The Hunt Begins is the eighth main quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. There have been reports of an attack on the Neuhof stud farm, and Henry is asked to accompany Sir Bernard as he investigates.
You also receive the horse Pebbles for helping Hans Capon.
Synopsis[]
Someone raided the Neuhof stud farm and Sir Radzig has sent me there along with a squad of his men to investigate what actually happened.
Objectives[]
- Go and report to Captain Bernard in the courtyard
- Mount your new horse
- Follow the men to Neuhof
- Talk to Sir Bernard
- Find out where the raiders went
- (Optional) Scout the area
- (Optional) Question the survivors
- Explore the area to the north of the farm
- Explore the clearing in the woods
- Search the bandit
- Explore the clearing in the woods
- Explore the area to the north of the farm
- Find out where the raiders went
- Mount your new horse
- Find the owner of the hoof-pick from Neuhof
- Find out from Jakub where Ginger could have fled
Walkthrough[]
Immediately after Henry rescued Sir Hans from the Cumans and was officially promoted to Sir Radzig's service, Captain Bernard arrives with terrible news - the Neuhof stud farm has been raided by bandits led by Runt, and they have killed several people. As a reward for his loyalty, Henry is given a horse - Pebbles, and is instructed to ride with Captain Bernard to Neuhof.
Henry and Bernard enter Neuhof
The captain wont wait for you though, so set off right away or get organized fast. If you don't get there along with the captain, the investigation will proceed without you, and you'll lose your chance to catch the bandits that might be lingering in the area.
Mount your new steed and travel to the stud farm. Once you arrive, the captain and his men will cautiously enter the courtyard, seeing signs of a scuffle but not yet seeing the horror that the fleeing stable-hand described back in Rattay. Bernard questions a man who is sitting against the wall covered in blood, who can only stammer that everyone is in the paddock.
Henry passes through the stables and into the yard to see the full extent of the carnage. Horses lie dead, and the stables are still smoking from being set ablaze. Worse, two bodies are lying in pools of blood - one is Franta, a stablehand, and the other is Master Smil. Smil's widow, Zora, is crouched next to his body, clearly in shock.
A stunned Henry surveys the massacre as Bernard questions Zora
She tells the soldiers that men broke into the stables and hamstrung the horses. Radek was murdered when he tried to stop them, and Smil too was killed when he intervened, followed by a half dozen more workers. Then, the raiders set fire to the stables and fled.
The Captain tries to reassure Zora that justice will be served, but she seems not to hear him, telling them that they left the horses alive, and she, along with her stable-hands and Mark, had to put them down themselves as the stables burned. Captain Bernard asks whether anything was stolen, or if her husband had enemies, but there appears to be no motive. Unfortunately, the captain is better at soldiering than he is at questioning grieving widows and terrified stablehands, and Zora dissolves into tears as the shock wears off.
Bernard gives Henry his orders
Exasperated, Bernard orders his men to look for tracks and question the locals. Henry immediately asks what he can do to help, but the captain is at first uninterested in dealing with an upstart blacksmith and tells him to stay where he is. However, Henry is able to convince him that he can help, although Bernard warns him to stay close, don't interfere, and come back as soon as the search is complete.
First, inspect the dead horses and the two bodies, then talk to Zora. Although Henry is at first hesitant to question a grieving widow, she tells him that the sooner he knows everything, the sooner you can catch the savages who invaded her home. After being awakened by noise in the stables, Smil went outside to investigate. Then, she heard the screams, although she did not find out the full extent of the slaughter until dawn broke and the smoke cleared. Zora confirms that the bandits were Czech, not Cuman, and they appeared to be arguing. Unfortunately, she did not see anyone who matches Runt's description.
Leave the widow to her grief and speak to Jakub, who is standing near the stable doors covered in blood. He is injured, and furious, raging at the soldiers for not getting there in time to save his friends. Henry can try and convince him that he's not a solider, or else (if he has the First Aid I perk), bind his arm for him.
The carnage at Neuhof
Jakub's Stats[]
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| 5 | 5 | 8 | Lvl 2 |
When he heard the horses screaming in pain, Jakub ran out and managed to get hold of one of the raiders, beating him with his bare hands in a rage. Unfortunately, the bandit, who is turns out was Runt, had a weapon and cut him, but was chased off by the other stable hands before he could finish Jakub off. The stablehand tells you to see if they knocked down a fence or gate in their rush to escape, which may help point which direction they went in.
Follow the path out of the stables and inspect the body that's lying out there before speaking to the guard. He will point you towards the main stables. Head down past the pond, taking note of the dead body lying on the pier. Go across to the main yard, where there are five more bodies, and some villagers mourning the dead. Mark is sitting near the wagon, unharmed but clearly traumatized.
Henry questions Mark
Mark's Stats[]
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| 1 | 6 | 4 |
He describes how they heard the horses screaming in pain, and ran to investigate. Smil shouted at the raiders and was murdered as the fire blazed. There weren't many bandits, Mark tells you, but they appeared to be quarreling before some of them fled north to the woods - the others followed as soon as the rest of the stable-hands appeared. Finally, he is able to confirm that Runt was amongst the gang.
Ginger is standing by the stable door, but he claims to have not seen anything. Now that you have questioned all the witnesses, head towards the main gate. Near a dropped bag of flour, you can inspect the mud to find some tracks leading away from the stables. Take a closer look at the gate to confirm that the raiders fled north, through the woods.
If you want, continue on your own, otherwise go back and tell the captain what you found. He is dubious, but orders the guard Ruda come with you to investigate. Head back through the main gate and follow the path through the woods until you reach the road, where you'll see another large pool of blood. If you haven't already, you can hurry back to Captain Bernard and get him to send Ruda with you.
Sneaking up on the bandits
Continue down the path into the woods towards the sound of voices - but if you didn't get to Neuhof fast enough, you'll just have to search until you find a body. Otherwise, you'll be able to sneak up on two of the bandits. One is gravely injured and is begging his friend to end his suffering. Take out the first bandit and then turn your attention to the second. He's only moments from death, so search his body to find the bloody hoof-pick. It must belong to someone from Neuhof, so go back and talk to one of the stablehands.
Another way to go about it is to head into the woods on your own, but don't dilly-dally. You'll need to catch the start of their talk. Sneak up to the bandits and listen to their conversation. They will mention Ginger by name. That will give you some extra dialog options (and speech XP) later on. Attack them (or sneak-kill) when the dying bandit begs to be taken out of his misery. Let him die on his own if you want to keep a zero next to the 'killed civilians' stat. Now, instead of looting him, head back to Neuhof and report your find to Captain Cheerful. He will remind you that you should have searched the bandits. He takes 6 people with and goes back to the place where the - now dead - bandits are. For the first time you will actually hear him praise you for your work. Now loot the bandit and take the hoof-pick. Be a bit of a dimwit and ask Capt. Cheerful whose hoofpick this is and he'll point out the obvious to you. Just bag the extra speech XP. Now go back to Neuhof to find out about it.
Both Mark and Zora will confirm that the hoof-pick is Ginger's, but he's gone missing. They both advise you to ask Jakub, but first - tell Sir Bernard about what happened in the clearing. He'll run off to investigate, while you question Jakub. As it turns out, Ginger fled north, towards Uzhitz, but Jakub doesn't know where. However, he is friends with some charcoal-burners in the south, who may be able to give you more answers.
Notes[]
- When you investigate in Neuhof you can gain extra speech XP by talking to the guard near the corpse by the pond and by inspecting the carious horse cadavers and blood stains. Henry mumbling to himself also gives XP for speech.
- Even if you already own a horse, you'll need to mount Pebbles in order to satisfy the objective. Don't worry, Pebbles wont override your preferred steed.
- The two bandits north of Neuhof are both wearing the quieter version of the Padded chausses. This is one of the earliest opportunities to get one of those if you want to use stealth armour (see Stealth)
- The dying bandit in the woods is wrongly classified as a civilian, so all items (except the hoofpick) that you loot from him will be marked as stolen. Also, if you want to keep a clean vest of not killing any civilians, let the bandit die on his own after you spoke to him.
- When you decide to run off for more than a day and do something else right after arriving at Neuhof, then return and talk to Bernard, he will get angry at you for running off, making you lose reputation and will also inform you they already found the dying bandit and his friend without you. You can take it from there and continue with the quest.