Side quest Vallaki Level 5

Emanoil Wants to Be Bitten

Summary

A Vallaki clerk who sleeps in a coffin writes long poems to the castle and wants to be chosen by the lord of the valley.

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Emanoil stands on the main street of Vallaki, just outside Henrik's door at The Coffin Maker's Shop, from 9:00 to 19:00. He's the pale young man in cheap black wool, holding a bruised rose and a satchel of poems. Talk to him. He asks if you've come down from the castle to take his petition, then notices the road mud on your boots. The quest starts at Met as soon as you speak to him.

Step by step

  1. Hear him out. Pick "Read us one of your poems." He reads from his seventeenth canto, about lying in a pine box waiting for the Lord of Gloom, with a tallow candle lit until sunrise. This also opens a new option on his menu.
  2. See what the poems are really about (optional). After the poem, try [Insight DC 12] "(The poems are about something else.)". On a pass you see he isn't writing about dying but about being noticed. He copies tax ledgers from eight till six, and in twenty-six years nobody has asked him what he wanted. A new option appears: "Where does the candle come in?". On a fail they're just bad verses, and the option is gone for good. You don't need it: step 3 gets you to the same place.
  3. Or tell him the truth about the castle. "Let us tell you what the castle is really like." needs no roll. You describe the cold waiting rooms, the dust, and petitioners who've been promised an audience for two hundred years. He's crushed, and goes straight on to the candle.
  4. Get the candle out of him. Through "Where does the candle come in?" or straight after the truth, he admits it all. The coffin is narrow in the shoulders, bought from Henrik at six coppers a week. He props the lid open with a dictionary so the candle stays lit, because he's terribly afraid of the dark. He never wanted to be bitten, only chosen, and to wear a better coat. Now pick:
    • "Then read your poems to someone who can hear them." ends the quest (see below).
    • "We will leave you to your coffin." walks away. The quest stays at Met, and you can come back and pick again.
  5. Or just help him write his letter. "Let us help you write your letter to the castle." is on his menu from the very first talk, and it ends the quest on the spot.

Choices and endings

There are two endings, and both end the quest at Done with Heroic Inspiration for the whole party.

  • The letter. You talk him out of "a trembling lamb who wishes to be devoured" and into "My Lord" and a polite question about clerical vacancies. He seals it with black wax and kisses the seal. The black carriage never stops in Vallaki for the post, and you don't tell him. Liriel, Wren and Kip approve (+1 each).
  • An audience. You send him to read at The Blue Water Inn. That evening he's by the hearth, where Matei the porter has brought him a stool and spiced cider, and two carters and an old woman are listening. Nobody throws a turnip. Liriel approves (+2), and so do Godrick and Thistle (+1 each).

Either way, talk to him again afterwards and he has given up the seventeenth canto for an ode to your company.

If you're stuck

  • Emanoil is only outside the coffin maker's from 9:00 to 19:00.
  • The Insight option only shows after he has read you a poem, and only until it has worked. If it fails, "Let us tell you what the castle is really like." leads to the same talk about the candle, with no roll.
  • There's no fight and nothing to fetch. If you want the warmer ending, don't pick the letter first: it ends the quest straight away.

Rewards

What your companions think

  • Liriel Dawnsong: +1 you helped Emanoil write his letter; +2 you talked Emanoil out of the coffin
  • Wren Featherfoot: +1 you helped Emanoil write his letter
  • Kip Smudgewick: +1 you helped Emanoil write his letter
  • Godrick Pendlebrook: +1 you talked Emanoil out of the coffin
  • Thistle: +1 you talked Emanoil out of the coffin

Journal

Every journal entry and hint

Met: Emanoil, a clerk in black he can't afford, writes bad poems to the castle and sleeps in a coffin from Henrik's, because he wants to be chosen and bitten. He asked if we were from the castle, and was disappointed.
Hint: Talk to Emanoil outside Henrik's coffin shop in Vallaki, by day.

Done (the end: success): Emanoil is a little less alone than he was. Whatever we did, he will remember that someone asked what he wanted, and the next poem is about us.

Every skill check in its conversations
  • Insight DC 12: (The poems are about something else.)