Slaughter for the Sorceresses

To your right is a half-submerged cavern. Turn left and jog towards a brittle-looking brick wall. A short shove with Aard, and it falls apart, allowing access into the sewers, and a battle against three ghouls and a necrophage. The grated tunnel is a dead-end, so head roughly east and northeast, upstream through the effluent. Turn right and enter the sloping tunnel of dirty water to the south. This must be the body chute. You soon spot a corpse and a bloodied ledge to climb up. You emerge in a torture chamber.

If Zoltan already arrived with the alcohol, there is no one in this chamber.

If Zoltan didn’t help, there are two witch hunters surprised at your entrance. Quickly slay them.

Push the southwest door open. Climb the wooden stairs and through another door, and into the main prison level. Prepare to bring the hurting to three witch hunters. Defeat them before exploring further into this cellblock. Access the grating along the main corridor, just across from the door you entered from. Margarita looks up from her cell. Is she hallucinating? No, you tell her. But you can’t free her without the warden’s key.

If Sile de Tancarville survived during Witcher 2, she is also with Margarita.

Head to the northeast exit door, and up another wooden stairwell. Peer outside to the prison grounds.

If Zoltan helped you with the hooch, you find a number of guards standing in drunken celebration. You can simply move past them, as long as you don’t venture too close to them. Sneak up the stairs and ascend to the Prison Commander’s Office. Dispatch him quickly to retrieve the key from his body. Of course, you can simply start fighting the drunk guards at any time, if stealth isn’t part of your plans.

Without Zoltan’s help, there’s around eight well-armored Redanian soldiers here. Don’t head there yet. Instead, enter the adjacent stairwell, ascend to an upper room and deliver some punishment to a pair of witch hunters (so they don’t outflank you in a moment). Then descend, head outside, and start the mother of all battles against the cream of Oxenfurt’s prison guard! Expect a further six reinforcements along the battlements, and a couple of crossbowmen on the roof.

Afterwards, search the corpse of the Redanian commander for a cell key. Grab it, retrace your steps, and unlock Margarita’s cell. You pull out your summoning device, and Yennefer arrives by portal. Yennefer gathers up Margarita, and teleports away, leaving you to mop up.

If Sile de Tancarville survived during Witcher 2, she pleads with Yennefer for a quick death. You can choose to administer this, or leave Yennefer to do it instead.

Quest Conclusion: Prison Break

Retrace your steps back up to the courtyard, and bring a quick death to any foes that remain. Or, if you’re encountering drunks everywhere, simply sneak past them along the battlements to the breach in the wall.

If you requested help (and beer) from Zoltan, he is waiting in the courtyard (complaining how the plan went south if you interrupted the reveling witch hunters and killed them instead), and he had to kill a great many guards. Some are inebriated, making them more straightforward to slay. Afterwards, Zoltan offers you a ride back to Novigrad. Accept to conclude this quest. You receive more XP if you got the witch hunters drunk and snuck by them.

When the coast is clear, run along the battlements and up into the warden’s office, where you can inspect a list of prisoners if you wish (on the bedroom table). Return outside. The main gates (to the northwest) are barred shut. Run around the battlements until you reach a broken section of the western wall. Leap out onto the main street, and this quest concludes.

Alternatively, you can trace your steps back into the sewers, to the torture chamber, where you can find a key that opens the doors in the sewers that were previously locked. Travel along the tunnel to a second door, pass it and turn right to enter the cellar of a nearby house. Then climb up into the house and leave it inconspicuously.

Now leave Oxenfurt if you wish, but be sure to wait for daylight (meditating or manually waiting) to continue.