Person in distress near Mulbrydale (Velen): the master swordsmith refuses to move or talk after being freed from his cage

the-witcher-3

I've freed a master swordsmith from his cage in a "Person in distress" area, near Mulbrydale, but he doesn't move and I cannot talk to him (I'm not even prompted with the "E Talk" tooltip).

Stuck master swordsmith in Velen, near Mulbrydale

I've tried everything I could think of: look for a quest that would be necessary to talk to him, close/open the door, look around for a last pirate that should be killed, meditate, reload, restart the game, etc.
Also when I leave and come back to the Velen area, this red glowing unsent letter (that I already had in inventory btw) appears on the floor,but it doesn't unlock anything.

Red glowing unsent letter, near Mulbrydale

Did I miss something, or is it a bug and I'll never be able to talk to him ?

Note: I'm currently playing on version 1.11, on GOG Galaxy.

Best Answer

I wrote to CD Projekt and they confirm it's a bug:

Hello,

I'm sorry about the issue that you encountered and thank you for the feedback. We are aware of it and our development team is working on the fix.

Regards, Grzegorz

It's been fixed in patch 1.12. If you cleared the area and opened the gate already, just go to Mulbrydale where the swordsmith is waiting for you.