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.
Walkthrough
When you ask the Bloody Baron (#1) about Ciri, he’ll make you a deal. He’ll offer to tell you where she went, provided that you find his wife Anna and his daughter Tamara, who disappeared recently (you might have noticed the numerous missing persons posters for them scattered around the region). The Baron won’t have much in the way of useful information for you — he’ll basically just give you their descriptions — but he’ll reluctantly agree to allow you to see their rooms, as long as he goes with you.
The Baron will lead you to the upper floor, where you’ll find the master bedroom to the west and Tamara’s bedroom to the east. You’ll need to turn on your witcher senses in each room:
- In the master bedroom, you’ll find a hole in the wall and a broken candlestick, and you’ll coclude that there must have been a fight. You’ll also see that a bottle of
Erveluce was broken, and when you follow its scent, you’ll find a 
Talisman on the floor.
- In Tamara’s bedroom, you’ll find a key and some
Incense in a wardrobe. When you follow the smell of the Incense, you’ll end up in the basement, where you’ll find a shrine to the Eternal Fire behind a locked door (which you’ll be able to open with the key).
Note: You’ll also find lots of containers in the basement. The Baron’s henchmen won’t care if you loot them.
When you return to the Baron, he’ll recognize that the Talisman belonged to his wife Anna, and he’ll suggest that you talk to the local pellar (aka “soothsayer”) about it. This conversation will earn you 150 xp. However, when you reach the pellar’s cottage (#2), you’ll find some of the Baron’s henchmen out front. They’ll be angry about a medication the pellar recommended for their friend Edric.
You’ll have three options for how to deal with the henchmen: you can use Delusion 2 to convince them to leave, you can fight them, or you can tell them how to cure Edric (provided you didn’t fight the Baron’s men at the Crossing inn earlier in the game). You can also offer a bribe to the henchmen, but they’ll decline this option no matter what.
With the henchmen dealt with, the pellar will allow you to enter his cottage. He’ll recognize the Talisman as belonging to Anna, but he won’t know where she or Tamara went. He’ll then offer to talk to the spirits for you — only he’ll need his goat Princess for the task, and she’ll be missing, too. This will trigger the quest A Princess in Distress.
When you complete the quest, the pellar will ask the spirits about Anna and Tamara. You’ll learn that Anna was pregnant but had a miscarriage, and that the Baron disposed of the child, which subsequently turned into a botchling. The pellar will then recommend that you kill the botchling so you can use its blood to track down Anna and Tamara.
To learn more about what happened, you’ll need to return to the Baron. However, when you get close to Crow’s Perch (#1), you’ll see that the castle is on fire. The peasants in the outer keep will be in a panic, and when you reach the inner keep you’ll learn that a soldier named Oswin is stuck in the stables along with the horses. If you choose to save him, then you’ll have to climb the ladder into the stables, smash through the debris in your path, and make your way to the big double doors on the main level. Opening the doors will allow Oswin and the horses to escape. You won’t earn a reward for this right away, but when you return to the inner keep later, you’ll meet Oswin there, and he’ll pay you 20 crowns.
When you reach the Baron, he’ll be drunk, and he won’t appreciate it when you accuse him of beating his wife, so he’ll attack you and you’ll have to fistfight him. This can be a tough fight, but if you’re persistent, then you should beat him. When you eventually knock the Baron down, you’ll earn 50 xp, and you’ll take advantage of his disorientation to dunk him in a trough a couple of times, which will sober him up.
When you talk to the Baron, you’ll learn that he regularly beat Anna, and that her miscarriage happened on a night when he was drunk and she told him that she and Tamara were planning to leave. The Baron will claim that he doesn’t remember what happened next, only that when he woke up Anna and Tamara were gone, and the dead fetus was in his bedroom. The Baron will then inform you that he buried the fetus without ceremony to be rid of it, and he’ll agree to take you to it.
When the Baron leads you to the burial site (#3), you’ll spot the botchling, and you’ll have two ways to proceed:
- You can fight the botchling for its blood. However, when you attack it, it’ll grow much bigger and stronger, and then three wraiths will show up once you’ve dealt enough damage to it, so this can be a rough battle. Make sure you’ve rested first so you’ll have all of your
Swallow charges. It’s also a good idea to put some Cursed Oil on your silver sword.
When the botchling dies, you’ll automatically collect 
Botchling Blood from it. When you give the blood to the pellar (#2), he’ll lead you to the ritual site (#4), and he’ll ask you to help him out with the ritual. What you’ll have to do is keep three fires lit and fend off any wraiths that attack you. The fires will be on pedestals on short platforms, making it difficult to run up to them during combat, but you can also use the Igni sign to light them. There doesn’t appear to be any way to fail the ritual, so just fight and light fires as best you can. When the pellar completes the ritual, he’ll tell you that Anna and Tamara went to the hut of Voytek the fisherman. This will earn you 100 xp.
- You can transform the botchling into a lubberkin. For this option, you’ll need to have the Baron pick up the botchling and take it to the inner keep. Twice on the way there, you’ll get attacked by wraiths. These battles shouldn’t be too difficult, but they’ll upset the botchling, and you’ll need to cast Axii on it to calm it down. Then when you get to the inner keep, the Baron will name the child Dea and bury it. This will earn you 150 xp.
To summon the lubberkin, you’ll need to advance to its grave and interact with it to “sit and wait.” This will cause the lubberkin to appear, and it will lead you out of the castle grounds to a smokehouse to the south (#5). When you examine the area in front of the smokehouse with your witcher senses, you’ll spot a horseshoe, some clothes, and a bracelet, and you’ll decide that you’re on the right track.
As you continue on, you’ll come to a dead horse in the road, and you’ll get attacked by the rotfiends who had been feeding on it (#6). Rotfiends can be nasty, but as long as you stay away from them when they explode, you should be all right. Afterwards, when you examine the horse, you’ll see that it’s missing a horseshoe — perhaps the one from the smokehouse — and that it took some massive damage of a sort not dealt by rotfiends.
The lubberkin will then lead you to Voytek’s hut. When you eventually exit the hut, the lubberkin will fly away having completed its purpose.
At Voytek’s hut (#7), the fisherman and his wife will at first deny knowing anything about Anna and Tamara, but eventually they’ll admit helping them to escape from the Baron. Voytek will tell you that he waited for the women at the smokehouse (#5), and that he provided horses for them there. However, as they traveled away from the smokehouse, they were attacked by a huge horned beast — a fiend — that killed Anna’s horse and carried her away into the woods (#6). Voytek and Tamara survived, but they had no hope of defeating such a creature, so they went their separate ways: Voytek back to his home and Tamara to Voytek’s brother’s house in Oxenfurt. Learning this information will net you 300 xp.
Next up, you should return to the Baron so you can tell him what happened. You’ll find him in the garden at Crow’s Perch (#1). Once he’s heard the story, he’ll ask you to check in on Tamara, and he’ll give you a 
Letter of Safe Conduct and 100 crowns to help you out. He’ll also hold up his end of the bargain and tell you a little more about Ciri. This will trigger another flashback quest for her.
Ciri’s Story: The Race
You’ll start this flashback somewhere in Velen with the Baron and a few of his men. You’ll make a bet with the Baron. If you can beat him in a horse race, then you’ll win his black mare. But if you lose, then you’ll have to give him your steel sword. You’ll then mount up, and the race will begin.
Winning the race isn’t too complicated. You’ll just need to follow the yellow line on your minimap, and you should gallop all the way (so if you don’t have a hotkey for galloping, you should set one). Your horse will have just enough stamina to complete the entire race without having to slow down, and so you should lead the entire way. However, at the end of the race, you’ll get attacked by a basilisk, and everybody will forget about the wager.
The Baron will stop his story at this point, and he’ll let you know that he’ll only continue once you’ve found his wife Anna.
When you exit the Crow’s Perch inner keep, the Baron will catch back up to you, and he’ll give you a 
Cloth Doll for Tamara. Visiting Tamara is optional. If you decide to track her down, then you’ll find her in the northern part of Oxenfurt, which is located on an island on the eastern side of Velen North. Tamara will only tell you things that you probably already know — that her father’s an abusive drunk, that she’s with the Church of the Eternal Fire now, and that she’s never, ever going back home, Cloth Doll or not — but you’ll earn 150 xp for making the effort. You’ll also meet a witch hunter named Graden, who will show up again later. If you want, you can tell the Baron about your visit, but this won’t change anything in the quest, and you won’t receive an extra reward.
To find the Baron’s wife Anna, you’ll have to work your way through the other main questline in Velen. That is, you’ll have to complete the quests Hunting a Witch, Wandering in the Dark, and Ladies of the Wood. During those quests, you’ll learn that Anna entered into a pact with the crones of Crookback Bog, and that she’s now their creature. When you relay this information to the Baron, you’ll earn 300 xp. The Baron will then continue his story about Ciri.
Ciri’s Story: Out of the Shadows
You’ll start off where the Baron ended his story previously, with the basilisk attacking you. You’ll have the Baron’s help in the battle, so just dodge around until the basilisk lands, and then move in to attack when the basilisk is distracted by the Baron. Once you’ve done enough damage, the basilisk will grab the Baron and fly up to the top of a nearby tower.
To rescue the Baron, you won’t have to scale the tower walls or anything. As soon as you start climbing the rocks on the southern side of the tower, a cut scene will start up where you’ll finish off the basilisk and chop off its head. Then you’ll return to the Crow’s Perch stables, where you’ll announce that you’re heading for Novigrad.
When the scene shifts back to Geralt and the Bloody Baron, you’ll earn 200 xp, and the Baron will ask you to help him rescue Anna from the crones. If you agree, then you’ll trigger the quest Return to Crookback Bog. You’ll also meet a little misshapen beast named Uma, who the Baron has been keeping around as a pet. You’ll see Uma again later.
