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Background

After finishing your conversation with Henselt during Prelude to War: Kaedwen, as you leave the royal tent (#1), you'll be called by Dethmold to his residence. Soon enough you'll learn about a mysterious creed which works against the king and Dethmold would like it removed on king's behalf.


Walkthrough

Once you talk with Dethmold (#2), he'll tell you that he's very pleased to work with you, unlike Geralt. During this conversation you'll also trigger a few more main quests: The Eternal Battle, The Blood Curse and Courage Symbolized. As far as the real topic goes, Dethmold will only tell you that there are disturbances in loyalty within the soldier ranks and that the conspirators have certain square coins with an engraving of fish on them. If you inform him about any of your findings on the subject, he'll provide you with additional details on the curse for the other quests.

You can then question almost any soldier you wish about the situation in the camp, but the ones that progress the quest are located at #3 and #4. You can complete just one of them to continue with this quest, but completing both adds a bit more to the story.

As you approach the cantina at #3, you'll notice a father-son quarrel that starts up the quest called The Butcher of Cidaris. Once you've dealt with that quest, his father will tell you that if you want to find out more about conspirators, you should go to the brothel camp (#5) and ask for Whistling Wendy. Then tell her that you "want her smile to open the gates of paradise". After telling her that, she'll point you towards next lead.

The other quest, called In Cervisia Veritas (In beer, trust) you'll have to do a favor for the drunken soldiers marked with #4 and find Odrin. He's somewhere outside the western gate and once you've done that quest, you'll learn from Odrin that certain Vinson Traut is involved in the whole conspiracy story and that reaching him will require of you to go to the brothel camp and ask for Whistling Wendy and tell her the password.

At this point, you may wish to return to Dethmold (#2) which will make the fight with Trout easier as he'll send you four soldiers. But then again, you don't have to tell him anything.

Next thing would be to go to the brothel camp (#5). Once over there, talk with Madam Carole and just show her the square coins. Then request a girl by the name of Whistling Wendy.

When talking to Whistling Wendy just tell her the password. "I want your smile to part the gates of paradise". She'll immediately understand what's going on and lead you over the secret entrance to conspirator's hideout. Just follow her and drop down into the shaft.

You'll be entering cellars of the old tower now. Behind your first door, you'll meet Vinson Traut, apparently the head of the conspirators' creed. You'll request the chainmail for the quest Courage Symbolized and forget everything about conspiring, but he'll just reply that you're Dethmold's hound and that there won't be any deal. Afterwards, no matter the dialog choices, a fight ensues.

If you talked with Dethmold about this you'd have assistance of four soldiers. If you didn't, you're on your own. Even though it's a tight space, put up your Quen and ravage them, it shouldn't be way too hard. On Vinson's corpse you'll find Seltkirk's Armor (a quest item for Courage Symbolized), A Hog Named Henselt (a text written by Dandelion) and a key to the exit of the cellar. You may also wish to look around some more, but there's nothing spectacular to be looted.

Dandelion over at #6 in the camp won't really react as if he's in danger, as you can see he's clearly the supporter of the idea and campaign behind Henselt. No matter how dangerous you tell him it is, he'll just say that through art he can express himself whichever way he wishes and says that Henselt's a colluder with Nilfgaard. Either way, you won't be able to (and you shouldn't!) rat him out.

Talking to Dethmold (#2) will seemingly end the quest as you'll get your reward. You can get 300 orens for your work, or you may just as well refuse it, telling Dethmold that he wouldn't understand why.

Now this quest will hang until the finale of this act, and to be able to progress, you'll need to complete The Blood Curse, The Assassins of Kings and The Eternal Battle. Until then, nothing can be done further here.

Once the above quests are complete, you'll awake at the brothel camp (#5), next to Dandelion. He'll tell you of the recent events that transpired while you were unconscious. Henselt found out about the whole conspiracy theory, went totally furious and Dethmold, as ambitious as he is, imprisoned everyone and started mass torturing and and interrogating. On the other side, Dandelion also overheard that the real conspiracy creed boss is going to hold a meeting at the hut on the cliff (#7).

The camp's closed and there's nothing else to do, so head to the hut. You'll finally meet the main conspirator and it was no one other than Roche himself. He'll be discussing the situation with a few nobles who won't really do anything significant as they can't be paid so they'd rather return to the King and fight at Vergen. You'll tell him that one of the plotters, Kirim, has been caught. He also knows about Roche, so hurry back to the camp (#8) and warn the others before it's too late.

In the Blue Stripes camp, you'll only learn that all of Roche's commandos including Ves were invited to a banquet to "celebrate" the exposure of conspirators. You'll also have to battle soldiers along the way. Next step is over at the camp cantina at #9. Defeat all the soldiers on the way and prepare for a nasty surprise. Every Roche's commando has been hanged. All dead. Ves will come crying, to tell you that Henselt raped her in exchange for her comrades' lives. He lied of course. Roche will be completely furious and will go in a berserk to slaughter any Kaedweni he meets.

This quest ends here. Another quest starts, called The Siege of Vergen, which continues the main story.


1 - Henselt's tent


2 - Dethmold


3 - Sven & Manfred (The Butcher of Cidaris)


4 - Drunk soldiers (In Cervisia Veritas)