Back in the Saddle

Back in the Saddle is a main quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

Walkthrough[]

Right after your talk with Otto von Bergow, Ulrich will lead you outside where Hans will immediately accost the chamberlain for nearly getting him killed. He'll then inform Henry he'll meet him at the gates when ready.

If you want, you can follow the chamberlain, who will talk to you a bit about Trosky Castle before showing you to your quarters—a small room near the forge. More importantly, your storage chest is inside, containing all your taken items, and Mutt will be back at your side if you found him. However, none of your clothing presets are saved, so you'll need to manually re-equip everything if you had them set a certain way.

When you're ready, go talk to Kabat and he'll tell you the horse tack is prepared, but also that he was instructed to ask whether you'd like to keep your current horse or accept the one von Bergow is offering. You can then check out the nearby horse, Herring and then let Kabat know your choice. If you decline the offer, he'll come up with an idea to secretly sell Herring for some coin and split the profits with you—while telling the lord you accepted the horse. You can agree, refuse, or pass a speech check to ask for more groschen. Either way, he'll then give you some horse tack.

Meet up with Hans[]

Note when you set out with Hans, a number of activities will come up later in the quest. As you won't have access to an alchemy bench, it's recommended you have at least a few Saviour Schnapps to save as needed so you don't have to re-load too far out from the last save if you mess up somewhere.

Hans will only set out in the morning (wanting to be back by sunset), so if you're wanting to run around and do other things, keep this in mind that you'll have to wait out time to the next morning if it's too late in the day.

Once ready and during a time Hans is ok with (usually indicated by him waiting just outside an archway/gate area) approach and talk to him. Here you can talk a bit and, if wanting to express any romantic interest, an option comes up in the second conversation. He'll also mention wanting to make good on his promise to repay Bozhena for her kindness, which if you already did Henry will automatically tell him, earning some reputation. If you also did Bad Blood, Henry will likewise mention part of this, earning some more reputation. After that, mount up and follow Hans, who'll talk a bit and you can respond how you wish.

Shortly outside the castle, Hans will mention needing to let loose for a bit and asks to race, which you can agree to or not. If you agree, you'll race him to the shrine at the crossroads to the southwest of Troskowitz. Note you don't need to stick to the roads either: you can cut across the fields here entirely if you want. If you beat him, he'll reward you with 55 Groschen.

Afterwards, you'll continue riding a bit with Hans, where a couple topics can be discussed before you're given the option to fast travel or continue manually traveling (but won't open further topics even with the latter). Choose whatever you like, and eventually you'll make it to Nebakov Fortress.

Nebakov Fortress[]

At the fortress gate, you're told to leave as Jaromier Nebak isn't accepting visitors. However, not having it, Hans will demand to see him as he has a message from von Bergow. You'll eventually be let in where the lord will meet you with some of his men. Small talk is made, notably about the large amount of horses Jaromier has, before he heads off to talk with Hans privately while having one of his men, Michael, show you around.

Michael will take you to where their dice player is, next to the kitchens and asks you to join him in eating. If you do, he'll ask into why von Bergow sent you, where you can choose to answer or not. If you tell him you don't know, he'll try again to see if you can drop any details, which you can oblige or remain firm. Eventually he'll ask if you want to have a friendly duel or not, which you can accept or decline. Note that if you caved and provided some information, right after this you have the option to then inquire about how they have so many horses. Michael will oblige, noting Jaromier had acquired some deceased relatives' lands that he couldn't be given, so they instead gave him a bunch of horses as compensation.

Note if you agreed to duel him and proceed to do so, he is a tough opponent, fighting with a shield. If you best him, he'll give you rowel spurs. He'll then point you to several people at the fortress you can talk to: Klara, Zwerk, Peltzel, and Mark.

Klara is located at her small hut just past the archway to the left of the blacksmith. You can ask her to tend to your wounds, after which you can talk a bit, impressing her with your scholarly knowledge if you pass the check. She'll then ask if you can go along with her to help her out. If you agree, note there are two different ways this part will affect later dialogue choices based on how you answer:

Picking the flirting option will lock out a way to get a little information about the fortress (but the information isn't crucial)
Noting to explore the fortress will have her provide a little information with a speech check (but the romantic option will still appear if you decide to not ask her for information)

Regardless of choice, she'll lead you out to a field past the horse pastures to gather materials. Keep in mind an auto-save point is made after this choice.

While you walk, she'll ask you to talk to her about your travels, of which you can choose two to talk about. At the field, she'll then request you help her gather some herbs. If you have high enough survival skills, you can further impress her with your knowledge to gain some more reputation before she sends you off to gather marigold, poppy, and sage. These are found throughout the field. Once you have enough, bring them back to her and she'll note she has to reveal something to you, then will lead you further off to a secluded area.

Depending how you agreed to accompany her, the following options may happen:

If you flirted, she'll go straight to giving you a riddle that can lead to a romantic encounter
- If you want to decline her advances, choose the "I'm not in the mood for this", though this will cause some reputation loss
If you didn't flirt, you have the option to ask her what she wanted to tell you (leading to the riddle above) or demand what's going on at the fortress with a speech check.
- If you successfully press for details, she'll confirm just enough that something is going on. However, she wants nothing else to do with you, causing some reputation loss.

Zwerk is the dice player and who you can use a silver badge with. He doesn't give any special rewards or information other than the standard betting amount you picked if you win.

If you head out to talk to the groomer, Peltzel, note that there's a villager standing near the trough who'll try to get your attention. If you talk to the villager, he'll make a remark he's going out to get some deadwood (kindling) indicating he wants you to follow him. If you do so, he'll lead you out a short ways where nobody else is around and then warns you something is very off about the people: he hasn't seen Jaromier in ages and it seems some new men are in charge now, claiming to be friends with Jaromier. He'll then see a guard approaching from the distance and will run off before he's spotted. You can then go and intercept the guard, who comes up with some lame excuse why he was out there before telling you you should go back to the fortress.

If you talk to Peltzel, you can try to convince him with a speech check (with medium checks to ask about the horses or that you're interested in them, otherwise hard check for wasting a knight's time) to get him to reveal where the horses came from. Otherwise, you'll have to race and win to get details out of him. Getting him to talk will reveal they got the horses when they took out some bandits, which if you talked to Michael, clearly doesn't line up. You can poke some more at his story, which will get him to stammer and mix up details, locations, and names.

If you choose to race, you'll face off against Hertel and will need to race down the valley, to Nebakov Mill, and back. If you win, Peltzel will give you a Hungarian saddle.

Mark is in the area over the gate and will let you try to compete against him in archery. If you win, he'll reward you with an Old field crossbow.

Note also that if you found the stockpile of ammo, you can question him on this, but he won't provide any details and causes some reputation loss.

Exploring the fortress[]

By this point, if you've got information about the horses from both Michael and Peltzel, or talked to the villager, you're likely realizing something fishy is going on. You can either choose to try and explore around some more or continue with various activities. Keep in mind as your time limit is 6 in-game hours at the fortress (after which the meeting will be done and you won't be allowed to continue walking around the fortress interior) you may not be able to do every activity while also figuring out what's going on.

Steer is the blacksmith, located right inside the fortress' gate. You can talk shop with him and, with high enough skill, get him to reveal some of the guys are working on something further downhill. When you offer to help though, he'll suddenly become flustered and wave it off and try to direct you to some of the other activities instead.

If you found the surplus of equipment, you can ask him on this, but he won't reveal any information about it.

Hertel is standing guard at a door on the ground floor of the tower, just past the dice table. Talking to him will reveal there's prisoners and understandably, you're not allowed into the area. If you want in, there's a few ways to do this, some more trickier than others:

Get the keys that are one floor above, in the dining hall in the tower. This area is a private area, so you'll have to sneak in, then quickly sneak through the door right inside to find the keys on the table here and get out. You may opt to carefully do this by opening and closing doors as you go so nobody gets suspicious, but will have to make a careful exit out.
Rely on lockpicking. Instead of getting the keys, you can try to lockpick the door. However, it's a hard lock and you may get spotted by a patrolling guard, as they frequently pass through the area.

No matter what you choose, you still need to get Hertel out of the way, either by using a medium speech check to get him to leave for a bit or, failing that, go into the kitchen area, use the backdoor here to sneak around and knock him out discreetly. Just be careful of the other guards around.

Once inside, quickly close the door behind you so guards don't get suspicious, then turn to the cells to see the prisoners. Talk to the nearest one and he'll soon reveal he's the real Jaromier: his fortress was taken by surprise by bandits who are now holding him captive there. He'll then beg you to quickly head back to let von Bergow know of the situation. You can try to talk more with him, though you may not have much time if you left a door open or aroused enough suspicion that it puts the bandits on alert (like if they find you stole the keys). However, if you have time, with a hard speech check you can get Jaromier to reveal some details of how the fortress was taken, but will cause some reputation loss. If you likewise question why you should believe him, this will also cause some reputation loss.

This is entirely dependent on actions you took when you were helping out Bozhena during Fortuna. If you convinced them to leave, they'll appear here, behind Klara's hut. Talk to either one and they'll give the same conversation, with Henry remarking he recognizes them from somewhere. If you pick the right one (Rocktower pond) they'll suddenly drop details that re-confirm they're the bandits that were trying to find you, raising further suspicions if you haven't already talked to the prisoner.

Ammo[]

If you take to exploring around, just past the kitchen area are stairs that go to the right, with a locked door here in this small area. You can lockpick it, but be careful of the patrolling guards, and make sure to quickly close the door behind you so they don't see you snooping. Once in, examine the area near the target to notice they have a ton of ammunition. When ready to leave, try to do so when you don't hear a guard passing by.

Equipment[]

At the very top of the fortress' tower are some sleeping guards and a lot of equipment which you can examine. You can examine and steal items, just be aware if you get spotted acting suspicious in this area, they may figure out you stole the items here.

Leipa Shield and Pistol[]

This one's harder to reach since it's in a private area at the far end of the fortress, with a guard at the gate and workers around. Go to Klara's hut, then look at the fence opposite it—you'll see an opening with some fallen posts. Go through and follow the outer wall all the way around to the back of the fortress. There's an opening near a building.

If angled right, you can examine a Leipa shield just inside the building from the fence opening. Note regarding Mutt here: Mutt has a tendency to set the nearby soldiers off, so while they'll focus on him, this can cause complications trying to leave discreetly/without raising any alarms if you want to explore the building here.

If you want to look around some more, carefully enter this restricted building and pick the medium locked door to enter to find a number of things to examine: the equipment, the contraption to the right of the door, and if you pick the medium locked chest, the ammo inside. If you had completed Opus Magnum, Henry's remarks will be different here regarding the contraption and ammo, recognizing it as similar to what Kreyzl's been working towards.

Reunite with Hans[]

After six in-game hours have passed, your objectives will automatically update to show that the meeting has concluded. At this point, the entire interior of the fortress becomes a private area, and everyone will tell you to leave. Return to Hans—if you uncovered the truth and found the real lord, Henry will briefly explain the situation and why they need to leave quickly. Otherwise, he won't have anything special to report. Either way, you'll immediately head back to Trosky Castle to report to von Bergow.

If you didn't find out the truth, Hans will give his report on what "Jaromier" agreed to send. While you can mention the horses, Hans will add that Jaromier hired mercenaries, and that—per his contract with them—it would cost extra to send them out for tasks beyond protecting the fortress. Von Bergow will wonder how the lord managed to afford so many mercenaries, but the conversation soon shifts to another topic: a captured prisoner who was part of the group that ambushed von Bergow.

If you did find out the truth, you'll instead reveal that the fortress is in the hands of bandits and that Jaromier is their prisoner. While this is certainly alarming, von Bergow sees one silver lining: the bandits have walked themselves into a trap, as he expects the fort can be easily besieged once preparations are made. He'll then move on to the next topic: a captured prisoner who was part of the group that ambushed him.

However, his next issue is a sensitive one: it requires the possible torture of the prisoner, which is usually handled by executioners. As the castle lacks one though, he asks Hans and Henry to do it instead, especially as it's personal to them as well. You can either readily agree (earning some reputation), be against it (loss of reputation), or note you'll try other ways if possible (no reputation change). The three will talk a bit more before von Bergow asks you both if you noticed anything suspicious going on while he was away. Depending how much you've already explored, you may have a long list here but can only choose one (or none). Worthy of note though is remarking that "Young Semine left his own wedding." Important: using this line can cause a very hard speech check in the next main quest if you wish to avoid certain outcomes. If you wish to keep options open and don't think you'll have enough to pass said check, use something else or say nothing.

The conversation will then wrap up, but if you uncovered the truth, von Bergow will tack on one additional thing: a special reward for you that you can claim from Black Bartosch (which will be a weapon of any type along with a few armor pieces). The weapon given will be one of the following based on your pick:

Longsword - Common longsword
Short sword - Broadsword
Axe - Bearded axe
War hammer - Rider's war hammer
Polearm - Glaive

Objectives[]

Talk to the stable hand.
Follow the chamberlain. (Optional)
Take your equipment.
Escort Sir Capon to Nebakov.
If you agree to race:
- Race Sir Hans!
Escort Sir Hans Capon to Nebakov.
Wait till Sir Hans' meeting is over.
Find out more about the Nebakov horses. (Optional)
Get to know Michael the adjutant. (Optional)
- Take on Michael in a duel. (Optional)
- Talk to Michael about the outcome of the duel. (Optional)
Explore the fortress. (Optional)
Beat Hertel in a race. (Optional)
- Ride to the granary at Nebakov mill! (Optional)
- Rid back to Nebakov! (Optional)
- Collect the winnings from Peltzel. (Optional)
Accompany Klara on a walk. (Optional)
- Talk to Klara. (Optional)
- Find marigold for Klara. (0/8) (Optional)
- Find poppies for Klara. (0/5) (Optional)
- Find sage for Klara. (0/4) (Optional)
- Bring Klara the herbs. (Optional)
Escort Sir Hans back to Trosky.
Go with Capon to Lord von Bergow to announce your return.

Notes[]

Either due to being a bug or just an odd side effect, if you convinced Hertel to leave his post and went into the prison and closed the door, if you're still inside the prison when he comes back, this won't set the guards off when you exit the prison (just a scolding from Hertel).