Kingdom Come: Deliverance

[Art Blade]

Like so: Walk around in the sunny garden rather than in the shady library, decide it's time for lunch, and get caught because you were where you weren't supposed to be. Tell "Brother Circator" (a person whose duty it was to go the rounds, especially in a cathedral or monastery) your mind, which he surely doesn't appreciate and in return will punish you more severely. Then speak freely, the joy of free speech, and get kicked out of the monastery. That's not punishment, that's relief

I reloaded after that.

monk's free speech
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[Art Blade]

whoa, this little job, transcribing books, as part of my daily schedule in the scriptorium reaches a level that most certainly doesn't meet everyone's level of education. You are given three visual examples of almost unintelligible pages of a book and per page you're given three text passages to choose from that are supposed to match the page you're looking at... in this case it's a Latin version of the bible. You're screwed if you don't know Latin. Then it's a lottery. But if you know (enough) Latin, then you'll notice the other two options to choose from are nonsensical gibberish

transcriptions
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[Art Blade]

I thought I could get a detailed source but hell, I'm not a Christian so I just reduced it to "bible"

Also I have to add, although it is obvious, that you cannot become a monk if you can't read. You'd have to learn how to read first and then you're allowed in. Luckily I did all that long ago.

[Art Blade]

hahahaha! I just tried different outcomes (the books and text options keep changing which makes it even more difficult if you don't know what you're looking at) and Brother Librarian went from "excellent" over "can you read at all? I've never seen so many mistakes" to "you call that a copy? You've completely ruined the parchment with your scribbling!" 

[Art Blade]

here's an example of what it looks like and how to screw it up. He got the first two right and screwed up only the third bit yet Brother Librarian's arrogant voice when judging he "completely ruined" the parchment made it sound as if everything was wrong. He's got at least one page of the same text that I've got in my pic, by chance. I give you a link with time stamp so you get right to it.

I think the majority of players will be like him. Quite something to make a game quest that difficult as it actually requires you to know Latin (listen closely to what Brother Librarian tells him when he receives the parchment before transcribing the book) in order to score high with Brother Librarian. Thankfully, it's only part of a part of a quest.

https://youtu.be/eA0BL8FgD8Y?t=17m17s

[PZ]

Wow, that's quite the level of detail - never thought I would see that in a video game

[Art Blade]

indeed. When I quit playing yesterday night, I was already looking forward to going back into the cloister and solve some more riddles and quests.. it is somewhat a world on its own.

[Art Blade]

Hmmm. I seem to have run into a bug and on top of that, I'm in serious trouble that makes me think about reloading a savegame prior to entering the monastery. 

So while I did a good job (couldn't take a screenshot when he said "excellent"—the subtitle didn't show) regarding Latin transcriptions..

transcript praise
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..my quest log shows it as a failure.

transcript fail
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And believe me, I tried about five different ways, reloading savegames until I was even early at the library and quickly finished the job (by handing over the transcript) shortly after 12 PM. The schedule a few posts above shows that the time for w0#k in the library is from 12PM to 4PM so I had lots of time. I had to use the "wait" option which is some kind of fast-forward in time just so I didn't have to spend a significant amount of real time. Shortly before 4PM I stopped the waiting, checked my log, it still said that I had delivered the transcript and that I hoped it pleased Brother Librarian. Then a "bong" sound with a pop-up message told me it was time to go to the 4PM afternoon worship. Checking the quest log showed that I didn't deliver the transcription on time and that I could expect punishment. WHAT!

hold on—I just had an idea..

OK, back. I tried it, and failed again: I waited with transcribing and handed it over at 3.30PM in case I had been too fast before. No.

That's the bug. Now the unrelated problem. For some reason, Circator John, whenever he gets close enough to spot me, causes a cutscene that shows him telling me I had been to places I wasn't supposed to go and all that, to which I can either accept punishment or refuse. Refusing results in getting kicked out of the monastery—not my plan (yet) and accepting punishment causes him to perform a mandatory search for items I'm carrying with me that are not allowed in the cloister, and then TWO DAYS of solitary confinement. JESUS CHRIST. When I'm carrying weapons, which I had been, finding them also results in getting expelled from the monastery. So I hid them first and got frisked later and spent two days in a dark cell that's more like a very small cave. I checked, items I had had on me that had then been taken away from me weren't in the chest in the gatehouse. No idea where they went, probably gone for good. Not good.

During my two days in prison I only failed to meet someone (I simply couldn't go see him) in order to secretly fetch wine for him that both of us had been assigned to by the same Brother John, the Circator, who put me behind bars! WHAT THE F He's drinking and gambling in front of my cell door and expects me to deliver a casket of wine I had to steal from a Burgrave or some such, the "local" noble who lives in a mansion of sorts on the monastery compound. OK, it's cool as long as those bugs or whatever don't spoil it.

Ending up in Jail? That's not what I had in mind, really. OK, so the bug may be a bug, doesn't affect my game, it may well be just a wrong paragraph showing up in the log. However, I think I should try again, all of it, but this time REALLY avoiding getting caught. Remember I told you I managed to talk my way out of it once. Indeed, you're allowed that just once, next time you're in prison.

It is just a game, it is just a game..

[Art Blade]

Alright, I did it again: I became a monk for the second time.

The reason is that I had underestimated how easily you can get caught and how severe the penalty is. So this time I'll avoid getting caught at all costs because if I get caught, I might get away with it once. I'm not even sure about that. You're being told that during your first day you may get away with making a mistake. Which means, once the second day begins, I might not even have that option.

Alright then, I'll treat it as if getting caught actually led to imprisonment, so if they surprise me like they did after the transcription, I might still stand a chance.

Also, it means that I won't try my luck at daytime when there are monks everywhere. I much rather do it at night so I can use all my stealth and the empty hallways and rooms to my advantage.

And I prepared before going in: I stashed everything in my own magic chest and only carried quest items that I cannot get rid of and the clothes I wore were stolen

Then there is the glitch that, on joining the monks, takes away all your quest items. Which truly doesn't make any sense. It is something I'll have to play around with. When I ended up in that cell, I checked my inventory: the quest items that I had "stolen back" were still on me. So it is a glitch. However, I noticed that some quests inside the monastery didn't take into account that I had already been there and collected several things. Which means, I'll try and find out which quest items have grown back and which ones haven't. I can still "steal" them back from that chest in the gatehouse.

[Art Blade]

I think it's working now. I tried by facing both Circators and initiating a chat, "nothing to it"

First I have to make a correction: there isn't anything about being allowed a mistake the first day around. Meaning, I got one attempt without punishment, no matter when. It is actually only saying that there are no duties for me the first day.

That day, however, starts early at night so no wonder, except going to sleep there aren't any duties. Which means, I could almost start right away what I had intended to do: searching the monastery at night. And I paid attention to what was in my inventory when starting out. So the first thing was to run across an otherwise forbidden area and grabbed the master key I knew about, it was sitting on a shelf in a dark corner of a room that would have been really hard to access at any other time I suppose.

At night time, I unequipped my habit (a monk's habit, that long white thing I have to wear as a novice and it's black with a hood for the brothers) as well as my shoes because like that, I can run around without making any noise. Sneaky. I ran around the whole cloister and collected 6 missing pages of a book. The remaining four weren't there, those were quest items I had picked up during my earlier visit when I wasn't a novice. And those items were now locked away in the gatehouse where that Brother Porter slept right next to my chest.

You should have seen me: almost bare-arsed, well, with nothing but a white undershirt and bright knickers, I sneaked out of the cloister across some kind of open space towards the gatehouse the door of which was guarded. Luckily, the guard was looking the other way for a moment so I took my chances and sneaked around and past him, opened the door and, trespassing, entered that small room with the sleeping gatekeeper, opened the chest and rummaged through it to pick up my four missing pages. While I was at it, I also picked up the key to the cupboard with the forbidden books in it. And, I just had to walk all over Brother Porter, for the thrill, so I picked his pocket and stole some things, among which the monastery entry writ (a letter of acceptance from the Abbot) that I had to give to him (my false, stolen identity) And back out and back into the cloister. That was quite a thrill and I'm glad that I got away with it just like that without anyone being any wiser

And then I almost screwed up.

I went down into the cellar where I knew I'd find two brethren who usually meet there late at night to do all the forbidden things like drinking wine and playing dice. The two keepers of rules and order, the punishers, the enforcers of monastic life: Circator John and Circator Stibor. Those bigots who threw me in the cell before I decided to start over. Why I went there at all? They give you a cool side quest: steal some wine for them. Yes, that's life..

So I found them, they spotted me as intended, and again I chose to sit down with them for a drink of wine (or so they thought, I never touched the wine as it's the same *bleep* as in real life, too many bad side effects and I needed a clear head) and a game of dice and a little chat. So far, so good. I saved before I moved over. Since I'm a monk, I may now say, thank god I saved. Because the next second one of them noticed something and the cutscene with "you did something.." was played and I was given a chance, my only chance, to avoid punishment. Jesus, I was so happy I had saved just then. Now what was it that caused them to almost throw me in the carceral cave?

Spoiler

I was still running around in underwear.

Actually, I beat both of them at dice So, I got basically all sorts of mini side quests done in one go, prepared another couple, avoided some to play them later (tactical thinking) and am now ready to rumble, err, pray and all that. And so far, no problems with those two gambling and drinking watchdogs

Just a nice view, it looks so peaceful. But you now know better.

inside the cloister 01
(the fratery to the left and alchemy station to the right)
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[Art Blade]

I found out something interesting about that transcription job. When I got up after transcribing three pages, I noticed a "read" prompt and I could check three pages in that book. There was also a "start transcription" prompt when looking at a different angle. Transcribing three and then clicking transcribe again causes a new selection of three pages. Later I found out that submitting three pages finishes the job, even though you can transcribe more, you cannot submit them anymore. So I thought I had translated three times three pages and I got a nice praise (either for the first three—or the last three, I have no idea, lol) yet still I couldn't get the transcription done in my quest log, again it said I handed it over late and to expect punishment.

However, purposely bumping into each of the Circators, they did nothing. Maybe it's indeed only a wrong text in my log.

And again.. Although it seems to be random sometimes.
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[Art Blade]

Now I'm very certain that the "late delivery" is just a wrong text entry in the log. I'm now on my second turn and same result. I should have been punished by now. The Circators don't seem to have any reason to jump at me (yet)

[Art Blade]

Now it's headed towards the end of my life in a cloister. I stirred up all three novices telling them I was looking for a murderer and by that, told the murderer what I was up to. He poisoned my lunch and when I came to, he said he didn't expect me to survive and that he was sorry about what he did. He offered me a bargain: fake his death, and both of us leave the monastery and go our own ways.

Once I've managed that, it will have been nothing but the overture to my main goal of getting recruited by those bandits. I don't know why they're called "crimps," they're recruiters for the bandit army. I know the meaning of crimp in a different context but couldn't find anything regarding recruiters or bandits.

Well. Of course the game gave me different options, I could have opted for killing Antonius or to kill someone in his stead. I might try that for fun, got a savegame for it, just to see what killing an innocent in his stead would cause.

[Art Blade]

I just edited the very first post of this topic because finally I found a really proper, clever and complete playthrough. Mostly without commentary, only things worth mentioning are voiced over.

Here is the first vid from White Locks that I watched when trying to see where I might have missed my last out of 10 pages. There were no posts, no guides, nothing that were remotely comprehensive and fast. He must have unlocked doors and chests before doing a speedrun. Perfect. Then I decided to check out what else he had made, and that's how I found his playthrough.

speedrun for missing pages of a book, also a good quick way to see most of the cloister, so you can watch it for that purpose.


Funny, he found out the same tricks I'm using (for instance, set the wait time at least one hour past the desired time and then manually stop waiting because the last hour of waiting will progress a lot slower) and he did the same as me in the cloister: run for the chest in the gatehouse and fetch quest items previously collected. Also, he made the same funny mistake as I did: run around half naked for tactical purposes (stealth, recognition value) until someone pointed it out to him (his comment, "oops") And what I saw, he made the same choices that I made, even his outfit is virtually identical. He also did the same thing when it came to helping those two brothers who both want to be elected head of the monastery. He found that none of those "betrayals" and spying did anything useful and decided to reload and not help them. I had come to the exact same conclusion and I too reloaded in order not to meddle with those elections. Very interesting how very similar his decision are to my own. And just by the way, he too managed to successfully copy Latin books

Almost every vid on YT I came across was lacking, including ESO's vids (I think he's a little thick) so White Locks is the first guy who actually nailed it so I would recommend watching him IF you are interested in the game or just as a pastime. 

playlist.

Code Select Expand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2vekakbKyo&index=1&list=PL90YOFBe2p0wcgUjJ4KHLS42wMx-I9wht

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2vekakbKyo&index=1&list=PL90YOFBe2p0wcgUjJ4KHLS42wMx-I9wht

[Art Blade]

So I chose  a different option which I won't take in the end but just to see how it played out. I chose to kill someone else instead, just one of the two remaining novices. There was a bug involved, though, judging from vids it is the same bug that occurs if you decide to allow the real target (Antonius) to run away after faking his murder: As a proof that you killed the right guy, Antonius gives you a special die which you will have to show to those "crimps" and he actually hands it over to you in any case. But it mysteriously vanishes so you can't show it to them. I'll yet have to find out whether or not I can get it somehow, maybe by doing it the right way (fake his death, then take him to the bailiff in Sassau for interrogation) or by cheating, if that is possible. We'll see. There was also a narrative flaw. After killing the wrong novice, I told a Circator that I had found a dagger that belonged to the remaining novice (not Antonius) which was true, I handed it over, and the poor owner got taken away for possession of earthly goods. But no one made a connection of a guy hiding a dagger and a stabbed novice. Stupid. For no apparent reason (it was night time, everyone was asleep, the dead novice way still in his bed without anyone being aware of it but me) the alarm bells went off and we were to gather in the courtyard (at other times referred to as the monastery garden..) and the Prior searched all of us. Of course I didn't have the dagger anymore, no one had any weapons on them so we were dismissed with the words that the murderer wasn't among us. Silly. And when the Circator searches you and finds anything, those items get taken away as I know fist hand. After the Prior had searched us, I still had all my stuff, even items marked as stolen. Silly. Apparently the devs didn't expect me to do exactly what I did