Elden Ring: Beast Clergyman Quest Guide

This is a guide for the side quest of the Beast Clergyman in Elden Ring. Includes how to start the quest and where to find quest items. This article contains spoilers for the quest and also for a late-game boss fight.

Summonwater Village

Elden Ring Beast Clergyman Quest Guide

In Limgrave, travel to the Summonwater Village. You will find a Tibia Mariner boss there. He’s easy to defeat and I advise you to utilize mounted combat. Also, on the outskirts of the village, you may find D, Hunter of the Dead. He will advise you to not enter the village. Pointless advice, as none of us Tarnished runs away from danger, right?

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After killing the Mariner, you’ll obtain a Deathroot. The next step is to travel to the Roundtable Hold. You’ll find D there. You can also encounter him on the south side of Summonwater Village if you choose to rest at a Site of Grace without traveling to the Hold first. Show him the Deathroot you obtained and he’ll mark a Sending Gate on your map. It’s very easy to find, as it’s shown with a red map marker. It’s just near the Third Church of Marika. D will instruct you to talk to Gurranq, the Beast Clergyman.

Now, you can actually go to the Sending Gate near the Church without talking to D and proceed with the quest as well. But talking to D first triggers his questline too, so it’s a better way.

Bestial Sanctum

Use the Sending Gate to teleport to the Dragonbarrow of Caelid. Interact with the Site of Grace there and enter the Bestial Sanctum by interacting with the huge doors.

Elden Ring Beast Clergyman Quest Guide
There’s a boss here who won’t be aggressive at first. Don’t fight him unless you’re confident, because he’s an enemy of a very high level.
Elden Ring Beast Clergyman Quest Guide
Meet Gurranq. Did you know that he’s also a Half-Wolf like our friend Blaidd? Their lore is interesting. Possibly, I’ll write an article about them in the future.

Talk to him and you’ll soon know that his knowledge of human conversation is somewhat lacking. But despite his difficulties talking, he’ll ask you to feed him the Deathroot you’ll find. You can now give him the first Deathroot you found at the Summonwater Village.

He’ll provide you with rewards for the Deathroot you bring him. Now, you can go back to D and tell him about your meeting with Gurranq. This will grant additional dialogue and you’ll learn more about the lore.

This part is somewhat important for those who are fond of Elden Ring lore. Be sure to feed Gurranq only one Deathroot at a time. You will have the option to give him a few at once but doing otherwise will grant additional dialogue. This dialogue sheds light on the lore of Destined Death and Gurranq himself.

Deathroot Locations

There are nine Deathroot in total including the one you found at Summonwater Village. It will be somewhat tricky to find all of them but if you’re like me, and explores every inch of the map, you’ll find them all for sure. Here are the locations.

One more thing: after giving Gurranq the fourth Deathroot, rest at the Site of Grace. He’ll become aggressive and try to kill you. Make him come back to his senses by landing a few good hits on him and he’ll ask you to stop, and that he will not attack you again.

Deathtouched Catacombs in Limgrave. Kill the area boss and find the Deathroot in a chest in the boss room.
Elden Ring Beast Clergyman Quest Guide
Black Knife Catacombs in Liurnia. Open the chest in the area boss room.
Kill the boss in the forested area behind the Caria Study Hall, Liurnia. You can summon D for this fight.
Kill the boss at the location where the character stands in this image. Near Castle Sol, Giants’ Mountaintop. (Image credit: ledankmemes68 on Reddit)
Kill the boss at Wyndham Ruins.
Search a chest in the room after fighting the area boss.
Search the chest in the area boss’s room.
Kill a somewhat secluded boss in the area. Can be difficult to reach him.

Those are the eight other locations of the Deathroots. While it’s certainly not mandatory to do this quest, you can obtain some pretty good rewards, including an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone and a few of the best incantations.

Beast Clergyman Boss Fight

You’ll have to defeat this big dog in the late-game sections; namely, in Crumbling Farum Azula. But there’s a silver lining. Gurranq will not actually die and defeating him here will not affect the questline. And also, giving him all the Deathroot before fighting the boss here will grant an alternative dialogue.

The second phase of the fight is tricky, to say the least. Beast Clergyman’s second form is Maliketh, the Black Blade. You can unlock a great-looking and tough armor set after defeating him.

I won’t go into detail on how to defeat this tough boss, as I’m sure that you’ve already seen the multitude of guides online. But I recommend using Incantations or Sorceries to defeat him while keeping your distance.

A Paradox?

There’s somewhat of a paradox here, though. Despite implying that this is Gurranq, why does killing the boss not make Gurranq (at Bestial Sanctum) disappear? Also, killing Gurranq at the Sanctum before reaching the Boss at Crumbling Farum Azula does not have an effect on the fight… Maybe the Beast Clergyman is not the same as Gurranq? Then why does the dialogue change if you had given him all the Deathroot at the Sanctum?

There may be an answer, though. As you must’ve seen, Crumbling Farum Azula is very different from other areas. It’s in a different location, away from the Lands Between. It might be that despite you reaching the area after taking Melina to the Giants’ Forge, or listening to the Flame after interacting with the Three Fingers (pursuing the Frenzied Flame ending), the things that take place in Farum Azula are actually different from the timeline of the incidents that happen in the Lands Between. That’s something for you to contemplate about this great odd location. Think about it and let us know your thoughts on the forums.