Hard Times is a secondary quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Walkthrough
This quest can be started on the road south of the Miners' Camp and north-northwest of the village of Blandare on Ard Skellig. Geralt comes across a ruined cart on the road guarded by a cyclops. After dealing with it, he investigates the trail of blood leading away from the scene using his witcher senses.
Eventually he comes across a woman's corpse and finds on it a letter addressed to one Yanne. Geralt finds out that Yanne is in fact the blacksmith based in Kaer Trolde, and the now-deceased woman was his sister Singa on her way there. Geralt thus decides to deliver the letter to its intended recipient.
Once the witcher arrives at Kaer Trolde keep, it is advised to do all the dialog options first before asking him about the letter because he will refuse to talk to Geralt after the quest. When Geralt finally inquires about the letter, the blacksmith will ask Geralt how he found the letter. If Geralt tells the blacksmith that he'd rather not know, the blacksmith will assume Geralt killed his sister and refuse him his service. The quest will end with Geralt receiving 25 
. If Geralt explains how he found the letter, the blacksmith will be saddened at his sister's death and still refuse his service after but he will tell Geralt about having to send someone to fetch her body and thanks Geralt for bringing the letter to him and awards him with 20
. The quest will then end with 25 .
Objectives
- Investigate the broken cart using your Witcher Senses.
- Use your Witcher Senses to follow the tracks leading away from the broken cart.
- Read the letter you found on the dead woman's body.
- Deliver the letter to the smith at Kaer Trolde.
Journal entry
- Perhaps there was a time, under the pax of a just ruler or before the Conjunction brought so many hideous beasts to our world, when traveling was a perfectly safe endeavor. If so, that time is now long past. The Skelligers whose demolished wagon Geralt stumbled across in the middle of the Ard Skellig forest learned this the hard way. The poor souls had stood no chance against the cyclops who butchered them.
- Geralt searches nearly every corpse he comes across, and while I personally find this habit a bit morbid, I must admit he digs up some very interesting things in the pockets of the dead. This time, for example, he found a letter that he promptly delivered to its addressee - the smith at Kaer Trolde. It was from the smith's departed sister. Though it cast the man into deep mourning, he appreciated Geralt's deed.
Bug
- There's a bug where Geralt can't talk or give the letter to the blacksmith. Meditating or saving and reloading will allow Geralt to speak with him in this case.
Notes
- After about a week, the blacksmith will interact normally again.