A Weakness For Children

Some time later, you agree to accompany Madame Orianna to the Orphanage, where she smells trouble. There are signs of a struggle both outside and in the compound, and a small orphan boy appears, in a state of shock, to stammer an explanation. You can optionally use Axii to calm the little tyke down. He tells you the orphanage’s caretaker, Uncle Arnaud, has disappeared, and the children are nothing more than bait. Whatever killed her children needs to be tracked, slaughtered, and its head brought back to Madame Orianna. Only then will she help you with the Unseen Elder.

A thorough inspection of the Orphanage—both outside and in—is called for. Using your Witcher Senses, be sure to examine every nook and cranny in the investigation area for the following:

• The slumped corpse of an orphan child inside the building; smashed against the wall, with a cracked skull.
• There are claw marks on the outside wall, by the orphanage entrance: Sharp, hooked claws; the monster easily climbed onto the roof.
• A tiny corpse outside the orphanage entrance has head, shoulder and neck wounds. The monster attacked from above (from the roof).
• Outside are paw prints from a hunched, bipedal beast.
• A child’s corpse slumped under a tree has its throat ripped open and larynx crushed.
• Blood on the nearby wall hasn’t even dried yet.
• Another child’s corpse at the bottom of the outside steps has a sliced aorta with fang marks alongside; but this is an old wound. Curious.
• A corpse on the other side of the wall, under the tree, has wounds that are smooth-edged; claws have cut cleanly through young, thin bones. The beast didn’t eat the children; did something grab its attention?
• At the bottom of the steps down to the lower walled area is a corner stone with something daubed on it. It is giving off a scent. Your objective updates. Follow the trail of scent down a path, and hop over a wall where the scent and monster tracks both lead.

You reach a small horse pen and another diminutive body.

• Examine the corpse to discover “gunk;” some type of venom? This narrows down your list of monsters to an alpha Garkain; a pack leader.

Close to the pen are grooved tracks on the road, indicating a wagon and the Garkain may have caught up to the orphanage’s residents as they tried to flee. Time to whistle for Roach.

While your faithful steed trots over to you, make a quick inspection of your Bestiary in the Glossary menu, and read up on this most despicable of monsters.

Ride Roach roughly northward along the road, while utilizing your Witcher Senses to keep viewing the wagon tracks, as they veer off the road to the right just after you pass the Signpost. Slow to a canter and drop down to the right of the small, stone bridge and follow the wagon’s trail along the dry stream bed to the large expanse of water. On the beach are the remains of an overturned wagon.