I did the Village Caedeus quest out of curiosity, not to instigate or anything, but I didn't even touch his beard; stuck to his tail and didn't go as far as his flippers. You do not need to break his beard for him to go from the first area to the next. I damaged everything but his beard but only managed to repel him, failing the "or slay" part of the quest, which was kind of embarrassing considering I was in G-rank gear. I didn't use ballistas though and probably shouldn't have used DBs.
Sounds like techno's making progress, though. Keep it up!