File:Contract.pngIf you know no fear and seek work, read this notice, for the call contained therein will be of great interest to you.
Hans of Cidaris, soldier of fortune and veteran of many wars, hereby makes known the following: Being greatly concerned about the fate of the local peasantry, which suffers horribly from the attacks of some monster nesting in the forest near Oxenfurt, I have decided to grant a purse of Novigrad crowns to the man who slays this beast.
Yet may it be known that nay man who comes to me without a trophy shall receive no gold, but instead shall be tossed out on his arse so hard he shan't sit again till the end of his days.
This contract can be picked up at the notice board in Oxenfurt.
Travel to a small encampment to the east of Oxenfurt. It's an unmarked location; the closest fast travel marker is at Herbalist's Hut, a short ways northwest of the camp. Once you arrive, speak to the mercenary captain Hans of Cidaris. He will recount that him and his company had decided to help the local boys in the area, after arriving there at the behest of King Radovid on a contract, since a monster had been snatching up livestock. They split up into two parties, with Hans and Kurt in one, and Gerd and Henk in the other. The latter party never returned, and thus the other two chipped in for a professional monster slayer. The base reward for this contract is 295, though there is room for negotiation.
Once you accept the contract, Hans will direct you south as this is where Gerd and Henk were last seen alive. Go southeast and you will come across a corpse and some sizeable blood pools. Inspecting them with Witcher Senses would confirm that the blood is human. Nearby, perched atop a rocky ledge, you'll find a severed arm. Inspecting it deduces that this was the work of a flying monster, who carried off the second body elsewhere, dropping its limb in the process. From here, there is a trail of blood leading to the east, which you should follow. Eventually, you'll run across a pack of low-level wolves. Further along the trail, there is a slightly larger patch of blood. Inspect it to determine the trail's end as the birds have picked the ground clean.
From there, you must follow the ravens' cawing which is coming from further east. A short jog away is a feather lying on the ground, from which you can determine that the monster is an archgriffin. Inspecting it gives the Opinicus bestiary entry. Climb the rocks nearby to discover the monster's nest and a body lying by its side. Loot it to obtain a Mercenary contract, which imparts the information that Hans and his crew had already accepted the archgriffin contract and received the reward upfront – a considerably higher one than that offered to Geralt.
Meditate until night-time to wait for the griffin's arrival. Use Hybrid oil, and the Aard sign to knock the beast down after which it should be relatively vulnerable. After dealing with it, loot the griffin's corpse to obtain the griffin trophy, and, among other things, an archgriffin mutagen and the Zireael armor. Return to Hans for the monetary reward.
Hans is grateful to be rid of the monster. "Archgrateful!". You may either accept the previously agreed amount, or present the Mercenary contract obtained from the monster's nest. If so, Hans will defend that "intermediaries deserve their due". However, under some pressure he'll produce an additional 150 on top of the previously agreed sum.
Objectives
Talk about the contract with the mercenary, Hans.
Examine where the monster attacked using your Witcher Senses.
Follow the blood trail using your Witcher Senses.
Follow the ravens using your Witcher Senses.
Find the griffin's nest.
Return after dark, when the griffin is in its nest.
Kill the griffin.
Take a trophy from the griffin.
Collect your reward from Hans.
Journal entry
Mercenaries are usually the ones getting paid for killing things. This time, however, the shoe was on the other foot: a certain Hans of Cidaris, a soldier of fortune by trade, had made it known far and wide that he would pay a handsome sum to whoever could defeat the beast that had made its nest in the forest outside Oxenfurt. Geralt decided to take on the job.
Geralt's investigation led him to conclude that an archgriffin had taken up residence in the ravine. This creature was in most respects similar to the royal griffin Geralt had fought in White Orchard, but with the added nastiness of being able to spit a noxious acid at its prey.
If you discover the Mercenary contract document:
Geralt defeated the beast - and discovered a highly interesting document in its lair. It seemed Geralt's employer, Hans of Cidaris, had already accepted a contract to kill this griffin. What's more, unlike the witcher he had been paid in advance - and a much larger sum than what he had offered Geralt!
, though there is room for negotiation.