The Scent of Incense

The Scent of Incense is a quest in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

Walkthrough
A quest given in Flotsam. A scholar wishes to obtain a certain formula from a local shopkeeper. When talking with the man you can choose to give him the real formula or a fake one. When you return to the scholar he wants to test it, to see if it is valid. You can agree or take it back. If you disagree the alchemist propose to bring you to his laboratory, blindfolded. You can again disagree and then he'll mark the place on your map.

When he realises the formula is fake he orders his man to attack Geralt. Geralt kills the guards and the scholar as he had connections with Salamandra in Vizima.

Another option is to get the real formula. Then Geralt can choose to give the formula to the alchemist, in which case he won't fight the scholar and his men and he will receive the reward from him thus completing the quest, although he can just attack and kill them afterwards as well. Choosing this path will mark the quest as failed at the end of the first chapter.

Finally, Geralt can get the real formula but choose not to give it the alchemist, in which case the alchemist leaves making ominous threats.

Journal Entry

 * Do you like the scent of incense? Then Listen. Geralt met a scholar at the harbor. The man claimed that one of the local shopkeepers sold incense producing poisonous smoke. He could not prove the murderous trade without producing a recipe for the incense. Geralt promised to get the man a recipe for a tidy sum of orens.


 * Geralt got a recipe, of course. It was for an incense with very similar composition, and the witcher thought the scholar would not see the difference.


 * A good scholar takes nothing at face value. After the witcher gave him the incense recuoem the scholar from the hardbor wanted to test its authenticity in his laboratory and agreed to meet the witcher on the market side of the gate.


 * The witcher agreed to have his eyes covered and was led to his employer's hideout. Thus he walked straight into a trap. Yet it was a trap set by amateurs, and Geralt was a professional.


 * ''Geralt dealt with his employer and the others. Science was unharmed, however, because they all turned out to be fissteceh dealers and the remnants of Salamandra, an organisation which had crossed the witcher long ago.