“An army marches on its stomach”, as the saying goes, and when an army stops to forage, it’s the local peasants who go hungry. Whether orphaned through violence or cast out due to famine, a group of orphans now starves in Velen, beset by both hunger and beasts. The strong arm and deep pockets of a benevolent Witcher can go a long way, however. With that said, we’ll provide a complete walkthrough for the secondary quest Man’s Best Friend, including the rewards you’ll get for providing assistance to the orphans.

Quest Objectives¶

Starting Man’s Best Friend¶

You can start this quest by stumbling across it. Northwest of Mulbrydale you’ll find a damaged, abandoned house north of a road. You’ll know when you find it because a yellow quest exclamation point will appear when you get close, and while this freeform quest has a quest marker, it never appears in your quest log and isn’t officially named in-game.

Rescue the Hungry Children¶

Approach the house and you’ll find a Wild Dog (Lv4) stalking around the door, and if you use your Witcher senses you’ll detect something else lurking in the house. First things first, dispatch the Wild Dog - it’s alone and no stronger than your garden variety Wolf, and hence it shouldn’t pose much trouble - then investigate the dead dog outside the house (not the one you just killed) to find out that someone, or something, has been cooking and eating it.

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(1 of 2) Defeat the Wild Dog outside the house,

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Defeat the Wild Dog outside the house, (left), then talk to the orphans. Give them some food or money and you’ll get a reward. (right)

Go up to the door - you should hear voices chattering inside - and an orphan will come out. Geralt will ask the tyke when she last ate, and finding her response unsatisfactory you’ll get three options. Pick the option “Lemme give you some food.” and you’ll provide some unmentioned sustenance to the children, who will then reward you with a Doll and the tome In Beast’s Clothing. Read this book and you’ll get bestiary entries for Werewolves and Ulfhedinn as well as the recipe for the Werewolf Decoction. Not bad for helping out some hungry kids.

If you pick the option “(25) Here’s some coin.“ you’ll fork over the aforementioned amount of money and will get the same rewards as listed above, plus a bit of extra EXP for forfeiting some cash. Finally, if you respond with “Farewell.” you’ll leave without giving anything, and will get nothing in return - talking to the orphans later won’t allow you to reconsider, so don’t miss out on this easy reward. Speaking of which, be sure to loot inside and around the house for minor treasures.