Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 For Whom the Bells Tolls Walkthrough

For Whom the Bells Tolls is the 6th main quest in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of the For Whom the Bells Tolls main story quest.

In the Jail

Henry and Sir Hans will be sitting in jail. They will talk to each other, what dialogues you pick here doesn’t matter. Afterward it will start another cutscene, Henry gets taken out of the jail. Sir Hans is kept in jail, to be hung for poaching. Since all wildlife is property of the ruler, poaching is considered stealing from the ruler and is punishable by hanging. So Hans is in big trouble and we must find a way to help him. The bells for his execution have already rung. You must finish everything before the bells ring the 12th time, or else Hans will be executed and you get a game-over screen.

After being taken out of jail, exhaust the dialogues with the guard.

Save Sir Hans from execution / Haul the sacks to the charcoal shed

To save Sir Hans we must get to Thomas, the soldier who you met at the start of the 2nd Main Quest. He can confirm that Sir Hans is a noble, which means he can’t be hung.

To get to Thomas, you must do a series of smaller tasks. Each task opens up new areas to get closer to Thomas. Start by hauling the sacks to the charcoal shed. Grab the sack from the back of the cart where you spawn.

You must then go up the path and place the sack inside the shed, located at the end of the path (after passing a guarded gate). It will show an / prompt when you’re in the right place. Repeat this for 3 sacks total.

Talk to the blacksmith

After placing 3 sacks it triggers this and the next objective. Talk to Blacksmith Osina, he stands on the side of the path. Tell him you finished hauling the sacks. No matter what dialogues you pick, he’ll always tell you to forge 1 horseshoe. This opens up the next area – you can now go through the gate in front of the charcoal shed.

Take care of the horseshoe for the blacksmith

Go to map marker “F”, there in the courtyard you find the anvil. Open the chest next to the anvil to get the recipe “Sketch – Farmer’s horeshoes” and the needed crafting material “Scrap metal“.

Read the sketch from your inventory to learn the recipe. Then interact with the anvil to start crafting. The horeshoe is in the “others” tab.

If you did the blacksmith’s questline to reach the wedding, you’ll already know how blacksmithing works. You’ll want to heat it till it glows, then hammer it evenly from both sides. If you did the miller’s questline you might not have done this before. Here’s how to craft the horseshoe:

1. Hold  / to blow the fire until the horseshoe starts glowing white and red. But don’t overdo it or it will start sparking.
2. Press / to move it to the anvil. Then hammer the horseshoe 4 times in different places evenly spread apart (left tip, left center, right center, right tip) > turn it over with / , again hit it 4 times like before > turn it again > rinse and repeat.
3. Keep doing this until Henry says “that’s it”, then press / to quench and finish. If the horseshoe cools down Henry will comment about it and you must heat it up again. You need to hammer it around 40 times before it’s finished.

Return to the blacksmith and show it to him. He tells you to bring it to Hired Hand Kabat in the stables. That’s just down the road from the blacksmith.

Ask him what he did before and if he has tools. He has lockpicks, which will be useful later (needed to break into a chest to make a potion that cures Thomas). Since all your money was confiscated at the jail, you can’t afford to buy the lockpicks. So you’ll have to do a task for Kabat and he’ll give you 3 lockpicks as a reward.

Find Kabat’s rosary

Kabat’s rosary can be pickpocketed from Father Nicodemus. He’ll be marked by the “K” marker on the map. Follow the path behind the charcoal shed to find him. He’s usually standing on the castle wall or sitting on a bench. Approach from behind and pickpocket him for the rosary. Look at his back pouch to get the pickpocketing prompt. If he’s sitting on a bench wait until he walks to the castle wall.

It’s best to make a manual save before this, so you can reload immediately if you’re spotted (Save & Exit to menu). The rosary is usually in one of the bottom slots of the pickpocketing screen, looks like a green necklace with a church cross.

You could also talk to him and challenge him to play dice for the rosary, but he wants you to put up a wager of 20 Groschen which you don’t have. So pickpocketing is the fastest way.

After stealing the rosary, the objective won’t update, but you can return to Kabat and it’ll trigger new dialogue. He then gives you 3 lockpicks for it.

Find work around the gallows

The gallows are reached by going back to the cart where you carried the sacks and going down the path from there. In the lower area you find the gallows. Talk to Hired hand Kolda, he’s sawing at a hut near the gallows, wears a green tunic.

Go through his dialogues and say “I can help you”. He wants you to pick up his axe and sharpen it.

The axe will have the red “I” map marker. In a building to the right of Kolda, where the sharpening wheel is. Get it from the chest, then interact with the sharpening wheel.

Sharpen it to 100%. You must quickly press / to turn the wheel, then move and rotate the right stick until you see sparks flying from different angles. Don’t push the blade too far up or else you’ll see smoke coming from it. Don’t hold it in the same position the entire time, you must sharpen it from different angles to speed it up. It will take around a minute until it’s fully sharpened. You can check the sharpness in the inventory (the value in the “heart” column). Henry will say “all done” when fully sharpened. If you try to give it to Kolda unsharpened he’ll give a reputation penalty each time.

Give the 100% sharpened axe to Kolda.

Get to Thomas

With all optional objectives out of the way, it’s time to find Thomas. He’s at the very top of the castle’s east-wing. Start by going to the courtyard where you forged the horseshoe, take the left path (northeast).

Take the downward path to enter the noble’s kitchen. There you find Chamberlain Ulrich. He has a stomach ache. You can talk to him, if you win the skill checks he allows you to access some restricted areas around the castle. However, this will likely fail.

So instead we must sneak our way up the tower to reach Thomas. There’s only one guard on the way. From Ulrich keep crouching upstairs till you reach the top. The guard along the way can be distracted by throwing a stone (crouch and hold / to throw stone). Make a save (Save & Exit to Menu) so you can reload if spotted.

Talk to Adela at Thomas’s bedside. She lets you know that Thomas is dying and he can’t help you in this condition. Exhaust all dialogues, doesn’t matter what you pick. You are always tasked with finding medicine for Thomas.

Find out what medicine to give to Captain Thomas

You must now head to the west-wing of the castle. Go back to the courtyard where the anvil is. When going upstairs, there’s a guard in the kitchen who’s waiting for the cook. You can give him food to make him go away. There are many food items in the washhouse below the guard, accessed from the courtyard. Steal food, talk to the guard and deliver him any 1 food item. Then he turns around and eats so you can sneak past him.

Then keep going upstairs. Near the top (two floors below top floor) you find a room with an alchemy bench, and you meet Katherine there, the girl you saved at the lake. Tell her “I need help” > “I need to find some medicine for Thomas” > this results in a skill check option. Likely all 3 options will fail but it doesn’t matter.

In the same room, grab the book “Physician’s journal” from the shelf.

 

Read it from the inventory and go through all pages. This unlocks the “Fever Tonic” recipe and completes the objective.

Get hold of the fever tonic

You must now brew the potion yourself at the alchemy bench (in the same room). The ingredients can be looted from the “very easy” difficulty chest in the same room as the alchemy bench. This requires the lockpick you got from doing the objective “Find Kabat’s rosary”.

It’s best to make a manual save before brewing so you can reload it if goes wrong. When ready, interact with the alchemy bench. Here’s how to brew the Fever tonic:

1. Pour wine into cauldron (top left shelf, red vase)
2. Take 3 handfuls of feverfew and put them into cauldron
3. Move down Cauldron ( / )
4. Boil it for 2 turns (turn sandglass, / to use bellows to heat up the flame, turn sandglass again and let it run out)
5. Take 1 handful of elderberry leaves, put in mortar and grind with pestle. Dump in cauldron when done.
6. Add 2 handfuls of ginger into cauldron.
7. Take phial (bottom left side of alchemy bench)
8. Use the Still (bottom left side of alchemy bench) to distill the potion.

If done correctly you will get Fever tonicum. It doesn’t have to be perfect quality, if Henry comments that he over/under-boiled it a bit that’s fine.

Take the medicine back to Thomas

Return to Thomas at the other end of the castle, upon entering the next cutscene will trigger. His sister gives him the potion. The bells for Hans’s execution are now ringing. Hans is brought to the Gallows. Henry and Thomas appear. Thomas tries to convince the Chamberlain that Hans is a noble, but he isn’t being taken seriously because he is delirious from his fever. The chamberlain gives the go-ahead to the executioner. At the last second, Lord von Bergow arrives and stops the execution.

Henry and Hans get an audience with Lord von Bergow in his chambers. They try to convince him that they seek an alliance with the League of Lords. What dialogues you pick here doesn’t matter. The most diplomatic choices are these: “There’s nothing else the Chamberlain could have done” > “We all have our share of the guilt” > “Betray is a strong word”.

Regardless of what you say, before von Bergow will discuss the matter further you must do a task for him. He sends you to seek out Lord Nebak, which starts the next main quest.

 

This finishes For Whom the Bells Tolls in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

Next Quest: Back in the Saddle

For all other Quests refer to Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Walkthrough.