In Stage 1B of this quest, there are two Forced statements:

• Forced: After placing progress here from questing successfully, place 1 resource here;
• Forced: At the beginning of the encounter phase, remove 1 resource from this stage. Then, add the top card of the Evil Creatures deck to the staging area.

So, if one does not quest successfully and there are no resources on the Quest, the "then" clause does not trigger and one doesn't have to add the creature? Since the quest stage can't be defeated with a creature in play, my guess is the best strategy is to make sure that one gets 10 quest points covered and then intentionally quest unsuccessfully to avoid having a creature added, all the while praying that some treachery doesn't add a creature?

16 minutes ago, Orcstalker said:

In Stage 1B of this quest, there are two Forced statements:

• Forced: After placing progress here from questing successfully, place 1 resource here;
• Forced: At the beginning of the encounter phase, remove 1 resource from this stage. Then, add the top card of the Evil Creatures deck to the staging area.

So, if one does not quest successfully and there are no resources on the Quest, the "then" clause does not trigger and one doesn't have to add the creature? Since the quest stage can't be defeated with a creature in play, my guess is the best strategy is to make sure that one gets 10 quest points covered and then intentionally quest unsuccessfully to avoid having a creature added, all the while praying that some treachery doesn't add a creature?

As soon as you get 10 progress the quest will be cleared, so you don't have to quest unsuccessfully.

And yes, the ideal is that you complete the quest in one go, which may mean intentionally failing the quest until you can finish it in one go. Of course, that probably means your threat grows, but that's the balancing act.

That's why Side Quests are great in this quest (I assume you're talking about Journey up the Anduin).

Keep in mind that you progress any time you meet a quest stages criteria for moving forward so with ten or more progress on Stage 1 so long as you can kill any enemies that are from the evil creatures deck during combat you will immediately progress. Also it isn't any enemy in play that stops you from progressing only enemies from the "evil creatures" deck do so.