One of the other higher level contracts Geralt may get his hands on is the Lord of the Wood contract, which takes him to the great woods around Novigrad. The result is that Geralt will need to once again solve another mystery. To get this done, here is a walkthrough for the Witcher 3 Lord of the Woods quest.

Contract - Lord of the Wood (Level 25) Walkthrough¶

One contract down, one to go. Fast-travel to the “Cunny of the Goose” signpost and head inside the inn to find the halfling Brean Hotsch waiting near the innkeeper. Talk to him and he’ll tell you his problems - apparently the dwarven lumberjacks he hired claim the forest they were meant to cut is haunted, and it’s rather hard to harvest wood when all your lumberjacks are dying. Haggle for more coin if you find earning the bare minimum unacceptable, then head to the western side of the tavern to find the sole surviving Lumberjack. Talk to him and watch as his opinion on Brean changes rapidly, after which he’ll tell you what he can of the attack. Despite what he’s been through, his tale is lucid, not full of exaggerations, but still ultimately of limited use.

Fast-travel to the “Logging Hut” signpost, which is along the shore south of Novigrad’s crescent-shaped docks, south-west of the “Novigrad Docks” signpost. When you arrive, examine some obvious cart tracks, then follow them north to a road, then south-west along the road. Eventually the road will split, at which point follow the southern-most of the two paths to the south-west to find the lumberjack’s cart… and what’s left of the lumberjacks.

South of the cart you’ll find the imprints of two… bodies? Yikes. Something big indeed. East of the wagon is a blood trail you can follow south and slightly east to find the body of the dwarf that shed the blood. Also west of the cart, near the start of the blood trail are some rocks that have been vandalized by something large with sharp, powerful claws. South of the cart is a more conventional trail of prints you can follow along the road and eventually to a campsite, where the body of another dwarf awaits your investigation. After searching all these things Geralt will identify the creature that killed the lumberjacks and formulate a plan to lure the beast out.

Another Leshen? Anybody else somewhat disappointed? Oh well, at least you know you can kill a beast like this with some ease. First, you need to hunt down the noisy crows that accompany Leshens to find it’s totem, of which there are four candidate groups. Save yourself some time and just head to the south-eastern-most one to find the Leshen’s Totem. Blast the totem with Aard and the Leshen - Kernun - will take exception at your vandalism.

You know how a Leshen fights by now; it’s got rather unimpressive melee attacks, can shoot a torrent of roots at you, summon Wolves and harass you with its flock of crows. As usual, the Wolves are supernatural like the Leshen, being somewhat weak for their level and susceptible to silver. The only unique thing about this beast is that its crows are unnaturally aggressive, and will often make a nuisance of themselves, even if they don’t do much damage. Relict Oil will increase the damage of your sword strikes, but Igni will do horrendous damage to the Kernun if you can set it aflame.

Defeat the Leshen and loot its remains for a “Leshen Mutagen” , the steel sword “Black Unicorn” and a “Leshen Trophy” . Once you possess all these prizes, return to Brean Hotsch for your reward.

Feline Steel Sword - Superior Location¶

You’re done with all the low-level contracts in Novigrad, but there’s still a bit more to be done. First; there are some Witcher set diagrams to pick up, and once done, it’ll be time to help out the master sword-smith dwelling in Novigrad. No point in picking up all these diagrams if you have nobody to craft the designs they promote, right?

Fast-travel to either the “Sarrasin Grange” signpost or to the “Yantra” signpost if you don’t have the former. From there your goal is the coast north-east of Novigrad’s temple isle, due west of Yantra. Aside from a Cockatrice (level twenty) flying around, your journey to the coast should be fairly uneventful. When you reach the shore you’ll discover the “Cavern” signpost and have to put down some Drowners (level nine), which seem to plague nearly every stretch of coastline.

From the signpost head north to find the cavern it marks and bravely swim inside. Along the far northern end of the cave you’ll find a boat, lights, a wooden platform, a good bit of treasure… and the Golem (level nineteen) guarding it. While this might seem like something you could have tackled before leaving for Skellige, this Golem is an absolute bruiser, despite its level. The darkness and the limited battle field both make the beast harder to deal with, as lower maneuverability makes dodging its jumping slam attack and its charging, multi-hit combo more difficult. Even at a higher level, with superior arms it’ll take a long time to whittle its health bar down. Once it’s dead, however, loot the treasure it was guarding to find the “Diagram: Feline Steel Sword - Superior” in a chest. Not too often you actually have to earn your diagrams, but in this case… you earned it.

If you feel you haven’t been adequately compensated for the effort of killing that Golem, then good news! There’s more loot to be had. Search the northeastern corner of the cavern where you fought the Golem and you’ll find a section of wall that can be dispelled with The Eye of Nehaleni. Just note the minimap to spot this illusory wall and look up to get the prompt to dispel it. Once the illusory wall is gone, continue north and northeast to reach another chamber where you’ll find all sorts of goodies to loot, including some skeletons, on one of which are some “Alchemist’s Notes”. Finally, search the wall along the western end of the cavern to spot the Aard sign scratched on the wall. Well, who doesn’t obey the commands of anonymous wall scribblings? Blast the nearby wall with Aard to find another small chamber with more loot in it. Not a bad haul, even if you had to fight an annoying Golem.

Guarded Treasure (Level 23)¶

Leave the cavern and pick your way uphill to the north-east, then turn north to find a Guarded Treasure event pretty much on the ground above where you fought the Golem earlier. This time, however, you need merely dispatch an Armored Arachas (level twenty-three) and her host of Endrega Warriors (level eleven), after which you can loot a corpse and a crate to finish this event up.