Father Knows Worst is a secondary quest in the Blood and Wine expansion.

Armed Escort Wanted!

We wish to hire a person (or persons) with good weapon skills who, for a reasonable fee, will escort us into Albertus Cavern for exploratory purposes. The knights errant claim the cave harbors no dangers, so we don't expect trouble, but better safe than sorry.

Auguste, Lucien and Hugo Monnart

Walkthrough

The easiest way to start this quest is to find the contract notice on The Gran'place's notice board, but you may also stumble upon the Albertus Grotto, north of Rioux-Cannes Outpost. Regardless, once you enter the cave two brothers, Lucien Monnart and Auguste Monnart, will be screaming for help and ask Geralt to save their 3rd brother, Hugo Monnart. You can haggle if you wish, then enter the cave after agreeing to help.

Inside, Geralt will be attacked by quite a few Kikimores (many workers and a lone warrior). They can poison in such a way that it rapidly raises Toxicity, preventing you from using potions unless White Honey is used to clear it. Thus, it's a good idea to imbibe your potions before entering the fight. However, this can also be a good thing if you have Euphoria or Toxic Blood. After disposing of them keep moving and you will soon find a sword and a trail of blood, so follow it to find Hugo (don't enter the hot waters you see on the way). He will mistake Geralt for an assassin his brothers hired to kill him. It turns out they wanted to exclude Hugo from the liquor business they were meant to inherit evenly from their father, who split his condenser into 3 parts, 1 per son and this cave is where Hugo's part is located. He will then ask Geralt to search for it and you can agree or refuse.

The missing part

Note: If you at any point try to exit the cave and talk to the brothers, Hugo will instead find you at the exit and you'll be missing on this part of the quest and the reward for it.

Go back to the previous cave where a hot water spring is, and Geralt will comment that Quen may protect him, which does indeed work. However, as its duration can run out it's also a good idea to use your Witcher Senses beforehand and find a spot to drop near the red-glowing item. Dive in and get the Still filter.

You can also take a detour to a corridor nearby where you will have to fight more kikimores for access to an Axii Place of power. Nearby is also a female body, on which you can find a letter detailing the story of the missing part.

Regardless, return to Hugo with the filter in hand and he will reward you with 100 . (150)

Important: Finding the filter will count as "Proof of Honor" for There Can Be Only One. However, it only seems to work if you find it after talking to Hugo and not before.

Happy Reunion?

As you reach the exit, Lucien and Auguste are waiting with some thugs and Hugo will ask Geralt to kill them as they are probably there to kill him.

If you agree, you will have to fight them, though it will be pretty clear something isn't right. After they are dealt with (the two brothers don't actually die), Hugo will thank you, and if asked, says that he'll probably leave the business and Toussaint altogether. (150, but no coin)

Important: Hugo as a merchant will buy anything including decoctions/potions. He will also pay more than any other merchant, although he has only 600 of buying capital. Selling him decoctions is worthwhile for a Metamorphosis build, as you may also buy them back as opposed to just destroying them.

If you say no one dies, it turns out that the thugs are just some hunters who came to help from a nearby camp, and the three brothers will decide to "bury the hatchet". If you didn't get the filter, they'll say they found it themselves while Geralt was looking for Hugo. They then pay the agreed amount of coin (300 by default) and invite you to visit them at The Clever Clogs Tavern. (150)

Important: Refusing to fight the brothers will count as "Proof of Wisdom" for There Can Be Only One.

Journal entry

If Geralt finds the contract on the notice board first:

One day, while strolling through Beauclair's bustling streets, Geralt spotted a notice - someone was in need off ^[sic] an escort as they wished to penetrate a cave. The task seemed none too complicated or taxing, so the witcher concluded it would be unwise to let it pass.

Before speaking to the posters of the notice, Geralt set out to do a bit of reconnaissance. Yet he returned to them quickly to find out what the job was to entail. The brothers, trembling in fear, explained that their other brother, beset by monsters, was trapped in a nearby cave.

If Geralt happens upon the brothers in the cave first:

One day, while traversing Toussaint's charming wilderness, Geralt ran into two men desperately calling for help. As they told it, their brother had remained in the cave they had just hastily left. Nothing out of the ordinary, I suppose, if not for the fact that inside this sibling had been attacked by beasts. Geralt decided he would try to help the man.

Geralt followed a trail of blood to find Hugo. Wounded by monsters, the man had sought shelter in the cave's depths.

If Geralt didn't already find the condenser and agrees to help:

Hugo begged Geralt to find a condenser, part of a complicated contraption his father had devised. Papa had cast this part into an underground lake.

As Geralt and Hugo were leaving the non-too-hospitable caverns, Hugo's two siblings, assisted by a handful of armed men, blocked their way. Fearing for his life, Hugo begged the witcher to teach his treacherous bastard brothers a lesson.

If Geralt says no one dies today:

Yet as we all know, Geralt has a strong aversion for unnecessary violence, so he turned Hugo down. This proved a wise decision - forced to discuss their differences, the three brothers settled their dispute and resolved to embark on an enterprise together.

If Geralt agrees to attack the brothers:

Deciding that he should see the matter through to the end, Geralt fulfilled Hugo's wish.

Objectives

• Talk to the men issuing the contract.
• Find out what happened to the missing brother.
• Defeat the kikimores.
• Using your Witcher Senses, look for signs of Hugo.
• Follow the trail.
• Talk to Hugo.
• If agreed to search for the part:
  • Retrieve the missing part from the lake.
  • Return the filter to Hugo. (150)
• If agreed to attack the brothers:
  • Defeat your opponents.

Notes

• A few things happen only if Geralt refuses to attack Auguste and Lucien:
  • All three brothers can be found at The Clever Clogs near the Nilfgaardian Embassy.
  • Hugo will be available as a merchant there and he is an exceptional one, as he is the only shopkeeper in the game who buys all crossbow bolts. On top of that, he buys everything at full price, which is for most items at least double what any other vendor would pay. The only downside is that he doesn't have more than 750 at a time.
  • The unique Victor Monnart's cognac can also be bought from Hugo.
  • The tavern itself gets renovated and a portrait of Victor Monnart is hung on the wall.
• A "Treasure map" associated with this quest (item ID 'mq7021_treasure_map') exists in the game files, suggesting that there was more to this quest. However, if obtained through console commands, it appears as a completely empty note and doesn't even have a title.

Bugs

• If Geralt does attack the two brothers, an examinable area with the size of the portrait still appears over the wall mural at the tavern, but it is completely transparent.
• The picture is supposed to be interacted with, for a comment where Geralt would say "Victor Monnart, creator of the renowned La'Monnart cognac. Hugo and his brothers' father, must be." However, this is extremely hard to do and appears to be only possible from a weird angle while coming down the stairs, but even that doesn't work on all versions of the game, so it will be literally impossible for some players. Before the renovation, there's a table next to the portrait's spot, which could be climbed and presumably would've made this easy, but unfortunately it gets removed as soon as the portrait is up.

Trivia

• Victor Monnart's portrait is a reused asset from the base game (it can be seen at Corinne Tilly's room at The Golden Sturgeon, for example), where it's actually a reference to Sigmund Freud.
• At the start of the quest, if Geralt questions the two brothers on why they entered the cave, an exasperated Lucien will exclaim "By the hair on my chinny chin chin..." This is taken from the nursery rhyme "The Three Little Pigs".