Contract: The Creature from Oxenfurt Forest is a contract quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
- Contract: Beast in the Oxenfurt Forest
- If you know no fear and seek work, read this notice, for the call contained therein will be of great interest to you.
- Hans of Cidaris, soldier of fortune and veteran of many wars, hereby makes known the following: Being greatly concerned about the fate of the local peasantry, which suffers horribly from the attacks of some monster nesting in the forest near Oxenfurt, I have decided to grant a purse of Novigrad crowns to the man who slays this beast.
- Yet may it be known that nay man who comes to me without a trophy shall receive no gold, but instead shall be tossed out on his arse so hard he shan't sit again till the end of his days.
- Hans of Cidaris,
World-famous soldier of fortune,
veteran of numerous wars,
Honored member of the Order of the Lily
Walkthrough
You can start this quest a few ways:
- Pick up this contract off Oxenfurt's notice board
- Find Hans at his camp and talk to him
- Find the archgriffin's nest while exploring
If you found the notice, head out to the impromptu camp east-southeast of the Herbalist's Hut to find Hans. He'll tell you how he and his group of men decided to try and take out a beast in the area to help the locals but it was clear they were outmatched as 2 of his men just disappeared, never to be seen again, thus his notice. You can haggle with him if you wish, then he'll give a location further east-southeast.
Head out here to find a corpse and a lot of blood, but notably not a second body. After examining these 2 pieces of evidence, go further north to find a human arm, and nearby more blood, though this time you have a better trail to follow the flying monster. While you follow this trail, you'll likely come across a pack of wolves, so kill them off, then continue following the trail to where some ravens are gathered around the last bit of the body, picked clean. While this trail has disappeared, you can follow the birds in the sky to the east, as they'll lead you to the rest of the body. If it's after 7pm, you'll likely hear the monster soon, otherwise during the day you'll need to investigate some more.
As you near some rocky cliffs here, if it's nighttime the archgriffin, Opinicus, will be here and you'll go straight into fighting it. Otherwise, you'll find some large feathers nearby or at the nest which, on examining them, Geralt will deduce it's an archgriffin. Regardless how you learn about it, you'll earn 25 
here.
If it's during the day, climb up the ledge to find the nest and what's left of the second body. However, there is an interesting letter on the body here that you should read and Geralt will make a comment on, then meditate or come back after 7pm and Opinicus will be there. If you found it after nighttime, you can still find the letter after killing Opinicus to use later. After you kill the archgriffin, loot the body for the archgriffin trophy, archgriffin mutagen, and the Zireael armor, then head back to Hans or, if you found the griffin by accident, get the notice off Oxenfurt's notice board to turn it in.
Talk to him to let him know it's dead, but if you found the letter, you now have a choice to mention it and demand a better reward. Doing this will earn 300 and 331 
(or 170 on top of what you haggled originally). If you didn't read the letter though, or didn't mention it, you'll still get 300 but only 221 . Whatever you decide, the quest will then conclude here. Consequences: with the Hearts of Stone expansion, if one wants to get Quinto, you'll have to deal with Hans again who will be mad and demand you pay double to release him if you had demanded he pay you more during this contract.
Journal entry
- Start the quest by finding the notice or talking to Hans:
- Mercenaries are usually the ones getting paid for killing things. This time, however, the shoe was on the other foot: a certain Hans of Cidaris, a soldier of fortune by trade, had made it known far and wide that he would pay a handsome sum to whoever could defeat the beast that had made its nest in the forest outside Oxenfurt. Geralt decided to take on the job.
- Geralt's investigation led him to conclude that an archgriffin had taken up residence in the ravine. This creature was in most respects similar to the royal griffin Geralt had fought in White Orchard, but with the added nastiness of being able to spit a noxious acid at its prey.
- If Geralt reads the document and mentions it:
- Geralt defeated the beast - and discovered a highly interesting document in its lair. It seemed Geralt's employer, Hans of Cidaris, had already accepted a contract to kill this griffin. What's more, unlike the witcher he had been paid in advance - and a much larger sum than what he had offered Geralt!
- If Geralt didn't read the letter or did but didn't mention it:
- Geralt defeated the beast and collected his reward. For once, there was no backpedalling[sic] or chicanery!
Objectives
- Start quest by finding the notice:
- Talk about the contract with the mercenary, Hans.
- Examine where the monster attacked using your Witcher Senses.
- Follow the blood trail using your Witcher Senses.
- Follow the ravens using your Witcher Senses.
- Find the griffin's nest.
- If you find the nest during the day:
- Return after dark, when the griffin is in its nest.
- Kill the griffin.
- Take a trophy from the griffin.
- Start quest by finding the griffin:
- Check the Oxenfurt notice board for a contract on the monster you killed.
- Collect your reward from Hans.
Videos
