Hornsent’s Questline
The Hornsent is a grim warrior of a people that Messmer the Impaler burned on the orders of Queen Marika. He follows Miquella for now, but what really drives him is revenge, and he makes no secret of how little he thinks of you and your kind. You meet him in the Gravesite Plain, and his road leads through Scadu Altus to Shadow Keep.
His story is built around two choices: whose side you take when Needle Knight Leda comes for him, and whether you let him fight Messmer with you. Those decisions decide which rewards you get, how his story ends, and how hard one late fight becomes. You need at least two playthroughs to collect everything.
Rewards
- Cross Map, when you first talk to him
- New Cross Map, at the Highroad Cross
- Three Furnace Visages, for the Scorpion Stew (optional)
- Ash of War: Swift Slash and Leda’s Rune, if you help him against Leda
- Lacerating Crossed-Tree, from Leda at the Highroad Cross, if you help her kill him
- Falx and his armour (Caterpillar Mask, Braided Cord Robe, Braided Arm Wraps), whenever he dies: in Shadow Keep, in Rauh or in Enir-Ilim. The Rauh and Enir-Ilim versions of him also give the Soiled Loincloth.
Walkthrough
- Meet him at the Three-Path Cross. He sits by the Three-Path Cross Site of Grace in the Gravesite Plain, with Redmane Freyja nearby. Talk to him and he gives you the Cross Map, which marks three of Miquella’s Crosses. Visiting the crosses is not required, but they hold useful loot such as Scadutree Fragments, and some of them unlock extra talks with Sir Ansbach.
- Bring him a taste of home (optional). After you defeat the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, wear the Divine Beast Head and talk to the Hornsent Grandam to get Scorpion Stew. Hand the stew to the Hornsent and he pays you back with three Furnace Visages. He only accepts one stew, and you can do this even after he has moved on to Scadu Altus.
- Find him at the Highroad Cross. The first time you set foot in Scadu Altus, he moves to the Highroad Cross Site of Grace. Talk to him for the New Cross Map, which shows four more crosses, and keep talking to hear what he believes Miquella is planning.
- Break Miquella’s charm. His story only moves on once a message tells you that a great rune, and with it a powerful charm, has been broken. According to the source this happens as you push on toward Shadow Keep, either through its front entrance via Messmer’s Army Encampment, or past Bonny Village into eastern Scadu Altus, heading north from the Bridge Leading to the Village Site of Grace.
- Talk to him again. Go back to the Highroad Cross and exhaust his dialogue. With the charm gone he speaks openly about his thirst for revenge on Messmer, and he then heads for Shadow Keep.
- Summon him against the Golden Hippopotamus (optional). At the Shadow Keep Main Gate Site of Grace his summon sign is available for the Golden Hippopotamus.
- Talk to Leda and pick a side. Once the charm is broken, speak with Needle Knight Leda. She asks whether she should go after Thiollier or the Hornsent, and whatever you say, she goes after the Hornsent. Two summon signs then appear in Shadow Keep, on the battlements with the burning boats just before the elevator up to the Storehouse, First Floor Site of Grace, in the south near some stairs. The red sign lets you help Leda, the gold sign lets you help the Hornsent, and you can also ignore both. See the warnings below before you choose, and do this before you enter Messmer’s arena.
- Fight Messmer with him (optional). If he is still alive, his summon sign waits inside the arena of Messmer the Impaler, next to the Dark Chamber Site of Grace. He does not have to survive the fight. Afterwards, talk to him in the boss room or at the Highroad Cross. Summoned or not, he reacts to Messmer’s death, and that decides where you meet him next.
- Face him in the Ancient Ruins of Rauh. If you summoned him for Messmer and exhausted his dialogue afterwards, he invades you in the Ancient Ruins of Rauh at the top of the stairs near the Church of the Bud, Main Entrance Site of Grace, just outside the arena of Romina, Saint of the Bud. Beat him to end his story.
- Or face him in Enir-Ilim. If he survived the Leda fight and you did not summon him for Messmer, he is instead among the allies of Miquella who fight you in Enir-Ilim. Loot his gear from his body after the battle.
Missable steps & failure conditions
- Do the Leda fight before Messmer. The moment you first enter Messmer’s arena next to the Dark Chamber Site of Grace, both his and Leda’s summon signs in Shadow Keep vanish for good, and with them the Lacerating Crossed-Tree or Swift Slash reward.
- Helping Leda ends his questline. He dies on the battlements. You get the Falx, his armour and the Lacerating Crossed-Tree, but you lose Swift Slash and cannot summon him against Messmer.
- Helping the Hornsent costs you the Lacerating Crossed-Tree, the Retaliatory Crossed-Tree and Ansbach’s Longbow.
- Helping neither keeps both stories going, but you miss both the Lacerating Crossed-Tree and Swift Slash.
- Not summoning him for Messmer costs no items, but it removes his invasion in Rauh, and he shows up in Enir-Ilim instead, where that fight becomes harder.
- Resting too early. If you skip his summon against Messmer and rest twice before speaking to him in the boss room, he moves to the Highroad Cross and you miss that conversation.
- Only one Scorpion Stew can be traded for Furnace Visages.
Endings & consequences
- Leda and Thiollier. This choice is shared with Leda’s questline: if you save the Hornsent, your next meeting with Leda is in Enir-Ilim. Thiollier is the other target she weighs up (see Thiollier’s questline), but she always settles on the Hornsent.
- Ansbach. Siding with the Hornsent locks you out of the Retaliatory Crossed-Tree and Ansbach’s Longbow from Ansbach’s questline.
- The Enir-Ilim fight. Killing him early, or giving him his revenge on Messmer, keeps him out of the big battle in Enir-Ilim and makes it easier. Leaving him alive without that revenge puts him in it.
- His fate. Every path ends with his death: at Leda’s hands in Shadow Keep, as an invader in Rauh still hungry for revenge, or as Miquella’s ally in Enir-Ilim.