Ramsmeat Resolution¶

If you wasted your time going to the Hairy Bear looking for Zoltan, good news-it wasn’t a waste of time. It’s our next destination. It’s time to settle up with Ramsmeat, see. On your way there, talk to whatever Thugs are wandering around. If none are around, you might have to rest up-the Brothel makes a good enough place to sleep until noon, or use the Igni sign on the fireplace outside of the Hairy Bear. Either way, talk to enough Thugs and one will rather rudely remark that he hopes you end up like Berengar. Good to know.

Rest until noon and head over to the Hairy Bear-after hearing what the Thugs have to say-and talk to Ramsmeat. Ask him about Salamandra, and pick options #2 (to ask him more about Salamandra, after he threatens you) and #2 again (pointing out that his henchmen get shifty. He’ll tell you that he-and his henchers-don’t like Salamandra. Geralt will follow up by asking him about Berengar. Avoid provoking him and he’ll spill the beans-Berengar was working with Salamandra, and so Ramsmeat was keeping tabs on him. Both Berengar-and an agent Ramsmeat sent after Berengar-vanished into the swamp. You’ll get a nice bit of experience for getting this much information.

Talk to Ramsmeat again and proclaim him innocent. This will clear the air with Ramsmeat-the crew he sent over to the Hospital were there to rescue the Prisoner-one of Ramsmeat’s boys, not a Salamander. Since Berengar-a Witcher-was working with Salamandra earlier, he assumed you were, too, hence the outward hostility. Now that things are in the clear and you both are on the same side, he’ll reveal some more about Azar Javed. Namely that the mage, though “civilized” by schooling and Temerian society, has a taste for women-and a fetish for fire. This explains why Salamandra was causing Carmen and her girls trouble earlier. It appears the Fisstech trade isn’t the only business Azar Javed wants to take control over.

The Gravedigger, the Gossiping Ghost, and Grandma Repellent¶

Now go pay the Gravedigger a visit. He hangs out in the south-eastern corner of the Temple Quarter, near the gate to “Vizima’s Cemetery”. Talk to him and turn in your six jugs of Dog Tallow. He uses Dog Tallow on the caskets? Really? There has to be a cheaper way to do this… or he really has it in for dogs.

When that’s done, you’ll notice a lady named “Hildegard Zollstock” standing around. She’s only around the gates to the Cemetary near noon-what a way to speak to Ramsmeat and pick up a new quest over here at the same time! Anywho… talk to her and she’ll whine about her husband haunting her and Geralt will make a sorry attempt at humor. She’ll elaborate that her husband haunts her at night, but worst of all, his ghost is spreading nasty rumors about her. You can get her to promise you 200 Orens for ridding her of this embarassment… because, you know, there’s nothing worse than a gossiping ghost.

Before we wait until nightfall to find this ghost, lets do one more thing around town-we’re actually running short on things to do! Find the ‘Bootblack’ who stands around during the day by the stairs just north of Raymond’s House. Talk to him and pay him two Orens for a shoeshine. Ask him about various things for backstory, but be sure to say #6 “You don’t talk like a shoeshine.” last (except for #7 and #8, of course) and he’ll refuse to elaborate on his past.

Leave the area by entering a location (Raymond’s perhaps?) and talk to him again. You can now offer him a gift. If you give him the book you won from Thaler in the drinking contest “Shadow People, or the History of His Majesty’s Secret Service” he’ll give you “The Prophet Lebioda’s Signet Ring” , which he claims is revered by the elderly. Now we have a sure-fire way to get past “Grandma” at Shani’s House-just flash this ring and she’ll leave you be. This will be useful later on. Make sure you’ve read the book before you give it away.

Once you’re done, waste time, grab weapons from houses and sell them, box, place dice, whatever. Failing that, just rest until night. When you’re ready head over to the Cemetery Gate to find a Wraith wandering around. Talk to it and listen to some of the interesting things it has to say about its widow. To kill it, select the Silver Sword-Fast Silver Style-and initiate combat with it. It should die easily enough.

Return to the Cemetery Gates at noon and report your success to Hildegard. She’ll reluctantly hand over the gold you’re due-but only after fussing a bit about depriving a widow of her pittance. Now, before we tread off into the Swamp Forest head over to Kalkstein with “The Secret Gates” and “Ain Soph Aur” -unless, of course, you plan to get the latter for free in the Swamp Forest (which will be discussed later) For the sake of continuity, however, it’s more convenient to assume that you have obtained these already-talked to Kalkstein-and then traveled to the Swamp Forest.

Performing an Autopsy¶

Travel to Kalkstein’s House and tell him about the information you’ve gained from “The Secret Gates” and “Ain Soph Aur” . You’ll find out that you need to find ten Sephirah Stones (plural Sephirot) and place them in Obelisks scattered throughout the Swamp Forest. We already have the “Maal’Kad Sephirah” (which we obtained when we slew the Cockatrice) and Kalkstein will give us the “Chocc’Mah Sephirah” to help us on our way. This updates the qeusts “A Mysterious Tower” and “Vizima Confidential” .

Return to Raymond with the news and you’ll discover that he’s under attack by a group of Salamanders. Slay them (Group Steel Style) and Raymond will tell you that he was only a small step away from solving the case. He seems rather shaken up (understandably so), but who did he think he was messing with? He’ll give you his list of suspects-most of which we’ve exonerated by now-and decide to lay low for a while. This updates the quest “Vizima Confidential” and starts the quest “Suspect: Leuvaarden” . Of course, we’ve already found evidence for Leuvaarden’s innocence by now, so there’s really little to do as far as “Vizima Confidential” is concered. Loot the Assassins and leave. If you have your medallion set to detect magic, note that it goes crazy while you’re near Raymond now…

Leave Raymond’s House only to have a child come up and tell you that Raymond needs to meet with you again. Normally you’d have to go bother with all the “Suspect” quests now, giving this a more proper sense of timing-but since we already solved most of the “Suspect” quests… Anyways, head back in and talk to Raymond. He’ll tell you that the Prisoner was moved from the Hospital recently-and didn’t survive the transfer. He cites natural causes, but suspects foul play. The only way to know for sure is to recover the body from the Gravedigger and perform an autopsy. This starts the quest “Anatomy of a Crime” and updates “Vizima Confidential” again.

Now, successfully conducting an autopsy is no simple matter-even in the Witcher. Geralt is admittably better at the butcher’s work than he is at anything that could be called a scientific pursuit. If we rush in to this, we’ll likely end up missing vital clues, so we need to consult a few experts for advice on how to conduct a professional autopsy. Perhaps a doctor would know more? Bonus points if it’s a sexy, female, red-headed doctor. Head over to Shani’s House at night and talk to her about it. She’ll lay out your immediate goals quite clearly-read any books on the subject that you can get your hands on, and talk to Vincent Meis. Chances are he’s handled an autopsy or two. Rest until morning and head out.

Since we’re nearby, talk to the Antiquary and purchase from him the following books; “Forensic Medicine” (150 Orens) and “Zerrikanian Insects and other Vermin” (110 Orens). These are by far the most relevent pieces of information we’ll need to get a good result from this autopsy.

Skip Vincent Meis for now and go talk to our friendly neighborhood Gravedigger, instead. Ask him about getting into the Cemetery to start the quest “A Gravedigger’s Gratitude” . We’ll need to get Vincent’s permission to enter the Cemetery, or we’ll need to clear the Gravedigger’s debts with Thaler. Now ask about moving that corpse and he will demand some Dwarven alcohol for the favor. Your mind should instantly jump to Kaedwenian Stout, the cheapest solution, but the Gravedigger will turn his nose up at it. Instead give him a bottle of Mahakaman Mead and he’ll promise to drop the corpse off by evening.

Now go talk to either Vincent Meis or Thaler. Since we’ve completed the “Supsect” quests for the both of them, either one will gladly help us out. You could even go to both, if you wanted to help the Gravedigger out and follow the law-but there’s no reward for excessive questiness this time. Go tell the Gravedigger of the completion of his request(s) and he’ll give you the Key to the Cemetery. You’ll also get the scroll “Petri’s Philter Formula” , which teaches you how to create a potion that intensifies all your Signs.

We’ll deal with the Graveyard shortly-first, lets take care of this autopsy business. Find somewhere to rest until night, by now you should have enough buddies in town to find somewhere to sleep with ease. To kill two birds with one stone, bring a piece of fruit with you. When you’re ready to cut someone up-for science, this time-head over to the Hospital.

Inside you’ll find Shani. Talk to her to start the autopsy. There are multiple ways to do this autopsy-and most of them will give you the wrong answer. If you’ve read “Forensic Medicine” and “Zerrikanian Insects and other Vermin” , however, you have a chance at getting the right results. First pick dialogue option #3 to suggest that the bone marrow has been sucked out, indicating that scavenging undead caused the external trauma, not the actual murder. Pick option #3 again to point out that the neck muscles and palms look tense. This will prompt Shani to look for internal signs, which leads quickly to poison. Choose dialogue option #1 to dismiss the idea as being too obvious. This prompts Shani to go for the last resort-opening the skull. Inside you’ll find the larval forms of Zerrikanian Tsetse flies-which you may have heard about if you shared some food with the Gardener outside at some point. Geralt will do a good job explaining the story up until now, after which the quests “What Lies Beneath” , “Vizima Confidential” , “Suspect: Kalkstein” , “Old Friend of Mine” will update, and the quest “Anatomy of a Crime” will end. Azar Javed underestimated Geralt, and it’s going to cost him.

Before you leave go to the Altar of Melitele and put a piece of fruit on it. In return you’ll obtain no fewer than three Sephirah-the “Oth Sephirah” , the “Ghe’Vrath Sephirah” , and the “Veen’Ah Sephirah” . Why so many from one place? Maybe the developers ran out of ideas, or perhaps they wanted to show that Melitele does have some power? Oh well. If a Cockatrice can have one, a goddess can have three. One for each aspect of Melitele.