Part 34 - The Witcher 3 - 2nd playthrough - Death March

Priscilla: "Would you mind putting some clothes on?"
Geralt: "Can't. I'm not level 18 yet."

I'm starting the main quest The Play's the Thing. I spoke with Priscilla, and we decided - well, she did most of the deciding - that an entirely new play would have to be staged to lure Dudu the doppling out of hiding.

While Priscilla was writing the play, Geralt was waiting like so.

I started feeling sorry for him as he looked cold. I stole a doublet, trousers and shoes from the theater director Irina Renarde's room after I had told her we wanted to stage a new play.

Thus Geralt played the part of the witcher dressed like this. :)

Success! Dudu - recognizable from his wounded eye - emerged from the audience.

Nibbles watching the play.

Dudu in his real form. He wasn't enthusiastic when Geralt told him he had to turn into Menge to free Dandelion, nevertheless he agreed to help.

Starting the main quest A Poet under Pressure. Geralt is on his way to the hillside where Zoltan and his friends are hiding, preparing to ambush the convoy transporting Dandelion.

Geralt: "Are those drowners??"

Yes, Geralt, those are drowners, but you should hurry, your friend needs saving.

Eventually, I let him kill those drowners. He needed some fun after hours of running around in a city wearing a doublet...

Geralt and Zoltan patiently waiting for the convoy. Priscilla showed up, said she wanted to wait with us, because she was too worried about Dandelion to sit at home. And then she suggested playing some gwent. :D Apparently, not too worried to gamble.

Time for an ambush!

This flowery meadow is quite beautiful.

A witch hunter rode off with Dandelion, so Geralt is using his witcher senses to find the tracks.

Killing this lone witch hunter was much more difficult than I expected. This is originally a level 11 quest, but with upscaling on, he was a level 17 like my Geralt. The fight takes place in a tiny room, and he is good at counterattacking. Geralt is wearing a doublet, sure, but based on my past experiments, wearing underpants or full witcher armor would not have made any difference. After he killed me several times, I had to resort to cheap tricks like luring him to the other room and exploiting his dumb AI. He can't come back to this room if the door is closed, so I just had to quickly open the door for a second, set him on fire with igni, retreat to let the door close, and repeat until he was dead. Not proud of this but whatever. I still killed him on Death March wearing a doublet.

Dandelion has been freed! I know this character has many fans, but I'm not one of them. I find him pretty annoying.

He told me how he and Ciri had been running from Whoreson Junior's men on Temple Isle, how he was captured and Ciri disappeared in a flash of light.

Thus ends the chain of main quests that took place in Velen and Novigrad. Next stop: Skellige.

However, I didn't travel there just yet, because there are plenty of side quests to do in this region still.

Most importantly, gwent quests. :) I completed A Dangerous Game, and received the Old Pals quest. After I'm done with that, I'll do side quests that are no more than three levels above me. I'm nearing level 18 now.