Predestination is a thing

FredN

.....Way back in chapter 1, I scored some acorns, and got the quest from some dryads to return them to their sisters in the Windspear Hills. Now, in the Copper Coronet, I specifially did not talk to Jierdan/Firkraag, because I didn't want to get involved in his nonsense just yet. So, I simply travelled to the Winspear Hills. I was a bit surprised when the usual sequence of events played out regardless ... the ambush, killing the disguised innocents, getting taken to Garren's house. At which point Garren's kid ended up kidnapped. We got the usual ransom demand note from Firekraag.
.....The whole thing played out as if I had in fact spoken to Jierdan in town. Well, I wasn't interested in doing that stuff just yet, so I simply delivered the acorns and popped back to Athkatla. I was rather astonished to see that Jierdan was still sitting in the Copper Coronet, waiting for me to talk to him. Apparently the events in the Hills were predetermined to happen as soon as I arrived; they had no connection with whether or not I had actually received the quest from Jierdan. How odd. Some weird programming quirk I guess.

jmerry

It's a bit of an oversight, actually. I believe that pre-EE, the acorns didn't unlock the Windspear Hills on your map, so you were unable to go there without that conversation in the Copper Coronet. And accordingly, the ambush is just there on the map for whenever you enter. The entire area is scripted on the assumption that you've at least tentatively accepted the quest before going there, and the logic breaks down if you haven't.