Meeting the Grand Master¶

Celebrations must be short, as although you’ve broken out of Old Vizima, a horde of monsters lie ahead. A Swamp Cemetery… what the hell were these Temerians thinking? Could there be a greater recipe for monster-breeding than that? Kill the Bloedzuigers (Igni works wonders, folks) and charge an Archespore.

By the time you kill one, the Grand Master of the Order will show up and dispatch the remaining foes for you. The Grand Master will then chat with Geralt, and will prove as vague as you might expect any important NPC to be by now. Just note that he seems to know you-and your stances-quite well, and that he refers to some grand plan the Order has.

After the conversation, your traveling partner (Shani, Siegfried, or Zoltan) will leave, and you’ll be free to roam about as you please. With a whole new area and finally some room

to boldy explore new ground.. lets return to Old Vizima, which can now be properly explored.

The Embers of Old Vizima¶

The fighting will be over, one way or another. If you sided with anybody, that faction will be in charge of Old Vizima… and plenty of wounded members of that faction will be lying around. If you remained neutral, you’ll find both wounded Order knights and Scoia’tael rebels lying around, and Temerian Soldiers will be the sole standing fighting force.

Feel free to loot houses at your whim, although few have anything truly useful in them. Go shopping by talking to Kalkstein, whomever is in charge of the Old Forge, or one of the quartermasters (if you’re aligned with any faction), or with a fence that has set up shop north-west of the hospital (if you stayed neutral).

Even Chapter 5 isn’t immune to having a host of random NPCs asking for handouts. It’s not worth listing them, as they don’t really give you anything worthwhile. If you talk to them, and give them what they want, they’ll tell you about various monsters-Cemetaurs, Ifrits, and Garkains. They’ll ask for various things-Nurses and Paramedics will ask for ingredients (Winestones, Honeysuckle, and Naezan Salts) or completed potions-Swallow and White Raffard’s Decoction. Peasants will be more practical, asking for money and food.

Before we return to the Swamp Cemetery, let’s take stock of a few people/places of interest. First, we have the Executioner’s Tower, north of the exit to the Swamp Cemetery. Inside you’ll find everybody’s favorite dentist, Zahin Schmartz. Near the path leading to the Swamp Cemetery, you’ll find Captain Jean-Pierre, to whom we’ll turn the quest “Mud and Velvet” into when we finish it…. or finish parts of it, as the case may be.

If you have managed to remain neutral all this time, you have one final stop. Head into the Hospital, go upstairs, and talk to the “Nurses from Old Vizima” you escorted earlier. Now that Shani is gone, they’ll give you the “Nurses” Sex Card .

The Final Notice Board¶

Finally, in front of the Hospital you’ll find our final Notice Board, from which we’ll get the following quests; ‘The Bloedzuiger Contract’, ‘The Bruxa Contract’, ‘The Cemetaur Contract’, ‘The Garkain Contract’, and ‘The Wraith Contract’. Like last chapter, the rewards will be recorded here, and you’ll be told about the monster we’re hunting as it comes up.

• Bloezuigers can be found in the Swamp Cemetery.
• Bruxa populate the island in the Swamp Cemetery upon which the Striga’s Crypt is located (at night, surrounding Lilly , a unique Bruxa).
• Cemetaurs can be found in Old Vizima, near Kalkstein’s Laboratory, and during your escape from Old Vizima if you were neutral as part of the quest “ Under a Fiery Sky“ . You can find more of them in some of the Ancient Crypts you can reach via the Wayfarer Stones in the Swamp Cemetery.
• Garkains, like Bruxa, can also be found at night on the island holding the Striga’s Crypt, near Vesper , a unique Garkain.
• Finally, Wraiths can be found in Raven’s Crypt, and a group can also be found on the island holding the Striga’s Crypt. Now well-armed with plenty of tasks, return to the Swamp Cemetery at peace that you’ve done everything you need to do in Old Vizima for now.

Back to the Swamp Forest¶

Anyways, head back to the Swamp Cemetery… there are quests to get (and complete) here, and other quests that must be completed here, yet turned in to characters back in Old Vizima-you know, the typical fetch- quest crap. The enemies here are pretty classic swamp critters-Bloedzuigers, Drowners, and Drowned Dead, which is fine, because they’ll give us plenty of ingredients to make potions with, should you somehow be deficient. The enemies here aren’t really dangerous anymore, but they make up for it by being numerous, and it’s unlikely that you’ll get to go anywhere without having to put down a half-dozen Drowners.

We’ll explore every area here, for the sake of completionism, (and to avoid splitting up the guide again) we’ll hit every area in the Swamp Cemetery… even if every single Geralt won’t need to go everywhere. For example, if you haven’t sided with the Scoia’tael, you don’t have any real reason to enter the Old Mine. Regardless, we’ll hit the Striga’s Crypt last… you know, saving the most important endeavors for last?

The Druids Cave¶

the first logical step would be to head to the Druid’s Cave (if you were neutral, you’ve already had to lead Shani there) and this last little step will pretty much mend the earlier split in the guide. Here you’ll find your buddy from Old Vizima (Shani or Zoltan, anyways, Siegfried is off being a tool), but more importantly, you’ll find several Druids. If it’s not night-time, the Elder Druids will sell you junk, and trade with you-if you give them various things, they’ll reward you, as follows:

Needless to say, this is a pretty handy way to stock up on potions if you have too much crap lying around in your inventory, and want to put it to good use. The Fool’s Parsley for Swallow is an especially good deal-even though we’ve probably outgrown Swallow Potions as a serious defensive method, they’re still handy, and at the price of one ingredient, it’s hard to resist getting a few. The Blizzard Potions and White Raffard’s Decoctions are the best of the bunch, and Cat will come in handy, as well. Keep in mind that they will only trade with you once each visit, before they just start floating-text rambling. Leave and return, and they’ll trade some more. Rinse, wash, repeat until you have traded as much as you care to.

The Eldest Druid (he’s pulling rank on those Elder Druids, young punks!) will take your Bloedzuiger Blood, if you have enough. The Royal Huntsman also hides out here, but since both our trophy monsters reside on the island where we’ll find our Striga’s lair, we’ll be avoiding them for now. If you gave Alvin to Shani in Chapter 3, and remained neutral, it’ll be time to talk to Shani about your relationship. Say whatever you want, like Triss earlier, you can either declare your love for her, or tell her it’s a dream. Finally, there’s Cousin Corbin, one of the three cousins of Antoinette we need to turn the money over to… and now this quest bears a bit of explanation.

Mud and Velvet¶

The cousins three are hiding in three areas in the Swamp Cemetery-one is in the Druid’s Cave, and two others are in the two Refugees’ Caves. When you talk to them, you can give each of them 300 Orens, get some experience, and everybody is happy.

If, however, you want a somewhat more potent reward for this quest, you can return to Old Vizima and talk to Captain Jean-Pierre after giving the gold to at least one of the three cousins. You can, of course, give the money to all three and lie about it to the good captain, but it’s 300 Orens versus 1000 experience… granted Orens aren’t too useful anymore, but 1000 experience is paltry, as well. Anyways, tell him that you gave the money to less than three of the cousins, and he’ll give you a variable reward depending on how many you gave the money to.

The most important thing to note, however, is the fact that he’ll demand the remaining money back. If you give him the money back, you get a lesser reward.. and it’s just generally not worth doing. If you refuse, however, he will gleefully attack you.. and lets be honest here, he’s a mean sonofabitch, one of the only humanoid melee combatants that stand a chance against Geralt in a fair fight. Seriously, he hits very hard, and you should prepare if you plan to take him on-peppering him with Igni before engaging is not a bad idea. Heh… or with a high-level Aard sign and a little luck, you can stun him and go for the coup’de’grace.

When he dies, you’ll discover why he was such a worthy foe: He’ll drop a Mahakaman Rune Sihill -the strongest steel sword in the game. Don’t get too excited, though, as there are two other ways to get one… but it’s still a nice reward. Just keep in mind that you need get your reward for “The Bruxa Contract” from him, first. I’m mentioning the quest now so you can plan on how you want to complete ‘Mud and Velvet’ early, but in practice, we won’t complete this quest until we return to Old Vizima to complete “Armor” .