Taking French Leave is the 18th main quest in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of the Taking French Leave main story quest.
Report to the Ruthards
Return to the Ruthard’s palace in the south of Kuttenberg. Equip your best armor/weapon, in the next objective a fight can break out depending on dialogue choices.
The gate will be closed, come at day and talk to the guard in front of the gate. Say “Lord Ruthard is expecting me”. Then you’re brought to Kunzlin Ruthard.
What you say here doesn’t matter, the outcome will be the same and it doesn’t impact reputation. Vavak will arrive with his soldiers which triggers the next objective.
Accuse the Mint Master
You’ll talk to Vavak in the courtyard. The first choice doesn’t matter, but you can say “You’re stealing the royal silver on a large scale” > win the skill check to convince him to back down.
If the skill checks fail his men will attack. If it succeeds you can talk him down without a fight.
Regardless of how you solve the situation, Vavak will give up and Lord Ruthard assists in rescuing Capon.
(Optional – if skill check fails) Defeat the Mint Master and his Men
If the skill check failed, defeat Vavak and his soldiers. You can attack them from behind while your allies draw their attention.
Speak to Rosa
After the confrontation with Vavak, exhaust the dialogues with Lord Ruthard. It doesn’t matter what dialogues you pick or whether you win the skill check. He tells you there’s a secret passage leading into Maleshov fortress, his daughter Rosa knows where it is. Go upstairs to talk to her.
The best dialogues to gain reputation are: “A wayside shrine?” > “A clever solution” > “There must be a catch to it” > “Come with me!” > “You wouldn’t be a burden” > “I’m listening” > “I’ll bring the book, fear not!”.
Rosa will automatically give her side quest Rosa’s Book, which is the first step towards the trophy/achievement 
Tales of Kuttenberg. We’ll do the quest while at Maleshov. She also gives two maps: Map of Maleshov tower + Maleshov fort map.
You can talk to Rosa again and exhaust all dialogues to gain more reputation.
Important: Unearthing the secret passage requires digging. You must bring a Spade. If you don’t already have a Spade in your inventory, buy one before proceeding.
Speak to Hashtal
Groom Hashtal is found at the farm northwest of Maleshov. He’ll be marked on the map. Say “The Ruthards sent me” > “Just get horses ready for me”.
Find the old chapel
You will be given a search area. The chapel is in the south of the yellow search area, take the path on the side of the road that leads to ruins.
Find the entrance to the secret passage
The entrance to the secret passage is located in the north of the search area, at a tree with a white cross under it. Near the road where a “Nest” icon is. If you look very closely at the map it’s where there’s a little blank spot between the trees when fully zoomed in. When you’re in the spot there will be a 
/ 
prompt to look around. Then Henry spots the white cross and makes a comment. There you must look at the ground and dig (requires Spade):
Normally, you’d find this by looking through the window of the old chapel ruins, pointing to another ruin. Then in those ruins you find a white cross in the middle. Then you go in the direction the cross is pointing, leading to a second cross, which then points to the final cross under the tree. However, you can head straight to the end spot shown above.
Get to Maleshov through the secret passage
After digging open the ground, walk through the linear tunnel until the end. There you come to a wall you must interact with to dismantle. Then press 
/ 
to jump over the wall and open the door. It will trigger a long cutscene.
Find Hans Capon
After the cutscene you’ll be inside the fortress. Hans is at the top of the big tower in the middle.
Start by going downstairs and enter the hut in the southwest corner. Inside, choke out Cook Drahomira, loot all keys from her: Door and chest keys, Maleshov chambers key, Maleshov fortress key, Maleshov tower key. This allows us to get into the tower quietly without lockpicking.
The only way into the tower is through the door on the east side, up the wooden stairs. Sneak along the south wall to get there unnoticed:
If a guard is watching the stairs, throw a stone to distract him (crouch and 
/ 
). We can open the door with the keys we looted from the cook.
Enter and go upstairs. There will be two guards arguing with a woman. Wait for them to finish talking, then hide in the hallway downstairs. The guards will walk down and sit in the back room. Now you can go upstairs unnoticed. Enter the left door to a room where the woman sits.
Missable – Side Quest: Rosa’s Book / Tales of Kuttenberg: Choke out the woman (Lady Ofka) with 
/ 
. In the same room at the window collect the red book A book of humourous anecdotes. This is the book you need to bring to Rosa. If you don’t do it during this main quest the objective will fail after leaving the fortress.
In the same room, pick up the two swords in the corner. You need to give these to Hans and another prisoner later.
Now head to the top floor, open the left door with the Maleshov tower key you got from the cook. A cutscene will play where you rescue Hans and another prisoner Vauquelin Brabant.
Best dialogues to gain reputation: “What?” > “We’ll manage it together” (if you picked the heart-icon dialogue at Trosky Castle, otherwise “The passageway is the best option”) > Give a weapon to Hans Capon (sword from downstairs) > Give a weapon to Brabant (sword from downstairs) > “I’ll scout out the route”.
If you don’t give a weapon, it triggers the objective “Find a weapon for Hans/Vauquelin”.
Flee from Maleshov with Hans Capon! / Get Hans Capon to the horses!
Hans will wait in the tower. You must sneak to the stables in the north of the fortress. Don’t attack any soldiers, stay in stealth. You can crouch and throw stones to distract them. At the stables you must light your torch (hold 
) to signal Hans. Hans and Vauquelin will then move to the stables. If there are guards where they walk, they can be detected and trigger a fight. You can backtrack towards Hans and throw stones to distract guards along the path.
Open the Gate
After everyone arrived at the stables, interact with the big front gate. This triggers a cutscene where you ride away from the fortress.
Escort Hans Capon to safety
Ride with Capon and Vauquelin. You can engage in optional conversation along the way but it’s of no consequence. After about 6 minutes you arrive at a cutscene.
Hanush of Leipa and Radzig Kobyla arrive. Tell him what happened thus far: “It went downhill from the start” > “At first, von Bergow received us kindly” > “He’s quite a character, but he helped us” > “Let’s all go to Raborsch”.
Radzig, Hanush, and Capon will ride together to a meeting in Raborsch with all of Wenceslas’ supporters. Meanwhile, they send you to infiltrate the city council in Kuttenberg. This end the quest and starts the next quest The King’s Gambit.
New side content unlocked:
This finishes Taking French Leave main quest in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.
Next Main Quest: The King’s Gambit
For all other Quests refer to Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Walkthrough.
Lunaris says
You can also knock Hans out and take him through the passage
AJ says
I just figured this out and came to share it
JustSomeGuy says
No need to choke Ofka, you can simply talk to her and pass a (hard) speech check so that she believes you to be a “sudden guest of Bergov”. You can grab the book in that way too, it does not count as stealing.