Investigate the shop in central Svartrau after Good Home. Reach the upper floor, use the Cage key to free the captive, then search the adjacent room’s floor with Focus Mode.
Night entrance when the shop door is locked
ATH places the shop opposite the Curious House near southern Altenmarkt. Listen beside its locked door for the investigation objective. At night, approach from the rear, use Shadowstep to reach the balcony and enter the upper room quietly. This is a reported route, not proof that every daytime approach requires killing the merchant.
If preserving the merchant matters, save before exploring beyond the cage room. The same source describes leaving after the rescue without taking the stash, but also makes unverified claims that killing him has no consequences. Check your own journal; no universal harmless-kill outcome is established here.
Reach the cage
- Enter the shop and read the Storekeep’s Letter at the back. Locate the Merchant’s Key by the lute and use it for the stairs door near the entrance. The rear balcony provides another upper-floor route.
- Upstairs, interact with the cage. Look on the table by the window and candles for Cage key.
- Use that key to open the cage. The Merchant’s Key opens the route upstairs; it does not replace the cage key.
Finish the treasure objective
- Move into the adjacent room, rather than continuing to search the cage room. Activate Focus Mode and inspect the floorboards near the bed on the left.
- Loot the hidden stash and check the updated journal. Opening an ordinary chest is not the same as inspecting the concealed floor stash.
Still searching the cage room?
After the rescue conversation, leave that room and follow the short hall to the right-hand bedroom door. Scan beside the bed with Focus, then interact with the highlighted floorboard. A nearby chest is a separate container.
If the treasure objective remains active, recheck that floor interaction and the journal. ATH also reports a leave-without-looting outcome, but its exact trigger is unverified here. Neither a mandatory merchant kill nor legendary-loot rerolling is established; preserve a save before testing another branch.
Check before taking property
Save before taking marked property if the owner is present; the encounter can become hostile. The Sanzhani achievement depends on the wider quest group, so do not expect this single rescue to award it if other tasks remain. Use the five-task checklist to find the missing one.
Reference checks
