- I served in the Banner.
- You got it wrong.
- Menno Coehoorn.
- Coehoorn is dead.
- Vandergrift and Seltkirk.
- I was led out by a priest.
Note that if you answer one of Hennessy’s questions incorrectly, he sees through your deception and attacks you—unless you’re carrying the Dun Banner cloak you won from Skalen earlier. If you obtained the Dun Banner cloak from Skalen, you automatically have the beaver cap. You also could’ve obtained the beaver cap by talking to Zyvik earlier in the game (see), but this is optional. In these cases, he is convinced by the physical evidence you bear and excuses your error as a lapse of memory. This only excuses two incorrect answers, though, so three errors and Hennessy will attack you as usual.
Hennessy also attacks you if you give him a violent response like “Die!” It’s still possible to complete the quest by killing him if he attacks you, it just won’t be possible to get the sword of the Dun Banner. If you passed on the Mahakaman sihil earlier, you really want to make sure you get the sword of the Dun Banner here, so be careful when answering the questions. Regardless of how you resolve Death Symbolized , there are no XP rewards involved.
If you have the beaver cap, leave it on the sarcophagus when prompted. Loot the other bodies in Hennessy’s room of the catacombs, then head back to town.
Where is Triss Merigold?
This should conclude all of the business you can conduct in Vergen, so prepare to cross back through the mists now. Use the same approach as when making your first crossing and you should be fine. In this case, simply moving toward the gates of the Kaedweni Camp in the distance gets you where you need to go. You automatically trigger a cutscene involving Roche’s men when you emerge from the other side of the fog. Roche claims that Nilfgaardians attacked while you were gone. You go with him to storm the Nilfgaardian Camp.
Unfortunately, you’re too late. When you pass through the gates, the Nilfgaardians are already sailing away. All this really establishes is that the Nilfgaardians probably have Triss and have probably taken her to Loc Muinne, where you’ll spend Chapter 3. You’ll pursue in due time, but for now you’ve got business to wrap up. Before you leave the Nilfgaardian Camp, make sure you loot Shilard Fitz-Oesterlen’s tent. You should find some minor equipment, the book Song of the Hunt , and Shilard Fitz-Oesterlen’s first letter to the emperor inside.
Before you move on to the next quest, speak with Síle de Tansarville about the Wild Hunt. Mention the Wild Hunt investigator’s notes you picked up while resolving Death Symbolized . She refuses to speak about it but directs you to Myron, who has an interest in the topic. Go speak with him to find out a lot of information about the hunt that you otherwise don’t run across in the game, but which can give you a much greater understanding of what’s going on with the Returning Memories quest. You can also discuss the Song of the Hunt book you pick up in Shilard’s tent with him. This sets up some optional conversations you can have about the Wild Hunt with the various town square merchants in Chapter 3. Do this now because after you resolve The Blood Curse , Síle leaves the camp and the sequence of events can no longer be initiated. So if you want Síle to remove your tattoo, you should knock that out now, too.
The Blood Curse
You automatically initiate the final stage of this quest by speaking with King Henselt after you’re back on the Kaedweni side of the mist. You teleport immediately to the site of Sabrina Glevissig’s execution. Head up the ridge that overlooks the stone pedestal in the center of the clearing, then speak to Henselt. You enter a part of the game where a list of locations displays onscreen. You need to direct Henselt to move from place to place, sprinkling magic powder behind him.
You want to send him to a series of points such that the magic powder draws the simplified magic rune you see when you open Dethmold’s grimoire. The game gives you some tools for figuring this out yourself, but if you just want an easy way to get through this sequence, send Henselt to the various locations from the list in the order given here. If you want to figure things out for yourself, note that he begins near the pixie circle.
- Petrified Bread
- Black candles
- Goat skull
- Scorched tree
- Raven corpse
- Stone bowl
- Pixie circle
If you make any incorrect selections while you do this sequence, you have to start over from the beginning. There’s another way to draw the rune correctly, but exactly how you do it doesn’t matter so long as you get the shape right. Once the rune is complete, head down the slope and approach an area to your left. You should get an interaction prompt to set the magic powder aflame with Igni.
Next begins a sequence that should be very reminiscent of Melitele’s Heart, if you did that quest in Chapter 1. Wraiths begin to spawn around the circle and your job is to keep them from attacking King Henselt. The wraiths spawn infinitely until the sequence ends. If you successfully keep the wraiths from getting too near Henselt, he stabs Sabrina and you announce your success. If you fail at doing this, then the ritual fails dramatically, Geralt dies, and you must reload your last save to try again. The wraiths themselves are nothing special, you just want to focus on keeping them under control. Specter oil can help a lot, as can a good array of potions.
If you successfully complete the ritual, then the quest resolves. You gain 2,250 XP and unlock the Exorcist character attribute. Go see King Henselt in his tent to trigger a cutscene and the next quest you need to focus on awhile.
The Assassins of Kings
Returning Memories
Now you find yourself battling two would-be assassins outside of King Henselt’s tent. You don’t need to defeat both of them completely; getting either one’s vitality low enough triggers a cutscene that ends the battle. Since you’re dealing with two enemies, bombs can be very useful to damage them both at once. You can also make good use of a leveled-up Quen or of Aard and Yrden to stun one of the assassins so you can begin an attack. Hanged man’s venom can help you pile on damage more quickly. Potions can also be very helpful—just make sure you apply them before you go in to talk to King Henselt. While the potion meters will tick down during the cutscene, the cutscenes aren’t very long and you should be able to keep potions up during the entire fight. Finishing the battle is worth 500 XP and unlocks the Swordsman character attribute.
After the battle ends, you’re sent to talk to Dethmold. He’s not in his usual location at the tent—instead he’s in the tent where Myron usually hangs out. The corpse of the assassin you managed to defeat is laid out on the table. Talk to Dethmold and he explains the ritual you’re going to use to find more information about the kingslayers. Before you initiate the ritual, you should craft and drink a Gadwall potion. The game really won’t let you begin this sequence without drinking a Gadwall. If you need to obtain the Gadwall formula, remember that Myron sells it.
The ritual projects your mind into that of the dead assassin, Auckes, in a sequence where you have to carefully retrace his steps leading up to the murder. You only need to relive enough of Auckes’s memory to find out where the kingslayers’ hideout is, but it is possible to retrace Auckes’s steps all the way up to the beginning of his battle with Geralt.
In the first part of the sequence, Auckes and Serrit converse with each other while battling harpies in a ravine. They come to the entrance of a cave, which leads to the most finicky part of the sequence. Carefully follow Serrit through a narrow passageway littered with snares. Save just before you start. If you accidentally trip any of the snares, the ritual fails and you must start over from the beginning. It’s much quicker to just reload from a save taken right before the sequence with the snares begins. The easiest way to evade the snares is to point the camera at the ground, so you can see the snares clearly, and to move very slowly between them. Once you’re clear of the snares, follow Serrit to trigger a cutscene with Letho.
After the cutscene with Letho you can trigger an optional portion of this sequence. It begins with a scene where Auckes infiltrates the Kaedweni Camp. In this sequence, wait until the guards finish their conversation and split up. One heads away, while the other you should follow. When he pauses with his back to you, creep up behind him and kill him using the interaction button. From this you go immediately to a short sequence where Serrit and Auckes walk briefly through the camp cave. Finally, you fight off Henselt’s guard outside his tent. The sequence ends when you confront Geralt, who will use the abilities you used when you fought the two assassins earlier. Geralt is always going to kill you, usually the first time you’re hit. If you successfully make it to Geralt in Auckes’s memories, though, you unlock the Necromancer achievement.
When you’ve either done something in the sequence incorrectly after getting to the Letho cutscene or gotten killed by Geralt, this sequence is over. You get to discuss what you saw with Dethmold and end up telling him that you know where the kingslayers are hiding. Your next goal in this quest is to go find the cave Letho was hiding in during Auckes’s final memories, where you’re pretty sure Serrit awaits.
To get to the kingslayers’ hideout, cross at the river as if you were going to visit Malget’s house, but take a left instead of the usual right. You quickly come to an entrance to the cursed battlefield. Avoid it and instead turn right. This takes you into the ravine where Serrit and Auckes fought harpies earlier. You may actually find the drops from that battle waiting for you on the ground. Defeat the harpies and the group of human bandits you run across on the way there. The entrance to the cave is pretty difficult to miss, since it’s at the end of the ravine. Be ready to fight a handful of imposing enemies once you’re in the cave.
You face your first gargoyle once you’re inside. Gargoyles are something of a cross between a golem and a rotfiend, a small stone creature that explodes in a rain of fire and shrapnel when you defeat it. Stat-wise it’s nothing special and you can probably approach fighting it the way you’d approach a greater rotfiend. You get to fight it as a solitary creature, which makes it easy to manage for mages and swordsmen. You fight one in the immediate area, then another later on in the cave. You will come to the area of snares from Auckes’s memories. Now you can simply pick them up, disarm them, or move past them.
At the end of the small cave you come to the area where Letho was in Auckes’s memories. Now when you enter it, you face a golem. If you’ve already faced a golem in the camp cave, you know exactly how to handle it. Just play to your build’s strengths and do a lot of dodge-rolling. You get the David character attribute for defeating this golem.
Once the golem is defeated, loot its body and then loot a chest for some superb well-balanced daggers. At the rear of the room is Serrit. Speak with him briefly, which triggers a cutscene that advances the Returning Memories quest. Next, loot Serrit’s body after he passes on. He carries the Negotiator, a silver sword that is not impressive in terms of damage or rune slots but does have a fairly high chance of inflicting the rare freeze critical effect. After Serrit passes on, leave the cave and return to the Kaedweni Camp.
Faith Symbolized
Now you have all four of the symbolic objects you need to resolve The Eternal Battle , the climax of this chapter. Before you attempt this, make all suitable preparations, as you can’t backtrack. Make any bombs or traps you wish to use now. Also buy anything else you want to carry into Chapter 3 from the merchants, in particular the diagram of the draug armor, because all of the merchants inside the Kaedweni Camp are going to be shut down when you return.
When you’re ready to begin the boss fight, speak to Dethmold. You immediately get 1,500 XP for your previous adventures. King Henselt is now willing to part with the medallion you need to resolve this quest, which happens automatically. Speak with Dethmold again and say “I’m ready to lift the curse.” After that, you must head into the entrance to the cursed battlefield next to the Camp Followers’ Encampment to begin the next quest.
The Eternal Battle
Make sure you're prepared for a major battle with a unique enemy as part of this quest. Your equipment and how you've invested in Geralt's skills make a major difference in this battle. This enemy is mostly immune to critical effects but very vulnerable to being stunned or staggered. Alchemists should make preparations accordingly. Note that you can't use potions during this battle, but you can make good use of traps.
Mages who haven’t leveled up Aard or Yrden are a bit boned here and should maybe get a stack of Zerrikanian suns or Talgar winters beforehand. Quen can be an effective defense in this battle, but you shouldn’t rely on it completely. A mage who has Aard III or Yrden III should have no trouble.
Swordsmen are going to end up relying on maneuverability and how specialized they are for hitting hard with every blow. Quen can help with defense, but not as much as levels of Feet Work. Otherwise, swordsmen have a bit of an easy time of it during this battle, as before you confront the boss you go through some set-piece sequences where you play as characters who aren’t Geralt. If you’re a struggling swordsman, there’s no shame in prepping a pile of Zerrikanian suns or Talgar winters just in case.
Once you trigger this quest, you go into a sequence where Geralt is possessed by the spirit of a soldier who must cut down the standard bearer of the Dun Banner. The standard bearer has taken the form of a draugir and you must defeat it without access to Quen or dodge rolls or any of your usual witcher tricks. You also have no NPCs to aid you, while the draugir is aided by three knights. Work on trying to eliminate the three knights without losing too much vitality. Focus on trying to get behind your enemies. If your Geralt build has Riposte, that skill carries over and is useful here. Be careful while keeping your distance, as the edges of the battlefield around the draugir are wreathed in flames that absolutely will incinerate and kill you. On the other hand, you can drive enemies into the flames to do pretty serious damage.
The second part of the sequence requires you to play as a Kaedweni soldier who is tasked with telling his commander that his unit needs reinforcements. Sadly, he must do this while running a gauntlet of flaming arrows fired by archers from his own side. There are wooden structures on the field you can use for cover, but huddle behind them too long and the flaming arrows destroy them. Move quickly from cover point to cover point between volleys of the flaming arrows. Each of the volleys is heralded by the sound of a horn. Basically, if the volley heralded by a horn won’t hit you, then choose that moment to move to fresh cover. After you make it to the last cover point indicated on the map, you can simply walk forward to trigger cutscenes.
For the third part of the sequence, you are possessed by Seltkirk of Gulet. For this, you simply need to move near Vandergrift’s position. You must fight two groups of Kaedweni knights on the way in. Seltkirk has massive amounts of vitality, as part of modeling how he was the best Aedirnian knight ever, so you should have little trouble defeating the groups of Kaedweni. If you’re having a hard time with them (or playing on a high difficulty level), slowly inch forward down the slope. It’s tricky, but possible, to attract attention from only one or two enemies in the second group, instead of triggering the entire group at once. As you draw near the draug’s position (for Vandergrift has become a draug after death), a draugir materializes that is his standard bearer. A cutscene ensues as you approach it, and before this battle you get to control Geralt once more. Get the draugir down to about half vitality to trigger another cutscene.
Now for the climax of this quest: You must battle Vandergrift’s spirit, magnified by the curse into the form of a draug. A draug is basically a pile of fire and hate, its body made of animated metal. As you might expect, it has both a massive pile of vitality and a separate meter of additional armor strength. There is nothing sneaky or tricky you have to do here to whittle that down. You just have to survive long enough to beat the living hell out of it. Talgar winters do significant damage to it, while also cutting its charging attacks short. Zerrikanian suns can have a similar effect. Aard and Yrden at higher levels stagger it, while at lower levels the draug can shrug them off.
Be sure to beat on the draug mercilessly whenever it’s staggered. Roll away when the draug turns into a whirlwind of armor fragments. Never let yourself get too far away from the draug, though. The draug punishes you for trying to play keep away too aggressively by having its archers rain down hails of arrows, and its artillery uses trebuchets to rain fireballs on the field. You can evade the fireballs by dodge-rolling away from areas on the ground that turn red, and evade the arrows by dodge-rolling in any single direction to get clear. The danger of evading like this, of course, is that you’re so far away from the draug when its rain of arrow or fire stops that it decides to just do it again.
The best way to damage the draug is to wait for him to charge, dodge-roll aside, then get in behind him. The damage penalty the draug takes from back attacks is enormous and can let you whittle down his armor and vitality meters much faster than attacks from the front. This method is especially useful for swordsmen who’ve taken levels of Feet Work. Mages and alchemists can also make use of it but may need to stun the draug to make sure he doesn’t move out of position before you can attack.
If you manage to play the zone game correctly and evade the draug’s attacks without getting too far away from it, you should dish out enough damage to take it down. Once you get through its armor meter, it begins taking damage rapidly. You get a ton of loot for defeating it, including some materials necessary for creating the draug armor. You also unlock the Fat Man achievement.
There’s one more phase to the quest. Now that the draug is defeated, Sabrina Glevissig’s terrible rain of fireballs has begun. You are possessed for a final time by a priest who must guide his unit to Henselt’s position, to inform him of the terror that has overtaken the battlefield. Don’t worry about this turning into an escort mission; all you really need to do is get yourself to Henselt to trigger the concluding barrage of cutscenes. You can’t dodge-roll as the priest, so just try to move away if the ground before you becomes red.
The concluding cutscenes lead to Geralt recovering a significant portion of his memory, as he expected, so resolving this quest also advances Returning Memories . During the ensuing dialogue with Dandelion, feel free to say whatever you want.
Conspiracy Theory
After you finish speaking with Dandelion, you find that you aren’t allowed to enter the Kaedweni Camp and that Roche’s Camp is abandoned. Head to Malget’s house, where Roche is waiting. Give him some news, then head back to the camp. When you enter the camp, Kaedweni soldiers attack you. Defeating them shouldn’t be difficult, but this is a bad sign of things to come.
When you return to the gates of the Kaedweni Camp, they are unguarded. When you enter, you’re attached by 8–12 Kaedweni soldiers. This fight requires a crowd control approach to be manageable, since you’re fighting a ton of enemies at once and Roche is little more than a distraction. Use whatever tricks best suit your build. Be conservative with traps from this point forward, since you can’t get any more until Chapter 3.
After you defeat the soldiers, head for the canteen, where something horrible awaits you. The cutscenes you trigger here resolve the quest, which is worth 500 XP. From here, you and Roche need to head to Vergen to try and catch up with Síle de Tansarville and the kingslayers. Pay a final visit to Raymond and try to lighten your load as much as possible.
The Siege of Vergen
To get to Vergen, pass through the tangle of ravines on the southern portion of the map. Take the same route you used to find the kingslayers’ hideout. Now you should be able to pass beyond the cave to reach the area depicting a wrecked boat. You also run into a she-troll here. You can opt to fight the troll or try to talk to her calmly. By talking to her, you can find out a bit about what’s going on in Vergen. After the she-troll is dealt with, give a little attention to the shipwreck beside her.
Mystic River
Scan the wrecked ship to find a chest that contains the journal of the Eyla Tarn as well as some loot. Simply take the journal and you’ve advanced Mystic River as far as you can in Chapter 2. By fulfilling this step, though, you can now finish the quest off in Chapter 3.
The Siege of Vergen
Head past the she-troll. Expect to battle a great number of harpies and some Kaedweni soldiers along the way, but nothing too dangerous. The path eventually leads you to the troll, who is fighting a group of Kaedwenis. If you want to kill the troll, get out your silver sword and do so before you defeat the Kaedwenis. If you kill the Kaedwenis and the troll is still alive, he automatically becomes friendly. Tell the troll that his wife might’ve crossed paths with Kaedwenis and he flies into a rage, actually helping you defeat the next group of soldiers you run across.
After that’s done, you should be near the Vergen tunnels. Enter and you find that in addition to the usual rotfiends, mercenaries are infesting the place. The mercenaries aren’t dangerous when you encounter them in small groups but can be a threat when fighting five or six at a time. You often find them being attacked by rotfiends, a situation where it’s to your advantage to just stand back and let the two sides weaken each other before wading in.
Once you’re inside the tunnels, follow the packs of mercenaries like a trail of murderous bread crumbs toward the entrance to Vergen. When you reach the large chamber where you battled the unusual bullvore earlier, you now find Dethmold, Adam Pangratt, and over half a dozen mercenaries waiting for you. Pause before entering this room to drink potions, prepare your pockets with bombs and throwing knives, and oil your blade with hanged man’s venom. The battle that’s upcoming is effectively the human-scale boss battle of the chapter and can be incredibly tough.
What makes the fight hard is that you can’t use the most obvious tactic here—taking out Dethmold first and then whittling away at the mercenaries. You cannot reduce Dethmold’s vitality below 50 percent and it’s a waste of time to try. Instead, you have to defeat all of the mercenaries and Pangratt while Dethmold is teleporting around the room shooting lightning at you. It is absolutely imperative that you buff yourself defensively as much as possible before you start this battle. Keep Quen up at all times to try and mitigate the heavy damage Dethmold’s lightning bolts deal. Use every bomb and trap at your disposal to try to whittle the crowd’s numbers down faster. If you’ve unlocked the final ability of a skill tree (Combat Acumen, Heliotrope, or Mutant), it should really come in handy here for helping you quickly defeat the soldiers.
Once all of the mercenaries are defeated, you can engage Dethmold. He’s very quick and it’s hard to interrupt his Quen or lightning spells with thrown daggers. The best time to attack him is right after he’s thrown a lightning ball. He has to lower his defense for this, so you can use a light attack if he’s marked to hit him from even a good distance away. If you’re too far away to attack, throw a dagger at him. Dodge-roll constantly if you’re not sure where he is, and keep Quen up, especially if your vitality is already low. If you can get Dethmold’s vitality below 50 percent, he retreats.
Now you get a cutscene where you can decide whether to spare or kill Adam Pangratt. It has no effect on your game unless you killed Aryan La Valette earlier. If you did, then slaying Adam Pangratt counts toward unlocking the Executioner character attribute. Otherwise, it’s a decision where you should just do whatever you’re most comfortable with.
The battle in Vergen has gone badly and most of the town is blocked off. There’s very little treasure to pick up here once you get past the shortcut building you must enter first thing. When you try to cross the wooden bridge, Roche smashes part of it in a cutscene. This forces you to use the game’s top exit, which drops you out near a trio of Kaedwenis.
This battle can be surprisingly tough, since you’re fighting them in close quarters. It may be worth your while to oil your blade and prepare potions before you step outside the shortcut building. Bombs and traps are highly effective on the soldiers, as are basic signs. That said, using almost any sign but Quen here can be life-threatening. These soldiers hit extremely hard, and on higher difficulties just a few blows can end it for you. The group combat skills on the swordsmanship tree come in handy here.
Once the soldiers are defeated, pay a quick visit to the Castle of Three Fathers to see how Iorveth is doing. Help the Scoia’tael near the entryway defeat the knot of Kaedweni soldiers they’re battling. Once they’re defeated, you can loot the dwarven enhancement from the chest near the entrance. Head down the main hallway to find Iorveth. Defeat the Kaedwenis he’s battling to initiate a short, ominous cutscene. Your business done, leave and head for Philippa’s house.
On the way, you come across a golem rampaging just outside Philippa’s house. This is another challenging foe that you need to approach with your potion buffs up and your sword oiled appropriately. The golem does greater damage than the ones you battled before and can easily kill you with only a couple of blows, even on lower difficulties. On higher difficulties, it’s a one-shot machine. Keep Quen up and dodge-roll away from it whenever it rushes you. Hit it with strong attacks after it whiffs an attack, then quickly dodge-roll away when it starts blocking. If you can keep from getting hit too often, the golem should go down quickly enough.
Next, head into Philippa’s house. You arrive just in time to see Síle teleport away, then Henselt and his men barge in after you. Henselt bars the door and orders his men to kill you. First two rush you, then two more aided by Henselt himself. The first wave is very manageable, provided you stay clear of Henselt’s shield-bearers. They push you away if you draw too near, which can inflict knockdown. You can get killed in the second wave pretty easily if you get surrounded. If your potion buffs are still up after fighting the golem, you should have an easier time beating them. Keep Quen up and try to take advantage of the close quarters with traps. It also helps to take Henselt out early, then pick off his two knights more carefully.
After you defeat them, you face a final major decision in this chapter. In the ensuing dialogue with Henselt, you can choose to allow Roche to kill Henselt, or you can try to convince Roche to spare Henselt. Whatever decision you make here has repercussions in Chapter 3 and affects the ending of your game. If you’ve already killed Aryan La Valette and Adam Pangratt, letting Roche kill Henselt allows you to unlock the Executioner character attribute. If you prevent Roche from killing Henselt, you unlock a secret achievement. Think carefully and make the decision you think you’ll be happiest with in the long run. This concludes Chapter 2 and should unlock the achievement Alea Iacta Est. Turn to to begin Roche’s path in Chapter 3.