Little Shop of Dreams

Little Shop of Dreams is a Chapter 1 side quest in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, set in the town square of Flotsam. It pops up when Geralt heads to the herbalist’s shop for The Scent of Incense and runs into a crowd of angry locals. Their leader, Matilda Szabo, claims the herbalist Vilmos Bartok is not selling incense at all but a potent drug, and she wants his shop shut.

Geralt has to confront Bartok and decide whether the man keeps trading. Closing the shop pleases Matilda and earns a modest reward; letting him carry on technically completes the quest but leaves the protesters grumbling. Either way, Bartok also holds the real incense formula Geralt came for in the first place.

Walkthrough

Accept The Scent of Incense from Vencel Pugg, then head for the herbalist’s shop in the Flotsam town square.
Talk to the protesting villagers and their leader, Matilda Szabo, who asks you to stop the herbalist.
Buy any formulae you want from Vilmos Bartok first – if his shop closes, he stops trading.
Ask Bartok whether he deals drugs, then use Persuasion, Axii or intimidation to make him close up (Geralt then also asks for the real incense formula).
Return to Matilda Szabo for your reward.

Quest Consequences & Choices

Shop closed: Matilda pays Geralt 20 orens, but Bartok no longer sells anything.
Shop left open: the quest counts as completed, but Matilda is unhappy and there is no reward.
Bartok can give either the real incense formula or a fake one.
If the quest is still open when you finish At a Crossroads (Roche or Iorveth path), it fails.