Novigrad, Closed City is a secondary quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
When passing near one of Novigrad's gates, a guard will stop Geralt and ask him for a pass, explaining that it is to prevent any mages from coming in and out of Novigrad. As the witcher says he doesn't have a pass, another guard will intervene, delivering a pass for Geralt and sending the other guard away. Before departing himself, he whispers regards from Sigi Reuven.
That is one of multiple events part of the witch hunters' crackdown on mages in the city after the events during A Matter of Life and Death. Other such events include Moritz Diefenthel on a stake at Glory Gate and this two-part quest.
Prerequisite: This quest becomes available only after A Matter of Life and Death is completed.
Walkthrough[]
This is a two-part quest, with multiple phases that can be triggered and completed independently in any order, but are all connected and share a journal entry. In recent versions of the game, the two main parts will show as separate quests: "Novigrad, Closed City" and "Novigrad, Closed City II", or parts I and II respectively.
Part I (Lussi, Wallter and Fritz)[]
While walking around Novigrad, Geralt can encounter either of the three people involved.
Lussi[]
In the upper middle of St. Gregory's Bridge towards Temple Isle, a woman named Lussi calls over and asks for help, explaining that her home is haunted. Geralt follows her to her home, which turns out to be a ransacked house with two witch hunters waiting in ambush whom the witcher has to fight. After they are dealt with, Geralt confronts the woman for leading him into a trap, and to make it up to him she gives a key to a treasure.
At this point, the quest won't have more objectives unless Geralt already knows what to do with the key. To learn that, loot the witch hunters' corpses and read the warrant found on them, which will mark on the map where to find Lussi's partners for two more keys.
Wallter[]
Wallter is found screaming for help, banging on a door in the alley behind (north of) Crippled Kate's, and two witch hunters are closing in behind him. Geralt can either intervene and kill the witch hunters before they get to Wallter, or leave them to kill him. If he is saved, Wallter will give Geralt his key himself, while otherwise it can be looted off his remains.
Similarly to the part with Lussi however, the witch hunters must be killed for the warrant to provide info on what the key is used for, unless that's already known from earlier. If this is the first encounter, the quest won't even start before the warrant is read.
Fritz[]
While Fritz's house will be marked on the map, the marker is either bugged or otherwise not showing the exact house on purpose - it's the second one east of Triss' hideout. Inside Geralt will find a corpse, presumably Fritz killed by witch hunters. If you go the second floor, light the torch beside the stairs and it will open a secret compartment. Inside the compartment is a letter, Fritz's key and the locked safe that requires all 3 keys to open. If this is the first location that Geralt has been to, the letter will tell everything that needs to be done.
The quest, or this first part of it, completes when Geralt has all 3 keys and unlocks the safe with a nice treasure for his trouble.
Part II (Bandits)[]
Northwest of The Golden Sturgeon, between the Silverton fish market and a house with a large flower garden, Geralt will be called over by some bandits. They ask for help in finding their "companion" who was last seen coming out the sewers and heading towards the harbor. If agreed to help them, Geralt has to follow boot prints, the scent of sewer slime, and blood, while the three bandits follow him.
Note: Once the quest is accepted, it must completed it immediately or it will fail if you leave the marked zone at any point. The trail begins near the edge of the marked area on the mini-map and you must not stray away from it.
The trail eventually leads to a witch hunter near a gate southwest of the St. Gregory's Bridge signpost, whom the bandits were actually trying to find for burning their fisstech. You then have to choose between leaving the witch hunter to his demise or help him and kill the bandits.
If you leave the witch hunter in the hands of the bandits, 100 orens will be awarded (without notification), the bandits are seen going towards him and that's the last you see of all of them, completing the quest. If you kill the bandits, the witch hunter will then ask if you'd be willing to get him medical attention and, if you agree, you will be transported to Vilmerius Hospital where he will stay. If you refuse, Geralt will leave him for dead, while sarcastically remarking that the hunter would die as a martyr for the Eternal Fire. Either way, the quest ends here and there are no rewards in this case, except the minor loot dropped by the bandits.
Journal entry[]
- After Geralt and Triss raided their outpost and killed Menge, the witch hunters decided to exact revenge on mages and freaks of all kinds. The city swarmed with armed units searching for anyone with slightly pointy ears or a whiff of the occult about them.
Objectives[]
Part I (Lussi, Wallter, Fritz):
- Enter the woman's home and get rid of the danger.
- Defeat the guards.
- Find the other partners mentioned in the note and look for keys. 3/3
- Use the three keys to open the safe.
Part II (Bandits):
- Track the smell of blood and sewer muck using your Witcher Senses.
- Follow the missing man's trail using your Witcher Senses.
- Kill the bandits.
Trivia[]
- The name of the quest is a reference to Roberto Rosselini's 1945 movie "Rome, Open City".
Bugs[]
- Prior to an unknown update, the objectives for the two parts would sometimes flip between the names, so one could sometimes have the bandits as "Novigrad, Closed City", and another could have them under "Novigrad, Closed City II", likely due to being able to trigger each part without needing the first to be completed.
- The videos listed below have parts 1 and 2 in the incorrect order exactly because they've been recorded before the patch that made the in-game distinction numbering the bandits as part II.
Notes[]
- The reward in the safe for Part I will always include Formula: Nigredo, glowing ore, 2 steel ingots and some other random loot, usually including a runestone.
- If A Matter of Life and Death has been completed before Contract: Deadly Delights, you will 100% encounter Wallter while investigating the contract.
- In earlier versions of the game, if the bandits are left to kill the witch hunter, they can afterwards be seen looting his corpse. In later versions, his corpse can only be seen if he is refused medical help after the bandits are killed.
Videos[]
