The Walls Have Ears is a small quest in The Witcher 2, within the main quest, Royal Blood. When the riot breaks out against Price Stennis for poisoning Saskia, you are tasked to learn the truth about what happened.
This quest searches for what happened by talking to multiple people and piecing the story together. Here is everything you need to complete and prevent the quest from failing.
How to complete The Walls Have Ears quest
Once the quest starts, go outside and down the steps to find an upward path. Here, you’ll find a man guarded by some Scoia’taels who is Willy. Go up to him and start talking. At first, he won’t say anything, but if you use Persuasion and succeed, you can get some information from him.
His information is very little and almost nothing that can be used as evidence for Price Stennis in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. He finishes his talk by referring you to the priest’s house for more evidence. You’ll get a new prompt: to find Cecil Burdon’s shop for more information.
You can check the quest marker on the map to locate him. Go north from the present location and around the area until you cross a bridge. Then you’ll reach Cecil’s house.
Ask Cecil where Reverend Olcan, the priest’s house, is, and he’ll mark the location on the map. Use this mark as a quest marker and reach the priest’s house by backtracking to the main city. Once you reach the house, you’ll find some books scattered on the floor. Look around the room, and you’ll find notes from the priest on the table in The Witcher 2.
Lastly, go back to the hall where everyone is gathered. Talk to the people gathered here, and the conversation will start. The second part of the Royal Blood quest will start, and Price will be arrested.
Why does The Walls Have Ears quest fail in The Witcher 2?
After you complete the Walls Have Ears quest and move on to the Vergen Besieged quest, the quest marker turns to a red cross, making it a failed quest. To avoid this, you need to be aware of certain things and follow some steps to ensure the quest is marked complete.
Once the riot breaks out, talk to human peasants only. Don’t converse with anyone else except for the Dwarves at the end after getting the priest’s notes. Talking to anyone else may bring out the bug, which would fail the quest.
Keep completing the quests, Walls Have Ears and Suspect Thorak in The Witcher 2, until the prompt appears: “Wait for events to unfold.” This signals that everything that you could do to this point is done. Once this happens, then you can start the Baltimore’s Nightmare quest.
Once you reach the end of the Suspect: Thorak quest, open the chest in Thorak’s room to finish both quests. Now go to the riot, complete the quest according to the evidence, and select the right option. Also, be extra careful by suspecting Price and getting him captured for a fair trial.
If you somehow find Willy Oblate alone, don’t talk to him. If you interact with him now, he won’t be much help, and the quest would be stuck on talking to Willy Oblate in The Witcher 2. Save or restart from the last point. Make sure he is with Scoia’taels before going to talk to him.
You can also avoid this bug by visiting the priest’s house and getting the notes. This will skip other steps, complete the quest, and put it on hold with “wait for events to unfold.”
