Lord of the Wood is one of the many monster hunt contracts in The Witcher 3. Head to the Notice board in the Farcorners district of Novigrad or the Cunny of the Goose, south of Novigrad, to find this contract. The contract is pinned under the name Devil in the Woods in TW3.
Another way to start the contact is by finding the Lumberjack’s Wagon. You can find it on the roads in the jungle surrounding Novigrad.
Those familiar with Witcher lore should automatically figure out what the Lord of the Wood contract in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt will ask players to do. Geralt will be asked to investigate the woods near Novigrad and eventually will have to defeat a Leshen.
The recommended level for the Lord of the Wood contract is 25, but we suggest taking the contract at 28 or above.
Investigate the Loggers’ Hut
Once you either get the contract or find the wagon, you get your first objective of the quest, Lord of the Wood. You must head to Cunny of the Goose Inn and talk to Brean Hotsch, a halfling. Brean tells you that he started a lumberjack camp, but the camp was attacked by something, and he needs you to find it, whatever it was, and kill it.
After you have spoken to Brean, you can find a witness sitting on the opposite side of the inn. You can talk to him to get some extra clues. If you talk to this witness, he will tell you he heard a wolf’s howling. He returned to get weapons, and when he returned, he found all his colleagues massacred.
Since this is a tough contract, we would recommend haggling with Brean to get the maximum price possible for the Lord of the Wood contract.
Head to the camp, where you can use your Witcher Senses to look for clues around the crime scene. As you investigate the crime scene, you find a wagon trail leading away from the camp.
Trail of the Monster
Once you have found the wagon’s tail, follow it all the way. Of course, you will never get to the wagon uninterrupted. You will face minor resistance, Nekkers.
Fight through the occasional Nekkers who will attack you and get to the wagon. Again, you need to investigate the area for clues on what happened.
The main clues you find here include a sword covered in blood, blood splatters, and dwarf tracks. Around the area, you can also find a rock with a huge claw mark on it. After you have found all these clues, you can start following the dwarf tracks and blood trail that leads away from the wagon.
A couple of trails lead out from the wagon. Follow these trails, leading you to dead dwarfs, all ripped apart and brutally mutilated. Search for clues around all the dwarf bodies, and you will realize that a young Leshen is attacking the lumberjacks.
Finding the Lord of the Wood
To defeat the Leshen in The Witcher 3, you must find its totem and destroy it to lure out the beast. Several new objective markers will appear, marking areas to check out to find and destroy Leshen’s totem in The Witcher 3.
You can always try searching all the locations, but the totem always appears in the same place. It always appears on the marker, the farthest east of the wagon, in the woods. The totem is always found in this area, so you can go to this area, and here, you can destroy Leshen’s totem either through physical attack or using the Aard Sign.
Kill Kernun the Leshen
After destroying the totem, Kernun the Leshen will appear and attack you, so be ready for a fight before you break the totem. Leshens are humanoid beasts and have a reindeer skull for the head. Even though the beast seems powerful, you can easily kill it. You can cover your silver sword in Relict Oil for the encounter as it boosts damage against relict monsters like the Leshen.
Leshen is weak to fire damage, so the Igni sign is your best bet for dealing high damage. You can start the fight by using Dimeritium bombs. They deal high fire damage and cover a larger area, which deals further damage when leshen tries to attack you.
If you are out of bombs, you can simply use Igni to burn them repeatedly. Just spam Igni, and you will get rid of leshen in no time. While the leshen is burning under the effects of Igni, it will also be unable to block your attacks so, make use of that time and attack with your sword.
Being Lord of the Wood, the Leshen can summon crows and wolves to aid it in the battle. You must keep your guard up, even at a distance.
Furthermore, leshens can teleport across the battlefield, so we recommend you keep moving. Staying still will always allow the leshen to flank and attack you.
After you have defeated Kernun the leshen, you need to return to Brean. You can find him at the Cunny in the Goose Inn. Talk to him and tell him that you have cleared the area and he won’t be troubled anymore. You will be rewarded, marking the end of the Lord of the Wood contract in TW3 Wild Hunt.
