Overview
Evil’s Soft First Touches is the first main quest of Hearts of Stone, the first expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. What starts as an ordinary monster contract quickly pulls Geralt into a bargain with Gaunter O’Dimm, and into the story of Olgierd von Everec.
A monster in the sewers
At the notice board by the Seven Cats Inn, a new contract is being pinned up: a monster in the sewers. The client is Olgierd von Everec, ataman of the Redanian Free Company, who has taken over the Garin Estate. His men mock Geralt, which can end in a fistfight. Olgierd explains that his cook was killed beneath Oxenfurt while looking for a prince who had been turned into a toad.
In the Oxenfurt sewers, Geralt meets an old friend, the medic Shani, trying to save a dying soldier. She guides him past drowners and locked gates. The monster turns out to have a taste for alcohol, and Geralt uses that to lure it out.
The Toad Prince
The Toad Prince is a tough fight that sets the tone for the whole expansion. It hops around, lashes out with its tongue and spits poison, so Golden Oriole and Yrden are a big help. When it falls, it turns out it really was a prince. Geralt is splashed with its toxins and passes out, and the Ofieri soldiers who were searching for their prince take him prisoner.
Gaunter O’Dimm
Geralt wakes in a cell aboard the Ofieri ship, bound for execution in Ofir. A fellow prisoner, Phelippe Calagrande, teaches him a phrase to ask for the captain, but it gets him nowhere. Then Gaunter O’Dimm, the man Geralt first met at White Orchard, appears in the cell and offers to help in exchange for a favor. With no other choice, Geralt agrees, and O’Dimm burns a mark into his face.
A storm wrecks the ship. On the beach Geralt can escape or fight the surviving soldiers and an Ofieri mage. That night in Yantra, O’Dimm explains the price: Olgierd knew exactly who the toad was, and he too is in O’Dimm’s debt. Before O’Dimm can collect, three of Olgierd’s wishes must be granted, and Geralt will be the one to grant them.
The burning estate
When Geralt returns to the Garin Estate for his pay, the house is on fire, and two of Olgierd’s men are about to execute one of their own. If Geralt threatens them, Olgierd himself challenges him to a duel for the man’s life. He is one of the toughest human opponents in the game. Either way, Olgierd names his three wishes, which set up the rest of Hearts of Stone.