The Witcher 3: Here’s How To Investigate All Remaining Leads
Velen region in the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has an extremely long and detailed storyline. The main storyline of the region mainly revolves around you trying to locate Ciri and Phillip Strenger, aka Bloody Baron, trying to locate his wife and daughter. At one point during the quest “Familly Matters,” you will hit a dead end, and Bloody Baron will refuse to give you any more information about Ciri until you deliver his wife and daughter to him. The next entry in your journal will simply be “Investigate all remaining leads.” Since Velen is large and filled with quests, in today’s post, we’re going to shed some light on how to investigate all remaining leads in Witcher 3.
Family Matters: Dealing with Botchling and locating Tamara
Your search for Ciri will lead you to Velen, and most importantly, it will lead you to Phillip Strenger, aka Bloody Baron. He has some idea where Ciri might be, but he is unwilling to reveal any information about her whereabouts before you help with some of his family issues. His wife Anna and daughter Tamara are missing. Seemingly vanished into thin air.
As the quest progresses, you learn that Bloody Baron is a drunk who often abuses his wife and daughter, so it’s not far-fetched to assume that they ran away. You will also need to deal with Botchling, a child Anna aborted. Bloody Baron assumed that the unborn child died due to his abuse. In any case, you will need to kill the Botchling or remove the curse.
No matter your choice in the matter, you will also need to locate Tamara, Baron’s daughter, in Oxenfurt. You will learn that Tamara plans never to return to Crow’s Perch, and she is better off with the group of Witch Hunters.
Returning to Bloody Baron without any real news will result in him refusing to divulge any new information. He still needs to find out where his wife is, leading us to the next entry in our journal – investigate all remaining leads.
The quest with the Baron can be completed only after four other quests have been completed in order those are:
- “Hunting a Witch”
- “Wandering in the Dark”
- “Ladies of the Woods”
- “Whispering Hillock”
If you’ve already completed some of these quests, the order might differ, but in any case, at least one of the quests on this list is not completed; otherwise, you can proceed with the Velen storyline. So, let’s take a look at the following quests.
“Hunting a Witch”
You will overhear people in Midcopse commenting about a witch living in their midst. You will also hear that Ciri quarreled with a witch before she left Velen. You will follow the path until you reach the Witch’s Hut. Searching the Witch’s Hut with your Witcher senses will reveal the portal. Once you go through it, you will realize that this is not an ordinary common witch. You’re dealing with an exiled sorceress of the lodge, Keira Metz. Keira will take part in numerous other quests, and it’s also possible to romance her.
When you question her about Ciri’s whereabouts, she will reveal that an elven mage was also trying to find Ciri and that he is hiding in ancient elven ruins. She offers her help to accompany you to the ruins. You can either go with her or meet Keira there. Whatever your choice is, the quest ends, and another quest, “Wandering in the Dark,” becomes active.
“Wandering in the Dark”
“Wandering in the Dark” leads you (and Keira) into ancient elven ruins, where you will get a step closer to uncovering the mystery behind Ciri’s stay in Velen. You will encounter a series of puzzles, a series of coded projections meant to be seen only by Ciri left by a mysterious elf. You will also learn that Wild Hunt was on Ciri’s tail, as you will encounter them in ruins.
Keira will give you the Eye of Nehaleni; a magic item used to dispel illusions. The lamp will come in handy during numerous quests, so keep it. When you reach the end of the ruin, you will learn that Ciri did not quarrel with Keira. The witch that she quarreled with was one of the three crones of Crookback Bog.
The crones of Crookback Bog are powerful and mysterious beings who sold their souls to evil forces in order to attain unnatural power. They generally have a strong hold over Velen, and little happens in the swamps without them being aware of it. This leads us to the next quest you need to solve, “Ladies of the Woods.”
“Ladies of the Woods Part I”
“Ladies of the Woods” starts soon after you’ve discovered that more witches are hiding in Velen. You need to read the book Ladies of the Wood that Keira gave you. After reading the book, you will figure out that Crones have a tendency to lead the children into the swamp and keep them there forever in exchange for protecting the nearby villages.
You will make your way into the swamp and follow a trail revealed by your witcher senses. You will arrive at the cabin inhabited by children. They are being watched over by “Gran.”
Gran will not be of much use as she will refuse to reveal any information about the Crones or children. However, the children will reveal to you that you can speak to Johnny as he needs their help. Johnny turns out to be a godling, a guardian spirit from ancient times. It would seem that the Crones hate Johnny, and they went as far as to steal his voice. He needs your help in recovering it.
Helping Johnny means you will need to recover his voice in a bottle from harpies. This is an easy task as the fight is not complicated. Once Johnny has his voice, he will prove to be much more useful than Gran and the children.
You need to return to the Gran and children once again, and the cutscene will trigger you will finally get to meet a notorious Ladies of the Woods that will assign to you your next quest, Whispering Hillock.
“Whispering Hillock”
After your brief interaction with Ladies of the Woods near Gran’s cabin, you will be sent to talk to the ealdorman of Downwarren. You will learn that the small village of Downwarren has been plagued with malevolent spirits for quite some time, and Crones did nothing about it, which means that the local populace is losing fate in the Crones.
Your next target is to approach Ancient Oak. You can find the cave entrance leading to the heart of Ancient Oak. There you will be able to communicate with an Ancient Spirit that seems to be betrayed by the Crones in some way and is enacting its vengeance on the local populace. You have three choices on how to approach this quest: release the spirit, kill it, or trick it and let it die.
Releasing the spirit means that you will need a raven feather, the spirit’s bones, and a wild black horse. Releasing the spirit will result in a wild black horse becoming possessed by the spirit. It will run away into its freedom.
Tricking the spirit means that you will begin the ritual, but you can’t stab the heart in order for the spirit to die. This will finish the quest without you releasing the spirit or fighting it. You can kill the spirit as well. In that case, prepare for a semi-difficult fight that involves several waves of endrega workers. No matter what your choice was, once the spirit is released, or killed “Ladies of the Woods” quest will resume.
“Ladies of the Woods Part II”
During the quest “Whispering Hillock,” you will learn that the dark spirit was somehow connected to the crones, and that was why they couldn’t interfere even though the village of Downwarren was praying for it. The Crones used you as a middleman to sort their affairs. In turn, they will offer absolutely nothing of use.
As soon as you make your way to the swamp orphanage, a cutscene will trigger, and you will see the Crones talking to Anna. You will learn that “Gran” in the swamps is actually the wife of Bloody Baron and that she made a deal with the Crones. They aborted her child, she did not wish, and Ann will provide them with a lifetime of servitude in exchange.
You will also learn that Crones planned on capturing and delivering Ciri to Imlerith, one of the generals of the Wild Hunt. After the “Ladies of the Woods” quest is complete, a brief quest becomes active called “Fleeing the Bog.”
“Family Matters” continuation
Once you’ve dealt with the Ladies of the Woods, you can return to Bloody Baron and bring him news of his wife’s whereabouts. Baron will tell you more details regarding his relationship with Anna, and the quest “Ciri’s Story: Out of the Shadows” will begin.
After the quest “Family Matters” is resolved, Bloody Baron will ask one more thing. He will immediately start planning to visit the Crookback Bog to retrieve his wife, and he will ask for your help. This triggers the quest called “Return to Crookback Bog.” You don’t have to finish it right away. Keep in mind that you don’t want to skip the “Return to Crookback Bog” quest as it’s the most vital part of Bloody Baron’s story, and it affects the resolution of the Velen storyline.
Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!
