Iorveth's Path -- Act II: Wrapping up Side-Quests and Gaining Some Levels

Iorveth's Path -- Act II: Wrapping up Side-Quests and Gaining Some Levels

On your way past the main gate you will trigger a CS in which the Mist is being discussed in an announcement to the populace before the gates are officially re-opened following the meeting -- this is a good thing since they were locked before and there was no way for you to go out and hunt Harpies until they were officially unlocked, so yay!

There is a set of stairs heading down to the Inn Level of town (a level below right in front of the main gates), and if you go down them right now you will meet an elf named Ele'yas who it seems has been waiting for an opportunity to speak with you...

He tells you about the mysterious death of some of the men in his command -- you can ask him questions to learn more about the deaths -- whether it is only men, where the bodies were discovered, and what state the corpses are in.  You cannot examine the bodies yourself because they have been properly buried and to do so would outrage the families of the slain -- in fact information is light here, but you can ask about the reward, which Ele'yas confirms there is one!

Tell him that you will do what you can and you flag the side-quest "With a Flickering Heart" as a result -- good on ya!  Another mystery to be solved!  Now if we just had a Brunette and a Redhead, a large talking dog with his ginger owner and a blonde football player we would be set!

Before you head inside the Inn or use the Bulletin Board head back up the steps and take a left (the right path when standing with your back to the main gates and facing the Inn), and head up the hill and bear a little right, and you will find three or four people standing before a hovel up the hill...  This is the local Rat Catcher and his mates, who in addition to being rather creepy also offers to craft traps for you...  You can play Poker Dice with him if you like.  In addition to crafting traps (he has Diagrams for them for sale) he also sells lures and bait, and grenades if you need any.  You may want to purchase the Formula for the Dragon's Dream Bomb as that is a rare one to find, and it is only 89 Oren...  He also has the Formulas for Devil's Puffballs, Flares, and Stenchbulb, all of which are somewhat rare.  While they can be had elsewhere the Rat Catcher has the Diagrams for making the different Meteorite Ores -- so if you have the spare Orens you may want to buy those as well, or not... Your call...

-- The Vergen Bulletin Board --

Located to the right of the entrance to the Inn down at the lower level of town directly across from the main gate is the Vergen Bulletin Board, upon which you will find the following posted items:

-- Harpy Contract
-- Harpy Queen Contract
-- Proclamation of Closure of the Mines
-- Baltimore Considered Dead Notice
-- Investigator Needed

Every notice save for the Investigator Wanted one are posted by Alderman Cecil Burdon -- and that is who will be paying the rewards mind you -- while the investigator want ad is simply a restatement of the facts that Ele'yas has already shared with us...  We have already accepted his mission (With Flickering Heart) but take the notice down anyway...

Now head into the Inn and empty your pockets into your Storage Chest, sell off any Junk or unwanted items, and then head for the main gates!  I decided to come with you since we will be doing the Harpy Contracts and I want to watch you kill Harpies...  By the way, the best way to learn about them is to kill them, so since you were planning on doing that anyway...

When you are accessing your storage with the Innkeeper make sure you ask about sources of Power in the area, as he gives you some good hintage... 

A Grateful Elven Girl thanks you for her Rescue!

On the way out of town after exiting the gate pop into the alcove on the left just before the end of the walls to run into a familiar elven girl that we last saw (and rescued) in Flotsam.  She offers you precisely what you think she is offering -- and considering how long it has been since we got busy with Triss... And considering that we need a video to illustrate this part of the guide... And considering you know, we have never done it with a pointy-eared chick before... Well... You get the idea!

After you have sex with the elven girl make absolutely bloody CERTAIN that you speak with her again right away, because in addition to sending you off with a Happy Ending, she hands you the key to the locked mine entrance that is below -- a key you actually need if you want to go inside, which I assure you that you most certainly do!  How cool is that?  She thanks you in the best way elven women know how, then she gives you the key to a mine!  The only way that this could get better is if she gave you a magic mug that constantly refilled itself with Sam Adams Winter Ale, I am just saying...

-- The Outer Quarries --

Basically what we have here when we take the left-branching path down the slope is a very large open-pit quarry that is the start of the extensive Royal Mineworks for the region.  Once they get down to the bottom level here, the mines branch out in a series of horizontal tunneled paths with vertical shafts running off of them.  You can access the horizontal tunnels but not the vertical shafts, and while some of the entrances are unlocked, others are locked up tight.  Fortunately you have a key that you got from the Elven Girl -- but that is not important at the moment, since we are not heading into the mines just now, but rather our interests lay outside of the mines, and specifically in the open pit quarry, which appears to be heavily infested with Harpies!

When you approach one of the burned-down houses in the burned village you will advance the quest With Flickering Heart due to your encountering the distinct and pervasive smell of sulfur -- this is a bad sign because as a Witcher you know that this particular smell, when present near a burned out dwelling, is usually the sign of the presence of a Succubus -- a creature that is thought to be mythical by many but that you know is actually real!  The smell is the only trace however, so you know that while they may have been here before, they are not here now.

A quick check of your Witcher's Encyclopedia refreshes the details of that particular beastie in your mind -- they are a female demon that appear in dreams and who usually take the form of a very attractive and impishly sexual human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse.  Repeated intercourse with a succubus is known to result in deterioration of physical health and even death, and the beasties are known to set fire to human dwellings after they finish off a victim in order to cover up their presence... 

It may interest you to know that the word is derived from Late Latin as succuba (strumpet), from succubare (to lie under), which is itself constructed from two words: sub (under) and cubare (to lie), and is commonly used to describe both the idea of and the actual manifestation of the supernatural female demonic being.

-- Don't HARPie on Me, Man! --

Our primary goal is to discover as much information about the beasts as we can, and we accomplish that goal by killing them.  A lot.  Eventually you will acquire the information you need and the quest will advance, then you will kill the number required and the quest will advance again.  In theory at that point you can end the quest by seeing the Alderman and collecting your reward, but we actually have other goals in mind here, so yo stay and continue to battle them. 

On your way down the slope before turning left and passing through the large arch that marks the entrance to the quarries you encounter a large mixed group of Dwarven and Elven warriors, and the elves make sure when you speak to them that your position (that THEIR position) with respect to you is clear...  Crystal clear. 

The path forks ahead, and if you take the right-fork you arrive at a clearing in the center of which is a Troll.  Hey, we kill Trolls!  We are a Witcher, which by definition is a Monster Slayer -- and Trolls are monsters!  So let us slay this Troll!  Gah!  The Toll makes it less easy by talking -- would have been nice if he had not told us what he is cooking in his soup.  Sheesh! 

Before you kill him talk to him to learn about the humans who fell from the sky and you gather useful intelligence from the Troll about Triss.  After you get all of the information you can from the Troll it is time to kill it, advance the quest Where is Triss Merigold! and then backtrack to the fork in the path and take the left-hand path, which leads to the top of the Old Quarry. 

Trapping Harpies with a Harpy Trap or Four

Check out the buildings and you will meet a hermit who is interested in a certain list of monster items and flags the side-quest "A Sackful of Fluff" that calls for you collecting and turning in Harpy Feathers -- specifically a bag of 12 Harpy Feather Plumes.  Hey, bonus, we were going to kill them anyway, right?  Right!

Each of the Harpies that you kill has, in addition to some Oren, the possibility of the following loot items on its corpse:

-- Cloth
-- Harpy Claws
-- Harpy Eyes
-- Harpy Feathers
-- Harpy Saliva
-- Harpy Trophy
-- Leather
-- Power Mutagen
-- Twine

Note that if you are not aware of it, each Monster Trophy is an item that is equipped in the Trophy Slot on your person (the left hand slot) that offers you whatever magical protection or ability with which it is endowed.   For example the Harpy Trophy is endowed with 4 AR, while the Troll Trophy is endowed with 9 Damage.  Other Trophies have multiple endowments -- for instance the Gargoyle Trophy has 7 AR and 20 Health, while the Werewolf Trophy has 1 AR, 10 Health, 9 Damage, deals 1% damage to Humans and adds 1 power to all Signs.  Obviously that one is a rather rare Trophy...

Your first run through the quarry should score you enough Harpy Feathers to allow you to return to Elthon to collect payment for the first dozen.  After you turn in the 12 Plumes Elthon asks you for 60 more -- which is easily doable.  Heading back into the quarry you should feel the Witcher Medallion telling you something and, when you scan the area using it, it shows you objects.

-- Destroying Harpy Nests --

The thing is, remember the Harpy Traps I suggested that you have crafted for you?  Right, well you actually need them for this quest, which is why I suggested that you get them made! 

The strategy here is very simple really -- start out by having 8 or 9 Harpy Traps on you (technically you only need 7 but you want some fudge room in case you mess up and lay more than one trap at a time which happens easily).  When the Harpies attack place ONE traps and listen to hear them get it snapped onto them, at which point you need to retreat so that they end up returning to their lair, which as you probably figured out is out of your reach from the ground.

Once they return to their lair the trap will detonate, taking out the Harpy AND their Lair, at which point the counter on the quest tracker will increment.  Well done!  Now rinse and repeat three more times for the Old Quarry and you have completed this stage of the quest.  You cannot complete the second stage and destroy the last three Harpy Lairs until you can reach the area where they are, which happens when you are working on doing the Magic Powers quest -- which we will do soon.  For now be happy that you have part one completed, and go back to killing Harpies so we can obtain the feathers that are needed for the collection quest we have hanging.

-- A few Words about Grinding Levels --

If you were following the guide through the Vernon Roche play-through you are doubtlessly aware that we failed to reach the cap (Level 35) on that play-through largely due to a failure to project the level at the conclusion of the game.  There is no point in making that mistake twice, but fortunately the Iorveth Path has a much easier time of it with respect to farming XP in the game. 

There are several approaches that you can take, the first being relying upon the side-quests and main story-line missions to provide the XP needed.  We saw how that worked out last time, so it is an idea to go with the second option, and that is to take a more affirmative approach, starting with farming XP from mobs.

We touched upon this briefly previously but now let's deal with it explicitly, shall we?

Levels in the game are simple enough -- when you start out you have zero XP, and when you reach 1,000 XP you ding Level 2.  Add another 1,000 XP and you get Level 3, and so on and so on.  The point being that levels are predictable since they basically require the exact same amount of XP and that does not change.  What does change is the percentage of XP that you receive for killing the same mobs over and over.  The higher your level, the less XP you earn. 

Fortunately for us we do not actually have to grind out a high level, all that we really need to do is ensure that you attain Level 20 prior to completing the side-quests and story-line missions in Vergen from this point forward.  That means grinding three levels since after Saskia is poisoned you should be at Level 17 and some change.  That just means working the grind to Level 20, and that is not as bad as it sounds, really -- especially considering that we end up doing the grind in a target-rich environment!

So, basically, what we want to do is take out the Harpies in the quarry, and then run up to the gates of the town using the shortcut that our elven lover provided us with in giving us the key (that key opens the doors between the entrance to the mines and the locked door right next to her merchant stall!

Completing the grind from Level 17-and-change to a firm Level 20 will take you about 1-hour, if you do it persistently and refrain from finding out things to do ;)

The Secret Mystery of the Harpy Feather Collector Solved

-- 60 Harpy Feathers --

While the goal is to reach Level 20 without using any of the quests to get there, we are not including the Harpy Feather Collection side-quest simply because it is convenient to follow that path towards grinding out the levels...

The most expedient method for resetting the spawn points quickly would be to move your character out of the general spawn area (up the mine passageway to the gates path) then save your game and then load that save.

When you turn in the bag of 60 Harpy Feathers he smiles at you and implies that while you did a great job you are very near being finished!  Just another 8 plumes and the job is done; the mischief is managed!  The pillowcase is stuffed!  The French Maid is... Ah, you get the idea!*/
After you delivered the final sack of feathers you do not complete the quest -- odd -- but if you meditate a couple of times and then return to the hut you find him... Dressed... In a big... Chicken Suit?  Offer him the last feather noting that you do not need it, then comment on the weather and he makes small talk with you, the whole time ignoring the elephant... Err... The chicken in the room!

When you end the conversation you immediately get a notice that the quest is advanced and then completed.  Whew!  Well that was a strange one, right?

Now to meditate and kill Harpies until we level up! I don't know what is more disturbing about this, the fact that the man created a chicken suit, or that the quest was originally DLC that was added to the game after it was published on PC?

-- Mystic River Quest --

As you work your way through the narrow cuts in the mountain and what passes for passes you stumble  upon a shipwreck that is far away from the water!  Clearly at some point these passes were well flooded but now the ship is high-and-dry!  Buried on the inside of the split-open section of the vessel is a clue you need to find -- a set of notes from the treasonous sorcerer Eyla Tarn, and in addition to the notes you find ancient Smithing resources as well as a note that reveals the location of a treasure chest beneath the streets of Loc Muinne that leads to the Diagram for a set of Vran Armor!

This find completes the Mystic River Quest for this Act!

Further into the cuts you find a group of mercenaries attacking a Troll --  agree to help them kill the Troll and you unlock the Achievement "Trollslayer" (30 G) Kill all the Trolls in the game.

You over hear the mercenaries discussing their mission objective -- to capture Letho -- so ask them about him and they tell you that Sile dispatched them to hunt him down and kill him as well as anyone who is with him!  Not good news as it suggests that Sile wants Triss dead...  You suggest that they surrender to Saskia and they argue (this is Adam you are meeting) -- and he listens to reason and agrees that surrendering to Saskia is probably the best move.

Killing the she-Troll earns you Triss' bandana and an update to the quest Where is Triss Merigold!  Well done!  After you finish leveling up to Level 20 head to the next section!

Actually before you do that there is something we need to discuss -- the order that we are doing these quests in...  You have the bandana and, naturally your first instinct may very well be to go and see Phillipa (for some reason I keep thinking of her as a Sabrina, go figure) -- but that would be a BAD idea.  Why?  Because when you talk to her you will trigger a CS in which the townsfolk have attacked Stennis and that sets into motion a shift in the story line that causes the quest we will be doing next to fail.  Nobody likes a failed quest mates, so do yourself a favor, be a winner!