You’re standing outside the Witch Hunter barracks, the air smells like salt and burning wood, and Triss Merigold is looking at you with a kind of grim determination that makes your stomach turn. She wants you to let them torture her. Not just a little bit. We're talking fingernails.
Honestly, it’s one of the most uncomfortable moments in The Witcher 3. Most players panic. They see those thugs grab Triss, they hear the first scream, and they immediately start swinging. Can you blame them?
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But here’s the thing: Count Reuven's Treasure is a quest that rewards patience over impulse. If you want the "best" outcome—the one where Dijkstra actually likes you and you walk away with a fat purse of crowns—you have to play the long game. Even if it means listening to your friend suffer.
The Setup: Sigi's Missing Gold
Before we get to the torture, let’s recap. You meet Dijkstra in his bathhouse. He’s gone by the name "Sigi Reuven" lately, trying to keep a low profile while running the Novigrad underworld. Someone blew up his vault and made off with a fortune in gold.
Basically, he wants his money back. You want Dandelion. Since Dandelion is the one who actually stole the gold (classic Dandelion), you're essentially investigating your best friend for a mob boss.
The investigation is pretty standard Witcher stuff. You drink a mold-protecting potion, track some drowner scents through a sewer, and find a bomb fragment. It leads you back to a bathhouse guest, then to a house owned by a dead Margrave, and eventually, to the door of Caleb Menge, the head of the Witch Hunters.
The Choice: To Torture or Not to Torture?
This is where everyone gets stuck. You and Triss come up with a plan: she’ll pretend to be your prisoner to get you an audience with Menge.
Option 1: The "I Can't Watch This" Route
If you stop the guards from taking Triss, or if you use Axii during the interrogation, or if you just lose your cool and start a fight, you'll have to kill every Witch Hunter in the building.
- The Pro: You save Triss the pain.
- The Con: Dijkstra is furious. You don't find the location of the treasure. You have to do an extra, annoying step involving a spy and a riverside shack to find Dandelion's location.
Option 2: The "Professional" Route
If you let them take her, you sit down with Menge. You have to stay calm while you hear her screaming in the next room. It’s brutal. To pull this off, you need to pick specific dialogue choices:
- "Why not."
- "Your hunters are torturing Triss, but haven't been paid."
- "Witchers do anything for gold."
This is the critical part. Menge will offer you a reward for information on Philippa Eilhart. You can ask about the treasure, or you can ask about Dandelion.
The Koviri Bank Secret
If you ask about the treasure first, Menge tells you it’s safe in a Koviri bank. This is the only way to satisfy Dijkstra. If you ask about Dandelion first, Triss will kill Menge before you get the bank info.
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Wait. If you ask about the treasure first, Menge gets suspicious and calls the guards anyway? Yeah, he does. You still have to fight your way out. But because you got the information about the bank and the vault key from his body, Dijkstra considers the job done.
What Do You Actually Get?
Is it worth letting Triss lose some fingernails for a guy like Dijkstra?
- 1,000 Crowns: This is the big one. Dijkstra gives you this later during the "Brothers in Arms" quest if you found his treasure location.
- Runestones and Schematics: He tosses in some high-tier crafting materials.
- Help with Dandelion: He’ll provide extra muscle during the ambush to free Dandelion later.
If you don't find the treasure, he gives you... nothing. Just a lot of snarky comments about how useless you are.
The "Glitched" Escape
A lot of people think the quest is bugged when they leave the barracks. If you climb over the wall instead of blowing a hole in it with Aard, you might miss a cutscene with Dijkstra's man.
Don't do that. Use Aard on the weak wall in the back of the compound. It triggers the proper exit sequence and makes sure the quest flags update correctly.
Actionable Insights for Your Playthrough
If you’re staring at Menge right now, here is the move.
Let the torture happen. It sounds cold, but Triss explicitly asks you to go through with it. She’s a powerful sorceress; she can handle it, and she'll actually be annoyed if you "rescue" her and ruin the plan. Ask about the treasure first to get the Kovir bank info. You’ll end up fighting anyway, so might as well get the 1,000 crowns for your trouble.
One last thing: make sure you loot Menge’s desk for the letter. It’s the only way to move the Dandelion plot forward without the extra investigation steps. Once you’re out, head to the drop box behind the pillar near the canal to set up the meet with the spy.
This quest isn't just about gold; it’s about how much of your soul you’re willing to trade for a smooth operation. In Novigrad, the answer is usually "more than you'd like."
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Check your inventory for that bomb fragment before you talk to Dijkstra again—it’s easy to forget you even have it after all the fire and screaming.