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 demo: every step toward the first battle against the zombies goes through 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.

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.