Kingdom Come Deliverance: Pestilence Side Quest Walkthrough

Pestilence is a Side Quest in Kingdom Come Deliverance (KCD). This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of Pestilence Side Quest, how to brew the remedy potion at alchemy bench, and how to heal all the sick to earn the Plague Doctor trophy / achievement.

The goal of this side quest is to heal all the stick of Merhojed. Curing everyone unlocks the Plague Doctor trophy / achievement.

• Requirement: Have the active Main Quest “Questions and Answers“.
• Location: Merhojed

You will unlock the Pestilence Side Quest automatically during the Main Quest “Questions and Answers“. It’s tied into this main quest. Just play the main story path and you’ll unlock it.

IMPORTANT: If you don’t cure the villagers, they will die and their side quests become unavailable in the future. This is time-sensitive. Do all quest steps as fast as possible without delay. If you take too long, people will die.

Before you start

Before activating this quest you should bring the following things:

• 1 x Valerian (Herb) – bought from apothecary in Rattay (needed to produce the cure).
• 2 x Thistle (Herb) – bought from apothecary in Rattay (needed to produce the cure).
• 1 x Charcoal – bought from any blacksmith/forge (needed to produce the cure).
• Learn how to read by completing side quest “Mightier than the Sword”. You get this quest by talking to the bailiff in Rattay, he lives with the Scribe (Scribe icon is shown on the map, the house above the armorer shop). You need to be able to read to fight the cure for the sickness fast before anyone dies! If you don’t have the reading skill some people might die and you will miss the “Plague Doctor” trophy/achievement.
• (Optional) Saviour Schnapps (because there is a tricky step to brew a potion)

Video Walkthrough

Unlocking the Quest

Pestilence Side Quest starts by talking to any of the villagers in Merhojed (village south-west of Talmberg) during main quest Questions and Answers. Only during that main quest the people of Merhojed will become sick. If you go there before this point in the story, they won’t be sick and the side quest won’t be playable. This is roughly halfway through the story, the next quest after having killed Runt.

Investigate the Plague in Merhojed

Follow the main quest Questions and Answers until you have to talk to Melichar, the local bailiff of Merhojed. He lives in the house across the street from the stables. He will tell you that he will help you on your main quest if you help him fight the sickness that has befallen Merhojed. He gives you two objectives: to investigate the plague and to see Johanka at the monastery in Sasau.

Go check all 5 houses marked with a white cross on the door and talk to the villagers inside to learn about their symptoms. One woman will ask you to help bury her husband who died of the sickness. It doesn’t matter what dialogue you pick, the last option not to help her is the fastest and she will provide the information regardless.

Upon talking to all the infected (5 houses with white cross on door), this objective will be completed. It will give you the info you need to determine what the illness is.

Have a word with Johanka at the monastery

Immediately head to the monastery in Sasau. There you can find a woman in the courtyard of the Monastery (or in one of the houses at night). She’s marked by a quest marker. Talk to her and she will tell you to go see brother Nicodemus.

Talk to brother Nicodemus

Nicodemus is also in the monastery, standing in the house behind Johanka.

Important: If you didn’t bring the herbs “Valerian” and “Thistle” be sure to buy them from Nicodemus before telling him about the plague! After telling him about it, you can no longer buy herbs from him. You need these to produce the cure for the sick!

When talking to Nicodemus, you must pick the following dialogues:

• There’s a plague outbreak in Merhojed
• Intriguing, it’s horrible! (this choice doesn’t matter)
• About half the village
• All the animals
• I know
• I can read (you get reading skill from side quest “Mightier than the Sword” which you get from the bailiff in Rattay who lives with the Scribe above the armorer’s shop)
  • IF YOU HAVEN’T LEARNED READING SKILL: You will have to describe the symptoms to Nicodemus. Choose: Fever, Stomach Pains, Diarrhoea –> That’s all. However, beware Nicodemus will take one day to find the cure and in the meantime villagers may die, thus voiding the Plague Doctor trophy. If you take this path then just skip time for one day and talk to him again.
• IF YOU CAN READ [NEEDED TO CURE EVERYONE / PLAGUE DOCTOR TROPHY]: Pick dialogue “Where do we start?” –> triggers next objective.

Find the right diagnosis and the recipe for the cure in the books

If you told him you can read, you will get this objective. You must do this for the Plague Doctor trophy!

• Read the book on the left side. Just browse through all the pages a few times.
• After reading the book, talk to Nicodemus again and pick dialogue “I know what ails them”.
• Poisoning from Water
• I can help –> IMPORTANT: You must pick this option and brew the potion yourself. Otherwise, Nicodemus will take one day to do it and villagers will die, thus voiding the Plague Doctor trophy.
• I need you to cure the captive first (choice doesn’t matter)

Prepare the Remedy

By far the trickiest step of the quest. You now have to brew the Merhojed remedy potion.

Before you start you need these ingredients:

Ingredients

• 1 x Valerian (bought from Nicodemus before telling him about the sickness)
• 2 x Thistle (bought from Nicodemus before telling him about the sickness)
• 1 x Charcoal (bought from blacksmith/forge). One is nearby in the south of Sasau.

If you forgot to buy herbs from Nicodemus, you can rob all required ingredients from the sacks to the left of the alchemy station.

Alternatively, reload the last autosave “Pestilence – Johanka Informed” and buy them from Nicodemus.
The location of the blacksmith selling charcoal is below:

How to Brew the Merhojed Remedy Potion

You can use the alchemy bench where you talked to Nicodemus (in his room where you read the book).

It is highly recommended you drink a Saviour Schnapps here to make a manual save. If you need visual aid, refer to the video walkthrough at 6:21:

Here is the full recipe as written in the Alchemy book and the steps you need to do:

Merhojed Remedy: The recipe for the healing potion that should cure the afflicated Merhojed villagers.

Prepare clean water, one handful of valerian, two of thistle and some charcoal. Drop the thistle in the cauldron and boil for two turns. Add the alverian and boil for one more turn. Leave to cool. Finally add the charcoal, but do not boil!

1. Interact with Alchemy bench, look to your right and press / to read the book. Use / to turn to the page with the “Merhojed Remedy” recipe and hold / to place the ingredients.
2. Water: Put water (yellow keg top left) in the cauldron.
3. Thistle: Put thistle (right shelf) directly in the cauldron (don’t use mortar)
4. Thistle: Put a second thistle (right shelf) in the cauldron (don’t use mortar)
5. Boil 2 Turns: Press / to use the Bellows exactly 4 times in a row for the right temperature. You’ll see bubbles in the cauldron when it’s “boiling”.
6. Sandglass: Press / to use sandglass.
7. Sandglass: After 1 turn, use Sandglass again with / until 2nd turn is over.
8. Valerian: Put Valerian (right shelf) in the cauldron.
9. Boil 1 Turn: Press / until you see bubbles in the cauldron. Don’t overdo it, once you see bubbles stop immediately.
10. Sandglass: Press to use sandglass. After 1 turn the bubbles should go away. If it lasts 2 turns it’s still okay.
11. Cool: Wait for the cauldron to cool down, until the flame goes out.
12. Charcoal: Use the charcoal (bottom right shelf), drop it in the cauldron.
13. Phial: Pick a phial (bottom left shelf) and use it on the cauldron to fill up the potion

And that’s how you make the remedy potion in the Pestilence Side Quest! If the objective shows completed as successful you’ve now brewed the Merhojed Cure potion. If you did too many steps wrong you must try again or reload the last save until you get it right.

Take the Remedy to Merhojed / Find out from Brother Nicodemus how things look in Merhojed

Fast travel back to Merhojed and talk to brother Nicodemus. He’s marked on the map, standing in a side room of Straw’s house (middle of the village).

Give the Cure to the sick

There are 5 sick you need to give the cure to! See screenshots below (red circle marks the location).

1. Straw’s wife (the woman brother Nicodemus is looking after)
   
2. Bedrishka
   
3. Daniel
   
4. Vincent
   
5. The Captive Bandit (see next step)

Talk to Melichar

This step overlaps with the next step for main quest Questions and Answers.

Talk to the local bailiff Melichar again. He will be marked as a main objective now and is walking around the village. Just toggle the waypoint markers of the Questions and Answers main quest to see his location.

Tell him you brought help and he will gladly let you into the barn where the captive is. He should bring you to him, if he doesn’t just go to the map location below:

Interrogate the captive in Merhojed

This is actually a main objective from Questions and Answers Quest.

Once in the barn, interact with the captive to give him the Remedy. Advance time for 6 hours (just use the “Wait” function inside the barn). After that talk to the captive again, now you can interrogate him.

Please refer to the last 4 Steps of Questions and Answers Walkthrough now.

» Questions and Answers Main Quest Walkthrough

Wait Until the Situation Clears Up

After finishing Questions and Answers, return to Merhojed and skip time for a few days until the villagers are healthy again. Then talk again to Melichar (the local bailiff) in Merhojed. He will thank you for saving everyone and give you 125 Groschen as a reward plus you get a nice skill-boost for alchemy, vitality and main level XP.

Plague Doctor trophy unlocked!

If you took too long with any of the steps (e.g. you waited for Nicodemus to figure out the sickness or he brewed the potion for you), some of the villagers may have died and you won’t earn the trophy.

This concludes the Pestilence Side Quest.