Monsters are preying upon transports supplying the Redanians station along the Pontar river, and the captain of the Redanians there wisely decided to hire a professional to deal with the situation. Track down the transports and find the truth behind the attacks during Contract: Woodland Beast, but be wary - monsters aren’t the only things keen to prey upon men during times of war.

Quest Objectives¶

Starting Contract: Woodland Beast¶

Like most Witcher contracts, you can start this quest by grabbing a notice off a notice board. In this case, look out for the “Contract: Woodland Beast” notice on the notice board near the Border Post along the Pontar river, in Velen. Read the notice, then talk to the nearby Captain of the Guard, who doesn’t have a lot of intel to impart, but if you resolve the issue he’ll promise you a meager amount of Crowns and a Letter of Safe Conduct, which will get you across the Pontar and into Novigrad and Oxenfurt.

Investigate the Missing Transport¶

Surprisingly there’s no ambiguity about where to get started - there’s a missing transport you need to examine to the southwest, not far from the road that leads to the Inn at the Crossroads. Make your way there and head into the woods to find a pair of Alghouls (Lv5) feasting on the corpses that once escorted the transport.

Don’t mistake Alghouls for their lesser kin, these necrophages are much larger and deal far, far more damage should they sink their claws into you. Worse yet, after being angered they’ll roar and extend their spines, giving them health regeneration just like Ghouls, but also causing melee attacks to damage the attacker. Once their spines are out you’ll need to use the Axii sign to calm them down enough to retract them - this won’t last forever, but it will ideally last long enough for you to finish them off. If you’re having trouble juggling between Quen and Axii, don’t be afraid to consume a Tawny Owl potion to give you the stamina regeneration you need.

Once the necrophages have been dispatched, examine the sacked transport, searching various corpses, some empty chests, then some footprints nearby. Follow this trail southwest and it’ll lead to the road crossing the river near the Inn at the Crossroads, where half a dozen Drowners (Lv4) have now congregated. Cut them down - fighting this many Drowners conventionally is a real chore, but if you can bunch them up, Igni works wonders - then pick up the trail again and follow it uphill to the southwest.

Deal With the Scoia’tael¶

As you approach a tree you’ll be accosted by a rather unfriendly elf, and you’ll get three options: if you say “You’ve killed enough humans already.” or “Just out for a stroll.” you’ll end up fighting the rather humorless Scoia’tael (Lv5). Purging the nonhumans is a perfectly viable way of resolving this quest, but if you plan to do that, you’re better off getting them to escort you to their leader by picking the first dialog option “Need to talk to your commander.”. Surrender your weapons by picking “Fine. Lead the way.” and sure enough, you’ll soon find yourself in front of the leader of this band of Scoia’tael, an elf named Vernossiel.

How this quest resolves from here basically boils down to two options - kill the Scoia’tael, or let them go.

Kill the Scoia’tael¶

You could have picked a fight earlier, but now that you’re meeting with their leader you can get rid of the whole bunch in one go. Pick the option “You’re common bandits.” and Vernossiel will decide to play down to your expectations by acting like bandits. You’ll be unarmed, which is not ideal, so say the least.

Good news! If you pick “Do as you will.” you’ll let the Scoia’tael off the hook, and will even get a reward for making what she calls a “wise decision”. This reward includes Silk, Tracker’s Trousers and Wolf Hide x6. You can now equip your weapons, then promptly attack the Scoia’tael to pick a fight and kill them all. Just be wary of Vernossiel, as she’s rather high level for this area (Lv9). This allows you to wipe out all the Scoia’tael, keep your weapons for the fight, and even get a reward from them!

Let the Scoia’Tael Go¶

Alternatively if you wish to spare the Scoia’tael (they’re not technically monsters, after all, although that’s a matter of opinion in some camps…) you’ll pick the same options as above: ask to meet the Scoia’tael leader, surrender your weapons, then respond to Vernossiel with “Do as you will.” to get the rewards mentioned above. You can even loot their camp afterwards with no hard feelings.

Report to the Captain of the Guard¶

Whether you killed or spared the Scoia’tael, return to the Captain of the Guard near the Pontar crossing, where you’ll get various options depending on how you handled the nonhuman partisans. If you killed the Scoia’tael, Geralt will flat out tell the Redanian the news, and will be rewarded for it, with a bit of racist banter thrown in for good measure. You’ll only get 30 Crowns, but you’ll get the Letter of Safe Conduct, which will allow you to cross the Pontar river to the north, as well as travel to Oxenfurt to the east.

If you spared the Scoia’tael you’ll have more options. First, you can lie to cover for the Scoia’tael by picking the option “No. Didn’t find anything.”, in which case you’ll be rightfully dismissed for being useless and given no reward. Well, not exactly no reward - the quest completes successfully and you’ll get some EXP, but not the money nor the Letter of Safe Conduct. Alternatively you can rat the Scoia’tael out by picking the option “No monster in the woods. Just Scoia’tael.”, which will get you the Letter of Safe Conduct, but not the pittance of a monetary reward… which is fair enough.