Of Dairy and Darkness Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Quest
Suggested level: 9
Group: Secondary Quests
Location: Velen
You can start this quest by visiting the Aeramas' Abandoned Manor or talking to the Artifacts Merchant in Novigrad.
An abandoned home, or even an abandoned village, was no rare sight in the Velen of those days, but a certain set of ruins attracted Geralt's particular attention. He decided to find out what exactly was responsible for the manor's sorry state.
If you started the quest by talking to the Artifacts Merchant:
A Novigrad merchant told Geralt about a mage named Aeramas. The poor man had, like so many of his colleagues, met a gruesome death on a pyre. With no surviving heirs, his expansive rural residence was now abandoned - and, if the rumors about this eccentric sorcerer were true, inside it awaited a great many curiosities and valuable secrets...
Related points of interest
Aeramas' Abandoned Manor
Velen / Novigrad
Artifacts Merchant
Velen / Novigrad
Quest stages of Of Dairy and Darkness
1. (Optional) Find out more about the run-down residence.
If you found the manor first, then you must go to Novigrad and talk to the Artifacts Merchant. He will tell you about the artefacts that he has in the sale and that were once owned by the mage Aeramas. You should buy a Lizard figurine from him.
2. Search Aeramas' residence using your Witcher Senses. / (Optional) Find a way to activate the portal.
When you examine the residence more closely, you will find a magic portal in it. If you do not have a lizard figurine yet, you will have to go to Novigrad and buy it from the Artifacts Merchant.
3. Use Aeramas' artifacts to activate the portal. / Use the portal in Aeramas' residence. / Investigate Aeramas' dungeon.
If you already have a lizard figure from the Artifacts Merchant in Novigrad, then you will be able to activate the portal and enter it. The portal will take you to the dungeon located below the ruins of Aeramas' residence.
3.1. Find a way to pass through the tyromancy rooms.
You have to get to the other side of the maze avoiding the poisonous gas. The maze is simple and should not cause you any major problems.
When you get to the other side of the maze, climb up to the stairs and move on.
Geralt investigated Aeramas' estate and discovered the mage had been a raring tyromancy enthusiast - tyromancy being, as you surely know, the art of divining the future from cheese. This is a very rare specialization among mages, one only practiced by those for whom a social life is not a high priority - there reason being that the cheese they use to divine with is, and pardon my blunt language, fouler smelling than a drowner's scrotum. No wonder Aeramas' home hadn't been looted.
Going further you will reach an inactive portal. Just activate it and go through the portal to the other side.
3.2. Find your way through the flooded chamber.
Go down the path leading down to the water and then swim through the tunnel on the left.
When you get out of the water, climb on the rocks...
...and turn a little further into the corridor on the left.
After a while you will reach the lab and in it you will come across a foglet (8) which you will have to get rid of.
One of the walls in the lab is an illusion and you can use Nephaleni's eye to remove it and get to inside where you will find some loot.
To move on, take the bull figurine from the container standing on the table.
This bull figurine is a key that will allow you to activate another inactive portal.
When you walk through the portal, you will find yourself in a room with a magic barrier.
3.3. Deactivate the magic barrier and get to Aeramas' treasure.
On the right and left side of the room there are two crystals. The one on the left side is hidden behind an illusion. Approach any of them and use an igni sign and the barrier will disappear after a while.
Approach the monument and take the sword - The Emmentaler (Relic Steel Sword) and the contents of the chest.
Geralt searched the abandoned residence from top to bottom. Among the assorted worthless trinkets, he found some true treasures which Aeramas had cleverly hid from the world by setting murderous cheeses as guards. Tyromancers are not normally the cheery sort, but Aeramas certainly would have been delighted to know that his treasure had ended up in good hands.