The Putrid Grove is Novigrad’s hidden underworld for the poor: a secret refuge where thieves, beggars and outcasts gather, reached through a concealed entrance near Crippled Kate’s. It is the domain of the King of Beggars, Francis Bedlam, one of the Big Four, and the kind of place that even Captain Menge and the Temple Guard avoid.

In the main quest Pyres of Novigrad, Geralt is sent here by the looters at Triss’s townhouse in search of the sorceress. Getting past the thieves and drowners and earning the King’s help is the first real test of how Novigrad works, and it opens the way into the quests that follow: Broken Flowers, Get Junior and Honor Among Thieves.