A Mother’s Plea is the side quest hiding inside Bakir’s Court panel, and it is the one most players never see. It only exists if you have already worked through a specific chain of Svartrau City quests, and completing it means chasing a runaway heir into a city tavern, punching her, and then dealing with the crime boss squeezing her.
Quick answer: Speak to the Uriash Matriarch, Bakr-Erga, in Uriash Village, follow her to the obelisk, then beat Ocha in the brawl outside the Altenmarkt tavern in Svartrau City. Remove Andrei — by hex or by blade — then pick “Do you miss home?”, “Meh. Nothing better than homemade food.” and “Other villagers just cared about themselves.” at the river, and report back to Bakr-Erga.
A Mother’s Plea unlock requirements and location
Uriash Village sits northwest of the Rockfalls region, right at the edge of the map. The village is there from the start, but the Matriarch will not hand you anything until three other quests are done: A Study in Crimson, A Friend Like This, and Song of the Mountain.
A Friend Like This begins in an alley on the northeastern edge of Svartrau City, below the walls. Follow the yellow-outlined objects in Focus Mode across the rooftops to a vampire boss, and Song of the Mountain follows on from it, which is what actually points you toward the elder in Uriash Village. Keep the calm dialogue options during that conversation.
The quest doubles as a Court Activity for Bakir, so finishing it feeds his Anger Level alongside the headhunters, distilleries and pillories. It is hidden, missable, and time-sensitive once started, so do not accept it and then wander off for a week of in-game days.
Quest structure and rewards
| Quest | Where it happens | Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| A Mother’s Plea | Uriash Village (Rockfalls) | 250 XP, 150 denarii, Soul Stigma Manual |
| The Heart Wants What It Wants | Svartrau City (Altenmarkt, butcher’s shop, river) | 250 XP, 150 denarii, Broad Swing Manual |
The sub-quest resolves first, then the parent quest closes when you return to the village. You cannot finish A Mother’s Plea without settling Ocha’s business in the city.
Speaking to Bakr-Erga and inspecting the sacred obelisk
Finding Ocha in the Altenmarkt tavern
The journal lists three possible taverns in Svartrau City — the outskirts, Silberstein, and Altenmarkt. Ocha is always in the Altenmarkt tavern, so skip the other two entirely and head straight there.
Before you talk to her, it is worth checking your active abilities in the Journal. The conversation ends in a fight the moment it begins, and Swordmastery options like Charge and Dirty Trick are easier to use if you already know where they sit on the radial.
Approach Ocha in the corner of the tavern. She throws Coen through the wooden fence into the courtyard and the duel starts against “Ocha, heir of Clan Bakr”. Beat her, and the tavern owner Nora breaks it up. Winning the brawl is what starts The Heart Wants What It Wants.
Upstairs, Ocha explains why she cannot just go home. She and Nora are being extorted by Andrei, a crime boss running the streets. Her plan is a hex: she needs a personal memento of his, taken from the hideout near the Eastern Gate, to cast a power word on him.
How to get into Andrei’s hideout
The butcher’s shop is a front for Andrei’s operation, and Dragan the Butcher decides who goes in. There are two ways past him.
Daytime route: bribe the beggar, then the butcher
Night route: climb in
After dark you can skip the bribes entirely and use your vampiric movement to climb the balcony above the shop and enter that way. It costs you nothing but puts you in the building without Dragan’s escort.
Andrei: steal the Ring or kill him
Inside, Andrei is leaning on a debtor named Sandor. What you say next decides whether this stays a heist or turns into a massacre. Both routes still let you finish the quest — one just leaves Ocha furious with you.
To keep to Ocha’s plan, stay calm and avoid hostile replies. Answer with “Here’s what I’ve got.”, then “Who wouldn’t be? What we’re doing here is illegal.”, then “You know how to handle it, that’s for sure.” That defuses him and gives you an opening to pocket something while he is distracted.
Three mementos are stealable — a Cleaver, a Pendant, and a Ring. Take the Ring. It is the only one the hex works on.
Return to Ocha and she tells you Andrei’s men have grabbed Nora. Tell her to stick to the plan. Then go back near the butcher’s shop and open the pigsty cage to pull the guards away. While they scatter, the hex lands and Andrei starts slamming his head into the walls.
If you step in to defend Sandor instead, you fight “Andrei, the Svartrau Slaughterer” and his guards. When he begs, you can choose “No. You die here, Andrei,” and execute him. Ocha will be angry that you cleared out the whole hideout and left the city without a boss, but the quest carries on.
The river dialogue that sends Ocha home
However Andrei ends up, Ocha asks to meet by the river. This is the conversation that decides the quest’s outcome. Three choices come up, and each one nudges her toward the village or toward staying in Svartrau City.
| Choice | Sends her home | Keeps her in the city |
|---|---|---|
| First | “Do you miss home?” | “Do you like the city?” |
| Second | “Meh. Nothing better than homemade food.” | “New things can be exciting, sure.” |
| Third | “Other villagers just cared about themselves.” | “Our neighbors helped a bit.” |
You need all three of the “home” answers. Miss one and she stays. When the conversation ends, The Heart Wants What It Wants closes out with 250 XP, 150 denarii, and the Broad Swing Manual.
Closing out A Mother’s Plea in Uriash Village
Track “Return to the Elder” and travel back to Uriash Village. Tell Bakr-Erga what happened. Whether Ocha is coming home or has decided to travel the world instead, the Matriarch accepts it, and she teaches Coen a skin sign before the quest ends.
You know it worked when the quest disappears from your journal and you are handed 250 XP, 150 denarii, and the Soul Stigma Manual. The activity also clears from Bakir’s slot in the Court panel, adding to his Anger Level.
Why A Mother’s Plea does not appear
The most common reason is the prerequisite chain. If A Study in Crimson, A Friend Like This, or Song of the Mountain are still open, the Matriarch has nothing to ask you and the activity stays blank in the Court menu.
The second is timing. Nothing outside the prologue expires until you start it, but the moment you accept this quest an hourglass icon appears on its time-sensitive objectives, and the clock is real. Sun and moon icons in the journal also flag which objectives are day-only or night-only.
The third is your own body count. Killing non-hostile NPCs or quest givers around Svartrau City locks their content permanently, and that includes anyone in this chain.
Note: keep a manual save before you walk into the butcher’s shop. The game supports 54 manual save slots, and that one save lets you try both the hex and the execution without redoing the tavern brawl.
Ocha’s story is one of the few in Vale Sangora where the quiet option is genuinely harder than the violent one, and where the game does not punish you for either. Whether she rides back to the mountains or walks away from the clan entirely, the Matriarch’s request is settled, and Bakir gets one step angrier for it.
