Cardinal Sins Quest - Get the most out of it - Spoiler Free & Spoiler Versions

[aeyo]

NO SPOILER VERSION:
Carnal Sins is a side quest in Novigrad. This quest begins automatically at the end of "Cabaret." This is through Dandelion's quests.

At the end of it all, when you catch the *person* red handed, exhaust all dialogue with him to unlock the true quest ending. It is so easy to skip, luckily I figured it out and went back a save to do it again.

For some reason I see a lot of people on Reddit and other forums saying that the true ending is different, they believe it to be the regular finish as they do not exhaust all dialogue as your not *feeling* like listening anymore to him.

Most people will probably ignore this as it is just 1 quest out of so many in Witcher 3. Hopefully though, a small amount of you will see this and do it! Its very interesting to see the genuine ending, rather then continuing through the weak ending and assuming you *know* the result.

SPOILER VERSION (MAKES MORE SENSE):
When you find Reverend Nathaniel, exhaust all dialogue with him to unlock the true quest ending. It is so easy to skip, luckily I figured it out and went back a save to do it again. You understand that he is not the serial killer, and doesn't know about the murders. By not exhausting the dialogue, you completely miss this, kill him, and assume that he is the serial killer, and is dead. Doing that will unlock an interesting blurb in Hubert Rejk's profile, make sure to read it. You can follow that up and go to the morgue, where you will find a note of him congratulating you on finding out about him, however he has fleed to another town to continue his work. This is what is commonly known as the ending of the quest.

Exhausting Reverend Nathaniel's dialogue, realising its not him, and choosing to free him, allows Geralt to go to a storage facility at dock side where Hubert Rejk is. Choosing to do this, Geralt can go & fight Hubert, finally realising what he is.

SPOILER, RUINS THE SURPRISE:
He is a Vampire. Explains why he looks younger than his old trainee Joachim Von Gratz despite him being years older. Turns into a Vampire and you have a nice little fight. Good dialogue scene & fight.

Hope this helps some people. Or if you missed it and assumed it was the ending, at least you know now!

[zacharyb]

The people who didn't do all of the dialogue options, or who right away assumed he was the man responsible for everything, probably haven't played the witcher series before, it's common in the witcher games for them to make you think someone did something, but if you actually pay attention and gather all the evidence through multiple means, you always find out they aren't the person responsible.

You can also kill the Reverend after you learn the truth.

Plus tbh i'm pretty sure most people right away assumed that Hubert was a vampire.

[aeyo]

Correct zacharyb, and also, I did too ;)

[Unit]

This quest made my brain hurt. Not because it was tough to figure out, but because you have to assume that Geralt is an idiot, or the player was paying 0 attention to the clues they found during the quest. Overall just very poorly written quest :/ was great until the end, when there should been a payoff but instead was just "wtf was that"...

[zacharyb]

Originally posted by Unit:

This quest made my brain hurt. Not because it was tough to figure out, but because you have to assume that Geralt is an idiot, or the player was paying 0 attention to the clues they found during the quest. Overall just very poorly written quest :/ was great until the end, when there should been a payoff but instead was just "wtf was that"...

Ya, I didn't buy his youth excuse for a second, though I don't understand why Geralt wasn't able to deduce him being a vampire right away, or at least after he went to the attack locations. I didn't miss any clue either, or at least i'm pretty sure I didn't, maybe CDPR forgot something?

[Unit]

The first time I did the quest, I just killed Nathaniel immediately. I thought it was weird that Geralt didn't remark anything about the guy being human despite that the clues clearly pointed towards a monster (specifically a vampire). Then I went and completed that portion of the quest expecting it to continue and *gasp* turns out Nathaniel WASN'T the killer *BUM BUM BUM!*. But instead it just ends.... Geralt's Like "Yup, I got the guy, no need to worry," meanwhile I'm like ".......um......no you did't? There's no way....." So then I looked up what you were SUPPOSED to do and facepalmed. The fact that killing Nathaniel immediately blocks off the possibility of getting the "correct" ending is just stupid. Geralt would know that it wasn't him, even if the player (somehow) didn't figure it out. But apparently a lot of people didn't notice the discrepancies, which blows my mind.

[aeyo]

Yep. Completely agree, Geralt the master of hunting, accepts that Hubert looks alot younger than Joachim the old goat because he works in a morgue? Jeeeezus. I honestly felt the ending with Nathaniel was like "wait, are you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ kidding me? thats it?" so it was great to have the actual ending with Hubert. It did go quite quick though, it would have been nice to see Geralt engage in more conversation considering Hubert is a Vampire! For example talking about the previous Witcher that Hubert fought etc.

Hoping that there are more interesting quests like this. Been great so far.

[B Rad Mojad]

Originally posted by zacharyb:

Originally posted by Unit:

This quest made my brain hurt. Not because it was tough to figure out, but because you have to assume that Geralt is an idiot, or the player was paying 0 attention to the clues they found during the quest. Overall just very poorly written quest :/ was great until the end, when there should been a payoff but instead was just "wtf was that"...

Ya, I didn't buy his youth excuse for a second, though I don't understand why Geralt wasn't able to deduce him being a vampire right away, or at least after he went to the attack locations. I didn't miss any clue either, or at least i'm pretty sure I didn't, maybe CDPR forgot something?

Yeah not sure why it doesn't give you the option to question him further regarding his youth instead of just accepting his weak explanation. I wasn't surprised when he turned out to be a vampire, his eyes kinda flash in the dark when he first approaches you and the other doctor in the morgue; that and his youth had me strongly suspecting him as a vampire. Geralt probably should have suspected the guy was a vampire, he is no stranger to higher vampires afterall.

[zioste81]

While this quest has its holes in terms of writing, the possibility of getting a "wrong" ending if you don't pay enough attention, at least, is a nice touch. Wish they would do it with more quests. It also happens with the one done for Keira in Velen with the tower and the pesta, and it totally fooled me.

[MINUANO GAMING]

Wow... I had no idea you Could kill the other guy. I tought you would would find out who's the real killer anyways. That's nice. He congradulated me for finding him out when I was in the warehouse, but he said "if you know who I truly am you should've unsheated your silver blade instead of the steel one". Everything was pointing to a vampire and Geralt still draw the steel sword, that was kinda weird.

Originally posted by petr_sfv:

While this quest has its holes in terms of writing, the possibility of getting a "wrong" ending if you don't pay enough attention, at least, is a nice touch. Wish they would do it with more quests. It also happens with the one done for Keira in Velen with the tower and the pesta, and it totally fooled me.

That was a good one! I was buying her story until she said she saw her lover once in the shore. She said previously she couldn't leave the tower, and with all those recent deaths by monster hands, I felt a bit suspicious about her.

[zioste81]

Originally posted by The Man in Black:

That was a good one! I was buying her story until she said she saw her lover once in the shore. She said previously she couldn't leave the tower, and with all those recent deaths by monster hands, I felt a bit suspicious about her.

I totally bought it until the bitter end (for her lover). In retrospect, it was obvious - those notes by the mage detailing creepy events concerning his experiments should have tipped me off there was something else wrong about this whole business other the tragic death of the girl. Loved that the game managed to fool me (in a fair way).

[Hekatonkheires]

I can only assume Geralt was suffering brain damage from his boxing during this quest. I had him pegged for a vampire from the first conversation. Youth through formaldehyde and no options to question further? Yeah, right.

[KoalafiedKiller]

I had no idea there was another outcome to this quest other than the warehouse showdown. I guess I'm a master sleuth.

Who is Nathaniel again? (Sorry I haven't done this quest in a while).

Edit: Wait I remember. Eternal Fire priest. Tortures prostitutes, right?

[Axeface]

I got the proper ending first time, but I knew that if I did it wrong I could get the 'wrong' guy.

But, killing that wrong guy (chopping him into multiple small pieces even though he isnt the actual killer) was probably the most satisfying thing i've done in the game so far.

[Whiskey Devil]

There is also a false ending in the Hearts of Stone quest Without a Trace where you can miss out on what actually happened by just following the quest prompts.

[Monkey D. Luffy]

Originally posted by Unit:

This quest made my brain hurt. Not because it was tough to figure out, but because you have to assume that Geralt is an idiot, or the player was paying 0 attention to the clues they found during the quest. Overall just very poorly written quest :/ was great until the end, when there should been a payoff but instead was just "wtf was that"...

I agree I got the quest right in my first try and it wasn't because I figured it out that the real murderer was a vampire. I was so infuriated by the killer that I wanted to kill him again and again so I saved the game right before. But then I decided to here his reason so that I could satisfy my anger by killing him one last time and found that the real killer was the vampire waiting at the warehouse.