Evil's Soft First Touches Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Quest
Suggested level: 32
Group: Main Quests (Hearts of Stone)
Location: Novigrad
This is the first quest of the Hearts of Stone DLC. If you have the GOTY version of the game, you will receive it as soon as you arrive to Velen, but for obvious reasons you will be able to do it much later.
When Geralt later told me the story which began at the Seven Cats Inn notice board, he mentioned he had felt drawn to that place, as if some strange, undefined force wanted him to appear there on that day and at that time. I didn’t give this remark a second thought until I heard the tale to its conclusion, and realized its beginning had been no accident...
Related points of interest
Seven Cats Inn Notice Board
Velen / Novigrad
Garin Estate
Velen / Novigrad
Oxenfurt Sewers
Velen / Novigrad
Quest stages of Evil's Soft First Touches
1. Check the notice board outside the Seven Cats Inn.
Go to the Seven Cats Inn Notice Board and start checking the notices pinned on it. After a while you will witness a man putting another notice on it - "Contract: Monster in the Sewers".
And it began like this: One day Geralt arrived at the Seven Cats Inn in search of his next contract. He perused the notices hanging there, yet found none to be of much interest, and was about to go on his way when a man came to nail a new parchment to the board. The notice announced a certain Olgierd von Everec, residing in the nearby Garin Estate, was looking for someone to kill a dangerous monster lurking in the Oxenfurt sewers. “Sounds like a job for me,” thought Geralt, and he set off to see this Olgierd and learn more about the contract. Little did he know this was to be the beginning of a great adventure, one filled with both delightful diversions and deadly dangers…
2. Go see Olgierd von Everec about the contract. / (Optional) Defeat your opponent.
Go to the Garin Estate to meet Olgierd von Everec. When you get there, you will meet some of his companions first. They will mock you, and if you respond to them with the same, it will end in a fistfight with one of them. If you want to avoid this fight, answer them "Amusing, really, but I'm here on business." Eventually one of them will take you to Olgierd, who will have a task for you. He'll want you to get rid of the monster that's raging in the sewers under Oxenfurt, which is, according to legend, a prince turned into a monster. If you try to negotiate with him, he'll agree to pay 450 crowns.
3. Enter the Oxenfurt sewers.
When you leave the estate, you'll be hooked by a woman who'll offer you a job and you'll get the "Rose on a Red Field" quest.
Head to Oxenfurt and descend into the Oxenfurt Sewers using a ladder in a well standing in the center of the city.
4. Search the sewers using your Witcher Senses.
Kill the drowner (30) in the first room and walk into the sewers. After a while you should meet your old friend Shani, trying to resuscitate a soldier. She'll tell you that she and a few soldiers went into the sewers to get some venom samples of the beast, that's roaming the sewers. Unfortunately, they were attacked by it.
5. Go to the spot where the monster attacked Shani and the Redanian soldiers.
Approach the grating and use the Aard sign to destroy the weakened wall to the right of the grating.
Go to the other side and a few steps further you will find the bodies of two more soldiers. Shani will tell you a little more about the attack and you will come to the conclusion that the monster had to go through the nearby hole leading to the lower level of the sewers. Shani will tell you that the gate leading to the lower level is locked, but the captain of the soldiers has a key that can be used to open it.
Note: You don't have to look for the key. You can just jump down through the hole and then Shani will find the key herself and join you after a while.
6. (Optional) Find the key to the lower level of the sewers using your Witcher Senses.
You will find the key in the captain's corpse in one of the adjacent rooms. Use it to open the gate and descend to the lower level of the canals.
7. Search the lower level of the sewers using your Witcher Senses.
When you go down to the lower level of the sewers, you'll first have to get rid of some of the drowners (30) that are there. When you do that, you will find the corpse of another soldier - Franz. Examine it and you'll come to the conclusion that the monster likes the taste of alcohol mixed with blood.
8. Find the monster's lair.
Move on, kill two more drowners (30) and go through the wooden door and you'll reach the monster's lair. Geralt will tell Shani to leave the sewers and he will take care of luring the monster.
9. Kill the monster.
The monster - Toad "Prince" will jump a lot, which will push you back when it lands near you. If you get in front of it, it can attack you with its tongue. It will also shoot a lot of its venom and leave clouds of poisonous gas on the ground.
When you kill him by cutting through his stomach, his toxic intestines, which you will be sprayed with, will cause you to start losing consciousness. Before you faint completely, you will see that the monster has turned into a human being and Ofieri warriors have entered the sewers.
You'll wake up locked in a cage below the ship's deck. A man locked in an adjacent cage will tell you what happened. The monster was actually an Ofieri prince, and you were captured by Ofieri warriors and a mage who wanted to remove the curse from him but were late. Now you are carried to Ofier for their king to punish you for killing the prince.
When Ofieri warriors come under the deck, correctly say "Take me to your captain" in their language and you will receive additional XP - correct answer is "...alle'khe uhl eghullath!" (3rd option).
When your companion goes to sleep, Gaunter O'Dimm, known also as Master Mirror, will appear in the hold. It doesn't matter whether you recognize him or not. He'll offer to help you get out of the ship but he'll want something in return. When you agree, he will tell you where you should meet him when you regain your freedom, and he will cause a mark to appear on your face to remind you of your agreement.
Then he will disappear, and after a while, the storm will start and the ship will crash. You will wake up on the beach, tied up and dragged by Ofieri warriors. But you will manage to free yourself and get a weapon.
10. (Optional) Defeat the Ofieri warriors.
You don't have to fight them, you can flee them, but when you kill them then you'll get extra XP. You will start the fight half-naked but all items are in your inventory and you can wear them immediately. During combat, you can take advantage of the fact that the area spells that the mage casts also deal damage to warriors. The most dangerous enemy will be the mage, be sure to avoid his sand tornado.
11. Meet Master Mirror at midnight at the crossroads beneath the willows.
Gaunter O'Dimm will be waiting for you at night near Yantra village. He will tell you about the pact he made with Olgierd von Everec and that now, when it's time to pay, Olgierd is shirking his obligations. He will ask you to help him fulfil the last three wishes of Olgierd. No matter what you answer him at the end, you'll still have to visit Olgierd.
12. Go see Olgierd. / (Optional) Defeat Olgierd.
When you reach the property, you will see that it is on fire and two of Olgierd's men are trying to execute one of their comrades. You will start talking to them about why they want to kill their companion and after a while Olgierd himself will join the conversation.
As you might have guessed, what looked like a run-of-the-mill monster hunt, the kind Geralt had already completed countless times, turned out to be but the very tip of a very large iceberg. The first icy underwater hunk exposed itself when Geralt quite unexpectedly encountered our old friend Shani, an Oxenfurt medic, in the sewers during his hunt for the toad monster. He promised to visit her as soon as he took care of his task, and kept his promise – but not before going on quite the detour.
When Olgierd mentioned rumors floating around that the sewer monster was an enchanted prince, the thought never even occurred to Geralt to grant them any credence. When he finally found and slew the beast, he learned the error of this disbelief. Once slaughtered, the toad revealed itself to be, as rumored, a prince. Geralt was dumbstruck – partly by this surprise twist, I’m sure, but mostly by the poisonous gasses that had escaped from the toad’s body and still filled the air. He was thus in no state to resist the unit of heavily armed men led by a mage which suddenly appeared and captured him.
When he next awoke, he was on a ship, imprisoned with a strange man who informed him they were bound for Ofier. There Geralt was to be executed for the crime of killing the Ofieri crown prince. Geralt was wracking his brain for a way to jump out of this pot of trouble, when, suddenly, out of the shadows came Gaunter O’Dimm, a merchant Geralt had met earlier on his path, with an offer of help. The merchant charged a high price for his assistance: he left his mark on Geralt’s face and forced him to make an open-ended promise of repayment. And then… then a terrible storm broke out, flinging the ship against the rocks.
Geralt made it out of the resulting chaos unscathed and went to meet O’Dimm. The merchant asked him to carry out three wishes for the man who'd sent him after the toad, Olgierd von Everec. Willing or not, Geralt agreed, and the two set off together to the Garin estate. Once there, they discovered the manor was on fire. The witcher decided to see what was afoot.
You may not get too involved and just let them do what they want to do and then you will witness Olgierd being attacked by the daughter of the owner of the property. She will inflict a wound on him which should be fatal but which will not impress him much. So it looks like Olgierd is immortal.
Near the burning manor two of Olgierd’s men were setting up the execution of a third. When Geralt asked what the poor fellow was accused of, Olgierd emerged from the manor. They had barely begun to discuss the matter when a bereaved young woman thrust a sword into his back, blaming him for the death of her father. This grave – deadly, it would seem – wound did not bother Olgierd one bit. With the blade still stuck in his guts, he began to calmly explain to the young woman that he was not responsible for her daddy’s death. It then became crystal clear Geralt was dealing with no mere mortal.
But if you insist on saving the man, Olgierd will offer you a duel for his life. Fighting him is relatively hard, a good timing is essential. During the duel Olgierd will very often teleport himself in a charge-like manner. You have to try to hit him (you can also use the Aard or Igni sign) while he is charging in your direction and then you will "stun" him for a while (the red "aura" around him) which will allow you to hit him a few times. The fight will end with Olgierd's head being cut off. But after a while he will attach it back, which will be an undeniable proof that he is immortal.
Near the burning manor two of Olgierd’s men were setting up the execution of a third. Geralt decided to intervene. As soon as he did, Olgierd emerged from the manor – and did not stand idly while Geralt interfered with his orders. Instead he engaged Geralt in unrestrained combat, during which the witcher sliced off his head. This proved but a temporary setback for Olgierd, who simply placed his decapitated head back on the bloody stump of his neck. It then became crystal clear Geralt was dealing with no mere mortal.
No matter which way you choose, Olgierd will pay you 450 crowns for completing his task and after a while Gaunter O’Dimm will join you. He will reveal that it was Olgierd who turned the prince into a monster, and he did it because he was jealous of the woman. Then he will tell Olgierd that you are his assistant who will carry out his three wishes and he will leave you two alone.
You and Olgierd will go to the stable, where Olgierd will tell you his first two wishes. When you are leaving the property, wondering what these wishes are all about, you will meet Gaunter O’Dimm again, who will give you a few leads related to Olgierd's requests and a vial of Von Everec blood that you will need. This quest will end and you will receive two more - Open Sesame!, and Dead Man's Party.
Soon thereafter Master Mirror appeared and introduced Geralt to Olgierd, explaining the witcher would, as his assistant, carry out Olgierd’s three wishes. This turn of events did not please Olgierd one bit, but he clearly had no choice but to agree and tell Geralt his wishes. For his first, he demanded Geralt bring him the house of Maximillian Borsodi, and for the second, he asked Geralt to show his brother, Vlodimir von Everec, the time of his life. Geralt then turned his attentions to these labors…
After completing Evil's Soft First Touches you will get or will be able to get Open Sesame! and Dead Man's Party.