diff --git a/apps/api/src/quests/quest-state.spec.ts b/apps/api/src/quests/quest-state.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de8dabc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/api/src/quests/quest-state.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,194 @@
+import { QuestObjectiveType } from './quest.types';
+import {
+  isObjectiveSatisfied,
+  ObjectiveSnapshot,
+  resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex,
+} from './quest-state';
+
+function collect(over: Partial<ObjectiveSnapshot> = {}): ObjectiveSnapshot {
+  return {
+    type: QuestObjectiveType.COLLECT_ITEM,
+    requiredQuantity: 5,
+    advanceWhenBlocked: false,
+    current: 0,
+    blocked: false,
+    ...over,
+  };
+}
+
+function talk(over: Partial<ObjectiveSnapshot> = {}): ObjectiveSnapshot {
+  return {
+    type: QuestObjectiveType.TALK_TO_NPC,
+    requiredQuantity: 1,
+    advanceWhenBlocked: false,
+    current: 0,
+    blocked: false,
+    ...over,
+  };
+}
+
+/** The real shape of Trouble Beyond the Gate (Slice 0.9 §3–§8). */
+function troubleBeyondTheGate(
+  peltsCarried: number,
+  hideCapacityReached: boolean,
+): ObjectiveSnapshot[] {
+  return [
+    collect({
+      current: peltsCarried,
+      blocked: hideCapacityReached,
+      advanceWhenBlocked: true,
+    }),
+    talk(),
+    talk(),
+    collect({ current: peltsCarried, blocked: hideCapacityReached }),
+    talk(),
+  ];
+}
+
+describe('isObjectiveSatisfied', () => {
+  it('needs the full required quantity for a collect step', () => {
+    expect(isObjectiveSatisfied(collect({ current: 4 }))).toBe(false);
+    expect(isObjectiveSatisfied(collect({ current: 5 }))).toBe(true);
+    expect(isObjectiveSatisfied(collect({ current: 6 }))).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('gives up on a blocked collect step only when content allows it', () => {
+    // The capacity lesson (slice §4): the first pelt hunt is meant to fail at
+    // 1 / 5, the second one is not.
+    expect(
+      isObjectiveSatisfied(
+        collect({ current: 1, blocked: true, advanceWhenBlocked: true }),
+      ),
+    ).toBe(true);
+    expect(
+      isObjectiveSatisfied(
+        collect({ current: 1, blocked: true, advanceWhenBlocked: false }),
+      ),
+    ).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('never satisfies a talk step on its own', () => {
+    // A talk step is performed, not observed -- nothing about the character's
+    // inventory can complete it.
+    expect(isObjectiveSatisfied(talk())).toBe(false);
+    expect(isObjectiveSatisfied(talk({ current: 99, blocked: true }))).toBe(
+      false,
+    );
+  });
+});
+
+describe('resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex', () => {
+  it('stays on an unmet collect step', () => {
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex([collect(), talk()], 0)).toBe(0);
+  });
+
+  it('walks past a collect step whose items are already owned', () => {
+    // Spec §11: a player who owned pelts before accepting does not have to
+    // throw them away and start again.
+    expect(
+      resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex([collect({ current: 5 }), talk()], 0),
+    ).toBe(1);
+  });
+
+  it('walks past a blocked collect step when content says to', () => {
+    const objectives = [
+      collect({ current: 1, blocked: true, advanceWhenBlocked: true }),
+      talk(),
+    ];
+
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(objectives, 0)).toBe(1);
+  });
+
+  it('holds a blocked collect step when content does not', () => {
+    const objectives = [
+      collect({ current: 1, blocked: true, advanceWhenBlocked: false }),
+      talk(),
+    ];
+
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(objectives, 0)).toBe(0);
+  });
+
+  it('never walks past a talk step', () => {
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex([talk(), talk()], 0)).toBe(0);
+  });
+
+  it('never walks behind the stored floor', () => {
+    // Talk steps are irreversible: once the warden has sent you to Borin, an
+    // empty bag does not un-send you.
+    expect(
+      resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex([collect(), talk(), collect()], 2),
+    ).toBe(2);
+  });
+
+  it('walks several satisfied steps in one go', () => {
+    const objectives = [
+      collect({ current: 5 }),
+      collect({ current: 5 }),
+      talk(),
+    ];
+
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(objectives, 0)).toBe(2);
+  });
+
+  it('reports the end of the list when nothing is left', () => {
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex([collect({ current: 5 })], 0)).toBe(1);
+  });
+
+  it('clamps a stored index past the end of the list', () => {
+    // Content shortened between deploys must read as "done", never crash.
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex([collect(), talk()], 9)).toBe(2);
+  });
+
+  it('clamps a negative stored index', () => {
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex([collect(), talk()], -1)).toBe(0);
+  });
+
+  it('treats a quest with no objectives as finished', () => {
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex([], 0)).toBe(0);
+  });
+
+  it('walks the whole first-quest chain state by state', () => {
+    // Fresh, no pelts, no bag: the hunt is the step.
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(troubleBeyondTheGate(0, false), 0)).toBe(
+      0,
+    );
+
+    // One pelt and the bagless HIDE limit reached (slice §4): the game sends
+    // the player back to the warden instead of leaving them at 1 / 5.
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(troubleBeyondTheGate(1, true), 0)).toBe(
+      1,
+    );
+
+    // Warden talked to; the floor moved to 2 and Borin is the step.
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(troubleBeyondTheGate(1, false), 2)).toBe(
+      2,
+    );
+
+    // Bag in hand: back to the hunt, and the pelt already carried still counts
+    // (slice §7) -- four more, not five.
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(troubleBeyondTheGate(1, false), 3)).toBe(
+      3,
+    );
+
+    // Five pelts: the turn-in opens.
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(troubleBeyondTheGate(5, false), 3)).toBe(
+      4,
+    );
+
+    // Turned in; the floor is past the last step.
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(troubleBeyondTheGate(0, false), 5)).toBe(
+      5,
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('falls back to the hunt when the player sold the pelts again', () => {
+    // Spec §11: trading quest goods away mid-quest must not softlock. Progress
+    // is read from what is owned now, so the objective simply reopens.
+    const objectives = troubleBeyondTheGate(5, false);
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(objectives, 3)).toBe(4);
+
+    expect(resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(troubleBeyondTheGate(0, false), 3)).toBe(
+      3,
+    );
+  });
+});
diff --git a/apps/api/src/quests/quest-state.ts b/apps/api/src/quests/quest-state.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1626099
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/api/src/quests/quest-state.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+import { QuestObjectiveType } from './quest.types';
+
+/**
+ * One objective reduced to what deciding "are we past this yet" needs.
+ *
+ * Deliberately not the entity: keeping this a plain value is what lets every
+ * softlock case in Slice 0.9 §11 be a table-driven unit test with no database
+ * anywhere near it.
+ */
+export interface ObjectiveSnapshot {
+  type: QuestObjectiveType;
+  requiredQuantity: number;
+  advanceWhenBlocked: boolean;
+  /** Owned quantity for a COLLECT_ITEM step; ignored for a TALK_TO_NPC step. */
+  current: number;
+  /** True when the character cannot carry more of this step's target. */
+  blocked: boolean;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Whether this step needs anything further from the player.
+ *
+ * A talk step is never satisfied by observation -- it is *performed*, and the
+ * quest endpoint is the only thing that can move past it. A collect step is
+ * satisfied by owning enough, or, where content asks for it, by having run into
+ * the carrying limit: that is the whole capacity lesson of Slice 0.9 §4, and it
+ * is what turns "Ashen Pelts 1 / 5, hide capacity reached" from a dead end into
+ * the next objective.
+ */
+export function isObjectiveSatisfied(objective: ObjectiveSnapshot): boolean {
+  if (objective.type !== QuestObjectiveType.COLLECT_ITEM) {
+    return false;
+  }
+
+  if (objective.current >= objective.requiredQuantity) {
+    return true;
+  }
+
+  return objective.advanceWhenBlocked && objective.blocked;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The step the player is actually on.
+ *
+ * Walks forward from the persisted floor past every collect step that is
+ * already satisfied. Talk steps stop the walk, which is what makes the floor
+ * meaningful: it only ever moves when one of them is performed, and those are
+ * irreversible.
+ *
+ * Everything else is re-derived from what the character owns right now
+ * (spec §11). That is not a shortcut -- it is what makes the §11 cases fall out
+ * instead of being special-cased: pelts owned before accepting already count,
+ * pelts sold mid-quest reopen the objective, and a bag obtained some other way
+ * simply lets the first hunt finish on its own.
+ *
+ * Returns `objectives.length` when every step is behind the player.
+ */
+export function resolveCurrentObjectiveIndex(
+  objectives: ObjectiveSnapshot[],
+  storedIndex: number,
+): number {
+  // A stored index outside the list means the content changed underneath a
+  // character. Clamping beats throwing: a shortened quest reads as finished,
+  // and a nonsensical negative reads as "start at the beginning".
+  let index = Math.min(Math.max(storedIndex, 0), objectives.length);
+
+  while (index < objectives.length && isObjectiveSatisfied(objectives[index])) {
+    index += 1;
+  }
+
+  return index;
+}