The Thaumaturge: Close to the Apple Tree The Thaumaturge guide, walkthrough

Close to the Apple Tree is the title of a mission related to several of the endings in The Thaumaturge. Our walkthrough shows you how to meet the thaumaturgists, where to find the Tsar's advisors in the Swiss Valley, how to score the confrontation with Skalon and what important choices the meeting with the tsar has.

Last update: 05 March 2024

There are different possible endings to the campaign of The Thaumaturge, and one of them may take the form of Close to the Apple Tree mission. On this page of our guide, we show what course the meeting with thaumaturges may take, how to travel to Dolina Szwajcarska Park where Tsar's party is underway, how to behave during meetings with Wanda and Skalon, and finally different variants of the final conversation with the Tsar.

• Unlocking the final quest
• Talking to Faldjey
• Finding Tsar's advisors
• Learning more about Skalon
• Confrontation with Skalon
• Ending variants - meeting with Tsar.
• Epilogue

Unlocking the final quest

1. This is one of the possible variants of the finale of the campaign. Close to the Apple Tree will be initiated if during The Last Days of Summer story quest you've chosen to side with Coterie - the moment of this choice is shown in the screenshot.
2. Wiktor, instead of siding with Rasputin, decides to help local thaumaturges regain their power and assume an agenda that puts them in conflict with the current Tsar.

Talking to Faldjey

1. Leave Szulski Family Tenement House and go to the nearby carriage. You cannot use the carriage as there are policemen guarding it - you need to defeat them in combat.
2. On the map of Warsaw, choose to travel to Rozycki Bazaar and Faldjey's apartment. During the ensuing scene, there aren't any major choices - you can choose any variant of the speech you like.

1. The action will be automatically taken to Dolina Szwajcarska Park where Tsar's party is underway. To enter the party grounds, you need to talk to one of the servants - you'll be let in.

Finding Tsar's advisors

1. In the central part of the park you can talk to Sergei. The conversation will broach the topic of certain changes to the law that will target thaumaturges.

1. Wiktor will also meet Countess Lermont. You can learn more about her from Madame Samira.
2. Additionally, you can ask Samira to distract the countess so you can search for traces - these are Purse, Countess's Doggy, and Platter of Snacks. Finding all of these traces will unlock The Countess's Understatement conclusion.
3. During the next conversation with Samira, you can address various topics and make an attempt to read her mind. This will make a scene with the Countess play.

1. Head to the palace - this is the building in the eastern part of the map.
2. After approaching the Grand Avenue Hall, you'll meet Wanda and a new conversation will begin. You can optionally decide to uncover and thwart her plans - this is the goal of a small The Wild Card side quest.
3. This mission will involve searching the area to find the Rose trace (screenshot above). This will unlock The Wild Card conclusion.
4. Thanks to these developments, you'll learn that Wanda is planning to kill Skalon. You can leave the topic or mention her plans and try to stop her - to do that, tell her that the attempt is straight suicide and mention Janek.

1. Another red circle will appear inside Grand Avenue Hall. Look for Faldjey Burnakovich - his location is shown in the screenshot. Talk to him about Skalon. You can also optionally mention the meeting with Wanda.

Learning more about Skalon

1. Activate Perception and search the ballroom. There are following observations here - Garrison Cap, Wine Glass, Ashtray, Gift for the Tsarevich, and Old Cigarette Case. Activating these observations will unlock What Skalon Doesn't Say... and Skalon's Past conclusions.
2. You can now have an optional longer conversation with Skalon. You can safely exhaust all dialogue options, as there aren't any major choices yet.

Confrontation with Skalon

Return to Faldjey and inform him that Skalon has a Flaw. To proceed to the confrontation, you need to confirm that you've managed to collect all of the evidence. The confrontation will take place in Skalon's mind after "freezing" him.

A choice regarding Samira will appear (screenshot above). You can:

1. Oppose Samira and try to take on Skalon's Flaw on your own. Wiktor can present various arguments based on the obtained traces.
2. Submit to Samira and let her take the initiative when it comes to Skalon. You can either not interfere or try to interrupt Samira (requires 6 Mind Dimension points).

Ending variants - meeting with Tsar.

1. Proceed through the corridor to the room where Tsar is staying. The group will have to defeat a group of guards along the way - these are the final enemies in this variant of the ending.

During the meeting with Tsar, you can let other thaumaturges perform their actions without interrupting or choose special dialogue options to take control of the situation (the requirements for these choices are very high - 6 points of given Dimension).

In the further part of the meeting, you can discuss the topic of Coterie. You can:

1. Agree to the Tsar's terms - this option has no requirements.
2. Use manipulation on Tsar - activated via special dialogue options. They may require as many as 7 Heart Dimension points.
3. Alternatively, you can also dominate one of the thaumaturges accompanying Wiktor. This is done through a series of special dialogue options. The idea is to instill fear in the Tsar so he agrees to thaumaturges' demands.

After listening to Tsar's speech, Rasputin will appear, but this conversation doesn't feature any major choices.

Epilogue

The epilogue differs based on what choice you've made during the Tsar scene:

1. The Thaumaturges agreed to Tsar's proposal. The hostilities targeting thaumaturges will end, but not all of their demands are met.
2. The Thaumaturges dominated Tsar after successful attempts to manipuulate/instill fear in him. Both sides come to an agreement and all demands of the thaumaturges are met. This is the best achievable ending.

From the next scenes, you'll learn the fates of key characters, organizations and locations, such as Ligia, Woronin, Abaurycy, Skalon, thaumaturges or Warsaw.