Who Pulls the Strings is the last piece of preparation before the endgame: the mage Aurelius holds the book that can blunt Brencis’s gargoyles. The journal files it under The thirty days and records The Silts as its journal region — an NPC band of roughly 18–26. The introduction is a short briefing: “The infamous mage, Aurelius holds the book we need, and Marat has already told me where to find his tower. Time to go.”
Where the quest sits
Marat is the figure the journal sends Coen back to with the book, and the quest’s second half is organisational rather than exploratory: show Marat the find, then ask how the manumits’ preparations are going. The step list names the reward explicitly — a hex to weaken the gargoyles, which the journal calls the Life Lock hex and which comes from Silas’s book. That is the same Silas whose notes What Moves the Dead recovers, and the hex is what the finale expects you to have learned, which is why Brencis final prep is the natural next read.
Journal objectives
The journal records these six entries, in this order:
- Go to Aurelius’s Tower — “Mage Aurelius holds the book we need. I have to retrieve it from his tower.”
- Find a way to enter the tower — “I have located Aurelius’s Tower. Now I need to find a way to get inside.”
- Search the tower — “The book should be somewhere within the tower. I need to look for it.”
- Show Marat the book — “I found the book! And it contains a hex that will allow me to weaken the gargoyles! I must show this to Marat.”
- Ask Marat how preparations are going — “Since we know how to defeat the gargoyles, it’s time to ask Marat if the manumits are ready to march on Greifberg Castle.”
- Acquire Life Lock hex from Silas’s book and learn it. — “I now hold Silas’s notes, containing a hex to weaken the gargoyles. I must learn it yet.”
Before you go
The Silts band runs roughly 18–26, which is late-chapter territory, and the tower is the only combat-relevant section — the rest is two conversations with Marat. Do not skip entry six: the journal is explicit that holding the notes is not the same as knowing the hex. The mid-game walkthrough shows where this sits against the vassal arcs, and the final prep guide covers what the endgame assumes.