Chapter Ten: Julian Pankratz Must Die
You may recall that in our last chapter, we found out that while in Novigrad, Ciri contacted another longtime Important Person in the Witcher series, the Bard Dandelion.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: This blog series (obviously) contains major spoilers for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Current Level: 11
Current Location: Golden Sturgeon, Free City of Novigrad
You may recall that in our last chapter, we found out that while in Novigrad, Ciri contacted another longtime Important Person in the Witcher series, the Bard Dandelion. Also known as Julian Alfred Pankratz, our musical comrade appeared in Corinne Tilly’s prophetic dream-whatever of Ciri’s time in Novigrad, and recently inherited a brothel called the Rosemary and Thyme. With the dream serving as our only lead on Ciri’s whereabouts, we have no choice but to head down to the brothel ourselves and have a chat with the Bard.
What did we do?
Inside Dandelion's brothel, our old friend Zoltan Chivay is fighting off some bandits, which Geralt is pleased to help with. Gotta say, that was a close call considering I was more than twice their level, but clearly I'm just (still) terrible at fistfighting in this game. With the undesirables chased away, Geralt gets straight to the point: Ciri was in Novigrad and contacted Dandelion. Geralt needs to find him. That might prove to be a bit of a problem, according to Zoltan, because Dandelion is missing in action. Zoltan just got home himself and found the brothel in disarray, and Geralt suggests they look around. We quickly find his planner, which includes his appointments—including his, uh, lady-appointments. This could potentially prove helpful, as Dandelion is notoriously loose-lipped and might have said something to a lover.
When we read his planner, we learn that Dandelion kept an extremely varied rotation of lady friends. Now, to see if any of them know anything. On my way to see Marabella, the schoolteacher, I encounter a crying child who leads me into an ambush of bandits. They prove to be a very effective test of the shrapnel damage my upgraded bombs are capable of causing, and I continue on my way.
Marabella's class is in session, but it's over soon enough and we get to chat with her about our favorite bard. she says the last time she saw him, he forced her to read a book about fungi to satisfy his newfound interest in mold, which just about killed any desire she had left for him.
On our way to see Vespula, we stop to chat with Zoltan again. We learn a bit more about Dandelion's ladies: Rosa Var Attre is looking for a new fencing instructor, Elihal is a stunning elven beauty...and Marabella's a freak in bed, evidently too much so for Dandelion. What an excellent time to move on.
At the Farcorners laundry, I pay off the henchmen harassing Vespula and ask her about Dandelion. She seems to think Dandelion is, uh, spreading his seeds, bringing up a mysterious blonde Koviri “relative.” She also mentions that he asked her a bunch of questions about other washerwomen. His interest in the washerwomen seems to center on the bathhouse, and Vespula ultimately shrugs off the offense, suggesting that maybe he wants to hire a washerwoman for his tavern. That's all she's got for us, so we're on our way. Vespula says to tell Dandelion that "he's a two-faced snake, but it would be nice if he dropped by."
I charm my way into the Var Attre villa by claiming to be Rosa's new swordplay instructor, and promptly lose to her in wooden sword battle. After the fight, she tells us a bit about Dandelion's time as her "rhetoric tutor" and explains that he mostly just lusted after her while playing the lute. She also wants a rematch, where I do considerably better and Rosa asks if I'll consider giving her some lessons. I agree, and we're quickly interrupted by a woman who looks exactly like Rosa, and Rosa claims she's the source of the confusion about her relationship with Dandelion.
Edna, her sister, supposedly signed Rosa's name on some love letters to the bard, and then Dandelion became infatuated with her. Edna insists that she only did what she did because Rosa was so obviously in love with Dandelion. More importantly, neither had seen him recently, and they both brought up his praise of another woman's talent: a Koviri trobairitz he called "Callonetta." The sisters start to fight again and Geralt takes his leave. I pop into the nearby shop for some quest items before heading across the square to find Molly.
On our arrival to the La Valette home, we're greeting by the baroness herself, along with our good friend, the guy from Vizima who interrogated Geralt while someone else shaved his beard. When Geralt asks after Molly, the baroness explains that she's currently at the home of her friend, Patricia Vegelbud, for a horse-related event. We head to the races with her and her Nilfgaardian crony.
I'm not huge on racing in this game, so once we arrive, I decline the crony's offer of a race and go talk to Molly. She's my personal type within Dandelion's cadre of ladies so far, and is both thoroughly impressed with Dandelion and thrilled to see Geralt. She hasn't seen Dandelion in a hot minute, but maybe his sister could help Geralt? Uh...Dandelion doesn't have a sister. But Molly insists he does, and confirms that she's also a trobairitz from Kovir. Molly is remarkably convinced of this sibling narrative, despite the obvious evidence she recounts that Dandelion and this other girl's relationship is decidedly not familial. The last time Molly saw him, he needed to borrow money for a barge, which he claimed was for a romantic cruise with strawberries, sparkling wine, and opera music. Right.
With Molly having told us everything she knows, we return to Novigrad with the baroness and her crony to visit our final destination: Elihal. It turns out that Elihal is actually a male elven tailor who went to a tavern while dressed as a woman and happened to meet Dandelion. They had no romantic encounter, but they did come to appreciate each other's company. Elihal also hasn't seen him of late, though did remark that Dandelion was particularly interested in meeting the alchemist, Kalkstein—who was recently burned at the stake and went out like a total legend.
As for Elihal and why he dresses like a woman on occasion, he explains that he aspired to be a doppler once, and then found a similar love of being different characters through costumes and tailoring. Genderfluid legend. With the list of ladies now settled (and another level gained), it's time to regroup with Zoltan.
Back at the Rosemary and Thyme, Zoltan is talking to his newly acquired owl and briefly explains that he bought it from a mage's posthumous estate sale. Once Geralt brings up this blonde Koviri singer, Zoltan instantly knows it's Priscilla—a woman he believes Dandelion to truly love, considering she's practically his mirror image. She performs at the Kingfisher, and we should pay her a visit. Geralt groans at the idea of an evening of poetry, but agrees to meet Zoltan at her performance later.
Priscilla takes the stage at the Kingfisher and sings...a ballad about Geralt and Yennefer. She's indeed very pretty, and the room is visibly moved by her performance, including Geralt, who gives her a standing ovation. She is sort of dressed weird, but she is a performer and this is 1272, so I kind of get it. Unfortunately, Geralt’s applause gives him away to a nearby bar patron, who recognizes him because of his involvement in slaughtering a handful of men in White Orchard. Thankfully, the other guests stick up for him, and Priscilla eventually invites us to speak privately in her room.
In Priscilla's room, the first thing she tells us is that Dandelion was involved in the planning for a heist on underworld boss Sigi Reuven that seems to have gone awry, as she hasn't seen him since telling her about it. He'd also seemed to be in hot water with another underworld boss, Whoreson Junior. There are four big bosses, known as the Big Four and in order to find Whoreson, we'll have to go through Reuven, who owns a nearby bathhouse. On our way out, we perform another act of preemptive quest-starting: Kurt Dysart, seated right outside Priscilla's room, has posted a contract on his haunted house out in the country. That's way above our level right now, but yes, we will go to the house and investigate when we can.
When we arrive at the bathhouse, we have to talk our way in, but Happen the Eunuch eventually allows us to enter the building and instructs us to disrobe. With Geralt now in nothing but a towel, he heads into the bathhouse, which is full of naked ladies and a couple of old dudes hanging around. We enter the private room that Reuven is in and discover that he has company: our old friend the King of Beggars and the final underworld boss of the big four: Carlo "The Cleaver" Varese.
As for Reuven, Geralt already knows him by another name: Sigismund Dijkstra, the former head of Redanian Intelligence. Dijkstra isn't a huge fan of Geralt, as Geralt once broke both his legs in battle. The boys don't get to trade potshots for long before there's a commotion. The men grab the rudimentary weapons in the private room and fight off some of whoreson junior's henchmen in their towels. Honestly, that was an uncomfortably close call; I got stuck against a bench at a bad camera angle and am shocked I made it out.
After the fight, we express our desire to talk to Whoreson, and the other bosses argue for a bit. Cleaver storms out and says he'll find Whoreson himself and strike back, while Bedlam heads out and Dijkstra answers Geralt's questions. But we're getting kinda long here—that's a story for another day.
Death Count (This Chapter): 0
Death Count (Total): 32
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.