Where Loyalty Lies is the quest that makes Coen a manumit, and it runs straight into the missing-scout case the manumits need solved. The journal files it under The thirty days and records Svartrau City as its journal region — an NPC band of roughly 15–25. The introduction is a statement of status: “I stand ready to join the manumits. Their leader will likely assign me some tasks before we can fight Brencis together.”
Where the quest sits
This is a Crake quest from start to finish: the journal opens with a daylight meeting at Svartrau Plaza beneath the cathedral, follows Sara to the hideout for the vote, then has Crake hand over the scouts’ case. The step list includes a notoriety gate — raise it to Notorious or higher — which is the one place the journal ties a quest to the reputation system, and its trail leads from a Neustadt lookout to a warehouse in the Middens. The scouts’ fate is then picked up by What Hunts the Night.
Journal objectives
The journal records these fifteen entries, in this order:
- Head to Svartrau Plaza by daylight — “My deeds have earned me a place among the manumit ranks. I am to meet them at the plaza beneath Svartrau Cathedral come daylight.”
- Follow Sara — “Sara was waiting for me at Svartrau Plaza. Now I have to follow her to the manumit hideout, where they will vote on whether to let me join their ranks. Have I not done enough already?”
- Seek out the house with the pink façade in Neustadt — “Crake assigned me my first task – to investigate the lookout post where the missing scouts were last seen. It’s located in Neustadt, in the attic of a house with a pink façade.”
- Take a closer look at the blood trace — “I noticed traces of blood just under the scouts’s lookout. Best take a closer look.”
- Follow the blood trail — “The traces of blood continue along the street. I should follow them to see whose blood it is – the scouts’s or their enemy’s?”
- Inspect the damaged wall — “I found deep cut marks on the wall next to where the blood trails lead. I should investigate further.”
- Find your way inside the warehouse — “The trail led to an old warehouse in the Middens, a neighbourhood abandoned after the plague. The doors are barricaded, and the windows boarded up. I must find another way inside.”
- Check if anyone survived — “I found the missing scouts, but they had been brutally massacred. I still need to check if anyone has survived.”
- Speak with the scout — “One of the scouts is still breathing. I must ask him what happened here before it’s too late.”
- Look for catalysts — “To compel the dead scout’s soul, I need to find items that once held meaning for him.”
- Question the scout’s corpse — “All four of the missing scouts died before I could reach them. There’s not much left of their bodies, except for the one in the yard. I can try to compel his soul – maybe he will tell me what happened here?”
- Raise your notoriety to Notorious or higher — “Crake deemed that I haven’t done enough to be trusted. I must prove myself further against Brencis before he allows me to join the manumit ranks.”
- Search for clues in the attic — “The scouts’s lookout post was located in the attic. I must search it for clues about what happened to them.”
- Kill the soldiers — “While investigating the abandoned warehouse, I stumbled upon a group of soldiers. Are they here to clean up the monster’s mess? They won’t tell me anyway. This can only end in blood.”
- Find out what happened to the missing scouts — “The manumits finally accepted me into their ranks, and before long, Crake handed me my first task. A group of his scouts went missing in Svartrau and he wants me to find out what happened to them.”
Before you go
The 15–25 band applies, and the quest has one non-combat requirement worth planning around: the notoriety threshold. If you arrive short of Notorious, the journal’s own answer is to prove yourself further against Brencis before returning, so vassal and court quests are the natural place to make up the difference. The Crake page and the mid-game walkthrough are the companion reads.