Suggested Level: 31

Venators Scheme¶

When you’re ready to get on with the main story, fast travel to Herakleion and head to the northeastern island, where you’ll find Apollodorus waiting for you, and after him, Cleopatra. Bayek and Cleopatra will argue for a bit, before the latter will hint at some political goals that drive Aya and Cleopatra, and have precious little to do with Bayek’s quest for vengeance. Before things devolve too far, however, Cleopatra will offer a gift to Bayek.

Follow her and she’ll continue to talk politics, naming two new targets - Septimius, The Jackal and The Scorpion before Bayek will get to have a nice chat with Septimius’s brother, Livius, who provides Bayek with a bit of information he’s long sought. Afterwards, it takes little prompting to convince Bayek to chase down a man named Venator, who may possess some more information.

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Pay the madame (left) then talk to the twins to learn where Venator can be found (right).

Make your way to the island south of the one you’re on and enter the brothel indicated by the quest marker. Talk to the brothel owner, Helen, and Bayek will be typically unsophisticated and honest. Pay madam, head upstairs and wait at the appointed spot for the twins to show up, who don’t have many good things to say about Venator. In fact, given the condition they’re in after their last encounter, it’s no surprise they’d reveal his location without much fuss.

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Search Venator’s house to find clues about Venator’s vile plot (left) then read a letter to spell it out more clearly (right).

After you have the information you need, make your way west across the roofs and balconies of the city to reach the marked house, where Venator resides… but not alone, apparently. When you enter the building, use your Animus Pulse to mark some objects and examine them, including a bust of Cleopatra with some arrows around it, a sofa with some women’s accessories on it and some wine casks filled with oil. Finally, smash a large urn by the door to uncover a cobra. Kill it, then investigate where the urn was to find a letter from Septimius detailing a conspiracy, and where each of the assassins will work their angles.

This will not stand, Bayek is the assassin here, and he determines who lives or dies! Unless somebody gets thrown into him, in which case, well… anyways, looks like you have a bit of counter-assassinating to do!

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Climb a tower to kill the archer (left), then infiltrate the party to find the assassin disguised as a woman (right).

Assassinating the Assassins¶

There are three targets, the archer, the arsonist and the cross-dresser, all working different angles. Despite how things sound, this quest isn’t timed, you merely need to head to the three locations indicated in Septimius’s letter and kill the assassins. Immediately deploy Senu and mark their locations, after which it’s time to get to work.

The nearest target to Venator’s house is the infiltrator dressed as a woman, who can be found to the west or southwest, mingling amongst the party-goers. All you need to do, once Senu has him marked, is walk up and assassinate him. Easy enough, but be wary that every guard in the vicinity will attack if you do this… not that you need to stand and fight, mind you, you can just run.

Next head to the northeastern end of the island to find the arsonist, who obviously isn’t moving all that oil on his own. Instead, he’s got a crew of friends who will attack if you get too close. Fortunately, there’s a foliage-covered ledge overlooking the beach upon which the guards toil, the archer being merely one among them. Hide in the bushes, lure as many of them up to you as possible, then kill the rest. The archer himself is a dual-dagger wielder, but is otherwise not terribly special.

Finally make your way to the northwestern end of the island, where you’ll find the archer perched on a tower. Ignore the guards standing around at the base of the tower and instead jump into the water and swim around the western end of the square of land the tower is on. Climb up here to reach the tower unnoticed, then scale the tower, being wary of the dual-dagger guard on the first wooden platform surrounding the tower, while the archer is on the second wooden platform. Both can be easily lured to the edge and tossed off.

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Thwart Venator’s soldier’s (left) then put down Venator himself (right).

Boss - Venator¶

Now that you’ve eliminated the threat against Cleopatra’s life, return to the would-be Pharaoh - now joined by Aya - only to find that lacking subtle methods, Venator has decided to settle for the direct approach. Kill the soldiers that attack, which shouldn’t be too hard considering you have Aya, Apollodorus and some of Cleopatra’s royal guard helping out. Once the normal enemies have been dealt with, Venator himself will show up.

Venator (level 31) is a melee brute who isn’t always easy to stagger, even with charged heavy attacks. Despite that, he’s only got two major attacks, a flurry of blows with his twin axes (once he lands a hit, it’s not easy to dodge out of the way of subsequent strikes) and a leaping, dual-axe lunge. You shouldn’t rely on your shield to block either of these, and when he shouts, be wary, as he intends to charge and start hacking with his axes. Despite his melee prowess, once you learn his attacks you can just wade in with charged heavy attacks, so long as you’re prepared to dodge after landing a hit, as, again, you can’t rely on him getting staggered, much less knocked down. Failing that, he has no ranged attacks to speak of, so if you keep your distance you can simply pelt him with missiles from afar.

Once he falls, Cleopatra will complain about the risks of being a pretender to a throne and you’ll be charged with another task - meet Pompey on a beach to the northwest and ensure his safe arrival, in case the Order of Ancients decides to interfere and cost you this invaluable ally. Make your way northwest to the water, where you’ll find a boat waiting for you. Pilot it northwest, accompanied by Aya, and the two will chat along the way… and it’s not an entirely warm conversation. When you arrive at Pompey’s camp, Bayek and Aya will be greeted by a familiar and unwelcome stench, and a cursory examination of the camp will quickly reveal that you’re not the first ones to greet Pompey. This ends the quest “ Way of the Gabiniani “ and begins “ Aya: Blade of the Goddess “.