The Incense Quest in Witcher 2

The Witcher 2 is a rich game with many choices that affect the story. While the big choices – such as whether you want to save Velen or kill him – are easy to understand, there are other smaller choices that may have unintended consequences. One such choice is the incense quest. This minor side-quest is a part of the Chapter I story and offers players a fun way to spend some time with Vlodimir.

This short, optional quest spawns after you speak with Triss. She’ll tell you that she needs your help with a delivery. She’ll bring you to a warehouse with Brandon, who wants you to place incense in three areas. Help him out, and then speak with Triss again to finish the task.

Once you’ve finished this quest, you can go back to Flotsam. You’ll find Vencel Pugg by the docks. He wants a formula for some incense, and Geralt agrees to get it for him. On the way to the shop, however, he finds some angry townsfolk who want the incense shop closed. This reopens the secondary quest, “Little Shop of Dreams.”

When you reach the incense shop, you can either convince the shopkeeper to give you the real formula or accept a fake substitute. If you take the fake formula, the alchemist will be mad at you and will later ambush you in the forest, and he will not let you access his secret lab anymore.

If you take the real formula, the alchemist will be happy with you and you can continue to work for him. You can also choose to refuse the formula and leave, but this will lead to a menacing encounter with the alchemist in which you have to fight him and his thugs. In addition, your refusal will mark the Chapter I story as a failure and prevent you from retaking the lab in the future.

After completing this optional quest, you can return to the Baron and tell him what you found. The Baron will be grateful to you and offer a reward. The reward is a sword. Unlike the other weapons that you can acquire in the game, this sword isn’t very powerful. However, it is unique and looks pretty cool. It’s definitely worth picking up.