Part 45 - The Witcher 3 - 2nd playthrough - Death March

I found this madman at Kaer Muire as I hoped I would and completed the Skellige gwent quest by winning the Katakan card from him. I was surprised to receive the Emhyr van Emreis leader card as well when defeating him. (Unlike several other characters in this game, he does have proper eyes, they are just not visible in this unfortunate screenshot.) Putting gwent aside for a while, I decided to upgrade my gear.

I'm still wearing level 18 enhanced griffin gear. While I now know I could probably complete this game with Geralt wearing boxers, I want to put him in ursine gear, because it looks cool. I've just arrived on An Skellig and learned from locals that their village is cursed by permanent rain. I will help them later.

I set off to find the ruins of Castle Tuirseach and was soon distracted by the opening of a tunnel. It turned out to be a short one leading me straight to the hunting grounds of a giant white bear. After I dealt with the bear, a rabid rock troll attacked me. There isn't a boring moment in this game. :)

While trying to get to Castle Tuirseach, I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on top of this peak where I found the "Trial of Dexterity Completion Token." I think that goat deserves it more than I do. How did it get up here??

I drew power from the PoP over there and upgraded Quen Discharge.

Then I took the short way down from Yngvar's Fang.

Eventually, I found the entrance to the ruins. Even though I remembered there was a trap somewhere, I fell in it anyway. One of the four cells has no floor! I investigated only one before barging into the floorless one and dropping down to the lower level, and now I'm wondering what I missed in the other two. Anyway, I killed the wraiths and picked up the diagrams from the chests.

This place just made me go "wow!" Look at the little creek and the small lake steaming as the air is much colder than the water! I'm loving these realistic details!

I'm back on Ard Skellig where I have to search the ruins of Fort Etnir to find the diagram of another piece of the bear school gear.

Taking screenshots in the middle of fights is tricky, but I'm such a pro... :)

The last diagram I need is hidden in the ruins of an inn at this abandoned settlement. Once I got rid of those lovely sirens circling in the air, the inhabitants returned, and I was free to look around for the inn.

Geralt in full ursine gear, standing on a rock above the whale graveyard on Ard Skellig. I'm going to sail to Hindarsfjall from here to do one main quest - just to get ahead in the story - and then return to side quests.