From a Bygone Era is a quest in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings that starts in Chapter 2 and continues in Chapter 3. In Malget’s hut, Geralt finds notes that are clearly magical and looks for someone versed in sorcery to make sense of them. They turn out to be necromantic formulae for pacts with evil spirits, documents dangerous enough that owning them is punishable by death.
Geralt can sell the notes to Dethmold or keep them. If he keeps them, the story resumes in Chapter 3 in the sewers of Loc Muinne, where he meets a creature like a will-o’-the-wisp that asks a question in an unknown language while the notes begin to glow. The sorcerer Bras of Ban Ard explains that it is a Vran guardian: the extinct reptilian Vrans protected their treasures with magical sentinels that only let in those who know the password.
Reading the password from Malget’s notes opens a portal to a locked room with seven braziers. Solving the brazier puzzle leads to another Vran-made guardian that rewards those it considers worthy, and how Geralt answers it decides the outcome.
