Kingdom Come: Deliverance - Money for Old Rope Quest Guide

Kingdom Come: Deliverance like any good RPG is full of sidequests to take on, which is a great way to earn loot or experience. While some sidequests are relatively straightforward, others can be a bit of a pain to figure out how to best tackle the intricate objectives. One such quest is 'Money for Old Rope', given by the executioner near Rattay. We're here to help.

Getting Started with the quest Money for Old Rope

We got this quest after completing the quest 'Tough Love' in the same area. Make sure you talk to the innkeeper in Rattay to get tips on what quests are available in the area and to put quest markers on your map. 

Before starting the quest, a few things to note. You will need to pickpocket or you will need to lockpick an easy chest. If your pickpocket and lockpicking stats are not very high, be sure to save before the appropriate portions of the quest. You can buy lockpicks from Miller Peshek near Rattay.

Secondly, you will need a vial of Poison. If you have one, great! If you don't have one, but you have the recipe, you can visit the alchemy bench in Rattay to make one easily. You can buy the components you need from the apothecary nearby. If you do not have the recipe, you can visit an herbalist west of Uzhitz in the NorthEast part of the map.

As a quick aside, Alchemy can be pretty daunting the first time you try it, if you've never created anything before. Luckily the Poison recipe is an easy one to practice with. In brief: 1.) Put Oil in the cauldron and press LT/L2 a few times in succession to boil it. 2.) Grab thistle and place it in the cauldron (no grinding required), flip the sandglass just to make sure it stays boiling long enough. 3.) Once that's done, wait for the flame to disappear completely, then grab Herb Paris and place in the cauldron, twice. Then you can put the poison in a vial.

Once you've got lockpicks and poison, follow the quest icon on the map and talk to Executor Hermann west of Rattay to start the quest.

Money for Old Rope - Getting information on the criminals and reading the Black Chronicle

The first part of the quest is the easy part, although it still might be best to save before getting too far. You have two objectives: one to learn about the three criminals from Rattay's Bailiff and then to learn about the execution method for each from the Black Chronicle.

Talking to the Bailiff is easy. Follow the marker to find him (he may be in his office in the Rathaus or wandering around outside nearby) and exhaust the dialogue options for each of the three criminals: Peter of Dauba, "Frost" Heralt, and Georg Weiss.

Once that's done, you need to access the Black Chronicle to learn information on the execution method. Even if you are following this guide, you need to check out that book before you can proceed with the quest. The problem is, the book is locked away in an upper floor of the Rathaus behind a Very Hard locked door.

If you are far enough in the storyline, you may have access to this room already. If not, you'll need to pickpocket the key to the door from the scribe. He's found on an upper level of the Rathaus (up the stairs near the Tailor and Armourer, keep going up and you'll find him eventually) and is sleeping most of the day, so a pickpocket isn't too much trouble - still best to save beforehand, of course.

Once you have the key, follow the quest marker to open the locked door and read the Black Chronicle. Just enough to activate the quest objective, We'll give you the right answers you need of course.

Once that's done, go back to Executioner Hermann and give him these answers. Note that the order of the criminals might not be the same as when you talked to the Bailiff, so pay attention that you pick the right ones!

• Peter of Dauba - His head is going to be chopped off.
• Georg Weis - He is going to be hanged.
• "Frost" Heralta - He's going to be tortured first.

Money for Old Rope - Sabotaging the Execution

Now for the hard part of the quest. After talking to Hermann about the criminals, continue talking with him to come up with ways to sabotage each's execution. He will give you a rotting rope, for one. For another, you need to have Poison (you should have already if you read this guide), and finally, you need to dull the Executioner's Sword.

What you need to do is go to the Executioner's campsite northeast of Rattay (marked on your map) to pull off the sabotage. Travel to the quest marker to the camp. However, it is guarded by a lone  nightwatch  and guard dog at almost all times, which can be very tricky if you don't have the right stealth skills.

We recommend is sleeping at Miller Peshek's [or as noted in the comments, there's a Tavern/Inn you can get a room in closer to the objective too] until about 9PM, to create a save. Around 10-11pm, on a few playthroughs of this quest, we were able to find a period in time where there was no nightwatch and we were able to sneak around more freely (be sure to remove noisy armor). We're not exactly certain how regular this is, but in any case, you are going to have to sneak around the camp a bit, nightwatch or no.

The above image shows where you need to go in the camp. Poison the tongs on the back of the cart, and go to the second floor of the barn to sabotage the rope. That's the easy part.

The Executioner's Sword is much more frustrating to deal with, as it is locked in a chest in the tent and is more difficult to get to. Lockpicking is too noisy (perhaps not if your skill is at a higher level) so what you need to do is pickpocket the Executioner to get his key. Where the executioner is sleeping is semi-random, but get his key with a successful pickpocket. His companions have nothing of value.

If a guard or dog sees you or wakes up at any point during this, you can quickly sneak away for a bit and hope things settle before trying again.

Once you have the executioner's key, you can open the chest in the tent to get his sword. Now, you need to dull it. We're not sure if there's a better place to do it, but we went back to Rattay in the night to go to the grindstone at the blacksmith in the northeast part of the city. Keep pressing the pressure button and hold the sharp edge of the blade down on the stone for about ten seconds, shifting along the length of the blade. If you do it correctly, Henry should affirm verbally that the blade is dull when you leave the grindstone.

On your way back out of Rattay, you might be stopped by a guard (because you have a stolen sword). On one runthrough we were able to persuade him not to check Henry. On another, we just put the sword back with the horse temporarily and nobody gave a fuss.

Back at the camp, sneak back to the chest you found the sword and put it back in. Sneak away and congratulations, you finished the hard part! Go back to Hermann and let him know you are finished. The execution will be held at 2PM the next day, at the marker on your map. Just watch the fiasco and have a laugh.

That's it! If you have any alternative tips for the quest, you can offer suggestions in the comments below.