Scavenger Hunt: Grandmaster Griffin Gear is a treasure hunt quest in the Blood and Wine expansion. It is part of a series of Scavenger Hunt quests given by Lazare Lafargue which concerns the obtainment of the grandmaster sets of witcher gear. This particular quest has to do with the School of the Griffin Grandmaster set.
Walkthrough[]
Make your way to Fort Ussar Ruins where, if you didn't already do Contract: Bovine Blues, there will be a slyzard and its mother in the area. Once you cleared out any threat, head to the eastern side of the ruins to find some stairs with a half hidden crate beneath them. Loot it to retrieve the steel sword, gauntlets, and boots diagrams (150
) along with a document. Reading it will point you towards a nearby landmark, Mont Crane Castle.
However, if you haven't already cleared it out, this place can be overwhelming for an ill-equipped player. This is the location of a Hanse, a very large bandit camp (roughly 20 bandits). To make things worse, if you don't take out the fire runner in time, they will light a signal that will call in reinforcements from nearby bandit camps. You don't have to clear the entire base right now if you don't want to, only the lower courtyard, but try to get the runner (freezing him with a Northern Wind is an easy solution) so that more bandits don't appear there. If you didn't get the runner, be quick with the next part and you can cut block reinforcements from reaching you. Note: if you didn't clear out the area entirely, when you return the place will be re-populated with bandits.
Make your way to where the marker is pointing and Geralt will comment he needs to use the Eye of Nehaleni, so interact with it to dispel the illusion, revealing a hidden area.
Exploring the hidden area will reveal a workshop and on one of the tables is a power crystal. Pick it up, then head over to the archway area in the middle of the workshop and use your Witcher Senses to find a hidden button that will move the stone wall, revealing another hidden area. When you enter, you can close the the stone wall from the other end via another button. Just before the portal in this area is a chest you can loot to find Moreau's journal. Reading it will note that Jerome was taken through a portal, so place the power crystal in the indicated area and activate it with Aard. Now head through the portal, but be prepared as a golem will attack as soon as you exit. Deal with the golem then head further into the cave.
The diagrams are spread out a bit here. In the sack on the chair are the trousers, in a tiny box on a shelf near the stove is the armor, and on the table is the silver sword (there's a written note on this one). After all three diagrams are collected the quest completes. (150) There is an illusion nearby that you can use to exit, though note that if you do, a garkain and a fleder will attack when you near the cave's entrance if you haven't been there already.
Journal entry[]
- Our tale of diagrams for grandmaster level gear of the School of the Griffin is a sad one. But so be it, as not all tales need to be happy. If you are curious to read on, you should start by knowing that it began long ago, when a certain witcher was summoned to Fort Ussar.
- This witcher's name was Jerome, and the monster contract dangled before him had been nothing but a pretext designed to lure him. For Jerome's father had simply decided he wanted his son back, a son who had turned his back on his parents. The problem lay in the fact that Jerome has despised his father, who was a cruel madman despite claiming to have only the best intentions. Their meeting did not end well for either, and though in discovering its nature Geralt managed to assemble a full set of School of the Griffin grandmaster level diagrams, he could not help but recall a grim adage - that good intentions did, indeed, pave hell's floor.
Objectives[]
Note: The order in which these objectives appear may differ depending on the order in which the locations are visited.
- Find all the diagrams in the set: 0/6
- Go to the ruins of Fort Ussar.
- Explore the ruins of Fort Ussar. (150
) - Read Captain Augustus Fierebras' report.
- Go to the castle on Mont Crane.
- Explore Moreau's quarters.
- Read Moreau's notes.
- Put the activating crystal in its place.
- Power the activating crystal using the Aard Sign.
- Enter the portal.
- Defeat the golem.
- Explore Jerome's prison. (150)
Bugs[]
- The exit illusion may remain blocking you into the castle if not dispelled before the quest completes. There are actually two illusions there and the useful one of them seems to be no longer active after the quest, so you just end up removing the other, which was never a real obstacle.
- If you have not yet finished the Mont Crane Castle Hanse Base in Knight for Hire before finishing this quest, a bug may occur which erroneously updates the Grandmaster Griffin Gear quest from being completed to once again being in progress. There is no known solution for this other than reloading an older save file, potentially causing you to lose many hours of progress.