Moon in the Man: Break the Moonface Curse

Where this quest comes from

Moon in the Man does not start on its own. It appears in your journal after you talk to the intruder you find during Locked Out — the cursed figure hiding in Hyrum’s house, whose face has been turned into a moon.

He mentions charcoal, a blank book, and something about magic. Those are your two ingredients.

Ingredient one: charcoal

Charcoal is common. Search barrels and crates around town and you will almost certainly turn some up.

Guaranteed source: a location called the charcoal burner, south of town behind the mountain. There is charcoal lying near the fire there, in quantity.

Ingredient two: a blank tome

Harder. Three routes, in order of effort:

1. Complete a quest for the jinn in town — he gives a simple quest and you receive a tome automatically on completion. That is The Lost Tome, which also teaches you magic, so it is worth doing regardless.
2. Buy one from him, if you already finished his quest.
3. Take one. There is a tome on a crate behind him. The walkthrough is candid that this skips both other routes.

His house: from the main street, go through the tavern, and his home is on the left.

The snail that stole a voice

The cursed man cannot speak properly, because a snail near the drain by the tower took his voice. Kill it and he gets it back.

Route west from town:

1. Exit town heading west — straight ahead from the exit.
2. Stick to the right side this time.
3. Pass two rocks, then head toward a tree.
4. Descend into the canyon.
5. Find the river and jump in.
6. There are slimes here — the guide’s advice is to run rather than fight.
7. The snail is under the bridge-like structure. It is a named enemy: Voice of Reason.

Kill it and return to the moon-faced man. He can now speak, and he explains himself: the Saint made him look like this, and he is hiding from the Saint in that house.

Chiani

He sends you to Chiani for advice on removing the curse.

Where: the market square. Between the tavern and the shop there is a staircase — go up it, find the hut, and go to the second floor.

If you searched for “chi alani,” this is the character. She does not know how to remove the curse herself, but she knows someone who is good with transformation magic: a hermit named Detta.

The hermit Detta and the southern island

Travel far south to the southern beach. As with most long trips in this game, swimming along the shore is the safe way (fast travel).

Your destination is a small island, easy to spot because there is an island with magical towers right next to it — visible from a distance.

On the island you will find a bed, a chest, and a very good and very expensive bow. Take the bow.

You do not need the hermit himself. The walkthrough notes his corpse was in a different place on a previous run and absent this time. What you need is his journal, and it is on the stool near the campfire.

Finishing it

Return to the moon-faced man with the tome and the journal. The transformation happens — he becomes a normal person again and can finally leave the house.

That also closes out Locked Out, since the intruder leaves. Hyrum’s reaction is worth the trip:

“By the gods, that took forever. Next time just hit them on the head with a very large stick and be done.”

Which is a fair reminder that violence was on the table the whole time — see Amphitheater for how the game records which route you took.

The red moon

If you have seen the enormous red moon with a face in this game’s screenshots and wondered whether it connects: the game is called The Lantern of the Laughless Saint, the Saint disfigures a man into a moon-face, and there is a moon with a face in the sky. We are noting the pattern rather than claiming a confirmed lore link, because NerveLabs has not explained it.

Sources

• “How to Break the Moonface Curse (Moon In The Man & Locked Out)” walkthrough video, published 23 Aug 2026, for the full route, named enemy, characters and quoted dialogue.