sorry for him.

French

Idiom

EN 'Curse that blasted courier!'

FR «Oh, salut aventurière/er. Quel bon vent... ?», 'Oh, hi, adventurer. What fair wind brings you...?'

He starts «quel bon vent vous amène ?», 'what good wind brings you?', a welcome for a surprise visitor that suits a wind miller. The English skips the greeting.

Different

FR «Malheureusement, la personne qui se charge du transport est alitée pour cause de surmenage.», 'Sadly, the person who handles the transport is bedridden from overwork.' · «Le gars qui se charge de nous apporter la laine est souffrant ? C'est pas étonnant s'il a dû travailler sans arrêt pendant la saison de tonte des moutons.», 'The guy who brings us the wool is ill? No wonder, if he had to work non-stop through the sheep-shearing season.'

Like in Japanese, the courier is ill and Weitzaren is kind about it. The English Weitzaren curses and gloats.

German

Different

EN 'But it seems the only wool his courier's tending to today is his blanket, the lackadaisical loafer.' · 'What entitles him to rest?'

DE „Der Lieferant ist vollkommen überarbeitet und braucht unbedingt eine Pause.“, 'The courier is completely overworked and badly needs a break.' · „Tja, so ist das nun mal während der Schersaison, da gibt es im Wollbusiness keine Pause.“, 'Well, that's how it is in shearing season: there's no rest in the wool business.'

Here too he is worn out. Weitzaren just shrugs it off.

Dialogue 7 lines

Accepting the quest

Anaoc

I hope you don't feel sheepish about hauling a wee bit of wool. The flock's fleece is shorn and scoured, and the sack is all set to sail.

FR Au fait, jeunette/ot, tu as peut-être remarqué qu'on élève aussi des moutons, ici. ‘By the way, youngster, you may have noticed that we also raise sheep here.’ English puns that you shouldn't feel sheepish hauling wool; French just notes they also raise sheep here.
DE Hast du schon unsere Schafzucht bewundern können? ‘Have you had a chance to admire our sheep breeding yet?’ English puns that you shouldn't feel sheepish hauling wool; German asks if you have admired their sheep breeding.
DE Auf die flauschige Wolle unserer Schafe sind wir ganz besonders stolz. ‘We are especially proud of the fluffy wool of our sheep.’ English says the fleece is shorn, scoured and the sack ready to go; German boasts of their sheep's fluffy wool.
JA この農場では、シープの飼育もやっておってな。 ‘On this farm, we raise sheep too, you see.’ English puns that you shouldn't feel sheepish hauling wool; Japanese just says the farm also raises sheep.

Normally, the manic miller up north takes it and felts it for us.

FR C'est pour produire de la laine, que l'on envoie ensuite aux moulins de La Flotte grise... ‘It is to produce wool, which we then send to the mills of the Grey Fleet...’ English mentions a manic miller up north; French only says the wool is sent to the Grey Fleet mills.
DE Einmal geschoren, packen wir die Schafwolle in Leinensäcke und liefern sie zum Windpark nordöstlich von hier, wo sie zu Filz verarbeitet wird. ‘Once shorn, we pack the sheep's wool into linen sacks and deliver it to the wind farm northeast of here, where it is made into felt.’ English mentions a manic miller up north; German only says the wool goes to the wind farm northeast of here.
JA 普段なら、北東にある風車へと運び、そこでFF07E7B8AEE7B5A8FF13E38197E38285E3818FE38198E38285E38186してフェルトに加工するんじゃが…… ‘Normally we would carry it to the windmill in the northeast, where it is fulled and made into felt, but...’ English mentions a manic miller up north; Japanese only says the wool goes to the windmill in the northeast.

But it seems the only wool his courier's tending to today is his blanket, the lackadaisical loafer.

JA 荷運び役が、過労で寝込んでしまってのう。 ‘The courier is laid up from overwork, you see.’ The courier is not lazy but sick from work, and Weitzaren feels sorry for him.
FR Malheureusement, la personne qui se charge du transport est alitée pour cause de surmenage. ‘Sadly, the person who handles the transport is bedridden from overwork.’ Like in Japanese, the courier is ill and Weitzaren is kind about it. The English Weitzaren curses and gloats.
DE Der Lieferant ist vollkommen überarbeitet und braucht unbedingt eine Pause. ‘The courier is completely overworked and badly needs a break.’ Here too he is worn out. Weitzaren just shrugs it off.

So, I hoped you might see to it the sack of fleece down by the flock's pen reaches the miller─Weitzaren is his name.

Deliver the sack of fleece to Weitzaren at the Grey Fleet

Weitzaren

A miller with no fleece is an artist with no canvas! A poet with no words! A man with no purpose!

FR Mais qu'est-ce qu'ils fabriquent à la métairie du Coq rouge !? ‘But what on earth are they up to at the Red Rooster farm!?’ English compares a fleeceless miller to an artist without canvas; French asks what the Red Rooster farm is up to.
DE Wo bleibt denn nur die Schafwolle von der Gockelburg? ‘Where on earth is the sheep's wool from Gockelburg?’ English compares a fleeceless miller to an artist without canvas; German asks where the wool from Gockelburg is.
JA 「羊毛入りの麻袋」は、まだ来ねぇのか……。 ‘Has the "sack of wool" still not come...?’ English compares a fleeceless miller to an artist without canvas; Japanese complains the wool sack still hasn't come.
DE Die Mühlen stehen schon eine Weile still. ‘The mills have been standing still for a while now.’ German has him complain that the mills stand idle; English has a theatrical lament about artists and poets.
JA そろそろ届かないと、期日までに羊毛の加工が間にあわねぇぞ……。 ‘If it doesn't get here soon, the wool won't be processed in time for the deadline...’ Japanese has him worry about missing a deadline; English has a theatrical lament about artists and poets.

Curse that blasted courier! Do the sheep stop growing? Does the mill stop churning? What entitles him to rest?

JA おや、いつもの荷運び係は、ダウンしちまったのか？羊毛刈りの時期で、休みなしだったからな。 ‘Oh, the usual courier has collapsed? It's shearing season, and he had no day off.’
FR Le gars qui se charge de nous apporter la laine est souffrant ? C'est pas étonnant s'il a dû travailler sans arrêt pendant la saison de tonte des moutons. ‘The guy who brings us the wool is ill? No wonder, if he had to work non-stop through the sheep-shearing season.’
DE Tja, so ist das nun mal während der Schersaison, da gibt es im Wollbusiness keine Pause. ‘Well, that's how it is in shearing season: there's no rest in the wool business.’
FR Le gars qui se charge de nous apporter la laine est souffrant ? ‘The guy who brings us the wool is ill?’ English curses the courier; French just asks whether the man who brings the wool is ill.
DE Der übliche Lieferant ist zu erschöpft? ‘The usual deliveryman is too exhausted?’ English curses the courier; German just asks whether the usual deliveryman is too exhausted.
JA おや、いつもの荷運び係は、ダウンしちまったのか？ ‘Oh, so the usual porter has collapsed?’ English curses the courier; Japanese just asks whether the usual porter has collapsed.

Bah! Let him count sheep in his bed! The wool is at last mine, and soon the felt shall be wrought! Mwahahaha...

FR À La Flotte grise, nous comprimons la laine avec les mécanismes de nos moulins pour fabriquer du feutre. ‘At the Grey Fleet, we compress the wool with the mechanisms of our mills to make felt.’ English gloats "Mwahahaha" that felt will soon be wrought; French calmly explains how their mills make felt.
DE Denn ohne Wolle stehen die Maschinen in den Mühlen still, die die Wolle befeuchten und zu Filz pressen. ‘For without wool, the machines in the mills that moisten the wool and press it into felt stand still.’ English gloats "Mwahahaha" that felt will soon be wrought; German explains machines moisten the wool and press felt.
JA この風車では、中にある機械で、湿らせた羊毛に圧力を加えてフェルトにしてるんだ。 ‘At this windmill, we use the machines inside to press moistened wool and turn it into felt.’ English gloats "Mwahahaha" that felt will soon be wrought; Japanese explains machines press moistened wool into felt.