Whispering Hillock Question

[The Wizard of Uranus]

Hi all,

I recently completed the quest with the whispering hillock. I forgot to save my game before i made my decision so i cant go back and check this for myself. When you're by the tree you have the option to kill it, set it free OR take time to think about it. I already know the outcomes of setting the spirit free or killing it. My question is, if you take the third option (take time to think about it) is there a sidequest where you do some additional research on the spirit? Like go talk to villagers to get more info?

[Ogami]

Originally posted by balzy88:

. My question is, if you take the third option (take time to think about it) is there a sidequest where you do some additional research on the spirit? Like go talk to villagers to get more info?

Simple answer, no. Its just like all the " need more time" options in the quests , just a way to pause that particular quest for the moment and continue later.

[The Wizard of Uranus]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by balzy88:

. My question is, if you take the third option (take time to think about it) is there a sidequest where you do some additional research on the spirit? Like go talk to villagers to get more info?

Simple answer, no. Its just like all the " need more time" options in the quests , just a way to pause that particular quest for the moment and continue later.

Thank you. In this case I see no reason to let the spirit live. (Assuming you know nothing about the outcomes of either decision and dont know about the book). Because why listen to the Hillock if the villagers are saying it's terrorizing the land? It also tries to kill you with a warewolf.

[CoolingGibbon]

Originally posted by balzy88:

Originally posted by Ogami:

Simple answer, no. Its just like all the " need more time" options in the quests , just a way to pause that particular quest for the moment and continue later.

Thank you. In this case I see no reason to let the spirit live. (Assuming you know nothing about the outcomes of either decision and dont know about the book). Because why listen to the Hillock if the villagers are saying it's terrorizing the land? It also tries to kill you with a warewolf.

But it does give you a hint about the outcomes of the children beforehand, so bear that in mind.

[v0]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

You will have to live with those consequences.

well technically it's his Geralt who must live with consequences ;) so player'll be fine i guess

[The Wizard of Uranus]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

The villagers of Downwarren entered into a pact with the Crones. In exchange for protection from the plague, they give offereing such as their ears and their lives to the Crones. And they offer up war orphans they stumble upon. That's where those children at the orphanage came from. And Downwarren is also responsible for taking out the contract to have the Tree Spirit killed by a witcher in the first place.

One of the flashbacks of Ciri, the one in which she saves a little girl from the Wolf King, she tells Ciri that she was taken to the Trail of Treats that leads to the orphanage where the Crones live by her father because they had too many mouths to feed and she had just spilled a jug of milk.

These people are willing to sacrifice young children to save their own hides. To hell with them. The people of Downwarren had that and much, much more coming to them.

But, ultimately, the game is in your hands and so is their fates. Play the game however you like. You will have to live with those consequences.

Wow i didnt even remember that flashback about the little girl until now! Great opinion btw. I see you thought this out thoroughly. I def agree with you. BUT, maybe not all of the villagers were bad people. I know some of them were aholes but maybe not everyone. This is another one of those "lesser of two evils" this game loves to throw at you. Im really torn but im leaning towards setting the spirit free now :/

[Ogami]

Originally posted by balzy88:

Wow i didnt even remember that flashback about the little girl until now! Great opinion btw. I see you thought this out thoroughly. I def agree with you. BUT, maybe not all of the villagers were bad people. I know some of them were aholes but maybe not everyone. This is another one of those "lesser of two evils" this game loves to throw at you. Im really torn but im leaning towards setting the spirit free now :/

Ehh, but Gretka the girl Ciri meets was not even from Downwarren. She was from another village.
Nearly ALL the people in Velen who live in villages deal with the crones for their survival. As the Elderman says, its easy for an outsider to judge them but they would all be long dead without the crones.
Also the tree spirit kills everyone , even the children of the villagers. I doubt saving 4-5 children is worth it to kill potentially hundreds more. As the spirit is now free to roam the world again.
We must not forget that its an ancient evil so powerful even the crones could only bind it in the tree.
In their twisted way the crones do really care for Valen and the people there and they keep their word if they promise something.
Like many things in the Witcher universe there is no clear good or evil choice here, just a sea of gray.
I personally will always kill the tree spirit, letting lose an ancient powerful evil on the world is too high a price to safe those children. Apart from it also giving you the worst end for the Bloody Baron quest. Even Geralt acknowledges that in monolog after the quest, he is cleary distraught by what he has set free and what happened. Not so much if you kill the spirit.

[CoolingGibbon]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by balzy88:

Wow i didnt even remember that flashback about the little girl until now! Great opinion btw. I see you thought this out thoroughly. I def agree with you. BUT, maybe not all of the villagers were bad people. I know some of them were aholes but maybe not everyone. This is another one of those "lesser of two evils" this game loves to throw at you. Im really torn but im leaning towards setting the spirit free now :/

Ehh, but Gretka the girl Ciri meets was not even from Downwarren. She was from another village.
Nearly ALL the people in Velen who live in villages deal with the crones for their survival. As the Elderman says, its easy for an outsider to judge them but they would all be long dead without the crones.
Also the tree spirit kills everyone , even the children of the villagers.

And the fact that the villagers themselves were offering their own children to the Crones didn't bother you? The Crones were manipulating the villagers making them believe that only they (the Crones) were protecting them from all the evil in the world.

Those villagers created their own miserable situation in the first place when they made a pact with the Crones, and they deserve no sympathy whatsoever.

And if you judge "morality" based on pre-written monologues, then I doubt your thought process is clear.

[CoolingGibbon]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

-- If freed before meeting the Crones, the children will be freed and you can save Anna and the Baron from death. The people of Downwarren will die.

By the way, this is false. There is no way to save both Anna and the children.

[v0]

imo that's beauty of this quest actually. that you dont know what outcomes'll be for each choice and you still must choose. real life has that feature too.

[v0]

Originally posted by Partha Pratim Chatterjee:

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

-- If freed before meeting the Crones, the children will be freed and you can save Anna and the Baron from death. The people of Downwarren will die.

By the way, this is false. There is no way to save both Anna and the children.

fasten your seat belts here we go again ;)

[The Wizard of Uranus]

The problem is that Geralt doesnt actually know what the outcomes of either choice will be, correct? So when the spirit says only it can save the children, Geralt has to take a leap of faith in believing that the spirit is truthful. If I were Geralt, I would think the tree would attempt some way to trick me into letting it free.

[Diamond63]

To be fair, why would anyone free that piece of garbage. The book which you later can find in Skellige states the true nature of Whispering Hillock, which is that she is related to Crones, I think she is their mother if I remember correctly. They killed her and trapped her spirit so she can't bring more evil, because she was worse than them. Yes, Crones are evil as hell, but their mother is way more evil. And who cares about few children, because if you free the demon, the whole village and baron and Anna die. There are no black and white choices in Witcher games, only to choose a lesser evil.

[Diamond63]

You are right, they captured her because they wanted more power, but in fact she was the worst of them as stated in the book. And I get you why you want to make them afraid of something, but doing so dooms other innocent people. Crones eventually get what they deserve, at least 2 of them, so there is not point in letting that spirit free.

I just wish they gave us possibility to hunt last Crone in every ending where Ciri lives. :D

[CoolingGibbon]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

Originally posted by Partha Pratim Chatterjee:

By the way, this is false. There is no way to save both Anna and the children.

Yes there is and there are countless threads here that detail exactly what you have to do to get that scenario.

Saving the children means they show up at the orphanage in Novigrad later. That is the only scenario defined in the game that counts towards "saving" the children. The situation you described does not have that outcome. Try it for yourself and see.

[CoolingGibbon]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

Originally posted by Partha Pratim Chatterjee:

Saving the children means they show up at the orphanage in Novigrad later. That is the only scenario defined in the game that counts towards "saving" the children. The situation you described does not have that outcome. Try it for yourself and see.

I have, several times, that's why I write it on forums. I would not offer advice or detail how to do something had it not worked for me on repeated occasions.

So I REALLY have to type it all out again because you couldn't be bothered to search for it yourself? No, sorry but I won't. Believe what the hell you like. I'm done. I try to help as best I can but I cannot grow new brain cells for someone else.

In that case, please link me to the relevant discussion. It's easy to say something like "search for yourself hurr durr", but it's not useful when trying to make a point.

I can provide plenty of references validating my claim. Can you?

For example, here are some:

https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/4jaw2q/spoiler_how_can_i_save_the_kids_and_anna/

http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/The_Whispering_Hillock

And here's a comment directly from a CDPR dev:

https://forums.cdprojektred.com/forum/en/the-witcher-series/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt/story-locations-and-characters-discussion-spoilers/45897-bloody-baron-different-outcome-possibly-bug?p=1889550#post1889550

Which makes me wonder whether you were hallucinating when you claimed to have rescued both Anna and the children "several times".


P.S. Also, relax. You make valid points sometimes but get worked up way too often. Take your meds if you have to before posting.