The Firebrand is a side quest in The Blood of Dawnwalker. This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of The Firebrand side mission.
- Starting Location: Briar Sloughs / Mert’s Mill
- Quest Giver: Given automatically when you approach Vladimir’s Hut
- Requirement: Complete “Smoke and Ashes“
- Fail State: N/A
- Reward:
- 75XP for speaking with Renna
- 75XP for killing the soldiers in Renna’s hut
- 75XP for completion
- Time Required:
- Go to the Mill: 1 Time Segment
- Speak to the Overseer: 1 Time Segment
- Speak with the miller / Question Mert’s corpse: 2 Time Segments
- Quest Description: The manumits. I’ve heard this name before – they are a group of rebels who challenge Brencis’s rule in the valley. Elusive and secretive, they won’t be easy to find… But if I manage to do it, perhaps we can join forces against a common enemy.
Objectives:
- Search Vlad’s hut
- Go to the mill
- Return to the mill during the day (optional)
- Kill the soldiers (optional)
- Go to Stoneward Post
- Speak to the Overseer
- Talk With the Angry Woman (Optional)
- Talk With the Merchant (Optional)
- Fight Cerbus (Optional)
- Speak with the miller – Alternate Ending: Mert Dies
- Find Mert’s body
- Question Mert’s corpse
- Look for Catalysts
Starting Location: The Firebrand
Search Vlad’s Hut
Go into Focus Mode as you approach, and you’ll see there are a lot of gold items that are available to inspect. In reality, there’s only the one that is important to complete this objective. Go inside, turn left and go into the back room. There against the wall will be a small sack of flour to inspect. You’ll go into object investigation mode. Look at the mark on the outside, then tilt the back up and look at the silver arrowheads hidden in the flour. Vlad has been smuggling in weapons with the help of his cousin, Mert the miller.
Go to the Mill (1 Time Segment)
NIGHT: If you approach the mill at night, you will be accosted by Brencis’s soldiers who are hiding in the miller’s shed, asking who you are. Saying you’ve done nothing wrong just makes the guard repeat himself. You have to give him a name. You can tell the truth and say “Coen of Laslea”, which if you’re still of low infamy will not trigger a reaction. They’ll say it’s late for a stroll. You can jump immediately to bloodshed by choosing “Talk to my sword about it”, or for the more subtle approach say “Well I was going to have a piss”. He will let you go, and the objective will update to “Return to the mill during the day”. If you say that your name is Mirto, you’ll have similar results. One of the guards recognizes the name, and says I guess it’s a common name in these parts. Responding with “Yes, sir. Quite common.” will cause him to let you go, or again you can tell him to “Talk to my sword about it” and choose violence.
DAY: Approaching the mill during the day plays out much differently. Renna will be in the yard chopping wood, and start talking about your broken cart that you left in her yard. Coen is clearly confused, and doesn’t pick up the hint right away. If you say “You’re confusing me with someone else”, you’ll have one more chance to recover. If you still don’t play along and say “Cut the crap already!” three of Brencis’s soldiers will appear from the hut and try to arrest you, forcing a violent encounter. If you take the hint and agree to fix the cart, Renna will subtly warn you about the guards in her hut and tell you that Mert was arrested and is being held in Stoneward Post. She tells you that he had been working with the manumits, and begs you to get him out of there before it’s too late.
Return to the Mill During the Day (Optional)
If you are turned away by the soldiers at night, you can return during the daytime and it will play out the same way as if you’d approached during the day initially but you won’t lose another time segment.
Kill the Soldiers (Optional)
If you choose not to wait, there will be three of Brencis’s soldiers to kill before you can talk to Renna. She will panic, afraid that they’ll kill her when they find out, but you can still talk her down and question her about Mert and the manumits.
Even if you chose to approach Renna during the day, you can still force the issue by knocking on the door, causing the guards to come out.
Go to Stoneward Post (Time Sensitive – 4 Days)
Once you get this objective, you must complete “The Firebrand” before exactly 4 days pass by speaking with Mert. If you do not speak to him to complete “The Firebrand” within that time, Mert will be executed exactly 64 time segments later. However if you talk to him before that time elapses to complete the quest, and tell him that you’ll come back for him, Mert will stay perfectly safe in his cell until you release him. If Mert is hanged, skip down to Alternate Ending: Mert Dies below for more information.
NIGHT: Approaching at night automatically causes the guard to attack. You can minimize your danger by going around the wooden palisade to the tower, then shadowstep to the wall and drop down in front of the door. You’ll still have to fight the two guards inside, plus one down in the dungeon, and likely a few guards from outside will attack as well. If you’re trying to save Mert, then you’ll still have to fight your way out, and will get the quest “Under Watchful Eyes“.
DAY: During the day, you have a lot more options for subtlety to get the lay of the land. Approach the guard at the gate, and he’ll ask why you’re there. If you pick either “I’m here to visit a prisoner” or “I have a message for the commander of this post”, you’ll gain entry but you will have to surrender your weapons. Instead if you pick “I… I want to enlist”, you can reply “What? A soldier without a weapon?” and you’ll be permitted to keep them.
Speak to the Overseer (1 Time Segment)
Once you’ve gained entry, your goal is to talk to the overseer in the tower at the back of the fort. You can talk to the shifty merchant to buy low level rings or amulets, and a random selection of mostly worthless items. Remember this Merchant, Yenno. He might be important later.
Keep passing through the inner walls of the fort, avoiding getting involved in the man being beaten along the way. Once you approach the tower, you’ll see that there’s a man and woman yelling at a soldier near its base. She could also be important, depending on what happens next. When you finally do talk to the overseer Friedo, he tells you that you can talk to Mert but he’ll need something from you before he’ll let you. The easiest option is to bribe him with 100 Denarius. He’ll unlock the door to the cells, and the time segment will be spent. Other than starting combat, there are two other alternatives if you don’t have the money, or just don’t like this guy’s face.
Talk With the Angry Woman (Optional)
If you stop to talk to the angry woman, she’ll tell you that the guards are stealing from the prisoners and passing it on to Yenno for sale. She doesn’t have any proof so she can’t talk to the commander about it.
Talk With the Merchant (Optional)
Go back to Yenno and ask him about prisoners’ belongings disappearing, and he’ll initially say that you have no evidence. If you then say you’re going to ask the commander, he’ll cave immediately, telling you that Cerbus and Friedo are in it together. Go back to Friedo and confront him saying “I know about your deal with Yenno and Cerbus.” He’ll swear at you but will still let you in to see Mert, triggering the time segment to be spent on “Talk to the Overseer”.
Fight Cerbus (Optional)
The other option to convince Friedo to let you talk to Mert, is when you first speak to Friedo, ask him “Is there another way I could persuade you?” He will mention his black eye, and asks you to get revenge on the soldier that gave it to him, Cerbus. If you fight Cerbus, win, and give him Friedo’s regards, Friedo will let you in to see Mert.
Speak with the Miller (2 Time Segments)
When you finally get access to talk to Mert and start to question him, there will be a guard in the room which prevents him from going into detail. When prompted, if you “try whispering”, it will anger the guard and you’ll have to try something else. If you attack the guard, it will cause the entire fort to be put on alert. If you say “Officer! He’s going to be sick!” you will spend 2 time segments and the guard will leave for a short time, allowing you to finish your conversation. Mert will tell you that they tortured information about a rendezvous with his manumit contact out of him, and that her life is in danger. He tells you that the rendezvous is in a clearing southeast of the bridge in the woods. Coen says that he will go there at once, and Mert asks what about him? You can say “I’ll return for you later” or “There’s too many of them” which will keep Mert safe in the meantime, end “The Firebrand”, and automatically start “Shadows in the Woods”. On the other hand, if you say “I’ll try to get you out now” will begin the quest “Under Watchful Eyes”, and you will have to make your escape.
Alternate Ending: Mert Dies
If you aren’t able to speak to Mert and finish “The Firebrand” before dawn on the fourth day after getting the objective, Mert will be hanged. When you speak to the overseer, he will tell you that you’re too late and Mert is dead. They’ve dumped his body behind the tower, and he tells you to see for yourself.
Find Mert’s Body
Sadly it’s true. Mert’s possessions have been sold and the body is just lying there face down in the dirt. When you approach it, you get a brief harrowing vision and your objective will change:
Question Mert’s Corpse (2 Time Segments)
Casting Compel Soul on the body doesn’t yield much, other than to confirm he was tortured.
Look for Catalysts
Using the Bloodied Pincers as a catalyst doesn’t help. Instead, go into the nearby tent and just inside the door on the right will be a sack that you can loot which contains Mert’s wedding ring.
Using the ring as a catalyst, Mert reveals that they threatened his wife unless he talked. He repeats the location of the rendezvous, at a bridge in the woods in a clearing southeast from there. When you end the spell, the quest will be complete, and you’ll automatically start “Shadows in the Woods”.
This finishes The Firebrand side quest in The Blood of Dawnwalker.
For all other Quests refer to The Blood of Dawnwalker Walkthrough.
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