The Walls Have Ears

The Walls Have Ears is a secondary quest in Chapter 2 of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, available on Iorveth path.

Even if it is not necessary to successfully complete it, or leave it uncompleted (the quest will automatically fail at the end of the Chapter), it is connected with a primary quest, Royal Blood.

Walkthrough
During the quest Royal Blood, you have to gather evidence which will help you judge Prince Stennis. This quest is automatically received if you talk to the human peasantry in the middle of the conflict, in the Castle of the Three Fathers in Vergen.

You are told that a suspect peasant, Willy Oblate, is now guarded by some Scoia'tael and he may have something interesting to tell. You find him outside down the hill from Earso, a few steps to the west of Vergen jail. He is reticent to talk, but after you either intimidate him, or use Axii sign hex, he tells you that he overheard a suspicious conversation between the Prince and the priest Olcan. Then he points out to the priest's house to find more clues, but to locate it you need to talk to the alderman. So talk to Cecil Burdon, and then go to Olcan's house, to the south of Rhundurin Square. Searching in the room (you can activate the Witcher medallion to highlight relevant items) there are Olcan's notes, a sort of schematic for a carved goblet, the same described in Suspect: Thorak quest.

After you find and open Thorak's locker, you also find Olcan's receipt and both Suspect: Thorak and this quest are completed. You also receive 1000 XP. Note: this quest may fail if you have not completed it in the right order. Before heading to Thorak's house, it is suggested to do Baltimore's Nightmare quest first and deal with Thorak. If you decide to kill the dwarf, you can loot the key from his remains that opens a chest inside his house.

Journal entry

 * You may remember that Geralt had been trying to ascertain who had poisoned Saskia the Dragonslayer. One trail led him to a serf who had easy access to Saskia's chambers and could have been bribed by the assassins. Well, the Scoia'tael had been shadowing him closely. They were merely waiting for him to reveal his treachery. Iorveth was receiving reports of his every move.


 * The servant from Saskia's quarters implicated the priest named Olcan as someone who could have been involved in Saskia's poisoning. Though the priest was already dead, having suffered a memorable accident on the cursed battlefield, his home could still be searched. Since the alderman Cecil Burdon knew everyone in Vergen, the witcher went to ask him where the divine servant had lived.


 * Our detective with the wolf medallion around his neck finally learned where Reverend Olcan had lived. So he went to search the priest's room.


 * In Olcan's room, Geralt found a set of designs for a goblet identical to the one Saskia had used during the council. The designs clearly implicated Olcan as an accessory to Saskia's poisoning, yet they did not solve the mystery as a whole. Geralt's investigation was still open, so he decided to continue his search for clues. He went to talk to Vergen's inhabitants.


 * If the quest fails:
 * Since Saskia was dying and time was of the essence, the witcher had to drop the sluggish thread of the goblet and concentrate on the mystery's other aspects.

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