The Prey

The Prey is the seventh main quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. After being caught brawling in the tavern in Keeping the Peace, where Henry must accompany Lord Capon on a hunt.

Synopsis[]

In the course of my training I had the honour of making the acquaintance of Sir Hans Capon, and we didn't to a very good start; we ended up brawling in the tavern. Sir Hanush is punishing both of us by sending us hunting together. It was clear that neither one of us was looking forward to the expedition.

Objectives[]

Meet Lord Capon at dawn in the courtyard of the Upper Castle
- Follow Hans Capon
  - Bring Capon wine and bacon from his saddlebag
    - (Optional) Get bacon (0/1)
    - (Optional) Get wine (0/1)
      - Wait until dawn
Compete with Sir Hans at hunting hares
- Go back to the camp
  - Wait for Sir Hans
    - Talk to Sir Hans
      - Follow Hans Capon
        Run down the boar
        Find Hans Capon
        Rescue Hans Capon
        Follow Hans Capon
        Talk to Sir Hans
        
        Check on Hans Capon
        Talk to Sir Hans

Walkthrough[]

After being dressed down by Hanush at the tavern, you are ordered to accompany Sir Hans on his hunt. He will be waiting in the courtyard of the upper castle from the 5th hour. If you haven't arrived between the 10th and 11th hour, Sir Hans will decide to go to the tavern or the bathhouse instead, and you'll need to wait until the next morning.

Bored Sir Hans — Sir Hans waits for Henry

Prepare yourself for the journey - as you'll be hunting, you're advised to wear light clothing (to decrease your noise level) and bring a bow and arrows, as well as some dried food. Consider buying yourself a horse, although it isn't strictly necessary, and don't waste your time trying to save up for a pricey steed in order to impress Sir Hans - he doesn't care. As always, carry a main weapon with you - you never know what you'll come across in the woods.

Go and speak to Sir Hans in order to set off. On the way, Hans will admit that he was out-of-order in the alehouse, but warns Henry that ordering a Lord out of his own Tavern is hardly proper. As it turns out, he has a habit of hazing new recruits to the city watch, and was aggravated by Henry's attitude in Awakening. As the lord points out, he is punished for merely putting a toe out of line, whereas Henry seems to be rewarded for defying orders.

Riding with Sir Hans — Riding to the hunt with Sir Hans

He then asks about Skalitz - apparently, no one has given him any interesting details. Henry is hesitant to talk about it, as it still causes him grief to think about. Lord Hans gleefully decides that he will get Henry drunk when they arrive at their location, and get him to tell him the whole story.

The two of you will travel to the Talmberg Woods, and arrive at your campsite. Here, you'll find a chest with a seax, a bow, some arrows, and some dried food (just in case you forgot something). Help yourself to whatever you need, as Hans commands you to go and get some bacon and wine from his saddlebags. Return them to Sir Hans, and talk for a bit about why Sir Hanush is still in charge of Han's estate. This will improve your reputation with Hans and shed some light on his background.

Henry hunts Hares — Henry successfully shoots a hare

After that, Henry asks what they are there to hunt, and Hans immediately says "Cumans", much to Henry's horror. Luckily, he's only pulling your leg, and is hoping for hares and a boar. He grills Henry about the attack on Skalitz, before the two turn in for the night.

Sleep or wait until the 6th hour, when Hans will rouse you to go hunting with him. To make things interesting, he challenges you to a competition - whoever gets the most hares wins. Although you're probably not a very good shot yet, there are a lot of hares in the area (especially if you take the path north until just before the fork), and you only need to kill one to win. After the competition ends around the 12th hour, he'll give you 100 , and you get to keep any hare meat you collect (be sure to cook it so it doesn't spoil too fast, but do not do that before speaking with Hans as cooked meat won't count as your hunt trophies).

Hunting boar on horseback — Chasing down the boar on horseback

Now it's time for something more exciting - boar hunting. Follow Sir Hans as he tracks a boar and prepares to shoot it with an arrow. Henry points out that boar is hunted with spears, but Hans merely scoffs and shoots the beast, scoring a direct hit and falling immediately to the ground. As he gloats over his superior hunting skills to Henry, the boar suddenly gets up and flees.

If you don't have a horse, Hans will leave you behind in order to get the boar, and you'll have to find him. If you follow the half-hidden path going north-west, it will take you straight to where Hans is ... captured and tied up in a Cuman camp. If you can sneak over to Hans and untie him, you can attempt to creep away, but more likely you'll be spotted. Hans is too injured to run, so you'll need to take out the Cumans if they come after you.

If you have a horse, you'll be able to keep up with Hans, who rides straight into the Cuman camp. They shoot his horse, causing him to fall and hit his head, and kill his two dogs. Henry will need to dispatch the two foreigners and rescue Sir Hans, helping him limp back to Rattay. Regardless of which path the quest takes, you may want to pick the locks on the two chests before you assist Hans - one is empty (normally used by the Cumans to store their equipment before sleeping), but the other has a small sum of groschen and some valuable liturgical items.

Once Sir Hans is safely delivered back home, Henry will be summoned before Sir Hanush and Sir Radzig, who are appalled at the audacity of the Cumans, setting up camp so close to a castle. Sir Hanush wants to conduct more raids, but Radzig wisely points out they don't have the manpower. Henry enters and Hanush thanks him for saving his nephew. In honour of his loyalty and dedication, Sir Radzig officially promotes Henry to his personal service.

Hanush orders Bernard and Henry to ride to Neuhof — Sir Hanush commands Henry to ride with Captain Bernard to Neuhof

As Henry stammers his thanks, Captain Bernard hurries into the room with dire news - the stud farm at Neuhof has been raided by bandits. Many, including Hanush's loyal vassal Smil, are dead or wounded. So far all they know is that the bandits killed indiscriminately, and were led by an enormous man in black armour. Henry instantly recognizes the bandit's description as Runt while Hanush orders Captain Bernard is to ride for Neuhof immediately. Radzig grants Henry permission to accompany them, and Sir Hanush gives Henry his very own horse, Pebbles.

Notes[]

If you wander too far during your search for Hans, you will receive a game-over screen for abandoning your lord. If you wander too far during the trip to the camp, your objective will simply update to meet Hans there and you'll miss out on the ride's conversation.
Getting too close to Hans while hunting for hares will deduct 15 from the hare hunt reward, as he'll accuse you of following him. He tends to hunt on the northern side of the forest, towards Uzhitz, so keep away from that area.
Although the quest clearly intends for you to hunt rabbits with a bow, you may kill them in any way to count as a trophy. If you have the A Woman's Lot DLC, you may command Mutt to use the Hunt perk to easily kill and fetch them. Rabbits killed with melee will also count, although this is much more difficult to pull off as they are very fast.
An easy way of dispatching the Cumans is to wait until dark. Both Cumans will go to sleep and they'll be vulnerable to a Stealth Knockout and Stealth Kill.
Although the quest description says to meet Hans Capon at dawn, you actually have until 10 am to meet up. Since Captain Bernard will be at the training area around 8:30 am, you can actually acquire combos and masterstrikes before going on the hunt. As time does not advance while you train with Captain bernard, you can theoretically level up your weapon of choice to whatever level you like before meeting with Hans Capon.
Given the generous timeframe to start the hunt, you may also do this the same day you ride out if you already have your own horse and leave Rattay in very early morning. Once Hans leaves Rattay, gallop past him straight to the campsite. Even the tier 1 Rocinante can easily make it to the camp in only a few minutes at full speed, upon which the quest will tell you to wait for Hans to catch up. He should still make it here well before 10 am despite his very slow trot, and the rest of the quest will proceed as normal except for Hans immediately telling you to wake up and set out.
At a speed of 31, Sir Hans' horse is desperately slow, so even a mildly trained Henry on foot will probably outrun it. If you don't fancy the rather annoying start-stop-action during the travel, try to slow yourself down by mildly overloading Henry with expendable junk that you can then leave in the trunk at the hunting camp to free up carrying capacity again.