Gift of Griffons(FoW) - Griffon behaviour

I was doing a NM FoW run for survivor earlier when I got to the Forest of the Wailing Lord. I enter through the entrance at the griffon's side of the forest and work my way to the bridge, clear everything past it and eventually kill the the Shard Wolf. When that's done I went back to Wailing Lord to accept his quest. Immediately upon taking his quests, the griffons came running towards me.

Now here's the question: Why did this happen? As you can see from the screenshot below, I hadn't even crossed the bridge yet and nothing was near the griffons' spawn location.

It was only NM so it was no big deal, but I don't want this happening when I'm doing it in HM.

It's because you got too close to the spot where the Griffons actually spawn before talking to the Wailing Lord. If you avoid that spot entirely you can take the quest and they won't budge until you get within range.

yeah, you can aggro the griffons before they spawn, i assume its something in the mechanic, maybe they are there but invisible or something? anyway, if you stay out of the little area theyre in, which is easy to work out if you look at the terrain, they wont move upon spawning. that how t3 in fow works

Okay thanks, that has to be it then.

I just did a couple of runs, and they behaved the same way in both runs. I had been to their spawn location before they spawned, and they did not "aggro" me until I wanted them to. In the second run, I didn't feel like backtracking to get them, so I took them along. It turns out if you don't attack (spacebar) or call targets, the Griffons will stay behind you. Unless of course something comes into your aggro. I also noticed the heroes don't really care to heal the griffons unless you force them to, so I say your best bet is to do that quest second, and not have anything else active. Who knows how each quest affects the next, so it's best to do that one by itself, either at the very beginning or very end.

Tip: If you do this quest with 2 human players, have 1 person take the quest and pick up the Griffons while the other person goes ahead with their Heroes. The 1 with the Griffons has to keep moving constantly (strafe side to side or run in circles while the team fights ahead of you) to keep the griffons following them, but it does keep them out of trouble.

I find that entering the Forest from the Battlefield is the best way to avoid triggering the griffon spawn point. Use a longbow from the bridge to pull the plants that patrol near their spawn point. When you accept the quest from the Lord, hug the battle field side of the bridge and leave the forest via the same way you entered it. That way the griffons will stay where they spawn, while you can clear all the skeleton spawns on the route from the tower to the main forest entrance.

Coincidentally, a Guildie and I cleared FoW just last night in HM. We did the Ritual Lord stuff in our usual manner. We entered the forest from the 'left' side and basically went through the Griffon spawn point on the way in. We had no problems with the Griffons not staying at their spawn while we cleared the return path. So, I don't know what to add other than, as has been said, you may have triggered them if you went across the bridge and to the left while clearing the foes for the first part.
When you do the first part, staying on the forest side of the bridge and pulling things across the bridge should prevent that.

It was probably me walking over their spawn location. Just did another FoW run, avoided that location and they didn't come running to me upon taking the quest. So all is good again

I've done a load of FoW already btw,but I used to always enter through the back entrance (the foresty part) and clear from there. Now that I'm using the other entrance (it seems a bit faster), I clear via the griffons spawn location. Just need to not walk on the left side of that rock-thingy near their spawn and all is fine.

Quick doodle so others can see what the issue is here. It has nothing to do with the bridge, it's the small area inside the red trapezoid that you need to stay out of.

I do like 1-2 fow NM run per day with heroes (helping guildie get his survivor), and in last 30-40x I've did that, just had once that happened to me.
Today in FoWSC as well, but since I was EoE i could just call target and go and sit somewhere.

If you are doing in NM, then no need to worry, if you have good healing in your team, you are set to go, but in HM it's a difference story. I just hope you don't flag your heroes 1mm from the wall, otherwise this bug could occur. I've seen today and last time that last time I have flagged heroes basically on wall, while this time we were hugging wall because of aggro. It's seems that screw up their mehanics.

P.S. And I think your screenshot is fake, I don't see bunnies in skirt.

If you dont go near where they spawn they Will not move. if you do trigger there location they will move. You trigger this by walking inside of where they spawn