Tricks of the Trade is a side quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. There is a rumor that the blacksmith of Sasau channels magic into his blades. Henry sets out to find out if there is any truth to the claim.
Synopsis[]
There's talk that the Sasau blacksmith uses magic charms when tempering steel and his counterpart in Ledetchko would like to know if there’s any truth in it.
Objectives[]
- (Optional) Find out the truth about the blacksmith's so-called sorcery.
- Listen to the blacksmith's ditty.
- Go back to the Ledetchko blacksmith with word of the tempering process.
- (Optional) I need to find out the exact order of the blacksmith's ditty.
- Go back to the Ledetchko blacksmith with word of the tempering process.
- Listen to the blacksmith's ditty.
Walkthrough[]
Speak to the Ledetchko Blacksmith, who will relay a rumour he has heard about the Sasau Blacksmith, Mikesh. Apparently, Mikesh can be overheard chanting as he tempers steel, and none of his work ever breaks. Whether he is praying for assistance or calling on darker forces, nobody can say. But the Ledetchko Blacksmith is determined to get to the bottom of the trick, and enlists Henry's help to find out what the secret is. He warns Henry to be subtle in his investigation, and not to tell Mikesh that people suspect sorcery.
Go to Sasau and find Mikesh working at his forge. Despite what the blacksmith said, you can ask him outright about the so-called spells, and he will laugh and tell you that's it just a rhyme to ensure he doesn't hold the steel in the fire too long. Mikesh will reveal that he learned the trick from his father, and Henry can choose to try and use his superior speech skills to tell Mikesh that Martin was a blacksmith too. (Note: Henry must have a maintenance level of at least 12. Otherwise, the speech check, no matter how high your speech stat is, will fail.)
Mikesh sings his ditty
5
12
8
The two will swap techniques and discuss the good honest life of a blacksmith. After that, ask a few more questions about quenching and tempering, and then head off back to Ledetchko.
If you managed to find out about the technique, tell him and he'll give you 100 
, even if you tell him about nothing breaking or about tempering twice. Otherwise, repeat the ditty:
- The sun sets out across the skies... he loses his way, to the forge he flies.
- Kuttenburg is far ... far away, Kuttenberg is far here I'll stay.
- My breath is short … my feet are sore. I'd buy a horse, but I am poor.
- The sun may burn ... the sun may shine, but you'll not wither, darling mine.
- And then he heated it again.
- The sun he hides behind a cloud ... his heart goes cold and his fire goes out.
- He drowned the fish ... and broke its neck, threw it down upon the deck.
- Fry your fish ... the fish head's best, fishy thighs and fishy breast.
- And that's all of it.
If you get something wrong, the blacksmith will admonish you and tell you go back and listen again. Once you get it right, he'll give you 100 (85 in Hardcore mode).
Notes[]
- This is one of the quests you can do before meeting Sir Radzig in Awakening. However, it is not advisable to do so as that early in the game your speech stat will likely be too low to pass the speech check.
- This quest is one of several short, easy side quests happening or starting in Sasau (including A Costly Brawl, A Friend In Need..., Weeds, New Herbarium, Queen of Sheba's sword). They can easily be finished or at least started in a single day, which is useful as travel to Sasau is almost impossible without passing one or two ambush spots. It is therefore advisable to do/start all these in a single day shortly after completing Ginger in a Pickle.