Bloody Baron – Witcher 3 Quest

This guide is a walkthrough of a main quest in the Witcher 3 for the area of Velen. The guide is composed of a map, map legend, and walkthrough to show readers exactly where to go and what to do to complete the quest.

Map Legend

1 – Inner Gate
2 – Old Peasant
3 – Water Hag
4 – Treasure Chest

Exits

1. Underground Passage entrance.
2. Ledge.
3. Well / Ladder.

Walkthrough

From reading Hendrik’s Notes, you’ll learn that Ciri briefly stayed with the Bloody Baron at his castle at Crow’s Perch in Velen West. When you reach the castle, if you were friendly with the Baron’s men at the Crossroads inn earlier, then you’ll be allowed to walk right into the inner keep. You’ll be met by a sergeant there, who will lead you to the Baron.

But if you killed the Baron’s men, then a pair of soldiers will attack you in the outer keep, the peasants will run away from you and lock their doors, and the soldiers at the inner gate (#1) will refuse to let you in. To get inside, you should talk to one of the few peasants who didn’t flee when you arrived (#2). He’ll tell you that there’s a passage of some sort between the river surrounding the castle and the well in the inner keep. This information will cost you 15 crowns, but you’re not required to learn about the passage in order to find it, so you can skip talking to the peasant and head straight for the passage.

Note: If the peasants lock their doors when you arrive, they’ll open them back up after you’ve spoken to the Baron.

You’ll discover the underwater passage directly across the river from the “Ostap, Six Summers” shrine (Exit A). Inside the passage, you’ll find several chests and have to fight a water hag (#3), but accessing the well entrance is a little bit tricky. If you stand at the quest marker for the well and look up, you’ll see a boarded up entrance, and you’ll even see a couple of ledges that you can climb on to get up to it. But this is the wrong place. It’s actually below where you want to go. To reach the well entrance, you’ll need to climb onto a ledge in the southern part of the passage (Exit B). This will put you on a path that will lead you to a ladder (Exit C). Climbing the ladder will take you to the Crow’s Perch inner keep, where you’ll immediately meet the Baron.

When you talk to the Baron — aka Phillip Strenger — he’ll readily admit that Ciri came to Crow’s Perch, but instead of him telling you what happened, you’ll switch to Ciri as your character, and you’ll get to play her in a short flashback sequence. Ciri can’t discover fast travel points, she can’t trigger / update quests, and anything she picks up will stay with her forever, so it’s best to move through her sequences as quickly as possible.

Ciri’s Story: The King of the Wolves

You’ll start out in a forest in Velen East. When you follow the riverbed for a ways to the northwest, you’ll get attacked by a trio of wolves. You’ll only have a steel sword available, so draw it and have at them. You probably won’t do as much damage as Geralt was doing, and you won’t have any signs yet, but you should still be able to defeat the wolves relatively easily — especially since you’ll regenerate your health quickly.

After the battle, you’ll spot a little girl named Gretka watching you, and you’ll learn that her father sent her out to follow a “trail of treats” to get rid of her. You’ll decide to escort her home so you can have a word with her parents. Gretka will also tell you about the Wolf King, a “terribly, disgustably horrific” wolf.

Oddly, despite working out that you should travel east, and despite Gretka supposedly being lost, Gretka will lead you right towards her home in Lindenvale to the northwest. Along the way, you’ll get attacked by more wolves, and you’ll find a mangled body. When you examine the body, you’ll realize that Gretka’s story about the Wolf King is true, and that the king is a werewolf. So you’ll decide to make a special oil (which seems to be a variation on Cursed Oil) for your sword, which will require you to locate Wolfsbane (x3), Fool’s Parsley Leaves (x2), a Wolf’s Liver, and Dog Tallow. You’ll find all of these ingredients as you follow Gretka — the first two from plants and the latter two from dead wolves. When you have all of the ingredients, you’ll automatically create the oil and apply it to your sword.

Eventually you’ll come to a cave, and you’ll discover the Wolf King inside. You’ll automatically start the battle against him, whether you managed to create your special oil or not. Luckily, the fight should be pretty easy either way. We had more trouble with the packs of wolves outside the cave.

After the battle, you’ll meet a peasant inside the cave, and he’ll recommend that you visit the Bloody Baron for healing and food. This will start a cut scene with you and Gretka wolfing down food at Crow’s Perch. Afterwards, you’ll switch back to Geralt, and you’ll earn 100 xp for completing the quest.

1 – Inner Gate

2 – Old Peasant

3 – Water Hag

4 – Treasure Chest

Inside this chest you’ll find the diagram for Wolven Silver Sword – Enhanced.

Exits

1. Underground Passage entrance.
2. Ledge.
3. Well / Ladder.