Woodland Beast – Witcher 3 Quest

This guide is a walkthrough of a contract 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 – Notice Board / Captain of the Guard
2 – Attack Site
3 – Scoia’tael Camp

Background

You’ll receive this quest from the “Contract: Woodland Beast” note on a notice board in Velen North (#1).

Walkthrough

From the note, you’ll learn that there’s a “monster” in the woods. To learn more about it, you’ll need to talk to the captain of the guard, who you’ll find loitering right next to the notice board. He’ll tell you that the creature is “shaggy,” and that it has been attacking transports.

To track down the creature, you’ll need to visit its most recent attack site (#2). When you get there, you’ll get ambushed by a pair of alghouls. However, when you examine the scene with your witcher senses, you’ll see that all of the alghoul damage happened post-mortem, and that somebody else did the killing and looting. You’ll also spot some footprints.

To find the culprit, you’ll need to follow the footprints south. They’ll take you to a scoia’tael camp (#3). You’ll have two options with them:

• You can surrender your weapons, talk with the scoia’tael leader Vernossiel, and then leave the scoia’tael be. They’ll appreciate this decision, and they’ll give you some of the supplies they stole from the transport: Allspice (x2), Silk, Wolf Hide (x6), and more. However, when you return to the captain of the guard, he won’t be as thrilled. If you tell him about the scoia’tael, then he’ll give you a Letter of Safe Conduct, but if you tell him that you didn’t find anything, then he won’t give you anything.
  
• You can attack the scoia’tael. You’ll be outnumbered, but you should still be able to defeat them relatively easily. Afterwards, be sure to loot at least one Squirrel Tail from the corpses. When you show the Squirrel Tail to the captain, he’ll reward you with 30 crowns and a Letter of Safe Conduct.

Note: You might need the Letter of Safe Conduct for the quest Thou Shalt Not Pass.