Overview
Message from an Old Friend is a secondary quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, set in the Books and Scrolls bookstore just off Hierarch Square in Novigrad. It is a nod to people and events from the first Witcher game.
What happens
The bookseller, Marcus T.K. Hodgson, tells Geralt that years ago someone left a red book with him to be handed to the witcher one day. Unfortunately he cannot remember where he put it.
The shop holds a handful of unique books, all worth a read: on the vampire Moribundia, on tyromancy (cheese divination), a bawdy illustrated tale, a medical study on furuncles, and My Manifesto – The Life of Jacques de Aldersberg, the Grand Master of the Order of the Flaming Rose from The Witcher 1. That last one is the book Geralt needs. It is upstairs, just before the stairs to the third floor, and a letter tucked inside is added to his inventory. Reading the letter completes the quest.