Maverick had to try quite a few times to save Sarah de Richet in the Council episode “Farewell”. The solution is rather easy, but he wasn’t a big fan of it.
The Short Answer To Saving Sarah de Richet
There aren’t any specific steps you need to do to save Sarah de Richet. Instead, it is time-based. If you allow other characters to hold you up for too long, you will arrive at the wharf too late to stop what transpires there.
So if you punch Napoleon, ignore Manuel Godoy and keep your conversation with Mortimer as short as possible, you’ll arrive in time. After that, you only need to win a confrontation against Emilie (or Emma), which is a lot more straightforward.
There is some nuance to this, however…
Choosing Your Battles
You can have some conversations and still be in time to save Sarah de Richet. There are a few options:
- You can reason with Napoleon instead of knocking him to the ground
- There are two optional conversations with Duke Manuel Godoy
The shorter you make the other 2 conversations, the more extensive your dialogue with Mortimer can be.
There is very little well… reason to reason with Napoleon. It takes a lot of time and the relevance of punching him is limited in the remaining story. Talking to Manuel Godoy twice (once before Mortimer and once after), however, is a lot more interesting, as it allows you to complete a sub-objective of this episode.
I would suggest not skipping this and instead keeping your conversation with Mortimer limited to the most interesting topics:
- The manipulation of thoughts and its purpose. If you don’t have his Conviction immunity registered yet, you can also exclaim he is selling rubbish but don’t ask him about the details of his powers
- In the second series of optional questions, you can ask him about the reason for holding conferences but don’t continue asking about global policy
When you’re done talking with Mortimer, don’t forget to grab the last part of Sarah de Richet’s notes from where the conversation took place.
An Unconfirmed Theory for Saving Sarah de Richet
Reports of the amount of topics you can pick and still rescue Sarah de Richet vary. This could mean there are some other factors at play, one of which could be actual time on the clock.
That could mean smaller elements such as knowing which direction to run in to get out of the garden and once in the mansion could be helpful. The conversation with Mortimer takes up a lot more time than what comes before it, so you can shortly practice this part and then restart the episode.
It is also worth closing your game and restarting it after the conversation with Mortimer ends, in case it tracks session time. There is no guarantee that this will help but it doesn’t hurt.
The Full Conversation with Lord Mortimer
The conversation with Mortimer seems vital at first sight. And in a way, it is. It has some of the biggest reveals in the game and it is a critical narrative point. But the majority of juicy information is in the mandatory parts of the conversation. The optional parts are usually obvious answers, vague answers, stuff you already knew or things that are repeated in the non-optional parts.
Still, if you’re really interested in having a longer conversation with Lord Mortimer, there are a few options:
- You could let Sarah de Richet die. Considering you searched for a way on how to save her, I am guessing this will not be an option for most, though
- You can go through all possible dialogue options, then restart the episode and have a shorter conversation with him
- If you choose not to talk to Manuel Godoy, you can pick a few extra topics. I would then suggest asking him about Elizabeth and how many Daemons there are
- You can watch the full conversation on YouTube, courtesy of AdventureGameFan8
The Confrontation With Jacques Péru
Assuming you kept Jacques Péru alive in previous episodes, a confrontation with him is unavoidable. There aren’t any shortcuts in this confrontation
As long as you navigate this confrontation successfully, it will not interfere with the rescue of Sarah de Richet. The above information takes his interruption into account. I only chose to save it for last because there is nothing you can do to save time or do wrong, apart from failing the confrontation.