An Encrypted Manuscript is a Chapter 3 side quest in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, available in Loc Muinne on both paths. While poking around the magic-soaked ruins in the south-east of the city, usually during The Gargoyle Contract, Geralt finds a strange tome written in a way he cannot read and goes looking for someone who can.
Bras of Ban Ard, a sorcerer with a taste for antiques, recognises that the text is sealed with a spell that can be broken. For the counter-spell he asks for endrega queen pheromones, nekker warrior blood, a bullvore brain and a harpy egg, though a rotfiend tongue will do in place of the egg. Players who skipped the Chapter 1 monster hunts may find themselves regretting it here.
With the ingredients delivered, Bras decodes the book. It holds the diagram for Caerme, one of the finest steel swords in the game. The quest fails if it is left unfinished once sorcerers start dying in Loc Muinne.
