A Case of Sculptor’s Block is a side quest in Dragon’s Dogma 2. A nobleman named Klark gives the quest outside his house in the Noble Quarter of Vernworth. He asks you to visit Fulvio, a sculptor residing in Battahl.
I was approached by Klark as I was leaving Vernworth Castle during The Caged Magistrate quest. I didn’t know where to find a place with plenty of times, and I’d not been to Battahl before, so I decided to put the Magistrate on the Dragon’s Dogma 2 back burner for a while and accept Klark’s quest. It turned out to be a very long while.
How to get into Battahl in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Fulvio’s workshop is in the Residential Ward of Battahls’ capital city, Bakbattahl. It’s a long way from Vernworth, and, even if you have been there before, Bakbattahl doesn’t have its own Portcrystal. So you can’t fast travel there unless you’ve set your own Portcrystal in the city. You can fast-ish travel there by Oxcart, though, or else just head out for a long march on foot.
If you want to travel by oxcart, go to the oxcart station at the northwest gate of Vernworth, wait for an oxcart (you might have to do that even if there’s one already there), then climb aboard and pay 200 gold to travel to the Checkpoint Rest Town. Unfortunately, there’s no direct connection to Bakbattahl. Even more unfortunately, there’s a huge checkpoint gate at Checkpoint Rest Town, and the guards won’t let just anyone through.
There are three ways to get through the checkpoint into Battahl:
Use a Beastren Border Entry Permit
Captain Brant will give this to you at the start of the Nation of the Lambent Flame story quest. If your Arisen is not a Beastren, then you’ll also need to disguise yourself using a Beastren Mask, which can be bought at Ibrahim’s Scrap Store in Checkpoint Rest Town.
Go down into the river north of Checkpoint Rest Town and follow it west
This will take you to a long series of caves, gorges, and valleys that eventually lead back to the road between Checkpoint Rest Town and Bakbattahl. Having taken this route to check that it is possible, I do not recommend it. There are huge numbers of monsters to contend with along the way, and even when you make it to the road, you’ll be set upon by bandits and wolves. It took me an enormous amount of time, and even as I write this, I am full of regret and remorse for even attempting it.
It definitely does get you into Battahl without a permit, but I didn’t get the I’m In trophy for doing it this way. I eventually just gave up and reloaded from my last inn rest, which lost me hours of progress thanks to this game’s deranged save system.
Hitch a ride on a carriage
When you reach Checkpoint Rest Town, use the bench at the nearby Sword & Staff Inn to sit and doze off. When you wake up, run back across the bridge and, with a bit of luck, an ox-drawn carriage should spawn on the road. If it doesn’t, just doze off on the bench and try again until it does. It took me a few tries before it worked.
Once a carriage appears, follow it on its painfully slow journey up the road to the checkpoint gate. This will take a few minutes. When it stops, and the gate opens, go around to its left side and climb in. Wait inside the carriage as it passes through the gate, and the guards won’t stop you. As you pass through the gate, the I’m In trophy will unlock.
How to get to Bakbattahl in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Regardless of how you get into Battahl, the bad news is that oxcart service between Checkpoint Rest Town and Bakbattahl has been suspended due to monster attacks, so you’ve still got a long and dangerous hike ahead of you. It’s mostly safest to stick to the road at first, but not always. For example, I’d recommend taking a detour around the two cyclops flanking the road at one point.
When you’re about two-thirds of the way to Bakbattahl, look out for the ropeway station to the left of the road. Using the ropeway will save you some time, but it comes with risk. If a griffin spots you while you’re aboard, you’ll be a sitting duck. When you finally reach Fulvio, he’ll ask you to assist him in making his sketch.
How to assist Fulvio in making his sketch in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Fulvio needs you to “pose” for his next sculpture by battling a griffin, but he needs the battle to go on long enough for him to have the time to make his sculpture. He suggests one way to make this easier, and that’s to petrify the Griffon, meaning turn it to stone. And to do that, you’ll need a preserved Medusa head.
Alternatively, you can skip the whole Medusa thing and just have a prolonged battle with a fully animated griffin. Fulvio won’t be as satisfied this way, but you’ll complete the quest somewhat faster. You don’t really need to fight the griffin for that long. I got it down to about half of its first health bar after a few minutes, and then it flew away, which was good enough for Fulvio.
Once you’re done with the griffin, you’ll be told that you need to wait a couple of days for Fulvio to finish the sculpture. But I found that, given that there was still no fast travel to Bakbattahl, he was finished by the time I finally trekked my way back there anyway. If you do get there too fast, a rest at an inn is all you need.
Where to find a Medusa
The most consistent spawning point of a Medusa in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is in the Caliginous Depths. This mini-dungeon is a cave in the southwest of Battahl and features the Medusa front-and-center, who guards some treasure chests. So, find a Medusa in this cave, decapitate it, acquire its head, and quickly head over to the meeting place before its head withers.
We recommend using Ferrystones and Portcrystals to get back to the artist as soon as possible. The head withers quite quickly, though storing it at an Inn preserve it for longer. You can also use the Sorcerer augment Stasis to keep the head active for a while, letting you run up to the nest if you must. If you make good use of the rope pulley system of Battahl, you’ll make it to the artist in time.
To use the head in the Griffon fight, equip it like a lantern and use the same item shortcut input as you’d use to light one—typically Left Bumper plus a D-pad input or R on a keyboard. As long as the Griffon is looking at you, it’ll slowly become petrified.
How to complete A Case of Sculptor’s Block in Dragon’s Dogma 2
When you’ve made it all the way back to Fulvio, all he then does is rather predictably tell you to go all the way back to Klark’s estate again. At least if you’ve got a Ferrystone and have found the Vernworth Portcrystal (it’s next to the inn where you can actually rest), then you can fast travel back.
If you petrified the griffin, then Klark will be delighted with the resulting sculpture. If you don’t bother with the Medusa shenanigans, Klark becomes more and more disappointed with the sculpture, based on how long you ended up fighting it. His reaction ranges from fine with the piece to decrying the nature of it.
Rewards for A Case of Sculptor’s Block
There are three tiers of reward for A Case of Sculptor’s Block, all of which augment how much gold you earn from it. A failure earns you a measly 2,250 XP and 7,000 gold as Klark admonishes the poor artist. If the fight went long enough for Fulvio to give you his satisfied line, you’ll get double that—4,500 XP and 14,000 gold. If you petrify the Medusa, you’ll get another 4,500 gold for your troubles. You get no items or other rewards on any success level of the quest.
You fail the quest if the fight doesn’t go on very long—such as if your Sorcerer casts Meteoron on the poor Griffon. You’ll also get this fail state if you leave Fulvio to die for any reason and revive him with a Wakestone or at a Morgue. Be very careful about walking around the Griffon nest in northern Battahl, since that can cause Fulvio to get overzealous and sprint into his death.
As long as the fight goes on to a point where Fulvio is happy—or if the Griffon is petrified—you’ll get the full XP bump. Overall, the quest doesn’t end up all that worthwhile if you seek out the Medusa since getting battered around by a Griffon for a few minutes is usually enough to get the XP and all but a sliver of the money for the quest. And having to walk from the Depths to this point is definitely not worth 4,500 gold—if you’re wanting cash, there are better ways to farm gold in this game.
Published: Mar 31, 2024 02:53 pm