Dragon's Dogma 2 The Ornate Box: Should you give Sven the money?
You've already seen the urchin in the cap get in trouble with the law, so should you heed his polite request for cash to buy a random ornament?
In Dragon's Dogma 2, there are main quests and there are side-quests. Then there are quests like The Ornate Box: seemingly trivial little side-stories which the game nevertheless presents so insistently that it's impossible to ignore it forever.
The problem is that you don't have a lot of reason to trust the quest giver in this instance, so when he asks you for a large sum of money on a very vague pretext, your instinct might be to say a flat "no" and try to move on. But if you want to know more about the potential consequences of this decision before you make your choice, read on below for our full walkthrough of The Ornate Box quest in Dragon's Dogma 2.
Beware story spoilers for Dragon's Dogma 2 below.
Dragon's Dogma 2 The Ornate Box quest walkthrough
Before the quest begins
You'll actually meet the key character in this quest, Sven (a.k.a. "the urchin in the cap"), before The Ornate Box begins. Right after Brant lets you loose into the city of Vernworth, a young man will quite literally run into on the street as soon as you go outside.
Long story short, there's a city guardsman chasing him, and you have the choice to either lie or tell the truth about the direction you saw him run off in. I lied, which moments later led to a brief friendly conversation with Sven where he promised to talk to me again soon. The Ornate Box quest becomes available later regardless of what you do here, but it doesn't hurt to be on Sven's good side if you're struggling to make a choice.
Beginning the quest
The quest proper activates a few in-game days later when you visit the Merchant's Quarter. Sven will be haggling with a merchant at a table: he's got his eyes on the Ornate Box of the title, but he hasn't got any ready cash on him. Nevertheless he's really very keen on getting his hands on that box, and will ask you if you can lend him the Gold.
The price is steep at 1,000G, and there's no particular reason for you to trust this Sven kid when he promises he'll pay you back in full, unless you count the fact that he sounds suspiciously posh for a penniless urchin. So, should you give him the money?
Should you give Sven the money?
You have three options here: pay up without question, refuse outright, or push for a little more information first. Asking for more details is treated like an initial rejection, but you can go back later and give him the money; I'm not sure if this is still possible if you say a flat "no", but I suspect it might be, given that (minor spoiler) this quest is quite a bit more important than it seems on the surface.
If you give Sven the Gold he'll immediately go back and buy the box from the stallholder. He'll also be ever-so-grateful but won't have anything to pay you with at the moment, which in fairness he was quite open about from the start. He'll ask you to meet back with him at the fountain in the Merchants Quarter square periodically though.
If you refuse to give Sven the Gold, he'll run off; you can then talk to the stallholder and buy the Ornate Box for yourself. It's worth noting that if you helped Flora during the Medicament Predicament quest earlier, then the box will be cheaper for you (800G) thanks to her grandfather being the vendor in question.
Buying the box yourself results in a situation where Sven will eventually corner you again and repeat his request for cash, at which point you can simply give him the box instead, and from there the quest proceeds the same as if you'd given him the money.
Getting your money back
Sure enough, Sven can be found sitting on the fountain's edge during the daytime on subsequent days. It takes three such meetings in total for him to repay everything you gave him, but by the end of Day 3 he's not only repaid your initial loan, but gifted you a Ferrystone — a highly desirable item used to enable fast travel that's hard to come by this early in the game.
Sven is also keen to have a heart-to-heart with someone, and by the end of Day 3 you'll have learned a fair bit more about his background — which, as you might have begun to suspect, is privileged but extremely sheltered. I won't go into further details here to avoid spoilers, but it's fair to say that you haven't seen the last of Sven in this game, and that gaining his trust and friendship could well stand you in good stead further down the line.
You find yourself helping kids with their problems a lot in Dragon's Dogma 2. The Caged Magistrate is another example of such a quest, so take a look at our walkthrough there if you need some pointers to set you in the right direction.