The Beast of Honorton, Where the Cat & Wolf Play, Take What You Want – Witcher 3 Quest

This guide is a walkthrough of a side quest in the Witcher 3 for the area of Velen. The guide is composed of a map, map legend, and walkthrough to show readers exactly where to go and what to do to complete the quest.

Map Legend

1 – Crow’s Perch
2 – Honorton
3 – Girl
4 – Ritual Circle
5 – Shrine
6 – Stash
7 – Oreton

Background

You’ll receive the quest Contract: The Beast of Honorton when you read the note “Contract: The Beast of Honorton” on the notice board at Crow’s Perch in Velen West (#1).

Walkthrough

From the note, you’ll learn that a “spook, beast or devil” is plaguing the village of Honorton, and that to learn more about it you should visit the village and talk to Sobemir the ealdorman. However, when you reach Honorton (#2), you’ll find everybody dead and three level 25 alghouls feeding on the corpses. After killing the alghouls, you’ll realize that the contract created by the ealdorman is now worthless, and the quest will change to Where the Cat and Wolf Play.

To figure out what happened, you’ll need to search Honorton using your witcher senses. You’ll find lots of things to examine, including weapons, corpses, and more. From them, you’ll deduce that the villagers were killed by weapons rather than monsters, and that the attack happened recently. You’ll also get attacked by more alghouls during your search.

Once you’ve examined enough items in the village, you’ll spot a girl running by. When you examine her tracks, you’ll find a Doll next to them. Then when you follow the tracks, you’ll find the girl hiding behind a tree (#3). If you give her the Doll or use Axii / Delusion on her, then she’ll tell you what she saw — that a witcher like you took the ealdorman’s contract and killed the leshen causing the problems, but that something went wrong afterwards, causing the witcher to kill everyone in the village except for her. The girl will then hand you a School of the Cat Medallion that the witcher dropped, and she’ll tell you that she saw him heading for the ritual circle to the east. This conversation will earn you 50 xp.

When you reach the circle (#4), you won’t see the other witcher, but when you turn on your witcher senses, you’ll spot his footprints leading east. They’ll take you right to the witcher, who will be sitting at a shrine (#5). When you talk to the witcher, you’ll learn that his name is Gaetan, and that the villagers at Honorton first tried to shortchange him and then tied to kill him after he’d completed their contract. He’ll admit that he overreacted, but he won’t think much of it.

You’ll have two ways to respond:

• You can let Gaetan go. In thanks for your understanding, Gaetan will give you the key to his stash, which will trigger the quest Take What You Want. Gaetan will then leave, and you’ll earn 200 xp.
  
  You’ll find Gaetan’s stash a ways to the west (#6). Three level 25 bandits will be there. After defeating the bandits, when you climb down to the stash, you’ll find a leveled version of the steel sword Teigr, a Letter to Gaetan, and 263 crowns.
  
• You can attack Gaetan. He’ll ask if he can use a Swallow potion before the fight. Regardless of what you say, he’ll start out with full health, so you might as well allow it. Gaetan is a witcher, so he’ll be tough to kill, but he won’t use anything after the Swallow potion, so if necessary you can dodge around while eating or drinking to regain health. When Gaetan dies, you’ll earn 200 xp, and you’ll find a leveled version of the steel sword Teigr on his corpse.

Either way, when you return to the girl, you’ll automatically take her to her aunt’s house in Oreton (#7), and you’ll learn that her name is Millie. The aunt won’t really want Millie, but she won’t have a choice. You can give the aunt 40 crowns to help her out if you want, but it won’t make any difference. At some point later, if you return to Oreton, then Millie will be there waiting for you (whether you paid the 40 crowns or not), and she’ll give you a Thank You Card.