Elden Ring Irina Questline: Castle Morne & Irina side quest walkthrough

by RPG Site Staff on 09 March, 2022

Irina is one of the earliest NPCs you’ll encounter that can kick off an Elden Ring side quest, and Irina’s questline is also arguably one of the first you should finish in the game - it’s manageable, and provides a great deal of experience - both in the form of runes and in opportunities for the player to improve - that you can then carry forward into the ‘main’ narrative thrust of the game.

To kick off this questline, you must first find Irina sitting on a rock just past the Bridge of Sacrifice, the heavily-guarded bridge that leads from south-eastern Limgrave to the landmass to the south of Elden Ring’s map, the Weeping Penninsula. This isn’t far south of where you can start another side quest by meeting & starting the Sorceress Sellen questline.

While the Bridge of Sacrifice is well-guarded, you can simply rush through it with your horse if you need to. Irinia is hard to miss - and she needs a lot of your help.

Irina offers one of the first Elden Ring side quests you're likely to discover, if you head south from the start of your adventure.

Starting the Irina Questline - The Letter

When you find Irina near the location marked on the above map, you’ll discover that she’s in a bad way. The rest of the people she was with are gone - presumably dead - and the blind maiden is worried about her father Edgar, who is still in Castle Morne to the south that has fallen to the forces of evil.

Castle Morne is where you need to go. Keep talking to Irina to exhaust her dialogue and she’ll hand over a key item, Irina’s letter. In the image below you can see Irina's location, plus the road that leads to Castle Morne heading straight to the south.

Irina's location marked on Elden Ring's map, and the road to Castle Morne to the south.

Castle Morne is hard to miss. While there’s more to do in the Weeping Peninsula including areas that can unlock one of the Legendary Spirit Ashes and a teleport you’ll probably need to use later to restore one of the Great Runes, forget all that for this quest.

Just ride to the south, either fighting or design past enemies along the way. At the very southern end of the Weeping Peninsula, you’ll find Castle Morne. You can enter the castle, and then take a lift up to it proper.

Inside Castle Morne

The player being attacked by Winged Misbegotten in Elden Ring's Castle Morne.

If you’re very early in the game, this mini legacy dungeon can be rather scary. You’ll basically face four types of enemy in the first part of the castle proper: dogs, Misbegotten demi-humans, soldiers, and a single large Pumpkin Helm.

The good news is a lot of the enemies here can be avoided. For instance, in the courtyard, if you kite around the eastern edge, you’re easily able to avoid the first group of Misbegotten and only take out a handful of dogs. The Pumpkin Helm is asleep, and will only wake if you get too close or cause too much of a scuffle.

Your goal here should be to work around this courtyard clockwise, past the pumpkin head, and up an area at the rear of the castle until you find a ladder. Climb the ladder. Here, you want to work east, as Irina’s father is in the North-Eastern upper ramparts of the castle. There are alternate routes to reach this point, but this is by far the easiest.

Players must drop down and follow the north-eastern path in Castle Morne to reach Edgar, Irina's Father.

When you reach the point above where you're attacked by a few Winged Misbegotten and then reach some of the south-eastern ramparts, rather than continue to the end, drop down and follow the eastern castle walls. You’ll know you’re in the right place as there’ll be soldiers battling Misbegotten here.

Climb up the north-eastern rampart tower of Castle Morne to find Irina's Father, Edgar. He is still alive. Talk to him, exhaust his dialogue, and give him Irina’s Letter. But… he won’t leave.

Edgar, Irina's Father, won't leave Castle Morne until he knows its prized sword is in safe hands.

There’s a great sword he refuses to let remain in the hands of the Misbegotten - the Grafted Blade Greatsword. If you are to get him to leave to fulfill Irina’s quest, you must get your hands on that sword. You know where this is going.

The Route to the Greatsword

So, it’s time to get that sword. Remember where we dropped down to get to the eastern castle ramparts to reach Edgar? Backtrack to there. East of where you dropped down on the higher up path, there’s a break in the rampart walls which forms a way to head further south, dropping down to find a new Site of Grace called ‘Behind the Castle’. Get there; it's pictured below.

The location in Castle Morne where you need to drop down to reach a new Site of Grace and get deeper into the dungeon.

From this Site of Grace, keep working your way down - you want to get all the way behind the castle. There’s some new enemies here like Skeletal Slimes and Spirit Jellyfish, as you work your way down. When you reach a big bridge with a slime on it, your path is actually to drop down the left-hand break in the bridge rather than continue to the end where there’s a nasty greataxe-wielding Misbegotten.

You’ll eventually have to drop down into a jail area through its roof. To survive the fall, you’ll need to carefully land on two different rafters as you drop down. Be aware that you’ll be ambushed by rats and a Misbegotten in this room once your feet hit the floor.

Just outside and to the east of this room is the Beside the Rampart Gaol Site of Grace. Touch Grace, and then use the wooden bridge to drop down to the beachy area with the jellyfish below.

The final bridge before you battle Leonine Misbegotten; you can drop off this without harming yourself.

You can go to the end, defeat some Misbegotten and then take a ladder, too, but the fall from the bridge will not kill you, so it's far easier to drop down unless you're particularly hungry for the fight and the runes.

The Jellyfish down here will only turn hostile if you attack them or get too close, so ignore them. In the South-West of this area, there’s the familiar yellow clouding of a boss door. Inside is your final objective.

Leonine Misbegotten & Morne Castle’s Grafted Blade Greatsword

Inside this arena you’ll find Leonine Misbegotten. This isn’t one of the most important of the Elden Ring bosses; in fact, you’ll see this design and move set repeated later in the game, in some cases even as a regular enemy. He’s a wolf-like humanoid that uses an enormous greatsword - probably meant to be the one you’re tasked with getting for Edgar. He’s the boss of Castle Morne.

There are easier bosses hidden in some of Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula’s side dungeons, but without a doubt Leonine Misbegotten is a perfect early boss to tackle and a great warm-up for the fight against Margit the Fell Omen. If you headed south having got stuck on that fight, you made a good choice.

As with all Elden Ring battles, the strategy will vary greatly depending on your starting character class and how you’ve chosen to spend your attribute stat points when leveling up. However, we have some broad tips for beating Leonine Misbegotten:

Spirit Summons can be key here. Lone Wolf Ashes, the first Spirit Summon you get in Elden Ring, can be used to great effect - essentially splitting Leonine’s attention four ways between you and the three wolves. This lets some of you keep up the pressure attacking while he’s focused elsewhere, which is useful for the next point.
Leonine Misbegotten Staggers quite easily. All enemies in Elden Ring have a stagger bar, where if they take too many hits in too short a time frame, they end up staggered, stunned and open to a critical hit. The stagger bar is invisible, but if you keep up the pressure - which the wolves will help with - he will go down.
He hits hard and fast, making blocking difficult. Trying to block his attacks, especially with early-game stamina levels, can be a bit of a fool’s errand. Instead, dodging is key - try to take an aggressive stance.
Watch out for those jumping attacks. While deadly, they’re easy to avoid - and the boss will be vulnerable for quite a while after they miss you.

When Leonine Misbegotten is defeated, it drops a bunch of Runes and the Grafted Blade Greatsword.

Finishing Irina’s Questline

Once you’ve killed Leonine Misbegotten, activate the Site of Grace in its boss arena and then teleport back to the start of Castle Morne. Make your way back to Edgar, Irina’s father, and show him the sword. He’s so impressed with you that he lets you keep it.

If you want to find out the final fate of the pair, teleport to the Bridge of Sacrifice Site of Grace near Irina to find her and Edgar, and learn what happened at the end of this plot line. No, there’s no way to change this, and no way to save Irina - The Lands Between are a harsh place, and this is how this story ends.

The Irina Questline in Elden Ring ends in pain, as do so many of the stories in The Lands Between.

After all of this, there is one small coda to this quest-line. In western Liurnia, in a slightly wooded area just north of the Liurnia Minor Erdtree, there’s a location known as the Revenger’s Shack. If you visit here after completing Irina’s Questline at Castle Morne, you’ll be invaded by an NPC.

The Invader is none other than Edgar, now going by the name Edgar the Revenger, who has been driven mad with his grief and lust for revenge. You can put him down to receive a Banished Knight’s Halberd +8, a Shabriri Grape, and a few other loot items.