Hunting Magic

Hunting Magic is a quest (Iorveth's path) in Chapter 2 of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

Walkthrough
After talking to Cecil and the others, your map will be updated with the location of the ruins in the forest. Once you venture out and kill everything that moves, you'll notice that the object you're looking for is on top of a plateau. Don't waste your time exploring all around it; to get to the top of it, you need to back track and walk on top of an earlier plateau, which does have a convenient ramp (if you look at the map, this plateau will look like a 'J' turned on its side). At the end of it, a "jump" command will appear. After two jumps, you'll get to the location. Some Harpies will attack you. In a ruin you will find a dream crystal.

Go back to Phillipa and she'll tell you that the dream crystal you acquired is not powerful enough. Phillipa will tell you that near the quarry there is an entrance to a harpy lair where more dream crystals may be found. But it is currently barred from entry so Phillipa reveals some information which you can use to persuade Cecil Burdon to open up the barred entrance. After talking to Cecil, you will have gained access to the lair.

Upon entering the lair, you will be attacked by harpies numerous times (remember to bring 7 Harpy traps for The Harpy Contract, four for the quarry and three for the lair). Eventually you will come across the Harpy Queen who is putting a dream crystal into a projector. It shows a conversation between Letho and another assassin about the assassination of a king. Upon killing the harpy queen and her minions (don't let them surround you, it is instant death!), search around the place for other dream crystals. There are 4 of them. As soon as you acquire each of them, you will be attacked by a pair of harpies.

Put all the crystals into the projector (after you retrieve Letho's dream from the projector). One of the dreams will initiate the quest "Baltimore's Nightmare" and another of the dreams is sufficiently powerful to cure Saskia.

Journal entry

 * Having been poisoned during the council meeting, Saskia was dying, and nearly everyone who supported her cause now prayed for her health. Among her allies, however, were those who did not believe in gods, or at least in divine intervention. Lady Eilhart, the kind of woman who rolled her sleeves up and started casting spells when things got tough, fit this description. So when Geralt learned that a magical artifact was one of the ingredients for the Dragonslayer's cure, he reasoned that Philippa would be the ideal consultant. Therefore he decided to have a chat with her at her house.


 * One of the ingredients needed for the Dragonslayer's cure was a magical artifact, an item radiating powerful energy. The sorceress could not just create one on the fly, and time was against them. So the witcher headed outside to ask around the town about magical Intersections, ruins, legends of any treasure – in short, about places where he could find an item of the kind he needed. Entering the streets, Geralt thought deeply about which townspeople would be best informed and about those who liked collecting stories.


 * Vergen's alderman told Geralt that a sorcerer had once lived in the nearby forest. With Cecil's map in hand, the witcher began his search.


 * And he found a crystal. Thanks to his medallion, he felt the magic pulsating within. The trophy seemed appropriate, so he took it to Philippa.


 * For a long time, Cecil Burdon refused to open the gate to the harpy lair. He warned that if the folk of Vergen were to see each others' dreams, this would shatter the already tenuous unity of the town's defenders. He also worried that nightmares could become real, and horrors incarnate would appear in Vergen's streets. Knowing the alderman's secret, the witcher blackmailed him. Cecil finally agreed to let Geralt into the harpy caves. What was this affliction that caused the dwarf to fold? Well, the alderman had promised his sister he would refuse himself alcohol to the end of his days. In dwarven society, where drinking is rampant, a teetotaler is ostracized. He is suspect, considered a squealer and a traitor to age-old traditions. He cannot be vested with public trust, so he cannot be an alderman, let alone a wartime leader. For the good of Vergen, which would soon face Henselt's might, and to save his nephew any shame, Burdon had decided to keep his abstinence a secret. Thus, he played into Geralt's hand, and the witcher kept the secret. He told only me, and I am the very embodiment of discretion.


 * Geralt was right - the harpy lair was full of dreams encased in crystals. He had only to find the one with the strongest magical aura.


 * Geralt found a truly unique place. It was the cave where the harpies viewed the dreams they stole. The witcher realized that a dream encased in a crystal could work as an ingredient of Saskia's cure, so he began looking for dreams and viewing them in the projector he found in the cave. He needed the most powerful one, the one most strongly emanating magic.


 * The witcher cast a net into the sea of dreams and fished out the very one he needed. A dream stolen from a dragon should contain enough magic to be useful to Philippa. Geralt had found another ingredient of Saskia's cure.

Video
Der Magie auf der Spur L'artefact magique A caccia di magia W pogoni za magią