Overview
The Price of Passage is an unmarked secondary quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, set in and around Oxenfurt. It becomes available after the drinking part of Contract: The Oxenfurt Drunk. Two Redanian soldiers under the archway between the Oxenfurt Harbor signpost and the marketplace demand a “war tax”.
If you pay
They take 50 crowns. A few days later they turn up again at the west end of Novigrad Gate and want 100. Pay again and they are never seen again. Refuse and you may meet them once more on Oxenfurt’s eastern outskirts, angry that you got them in trouble, and ready to fight with fists or steel.
If you refuse
They call their superior and accuse Geralt of being a spy. The officer does not believe them and threatens to send them to the front for extortion. Later they can be met again east of Novigrad Gate, near The Most Truest of Basilisks. Geralt can charm them with Axii, pay them off, or fight.
The XP here does not scale with level or difficulty.