How do you complete For Whom the Bell Tolls? One of the more stressful quests in the game, For Whom the Bell tolls, happens right after Wedding Crashers and sets you against a timer (12 bells that will periodically sound) before your best bud is hanged by the infuriating Chamberlain Ulrich. The only way to save him is to reach Captain Thomas in the chapel.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is full of challenging KCD2 quests and sim-like mechanics, if you’re struggling with this quest or want to learn about improving your skills, check out our best Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 perks, many of which can help you breeze past the guards without incident.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 For Whom the Bell Tolls route
To complete For Whom the Bell Tolls, you need to gain access to two towers in Trosky Castle: the Crone, to craft a fever potion and the Maiden, to cure Captain Thomas with it.
While you can simply stealth and steal your way through this quest if you know where to go, doing so requires some trial and error. There are several more honorable routes to take in this quest, however if you have invested in your Speech skill (around level 10 – 12) the below is the path of least resistance to ensure Sir Hans doesn’t get the noose:
- Haul the sacks of charcoal to the shed, located through the gate and to the southwest.
- Once complete, offer to help the Blacksmith Osina near the shed.
- Talk to Cook Fanka near the forge. Offer to help her by lockpicking her storage chest.
- Steal a lockpick from Osina’s forge in a small red bag on a shelf. Don’t talk to Fanka after this.
- Forge horseshoes in the forge. All the materials you need are in a nearby chest.
- Talk to Blacksmith Osina and then head to Hired Hand Kabat to the north.
- Inquire about Hired Hand Kabat’s past and ask about some tools.
- Offer to do something in exchange for a lockpick (even though you already have one).
- Agree to get the turquoise rosary back from Father Nicodemus for Kabat by playing dice.
- Speak to Father Nicodemus to the southwest. Offer to play dice for the rosary, even though you have nothing to wager. This confirms he has it.
- From there, speak to Jarek who is praying on his knees beside Cook Fanka. Tell him about the rosary.
- Jarek takes you into the Maiden Tower. You now have access to it – remember the route up.
- Speak to Adela, Captain Thomas’ sister. Ask if you can help and promise to get a fever potion.
- Now, you need access to the Crone tower to craft it. Go back to the Cook Fanka and offer to unlock her storage chest.
- Follow her to the kitchens and lockpick the storage chest.
- Speak to Chamberlain Ulrich in the kitchen. Ask after his stomach troubles. Offer to help.
- Here, you must pass a Persuasion or Scholarship check. While unlikely, reload the previous save and try again if you fail.
- Diagnose his illness. Then, tell him you do not have the equipment to make the proper potion. He grants you access to the Crone.
- From there, head back out into the courtyard with the blacksmith’s forge. Take the stairs in the southwest corner up into the eating room. Continue climbing until you reach the alchemy room.
- Speak to Katherine. Regardless of whether she helps you or not, grab the Physician’s Journal off the nearby shelf and lockpick the chest for all the alchemy ingredients.
- If you break your lockpick, you’ll have to reload or buy one from Hired Hand Kabat.
- Craft the fever tonic from the recipe found in the Physician’s Journal. See below for how to do so in more detail.
- With that completed, bring the fever potion to Captain Thomas in the Maiden. Once you enter the room, the quest is completed, and a cutscene plays.
How to craft the fever potion
Though you can find the recipe on a nearby shelf in the Physician’s Journal, there are step-by-step instructions to craft a fever potion if you can’t find the book or want to avoid flipping back and forth between it and the alchemy table:
- Add feverfew, ginger, and elderberry leaves to the shelf
- Place wine in the cauldron
- Add three handfuls of feverfew to the wine
- Lower the cauldron, once it begins boiling, use the hourglass and wait for two full turns
- Grind elderberry leaves with the mortar and pestle, add them to the cauldron
- Add ginger to the cauldron.
- Distill
That’s all you need to know to complete the KCD2 For Whom the Bell Tolls quest. While there are other ways to solve it, we found this the most direct and easy-to-obtain route. If you’re looking for a break after such a stressful and complicated quest, check out our best RPG games on PC to perhaps find a more chill world to adventure in.
