Inn at the Crossroads

The Inn at the Crossroads is a big roadside tavern in northern Velen, standing where the roads meet just across the river from Mulbrydale. It is a sizeable place, built to hold a crowd of travelers and revelers, with a busy notice board out front, a fast travel signpost a few steps away and a back door that comes in handy when trouble walks in through the front. In wartime Velen, a warm hearth and a full tankard make it one of the few cheerful spots around, at least until the Bloody Baron’s men drop by to squeeze the villagers and collect their share of the innkeep’s profits.

In The Witcher 3

For most players this is the very first stop in Velen. After arriving at the Hanged Man’s Tree and riding through Mulbrydale, Geralt comes here in The Nilfgaardian Connection to ask about Hendrik, an imperial agent hiding in the area. The innkeep is not exactly chatty, and the moment Geralt sits down with a drink the room empties and the Baron‘s thugs walk in. Geralt can try to talk his way out or simply draw his sword. Either way the innkeep eventually points him to Heatherton, where Hendrik lived. If Geralt cuts the thugs down, the Baron’s men remember it later in Family Matters.

The innkeep is also a keen gwent player. He plays a Nilfgaardian deck full of spies and medics, and beating him earns the Menno Coehoorn card. He is one of the three innkeepers in Gwent: Playing Innkeeps, together with Stjepan at The Alchemy in Oxenfurt and Olivier at the Kingfisher in Novigrad.

The notice board has work for a witcher as well. A man called Bruno waits inside, worried sick about his brother Mikel, who led a group of women displaced by the war to shelter in some old mines nearby and never came back. The mines turn out to be the nest of the arachas Harrisi, and a dead Nilfgaardian inside carries the sword Gwyhyr.

Quests at the Inn at the Crossroads

• The Nilfgaardian Connection
• Contract: Missing Brother
• Gwent: Playing Innkeeps
• Fists of Fury: Velen (one of the local fistfighting spots)
• Wild at Heart (notice on the board)

Good to know

• The inn has a fast travel signpost and an innkeep who sells food and drink.
• Play the innkeep at gwent before you move on. He is easy to forget once the story heads to Crow’s Perch.
• If the innkeep vanishes after The Nilfgaardian Connection, meditate or come in through the side door.