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Gruff

Live wiki revision 1963 · October 1, 2026View or improve the source →
Player wiki noticeThis community-maintained page may contain gameplay, story, and mature-content spoilers.

Overview

Gruff is the Captain of the Royal Guard in the King's Demesne: hands-on, fair but firm. His current content consists of daily conversations, a Performance Stage reaction, a security audit in the court quest chain, and optional private-client appearances. He has no personal Heart-to-Heart, date, apartment, recruitment, worker or pregnancy route.

Quick Stats

Attribute Value
Age / era / alignment 47 / Medieval / Neutral
Favorite stats Strength 85; Stamina 75; Perception 70
Special relationship skill Iron Will; doubles the applicable relationship reward
Talk 15 minutes; 1 base point; four per game day
Ordinary gifts or lessons None configured
Related characters Elara, Barnard and Vespa

Where to Find Gruff

Location Hours Days
Merchants Quarter, King's Demesne 9 AM–2 PM Every game day
Grand Bazaar, King's Demesne 3–7 PM Every game day
Noble Quarter, King's Demesne 9 PM–midnight Odd-numbered game days
His regular menu is Talk to Gruff at all three stops. The four-use allowance is shared across locations; moving to another district does not reset it. Each allowed conversation records 1 base point; further attempts record −1 and use the shared over-limit handling. Favorite-stat, Iron Will and general relationship bonuses affect the final affection amount.
Gruff and the Guard in the Throne Room are separate characters. The Guard's throne-room hours do not determine Gruff's schedule.
  1. Meet Gruff during one of the schedule windows above. Use up to four Talks per day to build his ordinary relationship; no gift purchase is necessary.
  2. If you have a composed song, use Perform Song at the Performance Stage for a chance at The Captain's Report. Choose Buddy when his reaction appears. This is optional and repeatable.
  3. Follow the court quest chain through The Prince Demands Respect, then reach brothel reputation 12 and Elara Known.
  4. Visit Elara's Office, 9 AM–6 PM, while she is home from the resort. The Captain's Security Audit starts automatically. Choose Caring for the largest Gruff reward.
  5. Continue the court chain with A Cloak At The Door when its own requirements are met. The audit's completion flag opens that next step; a higher Gruff friendship stage is not required.
The performance, audit and client appearance are separate systems. You do not need The Captain's Report before the audit, and the audit does not require building Gruff to a particular relationship stage.

Performance Stage Reaction

Use Perform Song at the Performance Stage in the King's Demesne, with at least one composed song. A performance costs 60 minutes and 30 energy, and you can perform once per venue per game day.
After performing, an NPC reaction has a 25% base chance. Master Performer, Stage Presence, Musical Virtuosity, Storytelling and owning a Lute each add 5 percentage points, up to 50%. A successful reaction roll selects one of six stage reactions: Kalb, Silas, Gruff, Rose Arthur, Jade or Esperanza. Gruff is therefore not guaranteed to appear.
His reaction is titled The Captain's Report in the scene. It awards 8 base Gruff points, plus one response bonus:
Response Extra base points Total base points
Buddy +4 12
Caring +2 10
Funny +1 9
This reaction is repeatable on later performances and does not use the ordinary Talk counter. Gruff's normal portrait does not have to be present at the Performance Stage. The listed points are base values before relationship modifiers.

The Captain's Security Audit

This is a one-time automatic court scene. Its requirements are:
  • The Prince Demands Respect completed.
  • Brothel reputation 12 or higher.
  • Elara Known or higher, and not vacationing.
  • Elara's Office, 9 AM–6 PM.
  • The audit not already completed.
The preceding The Prince Demands Respect occurs in the Noble Quarter, 4–7 PM, after Private Questions, with Barnard Acknowledged and brothel reputation 11. See Barnard's and Elara's guides for the earlier court steps. Gruff's late-evening Noble Quarter portrait is not needed for either automatic scene.
Audit response Gruff base reward Elara base reward
Caring 10 + 4 = 14 6 + 3 = 9
Funny 10 + 3 = 13 6 + 3 = 9
Flirty 10 + 3 = 13 6 + 4 = 10
Every response completes the audit. Caring is best for Gruff; Flirty gives one extra base point to Elara. These are ordinary base relationship rewards rather than fixed final affection.
The next court scene, A Cloak At The Door, requires the audit completed, Vespa Friend, brothel reputation 13, and the Brothel entrance, 6–11 PM. Its story events are left for you to discover.

Optional Private-Client Bookings

Gruff enters the Receive a Client roster at brothel reputation level10. Start this action at the Rose & Thorn entrance with Netorare enabled, while operating a brothel. The hotel branch does not provide this system.
The roster selection is random among eligible clients, so starting a booking does not guarantee Gruff. The system has a shared once-per-game-day booking allowance, separate from his ordinary Talk counters. A completed accepted visit takes 30 minutes and pays the offered fee directly, with possible tip and quality bonus. Declining the booking or an unwilling worker's response takes 10 minutes and still uses the booking allowance, without the accepted-visit payment.
Use an eligible worker who is active, healthy, on shift and available, rather than resting, away at the resort or assigned as the Ballroom apprentice. Active monster workers need 30 Tamed. Gruff has no configured family-exclusion entry. His authored preference is assured, lively company, with Bobo listed as his favorite; special pairing scenes exist for Bobo, Elara, Sandra.
The actual shared service logic uses Loyalty/Tamed for willingness and the average of Dexterity and Ability for quality. For monsters, Agility supplies the Dexterity slot. Appearance and Charisma affect tip calculation (Allure and Aura for monsters). The client's legacy favorite, stat and weight fields do not replace these implemented calculations or the uniform client selection.
Even a worker strong enough to exceed the difficulty retains a 10% upset chance. Client visits award business and selected-worker rewards separately; they do not grant ordinary Gruff affection or NPC intimacy experience. A successful worker praise bonus can give the selected worker's NPC 5 direct affection, rather than Gruff.

Troubleshooting

  • Gruff missing: check the three different location windows, and odd-numbered days for the late Noble Quarter visit.
  • Talk yields less than expected: four uses are shared across all locations; the displayed base value is not the final modified reward.
  • No Captain's Report: perform at the Performance Stage; the Brothel Bar has a different reaction pool. Even at maximum reaction chance, Gruff is one of six possible stage guests.
  • Audit will not start: check the preceding court flag, reputation 12, Elara Known, her vacation status and the Office's 9 AM–6 PM window. Raising Gruff's affection does not substitute for these gates.
  • No private client: enable NTR, operate a brothel, reach reputation level 10 and have an eligible worker. The shared daily rotation can choose a different guest.

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Text adapted from the community-maintained Chronoromancer Wiki under CC BY-SA 4.0.