Poverty, Chastity and Obedience

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Poverty, Chastity and Obedience
Description
Type	Main Quest
← Quest	If You Can't Beat 'em
→ Quest	A Needle in a Haystack - Side Quests - In the Cloister
Skill Checks	Manfred Brother Porter

Poverty, Chastity and Obedience is the eighteenth main quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It begins after speaking with Kozliek in If You Can't Beat 'em, where he will task Henry with killing Pious, who himself is hiding in the Sasau Monastery.

Background

I discovered that the only way to the monastery leads through a young nobleman, who is supposed to join the monk's ranks.

Simple walkthrough

• Talk to the young man who's supposed to enter the monastery
  • (Optional) Get rid of the guardian so you can speak to Karl in private.
    • Play dice with Manfred
      • Talk to Karl
        • Steal the guardian's purse
        • (Optional) Steal the writ from the guardian
• Tell Sir Radzig what the bandits want you to do
• Enter the monastery as a novice.
  • Go with the writ to the Monastery porter
    • (Optional) Put away all your worldly goods and chattels
    • (Optional) Put on the monk's habit

Detailed walkthrough

In order to access the Monastery grounds and get to Pious, Kozliek recommends two potential approaches. First, he has heard that there is a young noble in town who is about to join the brotherhood. This prospective novice might be worth speaking to, or at least impersonating. Alternatively, there may be a secret passage into the Monastery, or at least some other way of sneaking in uninvited.

Seeking Radzig's input

Before continuing, it is recommended to report to Sir Radzig on Henry's progress infiltrating the bandits. While Kozliek previously warned Henry he will be watching closely, this is evidently a bluff. In any case, Radzig is less than enthusiastic about Henry needing to kill someone to gain the crimps' trust. That this needs to be done in the Monastery is even greater cause for concern. He instead suggests that Henry arrest Pious and bring him back to Rattay for trial, though Radzig unfortunately cannot provide further direct assistance.

Impersonating Karl

Karl tells Henry his tale of woe

To infiltrate as a novice, the player will need to speak to Karl, who is currently staying at the Wagoners' Inn with his guardian Manfred. Karl is enjoying his last few days of freedom, and is far from eager to become a novice. He becomes very interested in Henry taking his place at the Monastery, though it is clear he first needs privacy from Manfred to properly plan this with Henry. Deal with him in any number of ways to continue speaking with Karl.

Once Manfred is dealt with, Karl will explain that he is being sent to the Monastery after siring a bastard child with his Lord's daughter, ruining her father's plans for her advantageous marriage. He would still gladly escape, but Manfred has all his money, his saddle, and his riding cloak. Additionally, Manfred refuses to let Karl out of his sight, believing that the Monastery is the safest place for him. Henry will therefore need to steal two things from Manfred: the writ that will let him enter the monastery posing as Karl, and the coin purse that Karl needs to fund his own travels.

Henry is stripped of his wordly possessions

Manfred will prove a dilligent guardian, and he cannot be persuaded to willingly give up either of the key items. The player will therefore need to steal them from him, either with pickpocketing or looting his inventory while unconscious. They can then optionally give Karl his purse to uphold Henry's end of the deal, or betray him since he no longer has any leverage over Henry.

Joining the Benedictine monks

Henry approaches the altar to take his vow

Go to the Monastery and speak to Brother Porter. He is suspicious of Henry, as "Karl" was supposed to arrive with a guardian, yet Manfred is nowhere in sight. Nevertheless, he will ask Henry if he can read, and then ask if he is ready to enter the Order of St. Benedict.

When ready, Porter will direct Henry towards the chest where he can store his worldly goods in exchange for a monk's habit. After this, Henry will enter the monastery and be led to the chapel, where he will meet the four other novices and recite the Latin oath to formally become novice Brother Gregor. With a bit of quiet prompting from fellow novice Brother Antonius, Henry barely manages the Latin oath, horrifying the Prior.

Assassinating Pious

If the player wishes, they may forgo infiltrating as a novice to attempt a direct assassination of Pious. This will also be required if illiterate since Porter will otherwise deny Henry entrance. Unfortunately, Kozliek's "secret entrance" is nonexistent, and all entrances to the Monastery are covered by Very Hard locks. Additionally, without getting to know the novices, Henry will need luck or foresight to correctly identify Pious.

Nevertheless, the player can still break into any of the Monastery doors and murder one of the novices, who will be wearing distinctive white robes. This will will automatically fail this quest and jump to The Die is Cast, skipping A Needle in a Haystack and its related side quests: In the Cloister, Worldly Goods, Nasty Habits, The Trials of a Novice, Scattered Pages, Libri Prohibiti and The Abbot's List. Do note that if the wrong novice is killed, Henry will have no evidence to show Kozliek that he successfully killed Pious.

Strategies

• There are several solutions to get rid of Manfred and speak to Karl.
  • If the player passes a persuasion check, Henry can convince Manfred that he has a message from Karl's father and need to speak privately with the lad.
  • If the player plays Farkle with Manfred, they can drink him under the table.
  • If the player speaks to the Tavern Brawler, they can tell him that Manfred called his mother a whore. This will provoke him into attacking Manfred, which will distract him for several minutes.
• Killing Manfred at any point will horrify Karl and lose his trust, and he will refuse to help Henry further.
• When abandoning Henry's worldly belongings, it is possible to deposit Henry's belongings into the nearest home chest instead, as long as this is done before speaking to Brother Porter.
  • While Henry's belongings can be retrieved later from the chest in Porter's room, they will occasionally marked as stolen when this is done.
• Without very high lockpicking skill, Henry still has a couple options to break into the Monastery:
  • First, with the Luck of the Drunk perk, the player can get Henry drunk to max out his effective lockpicking skill. This will let him attempt to lockpick even the Monastery doors, which themselves are very poorly guarded.
  • Second, the player can steal the Monastery key from the Prior, which bypasses the need to lockpick at all. The Prior's quarters can be accessed by entering through the Overseer's office, and there are no locked doors between the office and his quarters. Additionally, this area is not patrolled by guards, and the only NPCs which sleep in these rooms are the Prior, the Overseer, and the Overseer's Hand.
  • If the player opts to steal the Monastery key, they will still need to enter through one of the Very Hard doors, as the key does not open the door between the Prior's quarters and the rest of the Monastery.
• Killing any monk in the Monastery will instantly spawn a special group of Sasau guards who immediately investigate the spot he was killed. However, while they will attempt to arrest Henry, they cannot place a criminal bounty on him, so fleeing from them will only result in reputation loss for the Monastery.
  • Knocking out a monk with a stealth takedown will not spawn the guards, as long as stealth is maintained. The player can therefore kidnap a novice instead of killing him on the spot, then kill him once he is dragged outside the Monastery.

Notes

• The player can choose to give Karl only half of the purse or none of it at all. Giving him half will make him upset, while denying him the purse entirely will provoke Karl into a fistfight.