How to complete The Charlatan quest in GreedFall

How do you successfully complete The Charlatan quest in GreedFall without getting into too much trouble? Like many of GreedFall's quests, it can be completed in a few different ways depending on which talents you've chosen for De Sardet. During The Charlatan you'll have one major juncture where your talents will come into play to determine your path..

After introducing yourself to Ambassador Sahin from The Bridge Alliance to announce your departure for Teer Fradee, the ambassador will ask a favor. He needs help shutting down a man he calls a 'charlatan' masquerading as an alchemist. He's giving true alchemists a bad name, so, the first order of business is to pay him a visit.

Confront The Charlatan

You'll find The Charlatan's stall marked on your map near the center of Serene. On arrival you'll listen to his sales pitch and then attempt to force him to prove the effectiveness of his cure in front of a crowd. You'll fail to convince him, unfortunately. Your companion, Kurt, has the bright idea that you should steal a potion from The Charlatan's wagon behind his stall and force him to drink it.

Take the path to the right and through the metal gate leading to the merchant's wagon just behind his stall. There you'll face a small group of ruffians first. After dealing with them, check the two notes found lying nearby and pick up one of the potions. When you return to The Charlatan and force his hand, he'll flee the scene.

Find The Charlatan in the tavern

Fortunately, one of the notes found in The Charlatan's wagon mentions that he's staying at the inn above a nearby tavern. Head there and make your way upstairs to confront him again. It turns out you've been taken for a fool. The Charlatan was a true alchemist who became a whistleblower calling out the unethical practices of other alchemists. This is why Ambassador Sahin wants him dealt with. After learning to truth, you have a few potential options:

• Arrest The Charlatan and return to Ambassador Sahin to turn him in. This will successfully end the quest and gain you +3 Bridge Alliance reputation (But it also makes you kind of a jerk).
• Help The Charlatan escape by dispersing the angry mob waiting for him outside the inn.
• Help The Charlatan escape by finding a way to sneak out the tavern.

Disperse the crowd

If you choose to deal with the mob, you have three ways to disperse them:

• Order the crowd to disperse: This will result in a fight. Be careful: you and Kurt will be quickly outnumbered by the angry and surprisingly well-armed locals.
• [Intuition 1]: Convince the mob that they need to seek out a doctor immediately or suffer the side effects of The Charlatan's potion. They'll leave without a fight.
• Negotiate a settlement: Offer to bring the crowd new health potions. With this option, you'll need to either craft six health potions yourself if you've invested a talent point in Science, loot all six needed potions from crates around the city, or buy them from the nearby merchant.

After dealing with the crowd, return to The Charlatan to let him know his path is clear and he should leave the city immediately. Jump down to the section on returning to Ambassador Sahin.

Sneak out of the tavern

To sneak out of the tavern discreetly you'll need to leave The Charlatan's room and pick up the Storeroom key in the room next door. Through the kitchen downstairs this key will unlock a door where you can find a chest containing yet another key. This innkeeper's key unlocks the back door. 

Now return to The Charlatan and tell him you've got a way out. Be warned, this starts the escort mission portion. You'll need to make it back to The Charlatan's wagon either by sneaking or fighting your way there as all of the angry customers are still hanging around the area looking for a fight. Lead The Charlatan out the back door and hop over the back fence at the wooden boards marked with white.

The path of least resistance is to the west away from the crowd waiting at the front of the inn, but, either way, you'll still encounter violent customers. The Charlatan implies through his dialogue cues that you may be able to sneak past them, but it's a difficult prospect. Hostile NPCs aren't visually different from regular townsfolk and GreedFall doesn't communicate well what objects can be used for cover. We sneaked up behind NPCs facing the opposite direction and opted for a stealth kill. Once you manage to sneak or fight your way back to The Charlatan's cart, he'll skip town and you're free to turn in the quest for your reward.

Return to Ambassador Sahin

When you return to the ambassador you'll have two dialogue options to choose from  to complete the quest:

• Cover The Charlatan's escape, which will net you +1 Bridge Alliance reputation.
• Call out Sahin on his lie, which will net you -1 Bridge Alliance reputation (specifically, +1 for completing the quest and -2 for letting The Charlatan escape).

And there you go, that wraps up all of the possible ways to complete The Charlatan quest in GreedFall.