The Children in the Pen

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Mirela and four smaller children sit in a pen behind a gate of lashed poles, off the north-west corner of the great cave in The Werewolf Den. They're there day and night until they're freed, and talking to Mirela starts the quest. Getting into the den is covered in The Pack in the Hills; this quest runs alongside it, and almost everything that decides it happens in Kiril's challenge.

Step by step

1. Talk to Mirela. She's ten, from the Vadu farm under Krezk, and she has been counting the days: the moon comes in eleven. "We've come to get you out." gets a no: they can't outrun the wolves, and Zuleika told them to wait for Emil. Once Emil is loose she tells you to hurry up and win.
2. Give Ana her doll. If you looked at the "something small in the mud" on the slope outside, "We found a rag doll on the hillside." gives it back (Thistle, Kip and Godrick +1).
3. Look at Mirela's arm. Medicine DC 13 (one try) finds a half-healed bite. If you have a cleric, "(Take her arm through the poles and pray over it.)" cures it on the spot: Liriel +2, Kip +1, Thistle +1, and Heroic Inspiration for the cleric. Without a cleric, Zuleika cures it if Emil wins, and there's a second chance in Mirela's farewell if Kiril dies without Emil.
4. Win the children when Kiril comes home. In Kiril's challenge (step 7 of The Pack in the Hills):
   • Stand with Emil and win. The children are freed automatically and Zuleika treats the bite.
   • Turn on Kiril and Emil both (the reckoning) and win. Mirela leads the others out, and you walk them down to the road (Godrick, Kip and Thistle +2).
   • Let Kiril win, then say "The children come with us.": Persuasion DC 15 or Intimidation DC 15 wins them (Thistle, Kip and Godrick +2), or toss him a purse of 100 gp (Kip +2, Godrick +1, Thistle +1). A failed Intimidation raises the price to 150 gp but leaves the other options open; a failed Persuasion leaves you only "Then we'll take them." (a fight) or "We're leaving." The children walk out past the wolves with their chins up.

   

   The fight for them is pack_challenge: Kiril with four werewolves and two dire wolves at level 8, fewer at lower levels, and one werewolf fewer if you already cleared the mouth cave (the full list is under Fights below). Without Emil beside you, fight it in the passage where the wolves can't get round you.

Choices and endings

• Freed (success). The children go home to Krezk. If they're home, the Krezk watchman later has news of the smallest one, Petru, which starts The Pack's Runt. Freeing them also counts with Van Richten: if the cards named him and he turned you down in Vallaki, he joins at his tower without a roll. Ezmerelda's trust rises by 1 when you tell her the pack is settled. If someone saw Mirela's bite and nobody cured it, a companion warns that somebody in Krezk had better know what it means before the moon does.
• Left (failure). You chose "We're leaving." in Kiril's terms. Every companion with an opinion hates it (Thistle -6, Kip -5, Godrick -5, Liriel -4, Wren -4, Ratatouille -3), and Kiril greets you later with "Eleven days."

If you're stuck

• Mirela won't leave before the pack question is settled. There's no way to sneak them out first.
• Left them behind? It isn't final. Go back: Kiril's "We've changed our minds about the children." opens the same bargaining (any check you already failed stays failed), and Mirela's "We're taking you out of here. Now." breaks Kiril's truce and starts the fight. Win either way and the quest switches from Left to Freed, and your companions stop bringing up the children you left behind.

Rewards

• Potion of Healing ×2
• A level (milestone)

What your companions think

• Thistle: +1 you gave Codruta back her rag doll; +1 you cured Mirela's bite before it took her; +2 you broke Kiril's truce to get the children out; +3 you stood with Emil against Kiril's pack; -2 you stood back and let Kiril kill Emil; -4 you handed Emil back to Kiril
• Kip Smudgewick: +1 you gave Codruta back her rag doll; +1 you cured Mirela's bite before it took her; +1 you stood with Emil against Kiril's pack; -2 you handed Emil back to Kiril; +2 you talked Kiril out of the stolen children; +2 you bought the stolen children back from Kiril
• Godrick Pendlebrook: +1 you gave Codruta back her rag doll; +1 you broke Kiril's truce to get the children out; +2 you stood with Emil against Kiril's pack; -2 you stood back and let Kiril kill Emil; -3 you handed Emil back to Kiril; +2 you talked Kiril out of the stolen children
• Liriel Dawnsong: +2 you cured Mirela's bite before it took her; -1 you stood back and let Kiril kill Emil; -2 you handed Emil back to Kiril; -4 you left the stolen children with the wolves; -1 you turned on Kiril and Emil both
• Wren Featherfoot: -2 you handed Emil back to Kiril; -4 you left the stolen children with the wolves
• Ratatouille: -3 you left the stolen children with the wolves

Fights

• Kiril throws back his head and laughs, and the laugh turns into a howl halfway through, and his loyal wolves…, in The Werewolf Den: Kiril Stoyanovich, Werewolf, Dire Wolf. Scales with your level.

• For one moment Kiril and Emil look at each other across the cave, and agree on something for the first time…, in The Werewolf Den: Kiril Stoyanovich, Emil Toranescu, Werewolf, Dire Wolf. Scales with your level.

Journal

Related

• People: Zuleika Toranescu, Mirela, Kiril Stoyanovich
• Places: The Werewolf Den
• More in The Werewolf Den: The Pack in the Hills