Open Sesame: Witcher Seasonings is a main quest in the Hearts of Stone expansion and a subquest to Open Sesame!
Walkthrough[]
As the Stranger proposed, you have to convince the garrison's cook to add a little something extra to the guards' stew for the heist night to incapacitate a fair number of them. Before anything else, you must craft a cleansing mixture which requires one Dwarven Spirit, two Rotfiend blood, and two Wolfsbane. While it's highly unlikely that you don't already have the ingredients, Otto Bamber conveniently sells all of them.
Once done, make your way to the Borsodi Brothers' Auction House and use your Witcher Senses to eavesdrop on the guards' conversations in an attempt to find out where the cook is. While doing this, you must keep the witcher senses active for the whole conversation to take place and keep your distance, so that you aren't noticed.
When the front guards don't say anything of interest, head around to the back of the building and listen to the guards there for another conversation. When, once again, this fails to turn up anything, so go to the road behind the auction house to locate a third pair of guards. These two you'll have to follow, but remember that you have to be in range while keeping distance, so try to stay just on the edge of the marked area. Eventually, their conversation gives away the location of the cook.
Make your way to the dock near the Western Gate to find the cook, Maarten, by day (at night he'll not be here). Speak to him, and either bribe him for 500 crowns (50 
) to spike his stew or simply use Axii (requires Delusion level 2 for a minimum of 35) to get him to do it for free. Once he agrees, the quest completes. (150)
Journal entry[]
- Oxenfurt, once a city of students, had been transformed by war into a city of soldiers. Redanian troops were everywhere – in every inn, shop, and brothel, but, most visibly and annoyingly of all, on every street. Geralt had to find a way to reduce the number of patrols if the robbery was to stand a chance of success. He dug into his bag of witcher tricks and found just the thing – an alchemical mixture which, added to the soldiers' rations, would soon have half the Oxenfurt garrison out on sick leave...
- The garrison cook turned out to be amenable to cooperation. He agreed to add the witcher's special sauce to his pot, making Geralt's task much easier.
Objectives[]
- Prepare a cleansing mixture that will weaken the Redanian soldiers.
- Use your Witcher Senses to eavesdrop on Redanian soldiers patrolling Oxenfurt to find out where to find their cook.
- Visit the garrison cook during the day and convince him to help you. (150
)
Notes[]
- The conversation you eavesdrop on is a reference to Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.