Herbert

Herbert is the Head of the Guards. After the retreat from the town he sends you to the abandoned Inquisitor base, tells you to bury the dead there and to come back with the burial certificates. He waits at the Crossroads. His quests are the backbone of the opening chapters: every step toward the first battle against the zombies goes through him. After that battle he runs the defence from the Barracks, and each later push into the zombie-held part of the town starts with a talk with him.

He is not fooled by your claim to be an Inquisitor (“Even an impostor may be of use right now”), and he doesn’t care.

His quests

1. Certificate, Please. Show him a Burial Certificate from your first burial. He only looks at it; you keep it. This is the quest that opens the village: until it is done, the guards at the village gate turn you back. It also starts the donkey’s regular corpse deliveries, adds 10 town quality and gives 10 reputation with him.
2. Grave Expectations. Raise your graveyard quality to 10 and tell him. Nothing is spent. Another 10 reputation.
3. Fighting Spirit Required. Hand him 3 Faith. This time they are taken. You get 2 Town Gratitude and a Story, and the Barracks door opens.
4. Swords and Bell. Two tasks, in any order, both reported to him in the Barracks: raise the Barracks quality to 12, and bring him a Magic bell. Each gives a Town Gratitude; the bell also gives Pilgrim’s Clothes.
5. First… Sludge? Once both are done, talk to him in front of the Barracks. He hands you the red banner and 2 Healing Potions, and the battle can begin.

Faith comes only from sermons, so step 3 waits until you can hold one.

The Magic bell is made at an anvil from 1 Blood and 1 Bronze Ingot, but its recipe has to be unlocked first.

The recipe unlocks when you wake up the second time after Jack sails off in his boat, so step 4 also waits on Jack’s quest in the village.

Reaching Barracks quality 12

Two things in the Barracks count toward its quality:

• Barricades you build there. Barricade I, Spiked Barricade I and Fortified Barricade I add 2 each. They can only be placed in the Barracks.
• The four mercenaries, but only while they are paid for the next battle. A paid mercenary counts as his armour plus his weapon, 1 + 1, so the four together add 8. Unpaid, they add nothing.

So with the mercenaries paid you need two barricades; without them, six. Paying costs 5 silver for the first battle.

Barricades come from the Simple Barricades technology, which needs Reinforced Plank, and that one sits under a reputation technology that asks for 20 reputation with Herbert. His first two quests give exactly 20. Reputation technologies are not bought: they unlock by themselves the next time you open the technology tree once you have the reputation.

The battle

Before the fight starts, a window shows your defence power: the quality of the barricades in the Barracks plus the paid mercenaries. This first battle needs 12, the same number as the quest. The Start button stays disabled below that, and also if you have no sword or bow on your hotbar.

Winning gives a Defender’s Emblem, 6 Zombie goo and 4 more Town Gratitude.

After the win, walk onto the bridge toward the port; Jack meets you on the far side and the town opens.

Clearing the south of the town

The first win opens Our Military Plan in First… Sludge?: tell Herbert the first part of the town is secure. He wants the square by the main gate scouted next and sends you to his guards at the barricades, who start each battle from a camp under a banner. You get 10 reputation and a Town Gratitude, and the Eastern Districts battles open.

The next step is to win every battle on this side of the river (Safe zone.). Three wins count: the second Eastern Districts battle, the second Central Districts battle and the second sewer brawl. The Central Districts only open after the Market Square, which in turn waits on Jack’s iron order, and the sewer brawls are fought for Davy the Dagger at the Dockside Club. When the third one is won, Herbert tells you the river makes a fine defence and the town needs people now, not more ground. You get another 10 reputation and the achievement A New Dawn.

The romance novel

1. Sad Captain, No Action. After the first battle Herbert is gloomy. Ask him what would cheer him up: a romance novel, left in his old house in the zombie-held part of town. He would rather not be seen buying one, so he sends you to the looters’ boss at the Dockside Club.
2. The looters. The boss is Davy the Dagger. He first asks you to fight for him in the sewers; the sewer battles pay in Keys for Looters, and one key buys the Love Novel.
3. Herbert and? Give Herbert the novel: 10 reputation and 2 Town Gratitude. Then he admits that he cannot read, and none of his soldiers may find out. He has heard Agatha praying and likes her voice, and asks you to get her to read it to him.
4. Reader for a Warrior. Agatha agrees only after her own quest, which needs a Choir in the church and a sermon that uses it (see her page). Tell Herbert she will read for him at her place: another 10 reputation.

Security for the election

When the village holds its election, Januarius needs Herbert’s guards. Security Checkpoint: Democracy has two answers: asking needs 55 reputation with him, convincing him needs 60. Nothing is taken. By that point the six quests above are the only ones that give him reputation, 10 each, so the 60 means every one of them has to be done: the two opening quests, Our Military Plan, Safe zone, the novel and Reader for a Warrior.

North of the river

After the election other characters start asking for things across the river, and each time Herbert plans the attack. He usually tries to talk you out of it first. Each of these opens its battles on the map; the battles page has their defence power and rewards.

Quest	Who sends you	Battles	What it opens
Water Locked	Jack or Linda, whichever asks first	Closing the Western Floodgate	The lock is drained
Steamy Royal	Jack, after Water Locked	Closing the Eastern Floodgate I and II, then Break Through to the Bathhouse Basement from the sewer camp	The Royal Foundry under the bathhouse
Dirt Rights	Linda, after Water Locked	Operation POTATO I and II	The land at the bottom of the lock, and the Sluice Area waystone
Still Standing on Stilts	Agatha	Battle at the Lake	The Stilt Houses and the woodcarvers, and the Flooded Quarter waystone

These battle quests give no reputation of their own.

Retirement

While you plan the lake battle, Herbert tells you he is thinking of leaving the service. Not in Shining Armor Yet asks for 5 Steel Armor: one to hang on his wall, the rest put away for his men. You get 10 reputation and 3 Town Gratitude, and he says Agatha has offered him a corner of her house.

At the same time he asks you to build Agatha the organ she remembers from her monastery, and she asks you to build the same organ as a surprise for him. When the Organ is built, A Good Example is the Best Sermon asks for a sermon that uses it. Afterwards Herbert and Agatha both get 10 reputation, and you get the achievement An Unlikely Pair.

When both the armour and the organ sermon are done, the next time you wake up Well-Deserved Rest asks you to visit the two of them at Agatha’s house at the Crossroads, where Herbert now lives. He would like more books, a trilogy since good stories come in threes, and Agatha wants a way to write down his war stories. That starts two gifts:

• Bring the Trilogy to Herbert. It raises Agatha’s reputation by 10.
• Bring the Speech Writing Device to Agatha. It raises Herbert’s reputation by 10.

Each gift also gives 3 Town Gratitude. Both recipes unlock when the quest starts and can be made only once: the Trilogy on a Printing Press, the device on a steel anvil.

Helping with the portal

At the end of the story you need Herbert and Agatha together to restore the portal. In Wrath and Sloth you ask them both for help: the answer needs 90 reputation with each of them if you gave the Old God back his eye, and 100 with each if you kept it. Nothing is spent.

90 is everything Herbert’s quests give without the dark path, so every one of them has to be done. The last 10 come only from the dark path: after a dark dream, a visit to the Crossroads asks for a Comfortable Chair. The quest says to bring it to Agatha, but the answer is on Herbert. It gives both of them 10.

Reputation

Reputation	From	Opens
20	Certificate, Please; Grave Expectations	Reinforced Plank and Bronze Equipment
60	+ Our Military Plan, Safe zone, the novel, Reader for a Warrior	Convincing him for the election
90	+ the organ sermon, the Steel Armor, the Speech Writing Device	Helping with the portal (eye returned)
100	+ the Comfortable Chair	Helping with the portal (eye kept)

20 is his only reputation technology.