Okay here's all the ambient (non-conversation) dialogue I could find in Maleshov, including the infamous 'Hans is fun' guard dialogue.
But more important than that, the white dog has a name! It's Snapper!
Konrad: Lord von Bergow had to leave on important business for Sigismund. And he took a small escort with him, so the garrison is slightly weakened now. So, be extra alert on your watch. If I find anybody slacking off, they’ll get the whip.
Diepolt: You’ve got it Konrad.
Konrad: Diepolt, I’ll send Heimann to the gate, you’ll be in charge of the southern and eastern fortifications.
Diepolt: Alright Konrad. I’ll get right on it.
Konrad: Franz, run along back to the guardhouse and get some sleep so you don’t fall asleep during the night watch.
Franz: Aye, don’t worry.
Konrad: The rest of you know your orders. You’ll be sorry if you don’t. Dismissed. And don’t drink too much.
Diepolt: Got it, Konrad.
Konrad: Vitek, the cart is starting to get on my fucking nerves.
Hired Hand Vitek: I understand. I’ll get right on it.
Konrad: And tell Drahomira it’s getting late, so she won’t forget to take some food to our honored guests. I gave her the keys so I wouldn’t have to fuck around with it myself.
Vitek: Don’t worry, it’s already taken care of. I saw her taking it to them.
Konrad: Well, that’s great. That woman must be the only one I can rely on.
(he moves to the outer bailey)
Konrad: Hey, you two! Have you seen Latsek and Deitrich?
Heimann: No, Maybe they went to the village or something.
Liepold: I don’t think so. I’ve a feeling I saw them in the castle. But that was some time in the afternoon... Before that messenger arrived and all that fuss started.
Konrad: Well, I’ll get my hands on them sooner or later... Anyway, pay attention now. I don’t want to repeat anything I told the fellahs up there, so I’ll keep it short. Lord von Bergow rode out, as you must have noticed. So you don’t have to work all that hard, but we don’t want things going to hell here either.
Heimann: Aye, commander.
Lipold: You got it.
Konrad: As I said, we have to maintain some basic duties, like shifts. You’re first on the gate, Heimann. Then Lipold will relieve you for the night watch. Or Latzek and Dietrich, if I find those lazy bastards.
Heimann: Understood. I’m on my way.
Konrad: Good. And keep your eyes peeled. Sir Otto might well send a rider with some urgent message, so let’s be ready.
Heimann: You can count on me. My eyes are wide open. (gets up)
Konrad: Well, you heard me. Rest as you see fit, so you’re alert and at full strength on the night shift.
Lipold: Aye, don’t overdo the booze, right?
Konrad: Something like that. But I could do with a beer myself, god damn it. This day has been totally shit, and my throat’s on fire. (goes into tent)
(I never found Latsek and Deitrich so they must’ve been in town. It’s not Guard 1 and 2 because they were in the meeting with Konrad)
Guard 1: So, who’s going to take watch?
Guard 2: Well... How about splitting it?
Guard 1: That might work, but I’d rather talk about it over a pint of ale.
Guard 2: Good idea. And let’s bring some dice... Whoever loses will take the night shift with Lipold.
Guard 1: Haha! You’d better get some rest then, because I’ll wipe the table with you!
Guard 2: We’ll see about that!
(they move inside and play dice)
Guard 1: Hey, you’re always asking around. Got any interesting news?
Guard 2: I might have. I overheard that young gent what came with the Margrave saying something was going to happen in Kuttenberg.
Guard 1: You mean that fellah that hacked up poor old Snapper? He’s a bit gone in the head, ain’t he?
Guard 2: He just might be. But they said they’d be going after the Jews, ‘cause they’re hiding someone.
Guard 1: If his lordship goes after them like he did before in Prague, there won’t be stone on stone left in that quarter of theirs. I wouldn’t wish that on them.
Guard 2: You wouldn’t wish that on ‘em, eh? But it’s their own damn fault. Dirty traitors.
(pretty sure they meant Markvart von Aulitz when they said “the Margrave”, they also call the lady upstairs Ophelia but her name is Ofka)
Guard 1: Hey, next time we get near an army camp, we need to come up with a way to harass them Hungarians. They’re so bloody arrogant! And they always stink the place up!
Guard 2: Aye, tie their moustaches together and drag them thru the shit! Take their horses to the woods, that’ll fuck them up. And hang pigs’ heads on their tents.
Guard 1: When their women are washing their kaftans, then we’ll take them and... and do something funny with them.
Guard 2: Yeah, so while you’re figuring out what, I’ll be introducing myself to the local wenches.
Guard 1: Well, I’d better think fast, because with you they’ll be taking to their heels pretty damn quick.
Guard 2: You prick! Don’t start again!
Guard 1: Hey, since Lord von Bergow ain’t here, why don’t we invite the young gentleman what’s locked up there to come and play with us! He was a lot of fun last time when von Bergow allowed us to take him out for a ride.
Guard 2: Aye, fun, but I wouldn’t take the chance. As soon as his Lordship comes home, he’d have our hides for it. And we’d have to explain it to Lady Ophelia. And I don’t want to do that. Besides, there’s too many stairs. At least there’s beer here!
Guard 1: I’d like to know where Karel and Zdenda are (spoke too fast).
Guard 2: I bet they’re somewhere holed up in the tower, stuffing their faces. Like the last time his Lordship went away. Fucking hounds.
Guard 1: If Lady Ophelia catches them at it, they’ll get a proper hiding. If they had anything in them noggins of theirs, they’d be sitting here with us with a beer.
Guard 1: This is boring as fuck. I feel like we’ve been playing dice for an eternity! We played yesterday, we played the day before that, we’re playing today... It’s starting to piss me off.
Guard 2: Heh heh, don’t complain. You’re just sour because you can’t tell a four from a five. I’m having fun as it happens. Better to sit quietly on our arses than to get messed up in Lord knows what. Enjoy it while you can, before his Lordship orders us to get our arses moving again.
Guard 1: Kurva! It’s boring here if you ask me! Not even a beer can fix it. I think I’ve had enough of it. I hope I’ll get a patrol when His Lordship gets back. At least a ride in the countryside, instead of sitting on my arse here all the time like a chump.
Guard 2: Ty vole! Be careful what you wish for. His Nibs left in a hurry. I heard it had something to do with the King.
Guard 1: Whatever it is, I hope he comes back with something interesting. Too bad I didn’t leave with his escort entourage, at least I’d be doing something interesting.
Guard 2: Who’d take you along to anything interesting?
Guard 1: Shut your mouth! I’ve had enough of this damned fortress. And you especially.
(upstairs w/ Karel and Zdenda I don’t know which is which so I just chose at random; I went by voice actor to keep which is which straight)
Ofka: What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be keeping watch or polishing the armor somewhere?
Karel: Konrad sent us to keep watch here.
Ofka: I think you’re just holing up here! I’ll ask him first thing tomorrow and see what he tells me.
Zdenda: Wait, ma’am! We’re on Konrad’s blacklist and ever since he yelled at you last time, I reckon you are too. So what do you say we help each other out a bit here? We’ll hole up a bit downstairs and you won’t say anything to the captain about it.
Karel: Have no fear, we’ll just have a little nibble, with your kind permission.
Zdenda: And we’ll be as quiet as mice in the hall. We won’t disturb you, trust me.
Ofka: I hope so, now off with you.
(she goes into her room, they go downstairs to the hall and pantry)
Karel: You’re a sharp one. You sure know how to deal with her.
Zdenda: Aye... I actually feel sorry for her, with nobody taking her seriously here. She’s some third-rate daughter of some lord from who knows where, so she was actually quite lucky that old Otto took a liking to her. The thing is, everybody knows where she comes from and treats her accordingly.
Karel: Bloody hell “old Otto”. He’d have you whipped for that.
Zdenda: You’re right. I’d better keep our lord out of my mouth and stuff it with sausage instead. So let’s dig in and make the best of Ofka’s favor.
(goes to the pantry)
Zdenda: I love this, his lordship should ride out like this more often, so we can get the fare we deserve.
Karel: That’s for sure. Only we shouldn’t eat everything up, so they don’t catch on to us.
Zdenda: Don’t worry, no one will notice anything, and even if they do, we’ll talk our way out of it. Let’s have a few more morsels and fill our bellies properly. And then we can go and see Drahomira in the kitchen and get something else from her.
Karel: That’ll be soup again, like always, I saw her plucking a chicken today.
Zdenda: Aye, but warm broth will do your belly good.
Karel: It’s better than gruel, you got that right. But no soup yet, let’s have another sausage, heh heh. I’ll go grab it.
(grabs more sausages)
Zdenda: This is some damn fine grub. Much better than what they give us. And how it’s spiced! It’s a fairy tale in my mouth.
Karel: Keep your voice down, or Konrad will hear you and we’ll be in trouble. Stuff that gob of yours instead.
Zdenda: You don’t have to ask me twice. But there’s nothing left. Go and grab us some more.
Karel: Go yourself. I’m going there all the time.
Zdenda: Because you’ve got a natural born talent for it. Besides, I went last time, when we nicked that ham from the kitchen.
Karel: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you and your ham! I’m going already!
Zdenda: What about some food for the young gents upstairs?
Karel: Nothing today. We have enough here and I saw Drahomira taking something up to him. But next time we have to offer to take it up there. Drahomira’s glad if she doesn’t have to use the stairs...
Zdenda: Yeah, it’s a good deed, even if the young gent gets our swill instead of his noble food.
Karel: Right, the nobles ought to learn how their subjects live, ey?
Zdenda: When you’re too old to be a soldier, you can always get a job teaching.
Karel: Heh, that wouldn’t be all that bad. If they’ve got fine sausages like these! I’ll go and get us a couple more.
Latzek: Go and get more sausages! I bet Lord von Bergow is sitting at some royal table right now so he won’t miss them.
Karel: I’m not so sure about that. I don’t think the king is in a very hospitable mood, seeing what that messenger of his said. More like His Lordship has a problem, I reckon.
Latzek: Knowing His Nibs, he won’t settle for bread or water. But whatever’s up with the king, it’s a nobles’ affair. And as far as we’re concerned, I’m leading the charge on the pantry!
Karel: The vanguard is ready to go, sir!
(extra special bonus ambient dialogue between Hans and Brabant)
Hans: Brabant, keep watch by the stairway. I’ll go to the window and wait for Henry’s signal.
Brabant: I think it would be better if you watch the stairs.
Hans: Why’s that?
Brabant: You are younger. You have better hearing.
Hans: You said you once discovered a dozen English spies, so you can surely handle one stairway.
Brabant: I discovered them because I smelt them from a distance. You see, Les Anglais stink to high heaven.
Hans: Then you’d better hope von Bergow’s men stink like rotten fish.
Brabant: Eh bien... I will watch the stairs, if Monsieur le Chapon so insists.
(No, Brabant, Hans HAS to be at the window becuase HE needs to be the one who sees Henry's signal. Proud of my man for sticking to his guns)
I was playing KCD 2 a few days ago and accidentily wandered into Maleshov on my way to Hashtal and something about Henry riding through Maleshov in broad daylight, knowing Hans was in there, just got to me.
The weeks spend locked up in Maleshov’s tower started to blur into a string of days that were all the same. After his failed attempt to escape during a rare outing accompanied by too many guards, the outings had stopped entirely. He wasn’t sure if he regretted the attempt or if he was just pissed he’d failed. Both probably.
The walls were closing in on him more and more each day, and all he could do was look out through one of the windows and pretend he wasn’t stuck in the same room day and night. Pretend he could just step out of the window and fly like the bird his name claimed him to be.
His choice of views were either a lake and woods through one window or a pond through another, with parts of the road and the village of Maleshov behind it.
He watched as a small caravan passed alongside the small pond and a part of him wanted to yell out, but he’d already tried that and either his voice hadn’t reached them or they simply hadn’t cared. After all, he was a noble and what nobles did amongst themselves was nobles’ business. No peasants would willingly get embroiled in that. And what could peasants do anyway? Certainly not pick up swords and free him.
You can rely on me. Always.
Well, maybe one peasant could pull it of, Henry was half nobility after all. Except that Henry was as much a prisoner as he was, and probably even worse of than him, here in his lavish tower, never hungry or cold, and with Brabant for company.
No, Henry was most likely hanging from chains and being tortured in the Trosky dungeon, where he himself had once spend twelve hours waiting for his own hanging. Bell by bell his death had neared, bell by bell the walls of the dungeon had gripped him like a vice, the flickering of torchlight through the bars the only movement he could see, the sharpness of his breath the only sound…
He closed his eyes, pushed the memories away, and turned his thoughts back to Henry, but that didn’t help either when his mind conjured up images of Henry tortured and bleeding under the sharp knives of Istvan Toth’s henchmen.
You’re the closest friend I have left.
And Henry was the closest thing to a friend he ever had. And here he was, locked up and useless, a hostage to keep Hanush at bay. What a fucking failure. Failed to deliver a letter. Failed as a poacher. Failing to save Henry.
Thinking about Henry brought up a jumble of feelings. Anger at being betrayed and captured by Von Bergow, anger at how easily they’d been played and unknowingly turned to fight against their own cause. Anger mostly at himself for being so useless. There was some hope too, but that was fading quickly as the days turned to weeks. But most prominent was fear; fear for Henry’s life, fear for himself, fear for the walls closing in on him, fear of losing something he couldn’t even name yet.
Opening his eyes again with a frustrated gasp, he leaned out the window as far as he could until he could feel the wind and the sun on his face. The beautiful blue sky and bright sun were almost a mockery of his fate.
‘Giving up already, mon ami?’ Brabant asked from behind him, half joking, half worried.
‘Not just yet!’ He yelled back but stayed where he was, enjoying the false sense of freedom for a little longer. But when a soldier on the wall beneath him yelled up, waving his arms, he sighed and pulled back inside. The last thing he needed was Von Bergow bursting in and deciding to board up all the windows because he thought Hans might throw himself to his death.
Hans was many things, some he wasn’t very proud of right now, but a coward he was not. Death would not give him vengeance. His death would not free Henry and bring them back home. He would get free, somehow. He still needed to do so many things. Becoming the Lord of Pirkstein in more than name, more drinking and wenching just as he’d planned, travel further out into the world, preferably with Henry by his side. There was no one more reliably he could think of to join him on a voyage like that.
Beneath him, again by the road along the pond, a rider slowed his horse and stopped to look up at Maleshov. It wasn’t a great, grand fortress like the upper castle at Rattay, and definitely nothing even close to Trosky, but it was impressive in its own way.
From the glinting of sunlight on metal he guessed the rider must be a knight. A hand moved to push up a visor as the knight appraised the fortress before him. One of Von Bergow’s knights perhaps, patrolling? Or simply a traveler passing through? Not that it mattered really. Hans was deep in enemy territory and it would take a very brave man to break into a fortress this heavily guarded in broad daylight.
You have my word as a blacksmith.
Henry wasn’t a knight himself but very much behaved like one. More than many actual knights, he had to admit. So much so that his friend had put their own lives in danger because of it not that long ago. It still pissed him off a little, but then again, wasn’t that what true knights did? Put their lives at risk to save innocents?
But he wasn’t an innocent. He was a lord and a hostage and his freedom lay in the silver Hanush could produce once Von Bergow send out his messengers to Rattay.
Once he was free the first thing he would do was find and free Henry. With Henry by his side he felt he could handle anything the world would throw at him. And it would be rather nice to save Henry for a change.
He turned away from the knight, back into the comfort of his prison, preparing himself for another evening of being questioned by Von Bergow in the rich confines of his golden cage.
*
In bright sunlight and under a clear blue sky, Maleshov fortress was quite something to look up at. Not as impressive as Trosky, definitely not, not even as large as the castle at Rattay. Even Skalitz had been bigger. But somehow, knowing Hans was locked up in there, Maleshov felt bigger and more dangerous than any other fortress or castle he’d seen.
Because Henry needed to get in there, and because he was only one man he would need to go under cover of darkness, silent and unseen. And that made the fortress the most dangerous place he’d ever faced. With Talmberg a solid second, but then he hadn’t been alone, he’d been with Hans and a bunch of capable soldiers.
This he would face alone, armed with his sword and dagger and some very nicely drawn maps that would at least help him know where he was going. If he had to guess, Hans was somewhere in the tower, in a nice room because he was a noble, and probably high up.
With a nod to himself he closed his visor, not that anyone would recognize him, but still. It cost nothing to be careful. And he had to be, because if he failed no one else would try to get Hans out. He couldn’t really understand why no one else would come with him. Just because Hans was a noble and would be treated well, didn’t mean he was safe. He was still a prisoner and at any moment Von Bergow could decide Hans was more trouble than he was worth.
‘No more stalling, girl.’ He told Pebbles. She huffed in agreement.
The name of the village is derived from the legend of a wealthy Kuttenberg burgher named Malesh (Maleš), who founded a woodcutter colony here to supply the nearby silver mountains with charcoal.
The first mention of the village dates back to 1303. The fortress is first mentioned in 1359, when Purkard of Maidberk sold his village to the Sedletz Monastery which subsequently passed the village onto the Ruthards, a patrician family from Kuttenberg, in 1364. When the family was enobled in the early 15th century, they began to call themselves the Ruthards of Maleshov. They did not enjoy the fortress for long, however, because in 1411 it was given to the king’s supporter, Martin Kladný of Těchlovice.
The area around Maleshov is steeped in history. For example, in 1421, Martin Kladný defended the fortress against an army of Praguers, that wanted to install its own mint master in Kuttenberg. Maleshov became an important fortress especially during the Hussite Wars in 1424.
Today, the remains of the fortress include a five-story tower with Gothic windows and remnants of late Gothic fortifications making it a favourite destination for the Warhorse team.
TRIVIA
— Besides its role as a fortified settlement, Malešov became a more important part of Bohemian history via the Battle of Malešov in 1424, one of the final victories of Jan Žižka. Facing a larger army sent by Prague and its moderate Utraquist allies, Žižka and his Orebites chose ground near the village that allowed him to exploit the slope of the surrounding terrain. According to legends and contemporary accounts, his men filled wagons with stones and released them downhill into the advancing enemy ranks. The attack shattered their formation and created panic, which the Hussites used to their advantage to charge into battle. In terms of human losses, the Battle of Malešov is one of the bloodiest battles of the entire Hussite wars, with the Hussite-Catholic army losing 1200 - 1400 men.
Although the tactic is traditionally attributed to him, it should be noted that Žižka was completely blind by this point, and his success depended largely on his commanders who were capable of choosing appropriate terrain and carrying out his orders precisely. This tactic was probably inspired by Bellifortis by Konrad Kyeser, a copy of which had been presented to King Wenceslas IV, whose castellan Žižka had once been. An illustration in this book shows a man rolling a wagon filled with stones down a hill against enemy troops.
A later account in Bohemica by Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who would become Pope Pius II, claimed the Hussites used wagenburgsoffensively to encircle and destroy enemy forces. However, most historians generally dismiss this as fiction, since such heavy wagons would have been too slow for that purpose. The only reliable example of offensive wagon use is Žižka’s unique tactic at Malešov, as in most battles wagenburgs served simply as mobile defensive fortifications.
The weapons seller in Maleshov sells some incredible and unique stuff:
- a shield with Ruthard's shit on. Unremarkable stats, but it's pretty.
- three dice, one of them has the Devil's head.
- gold quality pitchfork - a weapon which is not only well-crafted, but it's also not half bad. AND it may serve as a constant reminder of Henry's humble beginnings! Only true disadvantage is that at 11.4 pounds, it is a hefty boi.
10/10, do recommend going to the village. The story otherwise doesn't force you to roam in there, with no quests or quest givers within the village outside of the main story.
