Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast is a secondary quest in Act III of The Witcher that moves between the Swamp Forest and the Temple Quarter. Geralt meets Carmen in the swamp, where she has come looking for the druids’ cure for her lover, a man cursed with lycanthropy. If Geralt offers to help, she heads back to the Eager Thighs brothel to wait.

The hierophant names three possible cures: a shirt woven from fool’s parsley, a magic remedy an alchemist could brew, and true love, with the warning that it only works if the beast is still a man at heart. Carmen will not say who the werewolf is, but Geralt finds out the hard way during Lock and Key: it is Vincent Meis, Captain of the Guard. If he spares Vincent, Geralt works through the cures one by one until only the most romantic option is left.

Walkthrough

Talk to Carmen in the Swamp Forest and agree to help.
Visit the hierophant in the Druids’ Grove and hear the three cures.
Find Carmen at the Eager Thighs brothel in the Temple Quarter; she refuses to name her lover.
During Lock and Key, meet the werewolf, Vincent Meis, and spare him to keep this quest going.
Tell Carmen about the cures and bring her five fool’s parsley leaves from the Swamp Forest. Leave and re-enter the Temple Quarter: the shirt does not work.
Ask Kalkstein to make the lycanthropy cure. He needs virgin’s tears, which you can get from Siegfried, a nurse at the hospital, or (after some asking around) a townswoman. Carmen gives the potion to Vincent; it also fails.
Talk to Carmen and Vincent about true love, then leave and re-enter the Temple Quarter and speak to Carmen: Vincent has chosen her and is human again.

Quest Consequences & Choices

Kill Vincent during Lock and Key: the quest fails. You get werewolf fur for the Werewolf’s Wrath potion, but Vincent’s men later attack you at the New Narakort.
Spare and cure him: when Salamandra thugs jump you at the New Narakort, Vincent comes to help, in human form if cured or as a werewolf if not.