The Wild Hunt: Retirement

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

With the Hunt destroyed and no tactical genius like Radovid to oppose them, Nilfgaard conquered the rest of the Continent, apart from the vassal state of Temeria which Ves and Vernon fought so hard for. Having realized his vision the Emperor did as he had initially promised, and abdicated his throne to his daughter - Ciri.

You mean I have to wear more fancy shirts?

Thanks to her, the Skellige Isles too were left alone and prospered under Queen Cerys, who stopped their raiding ways. Meanwhile Zoltan helped Dandelion run his new cabaret at Novigrad and Letho surprisingly inherited Kaer Morhen which presented an opportunity for rebuilding his school of the viper there. As for Geralt, he and Yen eventually retired far away to a place of solitude to live out their days together in happiness. 

Of course, this doesn't mean they never saw Ciri again, for the girl could teleport to anywhere at will and on occasion would sneak out to play Gwent with the White Wolf, much to the annoyance of her handlers.

Insight: As expected, this is but one of multiple endings to this game. It's great when your choices matter!

The Wild Hunt: Conjunction

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

With Radovid out of the way, Nilfgaard turned its attention directly to Skellige. Among their massive armada sailed Geralt and company, with an Emperor approved plan to lure the Wild Hunt into battle for one final confrontation.

As Avallac'h expected, they took the magical bait and arrived right into the prison dome maintained by the lodge sorceresses where Geralt, Ciri, and the Nilfgaard army ambushed them. Not one to sit out of a fight, the Skellige fleet also arrived with Crach and Hjalmar at the helm.

None could match the King of the Hunt though, with even Crach falling victim to his blade. Unfortunately for him, the White Wolf's reflexes were better than his magic and the witcher avenged his fallen friend with style.

His death did not end the threats though, as their arrival had begun another Conjuction of Spheres - where the gateway to other worlds opened to let numerous creatures teleport in. The worst of these was the White Frost, a world killing magical storm who prophecy claimed could only be defeated by a child of the elder blood. Ciri.

So this is what it's like inside a snow globe...

Having been trained by Avallac'h for exactly this purpose, Ciri stepped through a gateway to face this unstoppable threat... and won.

Insight: The King of the Hunt is a pansy compared to his generals. Just dodge often and igni his frost armor off to deal some good damage.

The Wild Hunt: Politics

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Upon his return to Novigrad, Triss and Yen enlist Geralt in rescuing the few remaining sorceresses they can track down. One is freely released by the Emperor of Nilfgaard, one saved from Radovid's dungeons in Oxenfurt, and one about to be murdered by Dijkstra.

Freeing the last one comes with a price: the witcher is forced to agree to aid Dijkstra's conspirators, which surprisingly include Vernon and Ves, to assassinate King Radovid. However the mad king is no fool, easily foiling the plan but an unexpected attack ends him on the spot.

Regrouping at the hideout, Vernon reveals the conspirators had made an arrangement with Nilfgaard - kill Radovid and become a vassal state and in exchange the Black Ones would take the war elsewhere. Of course, Dijkstra openly declares to renege on that deal - intent on taking Radovid's place instead. Naturally that also means killing Vernon and Ves.

Well, that's not going to happen.

Dijkstra invites Geralt to leave since witchers don't get involved with politics, but the White Wolf opts to stay with his allies who helped him at Kaer Morhen. The battle is short and bloody, and at the end of it Dijkstra and all his goons lie dead.

Insight: If you opt to fight skull level baddies, make sure you use the appropriate preparations first. I still think it's not worth it however.

The Wild Hunt: Siege

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

By the time Ciri and Geralt return to Kaer Morhen, all the allies have gathered - now including Letho, Keira Metz and Triss. As expected, the Wild Hunt are not far behind so while Yen shields the castle with magic, Triss provides fiery artillery support for the three volunteers who go out to attack the enemy: Geralt, Lambert and Letho.

Witcher Strike Team!

The fighting is fierce and despite their best efforts and various traps, the sheer numbers of Wild Hunters gradually force the defenders back towards the keep, with Vigi, Folan and Vesemir being killed. Seeing the old witcher get his neck broken triggers something in Ciri, and she loses control for a few minutes wailing like a banshee. The sound proves fatal to the Wild Hunt and they are forced to retreat after catastrophic losses.

Having won the day, the team spends some time mourning before they go their separate ways. Hjalmar and Ermion return to Skellige, Vernon and Ves to Velen, Zoltan to Novigrad, Eskel to Lormark, and Keira and Lambert to gods know where - as a couple.

In hopes to better protect Ciri, Yen and Triss head off as well to try rebuild the Lodge of Sorceresses, leaving only Geralt, Letho and Avallac'h to watch over the girl.

Insight: So... she could have just yelled at them this whole time? Mmhmm. In any case, if you run out of dimetrium bombs, Yrden can also shut down the portals.

The Wild Hunt: Allies

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Once everything is prepared, Yennefer's magics finally lift the creatures curse - revealing him to actually be an elf sage named Avallac'h, who happens to be Ciri's mentor. The elf tells Geralt how find Ciri at the magically hidden Isle of Mists.

Vesemir warns them that they'd need a plan first though, as no doubt the Wild Hunt would be nipping at their heels the minute Ciri leaves that island. Geralt agrees, and states the plan is to bring Ciri home - luring the hunt into a battle at Kaer Morhen.

While the others prepare, Geralt goes to seek other allies first - being turned down immediately by Dijkstra, Crach, Cerys, and the Emperor of Nilfgaard. Fortunately Zoltan, Vernon, Ves, Hjalmar, Vigi and Folan all agree to fight. Surprisingly so does the Skellige druid Ermion, who is zen enough to put aside his hate of Yennefer.

The White Wolf then sails to the Isle of Mists, and without too much fanfare finally locates Ciri.

Been looking for you, kid.

Insight: Ahh this part is great, as it is one where all of your previous decisions either pay off or bite you in the butt!

The Wild Hunt: Witchers

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Acquiring the ugly critter turns out to be rather easy once Geralt returns to the Continent as the late Baron's successor is more than happy to part ways with his "useless jester" who is actually the victim of a powerful curse.

The White Wolf decides to take him to Kaer Morhen where Yennefer, having received his summons for aid, was already preparing after teleporting ahead - much to the annoyance of the resident witchers, Eskel, Lambert and old man Vesimir.

While Vesimir looked after the new "guests", the younger witchers went about collecting materials for Yennefer's spell during the day, and spent their evenings getting absolutely hammered with various forms of alcohol. It was a fine change of pace, and one that happened all too rarely.

We need more stories with Lambert and Eskel!

Insight: Speaking of drinking, Golden Oriole potions and White Raffard decoctions are two important ones you will likely drink often. Make sure to have them in stock before taking on tough and/or poisonous enemies.

The Wild Hunt: Bears

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

While the feast starts off as a normal rambunctious affair it quickly sours when a number of guests suddenly shift into bears and slaughter all but three candidates for the crown before Geralt can put them down.

Fighting without gear was the only way Geralt could give the bears a chance.

Hjalmar immediately decides to hunt down the bear related clansmen but the witcher opts to stay and assist Cerys in actually investigating the crime scene, discovering that those that transformed were actually poisoned to do so by the mother of the third contender and son of the previous King.

The guilty party is arrested and for her intellect Cerys is voted the first ever Queen of Skellige. During the coronation celebration, the witcher unexpectedly finds another trail to follow on his hunt for Ciri. That of a hideous man creature he and Yen previously heard about.

One of the Jarl's actually knew of such a monster, having sold the misshapen tyke to the Continent to a trader who worked for the Bloody Baron.

Insight: While it's fun to aim the crossbow by holding the button down, it's often more useful to just tap the button which will let Geralt auto aim and fire at the nearest enemy.

The Wild Hunt: Kingmaker

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

With Yen returning to Vzima to report to the Emperor, the White Wolf decided to remain in Skellige for some witcher's work - freeing a cursed gladiator spirit by letting it win, appeasing an ancient leshen to protect a village, and destroying a regenerating werewolf by forcing it to eat itself.

On his travels he also aids the children of Crach who, like many others, were off trying to accomplish heroic deeds in hopes to be crowned the next King of the isles.

Crach's daughter, Cerys, didn't need much help while trying to cure a neighboring Jarl of a demon possession. In comparison, his son Hjalmar took an entire boat load of warriors to a monster inhabited isle and lost almost all of them. Geralt was hard pressed to save the hot head prince, Folan the archer and Vigi the Fool from certain death.

Only someone named "the Fool" would wake an Ice Giant.

Crach is overjoyed at this, and allows Geralt to attend the election feast that follows.

Insight: While none of the horse racers in Skellige are that good, their fist fighters and duelists are fantastic. Make use of small dodges for the former to strike while they are open and counters for the latter. In both, don't just attack like crazy or you will regret it.

The Wild Hunt: Djinn

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Geralt found sharing the small skiff with Yen to be quite pleasant. Just the two of them, sailing out in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't without purpose however, for Yennefer did have a destination in mind - a shipwreck that she deduced was the home of a djinn.

One of the more dangerous fights in the game.

After a difficult battle, the pair managed to capture the air spirit with Yen making but one wish before letting it go: To undo Geralt's last wish made with a previous djinn, a wish that the two of them would always be together.

The creature accepted before flying off, leaving the two wondering why their feelings for each other remained despite having their magical link removed. It doesn't take long for them to realize that the magic of true love is much stronger than any wish, and they share a kiss while watching the sun rise.

Insight: Uh, you probably could have used the djinn to... I don't know... destroy the Wild Hunt, find Ciri, and win the game but sure - lets use it to resolve feelings instead. Be sure to prep for this fight though, it's one of the hardest you will face!

The Wild Hunt: Outlander

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

By the time Geralt returned to Novigrad, his beard had grown too much for his liking so he had it shaved clean before finally deciding to the Skellige isles and meet up with Yennefer. The one ship willing to take him didn't fare well in the crossing, but all things considered, the witcher arrived in one piece on the isles - just in time to join Yen for the King's funeral.

Those "birds" are actually sirens!

The sorceress hadn't managed to investigate Ciri's whereabouts as thoroughly as she liked, having been hindered by the druids led by Ermion in these parts despite permission from Crach an Craite, jarl of the largest village and Geralt's friend.

In fact most of the locals treat them coldly, mainly due to them being outlanders from the Continent. Tired of trying to be nice, the pair instead use guile - stealing an artifact from the druids and desecrating one of their sacred sites to search for Ciri. Unfortunately her trail ends up vanishing into the cold, wide sea once more.

Insight: I mentioned this in the last post but just so it's clear - drowners and sirens are "weaker" underwater because the crossbow is overpowered while swimming. Especially for sirens (who can fly in this game) that attack while you are on a tiny boat, it's often better to just dive into the sea and wait for them to go into "swim mode" and shoot them there.  

The Wild Hunt: Doppler

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Needing something other than Dijkstra's offer to think about, Geralt looks for the doppler Dudu who is believed to be in hiding within Novigrad. While it takes a lot of leg work, it isn't actually difficult to find him and get his help in freeing Dandelion. Dudu simply has to look like the Eternal Fire boss Triss immolated, bark some orders, and the bard is freed.

Dandelion is overjoyed at his rescue, but informs Geralt that Ciri had teleported herself out of Novigrad during his capture. Since Geralt's searched most of the mainland, odds are Ciri has gone to Skellige island - which is where Yen is looking.

Somewhat relieved, Geralt decides to take it easy for a bit - helping his friend Zoltan get out of debt from Bedlam by tracking down collectors edition Gwent cards, Dandelion in setting up his new cabaret club, and an elf cook in regaining sword making privileges from Cleaver which earns the witcher a master blade, all while hunting down a mass murderer on the side.

Ugh, I'm terrible at this game!

Insight: Gwent is a fun card game you can play at numerous locations. If you are serious about winning though, you will need to make sure to buy new cards when you come across them and most importantly keep your deck thin by replacing out the weaker cards!

The Wild Hunt: Vultures

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Yennefer gave Geralt a task he couldn't refuse: finding his old ward, Ciri. While officially they were working for Ciri's father, the Emperor of Nilfgaard, Yen had discovered that the malevolent force known as the Wild Hunt was also after her for some mysterious reason.

To cover more ground the two decide to split up with Geralt heading Velen, a no man's land between the territories of Nilfgaard and Redania. Knowing it would be easier to move around with a pass, the witcher accepted a job to assist a forger and his "vulture crew" to pick clean a nearby battle field of all the free loot just lying with the dead.

The local vultures are also pretty monstrous.

As expected, the necrophages are here too and while the ghouls are more numerous this time and led by a rotfiend (zombie that explodes) they still aren't a problem for the veteran monster slayer. What he didn't expect was for a nearby mounted bandit patrol to get involved, resulting in the deaths of all the vultures - the forger included.

Insight: The fire sign, Igni, is effective in startling horses to throw off mounted enemies.

The Wild Hunt: Yen

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Geralt wiped away the ghoul blood from his silver sword as he scanned the battle field. The corpses of the soldiers that died in the recent battle had drawn the necrophages here, a fact the witcher used to his advantage by bombing their nest first before finishing the exposed monsters.

The victors of that battle, the Nilfgaardians - also known as the black ones thanks to their armor, now garrisoned near the village. The populace was understandably shaken by recent events, going so far as to fight each other simply because some perceived others to be willingly aiding "the enemy", even if it wasn't the case.

He had only made it a few steps back into the village when a group of Nilfgaarian soldiers blocked his path. In their midst, a ravishing woman in black and white attire. A woman he knew all too well.

"Yen?!"

Insight: Meditating with high quality alcohol in your pack will refresh any potions and bombs you've used, so you don't need to carry around all the ingredients to make them again.

Dragon's Dogma: The Demon of Indecision

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

I don't suppose you just want to talk?

The city is home to more of those really tough evil mercs, as well as flying strigoi who are fricking tough and have an unbreakable grab attack which depends on a team mate freeing you. Lily almost fell prey to this. The main attraction though was the large demon residing in the grand hall at the end. As the end boss of Bitterblack Isle he has a whole slew of abilities, the scariest of which is one where he banishes people - as he does to Yennefer!

Fortunately we find a new knight ally in the form of Ingvald who is pretty decent as a second tank, but what really kills the demon are a pair of rusty daggers I found, not because of the piss poor damage but because of the slowing debilitation with each strike that connects and as one can imagine, dual wielding daggers usually ends up with a lot of strikes - eventually making the demon move in slow motion. It's pretty epic when we finally slay him.

Turns out he was once Olra's main squeeze, and an arisen to boot - until the dragon offered him a choice which he couldn't decide upon. His uncertainty eventually turned him into a demon, and Olra is pleased that he is now free from his suffering. This doesn't clear the island of monsters though, on the contrary - without the demon around they seem to all have gotten tougher!? Not that it's my problem though - with my task here done we warp back to Gran Soren. I'm now on level 57.

Dragon's Dogma: A Tale of Women

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

With my Port Crystals in place Captain Mercedes joins the team for a brief night patrol of the Shadow Fort, and of course we run into huge trouble in the pitch black forest. An army of goblins assaults us from all directions, combined with a drake from the air. I do my best to keep the goblins off her but she is downed by dragon fire and needs to be returned for medical attention after the combat.

Fortunately our next escort mission, to take the tavern keeper Inez on a short adventure is far more successful since she doesn't opt to go far, or to a very dangerous place. Once she is back to safety I am feeling pretty confident with the strength of the team so we return to Bitterblack Isle and we make our way back to the Bich and his undead dragon. This time Rose is using the same crazy spells it throws at us, Yennefer is whipping it with lightning, and Lily is tanking better since I'm silencing and poisoning the Bich with specially prepared arrows.

That's one p0wn3d bich.

Victory comes at last, and opens another shortcut back to Olra and another route further down which we follow into a flooded keep with stronger phantoms and problematic giant saurians who we need to sprint past, right into really tough evil mercs!? I have to abuse their leash mechanism to kill them. We have another encounter with Death in a sewer but once more outrun the giant spirit. We do have to fight a tough living armor afterwards and destroying that opens a door leading to an ancient city which feels so familiar for some reason.

Dragon's Dogma: Safe as China

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Back in the city we recruit the sorceress Yennefer (taking a break from adventuring with Geralt I guess?) who has an awesome lightning whip spell and are also joined by the Pawn Guild manager Barnaby on our next outing since he wants to take a more active role in ending the dragon threat. Too bad he is an idiot as demonstrated on our first outing to the Northern hill where harpies manage to keep putting him to sleep with their singing.

We save him from that and from many the big white dire wolves in the region, managing to meet an old guy called the Dragonforged who supposedly once faced the dragon too. He's not very forthcoming with information at this point but does give me some cool stuff to help in my quest. We also explore the dead woods where Sara died previously and take out a few chimeras. At the very center of it is an Abbey of nuns, because apparently that's a "safe" place? Lol.

Tell that to all the prowling chimeras!

We continue up the mountain, fighting past a clan of female bandits who become less hostile as we get closer to their mountain top fort. Once there they let us pass with no hassle into a dark marsh inhabited by a lich. He is no match for the team, but is also not as strong as the Bich on Bitterblack Isle. Eventually we reach China - because we reach a massive fortress called the Great Wall, which also is keeping monsters at bay. I wonder if Matt Damon is around?