Overview
Contract: The Merry Widow is a level 10 witcher contract in Lindenvale, a village in Velen. Something has been digging up the local cemetery, and now a young child has gone missing. The culprit is Mourntart, a grave hag who got bored of old bones and started on the living. Expect a few rabid dogs as a warm-up act before the main event.
Getting the contract
There are two ways in. The tidy one is the notice on Lindenvale’s notice board, posted by the village gravedigger. Read it and go talk to him. The other is to stumble on the monster’s hut first: the place is so clearly not lived in by anything human that Geralt starts investigating on his own. If you go that way, you still need to check the notice board afterwards to have someone to collect the bounty from.
The investigation
The gravedigger explains that bodies are being dug up and a child has vanished. Head up to the church, where several rabid dogs are waiting. Put them down, then use your Witcher Senses around the graveyard. The opened graves show that no shovel was involved, and on the southwest side behind the church you’ll find a fresher pile with a rotting cadaver.
From there, follow the smell of cadaverine across a broken bridge to a hut. Inside, examine the bowl by the door, the cauldron and the pile of skulls in the corner. That’s enough for Geralt to name the monster: a grave hag. She likes her trophies, so the plan is simple. Pick up the skulls and take them back to the cemetery as bait.
Place them on the pedestal inside the church. Time skips ahead to nightfall and Mourntart shows up to reclaim her collection.
Fighting Mourntart
Mourntart is fast, faster than you’d like, and her claws break through blocks and parries. Don’t stand still and trade blows. Dodge, land one or two hits and roll away again. Her long tongue is poisonous, but a well-timed counter can cut it off and end that problem for the rest of the fight.
- Necrophage oil on the silver sword.
- Yrden slows her down enough to fight on fairer terms. Pull her into the circle.
- Quen as a safety net for the hits you won’t avoid.
- Black Blood makes her bites cost her.
Full tactics on our Mourntart page.
Rewards
Take the grave hag trophy from her body and return to the gravedigger. If you spoke to him before the hunt, he asks about the missing child. Answer however you like, it doesn’t change the payout.
- XP: 250 in total (10 for the hut investigation, 240 on completion)
- Crowns: 180
- Loot: grave hag trophy, grave hag mutagen and the sword Addan Deith
Lindenvale has more work for a witcher. Witcher Wannabe deals with a fraud taking contracts in the area, Contract: Mysterious Tracks starts with a local hunter, and The Fall of the House of Reardon waits at a manor nearby.
