Join The Club
Joining the New Camp is a very long-winded process in Gothic Remake. Alongside handing out a bunch of swampweed for cash, you also need to help the Rice Lord. And after completing the A Few Drops Too Much quest, this so-called lord of rice will set you the task of finding Bran in the Up to His Neck quest.
Take note that while this quest will earn you the trust of the Rice Lord, a major step in joining the New Camp, you'll make that decision with Lares later. In other words, it won't lock you out of joining the other camp factions. Before you start this quest, I also recommend grabbing some armour, especially the free Digger's Dress.
How to complete Up to His Neck in Gothic Remake
The Rice Lord needs you to find Bran, his missing foreman, and tells you to speak to the farmers to find out more. Only the named farmers will comment on Bran, but, at least for me, Malon told me where he saw him disappear to. You need to speak to Malon kindly.
Malon explains that Bran went to a cave near the pond where Jacko and his crew hang around. To save you from running around the camp for ages like I did (there's a pond and lake in there, after all), to find the correct cave:
- Exit the New Camp through the main gates
- Go towards the pond and the small settlement ahead of you.
- Turn right, where you'll see a bandit guarding a cave entrance. I recommend saving your game here so you have a convenient point to load back to.
- Go inside the cave and up the stairs, where you'll find Jacko. Speak to Jacko, and he'll threaten you, starting a one-on-one fight.
- Beat Jacko in combat (you can use weapons, don't worry), and he'll explain that he sent Bran to rob the tavern's basement in order to repay his debts.
Jacko is a strong opponent early on, and if he beats you, he'll steal your gear and you won't be able to find out more. If you're struggling to beat him, I recommend getting a better weapon (such as buying one from Fisk in the Old Camp marketplace) and some armour, like the free Digger's Dress from the Free Mine. You could also unlock the fire bolt rune for more offensive power in The Price of Magic quest.
You can also speak to Cord by the training dummies overlooking the lake tavern in the New Camp to level up your one-handed weapons. However, if you really can't beat him, you can likely skip this step, but you'll miss out on the powerful Bloodfly Sting mace that he drops.
Next, you need to go to the tavern by the lake up the hill in the New Camp, near the entrance to the main cave, to find out how to get into the basement. You have two options: lockpick the door behind Silas, or, my preferred method, swim underneath the tavern. You can discover this secret entrance by persuading Rayk, but you can likely skip this step—if you beat him up in the previous quest, then it'll save you from bribing him with ore.
Here's where you need to go to find Bran:
- Go behind the tavern, close to the fishing rod on the pier and the chimney stack.
- Dive into the water, where you'll see a cave entrance with a strong current.
- Swim inside the basement and continue through the flooded cellar. You can actually surface here if you need more air.
- Walk up the stairs, where you'll see Bran's body ahead of you, left of the door. It's very dark, so it's easy to miss.
- Loot Bran's body and read the note. You can also lockpick the chests in this room to find out more, if you can be bothered to struggle with the lockpicking minigame.
- Swim back out the way you came and return to Silas to confront him about what happened to Bran.
Once you've spoken to Silas, return to the Rice Lord to finish the Up to His Neck quest. Your most important reward for completing this quest is that you'll get the Rice Lord's backing in terms of joining the camp. You'll also get 300 XP, which is a pretty hefty amount early on.
