How to find the Silver Axe from the Lake in Kingdom Come 2

Fairy tales are typically told to impart moral lessons to young, impressionable minds. But what if the story ends up true? That’s the case with the Axe from the Lake in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and here’s how to find it.

The Axe from the Lake is a side activity in Kingdom Come 2. To start it, travel to the town of Tachov and look for a man called “Zdenyek the Mouth” at the tavern. If he’s not there, try waiting for the evening when he’s eating with the other townsfolk.

How to begin the Axe from the Lake activity

Speak with Zdenyek and ask him about his reputation as the town storyteller. He’ll make your acquaintance in his own special way before saying yes, he has some stories to share… for a price. You can convince him to tell you a story if you have the stats for it. He can also do it for a drink, but his fancy ass isn’t keen on cheap booze. If you’re early in the game, you can get him to sing by greasing his palms with 25 groschen. It’s a small price to pay for the reward.

Zdenyek gives you three options for what kind of story you want to hear: something sad, scary, or informative. Choose “informative,” and he’ll launch into the tale of the woodcutter brothers Kuba and Matthias. The story is a tragic tale of jealousy and greed, leaving one brother dead, drowned in a nearby lake, and the other with a silver axe gifted by a water goblin.

In the tale, Matthias, the surviving brother, takes Kuba’s body and buries it with the axe on a hill past an oak tree and a rock. Zdenyek swears that it’s true, and dares you to find the axe if you don’t believe him. He gives you the coordinates to Rocktower Pond and tells you to look for the water goblin’s pier where the story began.

How to find the Silver Axe from the Lake

You must follow the short list of directions as told in Zdenyek’s story. It starts with a pier hidden in the reeds at Rocktower Pond southwest of Tachov.

Here are the instructions:

• Locate the water goblin’s pier at Rocktower Pond
• Climb the nearby hill and look for an old oak tree
• Continue the climb until you find a large rock where Matthias attempted to break the axe
• Search up the hill from the rock for Kuba’s grave

You need a Spade to complete the final task. If you don’t have a spade, you can purchase one from a merchant, such as Jurg Thomel in Troskowitz.

More: Where to find the merchant’s tipped cart in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

When ready, head to the pond southwest of Tachov. You can zoom into your map to see the location of the pier.

Head to it to begin the hunt. Look for the shoddy pier among the reeds. You can have Henry look at the pier by pressing the LB button on a controller or the Left Alt key on PC.

Next, you must head up a nearby hill to look for the old oak tree where Matthias stopped. Turn around from the pier and walk north. Go past the road and look for a path heading up the hill. It goes past some large rocks.

Follow the path a short way and you’ll run into the old oak tree.

Follow the path around the tree to the left. You’ll soon find a large stone in a clearing surrounded by a ring of smaller stones left of the path.

Continue on the path but stop where it starts turning right at a dead tree. Look to the left for a grave under a tree with a full view of the river beyond. Press the button or key to unearth the grave.

Next to the corpse of Kuba is a sack with multiple items:

• Broken Round Shield
• Gemstone Silver Ring
• Marigold
• Broken Axe

You can take the axe for the quest, but I’d suggest also looting the Gemstone Silver Ring. It provides a nice charisma boost.

How to repair the Silver Axe

You must take the Broken Axe to a blacksmith’s forge to repair it. The closest is Radovan’s smithy back at Tachov. You also must have completed the blacksmith tutorial by speaking with Radovan early in the game. Check out our guide on blacksmithing in Kingdom Come 2 for more.

Start blacksmithing and choose the Adorned Axe recipe. It requires Fastening Material, which you can purchase from the blacksmith if you need it. Craft the axe as you would normally, and soon the Silver Axe will be reborn as the Adorned Axe.

Here are the stats for the Adorned Axe (the price may differ based on quality):

• Slash Damage: 91.2
• Blunt Damage: 45.6
• Defense: 104
• Charisma: 5
• Price: 699.5

Return to Zdenyek and tell him you found the axe to finish the quest.