Contract: Bovine Blues

Contract: Bovine Blues is a contract quest in the Blood and Wine expansion.

Contract: Mysterious Plummeting Cattle.

Urgently needed: specialist used to the strange and extraordinary. Must be fast and reliable. Sorcerer, druid or witcher preferred. Problem involves cattle (sic) falling out of sky at night and must be cleared up fast – work must resume at quarry soon as we're up against tight deadlines. For details, see foreman of Ardaiso quarry.

Walkthrough[]

This quest can be acquired by reading a notice on Flovive's notice board or Ardaiso Quarry's notice board, although you'd practically have started it at the latter. You can also acquire it by interacting with one of the areas where this quest takes place.

When you reach the quarry go talk to Foreman Pafnuzio, who is trying to convince his remaining workers to restart their work but to no avail. After asking about everything and possibly haggling, go check the cow carcass which has attracted some ghouls and an alghoul. When done with them, examine the carcass thoroughly for Geralt to deduce the culprit is a draconid, most likely a wyvern, and decide he should check the broken crane next. After examining the crane, Geralt will find a trail of blood so follow it to find the target. (50)

Eventually you will find some stills infested with rotfiends you'll need to get rid of. Examining the half-eaten corpse next to some barrels will lead Geralt to conclude the beast is a slyzard, a fire-breathing draconid. You may also find bootlegger's notes on the table there. Now check the huge blood stain right next to the stills and follow the footprints. They will lead you to another big blood stain, examine it and Geralt will remark that there is a second draconid which joined the injured one, however as it was still bleeding the trail should lead him to the nest.

The trail continues east, where you may find another bovine carcass near a tree, but regardless it will lead to the base of a hill, and Geralt will deduce the nest must be at the top. However, if the player has already killed the two Slyzards and destroyed their nest – during the first part of Scavenger Hunt: Grandmaster Griffin Gear, for example – Geralt will instead comment on how he already took care of them, but that he should check the top of the hill just to be sure.

Prepare your Draconid oil and climb (easier from the west) to meet the Slyzards. (150) This boss battle is unique in two ways. First of all you will be fighting two bosses at the same time, and second they share a health bar which is also not full from the start, due to the smaller Slyzard's injury. Kill them both and take the trophy and Dahlia from the Slyzard Matriarch. You will also have the option to destroy the nest, which you may do during the fight unintentionally by using signs or bombs. (100)

Note: Unlike most regular monster nests, Geralt will not attempt to place a bomb, but rather cast Igni to destroy it. Also unlike other nests, destroying it gives quest .

There is also an Igni Place of Power beneath the nest, the entrance to reach it is west from there, but is best approached from the south. Regardless, return to the foreman with the trophy to get your reward. (200) The workers will still not wish to return to their job due to some other quarry workers missing for 3 days. The foreman will convince them by saying they are expecting a whole week delay there, however he will tell Geralt that he lied and will ask him to speak to him about the matter when he can. This will conclude the quest and start Big Feet to Fill.

Scrambled Eggs[]

If you do not destroy the nest and if you haven't already cleared the nearby Filibert Fourfinger's hanse, a bandit camp will appear at Fort Ussar Ruins, where you fought the Slyzards. There will be 2 bandits there named Mathieu Le Mièche and Mikael Le Mièche, once you dispose of them you can loot their chest to find the recipe for scrambled slyzard eggs.

Journal entry[]

If Geralt inspects cow carcass before taking notice or talking to the foreman.

As a well-known rhetorician once put it, one touched by bad luck is liable to break his finger while attempting to clean a nostril. The Witcher, in passing through the ardaiso quarry, happened on a worker who had been crushed by a cow when it fell on him! Intrigued by the circumstances by which this had come to pass, he resolved to ask around about the details of the incident.

A witcher's life is never dull. If there ever comes a point when he's had his fill of cockatrices, strigas or nekkers, he can always count on the world throwing something unusual in his Path. As was the case on this occasion, when a bovine crashed to the ground from the sky, landing right on top of a quarry worker! At last, here was a contract that would surely tear the witcher free of the fetters of the quotidian that so often held him!

Upon inspecting the cow's carcass and the worker's corpse, Geralt established that no plague had caused the incident (as the quarry workers had vehemently claimed), nor was it the result of a distorted portal (as Geralt himself had suspected). Instead, the witcher discovered the cause to be relatively banal. A draconid had been carrying the cow back to its nest. Yet the beast had either lost its grip of overestimated its strength, and the cow had landed in the quarry – and in doing so had crushed one of the workers.

The witcher, an expert in all matters monstrous, was quick to divine that the draconid he sought was a slyzard. All signs seemed to suggest it was a relatively young specimen, that had not only lost its quarry but also been heavily wounded as it accidentally destroyed one of the cranes standing in the quarry. The wound meant the witcher could track the beast easily. He found it quickly, following the trail of its blood. Along the way it turned out the young slyzard's mother had come to help it. Unmoved by this evidence of affection between the beasts, admittedly rare among reptiles in general, Geralt reached the monsters' nest and slew them all.

Having slain the two slyzards, Geralt also incinerated the nest full of slyzard eggs. For as the locals proclaim, "Lebioda helps those who help themselves."

With his hunt done, the witcher informed the quarry workers that he had removed the threat – said threat having been no more than a juvenile slyzard. The foreman breathed a sigh of relief, for his crew could get back to its job – erecting a gigantic statue of the Prophet Lebioda.

Objectives[]

Find the quarry foreman.
Examine the cow carcass and the workman's body.
Use your Witcher Senses to investigate how the crane was damaged. (50)
Using your Witcher Senses, follow the wounded draconid's trail.
Use your Witcher Senses to look for clues by the abandoned still.
Use your Witcher Senses to follow the draconid's trail.
Climb to the top of the hill to reach the slyzards. (150)
Defeat both slyzards.
Collect the trophy from the mother slyzard.
[Optional] Destroy the nest and the slyzard eggs. (100)
Collect a trophy from the mother slyzard.
Collect a reward for solving the cow mystery. (200 / 300)

Trivia[]

The workers' fears is a reference to the Plagues of Egypt.
Emil's death may be a reference to Aeschylus' Death.

Videos[]

The Witcher 3 PS4 Blood and Wine - Contract - Bovine Blues - Full Quest @ Death March