Side quest Companions

A Seat at the Table

Ratatouille learned magic so that people would sit with him. He crossed the mists to apprentice himself to the Wizard of Wines, a master of the arcane and the table both.

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

This is Ratatouille's personal quest (the High Elf Wizard, a Diviner). It starts by itself at the very beginning on The Old Svalich Road: when you look back into the mist at its east end, or, if you never do, when you reach the wolves in the narrows, with Ratatouille in the party. A custom hero in his place never gets it, and every beat needs Ratatouille in the party.

There's no level or approval gate on starting it. The Wizard of Wines is a level 6 region, and Mount Baratok, where the wizard lives, is level 8–9. Early on, after a Long Rest, "Ratatouille wants a word" about the academy refectory (+2). After the winery, another talk shows his spellbook laid out like a cookbook (+2); it doesn't come if he told Madam Eva he'd rather cook.

Step by step

  1. The Wizard of Wines is a winery. Go to the Wizard of Wines south-west of Vallaki and talk to Davian Martikov at the family's camp. The first time, when Davian explains the three magic stones, Ratatouille asks about the Wizard of Wines on his own. Later you can ask from the menu with Ask about the Wizard of Wines. It's a winery, named for a rude old wizard with a long nose who paid in stones and played dragonchess against himself. The quest moves to A Winery. If you've already met the mad old man on Mount Baratok, Ratatouille puts it together here and the quest jumps straight to The Wizard Found.
    loc wizard of wines 1
  2. Optional: supper for the Martikovs. Once you've driven the druids out of the winery and the press house and told Davian (The Wizard of Wines), his menu has Ask for the use of the kitchen tonight. Ratatouille cooks for nine Martikovs, and Davian takes three helpings. The quest moves to The Kitchen (+5), and Ratatouille gains Heroic Inspiration.
  3. The wizard on the mountain. Go to The Mad Mage's Hut on Mount Baratok with Ratatouille. If the quest is at A Winery or The Kitchen, Ratatouille recognises The Mad Mage at the frosted chessboard as the Wizard of Wines. The quest moves to The Wizard Found.
    loc mount baratok hut 1
  4. Give him back his memory. This is The Mad Mage of Mount Baratok. Any one of these restores him:
    • Uncork the memory jar you took from Baba Lysaga.
    • Cast Greater Restoration. The option is offered to a Cleric, Druid or Bard at level 9 or higher; Liriel's level plan has the spell from level 9.
    • Show him the spellbook from the summit cairn, then read him its last page.
    • Pass Arcana DC 16 to talk him back to himself. You get one try.

    Along the way, a Wizard naming the spell he mutters is +2, and playing him at dragonchess is +1. Once restored, he's Mordenkainen. He gives you a Ring of Spell Storing, and Ratatouille gains +5.

  5. Ask the master. In Mordenkainen's menu, pick Ratatouille's Ask to become his apprentice. He refuses: "Status is a coat... What are you good at?... Then cook." The quest moves to The Master's Word (+5). Ratatouille can ask once, and the option stays until he has, even if the quest has already ended (see below).
  6. His own table. After a Long Rest, "Ratatouille wants a word". He sends everyone away from the fire for an hour, lays a cloth, and serves a supper with an apricot pastry at every place. Then he stands up and announces himself: "Ratatouille. Cook. And wizard. In that order." The quest ends at His Own Table (+8).

Two temptations along the way. In The Amber Temple: Hall of the Faceless God, Zantras's amber offers him the whole world looking at him. Pick (Ratatouille has gone very still, listening.), then let him step back from it himself (+4 and Heroic Inspiration) or pull him back (+2). At Dinner at Castle Ravenloft, Taste the food, critically makes Strahd offer him a title and a tower. (Refuse him.) gives +4 and Heroic Inspiration; saying nothing gives -1. His speech at the end mentions whichever of the two he turned down.

Optional, Madam Eva: his truth (he'd rather cook than cast) gives +3 and Heroic Inspiration. Spending the one question on "Where is the Wizard of Wines?" is +3.

Choices and endings

There's one ending, His Own Table:

  • Strained or worse (approval -25 or lower): he doesn't lay the cloth, and the talk isn't offered until his approval recovers. His Strained camp talk can give up to +10.
  • Otherwise: the supper and the speech, +8.
  • Close or better (25 or more): each pastry has a name piped on it in burnt sugar, and the supper is a feast. The whole party gains Heroic Inspiration.

Nothing later in the game checks the ending.

If you're stuck

  • The ending can come early. The supper talk is offered from The Wizard Found onward, before Mordenkainen is restored. If you take it then, the quest ends, and his speech is about the wizard who played dragonchess against nobody instead of what Mordenkainen told him. The apprentice scene isn't lost: Ratatouille can still ask Mordenkainen afterwards (+5), though the quest stays at His Own Table. For the full story, leave "Ratatouille wants a word" unpicked on the rest screen until you've restored Mordenkainen and asked him.
  • Talks come in order. Each Long Rest offers only one camp talk across the whole party. Ratatouille's refectory and cookbook talks, and any Strained or Doubtful talk, come before the supper.
  • The supper with the Martikovs needs the winery reclaimed first. It's optional, and the mountain works without it.

Rewards

What your companions think

  • Ratatouille: +3 you told me nobody could have foreseen Strahd's visit; +2 you said we'd be ready for Strahd next time; +10 you asked me to help set it right; +5 you told me you were sorry; -6 you told me to suit myself; +6 you asked me to tell you when we're wrong

Journal

Every journal entry and hint

The Apprenticeship: Nobody sat with Ratatouille at the academy until the day he threw fire across the refectory. Then a traveller told him of the Wizard of Wines, beyond the mists: a master of magic and of the table, everything Ratatouille ever wanted to be in one person. He packed his spellbook and his skillet and set out to become that wizard's apprentice.
Hint: With Ratatouille in the party, go to the Wizard of Wines winery south-west of Vallaki and talk to Davian Martikov or his daughter Stefania.

A Winery: The Wizard of Wines is a winery. Ratatouille crossed the mists for a winery. But the vines live on three magic stones a wizard paid to the Martikovs long ago for a winter's lodging, and the winery is named for him: a rude old man with a long nose, who played dragonchess against himself.
Hint: The wizard who paid with the stones lives alone on Mount Baratok, north of Lake Zarovich. Ratatouille will know him; talk to the old man in the hut.

The Kitchen: Ratatouille cooked supper for the whole Martikov family in their own kitchen. Davian ate three helpings without a word and then said, 'Again tomorrow.' It is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to Ratatouille.
Hint: The wizard who paid with the stones lives alone on Mount Baratok, north of Lake Zarovich. Bring Ratatouille to the old man in the hut.

The Wizard Found: On Mount Baratok an old wizard who has forgotten his own name plays dragonchess against nobody. Ratatouille knew him at once: the Wizard of Wines, the one who paid the Martikovs with the stones. He also looks exactly like the woodcut of the greatest wizard alive in Ratatouille's third-year textbook, which is impossible, because that wizard would never talk to a rock.
Hint: Help the old wizard on Mount Baratok get his memory back, then talk to him with Ratatouille in the party.

The Masters Word: Ratatouille asked Mordenkainen to take him as an apprentice. 'The greatest wizard alive spent a year on a mountain eating raw turnips and arguing with a cat,' Mordenkainen said. 'Status is a coat, boy. Anyone can wear it. Cook. You're a better wizard for it.'
Hint: Take a Long Rest with Ratatouille in the party; he'll want a word at the fire.

His Own Table (the end: success): Ratatouille cooked for his friends at the fire, a proper supper out of almost nothing, and when they'd eaten he stood up and announced himself: 'Ratatouille. Cook. And wizard. In that order.' Then he sat down and went pink. Everyone sat with him.

Every skill check in its conversations
  • Insight DC 14: Watch where his eyes go when he loses a word.
  • Arcana DC 16: Talk him back to himself, one spell at a time.
Cutscenes

Out of the Mists: The party steps out of the mist onto the Old Svalich Road, the sunless valley of Barovia below.
mists arrival