Mount&Blade/Faction quests

Mount&Blade is completely non-linear; you can go wherever you want and do whatever you like with very few exceptions. All quests are randomly generated.

The quests will always be of the following types, but their specifics are somewhat random. You can cancel a quest at any time by speaking to the quest giver and saying that you cannot complete it, but you lose some reputation with them every time you do this, and companions who dislike failing quests will express their disapproval.

All quests have a time limit; however, once you complete the quest the time limit is disabled. Once you complete a quest speak to the quest giver to claim your reward. You can take on another quest straight after, but you can only have one quest from each quest giver active at a time.

Mercenary Captain
On random occasions, asking for a task from someone when you are not part of a faction will make the quest giver offer you a mercenary contract. The contract will run for three months, and after that you can extend it on a monthly basis. Your wages vary depending on the quantity and quality of your troops.

When signed on as a mercenary, that faction's enemies and allies become yours. Your reputation with friendly factions will be changed to 12, while your reputation with the enemies of your faction will be set to -40. You have full rights to loot and prisoners, but you cannot hold any towns or castles.

When your Renown and relations with the king reaches a certain point you can ask to sign on as a vassal of the faction. At this point you will be granted a village and get to choose your own banner. You will no longer receive wages, but you will be able to ask the king for towns and castles you capture. Vassalage does not expire, and can only be cancelled by asking the king to release you from your oath or performing an action that angers him (such as ignoring a marshal's orders or refusing to relinquish a newly-captured fief when the king refuses your request to be granted ownership of it).

Deliver Message
This is very straightforward. You'll be told the name of the recipient and his current location and be given some gold to help you on your way. You have 30 days to deliver the message (40 if the recipient is from a different faction). This quest is completed when the letter is delivered, so you don't need to go back to the quest giver.

Raise troops
You'll be asked to train a certain number of recruits into a certain troop type. Basically, get into fights to gain experience and level them up. You can also complete this quest by giving him men you have previously trained or freed from captivity.

Be careful not to upgrade the recruits beyond the requested troop type - they can gain levels, but if you upgrade them beyond what the quest giver asked for, they'll no longer count towards the total. If you or your companions have the Trainer skill you can put the requested troops at the bottom of the party list to keep them out of combat, but otherwise you will need to have them take part in battle in order to gain enough experience to level up.

Escort lady
For this quest, the lady will be added to your party and simply travel to the specified destination.

Save the Village of ______ from Marauding Bandits
The quest giver tells you that bandits are attacking one of his villages, but he is too busy to sort it out. All you have to do is wipe out a random number of bandits at the village in question. You get 200 gold for accepting this quest, and if you succeed the quest giver will give you 350 EXP and some more gold (varying depending on your level).

Collect taxes
The quest giver will ask you to collect taxes from a property he owns, with your reward being a fifth of the total takings—the taxes can add up to several thousand denars, so even a fifth will be a nice amount to have. The party member with the highest Trade skill will assess how long it will take (usually several days) and also influences how much you collect.

During collection you may be told that the people could revolt if you keep demanding such high taxes and you will be offered the option of halving the amount taken for the remaining time, but doing so may result in the vassal being unhappy and giving you only a tenth (may be variable?) of the takings. If the townspeople revolt you will have to subdue them in battle. You will lower your reputation with the town but raise your reputation with the quest giver. Other times, the vassal might recognise he was not paying enough attention to his fief and will commend you for being lenient (maybe only in Warband?).

If you wish, you can keep all the money from this quest by waiting for the quest to expire or telling the lord you are unable to finish it. You can spend it beforehand. If you try to turn in the quest when you've spend the money before giving the questgiver his share you will only be able to tell him "I'm still working on it" and will have to get the money elsewhere.

Hunt down fugitive
The quest giver tells you that a murderer is hiding in a particular village.

The villagers won't help you find him, so look about for a "Nervous Man". He will generally be in a secluded corner or doorway. You can recognize him because he is the only one wearing a sword and is standing still (other than the Village Elder, all villagers are constantly on the move). Talk to him and he will attack you. In addition to his sword he also has some Throwing Knives, and he will use them if you get too far away.

You get 256 EXP for killing him (knocking him out is also acceptable for completing this quest, but you cannot take him prisoner). Your reputation with the village will drop by two points regardless of whether you kill him or simply knock him out. You can avoid this by pressing the Tab key and leaving the village immediately after killing or knocking out the fugitive. If he knocks you unconscious he will escape and you will fail the quest.

Once he's dealt with return to the quest giver for 300 gold, or tell him to keep it if you prefer. Either way you earn experience and the quest giver's respect. If you decline the money, the quest giver's respect for you will increase further and you will gain honour.

Assassinate Local Merchant
The quest giver owes a local merchant some money, but he's decided not to pay and wants to silence the merchant. You'll be told to wait a few hours until he turns up, then you have to fight the man. About halfway through the fight, he will beg for mercy. You have the option of continuing the fight and killing him, or letting him go and warning him to not to say anything about the debt. If you let him go, the quest giver will only pay you half of the usual reward. If you kill him you will lose Honour. Of course if you kill him with only one blow, he won't ask for mercy and you can't let him go.

Bring Back Runaway Serfs
The quest giver will tell you that a few groups of farmers have decided to escape to a nearby town, and you must recapture them before they can do so—under feudalism, serfs who could successfully hide outside the lord's jurisdiction would essentially become freemen, no longer subject to the lord's hold over them. Naturally this farmer exodus is bad for business, so he wants you to recapture them.

Once you have accepted the quest the farmers will spawn very close to the place where you got the quest. The hardest part of this quest is catching the farmers; their groups are small and move quite fast. Simply talk to each of them and tell them to go home (or, if you prefer, agree to let them escape their lord's ownership). Letting them go will raise your reputation with their home village, while forcing them to return home will lower your reputation with the village. Once they are on their way you can talk to them again to change your mind, again altering your reputation.

The tricky part is making sure the serfs do return to their village - they are sneaky and will just turn around and make for the town again if you put too much distance between them and yourself, so you will need to stay close and keep an eye on them all the way. Once all the serf parties are off the map (either back in their village or in the town), you can return to the quest giver. The reward you get depends on how many groups you sent home.

Note: If you refuse the quest you will lose reputation with the quest giver.

Follow the Spy to Meeting
This quest is quite difficult. You need to capture the spy and his contact in combat, so be sure you and your companions have blunt weapons (for best results, temporarily remove your companions' other weapons to ensure they only use blunt attacks). You will also need at least one point in Prisoner Management in order to take the prisoners with you. If you have a town or castle, consider dumping your troops there so they don't get in the way and start killing or get killed.

You need to follow the spy to the meeting point while keeping a safe distance.

When the quest is given, you see an animation with the spy leaving the place in some direction. Some points in Tracking seem necessary (4 are enough), since he will certainly change his course. Be sure to zoom enough to see his tracks, since tracking arrows for a size 1 party are really small, and quite hard to notice.

Some points in Spotting may help too, since the spy will change his route if he notices you. Wait until the spy reaches his contact, and then immediately move in to confront them (if you wait too long you may miss the meeting and not be able to capture both).

They decide to attack you, so you need to defeat them in combat. If you have troops with you, order them to use blunt weapons (F11) and then use the command interface to dump them somewhere where they hopefully won't kill the spies. After that, chase after the spies and knock them out with your blunt weapon.

You only need the two spies alive, easily recognized by their white coursers, their Caravan Guard escorts can be killed without disrupting the quest. When you have successfully captured them, haul them back to the quest giver to claim your reward.

Capture an enemy lord
This quest is relatively simple: attack parties of the given faction until you manage to capture one of their vassals. Vassals have an 80% chance of escape, so you may have to fight them many times over to finally capture one. Once you have him, simply return to the quest giver for your reward. If you already have a lord of that faction in your possession at the time you talk to the quest giver you can solve the quest immediately.

Make sure you don't accept a ransom offer for that lord if he is the only one you have from that faction; a ransom pays more than the quest giver but means you will have to hunt for another lord in order to complete the quest. If you have multiple lords of that faction you can ransom off any spare ones as the quest giver only wants one and doesn't care who it is. If you have lords from multiple factions, pay attention to the faction mentioned on the ransom offer screen to make sure you're selling the ones you don't need.

Lend Your Companion
The quest giver asks to borrow a particular companion for a week. Once the time is up you get the companion back and earn some reputation with the quest giver.

Collect the debt
The quest giver asks you to recover the money another vassal owes him, and you will get 20% of the money in return for your help. This quest can be solved in multiple ways: When you have the money, return to the quest giver to receive your reward.
 * 1) If the man's opinion of you is at +10 or higher you can ask him to pay up as a friend, although this lowers his opinion of you by 3 points.
 * 2) You can simply give the man some money to convince him to pay up; the sum suggested is exactly the 20% you get from completing the quest if you didn't used any other methods.
 * 3) If you have points in Persuasion you can try to convince him that paying the debt is the right thing to do. There is a degree of randomness to how successful you are at this. You can try multiple times, each successful attempt will decrease the amount of money or relation it costs to make him pay up, to the point where these either reach zero and he does so willingly, or he refuses to listen to your attempts at convincing him anymore. When that happens, you can either use one of the other methods or wait some time before you retry persuasion, as lords become more receptive to it again if you give them a few days break.
 * 4) You can agree that he doesn't need to pay the money; this will increase his opinion of you but the man he owes will like you less.

Incriminate the Loyal Commander
This quest is very straightforward. You have to deliver a forged letter to the lord in question, the contents of which implicates him in a treacherous plot against his king. The quest giver will randomly choose a high-level troop type from your party to be the one to deliver the letter. The man you send will be lost forever, but he will know nothing of the plot to ensure the message is considered to be genuine. At every point in the conversation you will get the chance to back out; if you agree to the plan the quest giver hands you 300 denars and the false letter.

When you get near the town, talk to the troop type determined for the quest, and tell him to take the message (or, if you prefer, back out of the scheme). He will then leave your party and head for the town. Once this is complete return to the quest giver. You will be rewarded with much more money than the original purse and your reputation with him will raise by 5 points, while your Honour will decrease by ten points. If you decline the quest at any point, his opinion of you will lower by 5 points, but you will gain three points of Honour. (Also note that the quest giver will sometimes propose this same quest immediately after you decline it if you ask him for tasks again, and accepting or declining has the same effects on your honor and reputation.)

Raid Caravans
On random occasions, a lord will tell you he is unhappy with the peace with a particular faction. If you agree that this peace is bad, he will reveal a very simple plan: he wants you to raid a particular number of the faction's caravans, which will anger them enough to declare war on your faction. Simply hunt and destroy the number of caravans he says to attack and this quest will be complete. Caravans typically spawn from towns at set times, and they are slow-moving; finding and catching them should be relatively straightforward. In addition to the loot gained from the caravans themselves, once you have succeeded the quest giver will give you 500 denars. However, speaking to the Faction Leader about this will make them think much less of you for provoking hostilities.

If you are captured at any point before you raid the specified number of caravans and give the good news to the quest giver the plan will fail and you will not be rewarded.

Meet Spy in Town
When you get this quest, make sure you ask how to identify the spy: the codephrase is randomly chosen from four possible options, and you need to ask the spy the right one to be able to proceed. The codephrase is not recorded in the quest log.

For this quest you simply need to go to the town in question and take a walk around the streets. If you are spotted on the way in and attacked by guards you can either defeat them or flee and come back later. Once you have successfully reached the streets, start questioning random townspeople. Most will respond with "Eh? What kind of gibberish is that?", but eventually you will come across the spy and get the documents. Return to the quest giver to earn 500 EXP and an amount of gold determined by your level.

Bring Prisoners
You'll be asked to catch a certain number of a certain enemy troop type. Try targeting the requested troop type first and render them unconscious with blunt weapons for capturing at the end of battle. Once finished, bring them to the quest giver for your reward.