Equine Phantoms

Equine Phantoms is a secondary quest in the Blood and Wine expansion given by the hermit Pinastri at her hermitage, northeast of the Dun Tynne Crossroads.

Walkthrough[]

Talk to the hermit and she will explain she is hunted by some demon, then when Geralt tells her he can't see anything she will explain that no one can see it unless they drink a brew made from an extinct mushroom called graytop, which she managed to grow. Now you will have the option to haggle with her, however, she will explain that she has no money and can only offer potatoes. You can agree to the payment or tell her you will help her for free, after which you start looking for clues.

Important: If you try to haggle and then agree to work for free this will count as "Proof of Generosity" for the secondary quest There Can Be Only One.

Outside the hut are dead moths, and inside you will find a note and graytop on the table, as well as a blood-stained pillow on the bed. Inspecting the pillow will show a trail of blood leading through the small window that then ends a bit further away outside, where Geralt's medallion will detect magic, but nothing can be seen. The note is completely optional and depending on the order of inspection, you may not have to follow the blood trail, but eventually you have enough proof that something is drinking Pinastri's blood at night and you have to talk to her again. It is then decided that Geralt has to drink the brew himself in order to solve the case. Important: You can delay this if you wish, but once you drink it you'll be locked in the quest, and straying away from it will cause it to fail.

The hermit gives you a portion of common graytop brew and after drinking it Geralt will notice he can now talk to his trusted horse Roach. After an amusing conversation, you will now be helping her solve the case and start looking for clues again. If you walk around a bit, you can talk to nearby animals too, but shortly after you inspect the moths again, Roach finds the culprit - an umbra that you now have to chase on her back. No matter what you do you can't catch it (but don't give up or the quest will fail) and the chase will eventually take you to Mont Crane Cemetery.

When you arrive, the umbra dissipates and you will be attacked by four panther apparitions. They aren't particularly strong, but keep in mind they are specters and not real animals. Once they are defeated, examine the grave and a knight's spirit will emerge. He explains the whole story and how it's Pinastri who doesn't give him peace. You will have two options - ask Roach to forgive him in the name of his horse, or say that he doesn't deserve mercy and fight him.

If Roach forgives him, then he will leave for good. If you choose to fight him he will use a halberd, but nothing special apart from that. After he is defeated, loot him for the umbra trophy and you will then return to Pinastri, who will refuse to forgive the knight, thus he will eventually return. In this case, upon returning to Pinastri some time later, she can be found dead in her bed and upon examining her body, Geralt will confirm that the umbra did indeed return and drank all of Pinastri's blood.

Regardless, the hermit will be grateful and unless you haggled and refused, she gives you 60 potatoes, after which the quest completes. (150)

Journal entry[]

I have oft heard Geralt boast that in terms of monsters, he firmly believes he has seen it all. Yet what he encountered on this occasion demanded that he revised that view. While travelling through Toussaint, he happened on a female hermit who claimed an invisible specter was tormenting her and would be her end. The Witcher was skeptical, not least because he could not imagine how he might defeat something invisible.

The woman's suffering seemed so intense, however, that he resolved to try to help her.

To be able to track the hermit-haunting wraith, Geralt imbibed a dose of a brew the woman prepared. The concoction had a highly surprising side effect - for Geralt began to understand the speech of his trusty steed, Roach.

Geralt does not drink the brew:

Yet Geralt decided he shouldn't devote his attention to a specter that he could not see. After a time he returned to visit the hermit, only to learn that Roach herself had proved quite the witcher, having resolved the crisis on her own.

Geralt fails to catch up to the elusive specter:

Yet instead of pursuing the elusive specter, Geralt turned his attention to other matters.

Geralt follows the elusive specter:

Together, the witcher and his mount tracked down the nightmarish ghost. It proved to be the spirit of a knight, Pinastri's former lover, who had committed a terrible crime when in anger he had attacked his own horse and beat it to death. He remained restless in the afterlife for the hermit had refused to forgive him for the deed.

Geralt asks Roach to forgive the knight:

Yet the story ended happily thanks to Roach – namely, the mare decided to forgive the ghost on behalf of the horse he had murdered.

Geralt cannot forgive the knight:

The story did not end well, for Roach, too, refused to forgive the ghost on behalf of the dead horse. Geralt defeated the knight spirit, but he believed this was only temporary, that the specter would ultimately return to demand forgiveness from the hermit.

Objectives[]

Use your Witcher Senses to investigate the area and find out what's tormenting the hermit.
Talk to the hermit.
Help Roach investigate the area.
Use your Witcher Senses to examine the area.
Use your Witcher Senses to examine the moths by the window.
Chase the spirit to find out where it comes from.
Defeat the restless spirits.
Examine the gravestone.
If the Knight's Spirit is not forgiven:
- Defeat the spirit.
Return to the hermit. (150)

Notes[]

The umbra trophy stays permanently in your inventory. It cannot be sold, stashed, dropped or dismantled.
The common graytop brew is received as an actual item, but it destroyed as you consume it immediately after. Thus it can never be looked at.
Animals that could be talked to while inspecting the cottage with Roach are a cat, cow, some wolves and goats. There are also deer nearby, but they run away from range.
If you talk to Pinastri at any point after starting the quest (and after it ends too), she will be available as a herbalist, but she has no icon for this, nor gold to buy from you.
Reading The Flagellant's Manifesto found in her hut unlocks an extra conversation option with Pinastri, and this doesn't have to be done during the quest.
If you leave the area after taking the graytop mushrooms, and thus fail the quest, if you speak to the hermit again she will say Roach has solved the problem on her own.
Even if you have the stallion version of Roach as your horse the dialogues do not change.
The cave marker you find at the location is the cellar mentioned by the hermit and contains only potatoes, which you can loot at any time regardless of decisions during the quest, despite them glowing like quest items. There are approximately, but not always 60 of them, which is the promised reward.
Starting a New Game + from a save during the quest after you drank the graytop brew will cause your new game to permanently have the hallucination overlay, although it will be disabled for some scenes and not always obvious due to environmental conditions. You can't talk to animals throughout the game with it though. This is not tested, but the only possible way to remove it without console commands would be completing an event where it would be triggered naturally, such as the animals section of The King is Dead – Long Live the King or this quest. Note: It is unknown if this still works as of Patch 4.0.
The umbra is strangely labeled as "incubus" for a brief second while transforming, despite the male counterparts to succubi not appearing as of yet in the adaptions.
- Some speculate this is due to the quest originally featuring an incubi as the "demon" haunting Pinastri, not an umbra, backed by the similar behaviours between the creatures.

Trivia[]

In the Polish version, Roach is voiced by Wojciech Mann, a Polish comedian well known for using a calm and carefree voice in his sketches, most notably when discussing "serious" political and social issues.
The dialogues with Roach are slightly different in the Polish (original) version. For example, Roach will mention giving Geralt White Honey using her mouth instead of hooves, or when asked about her voice she will tell Geralt that he is not an expert of voices instead of it being his first time talking to an animal.
The umbra trophy being stuck in your inventory permanently is likely an easter egg, as a reference to the 2006 video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, where in you could obtain a sword with the name Umbra that was often bugged, and the player could not ever remove it from his inventory.

Developers Talking-Roach Easter Eggs[]

When Geralt starts talking to Roach after drinking the Common graytop brew, few strange things ensue:

Ironically, a game bug may get Roach stuck on a few logs, breaking any progress in the quest. Hopefully you have a save to fall back to, to fix this, i.e. one before Geralt drinks the brew. Alternatively, you can use the aard sign on Roach to get her unstuck and proceed with the quest.
When asked about how Roach appears immediately, even if they are continents apart, Roach gives an obscure answer, saying that "(Geralt) is (Roach's) human" and that she's "gotta be there" when Geralt needs her.
- Geralt can question her further, asking how she can cross the ocean, but "get hung up on the tiniest fence". Again, Roach's response is ambiguous, that "everyone's got limits".
- These questions can be considered as 'breaking the fourth wall', since Geralt and Roach are openly discussing the game's mechanics.
- When asked about the whistling, Roach will tell Geralt that she'll "be there for you-ou-ou as the world falls down", a direct reference to David Bowie's 1986 song, "As The World Falls Down".