This is a quest given by a Lord or Lady of a friendly faction who has imprisoned relatives.
Walkthrough and Tips[]
A Lord or Lady will ask you to rescue a member of their family from captivity, who have been denied the treatment they deserve as noble prisoners. The imprisoned person will always be a vassal - as ladies can only be taken captive by players and are never kept in dungeons - thrown off in a dungeon instead of being granted proper conduct.
The prisoner you need to rescue is kept within the dungeon of a fortification - either a castle or a town - belong to a faction that is hostile to the quest givers. This does not necessarily mean that it is hostile to you - in fact, rescuing lord from a non-hostile faction is easiest as you don't have to give up your equipment and sneak into the town.
There are several ways of achieving this goal - you can take the straightforward route of capturing the fortification, as it will automatically free all friendly prisoners, but that requires you to be at war with the faction of the captors and to have an army strong enough to take it.
Another approach is to sneak into the town, beat up the prison guard, take their keys, free the lord and fight your way out. This one relies much less on the skills of your army and more on the experience of the player character and the skill level of the player. When sneaking into a town, you disguise yourself as a pilgrim, wielding a Quarter Staff and Throwing Knives to use as weapons. Thus, characters with high Power Strike and Power Throw skills and a high proficiency in polearms will benefit greatly. Since you will be wearing very light armor (the Pilgrim Disguise and the corresponding hood) you cannot take many hits. Instead, you should rely on running away and kiting your enemies - a high Athletics skill should help with that.
All that, of course, is if you fail to sneak in successfully. Detection chance is based on the size of your army. A big army at the gate is suspicious.
An optional way to make the whole thing much easier is to find a nearby village with a relationship of 0 or higher to the player and ask them to start a fire outside the village. After paying them at least 200 denars and/or telling them your plan, they will agree to do so, and you can choose to get the fire within an hour or at midnight. This option decreases the number of guards you have to fight once you get the lords out to 1, and also deals with the castle guard that may be near the dungeon, so it is highly advisable when you're rescuing from capitals. Note that creating a distraction does not guarantee you safe entry, and you may still have to fight four or five guards with only a staff and throwing knives.
Once you're in, you need to find the prison guard. Speak to him and demand the keys from him (you can also bribe him, but since the Deliver message to prisoner lord quest has been cut from the game, this option does not have any functionality and is thus a red herring). You will then need to kill or KO the guard (very easy if the town is not hostile to you and you can fight him with your own weapons). You will then get the guard's keys, at which point you can enter the dungeon and speak to the captive lord(s) inside.
When you speak to a captive, they will ask you what is going on. You have the option of telling them you're there to save them, which progresses the quest. The lord tells you that they're weaker than usual because of being kept in prison, and you then have the option of telling them to come kill some guards with you or to tell them to wait near the door until you do the job yourself. If you're not sure you can take on the guards, know that lords are experienced and well-equipped and will thus be a great asset in your prison break - just tell them to follow you and make sure they don't get killed. Companions can get imprisoned too, but the only reward you get for getting them out is having them in your party, and later on just ransoming them is faster.
Note that you can take lords entirely unrelated to your quest with you if they happen to be imprisoned at the same place. They can be used as backup for your breakout efforts, and the relation bonus with the rescuee is nice. However, you will not be rewarded separately for getting out lords you had no quest for.
Once you're out, you'll need to kill the remaining guards, and, as soon as you kill the last one, all of the people you rescued will thank you. You will gain 6 relations with the person you rescued and +2 relations with all their family members (including the quest giver!) and the faction they belong to. You can then find the person who gave you this quest, and you will be rewarded with +10 relations, around 1500 denars and 2000 experience.
This quest is a great source of mid-game money, very similar to Destroy Bandit Lair in that regard.
Bugs[]
A well-known and incredibly annoying bug sometimes causes the rescuee to attack you, rendering the quest impossible to complete. This is usually fixed by restarting the game.
Transcript[]
My (relative), (lord #1), has been take prisoner by (lord #2) of the (faction). Normally, honorable nobles will grant prisoners of gentle blood the privilege of parole, and treat them as honored guests so long as they give their word that they will not attempt to escape, until such time as a ransom can be paid. But (lord #2), instead of granting (lord #1) parole, has consigned my son to his dungeons -- no doubt in the hope that he can demand more from us.
We need you to get my (relative) out of prison. You may be able to pay a ransom -- in which case we could cover your expenses up to 5000 denars. If you have connections within (prisoner location), you may be able to use them to sneak him out. Or, you can try a more direct approach -- walk up to the gaoler, take the keys by force, and then fight your way out. Can you do this for us?
- I can try.
- We are most grateful. Could I ask you how you were planning to proceed.
- I am thinking of breaking into the prison in (prisoner location), finding (Lord #1), and fighting my way out.
- I had discussed this idea with some of my men. One could enter (prisoner location), either in disguise or openly, then walk up to the prison guard and try to take the keys by force. However, getting out may be difficult. The garrison may be slow to react, but even so, you are likely to find yourself fighting a half dozen or more of the enemy at once, with limited space to maneuver. If you can fight you way past them, though, you can probably get out.
- You may find it useful to create a distraction, to divert the attention of some of the garrison. If you have any connections in the villages near (prisoner location), this may be a time to put them to use.
- I am thinking of taking (prisoner location) by storm.
- Well, that is certainly the most direct approach.
- I have done enough planning. Time to act!
- May the heavens protect you.
- I don't think that I can help you.
- It would not have been an easy task. Perhaps we will find another way.
Quest Complete[]
Lord: "(Player), you saved him! Thank you ever so much for rescuing my (relative). Please, take this as some small repayment for your noble deed."
Player: "Always an honour to serve, sir."
Trivia[]
Originally, there was meant to be a quest that is was a blend of Meet spy and this quest. It was called Deliver message to prisoner lord, and its former existence is the reason for the seemingly red herring-like addition of bribing the guard. It would be given by ladies and would consist of delivering a message to their captive husband. It was cut from the game for unknown reasons.