Mystery of the Expedition is a mid-game Side Quest in Windrose, filed internally by the game as "Secret of the Expedition". The quest journal opens with the line, "As if the marks on my body weren't enough, now I seem to be seeing ghosts talking about some kind of Spanish expedition." It ties the protagonist's personal backstory to a lost Spanish voyage, a mysterious faction called the Order, and a Medallion that echoes the one the player's father hands over before the first journey.
Because the quest is scattered across procedurally placed Ancient Graves and a wreck that only flags after the final ghost speaks, many players mistake it for broken or abandoned. It is working as designed; the map simply stops holding your hand once the first ghost fades. This page walks through the start trigger, the three graves, the shipwreck near Tortuga, and what the Broken Ancient Medallion hints at.
Quest Overview
Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
Quest Type | Side Quest |
Region | |
Recommended Gear Level | 5 or higher |
Tracked Objectives | 3 stages |
Internal Name | Secret of the Expedition |
Key Reward | Broken Ancient Medallion (lore item), Piastres and XP from combat |
Follow-Up | Narrative hook only in current version, no confirmed direct chain |
How to Start the Quest
The quest triggers when you find and interact with your first Ancient Grave during open-world Exploration. An ancient grave is marked on the world map by a small magnifying-glass icon once it has been scouted. Interact with the grave and a ghost of a Spanish sailor will appear. His dialogue is deliberately fragmentary, refusing to name the expedition directly, and he gestures toward companions buried elsewhere in the islands.
There is no NPC giver in a settlement for this quest and no quest board entry. You must be out exploring the wider archipelago to bump into the first grave, which is why the quest often surfaces around the same time players start clearing low-tier "?" islands for general loot. Once the first ghost speaks, the tracker adds three stages to your journal.
Stages
Stage | Objective | Where |
|---|---|---|
1 | Learn more about the expedition | Speak with the ghost at an ancient grave, then find the other two graves |
2 | Find the expedition ship | The marker appears near Turtle Island once the grave chain is complete |
3 | Search the shipwreck | Clear the Drowned on the hull and loot the medallion from the interior |
Stage 1: Learn More About the Expedition
The Stage 1 journal reads: "I was visited by the ghost of a Spanish sailor. His words were mysterious. I need to find the other graves to learn more about the expedition." This is the objective that confuses most new players. The world map does not place additional quest markers. You have to find two more graves by yourself.
The three graves belong to Esteban Vargas, Jaime Lopez, and Guillermo Sanchez, and each one sits in a different biome tier. Once a grave is discovered it shows up with the same magnifying-glass icon as any other ancient grave on your map, so any graves you have scouted in prior exploration are already candidates. Interacting with each grave triggers a short ghost dialogue and ticks the stage forward.
Grave Name | Biome Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Often guarded by a two-star Alpha Wolf prowling the approach | ||
Swamp | Tucked inside the muddy interior of a swamp island, watch footing and snakes while searching | |
Hidden in dense jungle brush, listen for the whisper cue as you near it |
Because the islands are procedurally generated per save, the graves will not line up with coordinates shared by another player. The reliable rule is "one grave per biome tier" rather than any fixed location. Work through the foothills, swamp, and coastal jungle in that rough order and sweep every island with a question-mark marker as you go.
Stage 2: Find the Expedition Ship
After the third ghost speaks, a new map marker places the expedition wreck in open water near Tortuga. The dialogue hints at a "meeting place near Turtle Island", which is the in-world name the Spanish sailors used for the Tortuga area. Sail there in any vessel rated for open sea crossings. The marker is specific enough that you do not need to search the wider ocean.
The approach itself is usually uncontested, but keep an eye out for patrolling ships or storm weather along the way. Dropping anchor near the wreck is the simplest way to board.
Stage 3: Search the Shipwreck
The wreck is a half-submerged Shipwreck crawling with Drowned. Clear the deck before attempting to loot the interior; engaging one drowned in a tight space usually pulls the rest. Gear level 5 or higher is recommended because the drowned hit in clusters and a lighter kit tends to get shredded between a pull and a dodge window.
After the deck is clear, drop into the broken hull. The Broken Ancient Medallion is tucked among the Spaniard's belongings inside the wreck. Picking it up closes the final objective and triggers the quest completion journal entry.
Combat and Recommended Loadout
This is not a high-difficulty quest, but each stage has at least one fight that punishes an undergeared approach.
Gear Rating 5+: This is the recommended threshold. Lower-tier kits can technically finish the quest, but the foothills alpha wolf and the drowned cluster at the wreck both spike damage against light armor.
Ranged option: Carry a firearm or bow for the alpha wolf pull and for softening drowned before they reach you on the deck.
Melee sidearm: A reliable sword or cutlass for finishing drowned in close quarters once they close the gap.
Bandages and food: Stacking healing items carries you through chain pulls in the wreck interior where backing off is harder.
Ship prep: Refill cannon ammunition and keep sail repair materials on hand for the crossing to the shipwreck marker.
Rewards
Reward | Where Found |
|---|---|
Found in the expedition shipwreck on Stage 3 | |
Loot pouches on Drowned, plus any trinkets sold from the wreck | |
Experience Points | Drowned kills, island discovery bonuses, stage completion |
Quest Journal Lore | Three ghost dialogue entries plus a closing reflection on the medallion and the Order |
The Broken Ancient Medallion is a narrative item rather than an equippable trinket in the current Early Access build. Its value is the story beat, not a stat boost. The real mechanical gains come from the Piastres and XP picked up along the way, plus the islands you uncover while grave-hunting, many of which carry their own loot and resource nodes that repay the trip.
Juan De La Cosa and the Order
Juan De La Cosa is a real historical navigator, the Basque mapmaker who served as master of the Santa Maria on Columbus's first Atlantic crossing and who is credited with the earliest known world map to depict the New World. Windrose lifts the name and drapes it in fiction. In the quest he is referenced as the source of a secret called the Order, which the completion journal leaves deliberately unexplained.
The closing journal reads: "Among the Spaniard's belongings was a medallion identical to the one my father gave me before my first voyage. Doesn't seem like a coincidence. How did my family come to possess it? And what was the Order Juan De La Cosa mentioned? Perhaps one day I'll find the answers..." This sets up two dangling threads for future content: how the protagonist's family came into possession of an identical medallion, and what the Order actually is.
The quest does not yet chain directly into a follow-up in the current version. The medallion sits in your inventory as a lore key, and the surrounding Spanish-expedition references recur elsewhere in the world, most notably in the related Memories of a Ghost note collection that gathers the three ghost dialogues into a single reading journal.
Tips for Completion
Scout before committing: Any ancient grave with the magnifying-glass icon is a candidate. Tag every grave as you explore so the three you need are already sitting on your map when the quest activates.
Sweep by biome tier: One grave per tier. If you already have two graves in swamp biomes and none in the foothills, the grave you need is somewhere in the foothills, not a third swamp island.
Visit every "?" island: Question-mark markers often hide the graves that no one has cataloged yet. A full sweep of unexplored islands in your current tier is the fastest route when the ghost stops giving clues.
Bring a ranged opener: Pull the foothills alpha wolf off the grave with a ranged shot before it gets a charge window, otherwise it can stagger-chain a melee-only build.
Clear the deck first: At the wreck, dispatch the deck drowned before dropping into the hull, otherwise they pile on from above while you are looting.
Do not expect a combat reward: Treat the medallion as a story beat. Plan the trip around the side loot, the island coverage, and the Piastres the drowned drop, not around a weapon or armor payout.
Related Quests and Pages
Memories of a Ghost: the companion note collection that records the ghost dialogues from the three graves.
Side Quests: the full list of non-main quests.
Quests: overview of all quest types in Windrose.
Tortuga: the hub island near which the expedition shipwreck spawns.
Ancient Graves: the grave markers that seed this quest chain.
Drowned: the enemy type patrolling the expedition shipwreck.
Sacrificial Lamb: another early-game side quest worth running in parallel while scouting biome tiers.