Three Crones, Crowing

Chaperone Johnny as he scampers back towards Crookback Bog (there are drowners to defeat along the way), and wait as he convinces Gran (Anna) you should gain an audience with the crones. You enter a rickety home filled with candles, and a tapestry made of hair, showing three ladies most becoming. After a song, Anna speaks through the cloth to them. Ask about the ashen-haired woman; they have seen her, but need you to rid nearby Downwarren of a dark presence.

Anna brings you the dagger the ladies instructed her to give you. Afterwards, feel free to explore the cellar of the crones’ hut, which has an interesting shrine and other detritus to look at.

Make haste to the village of Downwarren, moving quickly through the gaseous swamp in a roughly northerly direction. Along the way, you may encounter a quartet of bandits by some abandoned farmsteads. Follow a rough path into the foothills, and up the grassy slopes into Downwarren itself. The ealdorman stands by his home clad in a green tunic. Speak with him; he speaks of an evil one feeding on bloodshed, under the mighty Ancient Oak tree on Whispering Hillock.

There is evil afoot! Trek roughly southeast, possibly encountering hags in the mire along the way. Pass through the ruins, into a forested area close to the hillock. With your Witcher Senses, move to uncover a corpse with deep claw marks; there are two bodies along the path at the foot of the hillock.

A voice and ethereal footprints lead you up toward a clearing near the hillock, where a fearsome werewolf is roaming. He must be confronted and slain, sometimes with his two wolf brethren. It seems the source of evil is contained up a series of ledges (use your Witcher Sense to find them), and into a gloomy cave filled with dangling tree roots. This quest temporarily stops, and The Whispering Hillock starts immediately.