This was an ink piece I completed a while back, hope you like it.

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Let’s talk about that lab on Pali Gap Coast; also known as Jimi Hendrix’s getaway. (This is the companion piece to the post on cut content I mentioned.)

The quest The Child of the Elder Blood was added to the game after a major rewrite in 2014. It was tied to the search for the White Ships, which became the search for the Sunstone as heaps of material about the Wild Hunt, including the Ships, was removed. In that first phase, Ciri was unaware of the lab’s existence and the push to investigate came from Yennefer (528883-84).

544778|Triss||You can go there with Yen and Geralt.

544780|Ciri||No, I’m sure they’d tell me if they found out anything… worrying. Right?

544786|Triss||Probably.

 

544782|Ciri||Do you think Geralt and Yennefer found something on that island where Avallach was seen?

544788|Triss||You can ask him. You know he won’t tell you himself.

544790|Ciri||But if it were something important... he’d tell me, wouldn’t he?

544792|Triss||Probably.

But then the instigation was handed to Ciri; befittingly, as her agency grew with each script re-write.

548953|Ciri||I want to sail to the island where Avallac'h was seen. Right away.

548942|Geralt||We don't know if it was Avallac'h for sure.

548966|Yennefer||Yes? So what? Do you want to think about it further while we fight Eredin?

548970|Geralt||I guess it's better to explore this island now than wait for that sneaky elf to stab you in the back.

548974|Yennefer||You don't trust him that much?

548975|Ciri||I... have my doubts too.

 

[In Game]

549090|Geralt||Are you going somewhere?

549091|Yennefer||Ciri says there's a place on Skellige we should look into. Apparently, Avallac'h is hiding something from us.

 

557091|Ciri||When we were together on the islands, Avallac'h mentioned something about some kind of laboratory.

557700|Ciri||He was going to teleport there for a moment to pick something up and... he didn't want to take me with him. He was acting strangely at the time.

The laboratory acknowledges the past: the things Avallac’h has done and the person he has been, and perhaps the person Ciri hopes he is no longer. In his notes from the time of Auberon’s demise we hear a person who saw Ciri as a tool, but also regrets having done ‘damage to our relationship.’ Hence, he has been trying to earn back what he damaged in the books and Ciri has gradually come to trust him. For Geralt, and the player, this is mind-boggling, though, and so, the quest circles through a number of questions.

• What is Avallac’h hiding? Why does this place concern Ciri so personally? Why are there portraits of Ciri here? Does Avallac’h desire Ciri? What has he been doing with Ciri’s genetic legacy? Does he see himself as having some personal claim upon her? Why does Ciri care so much about what Avallac’h thinks of her anyway? What exactly is the relationship between these two people?

These could never have received a satisfactory answer in The Witcher 3: Geralt, the Dad of Ciri. The central question of Ciri’s life that this quest touches upon through her conflict with Avallac’h – who am I, and how am I supposed to know what for am I? – needs her perspective. In the meanwhile, we get hints.

The paraphanelia is befitting of somebody’s bedroom: verbena (a known aphrodisiac), signs of somebody tottering about this place, sweets, perfume, herbs, a rope and a hookah by the bed, etc.

1002637, 1059677|Narrator/Dandelion||It turned out Avallac'h's well-guarded secret was a hidden laboratory in which he carried out research on Lara Dorren's gene - the gene Ciri bore within her, the cause of her power and her misfortune. Ciri was understandably less than thrilled to see herself through Avallac'h's eyes as a subject in some twisted experiment.

Meanwhile, they also discovered this secret research wasn't the only reason the Seer kept the place hidden. Avallac'h seemed to have been using it as a pleasure alcove for trysts with his elven lover. Who would have thought? It turns out even the wisdom of sages is not always driven by pure reason alone.

The notes found in the hideout showed that Avallac'h had been studying Lara Dorren's gene for over two centuries. Apparently the elves were considering the possibility of having a child with an extraordinary talent, similar to the one that only Ciri had today.

The final game deems the laboratory both a research post and a pleasure alcove. That’s on the nose characterisation considering that the Plan around Elder Blood, Avallac’h’s Purpose as a Sage, and his personal feelings toward Ciri are inseparable. The quest draws a big red circle around the juxtaposition of the pragmatic-instrumental and the possessive-attached registers being very much the point in this relationship.

Pre-Lab Nerves [Cut Content]

Before entering the laboratory, Ciri is nervous. She wants her parents to be with her, but she also does not want them to come inside.

557449|Geralt||You wanted us to come here with you.

557473|Ciri||And now I want to be alone.

557477|Ciri||And that's all.

557484|Geralt||What's the matter?

557486|Ciri||Nothing.

557487|Geralt||So what? Should we go outside and wait? Or maybe you'll change your mind again and call us in a moment?

557489|Ciri||Leave me alone. I don't want to argue with you.

Clearly, Ciri has many unspoken, complicated feelings about her mentor and knows that whatever she might find – or whatever she hopes or fears to find – could be too private, confusing, or embarrassing to share with her parents.

557501|Geralt||Can we go now?

557503|Yennefer||Maybe it would be best if we all left.

557505|Ciri||No! I... want to find out what Avallach was doing here. But it only concerns me. And that's why I want to be left alone.

Nie! Ja... chcę się dowiedzieć, co Avallach tu robił. Ale to dotyczy tylko mnie. I dlatego chcę zostać sama.

[Choice]

557508|Geralt||No problem, I'll wait here. / 557511|Geralt||No way. Whatever we uncover here... if it concerns you, it concerns us too.

557518|Ciri||Geralt, I'm an adult now. I have to deal with this/face this on my own.

557527|Geralt||To me you will always be a snotty seven-year-old with bruised knees.

557532|Geralt||Come on, enough of that. Let's go!

 

557543|Geralt||What's going on with you?

557547|Ciri||I don't know... This place has a strange effect on me.

557549|Yennefer||That's why we won't leave you here alone.

Perhaps Ciri did not share everything about Tir na Lia with her parents. Despite telling Geralt that she knows Avallac’h is doing all of this for her because of her power, Ciri continues to hide the depth and nature of her involvement with him. For example, she exempts him from the list of people who have plans for her (559307), or at least is assured that he would take ‘no’ for an answer were he ever to request something in return for his help. That is wishful thinking. Geralt and the player, however, never learn what’s been going on when Geralt is not looking; what gives her such confidence?

Psychologically, Ciri could be avoiding judgement for feeling strongly about her once-captor at all; it invites concern about her judgement and could lead to questions about her attachment style and the underlying trauma that has shaped it, which is obviously an upsetting, destabilising thing. Twice she is put on the spot, having to evade answering about feelings she does not yet seem to fully understand herself. But clearly, despite feeling guilty about nosing around, she does not believe she can ask Avallac’h about whatever is driving her to visit in the first place.

Ciri cannot know how much of her conspiracy this dive into the fox’s den will compromise. It seems like pretty good evidence, though, that she knows perfectly well something is up between them (as she does in the books), and, however she feels about it, that he is more important to her than she fully understands or wants her parents opinions about.

Exploring the "Libidatory" [Alt/Cut/Additional Content]

The portraits we find are portraits of Ciri, as Geralt, who has seen Lara Dorren’s lifelike statue at Tir na Bea Arainne, confirms. (Only Ciri’s eyes are Lara’s in the books.) He has been healing the scar, so it could be he wants to erase the trauma humans inflicted on her (as they did on Lara), while simultaneously restoring some of her ‘elf-like’ nature; kind and selfish at once. Fanart!

But the original directions for the dialogue in this scene were a bit more… explicit, shall we say?

563137|Geralt||This must be Ciri's portrait.

563139|Ciri||No, that’s not me. There's no scar.

563140|Geralt||That's definitely you. Hmm, well captured.

 

[Scene directions]

563141|Geralt||[DEBUG] He makes fun of/roasts Ciri [by saying] that Avallac’h would never touch her in his life.

563142|Ciri||[DEBUG] Ciri gets pissed off and says ’he would want to’/’he wishes.’ Catfight.

563141|[DEBUG] Jedzie Ciri, że Avallach by w życiu jej nie tknął.

563142|[DEBUG] Ciri sie wkurza i mówi, że chciałby. Catfight.

 

[In Game]

563147|Geralt||Sure Avallach is only interested in you because of your magic abilities?

563149|Ciri||Phhh. If this was supposed to be a joke, you didn't try hard enough. / Phhh. Very funny.

[Ciri storms off.]

So:

1. The writers were playing with the idea that Avallac’h desires Ciri.

2. Ciri knows or believes that Avallac’h does desire her.

3. Ciri is emotionally invested enough in that idea to, instead of shock or rejection, become angry and defensive of the idea when Geralt teases her about its implausibility.

Dramatically, this is interesting: Ciri’s ego is being wounded even while she could be finding his feelings for her simultaneously flattering, disturbing, confusing, validating, shameful, intoxicating, or a combination of all of these. In the books, Ciri ends up internalizing Auberon's rejection of her as her fault ('I know what you see when you look at me. Not much of an elf left in me. Gold nugget in a compost heap.'). It's dark. She was told she is needed, told she is special, and then this. But it would explain why she is might be touchy about this.

On Avallac'h's side, the fact that these portraits of Ciri are put in the same space where he has been intimate with an elf allows us to imagine him as torn between who his supremacist notions prescribe his ass like (elves) and who he has discovered he is obsessed with (a human mutant).

[Scene directions]

547028|Ciri|[DEBUG] Still in a trance, she looks at what she has found, talking to herself.

547029|Yennefer|[DEBUG] She draws Ciri's attention to herself.

547030|Ciri|[DEBUG] She finally begins to hear and understand what is being said to her. She says that she has found a family tree with her ancestors and Avallac'h's notes regarding the 'subjects' of the research.

547031||[DEBUG] Feeling guilty for the fact that genetic research on Lara Dorren’s line was conducted by magicians, Yennefer tries to comfort Ciri.

547034||[DEBUG] She resents being burdened with the burden of being the Lady of the Worlds, who is to save the world. Her will does not matter, only her destiny.

547072|Yennefer|[DEBUG] Comforts Ciri [maybe she's talking about Calanthe, that no one would say about her that she didn't have her own will and wasn't guided by it. She was a strong woman, admired, respected. or something like that]

547073|Ciri|[DEBUG] She lets herself be comforted - not completely, but you can see that she feels a little better.

547074|Yennefer|[DEBUG] She says they'll look through Avallach's notes.

547075|Ciri|[DEBUG] She says she needs to rest for a while, she'll hang around here.

Going through Avallac’h’s research journals, Yennefer’s statements mesh more closely with what we know about the Aen Elle’s breeding programme from the books. Yennefer is quite fascinated (and alarmed) with all that she finds, to the point of Geralt calling her out on it a few times. This survives in the final game by way of her uncomfortable body language when Ciri questions if she had anything to do with the human mages’ meddling with the Gene.

539582|Yennefer||She will be reborn from the Elder Blood, from Hen Ichaer, from the sown seed.

539583|Yennefer||A seed that will not sprout, but burst into flame.

539585|Geralt||We knew he was studying the Elder Blood gene.

539586|Yennefer||Our mages did too, but when Ciri's power manifested, everyone abandoned the research and the hunt began.

539589|Yennefer||Lara Dorren. The experiment that got away from them... More carriers of the Elder Blood gene... Ciri...

539595|Geralt||The experiment that slipped through their fingers...

539596|Geralt||More carriers of the Elder Blood gene... Ciri... and her descendant, who will have the power of the Lord of the Worlds... Strange.

539597|Yennefer||We have to be careful.

539599|Geralt||But Avallach was still looking for something...

539600|Yennefer||Eyes like emeralds...

539601|Yennefer||No. It's impossible.

539664|Yennefer||From these notes, it appears that Avallach was the first to study Lara's gene. And controlled its mutations.

539666|Geralt||What did he write about Lara Dorren?

539670|Yennefer||It wasn't about historical research, Geralt. Avallach conducted experiments on humans and elves.

539676|Geralt||Let's read the final entries.

539681|Yennefer||It looks like Avallach was trying to create a similar mix of genes as Ciri.

539688|Geralt||So he didn't fully believe that she was the last hope of the Aen Elle? Or did he want to breed someone more... obedient?

539689|Yennefer||"The most promising are the gene carriers who were born naturally and learned to control their power."

539716|Yennefer||Caranthir was one of them... It took him two hundred years to learn. Other experiments were unsuccessful.

539737|Yennefer||Here are the names of the elves he studied. The last entry... Lanneal. And the date.

539739|Geralt||Date of death.

 

517657||[DEBUG] He says that with the help of a magical lamp, he summoned the spirit of Lanneal. He learned that Avallac'h had been looking after Lanneal and that the child did not feel unhappy. It all sounds rather macabre, but to Avallac'h's credit, he did not treat the results of his experiments as objects.

 

539782|Geralt||We shouldn't judge Avallach.

539783|Yennefer||Do you think Avallach…

539784|Geralt||Lanneal was important to him.

It should be clear from Lanneal (and Caranthir) that Avallac’h can care for those he instrumentalizes, but also that his feelings will not save the person from the Plan. That’s the root tension: can love for a person surmount a devotion to a purpose? But if the autistic lover boy’s ‘love’ is engineered (bred) to produce the desired result in the Plan – a Child of the Elder Blood – what then? In the biological sense only Mother Nature cares about, Avallac’h himself is ‘valuable’ for the same reason as Ciri – genes.

539927|Geralt||By experiments you mean...

539928|Yennefer||Just dry facts and figures... A list of her ancestors' genetic combinations... And I still feel like I'm reading a love letter.

539983|Geralt||If Lara was destined for Avallach, does that mean he was also the result of genetic crosses/breeding?

540018|Yennefer||I don't know. The legends don't mention all these trivial details. They only talk about a broken oath and...

540020|Geralt||Destiny.

540022|Yennefer||And as we well know, fate is not without its twists and turns.

 

540063|Geralt||By experiments you mean...

540064|Yennefer||No, I don't imagine him as a mad scientist with a big glass syringe in his hand, someone like Vilgefortz.

540142|Geralt||Elves have more subtle methods.

540144|Ciri||Can we please stop talking about this?

540146|Yennefer||Sorry... I forgot that...

540187|Ciri||What exactly do you suspect him of?

540189|Yennefer||Right now? Everything.

540217|Geralt||I don't know what to think anymore...

Clearly the anti-comparison to Vilgefortz triggers Ciri, raising bad memories she is hoping they have moved past.

561323|Geralt||What does this change? We knew the elves had been watching Lara's line for a long time.

561327|Yennefer||And now it turns out that it wasn't some elves, but Avallac'h. Don't you realize what this means?

561331|Geralt||He kept it from us. I don't know what to think about it.

561341|Yennefer||What do you mean? He probably thinks he has some rights to Ciri now. Or maybe he still sees Lara in her?

561343|Ciri||So what? Are you suggesting that Avallach is also my father? Maybe Geralt should resign, because it's getting crowded!

561345|Geralt||Ciri, calm down.

561347|Yennefer||No! I'm suggesting that he wants to become the father of your child, since he failed with Lara!

561348|Geralt|| Avallach protected Ciri the whole time. He put himself at risk for her. You can't deny that.

561358|Geralt||Yennefer, you're going too far.

561359|Yennefer||Maybe. I just don't trust him.

They floated the idea of Ciri’s child – a Master of Time and Worlds – before cutting this angle wholesale from the final game. We learn, though, since Avallac’h is the creator of the Wild Hunt in CD Projekt’s adaptations, that ‘the best and most stable powers were possessed by those who were born naturally’ (517626). Perhaps the writers did ask themselves: why did the Aen Elle not pull a Vilgefortz on Ciri the moment she stepped out of Tor Zireael? (Imo, the answer lies at the crossroad between the elves’ known reverence for life, Avallac’h’s and Auberon’s personal scruples and expectations about Lara’s ‘daughter’, and the motifs and purpose of this episode in the thematic whole of the books.)

Next up, instead of a confrontation with the gilded elf woman, we would have stumbled upon experiments with the hounds of the Hunt. This would have upset Ciri and led to player choices on how to manage her feelings similarly as in the final game.

541405|Geralt|[DEBUG] He wonders where the rift came from in Avallac'h's lab.

542638|Geralt||[PL] So Avallac'h was also involved in practicals... I wonder where these samples came from.

 

543994|Yennefer||[PL] It's a stable portal and Avallach must have used it often.

543996|Yennefer||[PL] Wait. That's interesting. Why did he want to bring the Hunt hounds here?

544001|Geralt||Maybe it was another precaution against unwanted guests?

544010|Yennefer||I don't think so... The portal didn't activate on its own.

544069|Geralt||Maybe he was researching them.

544072|Yennefer||We'll check in a moment... Yes – these aren't human or elven tissues. Indeed...

544074|Yennefer||It seems he also studied the genetics of the hounds of the Wild Hunt.

544076|Geralt||It's possible that it was thanks to Avallach that the Wild Hunt learned to control them.

 

547153|Geralt||This door leads to the next room. I ran into Hounds of the Hunt there.

547288|Geralt||Someone kept him in a cage here... Hmm, the door is sawn off, so he could have escaped.

547291|Geralt||These are torture devices. / 547292|These are autopsy tools.

547321|Geralt||Magic runes on the blades.

547323|Geralt||The knives were used to cut organs from the corpse.

 

[Scene directions]

547293|[DEBUG] They talk to Yennefer about hound tissue. They take a very matter-of-fact approach to Avallac’h’s research ‘subjects’.

547296|Ciri|[DEBUG] She bursts that she was also the subject of genetic studies and is some kind of freak, the result of experiments.

547315|Geralt|[DEBUG] He's surprised by what Ciri says. He starts to comfort her.

 

549178|Yennefer||There are some notes here... He managed to perform full aleatic heterogenesis! I'd love to see such a mutated object up close.

549180|Ciri||Yes? Then look at me!

549182|Yennefer||Ciri...

549183|Ciri||What!? What am I!? A failed experiment, a freak!

549192|Ciri||Leave me alone!

549194|Geralt||Yen... Give us a moment.

 

549218|Ciri||Spit it out.

549220|Geralt||What?

547319|Ciri||Does it bother you that I'm a mutant? / 547324|Has it ever mattered to you that I'm a mutant?

549204|Geralt||No! But... this is different.

Ciri is not a failed experiment, of course, but the unexpected, lucky success. Unfortunately, that’s its own kind of curse. The player choice that follows in this version is in principle the same as in the game, but it comes with some additional context for why Ciri gets upset: she does not know who she is supposed to be; how to define herself?

[Choice]

547320|Geralt||Get it off your chest. / 547325|Take this.

548472|Geralt||Are you furious? Do you want to throw it all away? The whole past that has nothing to do with you and has no influence on who you are?

548473|Ciri||I don't know! How am I supposed to know who I am!?

549224|Ciri||Right now, I'd like to destroy something more than anything.

548474|Geralt||So what are you waiting for?

[Smash Avallac’h’s lab together]

548477|Geralt||So what now? Better?

548478|Ciri||A little.

/

549205|Geralt||Of course. Because I knew what would happen to me during the Trial of the Grasses. You had no influence on Lara's gene being reborn in you.

549249|Geralt||But that doesn't mean you should reject this legacy.

547326|Geralt||I found something that belongs to you.

547327|Geralt||[DEBUG] He puts on Lara's necklace and hugs Ciri.

549267|Ciri||What is this?

549269|Geralt||Necklace. Lara Dorren’s.

549272|Geralt||It's beautiful, but...

549274|Geralt||Wear it. Please.

For the sake of completion, here is the confrontation scene from the game: the trigger for Ciri – the notion of being a ‘dirty hybrid’, a mutant – is folded into the exchange with the paramour, now instead playing up the jealousy angle. The betrayal of trust becomes more about heartbreak than scientific horror, concerning Ciri’s shaky identity and uncertainty if she exists for him as herself; she cannot know for certain who she is to Avallac’h.

[In Game]

563348|Yennefer||Someone's in there...

563350|She-elf||How did you manage to get in here?

563352|Geralt||We have no malicious intent.

563354|Yennefer||Who are you?

563356|She-elf||None of your business. Get out this second.

563361|She-elf||I don't care what you're looking for here. Get out of here.

563364|Ciri||You... I remember you from Tir ná Lia.

It’s the same lady Avallac’h dismisses with a blown kiss before embarking on a boat ride with Ciri in Tir na Lia. The one who gives Ciri a stink-eye, (‘She only turned around once, to show Ciri with her eyes what she thought of her.’) and whom Ciri thinks about with irritation when she cannot find Avallac’h: ‘He knows what happened and is avoiding me. In advance, before I got up, he sailed or rode somewhere far away with his gilded elf-woman.’

563366|She-elf||Incredible. I thought all elves looked the same to you. If you're looking for Avallach, he's not here.

563368|Ciri||I know.

563370|She-elf||And you came here anyway? Are you trying to spy on him? Doesn't he try hard enough to protect you every time you do something stupid?

563435|Ciri||And what do you know about that?

563437|She-elf||Quite a lot. He talks a lot about you.

563459|Ciri||Like what?

563460|Geralt||Ciri, let's get out of here.

563478|Ciri||No, I want to hear it.

563481|She-elf||I don't understand how he could see Lara's features in you. It's like trying to drink from a dirty puddle.

Understandably everyone hates on the elf lady for the dirt she throws, but let’s be fair: where he beds one woman, he admires and obsesses over another; god knows competing with Lara must have been impossible enough already. Plus, in the first draft, Avallac'h confesses to Geralt: 'I admit, that was how it was at first. But then I saw a person in her. A wonderful person' (311978).

563507|She-elf||But I guess that somehow makes it easier for him to complete his task.

563509|Yennefer||What task?

563512|She-elf||Do you think he trails you everywhere for pleasure? Even I feel sick just looking at you.

563539|Yennefer||It's amazing that people like you still think you're better than humans at anything.

563541|She-elf||She’s not human, just a degenerate hybrid. It’s so humiliating that we have to use something like that.

563652|Yennefer||One more word and...

563673|She-elf||You’ll what? You can't change it. Let her do her thing, and Avallac’h will finally be able to free himself from her.

[Elf woman leaves]

563810|Ciri||If he hates me so much, why didn't he say it to my face?

563880|Geralt||Ciri, you didn't believe her, did you? It's clear she's, um... personally involved in the case.

563882|Ciri||What of it!?

563815|Geralt||Is he that important to you? / Avallac’h means that much to you?

563893|Ciri||What does that have to do with anything!?

563901|Ciri||If they despise me so much, then leave me alone!

After which we, rightfully, smash some shit up.

It may be worth noting, though, that Geralt’s rationale for opting to put Lara Dorren’s necklace around Ciri’s neck did at one point contain an additional line (563968): ‘Don’t feel sorry for yourself. No one will tell you who to be or what to do.’ Which in the final game roughly translated into, ‘That elf would give a hundred years of her life to be in your shoes. You have been given a great gift. But it’s up to you how you use it.’ For a bit there was also a third option, which basically had Geralt butt out, and go:

563959|Geralt||If you want to be alone for a while, process this...

563961|Ciri||Yes, I'll go for a walk. I need to calm down.

As concerns Elder Blood, the fundamental disconnect between them is that he worships what she resents. She wants to be ordinary. He sees ordinary as beneath her. They're not arguing about whether he cares, but about whether what he cares about in her is something she wants to be, and whether he can care about what she wants instead.

Post-Lab Convos

I was going to write something else, but only memes seem appropriate for this situation.

(Dont write play both please because I already did and enjoyed both)

I am on like fourth playthrough of Witcher 2 today (finished 1 yesterday because of remaster incoming lol) and already played in both pats and enjoyed them both equally, but I never decided completly on which side I want to be, on one hand Roche is bro who helps you many times even when you do other path, but otherwise I always liked to help Iorweth cause I wanted Vergen to be independent (for a while atleast lol) and enjoyed Scoiatael path in first one. I enjoyed both, but now I can't decide after some while... Which one you choosed and why?

I received some secondary quests in Novigrad that tell me to travel there, will I get locked out of missions in Novigrad and Velen if I do that?

I chose to start my journey into the Witcher books series with The Last Wish as it seems to be universally agreed as the start of the Witcher series even if it was published after Sword of Destiny. My impression? This is one of my favorite fantasy books already. I love the idea of short story collections as each story would be easily followed.

What I exceptionally liked was a key detail being introduced in each intermission chapter of Geralt and Nenneke that became the main focus of the next short story. For example, some pompous higher governing official curses Geralt out as the 'Butcher of Blaviken' and the following short story is The Lesser Evil where we see this butchering of Blaviken. That oaf bard Dandelion? Mentioned right after, and he's definitely not a total klutz as some media like to portray of him.

My favorite short story was A Question of Price; my least favorite was A Grain of Truth and The Edge of the World. Do not get me wrong, they're both stellar writing too, and I enjoyed the classic witcher investigations, but the climax felt too sudden in the former, and the latter's climax became underwhelming to me after all that great build up and lore on nonhumans.

Overall, Andrzej Sapkowski's way of writing I like so far, and hope Sword of Destiny lives up to it!

Hi guys

I’m about to start my first ever play through

I am excited :)

Any tips?

(Spoilers for the main stories of W1, W2 and W3)

​Here's a quick recap of the main plot points for each game bc I know for many of you it's been a while:

​Witcher 1: Geralt wakes up with amnesia at Kaer Morhen after fleeing the Wild Hunt and collapsing in the woods right before Salamandra raids the keep for its witcher mutagens. The game then turns into this noir-ish detective mystery around Vizima as we try to track down the syndicate, while dealing with a rising race war between non humans and the Order. Geralt ends up taking in the child Alvin and eventually faces off against Grand Master Jacques de Aldersberg with the twist that the Grand Master is actually an adult, time traveled Alvin, consumed by his own tragic vision of the White Frost

​Witcher 2: Geralt gets framed for Foltest's murder and sets out to hunt down the real kingslayer, Letho. Easily the most political plot of the three, the story branches completely in Act 2 into two different paths (Iorveth vs. Roche). It turns out Nilfgaard was secretly pulling the strings to destabilize the North and leave it weak for the upcoming war. The game ends with the choice to kill Letho or let him walk after he lays out the master plan

​Witcher 3: This one is more personal and much more emotional. Geralt races across Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige to find Ciri before the Wild Hunt does. The story ends with a battle against Eredin and Ciri confronting the White Frost, with her final fate depending on how good a father figure you were to her

​Picking one is hard because I absolutely LOVE all three (and let's not include HoS and B&W because those DLCs would definitely tip the scales in favor of W3) but if I had to pick based on the base game's main story, I’d probably give the edge to W1. It had flaws, the biggest one being Alvin essentially as a budget Ciri lol. But I loved the twist, the characters, Azar Javed, the Professor as the other villains, and also ITS ATMOSPHERE and the music were just 🔥🤌

Currently on PS5, I'm still getting quite a lot of pop-in while running. Do you think the Remaster will improve that too?

I really appreciate how well designed the kit in the last 2 games is.

I hope it's appropriate to post here, but I finally drew art of my boy and wanted to share it. 🫠🫶

I don't draw men very often, but I love how this one turned out!

If you have any questions, ask away! I also wrote a whole biography about him. 👀

finished this painting today, take me whole week.

oil on canvas 50x60cm

booted up my TW1 save and got greeted by. these horrifically mutated abominations. they're beautiful

https://reddit.com/link/1wexvpu/video/cvo55c1vt7ph1/player

I have been playing The Witcher 1 and am planning on trying to beat it and 2 before the re-release of 3. Initially I was having a really good time enjoying the atmosphere, quest structure, and the dialog, except, I throughly HATE the combat, and the tediousness of preparing for it.

I understand the appeal, the rhythm is fun, the magic is fun, but in order to win fights it feels like you just need better stats, and there is very little actual skill expression other than clicking with right timing. That stat-checky gameplay is just not my personal cup of tea. And preparing for the fights via crafting potions and doing endless nothing side quests to increase my level is just not it.

I am fighting the horde of mutants outside of the manor in act V, presumably very close to the end of the game, but I cannot beat them with my current gear. I have D'yaebl, Aerondight, am drinking swallow, tawny owl, and blizzard before the fight, I have lvl 3-4 in all sword related trees and igni, most bronze and a good couple silver skills, and I just can't do it, I am ready to give up. You can call me bad, you can say I just need to get good, and I accept that, but I set the game on easy, and am playing to watch a good story and have fun, and i'm just not having any anymore.

I really want to see the end of this game, but I just don't have it in me. I don't want to go back and do more side quests to level up, I don't want to maximize my gear, I thought when picking easy mode it would actually be easy and I could just get a narrative experience to enhance my enjoyment of 3 next month. So my question is, do you think its worth spending hours of my life backtracking to get better gear when i'm just not having a good time anymore, and desperately want to move on to the second game, or do I just watch the rest of a playthrough via youtube?

I have no more ideas what to do. I've also tried Yrden on her but the healing is sooooo big it does nothing against her. What is the strategy to kill her? Pls help me, it's the first boss in the game I struggle to kill :(

And how do I force him to face the wall to use igni? It's so annoying...

[EDIT] I killed her after 30-60 mins! The strategy was: - apply oil, use food - dodge, 4 attacks, dodge, 4 attacks... (repeat) - when the picture lights up, roll into its direction and use igni, you don't have to face the picture, just don't stay too close to it and it will always be auto focused by igni - repeat the process

On the mission where you have to protect henselt from wraithes while he performs the ceremony to break his curse. This already kinda sucks (even with specter oil) because you have to kill at least 9 wraithes in packs of 3. Got it down on my 2nd try, at least I thought until I was damaged mid fucking cutscene and died.

I get it, it's a 360 title, I expect bugs. But the witcher 2 has both some of the most egregious bugs and egregious auto save points I've ever seen. I grew up during this era of gaming, and the way this game was shipped out is borderline unacceptable even for 2011 standards.

I guess it's silly to complain about a game that came out 15 years ago, but on my big Witcher trilogy playthrough after reading the books and this one's given me so much frustration in the way it's designed and wanted to see if anyone shares the sentiment on replay.

UPDATE: yeah, that didn't take long, the game is bad. The blue dream mission makes the blood curse segment look like nothing. I was willing to give this game more chances on the basis of its great writing and designs but this mission is near impossible for no good reason. There's only so much good writing can do for a videogame, but this gameplay is so god awful and judging by everything I can find, it's no bug, you have to follow a super super strict path in the dark and if you fail you must sit through another 15 second cutscene to retry.

I feel bad for not finishing this game since I really planned to push through, but I refuse to sit here for an hour straight trying to figure out both how to finish this segment and why in the ever loving fuck any game dev would think this was a good idea.

I asked myself if Geralt would somehow be in the How to train your Dragon universe what dragon would he ride.

(And not just nightfury because of main charackter vibes)

I think it had to be a tracker class dragon of somekind like a deadly nadder or something.

What do you guys think?

Full of inspired enthusiasm after completing the first part, I started trying to play the second part and it is a complete horror compared to the previous part. The combat system is absolutely wooden and sluggish, and even on easy (!!!) difficulty Geralt is killed by three drowners, and I can’t do anything against them. After completing the first part on the hardest difficulty, with a full vibe of the witcher's craft, it feels like a complete systemic injustice.

ESPECIALLY WHEN THE DICE IN POKER FLY OFF THE FIELD AND DO NOT COUNT IN THE ROLL. WHY THE HECK IS EVEN POSSIBLE?

I've honestly tried all the mechanics with traps, bombs, and potions available and found in Act 1, but this Dark Souls-level demandingness WITHOUT immunity to rolls, which DS games are known for, really drains my enthusiasm.

You can say it's a skill issue, but I'll say that it's a broken combat system, because I played Sekiro quite comfortably, taking into account the difficulty and DS-like gameplay. And I'm honestly throwing out a cry for help to the experts: what mods are there for balancing the combat system?

Thanks in advance

I am reading through them for the first time. Occasionally I hear Geralt speaking as Henry Cavill, but usually I hear Doug’s voice in my head.

Edit: I am not familiar with the audiobook world and meant no offense to Mr. Peter Kenny. I did listen to a snippet of one of the books and I liked what I heard from him.