Part 30 - The Witcher 3 - 2nd playthrough - Death March

As soon as I left Junior's mansion, Radovid's men confronted me and took me to him. So this lunatic wants me to bring him a sorceress named Philippa Eilhart alive. From what I gather, Philippa is an awesome sorceress who loves power, men and women. I am acting as if I am trying to help Radovid, but I am actually trying to help Philippa. She was blinded by witch hunters in The Witcher 2, but she escaped death by turning into an owl. Reading the Witcher Wiki I also learned that her former girlfriend Cynthia, another sorceress, and I share political views.

"Mock me if you must, but I truly believe one huge empire is humanity's only hope. Many nations under one crown. With shared laws, advanced science, burgeoning industry and trade. And no wars, of course," Cynthia once told Geralt in The Witcher 2, and I couldn't agree more with her.

Before starting the quest Radovid gave me, I wanted to complete a few other secondary quests. I don't care much about horse races or fist fighting, so I'm skipping those. I started A Matter of Life and Death (lvl 12) with Triss. Our initial conversation went like this:

G: Feel all right?
T: So so. Why do you ask?
G: Maybe we should change the subject.

OK then. :D

Triss told me she had received a letter from Ingrid Vegelbud, head of the House of Vegelbud. Her son Albert has a new hobby, alchemy, so the witch hunters are after him. If Triss helps him escape, Lady Vegelbud will pay her a nice sum which Triss can use to save all her witch friends by helping them leave Novigrad.

So Geralt and Triss will need to attend a party at the Vegelbud estate and help Albert leave unnoticed while everyone is drunk.

I was on my way to Elihal to buy us masks for the party when I got a sniff of decomposing human flesh. Geralt would not leave such smells uninvestigated, so I looked around and found a man's dead body. I received a quest called A Feast for Crows which is level 20, so I'm saving it for later.

Geralt is ready to party. :D

Triss wants me, but I don't want her. I want Yennefer. Sorry, Triss.

I did this whole quest half dead, because I suck at fist fighting and a guy who insulted Triss and I kicked my ass right after we arrived at the party. For some reason, Geralt is not allowed to eat during this quest, and his alchemy inventory is also disabled, so there was no way to heal.

Ooh, gwent!

I hope Triss didn't get bored while I spent an hour playing cards.

I noticed Geralt does not take off his mask during the romantic conversation on the bench if you choose something else than the wolf mask for him, resulting in some ridiculous scenes...

... like this one. :D

Good thing I was not planning on smooching Triss as I would have impaled her face with that beak.

After ignoring Triss' advances, it was time to rescue Albert. I ran into witch hunters in the hedge maze and ignied them to death as I was without my weapons and still extremely low on health, so I didn't want to risk getting close to their fists.

The next quest I did was An Eye for an Eye. I had to help Roche teach Ves a lesson.

My dislike for Roche is growing. He wants a free Temeria no matter what and is ready to sacrifice anything. What's the point in having a free land if all its inhabitants are dead??

Ves was reprimanded for dressing like this which I think is totally unfair to her. She did not choose this outfit, the person who chose all female characters' outfits in this game probably did...

Next up was Radovid's quest Redania's Most Wanted. I am pretending to help him find Philippa. This is her hideout where she has been seen in her owl form.

Poor Geralt had to jump into portal after portal which he hates. I found several owl feathers but Philippa wasn't there. Finally, I found a letter written to her by a former female lover who expressed her disbelief over Philippa sleeping with Dijkstra whom she thinks looks like a swine. Can't argue with her...

This session ended where it began, on Radovid's ship. Instead of bringing her Philippa, I gave him a megascope crystal that I had found at her hideout and convinced him he should be satisfied with that.