Where Children Toil, Toys Waste Away is a main quest in The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine DLC that you can start after completing the La Cage au Fou quest. To start Where Children Toil, Toys Waste Away you must head to the Beauclair Port and find Bootblack.
You get this quest from Anna Henrietta, and your duty is to solve the mystery of the murders of the people of Toussaint. Regis will join you in this quest, and together you will hunt for the Dettlaff van der Eretin, the higher vampire in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt.
This walkthrough will guide you through all steps to complete this quest in the Witcher 3 so you don’t miss anything.
The Witcher 3 Where Children Toil, Toys Waste Away
After completing La Cage, au Fou quest, enter the Beauclair Port and get to Bootblack. Here you will see that Bootblack is getting harassed by some NPCs. However, note that you can only meet the bootblack if you visit the area between 8 am and 8 pm. Suppose you arrive at another time you need to meditate or do other tasks.
If you arrive at the wrong time, you can use it to complete another secondary quest, Amidst the Mill’s Grist. You can only complete this quest before Where Children Toil, Toys Waste Away, as it will fail otherwise.
When you get to Bootblack, Geralt and Regis, strongly believe that he knows about the higher vampire Dettlaff. So right after you interact with Bootblack, you will see three choices. The first is father, the second is Witcher, and the third is Not Their Concern.
It doesn’t matter what you choose, as the NPCs will force Geralt to do a fistfight with them. Whether you win or lose doesn’t matter, as you will get a boost to XP in both cases. If you win, you get 600 XP, and in case you lose, you will get 400 XP.
After the fistfight, a ducal guard will come and arrest the fighters, and now you are free to talk to the Bootblack.
Talk to bootblack
Well, the boy has the information you need, but he will ask you to give him 500 Crowns for the information. It’s a negotiable price, but we will not recommend you do so.
Because if you pay him 500 Crowns, it will help you in another quest called There Can Be Only One by satisfying the generosity requirement. If you don’t want to pay the boy, you can use Axii, but you will need at least Level 2 Delusion.
Find and search the Dettlaff’s safehouse
After a while, Regis will also get to you and ask Bootblack for location of Dettlaff’s safehouse. Eventually, the boy will give you the location, and now you have to follow Regis. He will take you to The Rocking Horse, where you must interact with the door.
Regis will open it, and you can start investigating the location with your Witcher Senses. You will find out that this toy store was used by the higher vampire Dettlaff to plan the murders in TW3 Wild Hunt.
You will find a lot of stuff here, but some of the most significant things include a letter that you will find close to the stairs inside a bottle.
You will find another letter after going upstairs, next to the work table. While collecting each item, a conversation will start with Regis. You can answer as you want as it will affect the quest outcome in The Witcher 3. After all your conversation with Regis end, the Where Children Toil, Toys Waste Away quest will also conclude, giving you 1000 XP as reward. A new quest, Wine is Sacred will start here where have to return to Anna and tell her that Dettlaff is killing because his lover was kidnapped.
