Without a Trace is a secondary quest in the Hearts of Stone expansion.
Walkthrough[]
To start this, you must pick up the contract off of Brunwich's notice board, then make your way to Otto Bamber, the herbalist at the Herbalist's Hut just outside Oxenfurt. Talk with him and he'll tell you his apprentice, Folkert, has gone missing near Deadwight Wood and hasn't come back. There's no way to haggle here, so just accept the quest to continue.
With that, head out to the marker and use your Witcher Senses to inspect the wagon just off the road, then the blood trail nearby, going north. The foliage here may make it hard to track the blood trail, but you should be able to make out it's going north until it stops just outside Erde village.
The village, however, is rather empty: you can inspect the hut to the right of the gate for months' old blood stains, but other than that there's nothing else to do but talk to the elderly couple. You can mention the blood stains, but they'll wave it off as that's where they prepare their meat, as it's abandoned and it's much nicer than being outdoors. Regardless, when asked about Folkert they'll say he was attacked by wolves but they told him to go back home as they didn't want trouble and he must have been killed in the woods by the pack as he was intent on picking herbs.
You can now either return to the herbalist with your news (for 200 
and 50 
) or head towards the eastern gate (right next to the couple's hut) for Geralt to pick up the smell of rotting meat. If you want to investigate this, follow the smell with your Witcher Senses to a hidden cellar door, blast away the debris, and enter to find a chopped up body. Examining it will determine that it's Folkert, but his cause of death is impossible to determine.
Return to the couple to confront them about this and they'll say that he'd been killed by the wolves and they merely collected his body (and others) to eat, as they're too weak to farm but must find food somehow. However, there's no way to determine what's the truth or not in this situation so you have two choices now:
- let them live (making them swear they won't eat people again)
- kill them
If killed, you can loot strange meat off the wife and the hut's key off the husband to enter their hut for minor loot (the interior door doesn't unlock). If you let them live, you can still get those later depending on another choice.
Whatever you chose, return to Otto to inform him what happened. If you didn't find Folkert's body, you'll receive 50 and 200 . However, if you did fully investigate you'll have the option to lie to him and unless you already killed the cannibals, this will decide their fate. The quest will end here and you'll receive 100 and 200 , but if you tell him the truth, he'll swear revenge on the peasants.
While the quest is over, upon returning to Erde later, a few different things can happen depending on your choices:
- If you didn't find Folkert's body, everything will be the same
- If you killed the couple, you'll see alghouls and Geralt will remark on this being a fitting situation
- If you spared the couple and lied to Otto, you'll see the husband grieving for his wife who died of hunger
- If you spared the couple and told the truth, you'll find the cannibals dead with alghouls around them and Geralt will comment that Otto wasn't making idle threats. In this case, you can loot the corpses for the key to the hut and the strange meat.
Journal entry[]
- "Witcher" has become a synonym for "monster slayer" in many minds. While accurate as far as it goes, this does not encompass the whole truth, for witchers take on a broad variety of other tasks besides the slaying of monsters. For example, they sometimes use their superhuman senses to find missing persons. Such a lost individual was the subject of the notice hung by a certain Otto Bamber, an herbalist residing near Oxenfurt.
- Otto told Geralt his apprentice, Folkert, had not returned from an herb-gathering excursion to the Deadwight Wood. Though this was not at all on Geralt's way, he decided to help the desperate herbalist. Something tells me this was not merely on account of the reward on offer – though those knowing only Geralt's surface from ballads and rumors might find this hard to believe, deep down, he was really a softy.
- If Geralt does not investigate further:
- Geralt did not in fact find Folkert, but witness testimony allowed him to establish the halfling's fate. The young halfling had so badly wanted to bring his master the herbs that he had ventured deep into the woods, braving the wolves that hunted there. Though no body ever was found, it is not hard to guess what had become of the poor lad.
- If Geralt chooses to kill the old couple:
- Geralt found Folkert -- carefully gutted and salted and hanging in a larder belonging to an elderly couple living near the woods. The couple swore they hadn't killed the young halfling, but the witcher did not see that this absolved them of their crime and reached for his sword.
- If Geralt chooses to let the old couple live:
- Geralt found Folkert -- carefully gutted and salted and hanging in a larder belonging to an elderly couple living near the woods. The couple swore they hadn't killed the young halfling and had been forced into cannibalism by famine. Though Geralt condemned their actions, he decided punishing cannibals was not his duty and walked away.
Objectives[]
- Talk to the herbalist.
- Look for Folkert's tracks in the Deadwight Wood using your Witcher Senses.
- Follow the blood track.
- Ask the inhabitants of the village about Folkert.
- If you caught the scent of rotting meat:
- Follow the scent to its source using your Witcher Senses.
- Search the room.
- Interrogate the peasant couple.
- If you decide to kill the couple:
- Kill the peasants.
- Report back to the herbalist.