After sunset, there's an old woman pacing outside the tower. How did you get here? Chance, maybe, fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it. Either way, she looks relieved by your presence. She rushes at you, entreating your help. There's someone trapped in the top of this tower, and if they aren't rescued, something bad will happen to this city - very bad. Catastrophically bad. We all may die.

Plus, if you do this for her, she promises you a hefty reward.

The monster outside the tower - which won't approach as long as she is here, but once she leaves, it will attack you - can only be defeated with a certain golden needle. It belongs to her. Unfortunately it's been stolen from her, placed inside an egg inside a hare inside an oak tree somewhere in the woods of this city. You'll need to find that tree and extract the needle to enter the tower. And you must hurry; you're running out of time...