Overview
Contract: Phantom of the Trade Route is a witcher contract in Velen, set on the road north of Benek in the Descent. It is recommended from level 23. A refugee in Benek is worried about his brother and others who were hired to travel north with a merchant caravan and have not come back. The “phantom” turns out to be a royal wyvern, backed by two ordinary wyverns.
Getting the contract
This is the only contract in the game that does not appear on a notice board. You can start it by talking to the refugee in Benek, by finding the ransacked caravan on the road, or by finding the cave where the survivors are hiding. Talking to the refugee first is best, since it lets you haggle. If you are checking Benek’s notice board, it shows The Truth is in the Stars, which brings you to the right village anyway.
The investigation
- Head north along the road to the wrecked caravan. Examine the blood, the barrel, the tracks and the claw marks on the rock.
- Geralt picks up the smell of wine. Follow it northeast to a large cave with a body at the entrance. If you talked to the refugee, this is his brother.
- Inside, just below the ledge on the left, you find the two surviving men. They explain that the merchants used hired refugees as bait so their own people and goods stayed safe.
- From what they describe, Geralt identifies the beast as a royal wyvern. The survivors will not leave until it is dead.
Fighting the royal wyvern
Head south up the ramp, mind the gap at the first ledge and keep climbing. If you have Hearts of Stone installed, ignore the path leading down. At the top, kill the two regular wyverns and destroy their two nests. That draws out the royal wyvern in a short cutscene.
Watch for its spit attack, its jumping lunge and its charge. Dodge sideways and punish it while it recovers. Coat your silver sword in draconid oil, interrupt it with Aard, and bring it down with Grapeshot or the crossbow when it takes off. The plateau is roomy, but there is a ledge, and falling off it is fatal. Full tactics are on our Phantom of the Trade Route monster page.
Rewards
The royal wyvern drops a wyvern trophy and the sword Anathema. The two survivors come out to see the body for themselves and then head home. Back in Benek the refugee pays 192 crowns (more if you haggled), and you earn 250 XP for handing in the contract. Talking to the survivors, identifying the monster and destroying the nests add a little more XP, for about 345 XP in total. If you met the survivors before the refugee, he is reluctant to pay at first because his friends have not arrived yet, but pays in the end.
The cave also holds the diagram for Enhanced Feline boots. For another Velen wyvern hunt at a much lower level, see Contract: Patrol Gone Missing.
