The Great Escape is a main quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and one of four subquests necessary to complete for Final Preparations.
Walkthrough[]
When you meet with Yennefer in Crippled Kate's, she will ask whose idea was it to go after Imlerith. If you lie and say it was yours, she will reveal that she already knew it was Ciri's idea, but will praise Geralt for supporting Ciri regardless of your answer. After asking why she is at Crippled Kate's and about Margarita Laux-Antille, Yennefer will tell you that there is a man who escaped from Deireadh prison named Abbé Faria who is a regular there. The man will then enter, and after trying to talk to him, he will try to escape, and you have to catch him. It's kind of tricky to actually catch him, but you can use Aard or Axii instead when you are close enough to him. If you take too long, Yennefer will teleport and catch him herself.
Bug: While it's impossible to fail this chase, you should not try to go exploring too far as the quest markers may stop updating and you will have to find Abbé without their help.
Regardless, once he's caught you will return to Crippled Kate's and he will tell you everything you need to know. He will reveal that the guards like to drink while on duty and that it's possible to get in the same way he got out—through the sewers. Yen will propose using the Elven ruins that are connected to the sewers as a way into the prison. (200
)
Breaking in[]
You will have the optional objective to ask Zoltan Chivay for help getting the guards drunk. However, if Now or Never was completed he will refuse as the Witch hunters are now targeting non-humans. If he can help, you'll just face a couple fewer guards inside the prison.
Whether or not you asked for Zoltan's help, meet Yennefer in Oxenfurt and she will lead you to the entrance into the ruins that she found: a previously blockaded well. When you reach it, she will also give Geralt a magic trinket that will allow her to teleport in when you find Margarita Laux-Antille. Jump inside the well and feel free to explore—there are worthwhile chests in almost every chamber, including in the waters. You may have to kill a couple of drowners, but they don't always spawn. Eventually, you'll encounter a grave hag guarding a stone door with a lever mechanism that's missing a handle. Just in the other room you will find an open door and you can take the handle from its mechanism, then go back with it to open the one you need.
Beyond the stone door there will be a breakable wall in front of you and another flooded section to your right. Behind the breakable wall you will encounter a rotfiend and three ghouls, which can be tricky to handle in the tight tunnels. When they're dealt with, follow the sewer down and then to your right, where you'll find a hole in the wall that will get you into the prison. The witch hunters there will not see you until you climb in, but will attack once you do, unless Zoltan helped and got them drunk. However you deal with them, you can find a sewer key in the same room—it opens the grate door on the opposite side in the sewers, so you can escape later, though you don't actually need to use that exit.
Margarita[]
The next room is the cell-block with more guards that you have to kill as well as Margarita. Note: If you spared Síle de Tansarville in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, she will also be in the cell. Rita tells Geralt that he needs the key from the Prison Warden and now follows the real action.
Go upstairs through the next door and you'll be right at the courtyard entrance, but there's also another room upstairs with a couple of more witch hunters and it's better to kill them off first. Once you enter the courtyard, the guards will ring the alarm bell and all will attack you—regular witch hunters, a couple of shield bearers, and some crossbowmen shooting you from the walls, with halberdiers possibly joining later. If you can kill them all quickly you may have to go and actually look for the warden, but he usually comes and joins the fight on his own. The alarm bell is actually ringing for reinforcements, but only one new enemy at a time will spawn at very long intervals until you kill everybody, or none at all if Zoltan is helping.
When the warden is dead and you loot him for the cell key (and possibly gwent cards, if you didn't get them during A Dangerous Game), you can go back the prison cells. Once you open Margarita's cell, Geralt will use the trinket from Yennefer, and she teleports in. If Síle is here, she will ask to die with dignity and either you or Yen will deliver the mercy kill. The two sorceresses will then teleport out and Geralt has to leave the prison on his own. (300)
Note: If you want to free the other prisoners, you have to unlock their cells first as you will lose the key once you free Margarita. Freeing them gives nothing, apart from their gratitude and Trapped mage's notes in one of the cells. They will move into the sewer you came from, but will remain there even after you open the exit gate.
You can actually just jump out through a hole in courtyard wall, right on the street, as if nothing happened. However, the intended way is to go back to the sewers and unlock the gate directly across from you, using the previously looted key. This will lead to the same section of sewer containing Diagram: Enhanced Feline trousers. If Zoltan was providing help, you have to meet up with him first, but otherwise the quest ends once you escape the prison. (300)
Journal entry[]
- In the mission to gather the members of the former Lodge of Sorceress, it fell to Yennefer to bring Margarita Laux-Antille to Novigrad. Yennefer's old friend had been captured by the witch hunters and was being kept in Deireadh, the best-guarded prison this side of the Yaruga.
- Geralt and Yennefer thus had a hard endeavor in front of them - they would have to break into the sealed compound and sneak Margarita out. Good thing Yen had something even better than a file in a carrot cake: contact information for the one man who had managed to escape Deireadh. Escaping seemed to be in his blood, for he attempted to make another getaway at the sight of Yennefer and Geralt, but eventually they caught him and sat down for a chat. He told them how to outfox the guards and enter the prison unnoticed. With no time to waste, Geralt and Yennefer raced off to Margarita's rescue.
- With their powers combined, Yennefer and Geralt freed Margarita from the most formidable prison in the North. Rita was in a very sorry state, but the knowledge that she was free and would not perish on a pyre fortified her strength. Yennefer showered her long-time friend with tender care, and everyone hoped for a swift recovery.
Objectives[]
- Catch the runaway. (200
) - (Optional) Ask Zoltan for help.
- Meet Yennefer at the bridge into Oxenfurt.
- Enter the prison through the well.
- Search the ruins.
- Find the missing part of the mechanism using your Witcher Senses.
- Repair the mechanism and open the doors.
- Enter the sewers.
- Find the sorceress Margarita.
- Get the key.
- Search the commander's body and find the key to the cell door.
- Open the cell. (300 )
- Get out of the prison. (300 )
- If Zoltan is helping:
- Make your way to Zoltan.
Notes[]
- One of the rooms above the courtyard will contain several guards and a List of prisoners. The prisoners listed are friends or associates of the developers.[1]
- If Síle is not present (refer to the Witcher 3 decision checklist for more information on this), her character entry will be updated after the quest as if she had been present and Geralt has given her a dignified death.
- If you previously entered Whoreson Junior's mansion through the secret passage during Get Junior, you can use it again to exit the prison.
- While following Yennefer during this quest, she will remark that Novigrad is built on top of Elven ruins, even though the quest takes place in Oxenfurt.
- A discarded letter was supposed to be found somewhere in the sewers, but for unknown reasons it doesn't appear.
Trivia[]
- Abbé Faria's name, as well as how he escaped the prison, are references to the novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
- When entering the sewers by jumping into the well you can find a skeleton between two doorways. Geralt will call them a tomb raider who seemed to like elven stuff. This is a possible reference to the Tomb Raider series.
- The quest name is a reference to a prison-escape film with the same title, The Great Escape.
Videos[]
