After lowering himself to thievery and subsequently playing a gravedigger’s apprentice on behalf of Miller Kreyzl, Henry finds himself finally in a position to attend the wedding… But this, too, is wrapped up with another one of Kreyzl’s schemes. Help the chamberlain find a date and pull off one final caper during the side quest Opus Magnus in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2!

Page Breakdown¶

Starting Opus Magnum¶

This quest will begin when you talk to Miller Kreyzl at the end of Forbidden Fruit, whereupon he’ll tell you his new scheme: He wants you to steal another book, but this one is locked in Trosky Castle. To get inside, you’ll need a pretty lady to bait Chamberlain Ulrich - a well-known lecher, and Henry will serve as the bodyguard. The only problem is, Kreyzl has almost nothing in place for his plan save for the plan itself - it’s all theory, and Henry’s hard work will have to make it come to fruition, again. What you’ll need to pull this off are:

• A pretty woman willing to subject herself to Chamberlain Ulrich’s advances
• A dress befitting a potential consort for the Chamberlain
• Perfume
• Nice clothes for Henry

Lotta errands to run - let’s get to it! We’ll start by heading to Troskowitz, where we can take care of the perfume and the dress. Getting a lady is going to be a bit more involved, so we’ll save that for later.

Get Perfume¶

One of the easier requirements is to get some Mintha perfume, and Miller Kreyzl gave you two good leads: the alchemist in Troskowitz or Innkeeper Betty… also in Troskowitz. For our money, the easiest and most reliable way to get this perfume is to just buy the recipe from the alchemist and brew it yourself, but we were already very proficient in Alchemy and cooking up six top-tier doses of the stuff was a trivial matter - and created enough for us to use at a later date, when passing Speech checks was paramount.

If you want to try Innkeeper Betty, however, talk to her and she’ll cop to having some of the stuff, which she doesn’t seem willing to part with. Not for any reasonable price, anyways - you can pay her the ridiculous sum of 500~ groschen for a bottle, or succeed at a rather difficult Speech check to convince her that smelling like feet is more distinctive than smelling good. A hard sell, to be sure. If that fails, you can steal some - she keeps a bottle in the chest (hard) by her bed and on her person, if you prefer pickpocketing.

Get a Dress¶

Next up, you’ll need to get your hands on a dress. Go visit Tailor Bartoshek in his house east of the pillory and either buy a Tyrol brocade cotehardie for around 270~ groschen (you can hopefully haggle this down a bit) or wait until night, pick the lock to the door (hard), and steal this same dress from the counter. You may also want to get Henry some clothes, too - the higher the Charisma, the better.

Recruit a Lady Companion¶

For the next task you’ll need to travel to the Zhelejov Wagoners’ Inn and talk to Bathhouse Owner Dorothy. Try to hire one of her girls and pick whatever dialog options you want, the conversation will end the same way regardless. Turns out the girls all have experience with Chamberlain Ulrich (which should disqualify them as candidates outright, what if he recognizes them?), and he’s got a bad enough reputation that none of them are willing to subject themselves to his company, even for two cows. Moreso, Dorothy isn’t cruel enough to force them, but they will tell you of some nomad lady named Enneleyn. Since you’re not going to find what you need here, you may as well visit the Nomad Camp.

Travel to the Nomad Camp and talk to any characters you find - generic or named - and they’ll tell you that this Enneleyn was sent to tend the horses, or failing that, she’ll be near the pond. If it’s during the day, you’ll likely find her near the horses - find her, talk to her, endure her delusions of grandeur and pick whatever dialog options you wish to convince her to be part of Kreyzl’s scheme. Just to keep things interesting she’ll request that you bring her some wine, an optional objective you technically don’t need to take care of, but you can buy Fine Wine from most innkeepers cheap enough, if you want to. Provide her with the dress, and perfume and optionally the wine and she’ll tell you she’s ready to head to the wedding whenever you are.

Wedding Crashers and For Whom the Bell Tolls¶

After you depart for the wedding with Enneleyn, this quest will go dormant… mostly. It’s somewhat entangled with the next main quest Wedding Crashers and the route you took to get to the wedding (via the miller’s route or via the blacksmith’s route, the latter starting with the side quest The Blacksmith’s Son) will influence some parts of Wedding Crashers, but mostly you’re moving on with the main questline. Complete the quest Wedding Crashers, then For Whom the Bell Tolls. The latter quest will take you to Castle Trosky, and while it may seem like you can finally start searching for this latest book Kreyzl wants, you’re limited in what you can explore and what NPCs will say to you at this time. Plus, you’re kind of timed, so don’t dawdle looking for books and keeping playing until Back in the Saddle begins.

Once the quest Back in the Saddle starts, follow Hans and Chamberlain Ulrich through the castle until Hans can’t hold in his well-justified anger any longer. After letting Chamberlain Ulrich have a piece of his mind he’ll leave - keep following Chamberlain Ulrich until he shows you to your room, then enter and loot the chest to get your gear back. From this point on you’re finally free to explore again, and more importantly you have access to most of Castle Trosky, and can finally resume Opus Magnum.

Find Nikvard¶

First step, talk to Scribe Erazim about the book you seek - if anybody would know where a specific book is, it’s the castle’s scribe. You’ll find him in his room near the top of the southwestern tower, just track the objective icon until you find him. Talk to him and go through his dialog options to learn that a nobleman named Nikvard last had the book, and Scribe Erazim suspects the old man lost it. He can’t confirm, since Nikvard has been ghosting him recently, but he’ll give you the names of three people who might know where Nikvard is: Be sure to ask Scribe Erazim about each one of these laborers so their locations are marked on your map - it’ll make finding them much easier.

Ask Cook Bertha about Nikvard¶

Head downstairs from Scribe Erazim to reach the kitchen where you’ll find Cook Bertha and talk to her to learn that Nikvard had a recent, secret ailment that Bertha is inclined to keep mum on. Either bribe her with 200 groschen or pick the dialog option “Listen to me closely.” followed by whatever dialog option you prefer to get the information you seek.

Ask Maid Regina about Nikvard¶

Next up, it’s Maid Regina, who can usually be found on the lower to middle floors of the northeastern tower. Find her, talk to her and offer to read a letter left by Nikvard to learn he drank some “Lightbringer’s potion” which, as a side effect, “sent all of the Lightbringer’s secrets into the void.” That probably explains his gastrointestinal distress, and doesn’t bode well for the book we seek.

Ask Hired Hand Hersh about Nikvard¶

Only one more peasant to ask about Nikvard. To find Hired Hand Hersch, head through the gate northwest of the smithy, then turn right (northeast) and head downhill until you reach the smithy. From here turn northwest through another gate, then turn right (northeast) again and head downhill until you see a building off to your right (southeast). Hired Hand Hersch can usually be found tending a garden behind this building, and if you talk to him he’ll ramble about spies and going off to war.

Long story short, he won’t tell you about his abandoned task for Nikvard until you gift him a sword. You can buy it, find it, craft it, and it doesn’t need to be in good condition, but it does need to be some sort of longsword (Bladed - Long) - a Common Longsword can be purchased off the blacksmith in Castle Trosky, but this will set you back around 350~ groschen. The sketch for a Common Longsword will cost you 280~ groschen, but you also have to get the materials and spend time crafting it.

If you don’t want to spend any groschen, you’ve still got options. First, you could leave Castle Trosky and hunt for bandits, who can come equipped with such weapons, but this is fairly uncommon. Second, assuming you don’t mind some light theft, head back through the gate to the stables and head all the way southwest to reach a multistory building past the combat arena. Head upstairs to the second floor and search between the beds to the east to find a Common Longsword leaning against a table.

However you get a longsword, give it to Hired Hand Hersch and he’ll tell you that Nikvard wanted Hersch to look for something he lost outside the castle before another bout of… tummy rumblings… caused him to run off before Hersh could hear any specifics.

Find the Book¶

Now that you’ve gathered this information, return to Scribe Erazim (he won’t be marked on your map, but if you wait in his room, he’ll eventually show up) and tell him what you learned about Nikvard, which will cause Henry to piece things together, if you haven’t done so yourself. Respond with “The book fell into the privy.” when you get the chance and you’ll get the objective Find Nikvard, along with a fresh map market that seems to point to the westernmost edge of the castle.

Exit Castle Trosky (exit the gate near the stables, then turn west to find another gate that’ll take you outside) and follow the walls and cliffs as you head southwest. Keep your eyes to the left as you go, however, and you’ll find a slope you can ascend to reach the exterior of the tower along the western edge of Castle Trosky - the same tower past the combat arena, which houses the latrine Nikvard was using and the barracks above where you may have sourced a Common Longsword for Hired Hand Hersch earlier. Search the mounds of shit at the base of the tower to find the corpse of Nikvard (note that his body is lootable, and this isn’t considered robbery) and around the corner of the tower you’ll find the book Lightbringer’s Secret. Finally, after all that trouble, you have the book Kreyzl wanted. He never said it couldn’t be covered in excrement, and even if he dares to throw a fit, his stupid courtesan plan was an utter bust. He should frankly be happy he’s getting anything at this point.

There’s still a good bit of chatter left in this quest, but if you want to just finish things up and give the book to Kreyzl, that’s all there really is - head to the mill near Semine, give the book to Kreyzl, navigate the dialog and after some scenes you’ll get the Recipe for Lead shot gunpowder. Quest done. Of course, there’s a complication you can indulge in, if this ending is too clean and straightforward for you.

Betray Kreyzl¶

Let’s be honest, Kreyzl’s up to no good, and if you want you can turn him over to Bailiff Thrush. You can do this at any point during this quest, but there’s no need to bother being an early nark - once you have the book Kreyzl wants, head to Troskowitz and tell Bailiff Thrush about Kreyzl’s operation. Nothing comes of this now, but Bailiff Thrush will encourage you to keep gathering information until there’s an opportune time for the law to strike. That time happens to be immediately after you give Kreyzl the book he wants, after which he’ll invite you to The Lair.

Once you have the aforementioned invitation, return to Bailiff Thrush and tell him, then you and the law will travel together to The Lair to confront Kreyzl and his henchmen. It doesn’t matter what you say here (aside from reputation changes), the Bailiff will see justice done and after they leave you can loot Kreyzl’s body to obtain several books and recipes, including the Lightbringer’s Secret, On Simony, Offer of Hermes Trismegistus, Recipe for Hair o’ the Dog and Recipe for Quickfinger Potion.