Hunting a Witch

Hunting a Witch is a main quest of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It serves as the first quest of a second main story line in Velen to learn Ciri's whereabouts, with the other story line being that of the Family Matters quest line. This quest can be completed before starting the Family Matters quest.

Walkthrough[]

Find the witch on your own or ask about her[]

Geralt can either learn the location of the witch by listening to the villagers of Midcopse or going directly to the witch's home. There are a few specific villagers that Geralt can speak to, and this is best accomplished during the day as most people are asleep and unresponsive to questioning at night. There are 3 ways to find the witch's location:

• Two peasant women near the village well are gossiping outside a house in front of a small fire. Geralt can eavesdrop on their conversation, but if he gets too close they will quiet each other until he walks further away.
• An old man smoking a pipe near the western entrance of the village will quickly offer up the witch's location.
• One peasant woman who can usually be found outside her home sweeping near the village well mentions a witch. If asked, she will direct Geralt to speak with her husband who recently went to visit the witch to cure a bad back injury. Approach the husband near the rear of the house. He won't give up the information easily, so either pay 50 , use Axii (requires Delusion level 1, 25) to loosen his tongue and he will describe the trail to follow. If you do neither and exit the conversation, he'll eventually leave the village and you can follow, then rescue him when he is attacked by a pack of 5 nekkers and he will offer directions to the witch out of gratitude. It can be hard to trigger him leaving the village though.

You can even do all 3 if you wish, being successful in one method doesn't prevent the others from triggering.

Find the trail[]

Search just north of the village for the pond and the road that runs along it lengthwise. After reaching the northwestern tip of the pond, a large rock should be visible, standing tall just a bit further to the northwest. This boulder marks the start of a path off the main road to the right which Geralt should follow to an abandoned cart that's usually guarded over by a pack of 5 nekkers. The witch's hut is straight on down the path.

Talk to the witch in her hut[]

As Geralt approaches the witch's hut, he sees a large group of villagers asking for her help. After giving them instructions, she then tells them all to leave as she is done helping people for the day. Obviously the rules don't apply to Geralt so go ahead and barge right into her home. Inside, the witch appears to be missing. Search about the place to figure out where she's disappeared to. Some things Geralt can come across include:

Reaching for the skull, it will glow with power and open up a portal to an unknown location. So that's where she disappeared to. Walk into the portal and Geralt will be transported to an underground cavern complete with grass, shrubs, trees, and a large rabbit population. Approach the building in the center of the cavern and Keira Metz, the witch, will call out to Geralt to ascend the stairs to come see her. Hurry up the steps to be greeted by a "pleasant view."

Talk to Keira about Ciri[]

Speak with Keira to learn about her dealings in Velen and other sorceresses of the lodge. Keira will tell the witcher that a masked, elven mage had been asking about Ciri and that if Keira met her, to lead her to him. Keira offers to bring you to meet this mage, who is hiding in some elven ruins in the southwestern wilderness just northwest of Byways. You can choose to go straight away with her or agree to meet her there. Note that the meeting place is quite far away, with no safe fast travel points nearby, and possibly nasty enemies on the way, but you also shouldn't go unprepared. Regardless of choice, the quest will then end.

Journal entry[]

The notes left by Hendrik, the Nilfgaardian agent, mentioned that Ciri had quarreled with some witch, and that the newt-stewer in question could be found near the village of Midcopse. Exactly where, Geralt did not know - and so he was forced to swallow his manly pride and ask the locals for directions.

If Geralt seeks out information in Midcopse:

The peasants of Midcopse were not overly talkative, but in the end Geralt managed to get enough hints out of them to find the witch's hut.

Unfortunately, Keira had not actually encountered Ciri, and the witch mentioned in Hendrik's notes was nowhere to be found. Geralt's efforts were not entirely in vain, however. The sorceress had recently entertained an unexpected guest - a masked elven mage. This mysterious visitor was, like Geralt, interested in Ciri's whereabouts. Keira figured the mage would be where she had left him and set off with Geralt towards his hideout.

Objectives[]

• Find the witch on your own or ask the residents of Midcopse about her.
• Encountered the gossipers:
  • Eavesdrop on the gossiping women.
  • Got too close:
    • Keep your distance from the gossiping ladies, so they don't see you eavesdropping.
• Talked to the sweeping woman:
  • Talk to the peasant who visits the witch often.
• Received directions, regardless of how:
  • Find the pond by the village.
  • Find the lone boulder.
  • Find the abandoned cart.
• Find the witch's hut.
• Talk to the witch in her hut.
• Search the hut using your Witcher Senses.
• Enter the portal in the witch's hut.
• Find the witch.
• Exitted dialogue with Keira:
  • Talk to Keira about Ciri.

Notes[]

• If you get too close to the gossiping women, the objective to eavesdrop on them will (temporarily) fail. But you can just go away and repeat the eavesdropping from a distance, after which it will be marked green. Even directly talking to them before that is fine.
• After going the route with saving the peasant from the nekkers, he can still be talked to as if he never gave you directions, allowing payment or Axii to get repeat directions, and of course the extra .