The witches of crookback bog decision

[WarpedPerspectiv]

I can't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ decide whether to save the damn children and let Velen get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by the Baron's guys becoming bandits, or let the children die but allow better outcome for Velen.

[WarpedPerspectiv]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

Originally posted by WarpedPerspectiv:

I can't ♥♥♥♥ing decide whether to save the damn children and let Velen get ♥♥♥♥ed by the Baron's guys becoming bandits, or let the children die but allow better outcome for Velen.

Want spoilers?

Either way, the Baron will be out of the picture and his men will do whatever they want.

It's a matter of the order in which you do things. If you go to Crookback Bog and do everything up to the point where you help Johnny get his voice back, then go to the Whispering Hillock and free the Tree Spirit before returning to follow Johnny back to the Bog and meet the Crones, you can free the children and ensure that Anna won't be cursed.

You see if you meet the Crones first, then choose to free the Tree Spriit, when you return to tell the Crones what you've done, the kids are already gone and the Crones believe that Anna had something to do with it and they put a curse on her. When you go there with the Baron and his men to try and rescue Anna, she's become a hag. Now Geralt can try to lift the curse with a doll but even if he chooses the right doll, she will die due a second curse which Geralt cannot lift. Despondent, the Baron will later take his own life.

If you free the Tree Spirit before meeting the Crones, the kids are gone but the Crones don't have a clue about what happened. When you tell them you didn't kill it but freed it instead, they guess that it must have freed the children and Anna isn't cursed. Then the Baron will take Anna away to look for a hermit and a cure but he won't be seen in the game again and his men more or less take over and run rampant over the area.

So, there's nothing you can do to prevent that from happening.

Yeah I had already looked up both options because I wasn't 100%. But given the tree spirit also could actually be the mother of the crones and was supposedly imprisoned for being far worse, that's another dilemma for me. It's really messing with my moral compass. So even ignoring what happens to Velen, it's allow kids to continue to be eaten vs releasing a potentially worse eveil. So known evil vs unknown evil. Because even the way the spirit talks sets off some red flags, like how it was saying it needed a swift horse so it could spread out farther.

[Mandrake42]

Originally posted by WarpedPerspectiv:

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

Want spoilers?

Either way, the Baron will be out of the picture and his men will do whatever they want.

It's a matter of the order in which you do things. If you go to Crookback Bog and do everything up to the point where you help Johnny get his voice back, then go to the Whispering Hillock and free the Tree Spirit before returning to follow Johnny back to the Bog and meet the Crones, you can free the children and ensure that Anna won't be cursed.

You see if you meet the Crones first, then choose to free the Tree Spriit, when you return to tell the Crones what you've done, the kids are already gone and the Crones believe that Anna had something to do with it and they put a curse on her. When you go there with the Baron and his men to try and rescue Anna, she's become a hag. Now Geralt can try to lift the curse with a doll but even if he chooses the right doll, she will die due a second curse which Geralt cannot lift. Despondent, the Baron will later take his own life.

If you free the Tree Spirit before meeting the Crones, the kids are gone but the Crones don't have a clue about what happened. When you tell them you didn't kill it but freed it instead, they guess that it must have freed the children and Anna isn't cursed. Then the Baron will take Anna away to look for a hermit and a cure but he won't be seen in the game again and his men more or less take over and run rampant over the area.

So, there's nothing you can do to prevent that from happening.

Yeah I had already looked up both options because I wasn't 100%. But given the tree spirit also could actually be the mother of the crones and was supposedly imprisoned for being far worse, that's another dilemma for me. It's really messing with my moral compass. So even ignoring what happens to Velen, it's allow kids to continue to be eaten vs releasing a potentially worse eveil. So known evil vs unknown evil. Because even the way the spirit talks sets off some red flags, like how it was saying it needed a swift horse so it could spread out farther.

Kill the tree, if you let her loose she murders a bunch of people anyway (Sure, she frees the kids but you now have an insane powerful spirit on the loose). If you kill the tree, just be aware that it's not all over. As you may have guessed from their conversations with you, you have not seen the last of the crones.

[WarpedPerspectiv]

Originally posted by Mandrake42:

Originally posted by WarpedPerspectiv:

Yeah I had already looked up both options because I wasn't 100%. But given the tree spirit also could actually be the mother of the crones and was supposedly imprisoned for being far worse, that's another dilemma for me. It's really messing with my moral compass. So even ignoring what happens to Velen, it's allow kids to continue to be eaten vs releasing a potentially worse eveil. So known evil vs unknown evil. Because even the way the spirit talks sets off some red flags, like how it was saying it needed a swift horse so it could spread out farther.

Kill the tree, if you let her loose she murders a bunch of people anyway (Sure, she frees the kids but you now have an insane powerful spirit on the loose). If you kill the tree, just be aware that it's not all over. As you may have guessed from their conversations with you, you have not seen the last of the crones.

Actually, think I'm going with the children. Thought process is that the people in the village have been sending their kids to their doom, they're ♥♥♥♥♥♥ people. And who can say how Nilfgaard would react to Velen as well? Leaving the crones alive ensures that children will continue to be sent to their deaths. I feel that for myself, the unknown evil may be the better option because of this.

[Mandrake42]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

Originally posted by Mandrake42:

Kill the tree, if you let her loose she murders a bunch of people anyway (Sure, she frees the kids but you now have an insane powerful spirit on the loose). If you kill the tree, just be aware that it's not all over. As you may have guessed from their conversations with you, you have not seen the last of the crones.

Those people were hardly innocents. They were offering children as sacrifices to the Crones in exchange for protection from the plague. I say let 'em die.

I really don't think she is going to stop with those people though. Remember the crones imprisoned her because she was worse than they were.

[Duncan]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

If you free the Tree Spirit before meeting the Crones, the kids are gone but the Crones don't have a clue about what happened. When you tell them you didn't kill it but freed it instead, they guess that it must have freed the children and Anna isn't cursed. Then the Baron will take Anna away to look for a hermit and a cure but he won't be seen in the game again and his men more or less take over and run rampant over the area.

Wiki and some random people on the internet say both the kids and the village are not saved this way.

[tonypa]

This is why you should play the game without looking up spoilers, guides or wikis. You will act naturally based on the knowledge and information only gathered from the game and your own feelings.

[HealthyGamer255]

I killed the tree thing... Oops?

[Mandrake42]

Originally posted by HealthyGamer255:

I killed the tree thing... Oops?

Just roll with it, that's the choice I went with in my game. Honestly, there is no "good" choice here. You are either freeing an ancient evil being, or making a deal with the ancient beings evil daughters. There is no real right choice.

[WarpedPerspectiv]

Originally posted by Mandrake42:

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

Those people were hardly innocents. They were offering children as sacrifices to the Crones in exchange for protection from the plague. I say let 'em die.

I really don't think she is going to stop with those people though. Remember the crones imprisoned her because she was worse than they were.

There's a letter you can find mentioning 5 children being dropped off at an orphanage in Novigrad. One point I found against the book was that some texts you can find show an actual bias. So there's a possibility as well that it MAY not be exactly true. But even before getting to that decision, I got way more of a creepy feeling from the crones rather than the tree spirit. And then the cutscenes after when you return to the crones, as well as getting payment, only helped to reaffirm my decision.