After fighting through some ancient elven ruins, triumphing over the Wild Hunt, gaining info about Ciri and optionally obtaining the Magic Lamp that Keira Metz sought, it should be no surprise that Keira wishes to continue her fruitful partnership with Geralt. Attempting to leverage Geralt’s supernatural fortitude to compensate for her own sensitivities, Keira will ask Geralt to investigate Fyke Isle on her behalf. This quest will provide a walkthrough for the quest A Towerful of Mice in The Witcher 3, including what happens if you bring Anabelle to Graham or refuse.

Quest Objectives¶

Starting A Towerful of Mice¶

Complete the quest Wandering in the Dark and after you escape the elven ruins the quest An Invitation from Keira Metz will begin. If you choose to do the optional quest Magic Lamp before leaving the elven ruins, then An Invitation from Keira Metz will pop up after that. You do not need to complete Magic Lamp to start An Invitation from Keira Metz. In any event, head over to Keira’s hut northeast of Midcopse and talk to her; she’ll give you the Magic Lamp, a Xenovox, and this quest will begin.

Sail to Fyke Isle¶

Your first task is to reach Fyke Isle, and as the name suggests… well, it’s an island. You need a boat. Fortunately Keira has come prepared, and you’ll find a ship you can commandeer southeast of Keira’s hut. Avoid or kill any Drowners that may be nearby, then hop on the ship and pilot it south, then southeast down the river and out into open water. Fyke Isle is the large island south of Oreton, and while the game directs you to land on the western coast, it doesn’t really matter where you land. For the record, your objective - the tower of the cowardly lord who fled here to escape the Nilfgaardians - is on the eastern end of the island.

Use the Magic Lamp to Find Ghosts¶

If you land where the game’s objective marker directs you’ll get a taste for what the island has in store for you, as several Rotfiends (Lv6) should be milling about along the western edge of the island. Fyke Isle is crawling with necrophages, and as you fight your way east you’ll encounter pretty much every common necrophage in the game, including Rotfiends, Drowners and, of course, Ghouls. Follow a trail and you’ll find some ruins where you can find some loot, then further southeast to locate some buildings south of the tower, where more loot can be plundered.

Kill and loot your way southeast to the eastern end of Fyke Isle to reach a search area, where one of the quest’s two current objectives will take place. You need to use the Magic Lamp to find out what happened here from the spirits who witnessed, suffered through, and in some cases, perpetrated the events on Fyke Isle. In this case it means wandering around the large search area that encompasses the entire eastern end of the island, swatting away the odd pack of necrophages as you search for supernatural green clouds indicating there’s something worth illuminating with the Magic Lamp. These are pretty obvious, as Geralt will comment on them and they’ll be marked on your map when you get close, but their locations can be found as follows:

• A short distance southeast of the Fyke Island signpost.
• Along the southern edge of the search area, southeast of some ruined huts.
• Northeast of the tower, inside the palisade.

You’ll gain a good bit of EXP every time you view one of these scenes via the Magic Lamp. Just be wary, as a Water Hag (Lv6) lurks in front of the tower. You don’t need to witness these ghostly scenes, but it does challenge the narrative the villagers relayed to Keira, and the EXP boost is collectively quite nice. It’s also worth noting you can find a few things worth examining, like a fresh corpse southwest of the Fyke Isle signpost and another corpse in the muck just outside of the tower. You should also be wary of oddly aggressive swarms of insects that haunt the island near the tower - they’ll deal damage if you let them pester you long enough, but they can be dispelled with Igni.

Once you’re done exposing the crimes of the deceased, ascend the stairs along the northern end of the tower… after, perhaps, exploring the houses south of the tower and the grounds inside the palisade for loot. There’s the odd chest you can loot lying around in the open, and whatever the mystery of Fyke Isle turns out to be, it’s clear nobody on this island needs these resources anymore.

Explore the Tower¶

Enter the tower and you’ll notice that it’s infested with rats, both living and dead. Examine the rats on the floor just after you enter and the broken weapons on the ground nearby, then approach the totally normal fireplace, stuffed with junk but not enough to squelch the totally normal green fire burning merrily away. Loot a chest in the fireplace, then turn left to find another ghost scene you can witness thanks to the Magic Lamp, earning more EXP in the process. Once done, examine a bloodstain on the ground past the ghost vision to prompt Geralt to state the obvious, then note some stairs leading up to the next floor. You should also hear some banging coming from a door to the east (not the locked one to the west).

Ignore the stairs for now… the ones up, anyways, and go through a door north of the blood. As you descend the stairs you’ll witness a mainstay of paranormal activity; the old swinging chandelier trick ghosts seems to adore so much. The rats don’t seem to mind, however, so neither should you. There are some sacks and a chest you can loot to the north and west, respectively, and another chest stacked atop some cages to the southeast. To the southeast you’ll find another ghost memory, which explains where the rats came from…

Head back upstairs, and continue up another flight of stairs which were ignored in favor of searching the basement. All you can do on the second floor is witness another ghost scene opposite the door. Watch it, enjoy the steady influx of EXP then head up another flight of stairs to reach the third floor. Another favorite mainstay of poltergeists will occur here - self-lighting candles. Spooky. Head out onto a balcony opposite the stairs to score a chest, then return inside and loot some sacks near the next flight of stairs leading up. Go through a doorway to the north and loot another chest, then go through an adjacent doorway and use your Magic Lamp to witness another ghost scene. This one rewards you twice the normal EXP and lets you know without any doubt that danger lingered on Fyke Isle long after whatever killed the local lord here.

Climb another flight of stairs, loot a chest, walk around some beds (be wary of the hole in the floor!), then go up more stairs. Keira will bug you when you reach the top, telling you to look for a laboratory. Search near a wall to examine some damage to the floor, then pull a lever on the northwestern wall to open a door near the scratches on the floor.

Search the Laboratory¶

Go through the newly-opened doorway and up some stairs until you reach the laboratory, upon which you’ll get another generous influx of EXP. Once here, loot a chest along the northwestern wall, examine some seedy testing tubes along the southwestern wall, then score a smaller chest in the southeastern corner of the room, near another ghost image. Ignore the ghost image for a moment so you can grab The Mage Alexander’s Log, Part 1 off a desk to the north, and The Mage Alexander’s Log, Part 2 off a bookshelf along the northwestern wall.

More loot can be found upstairs. Don’t worry about that crying ghost - she isn’t going anywhere. Head up some stairs along the southeastern corner of the lab to reach the top of the tower. Go through a doorway to the southeast to find some cages with their former occupants still inside. Geralt sums up the situation tersely. Next head northwest through a broken wall to reach a wooden walkway, on which a generous chest lurks. Save the contents from this precarious perch, then head back down to the lab.

Before you interact with the sobbing ghost, we suggest you save your game. There are two endings to this quest, and one of them has unforeseen negative outcomes you might not want. Or maybe you want to see how both options play out? Either way, if you want some flexibility without having to risk replaying a significant portion of this quest, make a save now.

Talk to the Ghost in the Laboratory¶

When you’re all saved up, pick up a Potion Vial from the ground near the sobbing ghost scene in the laboratory, then use the Magic Lamp on said ghost. This will reveal who this ghost is, exactly, and let you talk to her. She’ll complain about her lonely fate and will set the record straight on what happened on Fyke Isle before going into detail about her own grisly demise. Odd as it sounds, your dialog options don’t really matter much here - deplete her dialog options as you get the chance and pick whatever you want until the ghost asks you to take her bones to Graham. This is where you’ll make your decision.

Bring Anabelle’s Bones to Graham¶

Respond with “Fine.” and you’ll collect Anabelle’s remains. You now have to give them to Graham, who is living in a shack west of Oreton. If you got the Oreton signpost earlier, this can be a quick trip, indeed, just use the Fyke Isle signpost to fast travel to Oreton, then head west to Graham’s hut. Talk to the man banging on the door to find out that Graham has been rather antisocial lately, then knock on the door and pick whatever dialog option you want to talk to Graham. Exhaust Graham’s dialog options and you’ll convince him to do right by Anabelle, after which you’re tasked with reporting your success to Keira Metz.

Leave Graham’s house and you’ll hear a scream. Return and you’ll see Anabelle - now in her true form as a Pesta, a plague maiden - floating over a dead Graham. Missing the inconsistencies of Anabelle’s claims was a dire mistake, and now freed from Fyke Isle the Pesta was free to spread plague and misery in the world. You’ll earn around 300 EXP for this monumental error - you did lift the curse, after all - and will be free to report the news to Keira Metz.

Accuse the Anabelle’s Ghost¶

After talking to Anabelle’s ghost you might have noticed some discrepancies in her story, like when she lied about not being able to leave the tower, or got worked up when you mentioned the vision of a man recently killed in the tower. Or maybe you’ve just got a naturally healthy baseline level of suspicion against any unusually sentient poltergeist in an obviously haunted tower trapped on a cursed island crawling with pestilential swarms of insects, rats and necrophages? Whatever the case, tell her “Not sure I trust you.” then follow up with either response and she’ll prove your suspicions correct.

Anabelle will turn into a Pesta and attack, and while it might be a problem in such a confined space, she’s not keen on fighting here long. Drop a Yrden sign on the ground to force her to become corporeal otherwise you’ll deal negligible damage, then thrash the geist a few times to get it to flee. Follow it down and out of the tower and once out in front of the tower the plague maiden will settle in for a more protracted altercation.

Defeat the Pesta¶

The Pesta fights similarly to a Noonwraith or Nightwraith, save she summons swarms of insects to attack you. These take the form of three slow-moving clouds of pestilence that will track you, dealing minor damage if you remain in contact with them. They can be dispersed with Igni, but you can just dodge around or through them just as easily, and they shouldn’t be a significant source of damage. Plus, wasting your stamina on Igni will prevent you from casting Yrden, which you need to hurt the Pesta. Cast Yrden near the Pesta to force her to become corporeal so you can damage her, and limit contact with the swarms she summons. Whittle down her health bar and she’ll vanish with a taunt - it’ll take more than a Witcher’s silver sword to lift this curse. Keira will call and Geralt will decide he needs to bring Anabelle’s lover, Graham, to the island.

Bring Graham to Fyke Island¶

Travel to Oreton, either by boat or, if you’ve already visited Oreton, by using fast travel signposts. Graham’s hut is along the western edge of the village, and when you go there you’ll find another peasant banging on Graham’s door. Talk to this peasant and he’ll tell you that Graham’s become a shut-in since the events at Fyke Isle. Try your luck and knock on the door, and Graham will prove more receptive to the request of a professional monster slayer. Deplete his dialog options and you’ll convince him to travel to Fyke Isle with you. Pick “Let’s go now.” to fast travel just outside of the tower, or “Meet you there.” to go back on your own time.

Either way, reunite with Graham on Fyke Isle, then head into the tower, where you’ll find that Anabelle isn’t the only ghost with a grudge on this island. The spirits of two peasants will become riled at Graham’s presence and attack, vanquish the Ghosts (Lv6) - which fight and function exactly like Wraiths, just by another name - then head back to the lab. When you arrive, watch a scene, after which the curse on Fyke Isle will be lifted and Graham and Anabell will be reunited forever. This earns you 500 EXP, making it considerably more lucrative than the other route.

Return to Keira Metz¶

Whether you unleashed a plague maiden on the world or managed to reunite Anabell and Graham on Fyke Isle, you’ll now need to return to Keira at her hut northeast of Midcopse. This will complete the quest with no additional reward, but Keira will ask for one more favor, starting - if you accept - the quest A Favor for a Friend.