To Bait a Forktail... Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Quest
Suggested level: 19
Group: Main Quests
Location: Kaer Morhen
You'll get this quest after you speak with Vesemir when you get to Kaer Morhen in the "Ugly Baby" quest.
Yennefer asked - or rather, if I am to be completely honest with you, dear reader, ordered - Geralt to help Eskel hunt a forktail. The sorceress needed ingredients from this dangerous beast's body and clearly thought two witchers would get the job done sooner than one. Geralt thus set out to track the monster - but first, he had to find Eskel.
Related points of interest
Kaer Morhen
Kaer Morhen
Forktail's Lair
Kaer Morhen
Quest stages of To Bait a Forktail...
1. Search for Eskel's tracks near the entrance to Kaer Morhen using your Witcher Senses.
Find and examine the traces of Eskel's horse left near the castle entrance gate.
2. Follow the tracks left by Eskel's horse using your Witcher Senses.
Follow the tracks along the road leading south. At some point the tracks will turn left from the road...
...through small ruins to the place where you will find Eskel's horse.
3. Examine the area around Eskel's horse for tracks using your Witcher Senses.
On the ground near the horse you will find footprints of Eskel and the hoofprints of a goat.
4. Follow Eskel's footprints using your Witcher Senses.
Follow Eskel's footprints. Unfortunately, they will soon be gone and you will have to find other traces.
5. Look around for more tracks left by Eskel using your Witcher Senses.
Examine the trunk of a nearby tree and you will find a piece of goat's fur on it.
6. Follow the smell using your Witcher Senses.
Follow the scent of the goat until you reach the point where you see the footprints of Eskel again.
7. Follow Eskel's footprints using your Witcher Senses.
Follow the footsteps until you reach the goat tied to a pole in the middle of the meadow.
Then Eskel will come out of the nearby grove, you will greet each other and start talking.
Your conversation will be interrupted by the arrival of the forktail.
8. Fight the forktail. / Chase the forktail. / Follow the forktail's blood trail using your Witcher Senses.
Get to the forktail and start fighting him. When you beat him a little, the monster will fly up in the air and escape to the nearby hills. Run after him.
The wounded forktail has left a trail of blood behind that will lead you to the Forktail's Lair.
9. Find and kill the forktail.
Go into the lair, find the monster in one of the caves and kill it. When you do that, you'll take from its corpse the ingredient that Yennefer needs.
In the end, the hunters bagged their prey. Using their traditional and, while we're being honest, rather unrefined methods, the two witchers first lured the forktail close, then wounded the beast and gave chase as it fled, finally finishing it off in its lair. And so they acquired the ingredients Yennefer needed and, no less important, had a bit of time to catch up - Eskel and Geralt had not seen each other in years.
10. Return to Kaer Morhen. / (Optional) Beat Eskel back to Kaer Morhen.
Exit the cave. When you reach the exit, Eskel will propose a horse race, and you can refuse or agree. If you agree and beat Eskel, he will offer you are prize - Mountain Folk boots (relic light armor), Manuscript page: Hanged Man's Venom, which you can accept or refuse.
