WALKTHROUGH · VELEN

The Bloody Baron

The Continent's most acclaimed questline — and its hardest choices.

Chapter Overview

Objective: Learn what the Baron knows about Ciri by helping find his missing wife and daughter.
Warning: Your choices here have far-reaching, tragic consequences.

1. Family Matters

At Crow's Perch, the Baron (Phillip Strenger) will only share Ciri's whereabouts if you help find his wife Anna and daughter Tamara. Investigate the ransacked manor with Witcher Senses; the trail leads to a spirit bound to the estate — and to the Crones of Crookback Bog.

2. The Botchling

Big choice

Anna miscarried; the unborn child rose as a botchling. You can lift the curse (turning it into a protective Lubberkin — the "good" path that helps later) or kill it for a quicker fight. Lifting the curse is strongly recommended.

To lift it, carry the botchling to the manor's threshold and bury it while fending off the spirits. Then follow the Lubberkin's clues to Anna's fate.

3. Ladies of the Wood

The trail leads to Crookback Bog and the Crones — three ancient hags who hold sway over Velen and once sheltered Ciri. To get answers you'll help the orphans and confront the spirit of the Whispering Hillock.

Big choice

Free the tree spirit (saves the orphans but dooms the village) or kill it (saves the village but the orphans die). This choice ripples into who lives in Velen later — there is no purely happy option.

4. Anna & the Baron

You learn Ciri passed through and fled toward Novigrad and Skellige. But Anna has been cursed by the Crones. Whether she survives — and whether the Baron finds redemption or despair — depends on your earlier choices and how you handle the curse. It's one of gaming's most affecting side stories.

5. Chapter Complete

With the Baron's tale resolved, two leads remain: Triss in Novigrad and the sorceress Keira Metz, plus the pellar's hints. Next stop: the free city of Novigrad.

← White Orchard Next: Novigrad →
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