Part 35 - The Witcher 3 - 2nd playthrough - Death March

My gwent desks are starting to look great after completing the Old Pals quest. Geralt, on the other hand, started to look too much like Santa Claus, so I had him shaved. He is still sporting the "elegant Nilfgaardian doublet" or what's it called, because he is still a level 17. I chose the easy way out of the Little Red quest - I let the bandits kill Bertram, because Little Red convinced me he deserved it. I wasn't aware that I saved myself from a potentially very difficult fight with bandits and a werewolf at the same time, because I didn't remember how this quest unfolded the first time I played. Anyway, I moved on to the next side quest on my list.

It was the witcher contract called The Apiarian Phantom that starts at this beautiful location near the flowery meadow we galloped through while searching for Dandelion.

A bunch of halflings work here as beekeepers. They look exactly like dwarves from the fairy tale about Snow White. I hope they don't want me to be their "Snow White"!

No, they just want me to get rid of a "phantom". That I can do. They kept repeating, "Stop plumbing, there's somebody coming." I have no idea what that means.

Finally!! I'm level 18 and wearing the enhanced griffin gear, only the silver sword is still the basic version. I'll upgrade that as soon as I get a chance.

The "phantom" turned out to be a hound of the Wild Hunt. I knew the Wild Hunt had something to do with this quest as soon as I saw the frozen bees! The hound kept running from me for such a long time I thought it was never going to stop and fight me...

Eventually, it did turn around and attack. This was a fun battle, not too easy, not too difficult. I used exploding quen shield, Petri's Philter, Thunderbolt and Elementa oil. My basic griffin sword broke halfway through the fight, and don't forget enemy upscaling is now on. All in all, I'm proud of myself. :)

My character build at level 18.

I collected my reward for killing the Wild Hunt doggie and proceeded to side quests no higher than level 21.

The first of those was Dandelion's side quest called Cabaret. He inherited a brothel that he wants to turn into a musical theater of some sort, and he asks Geralt to help him start this business.

This is a strange quest, starts out boring - Geralt running around trying to get some placards for Dandelion - then unexpectedly ends with one of the saddest moments in the game, when we see Priscilla badly wounded in the hospital.

We learn from her doctor that she was brutally attacked by someone, is on the brink of death, and even if she survives, she may never sing again.

This quest that starts automatically after Cabaret is called Carnal Sins and for me is the most disturbing story in the entire game.

It is a complex story involving a serial killer who commits gruesome murders in the name of the Church of the Eternal Fire. Geralt's investigation leads to this man, a reverend, who is a sick pervert but not the killer who committed the murders! I'm sure I killed him without listening to him during my first playthrough and never learned the identity of the real killer. This time, I listened to what he had to say and learned that the real killer was...

... the coroner! His name is Hubert Rejk, and he is in fact a type of vampire, a katakan, able to take on human form and trick people. I killed him and used his mutagen to make the katakan decoction which increases critical hit chance by 5%. Not bad!

This quest is as excellently written as it is disturbing. Many players - including me when I first played the game - miss the true killer and only realize their mistake when they find another victim much later.

When I went back to the hospital to check on Priscilla, she was doing better, and Dandelion was taking care of her.

During the investigation of the murders, I accidentally ran into the low-level side quest Hidden Messages of the Nilfgaardian Kind. I got some loot out of completing it, then it was off to Skellige with me.