An Old Coot Needs A Rare Root

Puffing on a pipe outside his cottage near the large windmill, the old sage of Benkelham (in the southeast) tells you he’s seen your future plotted out in the stars, once you speak to him. You can ask how he came to obtain such magical powers (a rock to the head as a youth).

Offer him some food (any edible ingredient, including raw meat), and you receive a foretelling: The old coot (sorry, sage) mumbles something about an endless cavern, the singing of a hymn of madness and despair, and the summoning of “that which is not dead, for it cannot die”. You remark these are past experiences you’ve endured. To see the future, the sage requires some dragonsroot.

Journey southeast down the rolling hills, and around to a cave entrance overlooking the river banks. The cave entrance itself is ominous—piles of skulls and blood litter the earth. Enter the tunnel, following it into a dead-end cavern where around five ghouls are ready to pounce. Slaughter them. Then inspect the slumped corpses, and use your Witcher Senses to locate dragonsroot along one of the rock walls.

End: Ess’tuath Esse!

Return to Benkelham. Hand over the root to the old sage, who returns with some startling predictions, possibly channeling the elven prophetess Ithlinne. Afterwards, the elder man plops down on his stool, exhausted, as the quest concludes.