Chapter Sixteen: I’m Sailing Away
If you sang the title to the tune of the Styx song, you've got the idea. With our Cat Armor crafted, our alchemy upgraded, and our money assembled, we are now ready to sail for Skellige.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: This blog series (obviously) contains major spoilers for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Current Level: 18
Current Location: Vilmerius Hospital, Free City of Novigrad
If you sang the title to the tune of the Styx song, you've got the idea. With our Cat Armor crafted, our alchemy upgraded, and our money assembled, we are now ready to sail for Skellige. We’ve officially tied up all our loose ends, and it’s time to find a captain who will take us.
What did we do?
As I finished tying up my alchemy loose ends, I wandered into the Golden Sturgeon for spirit, where by chance, I immediately spoke to the only captain who is ballsy enough to sail to Skellige: Wolverstone of the Atropos. We board his ship and all is well and good until Geralt wakes up from his slumber to a band of pirates attacking. We fight them off for a bit as the storm around us continues to swirl, sending the ships drifting apart and the Atropos into a cliff, where Geralt is bonked on the head by a mast and knocked unconscious for a few days. We wake up on a beach with a clansman of An Craite trying to steal Geralt's medallion, and end up beating him up for saying something mean about Yennefer. After looting the well-stocked piles of treasure nearby, we ride to Kaer Trolde.
Kaer Trolde Harbor is the site of a funeral for King Bran on this particular day. In attendance are chief druid Ermion, Crach an Craite, and Yennefer, who I flirt shamelessly with during the flaming boat-style funeral before we debrief. I go to get changed for the wake and put on my old Nilfgaardian clothes to match her. At the gate, Yen chats with Birna Bran, queen of Skellige and estranged wife of the late king. She reveals herself to be both rude and annoyingly hot, and then heads into the castle.
Geralt flirts with Yennefer some more, and we then head into the feast ourselves. We're met at the door to the hall by Arnvald, servant to the An Craite family. Crach will be with us shortly, but we're invited to sit down with his daughter Cerys and some other young hopefuls to the throne from other isles. Crach’s son, Hjalmar, is absent for reasons that are as of yet unknown. We decline Cerys' offer of a race and the boys' offer of a drink, and Yennefer asks us to join her in private. We meet two jarls on our way there: Donar and Madman Lugos, who don't seem to like each other. Once they stop bickering with Yennefer, we move onto our real mission: sneaking into Ermion's laboratory to steal the Mask of Uroboros.
We head down the passage, stopping briefly to hide behind a tapestry from two patrolling guards (cue sexual tension). As we keep going, we eventually reach a door guarded by Ermion's ravens and bypass it with a nearby window. We discover a taxidermy room on the other side, and our path to the next room blocked by...hallucinogens, it seems. The animals seemed to come to life, but Yennefer tells Geralt he was just hallucinating. Either way, we're now free to enter the laboratory. Inside, we find a statue that seems to want to hold something, and when we give the man a drink, a secret passageway opens. Possibly my new favorite.
Down in the secret cave, we complete our mission and retrieve the mask of Uroboros. An earth elemental charges into the center of the room, ready to attack us, but it proved relatively easy to kill. Unfortunately for us, that's only the first half of the booby trap: the room is now filling with toxic gas. After failing to find an exit, Yen teleports us out of the room, and Geralt kisses her as they escape...to her room, where the two get to have some much-needed unicorn time before heading back to the feast.
In the feast hall, Crach gives a speech before the claimants to the throne each step forward to put forth their weapon, symbolizing their intent to pursue the crown. All of the boys drop their weapons in, and Crach enters Hjalmar in his absence. Cerys then charges up to drop her weapon in the pile, troubling Crach. Thankfully, he gets a much-needed chat with Geralt and Yen after the feast. Crach asks for help with his children, but first asks what he can do to help find Ciri. We explain the issue: we need to examine the site of the magical explosion, but Ermion won't let us. Crach agrees to help, and then expresses his concern once again for his kids: Hjalmar went to Undvik to kill the Ice Giant ravaging the island, and Cerys sailed to Spikeroog to break the curse holding Jarl Udalryk. Geralt offers to help both An Craite children, and we all go our separate ways as I level up to 19.
I'm feeling a bit unsure about what to tackle first, so I decide first to go to the inn to buy spirit and ask about Hjalmar, then to go the long way to the site of the cataclysm: on horseback from Rannvaig. Just past Blandare, I totally bite it after getting a bit too confident with some Mucknixers on the roadside. I take them out the second time and continue my ride to the druid camp. Yennefer and Ermion are arguing over the mask at the camp site. As we chat with Ermion, Yennefer uses the mask, and it begins to rain heavily, as Ermion fears. We run to Yennefer and run through the weird cataclysm valley with the mask on as she looks through our eyes. The mask allows us to see the past in certain spots, and we see Ciri and a male companion enter the area through a portal, fight off enemies, and then flee into two separate portals. Ciri's portal led to Velen, while her companion, likely a mage, fled another way.
As the rain slows down, Ermion storms down the hill to yell at us again. He's still indignant, insisting that the mask is now worthless, and who knows what natural disaster will befall in a week or two? He asks if we at least found what we needed, but we still need to see if there's a clue to be found from the mage's attacker. An examination of a set of armor pinned under a tree proves that the wild hunt was on Ard Skellig. The attacker, meanwhile, was vaporized by Ciri's companion. Ermion is unaware of Ciri's powers and therefore that the hunt wants to find her. He tells Yen and Geralt that the Hunt was also seen on Hindarsfjall, which will need to be investigated.
I take a quick detour to handle something I started back on the continent: finding out the whereabouts of the man who killed Lambert's feline school witcher friend. On the island of Faroe, we gallop over from Harviken to the other main village on the island, Trottheim. The gate is guarded, and unfortunately, I tick off the guards and have to cut down an entire village of pirates. This does leave us free to find Hammond, who is praying at a shrine nearby. He's a very large man with a very flat face, and predictably not excited to see us. After we kill him and his buddies, we find a letter from Karadin on his body. Knowing what we know now, it's now time to meet Lambert at the Nowhere Inn, but that's a task I'll save for when I'm back on the continent.
I'll be transparent: there are a few things in this game I only found out about by watching my ex, who is both terrible and terrible at Witcher, play, and this is one of them. My next destination is Undvik, where I sidestep a good chunk of what I find to be an enormously tedious side quest. I feel kind of bad that I don't save all of Hjalmar's guys, but when you know he's on the other side of the mountain from the Marlin Coast, it's hard not to just run over the mountain and into the Dorve Ruins, where Hjalmar is fighting off two sirens. He's hot on the heels of the giant, but has lost his entire crew, including his buddy laying nearby.
We follow Hjalmar into the lair and let Vigi, noted loon, out of his cage while tiptoeing around the snow to avoid waking the sleeping giant. Vigi immediately runs for the giant and kicks him in the head, meaning it's now time for us to fight an ice giant. I've been more optimistic about my odds in a boss fight, but I've also been less optimistic, and ultimately I did pretty well. The boys laugh, and Hjalmar insists Geralt shall be hailed as the Giantslayer, but I let him take this one. I got the next one, bud. At the port, Hjalmar bemoans the loss of his crew, but is assuming he'll now win the crown. However, he doesn't know that Cerys also put forth a claim, and having heard that, he's worried for her. Don't worry, Hjalmar. We got this.
I did a bit more wandering and made it to level 20, then went to Hindarsfjall. We head from the harbor into the village of Lofoten, where Yennefer and Geralt interrupt the Freya priestesses who are currently honoring a bunch of dead people. They have, in fact, seen Ciri, and she was with a member of their village who brought shame to himself by running from the Wild Hunt. They don't say his name anymore, only calling him Craven. To prove himself, Craven went to the holy garden to fight Morkvarg, a man turned into a cursed beast by a priestess he killed. The ladies aren't thrilled about Geralt and Yen going into the garden, but they allow it anyway.
From outside the garden’s gate, we can see Morkvarg, who appears to be a ravenous werewolf, but we have other things to handle first. We head over to the tree in the center and Geralt sees evidence that Craven made a sacrifice to the goddess there. We head down into the lower part of the garden and slice up some wolves before discovering evidence of a fight between Morkvarg and Craven, who was injured and started running from the monster. Our path ends at a blocked door, presumably Craven's handiwork. After a bit of fiddling with levers, we open a sluice gate that allows us to go deeper into the garden. In a nearby house, we discover Morkvarg's disembodied leg, which he explains (from the doorway where he just appeared) grew back, as it always does. We fight, and as he starts to die, he moans about his curse some more and asks us to undo it. We finish him off instead, and he vaporizes like a wraith.
Back on the trail for Craven, we hop down a nearby well and discover that we're right under the tree Yennefer is standing by. Underground, we find that Craven is dead. Yen asks Geralt to bring the body up to her, and she suggests black magic to revive the corpse. It's sure to anger the priestesses, but Yen is insistent and gets to work. Revived, the corpse introduces himself as Skjall and confirms that he knows Ciri—she's why they cursed him. He fished her out of the sea, and the rest brings us into Ciri's story.
Ciri's mysterious companion stumbles towards Skjall with her unconscious body, enlisting him to take care of her while she heals and directing her to meet him at Drowned Dead Rock. When Ciri wakes up, she briefly talks to Skjall before his sister comes in and drags her to the sauna despite her insistence on getting to her destination. Skjall will prepare a horse while we hang out in the sauna and chat with Astrid and her mom.
After we've rested up, jumped in the cold water, and taken a shot, we head over to the stables to meet Skjall, who Ciri kisses and offers to "teach a few more things" until the Wild Hunt begins to raid the village and takes my ass to the ground twice. Admittedly, this has always been a rough one for me, and I was slightly worried going into it. On my third try, I narrowly finish the fight portion and ride to Drowned Dead Rock...with Skjall, who insists on seeing Ciri there before helping his mom and sister. We reach our destination, where Skjall rides off and watches Ciri get knocked out and carried off by boat, with a Will-o-Wisp floating above the boat. Skjall is taken out by a Hunt rider, and briefly sees Uma in his unconsciousness before passing out again.
Back in real time, Yennefer asks Skjall where Uma went. He once lived at Donar's, but Donar had sold him—to whom, Skjall did not know. Yennefer lets him rest again, and leaves begin to rain from the sky as Geralt suggests they leave. Unfortunately, it's too late, as the priestesses have arrived and are furious. I apologize, but it's not enough. Yennefer eventually takes full blame and the priestesses curse her. We recap what Skjall told us: Ciri is definitely not in Skellige, and the key to finding her is likely Uma. Geralt knows his whereabouts, thankfully, and Yennefer demands we go get him so we can break the curse. She also asks us to do her one more important favor before we head back to Velen, which we will—next chapter.
Death Count (This Chapter): 3
Death Count (Total): 49
Killed by Mucknixers around a hidden treasure near Blandare.
(as Ciri) Killed twice by the Wild Hunt in Lofoten.
Abilities
Top left (lesser blue mutagen):
Exploding Shield (3/3): Quen pushes opponents back and deals damage when it breaks, with chance for a knockdown. Increased stamina regeneration during combat.
Gourmet: Eating food regenerates Vitality for 20 minutes.
Delusion (3/3): Target does not move towards Geralt while he is casting Axii. Increases the effectiveness of Axii in dialogues. Reduces Axii casting time. Failed Axii attempts stagger the target. Increased stamina regeneration during combat.
Top right (nekker warrior mutagen):
Strength Training (4/5): Strong attack damage increased by 20%. Increased adrenaline point gain.
Muscle Memory (4/5): Fast attack damage increased by 20%. Increased adrenaline point gain:
Undying (5/5): When Vitality reaches 0, it will be restored with a bonus of 100%. Requires at least 1 adrenaline point, which will be consumed. Increased adrenaline point gain.
Bottom left (wyvern mutagen):
Fleet Footed (4/5): Damage from hits received while dodging is reduced by 80%. Increased adrenaline point gain.
Whirl (1/5): Spinning attack that consumes all foes in the surrounding area. Maintaining the attack consumes stamina and adrenaline. Increased adrenaline point gain.
Resolve (1/5): Adrenaline point loss upon taking damage is lowered by 20%. Increased adrenaline point gain.
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.