A Knight's Tales

*I need a hard-hineyed man who won’t spill his sphincter at the sight of sorcery and can give a witch a good fecking hiding if it comes to it. You’ll find me chopping wood near Fox Hollow – my name’s Jacob, and chopping wood’s what I do.*
*All you poop-for-brains feckers who think you’re jesters, I’m warning you, jesting’s over.*
*Jacob, woodcutter of Fox Hollow.*
**A Knight's Tales** is a secondary quest in the *Blood and Wine* expansion.

## Journal entry

*A short distance from Castel Ravello, Geralt happened on a notice posted by Jacob, a lumberjack. The logger was in search of someone who had no fear of spells and could thus face a witch. This was the very description of the witcher, no two ways about it, so it was no surprise that our hero took an interest in the notice and decided to visit Jacob.*
*Jacob proved a true expert on tales. The lumberjack readily explained to Geralt that the woman enchanted in the tree was Daphne, transformed out of great longing due to her deep love for the knight Gareth, whose return she awaited. Gareth had gone off to scale Lynx Crag, atop which he was to find the witch who dwelled there. He was to force her to lift the drought that plagued the land. Alas, the knight had not returned, and the tale from which the logger drew his knowledge said nothing about what had befallen the knight. If there was any answer to the mystery, it could only be found on Lynx Crag.*
***Geralt politely asks the witch for help:***
*Geralt found the witch of Lynx Crag and did precisely what the knight from Herrera's tale was said to have done. He bowed before her and asked her for help. Though fussy, the witch seemed appeased and betrayed the manner in which the woman imprisoned in the tree could be freed. The success was bitter-sweet, however, as neither the witch nor the witcher could restore to the woman the life she had lost. Shortly after being freed, her spirit left this world, though it did so at peace with its fate.*
***Geralt lifts the curse himself (with or without Sir Gareth's bone):***
*Upon Lynx Crag the witcher encountered the witch, but he decided not to seek her aid in freeing the woman enchanted in the tree. Our hero decided he would employ his own devices to lift the curse. He managed to free Daphne's ghost, yet her specter was crazed and filled with pain. Geralt had no choice but to defeat it.*
***Geralt threatens the witch into helping:***
*Upon Lynx Crag the witcher encountered the witch and resolved to force her to help him. Defeated in combat, she pledged to free the cursed woman from the tree. Yet her pledge proved a ruse. Upon returning to the tree, the witcher found the lumberjack's cold corpse at its foot. Freed by the witch, the young woman's ghost, crazed with pain, had killed Jacob, then disappeared to parts unknown.*
## Walkthrough

* Talk to Jacob the woodcutter.
* Examine the bleeding tree.
* Talk to Jacob the woodcutter. (50 , Tales and Fables)
* Go to Lynx Crag.
	+ At the north-west cave entrance, on a skeleton: Formula: Brown armor dye.
* Search the hut using your Witcher Senses. (50 )
	+ Inside hut: Formula: Greater mutagen transmutator - green to red or Formula: Gray armor dye.
	+ On the Transmutation of Bodies, Liber Ivonis, Remarks on the Proper Administration of Yarrow.
	+ Silk kerchief

**Geralt politely asks the witch for help:**

* Find the entrance to the cave under Lynx Crag.
* Find Sir Gareth's remains. (Sir Gareth's bone)
* Return to the bleeding tree.
* Talk to Jacob the woodcutter.
* Light the southern fire.
* Light the eastern fire.
* Light the northern fire.
* Light the western fire. (150 , 100 )

**Geralt lifts the curse himself:**

* Return to the bleeding tree.
* Talk to Jacob the woodcutter.
* Light the southern fire.
* Light the eastern fire.
* Light the northern fire.
* Light the western fire.
* Defeat the wraith from the bleeding tree. (41+150 , 100 )

**Geralt threatens the witch into helping:**

* Defeat the witch of Lynx Crag. (57 )
* Return to the bleeding tree.
* Use your Witcher Senses to find Jacob the woodcutter's tracks.
* Follow the tracks to find Jacob the woodcutter.
* Kill Morholt. (6 , was possessed by Daphne)
* Examine the woodcutter's body. (150  + bag with 123 florens = 369 )

## Notes

* Geralt has three choices:
	+ Ask the witch politely to lift the curse, Geralt gives up a lock of his hair, retrieves the remains of Gareth in the cave below, to only then properly perform the ritual to free Daphne.
		- When talking to Daphne after the ritual, Geralt can lie and say Gareth was faithful to her, or say the truth that Gareth was not. (Does not seem to make a difference.)
	+ To lift the curse himself. Even if Geralt should stumble across Sir Gareth's bone, he will not burn it in the ritual to free Daphne. So will most certainly turn into a wraith and must be killed.
	+ Threaten the witch to lift the curse. The witch will be beaten in a fight, and grudgingly help. The witch then frees Daphne, but in Daphne's range she will possess Jacob's dog and kill Jacob.
* Even though a specific order of lighting the fires for the ritual is suggested, you can Igni them in any order.
* The quest is referred to as "A Lady, Her Knight and True Love" in the notes for Patch 1.22.
* **Daphne** (Greek: "Laurel") and the transformation into a tree comes straight from Greek mythology, where Daphne is a Naiad, whom is pursued by god Apollo. One of the best known writings is possibly **Metamorphoses** by Roman poet Ovid. The myth was also depicted in an opera by Richard Strauss and premiered 1938 in Dresden.
* If you find Sir Gareth's bone yourself before talking the witch and then ask her for help politely, she'll comment, approving Geralt's professional precaution.

## Gallery

* Jacob discovers a tree that bleeds when hacked into. With his knowledge of tales, he calls upon a witcher to solve the mystery.
* Cave entrance to the northwest of Lynx Crag.
* Panthers seem to inhabit the Lynx Crag.
* The hut of the witch of Lynx Crag.
* A wall of spell enhancements does not bode well. But here Geralt finds the Silk kerchief.
* The witch is interested in Geralt's motives for showing up in her hut.
* Having talked to the witch respectfully, Geralt will learn that Gareth must have had an accident, and is pointed to investigate the caves below the hut. Apparently the poor sod, fell to his death via a crack in the rock above.
* The remains of Sir Gareth
* Lighting the four fires to perform the ritual to free Daphne.
* If all goes well Daphne will appear thanking the witcher and Jacob.
* If Geralt does not burn Sir Gareth's bone during the ritual, Daphne will turn into a wraith.
* Geralt beat the witch into submission, she grudgingly agrees to lift the curse from Daphne.
* The witch did free an enraged Daphne, but the latter possesses Jacob's dog only to kill the woodcutter.