Chapter Six: Win a Date with Keira Metz
We last left our illustrious witcher deep in the Velen swamps, with some news about the baron's wife, Anna, to relay to him. Nobody said we had to do that right now, though.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: This blog series (obviously) contains major spoilers for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Current Level: 7
Current Location: Crookback Bog, Velen, Northern Temeria
We last left our illustrious witcher deep in the Velen swamps, with the Crones of Crookback Bog and their human servant, Anna Strenger. Wait, what? Yep, the baron's wife has been kidnapped by the Crones for her servitude. Those mysterious marks that appeared on her hands? Tethers. And now we're tasked with telling the baron this news. Nobody said we had to do that right now, though, and we're going to need to level up before Novigrad anyway, so I've chosen to detour into the Keira Metz magic lamp side quest.
What did we do?
When we arrive at Keira's hut, she tells Geralt why she sought the magic lamp we helped her retrieve: the lamp allows her to see and talk to ghosts, like the ghosts on Fyke Isle. This island in the nearby lake is of particular interest to her because she's interested in the mage, Alexander, who had a laboratory there. He’d lived in a tower on the island alongside the previous inhabitant of Crow's Perch, Lord Vserad, who fled to the isle with his family at the news that armies were approaching the area. The only problem for Keira is that the island is held by a curse, and the tower where his lab supposedly was is now overrun by lab rats. The first part of this problem likely has something to do with the fact that the peasants sailed to the island, stormed the tower to demand food, and killed everyone. Lovely. After a quick stop at Keira's pretty solid alchemy shop, we're on our way to Oreton to get a boat and sail to the isle.
After a brief sail across the lake and taking out a dozen or so necrophages immediately upon our arrival, we're ready to explore the island. Keira has given us a xenovox, essentially a thirteenth century magic cell phone that allows us to speak to her while we’re here, though its functionality is cutting in and out. We head into the “gates” to discover a water hag guarding the area, who also goes down pretty easily, and we’re now free to move about the tower. It comes as advertised: it's decrepit, and full of rats and ghosts. Each ghost encounter gives me that sweet sweet XP, so I nab as many as I can. Mostly invaders, but a few residents. Geralt also finds signs of complete chaos within the tower—"peasants didn't come here to ask nicely," as he remarks while finding weapons strewn about.
At the top of the tower...well, no, says Keira, the apparent authority on this tower. It can't be the top of the tower, because the top floor is the mage's lab. We find the mechanism to open a secret door, head up a fight of stairs, and here we are inside of Alexander's totally freaky medical experiment room. Guy had humans in giant test tubes and all kinds of other highly whack stuff in there!
I thoroughly search the lab before revealing the tower's last ghost: Anabelle, Vserad's daughter, who is also the only ghost in the tower who can see and talk to Geralt. She explains that they fled their home to come here and were pursued by peasants who planned to rob and kill them, despite how little they had too. Anabelle survived the attack by drinking a potion that the mage had given her—reluctantly, as she didn't trust the mage due to rumors about his studies. While she was under attack, she heard her beloved Graham calling out to her, and then blacked out after drinking the potion. She explains that she later died after waking up immobile with no one to help her and, uh, being eaten alive by rats. She's bound to the tower by a curse born of hatred. God, I'd be pretty pissed off too.
Anabelle speculates that love could lift the curse, but who could love a wraith? Geralt could lift this curse by taking Anabelle's bones to Graham—will he do it? I say yes. I take anabelle's bones and leave the island, heading back to Oreton. Graham's hut is exactly where I found my boat to head to the island, and inside, he explains his side of the story: Anabelle drank "poison" before he could save her. He'd gone to the island to help his friends petition the lord for help and make off with Anabelle, but it descended into a fight and Graham ran out of the tower when he thought Anabelle had killed herself.
He's pretty upset about it still, and Geralt explains that he talked to Anabelle's ghost about her side of what happened. He's now, of course, completely devastated, but Geralt tells him that he can still help her by laying her to rest properly. With that taken care of, we're off to report to Keira. Right? Nope. Anabelle was actually a pesta, or vengeful sprit, who killed Graham the second we left the hut to exact her revenge for his abandonment during the siege on Fyke Isle. Either way, curse broken, though, so still a win in my book. This also bumps me to level 8. Wins all around.
Back at Keira's, she's pleased to hear the curse has been lifted. She allows us to keep the magic lamp, and regrets not coming with me. Perhaps we could make up for that lost time now. But first...won't we just do her one more teensy little favor? A merchant she'd ordered from never showed up. Will we track his cart down for her? The answer is a resounding yes again and we're on our way. First, the pellar stops us to ask about securing protection during his upcoming Forefather's Eve ritual, to which I also say yes—but I'll handle it later.
In the meantime, it's time to find Keira's package. North of Blackbough, Geralt finds wagon tracks veering off the road. They lead to a broken and looted wagon with a side of human arterial blood. Geralt retrieves the package, which he notes looks suspiciously like a bougie charcuterie plate and not magic supplies, and we're on the path again. After perhaps the closest call I've had so far with a nearby endrega warrior, I head back to her house with the package.
Keira, as it turns out, has a plan for these mysterious luxury items, but we have to wait a bit to see it come to fruition. I agree, and she shoos us from her hut, later emerging to explain that we're almost done. She casts a spell on three mice and turns them into two white horses—the third mouse is to account for the 66.66667% success rate, she says. She also informs a befuddled Geralt that she's been dying for a luxurious evening since she took up residency in the swamps. And she's also in need of a prince charming for this evening, which is where we come in. Once I agree, she'd like to transform our clothes with an illusion, to which I also agree.
I beat Keira in the race to the meadow (which I rarely do, even on easy mode) and we discover she's arranged an elaborate dinner for the two of them. She talks a bit about the tower and alludes to an upcoming change in her financial luck before getting to the real meat of the evening: she'd also like a fairytale ending, wink wink. Geralt closes his eyes and counts to ten, at which point Keira is gone, having left only a trail of her clothes to find her by.
We find her by the lake in her underwear and Geralt gets to work on a blanket by the water. Afterwards, she puts him to sleep with a spell and he awakes in the morning without her, suspecting she's up to something. He confirms that suspicion upon realizing that Fyke Isle is within view, and we take a swim over to investigate.
We arrive to find Keira leaving the tower with Alexander's notes. Geralt gets in his feelings about it a bit before expressing his concern—why does Keira want these notes so badly after all? Well, Alexander studied the Catriona plague, and Keira wants to use the notes to develop a cure or a vaccine. She even suggests that she might sell this cure to King Radovid and have him forgive her past indiscretions. Geralt reminds her that he's not a super forgetful kind of guy, and that going to him with this information is likely to get her killed. We receive the option to invite her to Kaer Morhen, which I choose and she accepts, and then pledges to go on her merry way as soon as possible.
What did we learn?
I think I've started to adapt to this a bit better, considering this was my first perfect chapter???
Death Count (This Chapter): 0
Death Count (Total): 26
NOTE: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the intellectual property of the appropriate copyright holders, including the screencaps from the game I have included in this essay. I have no official affiliation with CDPR or anyone else associated with the game/books/universe; I’m just a fan who plays Witcher to cope.