Overview
Contract: Muire D’yaeblen is a witcher contract in the Skellige Isles, based in the harbor village below Kaer Trolde on Ard Skellig. “Muire d’yaeblen” is Skellige slang for drowners, and the shipbuilder Bjorg wants the ones on his coast gone. The recommended level is 18.
Killing drowners is about as hard as tying a boot for a witcher, so Geralt expects easy money. The real problem is Abaya, a water hag living in the caves under the cliffs and keeping the drowners company.
Getting the contract
There are three ways in: the notice board at Kaer Trolde Harbor, talking to Bjorg directly, or finding the cave and killing Abaya before anyone hires you. Bjorg describes a drowner problem that does not sound like normal drowner behavior and sends you to two witnesses: his apprentice Rurik, standing right behind him, and the widow Tove in a house nearby. Rurik’s cousin was dragged off the cliffs into the sea, and Tove’s husband went to the cliffs one night and was later found torn to pieces. The same harbor is also where The Family Blade begins.
The investigation
- The two witnesses give you two sites on the western coast. Either one leads to the lair.
- The northern site has a few drowners near the shore and a chest worth looting. After the fight, Geralt picks up a stench. Stay close to the shore in the water until you are just south of the hidden treasure marker, then swim a fair way through an underwater entrance.
- The southern site is easier: examine the baskets and follow the trail south to a cave entrance.
- Both routes end in the same corridor. Examine the bone by the water entrance and the pelvic bone by the southern entrance, and avoid the gas clouds.
- Clear the drowners in the next room and examine the rusted armor in the far corner.
- In the last chamber, check the bodies and the large wrecked boat. Geralt identifies the culprit as a water hag.
Fighting Abaya
Rather than wait for her to find you, Geralt sets a trap. The game gives you the recipe for drowner pheromones at this point. Brew them, drink one to mask your scent and wait at the marker behind the boats. Abaya turns up with a couple of drowned dead.
Use necrophage oil, slow her with Yrden and keep Quen up against her claws. Her mud throw blinds you, so keep moving. A strong enough Aard knocks her onto her back and lets you finish her in one blow, which also works on her minions. Full tactics are on our Abaya page.
Rewards
Abaya drops a water hag trophy, a water hag mutagen and the sword Daystar. Back in the village, Bjorg suddenly regrets the generous sum he wrote on his notice. Accept what he offers and you get 187 crowns. Insist you deserve more and he grudgingly pays 281 crowns, and more still if you haggled the price up at the start. You also earn 250 XP for handing in the contract, about 300 XP in total.
