Valor Mortis Mummy and Daddy Quest Guide – How to Complete It and What Not to Do

TL;DR – Mummy and Daddy Quick Summary

• This is Side Quest #18, found in Chapter 7 – Witch Hunt, City of Orphans (Sewers area).
• Start it at the City of Orphans – Sewers lantern by interacting with the burrow behind the ladder.
• You receive Cheese at the start. Keep it – you need it at the end.
• Do NOT shoot or attack Mummy and Daddy in their cell. This instantly fails the quest with no way back.
• Find the music box by breaking crates near their cell and crawling through a hidden gap.
• Play the music box to calm them, then open the cell and place the Cheese on the plate.
• Reward: 1x Tiny Whisker Gift + 3,000 Catalysts and 3 Mice friendship points.
• Killing Mummy and Daddy causes the Mice to turn against you – a serious late-game consequence.

The Mummy and Daddy quest in Valor Mortis is one of the quieter, stranger moments the game has to offer. You are knee-deep in a sewer full of poison and enemies, and somewhere nearby, a pair of undead creatures are locked in a cell. The children who call themselves the Mice love them dearly. Those creatures are their parents.

The quest itself is short and contained entirely within the sewers. But it has one hard rule that trips up a lot of players – and breaking it wrecks both the quest and your relationship with the Mice permanently. This guide covers every step, the music box location, and why it matters what you choose to do.

Where to Start the Mummy and Daddy Quest in Valor Mortis

The Mummy and Daddy quest starts in the sewers beneath the City of Orphans, during Chapter 7 – Witch Hunt. You need to have entered the sewers and activated the City of Orphans – Sewers lantern first.

Once you have the lantern, look for a ladder on the opposite side of the sewer channel from where you entered. There is a burrow hidden directly behind that ladder – one of the small holes the Mice use to communicate. Interact with it.

The children will speak to you. They tell you their parents are somewhere in the sewers below, locked in a cell. They have been changed – infected by Nephtoglobin, the same corruption that has twisted so much of the world around you. The Mice still love them. They ask William to feed their parents and to handle things gently.

They give you a piece of Cheese. This starts the Mummy and Daddy quest. Keep the Cheese – you need it to complete the quest.

The One Rule You Must Not Break

Before going into the full walkthrough, this needs to be said clearly.

Do not shoot, attack, or harm Mummy and Daddy when you first find them in their cell.

The moment you do, the quest fails instantly. There is no warning, no second chance, and no way to undo it. The cell area can look like just another enemy encounter, and the reflex to shoot first is natural in a soulslike. Resist it.

You will see two undead figures through the cell bars. Leave them alone until after you have played the music box. That is the only order that works.

Step 1 – Get the Sewers Key

From the Sewers lantern, progress through the main path down the stairs. You are looking for a chest that contains the Sewers Key. Follow the sewer tunnels down, deal with the enemies along the way, and grab the key from the chest when you reach it.

This key opens the locked door in the circular room with the central grapple point, which you will need for the broader sewer area exploration. It is also a checkpoint for this quest – Mummy and Daddy’s area is just ahead from here.

If you need help navigating the sewers more broadly, our Sewers Master Key guide covers the other key you can pick up in this area.

Step 2 – Burn the Gold Vines and Find the Burrow

Next to the chest where you picked up the Sewers Key, you will notice a wall of golden vines blocking a passage on the left. Use your Fire Transmutation ability to burn them away and reveal a hidden room behind.

Go inside. In this room you will find another burrow on the wall. Interact with it. The Mice speak to you again and confirm that Mummy and Daddy are locked in the cell directly to your right. They warn you that their parents are agitated and ask you to find a way to calm them before trying to feed them.

This is when you first see Mummy and Daddy through the bars of the cell. Do not shoot them. Step away from the cell and look for the next step.

Step 3 – Find the Music Box

This is the part most players get stuck on. The music box is not obvious, but it is very close.

From the cell, go to the room on the right side. Inside this room you will find some crates blocking the way forward. Break the crates to reveal a small crawlspace in the wall behind them. Crouch down and crawl through the gap.

On the other side, in this hidden room, you will find a music box sitting on the floor. Interact with it to play a tune. The melody carries through the wall and reaches Mummy and Daddy in their cell. You will hear them calm down as the music plays.

This is the key step. The cell door will not open until the music box has been activated. If you try to enter the cell before playing it, nothing will happen. Play it first, then head back.

Step 4 – Feed Mummy and Daddy

Return to the cell. Now that the music box has calmed them, you can open the door. Go inside the cell – Mummy and Daddy will not attack you.

Look for the plate on the floor inside the cell. Interact with it to place the Cheese that the children gave you at the start of the quest. Mummy and Daddy will eat.

Once you have placed the Cheese, go back to the burrow you found in the hidden room and interact with it again. The children speak to you one last time, express their gratitude, and the quest completes.

You receive a Tiny Whisker Gift as your reward, which can be consumed for Catalysts.

What Happens If You Kill Mummy and Daddy?

You can kill Mummy and Daddy after you have completed the quest – the game allows it. But there is a significant consequence if you do it before completing or as an alternative to completing the quest.

Killing Mummy and Daddy causes the Mice to turn against you permanently. Their journal records that the Mice have sworn never to help William again. This is not a minor flavour consequence – it has a real impact on your Mice friendship score, which tracks across the entire game.

You need at least 10 Mice friendship points before the game’s point of no return (the High Tower in the Fortress area) to unlock late-game rewards from the Mouse King, including a Giant Whisker Gift and the Mice’s Key. The Mummy and Daddy quest alone is worth 3 Mice friendship points – one of the higher single-quest values in the game. Killing the parents instead of calming them wipes those points and locks you out of the Mice-related rewards.

So unless you are doing a deliberate completionist run where you have already secured your Mice friendship total, leave Mummy and Daddy alive. The game lets you go back and fight them after completion if you want the combat experience, but do the quest properly first.

For a full breakdown of how the Mice friendship system works and what you can miss, our Valor Mortis tips and tricks guide covers the key things to keep in mind across all chapters.

Mummy and Daddy Quest Rewards

• 1x Tiny Whisker Gift – consumable worth 3,000 Catalysts when used
• 3 Mice friendship points – one of the highest point rewards of any Mice-related quest

There is no trophy or achievement tied specifically to this quest, but the Mice friendship points it provides are among the most valuable in the game. Missing them is a real cost if you are going for the Giant Whisker Gift or full Mice-related completion.

To make the most of your Catalyst income from Tiny Whisker Gifts and other sources, see our guide on how to farm Catalysts and level up fast.

Is the Mummy and Daddy Quest Missable?

The quest itself is not missable – the City of Orphans has fast travel, and you can return to the Sewers lantern at any time, including after finishing the main story.

However, the Mice friendship points it provides are time-limited. All Mice friendship points across the game must be accumulated before you reach the High Tower in the Fortress area. That is when the friendship check happens. After that point, those points cannot be earned retroactively.

Complete this quest during your natural playthrough of the sewers in Chapter 7 and you will be well within the time window. Leaving it too late into Chapter 9 is where people get caught out.

Other Valor Mortis Mice Quests

Mummy and Daddy is one of several quests connected to the Mice throughout the game. If you are working through all of them to maximize your friendship score, here are the others worth knowing about:

• The Shrike’s Anthem – 3 Mice friendship points. Find all five anthem fragments in The Outskirts. See our Shrike’s Anthem quest guide.
• Bedtime Stories – 1 Mice friendship point. Find the storybook and read it to the children for the full reward. See our Bedtime Stories quest guide.

Together these three Mice quests alone account for 7 of the 10 points you need. The remaining points come from other interactions with the Mice throughout The Outskirts and City of Orphans.

More Valor Mortis Quest Guides

Here are other side quest guides to help you work through everything in the game:

• Laudanum Quest Guide
• Lullaby Quest Guide
• Sleeping Beauty Quest Guide
• Till Death Quest Guide
• The Curious Case of Seamus Diggory Quest Guide
• The Scarecrow Quest Guide
• The Deserter Quest Guide
• In the Name of Art Quest Guide
• The Lost Boy Quest Guide
• The Oathbound Quest Guide
• An Unheard Farewell Quest Guide
• Homesick Quest Guide
• The Emissary Quest Guide

You can also see the full achievements and trophy list if you are chasing 100% completion, and the Valor Mortis all chapters list for a full overview of how the game is structured.

Valor Mortis is available on PC via Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox.

Frequently Asked Questions