Dragon's Dogma 2 Oxcart Courier: How to get to Lennart and deliver the letter
Travelling by oxcart from Vernworth to Melve and delivering a single letter couldn't be easier... in theory, at least.
Dragon's Dogma 2's Oxcart Courier quest is a bit of a tutorial for the oxcart fast travel system — but this is DD2, so don't expect it to go easy on you just because it's attempting to teach you something. Sure, the idea is simple enough, but there are plenty of hazards along the procedural road ready to mess up your day.
Whether you're unsure how to deal with mini-bosses along the road or are wondering where to find Ser Lennart once you finally reach Melve, we've collated our experiences here to help you out in our Oxcart Courier quest walkthrough.
Dragon's Dogma 2: Oxcart Courier quest walkthrough
Escorting the oxcart to Melve
To begin this quest, you simply need to return to the North Vernworth Oxcart Station after arriving in the city from Melve. I waited a few in-game days and had some good chats with Brant first, so if the quest isn't showing up for you yet, that might be a factor.
At this Oxcart Station, you'll be flagged down by Donovan, who offers you a simple enough task: escort his oxcart safely to Melve and deliver a letter from Lady Margit (the Watchhead's wife) to her friend Lennart there. Then report back.
This conversation also serves as a bit of a tutorial on oxcart travel in case you haven't used one yet. Donovan is at pains to remind you that oxcarts only leave at certain times of day and especially that you need to pay a fare to ride one, although he will eventually promise to cover your fare to Melve on this occasion, since you're doing him a favour.
Your task is simply to ride in the oxcart, pausing to repel the intermittent attacks the vehicle is faced with along the way.
Now, here's where it got weird for me: about halfway between Vernworth and Melve, the oxcart I was defending was absolutely smashed to smithereens upon the arrival of a gryphon mini-boss, with nothing I could do to prevent the fight from starting with the total destruction of the cart. I reloaded and tried again and the same thing happened, so I'm not sure if this is a scripted event on this quest or if I just got very unlucky with procedural generation.
However, after some consideration I decided to continue to Melve on foot, at which point I was able to pick up the quest.
Arriving in Melve and finding Lennart
If this is your first time revisiting Melve, you might find that the town is under attack by the dragon, and you are once again tasked with helping the locals to repel it. To the best of my knowledge at the time of writing, this is a frequent occurrence when returning to Melve and not necessarily tied to the Oxcart Courier quest, but in any case the odds are good that this will happen when you arrive.
Repelling the dragon is a timed fight, so don't worry about the fact that it has infinite health bars. My Fighter and her party struggled a bit at first, but finally found success with a combination of staying behind the dragon to attack, casting debuff spells on the dragon to supplement the mage's buffs on our weapons, and resisting the temptation to climb onto its back to keep dealing damage when it flies around for a bit (because, it turns out, it will shake you off and you'll die).
Once the dragon departs, you just need to find Lennart and hand over Donovan's letter to him. I found him hanging out by the oxcart post at the gates of Melve. Hand over the letter and have a quick chat to fulfil this stage of the quest.
Returning to Vernworth
In order to complete the Oxcart Courier quest, you need to check back in with Donovan in Vernworth one last time.
There's no timer on this quest though, so feel free to hang around in Melve and explore its environs if you want; the important thing is just to return to Donovan next time you're in Vernworth.
Good news: even if the cart was destroyed, the fact that you got the letter to Lennart is all you need to fulfil the quest conditions and receive the reward! Enjoy your payout of 5,000 Gold (very nice!) and some Miner's Hosen trousers (erm, sure, thanks Donovan…).
For more early-game side-quest walkthroughs, be sure to check out our Dragon's Dogma 2 Medicament Predicament guide!