Fake Papers
Fake Papers is a secondary quest in The Witcher 3, in which you can obtain a pass that lets you through the Redanian checkpoints on the Pontar river. It will offer you to do the Bitter Harvest quest in order to get the pass cheaper.
Key Facts | |
| Level: | 7 |
| Location: | Velen |
| Category: | Side Quest |
| Reward: | Counterfeit border pass |
| Related: | Thou Shalt Not Pass, Bitter Harvest |
Quest Text
During the war that pitted the Northern Realms against Nilfgaard, the border along the Pontar river was closed. Whoever wanted to cross at the border posts and to show a pass issued by the Redanian high command. Or, barring that, one of the convincing counterfeits sold by the shady Redanian who hung about near the river crossings.
Starting NPC
Additional Info
Talk to the merchant by the fire in the camp near the Redanian Border. He will give you the option to buy a counterfeit border pass from him or help him to get a discount.
Walkthrough
Following contains quest spoilers. You’ve been warned
See what the counterfeit pass seller’s brother-in-law needs.
You will have two dialogue options and you can also go straight away and help merchant’s brother in law nearby. Some of these choices reduce the amount of coin you spend, and some reduce the amount of time you spend on acquiring the fake pass.
Choice 1
(100) I’ll pay for the pass
You are 100 crowns short and receive only 10XP for completion of the quest, but you don’t lose skill points or time on finishing another quest.
Choice 2
Help the merchant’s brother in law
If you do not want to invest too much coin or skill points you can go to help Albin Hart and his scavengers. You will need to finish the Bitter Harvest quest nearby and you’ll get get the pass for only 25 Crowns. Considering that you get rewarded handsomly during the Bitter Harvest quest, this makes the fake pass free. I recommend you be at least level 5 on easier game modes and level 9 for harder modes to do the Bitter Harvest quest.
Choice 3
Maybe there’s another way to do this.
You have to invest 1 skill point into Delusion skill (found in the Sign skill tree) to be able to activate this dialogue option. This will reduce the price of the pass to 50 Crowns and you will get 30XP upon choosing the dialogue option and another 5XP if you pay the price. You can choose to use improved Axii on the merchant and then go do the Bitter Harvest quest and help merchant’s brother in law that way.
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My issue is, I simply did the quest from the notice board and got a legit pass. Sooo…now I have to pay this guy 50 crowns for a fake paper that I already have a legit one of, just to get rid of the quest in my log? I honestly thought that after I got the legitimate paper, another dialogue option would open, allowing me to turn the guy in for forging papers.
Keeping the brother in law alive can get a bit tricky… but here’s the funny thing that happened with me…before the third wave comes(a rotfiend accompanying the ghouls) i went near him and pressed the talk button..voila! He thanks me and gives me 50 crowns and it concludes the bitter harvest quest without having to kill the 3rd wave…:P
If you take the help brother route and the brother dies, no matter if you pay 100 or the 50, the quest fails and papers. This is a bad bug, not a show stopper, but damn annoying.
Also bugs if you fail saving his brother but chose the “maybe there’s another way choice” resulting in losing the 50 crowns and not obtaining the papers.
Hey James I had the same problem! I failed to save the brother then went and used the sign, got the price cut to 50, but when I went to cross the guards it said I didn’t have the pass. So it is a bug not some other error. How do i fix?
Same problem. Pretty annoying.
I had the same issue, but just swam across the lake and sneaked into the city to complete my buisness there
Only problem is if the brother-in-law dies while you are protecting them from the monsters the shady trader will refuse to sell the pass to you and you’ve lost your chance. So save first.