Contract: Mysterious Tracks is a contract quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
- Good Folk!
- Walking the woods recently I spied some odd tracks and couldn't for the life of me figure out what left them, even though I've many a hunt under my belt. You know me, I'm not one to make a fuss, but I can't help but reckon they bode ill and we all should be on guard. And if anyone's seen something or figures he can identify the tracks, come see me. There's a reward.
- -Huntsman of Lindenvale
Walkthrough[]
The quest is available from Lindenvale's notice board or by finding the tracks or cave first. If picked up from the notice board, go speak to the hunter regarding it, who can be haggled with regarding the reward.
Head out to the area and examine the dead wolves, then pick up on the tracks nearby which will eventually lead to some fur on a tree to examine to pick up a scent trail. Continue following this new trail until you reach a sharp cliff where the entrance is too far up. Also note, there's a dung pile here to examine that Geralt will deduce belongs to a fiend. With that, go around and up the hill. If you didn't examine the dung pile below, there's another up here you can examine. To find the other entrance into the cave, look around the northern most tree up here and, just to the northwest, you'll find the hole. Carefully drop in (you may take some damage here).
Examine the fiend carcass, it's mouth to note the fur, then the two separate track prints and finally, the blood splatters. Once everything is examined Geralt will conclude it's a chort, the Howler, earning 25 . You need to lure it out however. The chort lure formula should then appear in the alchemy tab (though if you bought the formula from the merchant in Lindenvale, it would have already been there). Exit the cave and examine any of the three piles to acquire fiend dung if you haven't done that already. If you don't have any crow's eye, look on the hill and right around the base, where a few of the plants should be available. Once you have everything, craft the lure and equip it like a torch and use it at the 4 indicated spots. Then, once ready, go and re-enter the cave for a short cutscene where the Howler appears.
It is vulnerable to relict oil but the cave is small, making evasion difficult, so use quen to help against its charged attack, which can inflict bleeding. Once it's dead, loot it for the chort trophy, chort mutagen, and Azure Wrath. With that, return to the Lindenvale hunter who'll be glad to hear it's dead and will reward you with 400 and 193 , completing the quest.
Journal entry[]
- Find the notice first:
- In the village of Lindenvale Geralt came across a highly unusual contract. A certain hunter was worried by some strange tracks he had found in the woods and sought someone who could help him determine to whom - or to what - they belonged.
- Discover the cave/tracks first:
- In the village of Lindenvale Geralt came across tracks which indicated a beast of considerable size prowled the area. As a declared defender of mankind aginst monsters, he decided to investigate further.
- Find the notice first:
- The tracks took the witcher straight to a fiend's lair. Geralt quickly determined, however, that this monster was not the true threat to the local populace - not compared to what had killed it. That's right, something had beaten him to his initial task and slain the fiend, and he suspected this something was a chort attacking in an act of territorial warfare. Geralt had no other choice but to lure this powerful monster to him and attempt to slay it.
Objectives[]
- Find the notice first:
- Talk to the hunter.
- Search the forest using your Witcher Senses.
- Follow the tracks using your Witcher Senses.
- Find out where the scent is coming from using your Witcher Senses.
- Find a way into the cave.
- Explore the cave using your Witcher Senses. (25)
- If didn't examine fiend dung previously:
- Acquire fiend dung to use as bait.
- Prepare some bait based on the alchemy formula.
- Pour the bait around the hill. 4/4
- Wait in the cave for the chort to catch the scent.
- Kill the chort.
- Take a trophy from the chort.
- Found the tracks/cave first:
- Check the notice board in Lindenvale.
- Collect your reward for killing the chort. (400)
Bugs[]
- A bug may occur when tasked with finding fiend dung; their locations not appearing on the map. Reloading your save is known to fix this.