Ghosts of the Past

Ghosts of the Past is a secondary quest available in if a certain Viper was not killed in . Remember you can complete both this, and The Fall of the House of Reardon, in any order you like.
 if the first part of Hazardous Goods isn't done before this quest is started, it will not be available until after this quest is completed.
 this quest will fail if not completed before starting The Isle of Mists.
== Walkthrough ==
While exploring Velen's countryside near Lindenvale, or taking on The Fall of the House of Reardon contract, Geralt stumbles across a farmstead which is littered with booby traps. Search around and, as you approach to enter one of the buildings, you may hear a sound coming from the barn. Enter the barn and search for a ladder to get up to the loft, only to find Letho there. (25)
Letho explains his situation - after the events that transpired at Loc Muinne, he has been on the run and in hiding ever since, as Emhyr now sees him as a threat due to being an "unnecessary" witness.
Suddenly, men approach the farmstead - clearly no ordinary lost peasants. Letho explains that only one man, a supposed friend, knew where he was, Louis. No matter your choice, he'll basically drag you into the fight so you have to help kill the headhunters. (50)
Afterwards, Letho will mention hunting down Louis and you can choose to tag along or not. If you want more and his help later during the Battle of Kaer Morhen, go with him and make sure to stay close. Otherwise, if you stray too far, the quest will complete and you'll never see him again.
=== Finding Louis ===
If you chose to go along, follow Letho on horseback to a small camp where Louis and his gang are located. After some small talk, Letho decides his "friend" is a traitor and must die. Help kill off the bandits and then another cutscene unfolds with a badly wounded Louis asking for mercy, and he'll eventually reveal who paid him off. Letho chooses to let him die there from his wounds and heads out to find Arnout Vester. (50) you can manually attack Louis after the cutscene, though killing him doesn't grant anything.
=== Dealing with the Bounty Hunters ===
Now ride along to Lindenvale to see if Louis spoke the truth. Letho leads you to a hut on the edge of the village and tells Geralt, to not interfere no matter what. A cutscene will then play out where Letho blows up a nearby barn to draw out the men inside the hut and a conversation plays out between Letho and Vester, eventually leading to one of the mercenaries shooting a bolt into Letho's shoulder. Letho attacks, taking down most of the men before falling himself. Geralt then runs forward and has 2 choices: intervene or stay out of trouble.
# If Geralt chooses to intervene, a fight will ensue and the attackers will be killed.
# If Geralt chooses to defuse the situation by insisting he doesn't want trouble, the men will want to claim the bounty placed on Letho and subsequently decide to take his head - an idea Geralt isn't fond of. You can convince them to take Letho's medallion instead as proof.
Afterwards, Geralt investigates the corpse of Letho only to discover that a unique poison had been applied, making him only appear dead. When Letho comes around, he reveals that this was his plan all along: to appear to die in front of the bounty hunters so they'll spread the word Letho is dead and he will no longer be hunted. If Geralt intervened, Letho will react negatively as he ruined the plan, but if Geralt stayed out of trouble, he'll be pleased.
Regardless of your previous choice, you can now bid him farewell or invite him to stay at Kaer Morhen. If you choose Kaer Morhen, he'll eventually make his way there to help with the battle. If you don't invite him to the school, he'll instead talk about going to Zerrikania.
== Journal entry ==
: While traversing the inhospitable lands of Velen, Geralt came across an abandoned farming estate. Upon entering the estate's farmhouse, he discovered that, though seemingly uninhabited, it was crammed full of deadly traps. Someone clearly did not want any uninvited guests snooping around the place. Geralt decided to find out who - and why.
: What does one expect to find inside an abandoned country manor? Dusty crockery. Moth-eaten doilies. A moldy trophy buck, perhaps, if its inhabitants trod on the wild side. Certainly not the most wanted man north or south of the Yaruga. Yet that, dear reader, is exactly who Geralt found when he entered such a manor in Lindenvale. The assassin of kings himself, Geralt's old acquaintance, his sometime friend and sometime enemy: Letho. He was hiding there from bounty hunters out for his scalp. Geralt, now fully able to remember how Letho and two of his colleagues once saved Yennefer's life, could not refuse him help.
: If Geralt doesn't go along with Letho to see Louis:
:: Somewhere along the way Geralt parted with Letho. To this day no one knows if he did this on purpose or merely got lost, but one thing is certain - the two witchers' paths never crossed again.
: If Geralt does help Letho out:
:: What Letho did next proved he was both clever and fearless. In order to get rid of the bounty hunters breathing down his neck once and for all, he took a crossbow bolt to the chest and faked his own death.
:: If Geralt kills Letho's pursuers:
::: This caught Geralt by surprise, and sadly the witcher doesn't always handle surprises with much tact or subtlety. Instead, he usually does what he did this time, namely murder all and sundry within sword's reach. There were thus no witnessess to spread the false news of Letho's death, and the wanted man was right back where he started.
::If Geralt doesn't intervene:
::: This caught Geralt by surprise, but he improvised splendidly. Convinced Letho was dead, Vester and his men rode off to spread the news far and wide. Letho could now simply lie low for a spell and wait for the world to forget about him...
::If Geralt suggests Letho go to Kaer Morhen:
:::Geralt proposed that his old acquaintance seek shelter at Kaer Morhen. Letho hesitated, but in the end accepted the offer.
== Objectives ==
* Search the farmstead.
* If you heard noise:
** Find where the noise is coming from using your Witcher Senses.
* Unless you directly climbed into the barn:
** Enter the barn.
** Search the barn.
** Find a ladder using your Witcher Senses.
* Kill the bounty hunters. (50)
* If you agreed to help:
** Ride with Letho and find Louis.
** Kill the bandits. (50)
** Ride with Letho to Lindenvale.
** Accompany Letho around Lindenvale.
** If you intervened:
*** Deal with Vester and his men.
== Notes ==
* Depending how the player looked around the farm to find Letho, Letho's comment will change if Geralt did or didn't set off any traps.
* Aside from Hazardous Goods, everything else on the road for this quest is put on pause as well. The ghouls associated with Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire are temporarily despawned, and a nearby bandit camp is empty too.
* The location where you meet Louis is otherwise an abandoned site, temporarily replaced during this quest. You have to return later to liberate it.
== Bugs ==
* Letho may randomly lose his steel sword after fighting with Louis. If it's happened, Letho will appear without his steel sword even at Kaer Morhen. To avoid this, if you see Letho with one sword on his back in the injured Loius cutscene, reload an old save file and try again.
* If doing Fools' Gold before this quest, going to the very bottom of the "hog hut" cave there may trigger the traps for this quest and start it. This is because the location is situated directly underneath Reardon Manor.
* If the first part of Hazardous Goods is done before this quest, Letho may ask if Geralt is not hurt even though all traps were disarmed.
* If you outright refuse to help, the quest doesn't immediately complete, but remains without new objectives until you're far enough away from Letho. You can still rejoin him at that point and gain the for dealing with Louis, but the quest log will not show new objectives until after you've completed them. This fixes itself once you reach Lindenvale.
* When you reach Lindenvale, Letho may get off his horse as if he's already at the intended building, even though that's on the other end of the village. He'll then hop back on though, it's just a momentary glitch.
* After the ladder is interacted with, instead of being moved, a copy of it is propped up and the one you examined remains in its place.
* Sometimes this quest will not start if a game is started with a import even if Letho was left alive. This may be more likely with a NG+ playthrough. The simplest solution is to simulate a worldstate rather than importing a save.
** The reason this may occur is due to importing a quicksave or manual save, as it is not possible to make those after sparing/killing Letho as the game ends right after. Thus the only way for the decision to be listed is to use the post-credits autosave.
* If Letho is encountered before The Fall of the House of Reardon has started, he will say that the place was until recently infested by ghouls instead of wraiths.
* When returning to the mansion after the quest ends (but before completing Fall of the House of Reardon), Letho's traps may still be present and glowing red under witcher senses (including those disarmed earlier). However they cannot be interacted with nor triggered. Once Fall is completed, however, the trap "ghosts" are no longer visible.
== Videos ==
File:Ghosts of the Past - The Witcher 3 DEATH MARCH! Part 25 - Let's Play Hard
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Category:The Witcher 3 secondary quests