A Bulwark Against Darkness Walkthrough: All 4 Arbiter Armor Components

How the Quest Triggers

“A Bulwark Against Darkness” is the quest behind the legendary Arbiter armor set — the armor from the game’s cover art. It begins once you reach Infamy level 4, Notorious, at which point an edict cutscene plays and a smuggler’s letter reaches you in Altenmarkt, Svartrau City, listing four components and the location of an uriash blacksmith. If you have been doing Anca’s questline, the letter can also arrive through her at the Crossroads Inn instead. The four components:

• Moult of a Large Lizard
• Flask of Quicksilver
• Bundle of Silk Threads
• Relic of a Saint

Component Locations

Moult of a Large Lizard. Head directly east of the Muddy Trail shrine to a large cave and fight the lizards inside — the moult is your reward. Straightforward combat content against Tatzelwurm-class enemies.

Flask of Quicksilver. Ride to Aurelius Tower in the southwest Silts (the tower from the Home Sweet Home dream quest, and a stop in Who Pulls the Strings). After clearing the tower, the flask sits on the study table at the top — check the table physically, as the journal does not always flag it.

Bundle of Silk Threads. Two routes: free from the Murohn’s lair in the Come Hither Sanzhani quest — strongly recommended — or 5,000–6,500 denarii from the merchant unlocked by Pearly and Precious. Take the free one.

Relic of a Saint. Any saint’s relic works, and the game is littered with them — which makes the choice a trap for the unprepared:

• Saint’s Tibia (St. Tyna’s Convent, via Echoes of Silenced Bells) — an uncommon junk-tier item with no other use and no sale value. The correct donation.
• Relic of St. Tobias (picked up during Night of Horrors with Lacra) — a rare junk item. Also safe.
• Relic of St. Dasius (bought from Vicho after A Study in Crimson) — legendary amulet. Do not donate.
• Relic of St. Tyna (same convent) — epic amulet worth keeping. Do not donate.

The Blacksmith and the Ritual

The letter points to Nareh, an uriash blacksmith in the northwestern hinterlands. Hand over the components and she begins a forging ritual costing three time segments — during which you fight off a pack of spirit wolves and then a bear. Both are manageable at the level you will naturally be at Notorious infamy; treat the bear like the Ravenous Bear with more health.

When the ritual ends, Nareh delivers the full enhanced set — chest, shin guards, bracers, and boots. Full stats and the is-it-worth-it verdict live on our Arbiter armor set page; the short version is that it is the game’s best all-round armor and one of its two legendary-gear trophies.

The Efficient Component Route

The four components scatter across questlines that mostly point at each other, so sequence matters. The community-optimized order: run Good Home early to unlock the Sanzhani cluster; take Come Hither’s free Silk Threads alongside it; clear Echoes of Silenced Bells for Anca and pocket the Saint’s Tibia while ignoring the epic Relic; do Home Sweet Home when the tower suits your level and grab the Quicksilver from the study on the way out; and farm the lizard cave east of Muddy Trail shrine whenever you pass it — its moult drops from a standard pack fight. By the time Notorious infamy triggers the letter, three components tend to be sitting in your inventory already, and the quest becomes a single delivery run to Nareh plus a ritual you can do in an afternoon.

What happens to the relic I donate? Nareh consumes it in the ritual — it is gone for good. That is exactly why the Tibia, a junk item with no other use, is the intended donation and the epic or legendary amulets are traps.

Can I lose components accidentally? Quest items in this game cannot be sold or dropped, so the four components are safe in your inventory once found. Only the relic choice is irreversible.

One last money note: because two of the four components double as quest rewards you were likely to earn anyway, the set’s true denarii cost is close to zero — the real currency you spend is infamy progression and the ritual’s three segments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I start the quest without reaching Notorious infamy? No — Infamy 4 is the hard gate. Our infamy system guide covers how to climb it deliberately.

What if I donated the wrong relic? You keep any relic you did not hand over, and other relics exist in the world — but the epic and legendary amulets are effectively irreplaceable, so decide before you talk to Nareh.

Does the ritual fight scale with level? It follows normal enemy scaling; nothing about it demands a specific build beyond the sustain fundamentals.

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Source: Rock Paper Shotgun, GameSpot, IGN, and Method walkthroughs; component and relic details cross-checked across all four.