Brandon Shemorsk

Brandon is the newest addition to the "School of the Shades".

## Early life

Brandon comes from a village near Bawres called Midfield. As a child he never had it bad, the village is close to town, so there was always plenty of food and work. He also had two older brothers, Rickey and Humfry, Rickey was 3 years older and Humfry 2. From the age of 7, his brothers would go into the woods with him on expeditions. Mostly it was just to the creek or to watch the wildlife. Sometimes to pick mushrooms if they were growing. When Brandon was about 12, his brothers took him on longer hikes. They even went as far as the nearest Witcher school, the School of the Shades, several times. Their parents had always told them never to go that far, especially not to that school, but since when do kids listen. Nothing bad had ever happened to Brandon or his brothers, and they went out like this almost every day. However, one day, when Brandon was 14 and his brothers were 16 and 17, they went on another trip to the School of the Shades, but they didn't leave in the morning, they didn't leave until after lunch, so by the time they got back it was getting pretty dark. All the brothers started to pick up the pace, but Brandon was a little behind. It was dark and the only light for them was the moon, which in some places couldn't get through the trees, so Brandon literally couldn't see his nose. Brandon was still following his brothers footsteps when he heard some rustling and then a scream. Without realizing what was happening, Brandon heard Rickey yelling at him to run, not stop and not turn around... Rickey didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence properly and then all he could hear was screaming from him as well. Brandon didn't wait for anything and quickly rushed forward, crying. He didn't listen to his brother, however, and turned around momentarily. In the moonlight he saw the silhouette of something huge... and it looked like it was made of wood, as if the trees themselves had come to life. However, Brandon took a fleeting glance at it and then ran away in fear. He didn't stop until he reached his village, when he nearly broke down the door of their house, spouting all the information at his parents. His father; George didn't wait for anything, he took his woodcutter's axe and went into the forest. That was the last time Brandon saw him... That night, neither Brandon nor his mother slept. When Brandon's father didn't return until the next afternoon, his mother put out a contract on the unknown creature that had taken her husband and two sons. Later that day, a Witcher showed up at the door. Brandon only saw him briefly, but noticed he was tall, black-haired, and had a scar on his forehead. However, after about a week, the same Witcher returned and announced that he had found nothing in the woods and that Brandon's father had probably cheated on his mother with another woman, took two of his sons and fled. Brandon's mother never accepted it, but there was nothing to be done. Brandon secretly went to the place where he last saw his brothers several times in the following months to look for any clues, but never found anything. This was probably the turning point when Brandon decided to become a Witcher himself.

## Peasants attacking Hearsley Fortress

The peasants of the village of Lindow have declared "war" on the School of Shades overnight. Grodlick and the others had no idea why at first, so they assumed that something bad must have happened again and the villagers found the easiest target to blame. Later, Brandon found out the real reason. After a botched contract that a Witcheress was in charge of, Griffin had attacked the village and almost destroyed it, and the peasants assumed the woman in question was from their school. When the day of the attack came, Grodlick naturally tried to convince the peasants that they were not to blame. However, something like that is never enough for the peasants. "Witcher like Witcher, all the same"... they replied. Around seventy peasants against seven Witchers in an open field didn't stand a chance, but they could still burn houses or kill peasants who didn't side with them. Grodlick gave the order to try not to kill the peasants, only stun them. That didn't quite work. Brandon burned several of them with Igni's help, and Silvia did the same immediately afterwards. Ronzalt was just using Aard to extinguish the house when one of the peasants stabbed him in the shoulder with a pitchfork. This made him lose his cool and stop using the reinforced rod he could use to stun the peasants and drew his sword. The peasants then fell headlong. The peasants then started to run away, Brandon and Kellen still managed to catch many of them, but some still escaped. Losses on the Witcher side were only a few peasants and a few damaged buildings. After the battle, Grodlick contacted the Haersley Guard to come for the peasants as criminals.

## Silver Brotherhood

It all started with Brandon again running into a group of peasants outside his school, again threatening to ravage the school and village for the bad things that had happened to them. Brandon managed to disperse them and everyone thought it was over, but it wasn't. A few days later, Brandon was just returning from a contract when he noticed a fire in the village. He quickly ran there on his horse and noticed that the school was under attack by peasants again, but this time it seemed there were many more. Brandon quickly rode his horse to the stables and started to fight. In the fight he located Grodlick and asked him what was going on. Grodlick replied that he didn't know properly himself, only that this horde of villagers had appeared and that they were very aggressive, almost brainlessly so. Grodlick gave permission to kill and so Brandon went ahead. He was hacking away, body parts flying everywhere, and the other Witchers were doing the same. In all the chaos, Grodlick called everyone back to the courtyard and told everyone that he felt something was off. It seemed to him that the villagers were just supposed to be a distraction. Right as he made this call, an arrow flew out of the darkness at Rouven, narrowly avoiding him. With those words, they all parted again and Brandon headed to the fort to prepare more potions, but while preparing them he suddenly fell to the ground and couldn't move. A man in black appeared before him. This member of the Silver Brotherhood was so confident that he had Brandon in his grasp that he had no problem divulging to him the location of their headquarters, their plans, how much they were paid, and so on. However, he was then surprised by Silvia, who threw a dagger right into his chest and he went down. Silvia tried to help Brandon, however then another man in black appeared, Silvia managed to fight him for a while, but then her body betrayed her as a headache shot through her head, still from the aftermath of the Higher Vampire's attack. It was then no more work for this member of the Silver Brotherhood to deal with Silvia, he was about to kill her as well when Kellen appeared in the doorway and began to fight the man. By that time Brandon's body was starting to come together, he ran against the guy and killed him, refilled the potions, made firebombs and rushed out again, Kellen stayed inside and treated Silvia. Brandon was slashing away again, he'd already met a couple of these "blacks", and managed to kill them with a few cuts. Grodlick finally called out that they needed to retreat to the courtyard and secure all the inhabitants in the fortress. All of the Witchers except Rouven gathered in the courtyard, ready to fight on. Brandon threw a firebomb into the entrance. And the headless villagers charged in, burning. But then one of the black men who looked like their commander walked through the fire. He was there alone, but he had the upper hand in the fight against the whole trio of Grodlick, Lansa, and Brandon. Now they noticed Rouven on the walls, but he was fighting another enemy. Later two more blacks appeared in the courtyard, Grodlick said he would take care of the commander and Lansa and Brandon each chose one. During the fight, Brandon noticed that Rouven was starting to lose his fight and so he managed to defeat his opponent, climbing the walls and rushing to Rouven's aid. However, just before he got to Rouven, he ran his black sword right through his chest and knocked him off the walls. Brandon then managed to defeat the man, but it was too late to save Rouven. The trio then joined together again against the one. He still had the upper hand and eventually managed to take them all down and use magic to keep them there. Kellen noticed the whole thing and he didn't hesitate to try and surprise the black one, but he almost effortlessly knocked him down and immobilized him as well. This commander introduced himself as Volkmar and thought ingeniously about what to do next. Realizing that one Witcher was missing, he entered the fortress and returned with only Silvia, whom he dragged out by her hair. Volkmar hadn't been paying much attention and the four Witchers suddenly sent Axii at Volkmar, confusing him. Silvia took advantage of this and slashed him several times in the side and even in the neck, but Volkmar recovered quickly, tripped Silvia's legs and then started punching her, it was obvious he was angry or he would have used his sword. He then picked her up to get a good look at her face, however Silvia took advantage of this again and pulled a dagger out of her leg holster and stabbed Volkmar in the stomach. He still stood his ground and beat Silvia unconscious. He was then about to kill her, however he realized that his injuries were quite serious and so he teleported away. Moments later, all of the Witchers were able to move again and quickly began tending to Silvia. Later that same day, Rouven's funeral and battlefield cleanup was arranged.

## Journal Entries

### **Ghouls distressing the dead at the Cemetary**

*Date of entry: 11th of May 1312, 1st age.*

*One of my first contracts, it wasn't a big deal, I got to the village of Arkney and met the local gravedigger, tested him for silver. Anyway, he gave me inaccurate information on how many ghouls they were, where they were located and so on... However, it was enough to find them and get rid of them quickly.*

**Reward:** *200 gold*

### **Big Bee problem**

*Date of entry: 11th of May 1312, 1st age.*

*When I arrived at a nearby bee farm, I met the owner, Rafael. He told me that they had a problem with giant bees, which I didn't want to believe at first because I had never heard of such a monster, but anyway I soon found out for myself while exploring. I killed a few and the trail led me to a nearby mine. Here lay only the swollen bodies of the miners. I ventured deep into the mine where I found that two queens had been given this enlargement and were fighting for dominance. This made my job quite a bit easier, though towards the end they started attacking me as well, but they gave me enough time beforehand to bury them with Aard. I haven't figured out what caused the bees to grow bigger, but I'm hoping that by isolating them like that, it won't happen again.*

**Reward:** *300 gold*

#### Additional notes

*Date of entry: 12th of May 1312, 1st age.*

*After I finished the contract with the wraith, I casually asked Grodlick if he had ever seen the giant bees, of course he had. He told me that this curse can be cast from quite a distance, so I went back to the bee farm to make sure the bees hadn't reappeared. When I arrived Rafael greeted me warmly and said there was no problem with the bees, either way I looked around. I was almost thinking it was useless and was about to turn around when I noticed faint footprints in the distance in the quite wet mud. I immediately started following the footprints. They led me back into the woods, which I had been walking through for at least half an hour, when I saw two carcasses lying in front of me. One carcass was a deer torn to pieces and the other carcass was a... Werewolf it was simply missing its head. I thought that was weird, could a wizard or mage really cut off a werewolf's head? Unless he killed it with a spell and cut off the head after death, but certainly not before. Nevertheless, I continued to follow the trail, which now included dried drops of blood. I followed the trail for some time until I saw an extinguished campfire among the trees ahead and a figure sitting with their back to me, leaning against a tree. They coughed as I approached, it was a woman. And as she coughed, I heard a moan. I still thought it was a witch so I crept over but walked more to the side to see her. She wasn't wearing any robes fit for a mage, rather she was wearing some light armor and some sort of leather shirt and pants over it. When I looked properly I noticed two swords at her side. So it was obvious and she probably already heard me so I stopped sneaking around and just confronted her about what happened. She told me that she's actually a sorceress too, but it's more of a hobby or I don't know how to describe it, in addition to being a Witcheress. And she admitted that she had put the curse on the bees because she had requested honey from them in an emergency - she needed the honey for a potion to stop a rare species of Griffin from destroying the village. Since she didn't get the honey, she had to try to defeat the Griffin herself, which she failed to do, only irritating him and making him attack the village all the more. Out of shame and anger, she didn't even return to the village and instead went straight here to curse the bees and make the local beekeepers sick. By the time I got all the way over to her, I noticed that she had a pretty nasty open wound on her stomach, definitely from the Werewolf and probably why she's been sitting there like this, quite possibly through the day. She was incapable of fighting and seemed resigned to me killing her, but I wasn't going to do that, but she didn't deserve my help either, so I let her live and just walked away. I suspect this incident with Griffin is why the peasants were knocking on our door to burn us down, probably thinking this woman belonged in our school. I told Rafael back at the farm that the curse was definitely not coming back on his bees. And with that, I went back home.*

### **Suspicious Wraith predicament**

*Date of entry: 12th of May 1312, 1st age.*

*I took this contract mainly because it was close to the bee farm I wanted to go back to, and this didn't look like anything that would take too long, supposedly there was a problem with a wraith, the hardest part there is usually finding the reason why the wraith is present, and it's not often that hard either, so I expected to have it done soon. When I got there I was treated to a rather bizarre sight, with the entire peasantry living in tents in front of this rather nice mansion. The first people I spoke to were a couple of peasants and one I understood was a member of the local lady's staff. From him I found out that the local mistress was called Lady Isabelle and that she was a pretty pompous bitch, but I couldn't have cared less, I know how to deal with people like that, up until I want to turn them against me. Gradually I talked to other servants and found out that this Lady Isabelle was a real bitch, she had no respect for anyone or anything. She destroyed and vandalised pictures of the former owners of this mansion or other prominent people who had been here for some time. She treated the servants like trash and allegedly forced them into orgies almost every time Lady Isabelle invited friends to the Mansion for the weekend. The phantom was also said to attack only her, but not the servants or peasants. Well, then I went to talk directly to Isabelle, who was really unpleasant, but it was possible to talk to her, I didn't even really believe she was as bad as the servants described her, at first I just thought she was a very spoiled brat, especially when she described what problems she had, but then I didn't know what the bitch's secret was yet. Honestly she didn't tell me much except that one of the servants disappeared, but the reason she gave me could only mean two things. She's either lying or she's really stupid. Unfortunately, it was the former. I then entered the house and began to search, first going to the missing servant's room and finding out from his journal that he was really just here to infiltrate and uncover Isabella's tainted secret. However, he didn't succeed, but he was really close... poor guy. Next I went upstairs to look directly into Isabella's room, there could definitely be something interesting there. I went through her drawers and what I didn't find, handcuffs, whips, knives, that sort of thing. Almost all of it dried with blood. Somebody liked it rough, and they liked it hard. Closets filled with so many clothes, of course, I can't imagine one person wearing them, and one closet was for shoes only. Where I also found some interesting things like spiked-soled shoes, also covered in blood. This is where the wraith first appeared to me. It didn't attack me at all, it just passed through the wall. I looked in the other room, but there was nothing there except the bathroom. I went back and kept on looking when the wraith reappeared and this time attacked me, first I used Yrden to trap it and tried to challenge it. Of course, that almost never works, but I could have tried. The wraith wasn't hard to defeat 3 blows was plenty enough to send it away for a while. Anyway, after a while it reappeared, but didn't attack again, instead leading me to a locked door, which I simply got rid of with Aard. It was the only room that was dirty, cobwebs everywhere, old sofas, tables, chairs. The wraith disappeared behind one of the sofas, I looked there and there was a button. I pressed it and a trapdoor opened that led somewhere in the basement, I climbed down the ladder and the longer I climbed the more I smelled the stench of dead bodies. I also heard some moaning. When I got down there was a long corridor. The ground was covered in dried blood. At the end of the corridor was a large room, using Igni I lit all the torches on the walls and the sight I got was something horrible. I had never seen anything like it before, dozens, maybe hundreds of dead women, horribly mutilated and naked. In various stages of decomposition, some with only bones left. There was a table with two books on it. One was just some twisted story, the other was a diary. It was Isabella's diary. She described how she was looking forward to finishing this dungeon to lure her female servants, which she did. But then she was left with only men servants, and she wasn't interested in them, so she started attracting women from villages and towns. Mostly poor women and prostitutes, the kind that no one would miss, but occasionally she'd get a bigger catch. One of the last records is of a man who was also in the room, the supposed servant. She cut off his genitals and left him bleeding on the floor. I was about to leave, but I heard the moaning again. And in the corner of the room I found a woman still alive on a cross, She was very scrawny and her wounds were clearly infected. As I was about to leave with her, I found one more thing. In the middle of the room there was a bathtub... and in it a woman tortured to death worse and more brutally than any of the others that lay there. I don't even want to describe her disfigurement, but I will say that I felt disgusted and angry as I thought about what she must have gone through before she died. I guessed the apparition would belong to this woman. I found another secret entrance to this basement that got the woman out of the house. I knew she wouldn't survive without help, and the closest thing was our school. However, I had an unresolved score to settle with Isabella. I told the servants to take care of the woman until I returned and that when I entered the house with Isabella, to lock the door. I tricked Isabella easily, telling her that I had removed the wraith, but that she definitely needed proof and that the residual energy of the wraith would still be there, so she could see for herself. She came with me on her own and I deliberately switched the conversation to what I found downstairs to see how she would react. I pretended that of course I had no idea it was her and that it was probably one of the servants, which she kept confirming. I also noticed that she was suddenly much more respectful to me. I walked with her to the cellar where I just waited for the wraith to appear and finish its work. And it did, Isabella fell to the ground dead. The wraith had now cleared up a little and the form of the woman in the bath was clearly visible. The wraith now clearly thanked me and then disappeared. I went back out, took my reward and told the servants to pass this on to the Inquisition and if there was a salary for it, to send it to me and they could keep everything Isabella had left behind. I didn't know how I was going to make it back to the school with the woman, since it took me a good hour to get there and it would be even slower with her. However, the servants offered me an able-bodied horse as an additional reward, as Isabella was supposedly a skilled rider, and that one horse would certainly not be wanted. The one horse they brought to me was also wearing very high quality and expensive equipment, probably worth more than anything I have, I asked for the horse's name and it was Becky. So I rode my Becky back home with the woman, where Silvia and Lansa had already taken care of her. I'll never forget that contract, the atrocities I saw there.*

**Reward:** *600 gold*

**Additional reward:** *Fully-equipped Horse*

### **Orphans gone missing**

*Date of entry: 13th of May 1312, 1st age.*

*Honestly, when I took this contract I had absolutely no idea what kind of monster was eating only children and staying in the house, it was an orphanage from which children were disappearing. So I went to Grodlick again, and he always had an answer, and he did again. He told me about a past contract he had to kill a Trixa that was killing kids at the school. Trixa according to Grodlick's description is a child who died in great pain or very unhappy or in any unnatural way, it doesn't always happen, but the chances increase rapidly if you pile several dead children into a mass grave. Trixas are often disfigured in some way, sometimes missing a limb and sometimes having more. But they do have one thing that they always lure in the children they find as prey. Trixas have a beautiful sweet voice. Which you wouldn't expect from their rotten mouths, but it's true. Then I drove off towards the orphanage. The orphanage was technically part of the town of Haersley, but it wasn't in the town. When I got there I first got some info from the nuns, I learned that a tuberculosis outbreak had swept through the orphanage and 12 children had died and that's around the time Trixa started showing up. I forgot to mention that all the missing children were boys. Then I went to one of the boys' rooms where the boys disappeared from. And I asked around. I found out that Trixa moves between the walls, and that she probably has holes in the walls where she can enter and leave the corridors. I needed a map of the orphanage, but the sisters didn't have one, but one of the older orphans made his own, but it was almost impossible to read. I asked if anyone knew how to draw, but no one came forward and I was rather directed to the girls' rooms. So I got there and sure enough, they were able to tussle over who could draw me a better plan. In the end I ended up with a perfect and legible plan, even what I didn't even consider words on the original plan were suddenly legible, I asked the girls if they also heard noises between the walls and they answered that they did and that they were mostly heading upwards. So I took the stairs up to the attic, which the sister had to unlock for me. I could smell the stench of dead bodies as soon as I entered. Of course there were no corpses, I only found a hole in the wall where the smell was coming from, so the corpses were between the walls. I figured I wouldn't catch the thing during the day, so I waited until the evening, in the meantime I told the sisters to pile all the boys into two rooms on one floor and I waited. Soon enough, there was a scream from one of the rooms. I rushed in and noticed one boy disappearing under the bed. I grabbed him and at the same time stabbed the wall where I assumed the Trixa was and used Igni to possibly set it on fire. The thing must have managed to reach out of my sword though because I then heard it cupping its way upwards. So I quickly ran back to the attic. Where I just listened intently, the Trixa was really quiet because without me hearing it, it managed to swipe its hand at me and knock me down with surprising force, however it didn't attack further. Then I heard it stomp occasionally and that was it. Then it jumped right in front of me and I could see what it looked like... bald head, a few hairs on it, disfigured face, four arms and it moved like a goblin. It ran at me and I tried to use Axii, but this monster was probably immune to it. So I fired my crossbow and hit one arm, which didn't stop the Trixa. So I took advantage of the fact that it was so much smaller and kicked it when it got close. Trixa did get caught on my boot, but that was more to my advantage, as I pinned it to the ground and then simply chopped its head off its body. I burned the body. I went to collect my prize and advised the sisters to patch up all the holes Trixa had left behind. Then I remembered that the peasants were actually going to attack the school tonight, so I got on my horse and headed back at lightning speed.*

**Reward:** *1000 gold*

**Additional reward:** *High Quality Blueprint of Haersley Orphanage*

#### Additional notes

*Date of entry: 14th of May 1312, 1st age.*

*As I drove past the orphanage towards Haersley I came across a rather bizarre thing... a door burst open and out flew a torn Trixa. Soon the kids ran after it and started kicking and punching it and one of the boys even bit it and then screamed in triumph. Trixa remained lying motionless. When I asked what had happened. The children said that with the help of the scouts (the smallest orphans) they found out that there was another Trixa living in the walls so they decided to hunt it down. The sisters didn't like that, so tthe kids revolutionized and took over the orphanage. I never found out what happened to the sisters. Anyway, the kids told me I was always welcome and they would always take care of my horse.*

*Date of entry: 24th of August 1312, 1st age.*

*After many months I crossed paths with this orphanage again. We had just lost Grodlick and I was getting worried that our school might die out, and so I was looking to recruit children as potential future witchers, and what's a better way than to look in the orphanage full of grateful kids. Last time I was here, months ago, it wasn't exactly dandy but the children said they would always welcome me. It shouldn't have been surprising to me that letting orphans run their own orphanage for months on end wasn't a good idea. At first the orphanage almost looked abandoned, the windows were blocked and the whole building looked even more run down than before, which I thought wasn't possible. I entered the main door which wasn't blocked or locked and I could immediately hear the children. That wasn't the only thing I sensed though. I could smell overwhelming stench of death and burnt meat. I got suspicious immediately and didn't want to stay in the house. I went back out and called out for the children to come out. At first, no one even called back to me, but after a little threatening, they finally came out. Most of the kids that came out were boys and there weren't that many of them. That was weird because I remembered about fifty percent of the kids here were girls and even the boy population was higher. A lot of the kids were missing. Some of the kids had hateful looks in their eyes which confused me as I thought I was welcomed there. Others simply looked resistantly or with a blank face. I realized I wasn't going to get anything out of those kids and I definitely didn't want to torture them to find out what happened, so I picked one of the kids in front and used Axii on them. I started interrogating and the other kids looked increasingly hateful and anxious. I asked about what happened and I found out that there was this sort of kid uprising, where some of the kids, especially the older ones became increasingly more aggressive as they didn't have food and had nothing to do and those kids took over. I also asked if anyone else was still in the house and even under the influence of Axii the kid wavered. The boy told me that he wasn't actually sure himself but there was one girl still inside. I told him to get her and he was back with her in a minute. The girl, who looked like she was in her late teenage years, that was still hidden inside up to that point looked even more scared and beaten up and the others pointed their hateful look towards her. I asked about what happened in more detail... and I found out something horrific. The kids became cannibalistic. They started assaulting the girls and the weaker children beating them, biting them and eventually torturing, killing and eating them. They immediately attacked anyone who spoke out against these practices and I figured that's why some of the children looked beaten up, including the girl that was led out. I asked where are the other children. The boy hesitated again and said that for torturing, they take the kids up to the attic, where most of them still survive. Then they are either brought back into their society or they are brought straight into the basement out of which, nobody ever comes out again. I asked if anyone was still alive in there and the boy said "maybe". I separated that one girl from the group and brought her inside with me, I ordered the rest to stay put. I didn't want to drag the girl through the orphanage, I just didn't want her to stay with the psychos, so I left her in the halfway and gave her a piece of cloth to shield herself from the stench. I made my way upstairs all the way to the attic where the smell was even worse. I entered the room and found a boy that looked about thirteen and looked he was on the brink of death, I carried him downstairs and left him in the hallway near the girl. Then I made my way into the basement that somehow smelled even worse than the attic. The cobblestone floor was covered with entrails, blood, bones, body parts and who knows what else. I looked around and thought everyone there was definitely dead but then I heard soft moaning. I quickly made my way to one of the rooms and found a malnourished girl tied to a table with a big knife stuck in her thigh. This one was younger than the other girl but she was also in her teenage years. I applied some quick medicine and then also carried her out. When I was back out in the hallway, I took the three kids and cautiously brought them to my horse. I sat the smallest kid, the boy in the front, and the two girls in the back, the healthier and older girl way in the back and I told her to hold the weaker one. Then I commanded the rest of the kids to go with me around the orphanage. I waited until they were in a cluster and made a decision, that seemed to me as the only option. These kids did things too horrific and went through trauma too extreme. There was no saving them and killing them was mercy. I used Igni and burned them all. After that I sat on my horse and with the girls I rode back to our school where we could take care of them.*

### **Feral being eats Men of the Village**

*Date of entry: 14th of May 1312, 1st age.*

*As soon as I took this contract I thought it could be a werewolf and the reward of 1000 gold for it was pretty good, so I went to the village of Aris. The village is pretty close and I was there on horseback in a few minutes. Instead, the alderman made the whole situation much more inflated than it really was. No one knew where the bodies were or what the monster was, as only the loggers went into the forest and they never came back. The alderman claimed it was a mythical creature, and after I entered the forest I heard the villagers behind me still muttering "and he's a goner". I walked through the forest for a while and then heard a muffled growl. I walked some more and of course, saw the werewolf. I wanted to get as close to him as I could, but that made him notice me and attack. I fired my crossbow but missed him, then I tried to move away a bit, however, he was faster and knocked me down. I was a little bruised in the process, but nothing serious. When I was on the ground I just waited for the right moment and when he jumped I got under him and hit him in the stomach. It wasn't deep enough to spill his guts, but he was hurt enough to finish him off. I hit him in the leg first to slow him down further. Then I hit him in the head, which surprisingly he survived, but he was just crawling on the ground. So I used one more bolt as a finishing touch. It was a werewolf that didn't transform - just a beast. I cut off his head and returned to the alderman, who accepted my proof and was a bit surprised that it was "just" a werewolf, but fortunately, he didn't argue about my bounty because that could have turned out badly - for him. So he gave me my reward and I went home.*

**Reward:** *1000 gold*

### **Baron in need**

*Date of entry: 14th of May 1312, 1st age*

*I had no idea if I could beat a cyclops, but the reward was really high so I just went for it. However, I needed something stronger for it, so I went to Haersley and bought a reinforced steel bolt and a stronger crossbow. I then arrived at a fort that was having problems with the Cyclops, the fort belonged to the town of Bawres. Here the Baron told me all the information I needed, even the exact location. I discussed a few more things with the Baron and walked towards the cave where he should be - on foot so that the cyclops wouldn't eat Becky. When I got there I didn't see him anywhere, just a big fire pit and a lot of dead bodies and bones around - animal and human. After a while, I started to feel a rumbling. A cyclops started coming out of the cave behind the fireplace. It looked like a pretty ugly thing and was wearing only some sort of loincloth. He picked up a carcass of a horse that was already in the process of decomposing and started eating it... I kept getting closer and closer to him as it was eating. . Finally, I was in range, so I took aim at his eye and fired my crossbow. But at the last moment the bastard had to move and the arrow only lodged in his face. The Cyclops noticed this, of course, and immediately picked me up as there was nowhere to hide. In one step, he was at my side and swung his mace at me. I did a roll and got under him and tried to shoot him in the achilles with my crossbow, which failed, the arrow just made a little scratch there and bounced off. I tried to hit him in the same spot, but as he kept moving I barely hit him once. Finally, he made an unexpected leg movement and hit me, which threw me a few feet. And it made my head spin a bit. So I aimed for the eye again, but missed every shot and either hit the cheek or under the eye. Then he swung the club at me again, which I avoided, but instead of picking up the club, he swung it sideways across the grass, knocking me away again. I tried to recover, but my head was so dizzy that when I reloaded the crossbow the arrow fell out into the grass and it was only on the second attempt that I reloaded. I fired again and this time I managed to hit the cyclops eye. He went crazy and was waving his stick all over the place. At this point I was just running around trying to shoot him in vulnerable spots, however, I couldn't find much of anything. I tried to shoot him in the mouth, which I also managed to do on about the tenth try, however, he must have eaten the arrow or I don't know. So I resorted to my last resort... I got under him again and this time aimed for his genitals. I hit him in the dick and quickly started running away, but it still wasn't enough because he kicked me and this time with more force. I could only breathe heavily and my chest hurt. But because of the adrenaline, I managed to get up... the Cyclops was now dancing and screaming in a strange way, but he was still not on the ground. I tried again to hit him in the mouth which I managed to do faster this time and this time he really started having trouble. He fell down on one knee. I tried to hit him in the back of his knee so that he fell on both knees, which I managed to do after about 3-4 attempts. Then I hit him in both ears, and then kind of in the ass. However the cyclops still wasn't dead and I didn't know what, now I couldn't hit him in the face because he was face down on the ground. I finally started shooting him in the skull. I used about 5 arrows before one arrow finally stuck a bit. Then I used the Aard on the arrow and it went into his skull. The cyclops fell to the ground and was dead. I collected all the arrows I could find, went into the stinking cave and took all the loot, the cyclops' head and headed back. I made my way back to the fortress with the spoils, where the Baron himself was surprised that I had defeated the Cyclops and gave me my reward, as I was leaving I staggered and fell to the ground, the Baron offered to help me but I didn't believe him so I quickly rushed out and mounted Becky, I don't remember much of the journey back as I was lying on her rather than sitting on her. I was only woken up by Kellen's voice back at school. He helped me to the common room where Grodlick and Silvia were. They helped me with potions and some other treatment. However, the pain didn't subside much, I had to go to sleep. Silvia and Grodlick helped me to my room and I fell asleep almost immediately.*

**Reward:** *8000 + 1000 gold*

### **Lost Delivery**

*Date of entry: 16th of May 1312, 1st age*

*I went into this contract thinking that I would just kill whatever caused the lost delivery, only after I accepted the contract and talked to the guy who gave it to me, he only wanted me to deliver the lost delivery, that kind of pissed me off, I'm no delivery guy, but I took it in the end. From Haersley I then took the main road to Bawres. Along the way, I followed the wagon tracks, but there were so many of them on the main road every day that it didn't make much sense... It wasn't until I was nearly at Bawres that I noticed one wagon had gone deep into the woods. I was only about 5 minutes away from Bawres, so I rode there and stabled Becky. Then I went back and followed the tracks into the woods. There were a few pairs of tracks - human tracks - near the carriage. I walked for a few more minutes and came across a broken-down wagon, thought for a while about using it but it was too broken down to do any repairs. I searched it and there were only some bags, spices and cloth for clothes. It was no use to me, except for the sacks, but I took it anyway. I continued to follow the trail and after some time I heard laughter and someone talking. Soon there was a small camp ahead of me. A fire pit and a couple of tents, bags and boxes around. In total 8 people - bandits, 4 were sitting by the fire, 1 was practicing with his sword by hacking at a tree and the other 3 were just looking around. I tried to find a position so I could kill as many of them as quietly as possible, but I found that it wouldn't work, so I shot a crossbow bolt at one, used Axii on the bandit who was training, shot a bolt at the second, then took the sword the bandit by the tree was training with and threw it at the fourth, it stuck him right in the face. I then lunged at the 4 by the fire, they weren't trained fighters, I parried their attacks with ease and my counterattacks were too fast for any cover on their part. All 4 fell within a minute. Then I started to search them while I also searched through the crates and bags to find something useful, or at least some gold. At the bottom of one of the bags, I found the little box that got me here in the first place. Inside was a pretty nice necklace. I put all the loot in the bags and was about to drag it away when the fog started to appear... The fog was unnaturally thick, it came out of nowhere and was so thick I couldn't see a foot. Even though I was in the woods, I couldn't see any trees now... Foglets. A chill went down my spine and a contract that was supposed to be a trip suddenly became a situation I didn't have to get out of alive. I was nervous, I'd learned and read about Foglets, of course, but I'd never fought one before. A lot of people underestimate them because they're relatively small, but I guess people forget that they're fucking invisible, fast, and pretty smart. Not to mention sharp claws and teeth. And the fact that they can conjure fog out of their ass might be worth mentioning. And by being small, they're also not that heavy in their strides. There were more of them, so I couldn't tell how many or even pinpoint their exact location, so I just stood with my sword at the ready, waiting for one to approach and hoping to register it. I took the first blow... claws right in the back. I quickly swung behind me and a headless Foglet became visible on the ground. I quickly drank a Swallow and then a Thunderbolt, only this time, as soon as I finished it, I got hit in the leg and knocked to the ground. I quickly used Aard and shot an arrow where I assumed he was. Foglet appeared on the ground with an arrow in his chest. Then I took another hit, this time in the side. I missed my shot. I drank another Swallow, essentially nullifying the effect of the Thunderbolt. I tried a different tactic, I crouched down, closed my eyes, and listened carefully... I still couldn't tell how many of them were there and where exactly they were, plus Swallow started to dull my senses, but when one approached from behind I heard him. I quickly turned around and used Axii. A confused Foglet appeared on the spot, I shot an arrow at him and he fell to the ground. While this was happening Foglet attacked me from the other side and hit me in the arm. I swung and a dead Foglet appeared in front of me, cut in half. I used the same tactic again, I used Axii again when one approached, he appeared confused in front of me and I hit him with the crossbow again. But then I heard them approaching from 3 sides, my crossbow wasn't loaded and I wasn't ready for a Sign yet. So I started slashing with my sword. One of them got me in the other leg, I kicked him off and cut his head off while the other of the two in front of me managed to land a good blow to my stomach. I managed to chop them both up after that, but I had to drink my last Swallow. I really wasn't feeling well anymore. However, the Foglets were running low and I could at least deduce the number... three to go... They didn't wait long and set off at once. They knocked me down, I got a bite in the thigh, a claw in the neck, fortunately only from the side, and another bite in the back. I used my Aard, hit one with my crossbow and hacked the last two to pieces. I quickly picked myself up, grabbed only the essentials, and hurried to my horse before the adrenaline ran out of me and I would have fallen to the ground there. Before that, I'd spread the foglets around the camp to discourage other people from taking my stuff. I made it back to Bawres and scrambled up on my horse and almost as soon as I got on it I passed out. I didn't wake up till I was in some bed. I took a quick look at myself. My wounds had been tended to, or at least dressed better than I had, but I wasn't wearing my shirt or my armor and my pants were some stranger's. I didn't even recognize the room. I stood up and felt pain almost all over my body. In addition to the wounds from the Foglets, I now had bruises. I opened the door to the room and saw a woman, I'm guessing about 40 years old, standing in the kitchen. She noticed me and looked a little scared. She called out to someone outside. Some two kids ran in, or maybe not kids anymore, but just a young girl and a boy, definitely no more than 20 years old. And then a guy came in, about the same age as the older woman. He told me how I got there, that my horse showed up at their farm with me in the saddle. They changed my clothes, bandaged my wounds and left me lying in their home. I found out I'd been lying there for over 20 hours. They gave me clean clothes and returned all my things, nothing was missing, and as a reward I gave them some earrings I found in the bandit loot. From there I went to Haersley where I returned the small box with the necklace to its owner and got my reward. Then I went back to the house where I basically just dropped off my stuff and then headed back to Bawres where I picked up the rest of the loot. Then I went back to the house where Rouven was feeding the horses. When no one else was there, he was quite articulate. I mean, Grodlick was there, but I didn't even notice him. Rouven helped me with some potions and then I went to bed. I may have just been down for 20 hours, but I guess fighting Foglets is pretty exhausting.*

**Reward:** *1500 + 6500 Gold*

### **Missing Lumberjacks**

*Date of entry: 18th of May 1312, 1st age*

*This contract caught my attention because it seemed intriguing. A camp full of loggers, and not a single trace of them - no tracks, no blood, not even their tools. I decided to walk to the nearby village since it was just a short distance away, arriving there in about 40 minutes. The local alderman told me that it was the main logger camp for the area, where workers from not only his village but also the surrounding ones, and even the city, gathered. At first, loggers went missing one by one or in small groups, but that didn't deter others since wood is in demand. However, the entire shift of loggers suddenly disappeared. There were about 50 of them, and they were just gone. The villagers went to investigate, but they found nothing. I already had my suspicions... Ents. Honestly, it seemed more like a Leshen, but I have a certain dislike for Ents, and I won't rest until I find one. I ventured into the forest towards the logger camp. When I arrived, the villagers were surprisingly right for once. There were no traces in the camp, and I couldn't see any either. It puzzled me for a while until I noticed small burrows or holes in the ground. They were too small for ghouls or nekkers, but I noticed wood splinters around them. Everything increasingly pointed to Leshen, but I still hoped it might be an Ent. Then I heard a sound that confirmed it was a Leshen - that eerie whispering from a distance. It's what Leshen totems do. I had no choice but to follow the sounds, destroy the totems, and wait for the Leshen. As I expected, I found and destroyed the totems. The Leshen appeared quite quickly but mostly attacked using its roots. Only at the beginning of the fight did I realize I hadn't prepared any potions, so I had to be extra cautious. I evaded the roots, mostly successfully, and attempted to strike the Leshen. However, it would always teleport away. I managed to shoot it with my crossbow and even throw an axe at it, but neither seemed to do much damage. Only when I used Igni did it show some effect, though still not much. Then I heard the wolves. The Leshen had summoned them. I continued to attack the Leshen for a while, but then the first two wolves arrived. I shot one with my crossbow and beheaded the other. After a while, more wolves came, and while the roots pulled me to the ground, one wolf bit my arm. I managed to get free and killed all the wolves. I attempted to lure the Leshen into attacking, and at that moment, I cast Igni again. It teleported, but Igni still managed to hit it. It looked slightly charred, but still appeared strong. The roots then pulled me to the ground again. This time, they wrapped tightly around my chest. At first, I considered using Igni, but I might have set myself on fire too, so I ultimately used Aard, which destroyed some of the roots, and I managed to sever the last one with my sword. I tried to use Aard again by slamming it into a tree to make it fall on the Leshen, but it teleported in time. Then I threw my sword and lodged it in the Leshen's head. It staggered, so I ran toward it and forcefully drove the sword in even deeper. Then it teleported. I looked around for it and noticed it had teleported into a tree, where it got stuck. I struck it a few more times. Just to make sure it was dead. Then I took its head and returned to the alderman, who accepted it as proof. He gave me my reward, and I headed home. On the way back, I felt like that bastard had probably broken a few of my ribs. And my chest was a mass of bruises...*

**Reward:** *1000 gold*

### **A moisty situation**

*Date of entry: 19th of May 1312, 1st age*

*This contract I took was in the village of Lerwick, a slightly larger village with approximately 1,000 residents as far as I know. The village is located by the river and relies mainly on fishing, which has also been a source of trouble for the local fishermen. According to the contract, they had a problem with Drowners. I thought to myself that I would take care of the Drowners in no time; all I had to do was make sure they didn't bite me, and the offered reward was quite generous. Since this village was relatively far away, I set out on horseback. I received a rather pleasant welcome when I arrived, which I didn't expect, but there was no time to dwell on it. I reached the fisherman who issued the contract, and he showed me on the map all the places where the fishermen went missing. Without hesitation, I set off on their trail. Most of the tracks always indicated signs of an attack and then being dragged into the water. It would be suicide to fight Drowners underwater, so I continued to follow the tracks. As I was tracking, something suddenly hit me right in the backside. I quickly turned around and saw a small pebble on the ground, but there was no one in sight. This repeated about three more times until I decided to use Aard on the nearest bush. I heard a thud and went to investigate. There, I found a giggling girl, no more than 15 years old, surrounded by scattered pebbles. I used Axii on her to make her return to the village and continued on. I looked at the map again and realized that most of the attacks occurred on the other side of the river. I crossed the river at a shallow point and followed the tracks. Some of them led away from the river, and I decided to follow them. I followed the tracks until I stumbled upon a peculiar pond. The water was incredibly dirty, mixed with mud, resembling more of a swamp. I decided not to approach, but then I heard several Drowners to my right, precisely three of them. I slowly approached them. They were having a feast on a deer. Swiftly, I shot an arrow at one, threw a blade at another, and swiftly decapitated the third. Easy pickings. I gathered my belongings and took the head of the Drowner. Although it wasn't a significant or challenging kill, it was just for my collection since I didn't have such a head yet. I headed back towards the pond when I saw another four Drowners. I started shooting at them with my crossbow, managing to kill three with well-aimed shots. I finished off the last one with my sword after using Axii to make it stumble, causing the Drowner to fall to the ground. As I looked around, someone suddenly and firmly grabbed my leg from the mud and pulled it deep into the mire, causing me to fall and making it impossible to stand up. I panicked because it didn't initially occur to me that it was a Water Hag. I made a few foolish attempts to slash at the mud, which obviously didn't work. From that position, I couldn't strike the mud hard enough to break free. I tried to use Aard and Axii, but neither worked, of course. I felt it scratching and gnawing at my leg; I had to act quickly. I drank Swallow and Killer Whale potions, took a deep breath, and threw myself under the mud. I don't think I did much damage, but I managed to free myself from its clutches and slowly crawled my way up. My leg was torn and bitten. When I realized what kind of creature it was, I immediately drank Swallow, Thunderbolt, and poured Healing Potion on my leg. The Water Hag emerged from the mud. I tried to shoot at her, but I completely missed. I tried again and hit her in the arm, then again and again, but she dodged every time. When she finally got close enough, I attempted to use Axii, but it had no effect. I shot again with my crossbow; she dodged it. At that moment, I launched an attack. I struck her, but she also struck me. Additionally, her blood splattered into my face, temporarily blinding me. I quickly rubbed my eyes to regain my vision and saw a limping Water Hag with a large wound on her abdomen. I wanted to finish her off with the crossbow, but she still had enough strength to jump at me again. She managed to land several blows on me. I used Aard to throw her off me, and then I relentlessly attacked her with my sword. She managed to block the first strike with her palm, but I severed half of her hand with the following attacks. She couldn't defend herself against the subsequent strikes, and I sliced her into pieces. I left her head mostly untouched; I wanted to keep it. Then, more Drowners appeared, and I was ready to fight them, but I started feeling ill, and before I knew it, I lost consciousness. In my last moments of consciousness, I thought that the sight of the approaching Drowners would be my last in this life, and that I wouldn't wake up again. However, I did wake up. As soon as I regained consciousness, I was hit by an overwhelming stench. Not only did I look and smell horrible, but the hunting lodge where I woke up also looked and smelled terrible. It had holes in the roof, and the odor of dead game and Drowner filth hung in the air. For a moment, I thought the Drowners had taken me to their hideout, but then I heard a human voice. It turned out that not far from my location, a hunter had a hunting lodge. He was currently hunting Drowners because they supposedly "trampled his garden." He spotted me and killed the Drowners. Then, he took me to his lodge, where he treated my injuries and left me to rest. Luckily, he didn't rob me and even allowed me to keep my collection of heads. I rewarded him with 500 gold, and he helped me back to the village, where I collected double the reward. I rode my horse back home, enduring the pain of my battered and bruised body.*

**Reward:** *2000 gold*

#### Additional Notes:

*As a reward, I gave 500 gold to the hunter.*

### **Marital Problems**

*Date of entry: 19th of May 1312, 1st age*

*Another contract in Haersley. The description was quite strange, just that the husband was behaving oddly, but I couldn't resist the 2,000 gold reward. So, I set off for Haersley. When I arrived, I found the house of the woman who submitted the contract. I spoke with her for a while, gathering information. Apparently, her husband worked as a bartender in a tavern, and one day he came home and was different. Not drastically, but just those little things that only someone close to you would notice. My first thought was a demon. Demons often react to silver. So, after talking to the woman, I went upstairs where her husband was supposed to be. He was sitting at a table, working on something. He almost immediately reacted to my presence and asked me what I was doing there. I made up something about hunting a parasite and needing to test him with silver to be sure. I cut him, but nothing happened. No reaction. I went back to the woman and discussed other possibilities. She told me exactly where her husband worked and what happened on that day, but logically, she couldn't know everything. So, I went to the tavern alone. The woman was right; it was in a rundown neighborhood, and every person there looked like a vagrant. I entered the tavern and headed to the bartender. I exchanged a few words with him and found out that I wouldn't learn much from him since he had a different shift. So, I approached the bouncer, and he gave me some more information about when the bartender finished and similar details, but still not the exact details I wanted to know. He advised me to ask the locals, particularly an older woman who practically lived there, coming in the afternoon and staying until closing time, which was sometimes around 5 in the morning. Not surprisingly, I found her sitting there, drunk. When I asked her about the bartender, she naturally started telling me her life story until she reached the point when she saw him last. Finally, she got to what I wanted to know. She left the tavern at the same time as the bartender, but he had to clean up a bit and change clothes. However, the woman was so drunk that she leaned against the wall outside for about an hour, and during that time, she saw the bartender leaving the bar, but then another guy bumped into him, stabbed him, and pushed him into a side alley. However, the same bartender emerged from the alley with the dead bartender's body. The woman thought she was seeing double. At that moment, it hit me that it wasn't a demon but a Doppler. I thanked the woman and headed towards that alley. There was some dried blood but nothing else, no skin or anything. I realized that the Doppler probably had at least some resistance to silver; otherwise, my cut would have worked. I rushed back to the house where the Doppler was supposed to be, but he was no longer there when I arrived. I told the woman to hide with some friends and asked her if she had any idea where he could be. She mentioned the sewers, where all sorts of scum hide, and told me how to access them. Then, I made my way to the well that led to the sewers. I descended and listened carefully, but all I could hear was the scurrying of rats and the sound of water. I continued through a narrow tunnel and eventually found some skin. So, it was a Doppler who needed to shed his skin. That was good because it meant he couldn't transform too quickly. I emerged on the other side of the city, where tracks led from the well. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of tracks, but only one set led away from the well, not towards it. I followed them, and though it was difficult at times, they led me to a house. The door was open, and inside were the bodies of two relatively young people. Upstairs, I could hear the weeping of the woman who had given me the contract. And then, I heard the Doppler speaking. I stealthily made my way upstairs, and he didn't notice me. I used Axii on the Doppler and then rushed at him, colliding with such force that we broke through the roof and fell to the ground from the second floor. Fortunately, I was unharmed, maybe just a bruised arm. I quickly got up and hacked the Doppler into pieces. Then, I returned to the house, took the woman to her place, and explained the whole situation to her along the way. It wasn't an ideal ending, but there was nothing more I could do. Most importantly, I did what I was paid for.*

**Reward:** *2000 gold*

### **House disappearance**

*Date of entry: 21st of May 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was given to me by Grodlick, and right from the start, it seemed really strange to me. Supposedly, a hunter's cabin disappeared, and all his friends claimed he never had one. The reward was decent, and the case intrigued me, so I decided to accept it. It was located outside the town of Haersley, and as I arrived at the spot where the hunter was supposed to be, I saw him arguing with the Haersley guards. They were just leaving, and I overheard them calling the hunter crazy. So, I had a conversation with the hunter, and he insisted that he had a house at a specific location, which was completely overgrown with grass. It didn't seem very convincing to me. Naturally, I thought of Ents, but also a sorcerer. The latter would have multiple ways to achieve this. I realized it might be a better idea to talk to some of this hunter's friends, so I approached a few of them. One of them told me that the hunter indeed never had a house, and he always boasted about not having one, always living in a tent and never sleeping in the same place. I asked for more details and circumstances, but I didn't learn anything else important. I also asked if there were any mages or alchemists in town. They said there were no mages, but three alchemists. Only one of them had a shop, so I went to see him. I left the hunter waiting outside and entered the alchemist's shop. I told him what I needed and asked if he happened to have a potion for recalling suppressed thoughts and memories. He said he did, but it was quite rare, and he would give it to me for 1200, which I didn't have on me. I asked him if he wanted a favor instead, and coincidentally, he did. He wanted me to steal a potion from another alchemist in town. He had been trying to obtain the recipe for a long time but hadn't succeeded. I really had to think about this because it was still daytime, and I would have to wait until evening anyway. I decided to continue investigating for now. I searched for tracks on the edge of the forest and found holes in the ground where tent pegs had been. At these holes, I found tracks leading from the tent and back, from the forest and into the forest. I followed the tracks into the woods, and they led me to a point where the tracks simply started looping in a circle. Round and round they went. And ahead of them were another set of tracks, but they didn't start or lead anywhere. Moreover, the tracks were really shallow, the kind only an elf would make, and maybe not even that. I looked around for a while, but I didn't find anything else, so I drank a Cat potion to see if I could find more evidence. I drank it and discovered some very faint tracks, but again, they didn't lead anywhere or start anywhere; they just turned in half-circles. I also found dried vomit. I didn't want to search further, so I followed the tracks back to the place where the supposed missing house should be. I forgot to mention that I questioned the hunter about the details of his house because if it was just an illusion, he might not remember the details. But he knew almost everything, although there was some hesitation. I still didn't want to do that favor for the alchemist, so I went back to Grodlick for advice. He told me that the price for the potion was acceptable, and it might be a way to get out of the situation. So, I went back and told the hunter to give me 1200 upfront, explaining that I needed it to solve his problem. He gave it to me, and I went to buy the potion. I bought it and then returned to the hunter, who drank it. For a while, nothing seemed to happen, and I thought the bastard sold me water. But suddenly, the hunter grabbed his head, groaned, and rolled on the ground. I waited for a while until he eventually got up again, looking quite shocked. He described what had happened and realized that he had indeed been enchanted in the forest. His memory of the person's face was blurred, but he remembered what they said, and that was enough for him. It was the alchemist from the shop. I quickly made my way back to the shop, and outside the shop, I found a person dressed all in black (probably a thief). They told me that they stole a potion for the alchemist. Without hesitation, I burst inside, but to my great surprise, the shop was completely empty. Not only was the alchemist not there, but there was also no trace of his merchandise. I searched the place for a while and then opened a compartment in the drawer. There, I found a small diary that only concerned that particular potion. The alchemist thanked whoever helped him obtain it, apologized for any inconvenience caused, and announced that thanks to this person, many people would die. I was incredibly furious. Then, I leaned against a shelf, and a potion fell from it onto the ground. I truly didn't understand how it got there because the entire shop was empty. But I was so angry that I didn't plan to investigate further. I had fulfilled my original task, so I returned to the hunter for the rest of my reward and left. The next day, news came from Haersley that two alchemists, the captain of the guards, and the deputy mayor were killed, and mayor was seriously injured...*

**Reward:** *2000 (-1200)*

### **Missing bodies**

*Date of entry: 22nd of May 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was quite a hefty one for just a grave robber. The task was about the disappearance of six bodies from the Silverstone cemetery. Moreover, the contract was assigned by the local captain of the guards, whom I knew to be quite pleasant, so I had no hesitation in taking this contract. I set off for Silverstone, and on the way, I encountered four bandits who quickly withdrew once they realized I was a Witcher. They knew they wouldn't get paid for attacking me, so I continued on my way. When I arrived in Silverstone, I witnessed an interesting scene. Some other Witcher was being chased by a group of guards, but I decided not to intervene. I looked for some shops to buy supplies but only came across a throwing weapons store and a war axes store. I didn't need anything from either of them. I made my way to the captain of the guards, and he gave me a description and details about everything they had done and the identities of the deceased, such a pleasure to work with someone like him. We then headed to the cemetery, which, by the way, was enormous. They bury people from the surrounding villages here, and even some from Haersley. I had a thought that maybe no one had robbed the graves, but rather the corpses had turned into zombies due to some curse. However, as I examined the graves, it seemed unlikely. It was clear that the creature that pulled the bodies out of the graves had large claws, while zombies don't possess such features. Additionally, there were hollow marks on the walls where lifeless bodies leaned against them while the thing dragged them out. Naturally, ghouls or even alghouls crossed my mind, but I couldn't fathom how they could have gotten here. This cemetery was still within the city, and people came here daily. Then it hit me: a grave hag. These bastards could live in one of the graves, with an entire network of tunnels and such. I asked the captain of the guards if they had any mausoleums or catacombs. He replied that they did, but they were mostly made of stone and usually closed to everyone except family members. Then he remembered that they indeed had underground catacombs, where important figures like mayors, barons, and viscounts from various strongholds were interred. He mentioned a section that nobody was allowed to enter, not even the mayor; only he had the keys to that section. It was the tomb of a former mayor and his family who had been violently killed during a small revolution. The mayor had prohibited any entry or exit from the city, leading it into famine as he hoarded all the food for himself. The only ones he provided food to were the guards to keep them on his side. However, he was still a mayor, so he was buried in the same place as others, but they dug a new section specifically for him. Nobody felt like decorating it, so there were no stone walls or floors. There was only one stone wall, the one where the bodies were buried, and the ceiling to prevent it from collapsing. The captain of the guards took me there. He opened the doors to that section, and we entered. I drank a Cat potion and Thunderbolt while the captain took a torch. As we reached the area, we smelled a terrible stench and saw bones and relatively fresh bodies. We searched the place for a while and noticed tunnels within the walls. Then I listened carefully... For a while, there was silence, but then I heard faint sounds coming from below us. Suddenly, a hand jumped out of the soil, so we both reacted, but it was a trap because at that moment, a hand from behind slashed at both me and the captain, cutting our backs. I quickly turned around and attacked with my sword, stabbing the creature through its abdomen, but it still managed to strike us both. Then I decapitated it. With the captain, we returned to the surface and received some basic treatment at the hospital. However, the captain had one more little task for me.*

**Reward:** *5000 gold*

### **Bandit problem**

*Date of entry: 22nd of May 1312, 1st age*

*The Captain of the Guards in Silverstone had another job for me. There was a particularly troublesome group of bandits that was attacking every caravan and wagon carrying goods to or from Silverstone. And the scariest part was their success rate—they always managed to kill everyone by the wagon and loot it entirely. The Captain informed me that they were not amateurs and were most likely skilled fighters rather than mere farmers. But even so, I was confident I could handle them. However, there was an unconfirmed report that one of the bandits might be a Witcher. That made it more serious, but I was promised a substantial bonus if I encountered that Witcher, so I gladly accepted. The Captain assigned five of his men to accompany me, and without horses, we set out along one of the paths where the bandits were targeting the wagons. It just so happened that a shipment from another town was due to arrive in Silverstone, which worked to our advantage. If we encountered it before the bandits did, we could use it as bait. I had a friendly conversation with the guards, and none of them seemed to have any issues with Witchers, so the journey went smoothly. I can't imagine taking such a trip with the guards from Haersley. Eventually, we did come across the wagon—it hadn't been looted yet. Two guards were by its side, and we informed them about the situation. We agreed that they would continue as if nothing happened, and we would follow them into the forest. Shortly after, the wagon stopped when three men with swords approached it. The two guards pretended to quarrel with each other, poking and teasing each other. Meanwhile, I heard footsteps approaching from the undergrowth. At that moment, we decided to intervene and engaged in combat. I glanced back and noticed one of my men falling to the ground with an arrow in his head. I looked around to see where it came from but couldn't identify the source. I quickly dispatched two of the bandits, but one of the guards near the wagon took a blow to the abdomen and fell, followed by an arrow to the head for the other guard. I saw the archer, who wasn't hiding much, so I went after him and killed him easily. However, another one of my guards fell, this time from an arrow. So, after we killed the remaining bandits, I instructed them to quickly bring the wagon to Haersley. I drank a Thunderbolt potion and waited while listening carefully. I was convinced that the last one was the Witcher. I heard a few twigs snapping or similar sounds, but I couldn't see him anywhere. It wasn't until he revealed himself that I spotted him. It seemed he didn't want to play hide-and-seek and was ready to confront me. I engaged in battle with him, and during the fight, we exchanged a few words. I learned that he had lost his emotions during the Trials, but the worst ones remained, preventing him from taking regular contracts. In his mind, it was better to kill the person who assigned the contract and take the money directly. At some point during the fight, I consumed a potion to enhance my speed and adrenaline and went all out, but he was incredibly fast. I only managed to land a few minor hits, as he always deflected my signs with Quen. Then he used Aard on me, and I responded with my own Aard, which threw both of us back. In that moment, I threw a dagger. At first, I couldn't tell if it hit or not, but when I got up, I saw that it struck him in the shoulder. He pulled it out, and while thinking he was about to throw it back at me, I prepared to dodge, but to my surprise, he did something unexpected. He pretended to throw the dagger, but instead, he threw his sword, and only then did he throw the dagger when I was on the ground. The dagger struck me directly in the abdomen. I quickly got up, and now it was his turn to attack again. But that was my plan—I wanted him to drive me towards his thrown sword so I could use it somehow. However, he did something I didn't anticipate. He rapidly pulled out a crossbow and shot me in the foot. It didn't pin me to the ground, as it was only dirt, but it still hurt, and my foot got stuck, causing me to fall. But I had his sword within reach. The position was unfavorable, but I took advantage of his belief that he had the upper hand. When he prepared to stab me, I used my own sword to stab him in the hand. However, he managed to thrust his sword into my chest, but fortunately not too deeply. Then, as I reached for my second sword, I threw it directly into his chest. At that point, he was already dead, but just to be sure, I used Igni. I consumed Swallow and a Healing Potion and then made my way back to Silverstone with the body. There, the Captain identified him as a rogue Witcher named Targ. Instead of the promised 5,000 bonus, he added 10,000 to the total payment, so I received a total of 13,000. A good price for nearly losing my life.*

**Reward:** *13000 gold*

### **Another Witcher.. with a sad twist!**

*Date of entry: 23rd of May 1312, 1st age*

*Right after my last contract, I received another one from the Commander... I must admit, I'm starting to like that guy. Not only does he not have any prejudices against me and others of my kind, but he also has plenty of work and money. Anyway, the contract was about that Witcher I met yesterday in the early hours, the one who was running away from the guards in Silverstone. He said he would give me 10,000 gold coins to bring him to him alive or dead. I thought, why not, but now it was already getting late, and I wasn't in a condition to fight another Witcher. I told him that I would take care of it the next day and then headed home. I didn't sleep very well; after all, I had been stabbed in the chest a few hours ago, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. In the morning, I was in for a shock when someone entered my room. I immediately suspected Kellen, and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw him in the hallway with Lansa. They both looked strange and were laughing, which definitely didn't calm me down. In the end, they admitted that they actually wanted to prank me, each without the other knowing, but when they arrived, the doors were already open, so they just confusedly returned to their rooms. That definitely worried me even more, and we went straight to Grodlick. Silvie was still sleeping in his room/office; she still hadn't fully recovered. Grodlick took it too seriously once again and immediately started proposing plans to catch the criminal and bring him to justice. When Silvie, who had been pretending to sleep all this time, started giggling, we all knew what was going on. Well, after I resolved this contract, I could head back to Silverstone. As I was heading towards the Commander of the Guards, I overheard him speaking angrily to his guards. Just from listening, I learned that they didn't learn much from the school where the Witcher came from and ended up with a mess. When I showed up there, the Commander let them go, and I officially accepted the contract. There weren't many words exchanged with the Commander, so I immediately set off for the school where the Witcher came from. It was quite far away, so I set off with my Becky. The journey was relatively boring for a long time, nothing happened except for the rustling of bushes and trees. It wasn't until I saw several dead townspeople in the middle of the road with Nekkers. There were only about four of them; I dealt with them quickly. I searched the townspeople, but they didn't have anything interesting on them, just about 10 gold coins. Well, I continued on. When I finally had the mentioned school in sight, I noticed something strange. Not far from the entrance to the school, by the trees, there were remains of bodies. But not just one or two bodies, there were possibly dozens of them, torn apart into pieces, and I didn't count, but it was clear that not everything fit together. For a while, I followed the tracks and found more bodies a few dozen meters away. But the road didn't lead any further, which was quite strange, so I went back to the school, where I announced my presence. At first, someone spoke to me quite sternly and distantly, and I expected some shit to happen when I started talking about the Witcher, but fortunately, it didn't. They let me in and wanted to offer me hospitality, but I refused. The person who spoke to me introduced himself as the local school leader. We had a conversation for a while about the Witcher and how he runs things there, and he definitely wouldn't hide a Witcher even from his own school because he cares too much about what the public thinks about Witchers. Anyway, he gave me some advice on where I could find the Witcher, and I just mentioned the bodies, which surprised him, but that wasn't my problem anymore. I set out to complete my task. The school leader, who, by the way, introduced himself as Elkast, told me about a hideout where the Witcher hid his things. I knew that he probably wouldn't be hiding there, but maybe he had been there for his things and left some clues. Anyway, I first returned to the bodies. From there, I tried to find tracks again, and they led me to a small dusty path. In the dusty path, there were faint tracks - like those of a Witcher. Anyway, the path, along with the tracks, ended at a small pond, and it didn't lead anywhere else. So I gave up on this path and headed directly to the hideout. When I found it, I had to admit it was quite well hidden, but that didn't matter. I entered inside, and there was absolutely nothing there. It was strange that the Witcher would have taken everything from there, down to the last gold coin. So I searched for secret passages or rooms, but at least from what I can sense and find, there was nothing there. So I emerged again without a trace and pondered what to do next. I decided to scout around the hideout and found some very faint tracks, so I followed them. Eventually, I heard a faint voice. As I got closer, the voice grew stronger. Finally, I stumbled upon an abandoned (or rather massacred) lumberjack camp. And right in the middle of the camp stood the Witcher I was looking for. But something seemed off about him. When he saw me, he didn't seem agitated or ready to fight. He just stood there, jumping around, rambling nonsense, and speaking in riddles. I managed to gather from him that before he killed those guards, he was gambling, winning, and full of confidence. But then an old hag came along and bet for his talisman, which he had received from his mother. Throughout the card game, it seemed like an easy win for him, but in the end, it turned around, and he lost. Since then, he had been accompanied by a captivating girl with a soft voice who told him what to do, and he happily followed her instructions. For a moment, I thought it might be a Succubus, but it didn't quite fit. Well, the Witcher wasn't thinking very clearly, and in his current state, I didn't feel inclined to cold-bloodedly kill him when he wasn't even defending himself. So I convinced him that there was a carnival happening in Silverstone that we absolutely had to attend, and that persuaded him. However, I didn't want him causing trouble, so I knocked him unconscious, which was surprisingly harder than I expected. I sat him on the horse and headed back to Silverstone. However, on the way back, I occasionally caught glimpses of what seemed like a black silhouette, something strange. I urged Becky to go faster. All the trees and bushes looked exactly the same, and even though I remembered the path, I had no idea how far I had come. The only point of reference I had was the Nekker corpses on the road, but I hadn't encountered anything like that at the moment. Then, out of nowhere, the Witcher I was supposed to deliver suddenly woke up, still sitting on the horse in front of me. Fortunately, he was still in his own world, rambling nonense. I tried to deceive him by nodding to everything he said and acting friendly, but I didn't feel safe with him conscious. However, he started talking more specifically about the woman, and that piqued my interest because he described exactly what I had seen several times during the journey. He told me that the figure instructed him to kill all those people, the people in front of the school, the guards, and the lumberjacks. He took pleasure in it, and therefore, he was happy. Then he revealed that the figure had even told him to kill me, but he found me too "cool" of a guy to do that, and he was looking forward to the carnival. Well, I can't say I felt better after hearing that, but I didn't show it. I kept riding faster, even though Becky had her limits and couldn't go at full speed after the long journey. After some time on horseback, something took my breath away. I arrived back at the small pond I had found near the school before. But that couldn't be possible. I had been riding in the opposite direction, I was sure of it. It must have been some trick or just a very similar-looking pond. However, the Witcher I was supposed to deliver began speaking increasingly madly and nonsensically, and I was afraid he might be convinced to attack me after all. So I didn't wait, and as I reached for the saddle to get back on the horse, I started thrusting my sword at the Witcher, who was still sitting on the horse. He fell to the ground, but he continued laughing and talking. I decapitated him, but the head kept talking, uttering complete nonsense. I wrapped it in some fabric and decided to continue my journey. Eventually, the head stopped talking altogether, and all I could hear was the clacking of teeth. Now I was even more on edge. I continued riding, and I kept seeing that dark figure more and more frequently. It would appear directly in front of me on the road but disappear with each blink. Until finally, it appeared but didn't vanish. And it started speaking to me. Not speaking aloud, but the voice was in my head, some form of telepathy. The figure was completely black, utterly black. It wasn't like dark skin with a black cloak. This was as if you woke up in complete darkness at night. That was it, just the outline of a person. It stood there and told me that I had to return the Witcher to her or sell myself instead. I tried to trick her and offer her just a piece of the Witcher, but she quickly changed her mind about the deal and decided she wanted both of us. Well, I definitely didn't intend to wait for her to act, so I rode away as fast as I could. I decided not to try to get back to Silverstone but rather head back to the school where this Witcher came from. I rode and rode, but suddenly it was night. That couldn't be possible. Just a minute ago, it was daytime, and now it was night. And then I realized that I didn't have Becky with me. Damn it, I didn't have Becky. Absolute darkness surrounded me; even the moon didn't shine. If I weren't a Witcher, I wouldn't have been able to see a step ahead. But then I saw a small light in the distance, so I followed it. As I got closer, I heard children's voices, so I followed them. Eventually, I saw three small figures. They looked familiar. It wasn't until one of the figures was grabbed by a large wooden hand, and the other two started running that I realized what was happening. It was me. I pursued the other two figures, but one of them was pulled into the darkness by another hand. Then everything disappeared. Then the soft voice spoke to me again. It told me stories about how I could reverse everything, have a family, brothers, and a happy life. All I had to do was give her some sentimental object. But I wasn't interested in changing my life; I didn't want to play god. Whatever happened, happened for a reason, and I didn't want to mess with it. After I declined, the soft voice started to change, turning into an unbearable screech, and I began to run. Eventually, I found myself back on my horse in daylight. I still had the Witcher's head with me. I breathed a sigh of relief as I truly reached the school. Elkast opened the door for me and welcomed me inside. There were several other Witchers in the courtyard. I immediately began recounting everything to Elkast and mentioned that he had never heard of such a monster. More witchers, including Elkast, gathered around me, trying to figure out the situation. Eventually, one of the witchers mentioned that the appearance and characteristics of the creature reminded him of a monster he had read about. He hurried back to the fortress, leaving us with nothing else to do but wait.*
In the middle of our wait, a shocking event occurred. Out of nowhere, one of the witchers launched a sword attack at one of his companions. We reacted swiftly and managed to bring him down to the ground, but the deadly blow had already landed. One of the witchers fell lifeless to the ground. It quickly became clear what was happening. The creature had reached another witcher and convinced him to kill one of his own. He was babbling something and mentioned giving her his plush toy, but I didn't pay much attention to that. Unfortunately, for the sake of the school, we had to dismember him. Shocked, we continued to wait when someone started banging on the gate doors. At first, we thought it was another trick, but then I recognized the familiar voice. It was Lansa. When we opened the gate, he told us that he was being pursued by the same creature we were dealing with and that it wanted something from him. Then, the witcher returned with the book, and needless to say, he was quite surprised to find us still alive. Anyway, he immediately began to explain. Supposedly, it was a "Sad Widow," a very powerful yet rare demon. The conditions for creating this demon were quite challenging to fulfill, and even if all the conditions were met, the demon didn't always arise. The woman had to lose her husband in an unnatural way, then die herself in an unnatural manner, and on top of that, she had to live in sin or directly kill her own husband. The abilities of this creature were definitely nothing to take lightly. It could control people, including witchers, using its voice, which could be heard as it transmitted directly into the victim's head through telepathy. The only partial defense was the use of Axii, but it only worked on the creature, not on oneself. Not to mention its instant teleportation and illusionary powers. Its only weakness was that it couldn't attack on its own; it had to rely on its psychic attacks and the people it controlled. The book also contained information on how to kill it and how it controlled its subjects. The only way to kill it was by eliminating all those under its control. However, they were immortal until you found the objects that the Sad Widow had acquired from them. These items could be hidden literally anywhere, and there could often be more objects than people known to be under her control. As the witcher was about to reveal the location of the items, something broke him. Not literally, but out of nowhere, he started talking about how he would prefer to kill us and attacked at that moment. He managed to impale one of the witchers before falling to the ground and quickly dying. However, we didn't immediately dismember him because he had important information. We all decided to use Axii on him simultaneously. It brought him back momentarily, but in the first few attempts, he failed to provide us with the necessary information. Instead, he expressed remorse for what he had done and mentioned that he had given her his ring. Eventually, he revealed the location of a mass grave where the butchers had killed this woman along with her husband and several other townspeople. Then, the Widow took control of him again, but now we no longer needed him, so we put an end to him. We set out for the mass grave along with Elkast and three other witchers from the school. On horseback, we arrived at the supposed location of the mass grave. The massacre was supposed to have happened a long time ago, yet there was no grass or flowers growing in the area. We began digging and found individual bones, but no bodies yet. It was only when we dug deeper that we found the skeletons. We searched through them until we noticed one skeleton embracing another. And one of those skeletons had several items in its chest. We began removing them. There was a ring, a talisman, a plush toy, a diary, and a necklace. We looked at each other in disbelief. It could have been anyone among us, except for me, unless I was completely unaware. Or perhaps they were just random items belonging to peasants hundreds of kilometers away. That possibility was even worse. I started going through the diary, hoping to find a name. Unfortunately, there was the name of one of the witchers who was there with us. He realized that I had found it and attacked, but we managed to quickly take him down. However, the necklace posed a tougher challenge. It had no ornaments, text, or anything that could indicate its owner, and none of the witchers recognized it. Then, Lansa came up with a brilliant idea. He suggested that we could use Axii on each other to determine who among us it belonged to, if anyone at all. Lansa used it on me, and I used it on him. The second witcher used it on Elkast, and Elkast was about to use it on one of the remaining two witchers, but that witcher didn't wait and started running away. When I followed him, suddenly everything around me vanished. Only a dark figure appeared in front of me. However, now it wasn't as dark as before. I could see her face. If it weren't for the decaying flesh, I would have thought she was once a beautiful woman. She started talking to me, expressing her desire to seek revenge on everyone and everything, the whole world. She wanted to attack me, but now I knew she had no power over me. Her voice didn't work anymore, and it wasn't as gentle as before. I began using signs on her, which didn't do much, but why not give it a try. Eventually, she fell to the ground and disintegrated into dust. Then, I found myself back in the forest. I noticed Elkast, Lansa, and the remaining witcher. Everything was burned to ashes, and the Sad Widow was gone. We rode back to the school on horseback, where the second witcher parted ways with us. However, Elkast had to accompany us because Lansa had borrowed his horse, which he had lost due to the Sad Widow. When we reached Silverstone, Elkast started heading back. Although he didn't show it much, it was clear to me that he probably wished he had never met us. After all, almost his entire school had been wiped out indirectly because of us. Lansa disappeared somewhere in the city, so I went to meet the Captain of the Guard... and that's why I wanted an additional payment for this. Fortunately, the captain was understanding, and after explaining everything to him, he gave me an additional 8000 gold. I used that to buy some things in the city and then set off back home. And I hope I never encounter that wretch again.

**Reward:** *10000 gold*

**Additional reward:** *8000 gold*

### **Love is insidious killer**

*Date of entry: 24th of May 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was all about a missing husband, but there weren't many details in the advertisement. So, I had to gather more information on-site. It all took place again in Silverston, which didn't bother me; I was already familiar with the place, and the people there were alright, unlike most other places. I arrived in the town and found the mentioned house. As soon as the woman opened the door, she seemed strange. The house looked fancy and luxurious, with a garden, but the woman herself was dirty, unkempt, dressed in tattered clothes, and barefoot. She invited me in and started telling me about her husband, his habits, and other things related to him. I listened carefully and then began to search the house. I went upstairs to the bedroom and found the first strange thing. Although her husband had been missing for about three days, based on the sheets, nobody had slept in that bed for the past 3 days. I had a suspicion that she might have been responsible for her husband's disappearance, but then it wouldn't make sense for her to put up a contract. I decided to casually verify this with her and asked about the bed. When I went back downstairs, she was in the kitchen and told me that she didn't want to sleep in that bed without her husband. Then, I returned upstairs and continued searching. There were no diaries or similar items, but I found two boxes under the bed. One was empty, and in the other, I found shackles, the kind used for prisoners, which was odd. I went back downstairs and asked her if she knew of anyone who might know what her husband was doing on the day of his disappearance. She said their neighbors might have some information. I went to the neighbors' house, and when the door opened, a guy who looked like a woman but had the deepest voice I'd ever heard greeted me. He told me that his wife was quite a gossip, so he called her. She, on the other hand, looked like a man with a soft voice. She told me everything she knew and led me around the town along the route her neighbor's husband used to walk. Eventually, I realized what kind of monster it was. It was obviously a succubus. I immediately recalled places where such a creature could operate - brothels and taverns. Finally, I reached a tavern where, after questioning the people, I came across a local drunkard who claimed that his friend had been "abducted" by a strange woman with a cloak covering her legs. He could even point me to the house where she took him. I went there and knocked on the door. Initially, some guy answered and kept insisting that there was no one else in the house except him. I had to come up with stories about why I was there, and he was trying to get rid of me, but he wasn't very convincing, so he eventually let me in. I was sure that the succubus had control over that guy. Shortly after, he attacked me, but it wasn't a problem to subdue him. However, more and more guys started appearing, attacking me. I didn't want to kill them, so I just incapacitated and tied them up. Then, I went upstairs and found a few more guys in one of the bedrooms. I dealt with them in the same way. However, there was another bedroom, and there I found the succubus holding my contractor's husband with a knife to his throat. I didn't want to kill her completely; she had her own mind and wasn't just acting on instinct. Grodlick taught us that it's better to kill these monsters if we aren't certain beyond a hundred percent that we're doing the right thing, but I wanted to give her a choice. So, I let her decide. She could drop the knife and live, or kill him, and I'd kill her. In the end, she made the right decision and dropped the knife. I advised her to leave the town and go far away. Then, I took the husband back to his wife. He was still quite strange, but that's normal after being under the control of a succubus. Anyway, I resolved the contract, got paid, and it was time to head back home.*

**Reward:** *10000 gold*

### **Too much for Ivory Hunters**

*Date of entry: 25th of May 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was quite interesting. It came from the Hunters' Guild in the town of Arrowhold, where they were supposedly struggling with a Fiend. A Fiend is a dangerous and powerful beast that should not be taken lightly, and I knew that very well. Therefore, I brought Kellen along as reinforcement. Although I had to split the reward with him at the end, it was better than being dead. Kellen agreed, and we set off for Arrowhold. When we arrived there, it wasn't easy to find the place where the guild was based, and the guards weren't very helpful in guiding us; in fact, they thought we were some kind of bandits. Eventually, we found the place and spoke with the local leader, who gave us additional detailed information that wasn't in the contract description, such as the exact location where the Fiend was known to roam and other relevant details. If only every contract came with such information, it would make things much easier. After chatting with the Hunters for a while, we ventured into the forest to search for the Fiend. At first, we reached its lair, but it wasn't there at the moment. We planned to set a trap, but it's quite challenging to prepare an effective trap for a Fiend. Additionally, we could sense that it would likely return soon, so Kellen and I decided to hide in the bushes and wait for the right opportunity. Within minutes, we heard the Fiend approaching, carrying a dead bear. A bear is certainly a strong and dangerous creature, but for something like a Fiend, it's merely food. At that moment, we decided to attack. Kellen and I attempted to strike the Fiend's weak spots, but Fiends are tough and not easily defeated. The Fiend managed to take down Kellen a few times, and it even stepped on my foot, but fortunately, it didn't crush it. Then, I enticed the Fiend to charge at me while I planned to sidestep and make it crash into a tree. I would then climb the tree and either avoid its attack or jump on its back and attack from there. However, I underestimated the Fiend's speed, and before I could get to safety, it caught me and took me airborne. I crashed into a tree and got stuck hanging on a branch. Luckily, I wasn't knocked unconscious, but I was badly bruised, and my head was throbbing in pain. I wanted to jump down from the branch and stab the Fiend directly in the head, but it was too far away. I had to think for a moment about what to do. Kellen must have noticed what I had in mind and started luring the Fiend towards me. When it got close enough, I leaped and thrust my sword straight into its head. However, this action also knocked me unconscious. When I woke up, I saw Kellen sitting next to me with the Fiend's head. He told me that after I knocked myself out, the Fiend was still alive, staggering around, but already near death. So, Kellen finished it off. We returned to the town with the evidence, and we received our reward, which we split between us. Then, Kellen and I rode back home, and as soon as I got there, I went straight to bed and fell asleep because that head injury was definitely not pleasant.*

**Reward:** *15000 gold*

### **Gretel and Gretel**

*Date of entry: 26th of May 1312, 1st age*

*When I took this contract, it was one of the few times I chose to save people over money. I could have chosen a different contract and earned more money, but in this case, two children were missing, and I wanted to do something for people. It was in the village of Lancaster. It's a small village that could be considered a town due to its appearance and wealth, even though it's not that big in size. Lancaster certainly looked better than Haersley, and it seemed that wealthier people lived there. Moreover, nobody in Lancaster had any prejudice against me, so I couldn't complain. I found the house where I was supposed to gather more information. An elderly couple and a rather young girl opened the door. Later, I learned that they were the parents and the oldest daughter of the missing children. I tried to gather as much information as possible, but surprisingly, no one knew much. Just next to the village, there's a forest that no children ventured into due to various myths and rumors about what lives there. However, this family was the only one that allowed their children to play there without any harm - until now. The two daughters preferred playing by themselves rather than with the other children, but they still played with them occasionally, so they weren't considered that strange. Nevertheless, the family didn't know anything besides the path their daughters took into the forest. They also mentioned that local hunters had initially searched for the girls, and I could also try to get information from them. So, I went to talk to the hunters, who had searched for the children before. They seemed experienced and told me they had looked everywhere they could think of, but they found no traces, absolutely none. They did find totems in the forest that looked like they belonged to a Leshen, but no Leshen appeared, and there were no other signs of it inhabiting the forest. I decided to check the forest myself to confirm that there were indeed no traces because I was confident that I would find them. But to my surprise, when I entered the forest at the same spot where the children used to go, there were no traces at all. No signs, not even a hint of any tracks. Just some beaten paths. I searched around for a while, but found nothing. I followed the path, which led to a pond, but there was nothing else to follow from there. I searched the area for a while, but still found nothing. I returned to the village and started asking children on the streets. It must have seemed somewhat strange, and the children were a bit scared of me, but some of them talked to me. Unfortunately, even they couldn't tell me anything useful. In the end, I returned to the parents' house and decided to go through the daughters' rooms. There, I found a diary that finally had something I needed. Apparently, it was about a witch. In the diary, the children wrote that they met a beautiful and kind woman in the forest with whom they enjoyed meeting. However, as the entries continued, things started to get worse. The children no longer wanted to meet her, but she forced them to. The last entry was on the day of their disappearance when the woman supposedly told them she had a surprise for them. So, this time, I decided to visit the totems mentioned by the hunters. When I arrived, they indeed looked like a poor imitation of Leshen totems. I examined them for a while and then started searching for traces around them. But, once again, I found absolutely nothing. I was ready to give up when it occurred to me... I destroyed the totems, and they emitted a wave of some energy, luckily not harming me. However, then I noticed tracks on the ground. I followed them, and they led me to a hut. It looked peculiar, with no windows, abandoned and decrepit. But when I entered, it was entirely different inside. The hut was much larger from the inside, and everything was well-maintained and organized. I started searching around and found the older daughter tied up with a chain. I freed her and asked for information. Unfortunately, based on what she told me, the younger sister had been killed by the witch, who then left. I quickly took the older daughter back to her family, apologized for what happened, and then sent a message to the Witcher's Inquisition about the witch, as it was something I probably couldn't handle alone. Then I waited with the family, and then a certain aunt of this family arrived, who I almost attacked. But as it turned out later, I should have done that. That "aunt," or whatever was pretending to be her, was, in fact, the witch who had kidnapped the girls. At first, she didn't attack aggressively; instead, she played with us and even offered me to leave and ignore what was happening – which, of course, I never intended to do. I tried to protect the family as best as I could, but the witch knew her spells, and I couldn't do much against her. Eventually, we managed to get outside the hut, where the real fight began. I did my best, but the witch kept having the upper hand, and it didn't seem like she was trying hard; she smiled confidently all the time. I managed to hit her a few times with Signs and my sword, but nothing too serious. I was getting exhausted from the fight. At one point, she attempted to attack the family, grabbed the oldest daughter by the neck, but I managed to get her out of her grip. Finally, I decided that I just had to run at her and stop trying to outsmart her because that wouldn't work – it was now or never. My sword was already rusting, and my Crossbow almost destroyed. I ran towards her. At that moment, the witch created a huge pressure wave. I tried to counter it as best as I could, using Aard and attempting to stab my sword into the ground, but none of it worked. I flew through the air, and my lifeless body hit buildings along the way. Eventually, I crashed into a wall and fell to the ground. I was surprised that I wasn't knocked out, although I was severely shaken. However, as I looked at my body, it didn't look good at all. I had a broken arm, and a bone was sticking out from my elbow, the same with one of my legs – a bone protruding from my knee. When I looked around, the village didn't look the best either. The nearest houses were leveled to the ground, and pieces of bodies were scattered everywhere. I could only hope that the family I was here to save was alright.*
The witch looked quite exhausted but was still standing. I didn't want to give up, so I started crawling closer to her. She slowly approached me. It honestly seemed like my end, even though I tried not to show it on my face. Then suddenly, the witch's expression completely changed. She looked terrified, started retreating, and begged for mercy. For a moment, I wasn't sure what was happening until I saw an arrow stuck in her shoulder, and I looked behind me. It seemed that the Witcher from the Inquisition had finally arrived. He was slowly approaching the witch, who still tried to somehow convince him not to kill her. However, the Witcher didn't consider negotiations. I also noticed smoke coming from the wound caused by the arrow, and it seemed to inflict extra damage. Eventually, the Witcher reached her and began fighting her. The witch didn't stand a chance against him, but it looked like he was toying with her at first, torturing her a bit until he finally impaled her from behind and decapitated her. He then ensured the survival of the family and turned to me. He said that he couldn't heal me there and would take me back to my school. He took me on his horse, and my horse Becky followed us. When we arrived at the school, they treated me for a while. I fell asleep several times, and the next day, as I was trying to exercise my limbs, a letter arrived directly from the Inquisition, praising me and providing compensation.

**Reward:** *15000 gold*

**Additional reward:** *New Sword and a new Crossbow*

### **Unexpected turn of Events**

*Date of entry: 29th of May 1312, 1st age*

*This contract didn't pay much, but it seemed relatively straightforward, and I just wanted to help an ordinary family with a problem involving Ghouls in the middle of the forest. It was also my first contract after my injury, so I wanted something with more certainty. Anyway, I headed to the location where I was supposed to meet the family. I went without Becky, as it wasn't far. However, as I approached, I heard some screaming and talking. I got closer but decided to remain hidden in the bushes. I couldn't help but notice that where the house used to stand, there was now just a ruined building, and two people were fighting inside. Well, I say fighting, but one of them had the other pinned to a beam with a spear. He kept arguing with her, trying to get her to confess that she destroyed the house and tried to steal loot, but she kept refusing. Eventually, he released her to the ground, and she sent some spell at him, but he dodged it, causing her to receive more beatings and kicks. Then he stabbed her in both knees with his sword, put on shackles that blocked her Signs and magic, and simply walked away. After some hesitation, I decided to help her. I freed her, and I couldn't help but notice that I knew her. She was the same person who caused that mess with the bees. Well, I didn't plan to address it, so I just helped her and took her back to our school, where someone took care of her. Then I went back to search for clues about who actually caused the damage. As I looked around, I found about 8 pairs of tracks, which the other Witcher apparently didn't bother searching because he assumed it was her. The tracks led to a camp and then away from it, so I followed them. They led to a bandit camp, but there was something special about it. They had 12 Ghouls locked up in 12 different cages. They probably used them as distractions, but it didn't seem like a smart idea considering it would eventually attract a Witcher. I leaped on one that was closest, pulled him down, and used Axii on him. I told him to open one of the cages, and he did, but the Ghoul immediately took him down. That wasn't part of my plan; I wanted him to open all of them, but I didn't realize the Ghoul would devour him instantly. When panic ensued, I decided to attack. I killed several of them with my crossbow before they got too close, then I started killing them one by one with my sword or using Signs. I used Axii on another one, and he managed to open two cages before dying. Somehow, I managed to eliminate all of them, including the Ghouls. While I was in one of the tents, I heard a voice, someone was bragging about being Ramón Ochočovatel. I entered the tent and saw a pathetic guy sitting on a throne. I didn't want to waste much time on him, so I shot him with my crossbow. To my surprise, two rabbits jumped out of a bag nearby and blocked the arrows. I shot again, and the other rabbit blocked it too. So I just grabbed the bag with the rabbits and beat him to death with it. Then I searched the place, looted what I could, and left. Unfortunately, there was nothing else I could do there.*

**Reward:** *10000 gold*

**Additional reward:** *12 Cages*

### **Dirty trick**

*Date of entry: 29th of May 1312, 1st age*

*I completed the first contract of the day relatively quickly, so I decided to take another one. This one paid well, and it was supposedly about a werewolf that killed some sheep. Dealing with a werewolf isn't always easy, but it's not the most challenging either. I set out on the journey and arrived at a castle near Haersley, where a local wealthy man lived. From the start, I could tell he was quite arrogant and treated me with contempt, but I was used to it. After some negotiating, I finally reached the person who posted the contract. He gave me some general information and then told me that a farmer had allegedly seen the werewolf and I should talk to him. So, I went to meet the farmer. While leaving, the maids and servants were furiously scrubbing the floor after me even tho I didn't leave any dirt behind... Absurd. The farmer may have exaggerated a bit about the werewolf's appearance, but he provided useful information, so I decided not to contradict his imagination. I then headed to the forest where the werewolf was said to have fled. The tracks led to a cave, which wasn't a small den but a sufficiently large cave where I could stand upright. I entered the cave after drinking a potion to see in the dark. At the very end, I saw the werewolf surrounded by many bones and similar remains. It was strange that it didn't attack me; instead, it just growled and occasionally swung its arms to keep me away. Nonetheless, I moved closer, immobilized it with my crossbow, tied it up, and dragged it back to the castle. When I pulled it inside, it was bleeding, and one of the maids fainted, but that amused me internally. I brought it all the way to the nobleman. He asked why I brought it alive, and I asked him if he wanted me to kill it because the farmer's note made me suspect it might be his brother. He assured me it wasn't, rather insisted I kill the creature. So, I did it. With a swift stroke, I decapitated the werewolf. I wanted to leave quickly, as I realized the werewolf might transform into his brother, and I didn't want to be around for that. However, when I reached for the doorknob, it was locked, which was strange. So, I just stood in the room and waited to see what would happen. After a while, the werewolf indeed began transforming into his brother. At first, it happened as I expected, and the man started reacting with shock, accusing me of murdering his brother. But then I realized he had tricked me when he called the guards to arrest me. I used Axii on him and told him to convince the guards to release him, but they were prepared and refused to let me go. I could have easily fought my way out, but that would probably cause more problems than benefits, so I let myself be arrested. They took me all the way to Haersley and gave me the chance to send a letter to anyone I wanted, so I sent it to Grodlick. I spent one night, two nights in prison, and then that jerk who put me in there came to taunt me. He seemed more interested in mocking me than anything else and told me how he had outsmarted me and how he was "sorry" that he would now hang me. I wanted to use Axii on him again and tell him to release me, but this time, he had some protection against it. Then he simply left. Later, a guy from the neighboring cell talked to me, but he shouldn't have done that because the next day, he was gone. The same happened to the guy opposite me, but he was so annoying that I was glad about it. Finally, Grodlick came to see me, accompanied by the same jerk. I realized that Grodlick had pretended to be on the jerk's side, and because of that, the jerk let Grodlick talk to me. Grodlick told me everything I needed to know, gave me information that they were doing their best to get me out, but I would have to stay there for a while longer. Then he had to hit me a few times to make it look believable, and finally, he beat me unconscious. When I woke up, nothing had changed. I spent another night there until one afternoon, I heard some commotion. Guards were running back and forth, and I could hear cries and clashing swords. I tried to see as much as I could through the bars and noticed Grodlick, Silvie, and Kellen fighting the guards. Silvie ran to me, unlocked the cell, gave me weapons, and then I could finally enjoy my revenge. From Grodlick, I found out that we had received approval from the Inquisition and the kingdom itself to exterminate all corrupt guards, literally all of them, including the jerk. I massacred the guards ruthlessly, killing them in the bloodiest and most brutal ways possible. We made it out of the prison, where more rows of guards awaited us, but it was not a problem for us. Then we decided to go to the castle. I was covered in blood, and then we stormed in. Grodlick and the others were so kind as to let me have the pleasure of killing him. I burst in and let the servants escape. Then, I went to his room and found him standing behind his desk, threatening me with a letter opener. I knocked the letter opener out of his hand, approached him, thrust my hand into his belly, and used Aard. Pieces of his body flew all over the room, and some even landed on Silvie. It was a good feeling. I walked out, collected my reward, and even ran into Henrik, the captain of the guards from Silverston, with whom I greeted friendly before finally heading home.*

**Reward:** *25 000 gold*

### **Dead Witcher**

*Date of entry: 31st of May 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was mainly interesting because it involved Drowners only. Yeah, what made it intriguing was the fact that the contract issuer mentioned that another Witcher had come for this contract but never returned. That definitely piqued my interest, so I set off to that place. When I arrived there, I had the usual talk with the contract issuer, trying to get more information from him, but he didn't tell me much beyond what was already written in the newspapers. I headed to the river, where I could already see a few Drowners from a distance. I was even more curious now about how some Witcher died here. Possible explanations crossed my mind, like the Witcher not being genuine, or some monster stronger than the Drowners lurking around, but for the time being, I didn't want to bother with that too much. I took care of the Drowners practically right away; they were no problem. Then, I truly started looking for the Witcher. I searched around, trying to find tracks. After a while, I even dived into the river, looking at the riverbed to see if there might be a relatively fresh body, but found nothing. I was about to give up and simply return for my reward, but then I had one last idea. I waded across the river and found tracks on the other side. I followed them for quite a distance until I found the remains of a body. It looked like the Witcher, but at the same time, it didn't appear to be killed by an animal. The body was cut into pieces, but with precision, not some animal bites. I continued further and found about two abandoned camps, which meant the person I was looking for was close. Finally, I saw a camp that didn't seem so deserted. There was a guy in black, using some spell on himself, apparently healing. I didn't have any plans to fight him, so I simply revealed myself. I found out he was a bounty hunter and that he was searching for some prey here, and the Witcher happened to be doing the same thing, which led to a confrontation, and one of them came out as the victor. I didn't want to get involved any further, so I just walked away. I went back to the contract issuer, collected my reward, and headed back home.*

**Reward:** *5 000 gold*

### **Serial Killer**

*Date of entry: 2nd of June 1312, 1st age*

#### Day 1

*The first contract in the city of Midfer, which is strange because this city is even closer than Haersley, but I haven't had any contracts here so far. The contract description didn't offer much, but it did catch my attention. Honestly, I wouldn't have chosen this contract if I hadn't dealt with those Drowners so quickly that day. The description only mentioned that a monster needed to be caught. I took Silvia with me for this contract; it seemed like a good idea. The reward was certainly not small, about 30,000 gold, which would be split fifty-fifty with Silvia. So, we set off together. Midfer looked a bit like Silverstone, not as good, but definitely better than Haersley and even better than Arrowhold, where the ocean was mostly to blame. The townspeople had nothing to complain about, that's for sure. We headed straight to the contract issuer, who, by the way, was the local captain of the guard. He greeted us quite warmly, but you could see he was stressed. He finally started explaining everything to us since he didn't provide much detail in the job description. We found out that it wasn't a monster like a creature or something; it was a monster in the form of a human. In Midfer, there was an incredibly brutal and depraved serial killer on the loose. And he was no amateur, evident from the fact that they hadn't been able to catch him yet. Apparently, he was a master of runic magic and often set traps for the guards, who often paid with their lives. The captain of the guard vividly described to me how he kills, sometimes torturing some people and killing others right away, painting quite a picture of what kind of monster was roaming around. Also, this person didn't have any specific pattern. He killed without discrimination, not selecting a specific type of victims. He killed the old, young, females, males, and even children. He didn't target a specific social class or location in the city. There was no pattern to the places where he killed; he just killed everyone. After gathering enough information, I went to the coroner in the morgue, where he still had several bodies. Silvia went to inspect the latest crime scene in the meantime. When I reached the coroner, we talked for a while, and he told me a lot of the same information as the captain of the guard did, but I also learned a few new things. He showed me several victim's bodies, the ways they died, the circumstances, time of death, and so on. He mostly killed at night, like any regular person would, but there were also cases when he killed during the day or at least early morning. At the coroner's, I couldn't find out much more, so I headed to the last crime scene, where Silvia was. When I arrived there, the dried blood was still on the floor, but now the place was swarming with guards, and among them, I found Silvia. We talked for a while, and she said she found no traces, so I checked myself, and it was true. Nowhere, nothing, absolute cleanliness. Except for the blood on the floor, there was no trace of our killer. We looked around for some time, but it was useless. We decided to go to one of the local inns and book a room because we knew we would be spending several days here. We ordered some food and drink, but not too much. Then we walked around the city until evening when we split up to cover a slightly larger area. For several hours, we searched in vain, walking through alleys until Silvia called me. I ran to her and found a dead body, a man with his throat slit, and no one around. Again, absolutely no traces. We decided to report it to the night guards and forget about it for the night. We went to sleep.*

#### Day 2

*In the morning, Silvia and I woke up relatively at the same time, so we had breakfast together and then headed towards the barracks, where the Captain of the Guard resided. As we approached the place, we heard angry screams, but also crying. The Captain of the Guard was there, furious and yelling at his guards, hitting whatever he found. We addressed him and found out that the bastard had kidnapped his daughter directly from their home that night. He gave us some information about the abduction, but he didn't have much himself. We also couldn't help but notice a strange guy standing there, who turned out to be a Bounty Hunter, there for the same reason as us. Almost immediately after that, we set off to search the captain's house. But when we entered, we triggered a trap. An invisible rune on the floor killed one of the guards. We managed to destroy it, but only after destroying the entire entrance floor. Then we went inside, and fortunately, there were no other traps there. We searched the whole house, including the captain's daughter's room, but found nothing. It was almost towards the end of the search when I noticed a clue near the window of her room. I looked out of the window, and the trail led further, so we pursued it. It led to a relatively large house, which the guards said was abandoned. We entered carefully. There were no traps at the entrance, but we cautiously walked through the entire house. Silvia and I went upstairs, while the bounty hunter went to the basement. One guard stayed in the hallway with a tracking dog. In the upper floor, Silvia searched each room, while I headed straight to the attic. I was going through the mess when suddenly a rune lit up below me. At first, I was startled, wondering what would fly at me, but nothing happened. So, I destroyed it with Aard, which created a hole in the ceiling, and I almost fell on Silvia. Then we went back downstairs, and the bounty hunter was already there. So, I asked him what he found in the basement. Surprisingly, it was the same as what I found upstairs. He stepped on a rune, it lit up, and then nothing happened. However, he didn't destroy it, so I went to do it myself. I went to the basement and destroyed it with Aard. Then I returned to the main room. We were about to leave since there was clearly nothing there, but when we tried to exit through the entrance, an invisible wall blocked us. In fact, the whole hallway was surrounded by an invisible wall. Even on the floor and the ceiling, we tried to destroy everything with Aard, but it didn't work. Then some strange dust appeared in the air, causing us breathing problems. However, that wasn't the worst part; soon, everyone started coughing or spitting blood. Unfortunately, the guard fell first, along with his dog. The bounty hunter, Silvia, and I stuck close to each other and covered our faces, but it seemed to affect Silvia worse because even though she covered herself pretty well, after a while, she started uncontrollably coughing up blood. Then the bounty hunter surprisingly held up quite well for being an ordinary person. I was starting to accept that after all I've killed and done, I would die in a trap like an animal. But then something came to my mind. I quickly grabbed the foot of the bounty hunter and pressed my boot against his. Suddenly, there was some strange effect, and the dust disappeared. Silvia slowly started recovering, but we still had the problem of the invisible wall, which couldn't be destroyed in any way. We waited there for several more hours until some other guards and the Captain of the Guard arrived, but they couldn't help. We stayed there until a priest with a Paladin escort arrived. The Paladin mumbled some elevated chants, thrust his sword into the barrier, and destroyed it. I'd definitely want to know how to do that. We thanked them for their help and then shared some new information with the Captain of the Guard, although we didn't have much. Silvia and I decided to end the search for that day since it was already getting close to evening, and we spent half the day stuck in a trap. Besides, Silvia wasn't feeling well after almost coughing up her lungs. We sat in the tavern again, drinking and eating. When we went to sleep, I decided it would be safer for both of us to sleep in the same room, so we left mine empty and both slept in hers. It was nice.*

#### Day 3

*When I woke up in the morning, Silvia was already up, but only a few minutes earlier than me because she was still getting dressed in her armor. I got up and quickly caught up with her, and then we left the room, only to discover an unpleasant surprise. I checked my room, and someone had been there, ransacking everything and breaking a few things. I was relieved that we had slept in the same room. That day we planned to change our tactics a bit. Thanks to the powder, we now had the opportunity to gather information differently. We decided to visit alchemists, merchants, and others to see if anyone knew about a certain buyer. There were only a few alchemists and merchants in the city who sold that powder, so we immediately went to see one. However, he refused to provide any information, claiming he needed to protect his customers' identities or something like that. He also said he couldn't remember all the faces of those who had bought from him, which was understandable. I got angry and kicked him in the shin a few times, telling him to forget about it. As we were preparing to leave, Silvia noticed something and quickly stepped in front of me. I instinctively used Quen. In the next moment, I saw an arrow sticking in Silvia's shoulder, which didn't stop despite the Quen, and across the street, there was an archer. I quickly went after him and caught up. Overpowering him wasn't too difficult, and I took his weapons. Silvia caught up with me and said she was okay, so we went straight to the Captain of the Guard. I originally thought this guy might work either with or for the Rune Assassin, but it turned out he was probably someone completely different. We interrogated him, but we didn't get much out of him. Even his bow wasn't anything special; it just had a rune that allowed the arrow to pass through my shield. After some time of questioning, we let the captain lock him up. The captain also recommended that Silvia have her wound treated anyway. So we headed to the hospital. At first, everything seemed fine, and Silvia seemed okay. But halfway there, she suddenly collapsed, unable to feel her legs. She was sweaty and breathing rapidly, so I picked her up and rushed her to the hospital, where they tried to figure out what was going on. They discovered it was some kind of poison, likely from the arrow. I left the doctors and healers to do their work and went to another alchemist. But when I reached him, he didn't provide anything useful either, so it was another dead end. I returned to Silvia to check on her. Nevertheless, things were getting worse and worse for her. If it didn't heal quickly, she might end up completely paralyzed. I waited there for a while, and suddenly a small bird flew over to me with a piece of paper. It was an address and a demand for me to come alone. I didn't hesitate and went there. I arrived at a relatively narrow alleyway, empty at first. But then I started hearing a voice in my head, setting conditions. It was the Rune Assassin. Supposedly, he liked the fact that Silvia and I were hunting him, and he didn't want her to die, so he had something for me to do, and then he would give me the antidote. I agreed to the conditions, and he appeared before me. Finally, I saw his face. But he wasn't as terrifying as I thought; I would never have guessed he brutally killed over 20 people. He handed me a box and asked me to deliver it to the captain. I was forbidden to look inside. Then he showed me where he kept the antidote, behind a brick in a nearby wall, smiled, and disappeared. I carried the box but had no intention of giving the contents to the captain. It could have been something lethal, an explosive, poison, some more powder, or who knows what. So I went to the city walls and emptied the box outside the walls without looking at it. Then I returned to the captain and gave him an empty box, causing confusion, but at least no one died. I then went back to the alleyway and found the antidote on the ground. I quickly returned to Silvia and gave it to her, and it started healing her rapidly. Within minutes, she was back on her feet. I told her everything that happened, and then we went back to the alley to search for clues. At first, there was nothing, but then we noticed a trail leading away from there. It went through the whole city and led to a library that had a warning sign about danger at the entrance. Inside, we found a librarian who was a bit too intimate and annoying for my taste and probably everyone else's. We asked her if she had seen anyone hiding there, but she didn't say anything useful. While she kept interrupting us and offering some strange potions, I decided to take one, but I didn't plan on drinking it as she suggested. She also mentioned having a storage room and a cellar, so Silvia chose the cellar, and I took the storage room. Inside, I found heaps and heaps of books. I thought there would be no one there, but then I saw a figure moving at the far end. By that time, Silvia had caught up and declared the cellar empty. We searched it for a while, and suddenly, runes spread throughout the whole place, and then it was all darkness. We found ourselves in a house. I tried to destroy something immediately, but everything was indestructible and non-flammable. Then he appeared there. Finally, we were face to face. We attacked him right away, making one assault after another, both Silvia and I, but it was futile. He had rune swords, and he was quite skilled with them, but what's more, he had a rune shield all around him from all directions. He kept repeating some speech about how it would end only when we ended, and similar nonsense, but at first, I didn't understand what he meant. After a while, we engaged in conversation, and I discovered what was in the box... It contained three fingers, the fingers of the captain's daughter. I probably shouldn't have thrown it away, but I also didn't actively harm anyone. After some time, I managed to provoke him to stick his hand out of the shield, and I grabbed it and cut it off. He looked at us for a moment, smiled, and then disintegrated. At some point during the encounter, a table caught fire, but now I can't remember why exactly. Silvia and I waited for a while, wondering what would happen next because nothing was happening. But then, the same person started descending the stairs again, and the fight began anew. This time, he had a better shield that enveloped his entire body, making it impossible to repeat the previous tactics. Nevertheless, I managed to destroy one of his swords for a moment, but it didn't make much of a difference as he quickly recreated it. However, as he kept repeating his slogan, I finally realized what it meant. I let him stab me in the shoulder. It happened, and then I stabbed him directly in the abdomen. Again, he smiled at me, pretending he had outsmarted us, but not this time. I plunged my hand into his belly and then used Aard. The Rune Assassin splintered all over the room. After a moment of awe, we decided to quickly search the house. In one room, we found the mutilated daughter of the Captain of the Guard without her fingers, so we carried her to the captain's barracks. Also, after we left that cursed house, it collapsed into itself, as if it had never been there... The captain repeatedly thanked us for our help and gladly rewarded us with money. Unfortunately, the bounty hunter didn't collect his reward because the Rune Assassin had killed him the night before. Silvia and I then peacefully headed back home, where a well-deserved rest awaited us in our own beds.*

**Reward:** *30000 (-15000)*

### **My first Spriggan**

*Date of entry: 3rd of June 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was similar to several previous ones—a lumberjack camp from which several lumberjacks disappeared, and no one was entirely sure what kind of monster was responsible. However, they mentioned something wooden, so I automatically assumed it was an Ent. Even though the contract didn't pay much, I accepted it and set out on the journey. I arrived there quite quickly; it was not far from Midfer. I spoke with the camp leader, who provided me with additional information. The description seemed more like that of a Leshen than an Ent, but then it occurred to me that it might be a Spriggan, or even several Spriggans. The tracks where these creatures had passed were highly visible, making tracking them an easy task. Eventually, I stumbled upon their lair, which looked quite peculiar. It was a large sphere made of leaves and wood. When I entered, I found even stranger things inside. Alongside the bones, there were the bodies of lumberjacks, and it seemed like the Spriggans were trying to build some kind of totems with them. At first, I thought it might be an attempt to mimic Leshen totems, but it looked nothing like them. I decided to wait there until the Spriggans returned to their lair, which happened about an hour later. There were two of them, and they weren't much of a challenge. Even though they tried to ensnare me with roots, they weren't Leshens, and I was quick enough to deal with both of them relatively easily. I took both of their heads, leaving one at the lumberjack camp as evidence and keeping the other as a trophy. The lumberjacks were satisfied with my work, and I got paid for the contract.*

**Reward:** *6000*

### **Alpha**

*Date of entry: 5th of June 1312, 1st age*

*I didn't go on this contract alone; it was assigned to us directly by the deputy of Lostmere. Grodlick arranged it, and it was about an alleged Alpha Alghoul. Grodlick didn't want to take any risks and said we would all go there and split the money. It was supposed to be 12,000 gold coins for me. The new girl, Katie, or something like that, also joined us. Finding the location was not difficult; after all, it was precisely marked for us, so all we had to do was prepare and set out. We passed through new forests where I had never been before, but I wasn't particularly nervous, especially with so many of us. As we approached, I could hear plenty of Alghouls; it was supposed to be a giant nest, and as we got closer, we could even see them in the distance, but they hadn't attacked us yet. Even when we entered their lair, nothing happened, but we all heard countless footsteps in the walls, the ceiling, and under us... dozens, maybe hundreds of tunnels. Grodlick went ahead with Lansa and Kellen while I went at the back with Silvia and Katie. It took a while before they first attacked us from one of the tunnels. It wasn't that difficult, especially since we all had Igni and other incendiary items. When they started rushing out of the tunnel, I simply unleashed Igni or threw a Molotov cocktail in there. They also attacked us from the ceiling or from the ground a few times, managing to scratch and bite a few of us, but nothing serious. We continued until we reached a crossroads. We split into two groups since we didn't know which way was the right one. This time, I went with Lansa and Grodlick, while the others went through the other tunnel. On our way, we had to fend off many of those beasts, but eventually, we realized that our tunnel was a dead-end. At the end, there were only really small tunnels that we couldn't fit through. We set a few things on fire and then exited back to the crossroads, heading towards the others. We walked, and along the way, we came across many Alghoul corpses, which were a good sign. Eventually, we found the rest of the group resting. This time, we changed our formation, and I went first with Lansa and Grodlick, again repelling any attackers who came at us. Eventually, the tunnel started widening, turning into a relatively enormous chamber full of small tunnels and one big one. We heard hundreds of footsteps all around us, and the Alghouls began emerging from the holes. Then the Alpha Alghoul crawled out, confirming its presence. It was much bigger, approximately the size of a horse, maybe even a little larger. The other Alghouls swarmed around it like ants. They also blocked our escape route. Finally, they began to attack, although the Alpha remained at the back. I threw Molotov cocktails, slashed, and did whatever I could. It was pretty tough, and I ended up with a few scratches and bites myself, but nothing serious. Then only a handful of them were left, and the Alpha couldn't hide anymore, so it charged at us. We tried to hit it with Signs first, but it didn't seem to do much damage. We quickly cast Quen, but Lansa didn't manage to, and he got hit directly and flew across the room. However, I managed to get closer to the creature with a few maneuvers and deliver a fatal blow. I had the Alpha's head. After that, we set fire to various tunnels since we still heard a lot of footsteps, and in the end, we buried the whole cave complex with Aard. Then we set out on my first trip to Lostmere to claim the reward.*

**Reward:** *12000 gold*

### **Corrupted Wolves**

*Date of entry: 5th of June 1312, 1st age*

*In this contract, it was something entirely new. It was about infected wolves that had spent some time in the No Man's Land. I had never fought anything like that before, so I think I prepared various traps among the trees from wooden stakes. I also drank a Cat potion because it was already pitch dark. I meditated for a while until I began to hear strange screams and growls. It wasn't just the wolves; there was something else I didn't recognize. After a while, I noticed them between the trees. The wolves were attacking an adult, wild werewolf. On one hand, it was quite a spectacle since under normal circumstances, a werewolf would tear wolves apart without much trouble, but this werewolf seemed cornered and wasn't trying to fight back much. It appeared to want to escape, but the wolves didn't allow it and chased it back towards its den. I used this opportunity and tried to shoot the wolves with my crossbow, but every arrow that hit them seemed to do nothing. Eventually, they must have noticed me because some of them stopped paying attention to the werewolf and started focusing on me, encircling me. They weren't dumb, but I was smarter. I waited for the right moment, and thanks to that, they couldn't even touch me, not even when they came from different sides. I decided to do something unexpected and, instead of dealing with the two circling me, I rushed forward and used Igni on the werewolf and all the wolves around it. There were about seven of them, which was a clear sign that corruption had completely changed them. They were no longer a pack of animals; they were devouring each other. Originally, there were supposedly about 12 or 14 of them. Maybe even more. However, when the smoke caused by Igni disappeared, the only thing I found was the dead body of the werewolf. That's when I realized it was a fully transformed werewolf; it hadn't changed back into a human. Then the wolves systematically attacked me, trying to outsmart me constantly—flanking me, attacking directly, dodging, and who knows what else. But I managed to keep them at bay. I killed several of them with my sword, and one even impaled itself on my stakes. Eventually, there was only one left. It retreated and disappeared into the darkness. At that moment, three more wolves appeared. One of them was notably larger—it had to be the alpha of the pack. Two of those wolves attacked me from the sides, but I took care of both of them. Finally, the alpha charged straight at me; it wasn't afraid at all. I wanted to protect myself with Quen, but I couldn't cast it on myself yet. The wolf knocked me to the ground, and before I killed it, it managed to bite me. But I killed it. There were no other wolves left. I took the head of one and the body of another and carried them back. First, to the hunter who gave me my reward plus a small bonus, and then I took one body to Lostmere, where I received an additional 15,000 gold coins for that wolf. It was definitely worth it.*

**Reward:** *15000 gold + 5000 gold*

**Additional Reward:** *15000 gold*

### **Wrath of Vengeance**

*Date of entry: 7th of June 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was about an alleged wraith that was supposed to appear and kill in a nearby village. It wasn't far, so I walked there. It was quite a small village with no walls or palisades, and the only person armed was a man with a sharpened stick that looked like a makeshift spear. He also wore something that vaguely resembled light armor. The contract came directly from the village alderman, so I went to him, and he gave me a list of all the people who were supposedly killed by the wraith. Most of them died in ways that seemed like unfortunate accidents or heart failures. The alderman even divided the list into people who died shortly before the first appearance of the wraith and those who died after, which made my work easier. Through the process of elimination, it was easy to figure out who among the deceased became the wraith. Out of the four dead, only one had a tormented soul: a woman who hung herself because her husband abused her, and nobody did anything about it. The others mostly died from unfortunate accidents, incidents, or their own foolishness. As for the people who died after the incident, the husband of the deceased woman died in a completely "random" accident, her brother, the man who was supposed to judge whether her husband broke any laws, and a few other people who didn't have much in common. The guard then led me to the local cemetery, where I dug up the woman's grave and burned everything. I could have left then, but I needed to make sure she had really vanished, so I waited there until nightfall, and the guard kept me company. Though he didn't have the best equipment, he was definitely not lazy. He hadn't slept for several days, just to protect the village from the wraith. Finally, it was a dark night, and I waited. Eventually, I saw something glowing moving in the forest. I ran there, but there was nothing. Then a voice called me from behind, and she was there. Her soul wasn't as scarred and old as I expected; even in this state, she looked quite beautiful. I tried to reason with the wraith and convince her to leave this world, but she held so much hatred towards the village and had no intention of stopping her killing spree until the whole village was dead. So, I had to put an end to her. She didn't realize I was the Witcher, which was quite strange. She probably had never encountered one while alive. She underestimated me and just flew towards me. But I had Quen and Yrden ready, a few swift strikes, and the wraith was gone. I waited until morning and collected my reward. The alderman thanked me, and I was already on my way back.*

**Reward:** *12000*

### **A Murderer, a thief and a doppler**

*Date of entry: 9th of June 1312, 1st age*

*This came from the captain of the guard in Lostmere himself, or at least one of them. The reward was not bad either. It was about the fact that in the last few days, there have been two murders in the city, but more importantly, there have been numerous thefts, mainly of food, but also valuables, not gold. So, I headed to the commander of the guards to get more details. Both murders occurred at night on different days, but the thefts happened even during the daytime. The problem was that they couldn't find the person responsible, as they had no idea what he looked like, and even when they thought they had the right person, they didn't. That's why they chose a Witcher for this task and offered a quite generous reward. Lostmere is already quite unstable, and the last thing they needed was an elusive killer and thief. The captain of the guard also mentioned that when it came to the stolen food, he stole more than just for himself, sometimes as much as 12 kilograms of food. I then wanted to know about the two murder victims. One of them was a merchant, as I suspected due to the thefts. He had a stall mainly selling vegetables and fruits in a small square and was killed right there. The second victim was a local regular at the tavern, despite frequenting the place every weekend, he had no problems with people or the guards because he remained composed even when drunk and only became more talkative and friendly, making everyone love him. I couldn't understand why he had to die. My first stop was the tavern where the regular frequented, and I didn't want everyone to know I was a Witcher, especially since the Doppler could be anyone from the tavern or anyone in general. So, I concealed my identity as best as I could. I asked the bartender, who told me the same thing the captain and other patrons had already said but referred me to a few others who knew the regular better and spent more time with him. Coincidentally, those people were at the tavern, so I joined them. At first, they were confused, but when I introduced myself as a guard, they became friendlier and even thanked me for working on their friend's case. They told me mostly what the captain and the bartender had said, but when I probed further, I learned that their friend had mentioned having a conflict with someone. The victim himself worked in the stables, taking care of horses and other animals. Once, he wanted to order a lot of kilograms of apples and hoped to get a discount for such a large order, but he didn't get it, and that upset him. He planned to discuss it with the merchant the following night, but that meeting never took place. After that, he wasn't nearly as talkative or cheerful. They directed me to his girlfriend, saying she might have the most accurate information. I thanked them and went to the house where his girlfriend lived, introducing myself as a guard. At first, she probably tried to dismiss me, mentioning that there were already guards around, but I told her that I was directly assigned to investigate her boyfriend's murder and that I needed to know everything, so she eventually let me in. I didn't want to hear the same thing I had already heard three times, so I immediately focused on the incident that supposedly happened, which his friends had only briefly mentioned. She told me the beginning of the story, exactly as it happened when her boyfriend wanted to order the delivery of apples and requested a discount that he didn't receive. He planned to discuss it with the merchant again at midnight, but when he went to meet him and returned, he was completely silent and didn't want to say what had happened. He just kept repeating something about what "it" had done. Naturally, I don't even need to write that the merchant who died is the one who became a victim of one of the two murders. It occurred to me that he probably witnessed that murder, and the entity responsible saw that he had seen it and had to eliminate him as well. He must have known something, and that's likely what drained the life out of him. Though I don't understand why he didn't just hide and kept going out at night. Anyway, his girlfriend's testimony was very helpful, and I advised her to hide until this is resolved and not to return to her house for now. She also mentioned feeling watched in the evenings, probably by the Doppler, to ensure she didn't know anything. Afterward, I returned to the tavern with the aim of pretending to be drunk. Not actually getting drunk but acting it. I drank and drank, even enjoyed myself, but made sure to remain acting drunk and not actually get inebriated. When it was deep into the night, I stumbled into the empty streets of the square. I shouted at the walls or mumbled to myself, trying to appear truly inebriated but I also listened attentively. Then, I heard footsteps on the other side of the square, along with murmuring voices. I decided to stand up and swayed slowly toward them, but not directly; rather, I made a slight arc. I could tell they were frightened, but they thought I was just a drunkard. I heard one of them approaching me. He had a dagger with him, but at least for now, he didn't intend to use it on me. Instead, he tried to reason with me and desperately tried to divert me from the place they had come from. However, I kept insisting that I had to go in that direction and that I lived there, spouting similar nonsense. When the man began to lose patience with me and started brandishing the dagger, I used Axii on him to get information. I found out that he and the group were not Dopplers but were working for one. Originally, he stole for them, as most of the group were very poor people, some even homeless, including quite a few young boys. He portrayed himself as their savior, providing them with food. However, today, he told them that he had to steal for someone else, and they complied because they believed they owed him. I told them to lead me to his lair. They guided me to an old, abandoned, partly dilapidated house. We entered through a side entrance, and I immediately heard a voice talking about their return soon. Eventually, they led me to the main room, which looked like some sort of hideout or hideaway. The Doppler saw me, but he didn't seem too concerned; instead, he was annoyed with his henchmen for bringing me there. He still thought of me as just a drunk guard, which played perfectly into my hands. I waited for an attack. At first, the Doppler was considering whether to kill me or not, just a normal line of thought. Eventually, he decided he should do it - a big mistake on his part. He lunged at me, but I severed both his hands and then his head before he could make any other move. It was over for him. I gave the others a warning to stop engaging in such activities, and if I ever heard about them doing any foolish acts like this again, I would come after them. I believe they understood it very well. Then I simply left, heading towards my reward.*

**Reward:** *25000 gold*

### **Death from Above**

*Date of entry: 11th of June 1312, 1st age*

*Another contract, directly from the captain of the guard in Lostmer. This time, it seemed highly probable that it was something with wings, judging by the description. It had destroyed several wagons, killed everything, including the horses, and left no traces. I think that something capable of slaughtering so many people and smashing wagons to splinters wouldn't go unnoticed even by the guards. Nevertheless, this time, I didn't even go to see the captain of the guard. I didn't need to, but I still asked the bartender if there were any nearby hills or at least some mounds or ruins. He mentioned that there were a few hills around, and on one of them, there was a crumbling tower. I thanked him and headed straight to the scene of the incident. I passed through a small village where the caravan was heading, but I didn't stop there. Instead, I continued straight to the smashed wagons. When I arrived, I noticed about four guards inspecting the scene. It was evident they didn't mind my presence, but at that moment, I wanted some privacy. First, I examined if there were any traces left, which there weren't. Then, I looked at the injuries – they were all caused by claws, and it seemed to be the work of a Griffin, which was more likely than a dragon or anything similar. It appeared to be a younger Griffin. Nevertheless, I needed to make sure. I asked the guards if they found any feathers or scales, and they replied they had a pile of feathers, probably from a chicken. I examined the feathers and immediately recognized them as Griffin feathers. The guards probably couldn't tell the difference, but it was clear to me that they weren't from a chicken. The guards then left, saying they would leave it to me to handle. It seemed that the Griffin's feathers didn't shed in a way that would lead me directly to its lair, but I could estimate that it probably flew towards the tower. So, I set off towards the tower. I arrived shortly, and it appeared to have been abandoned, either I was mistaken (which I doubted) or the Griffin had left. I decided to search the tower. It was truly destroyed, no longer suitable for any purpose, let alone being recognizable as a tower. It was nothing more than ruins. Inside, I found a few relatively fresh corpses, including dead horses, and a few old bones. But the main thing present was the Griffin's nest. I realized I had no choice but to wait. I took one of the swords lying beside a corpse and stuck it into the nest, with the blade pointing outwards. Then I laid down under the nest and waited. I waited for several hours, starting to doubt if the Griffin would even show up. But eventually, I heard the powerful beating of wings against the wind. It circled around for a while and then slowly began to land. When it was landing, I loaded my crossbow and waited for it to at least graze against the sword. Eventually, it did, and at that moment, I peeked out and shot it in the wing. I aimed for the muscle to bring it down, but I only hit the skin, and the bolt passed through without causing significant harm to the Griffin. Quickly, I loaded again and shot once more. Again, it just hit the skin. I waited to see what the Griffin would do. For a while, it wildly flew around, and I prepared with Quen. Eventually, it came straight at me. I weighed my options and decided to dodge just before the impact and try to thrust my sword into it to propel myself away. I managed to thrust the sword into the Griffin, but its momentum was too strong, and I couldn't hold onto the sword inside it. Nevertheless, the Griffin descended to the ground, damaging the already ruined tower wall, and flew downhill. I shook off the experience, then slid down the hill and walked towards the Griffin, which was convulsing on the ground with a massive wound from its neck across its chest, gushing blood as if someone had poured a bucket of water. I ended its suffering swiftly with a single arrow to its heart. Then, as a trophy and also as evidence, I took the Griffin's head. Afterward, I looked back at the tower... it looked quite impressive considering its previous state. Well, then I set out to claim my reward.*

**Reward:** *25000 gold*

### **Uninvited Guests**

*Date of entry: 13th of June 1312, 1st age*

*The guy complained that something was stealing food, specifically meat, and rummaging around his cellar. It was strange from the beginning because I had no idea how the heck something could get into his cellar. They also tried to get out through the hatch, but it never made it outside, so no one knows what it actually is. Anyway, I arrived there, and I started questioning him about a lot of things. He said he had been living there for about a year, and he started storing food in the cellar about three weeks ago, but the stealing began only two weeks ago. Three days ago, he stopped storing food there altogether. Even the guards had no clue about what was going on, as they never found anything when they came, and they didn't consider it important enough to stand guard at his house all night. I naturally thought about thieves, Dopplers, who knows what, but when he told me his cellar didn't even have windows, I was truly clueless. So, I entered the cellar and started searching. The walls and floor were made of stone. There was quite a bit of dust, which actually helped me because I could see faint footprints. I also noticed, thanks to scratches on the ladder and the hatch, that whatever it was, it definitely had claws on its feet and hands. I examined the place for a while, and then I noticed that the faint footprints led towards an old cabinet. I opened it, but it was empty – just an ordinary empty cabinet. One footprint led into it and continued inside. I locked myself inside the cabinet and carefully examined it while listening closely. Eventually, I started tapping on the walls and discovered that the side facing the wall was hollow. I moved the cabinet aside and noticed a hole in the wall, and not just in the wall but also in the back of the cabinet, which I hadn't seen initially because it was covered by a board. When I looked through the hole, there was another hole inside, but it didn't look dug, more like a crevice, a crack, or a cave of some sort – it appeared natural. It was also quite narrow, but I decided to enter. There, I could see the footprints more clearly, and they belonged to Nekkers. Now, it all became clear to me, and it seemed to make sense. Although I didn't quite understand what they were doing there, it was probably because of the city and how close it was to the epidemic. Anyway, I continued and at the end, I saw about 10 to 15 Nekkers huddled together on the ground. Nekkers are already quite skinny and small, but I noticed that these must have been starving for quite some time. They probably somehow got in there and couldn't find their way out. Then the poor guy started storing meat in the cellar, and they must have sensed it. Well, I had to get rid of them; I used Aard to knock them down and finished them off with my sword. I didn't give them a chance. After that, I went back to the owner with good news. I gave him some advice, like getting the hole sealed up and burning the bodies inside, which earned me an extra 1000 gold coins, and of course, I didn't refuse it. Then I took the rest of my reward and set off again.*

**Reward:** *25000 gold*

**Additional Reward:** *1000 gold*

### **Lunatic's Tower**

*Date of entry: 17th of June 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was quite interesting. The description mentioned something about a sorcerer who had a monster in his cellar, and besides payment in gold, there was supposed to be something special, something priceless. Anyway, I took the contract and went to the tower where the alleged mage lived. He was peculiar, and the place was a mess. He described the monster to me, saying it was big, black, and hairy, larger than a wolf but smaller than a horse. The description didn't match any known monster, and it seemed really strange to me. He also warned me that his cellar was not a normal one; it was supposed to be quite large, with a laboratory, storage, and so on. I also asked if he had been conducting any experiments or something that could artificially create the monster, as I couldn't identify it based on the description. Finally, I entered the cellar, and I heard the mage lock it behind me. The cellar was indeed spacious, and there was fog, which he hadn't mentioned. I walked through it and found an alchemical table with some unmarked potions and samples. I continued walking through the cellar, and it seemed to be endless. I kept going back and forth, in circles, and found nothing. Eventually, I heard strange sounds in the distance. Gradually, it started to sound like singing. I kept getting closer to the source of the singing until I saw a naked woman standing in a corner with her back turned towards me. She kept singing, and I honestly didn't know what to do. I called out to her a few times, but there was no reaction. Suddenly, she disappeared. There was nothing else in that corner, so I continued in a different direction. As I walked on, something strange happened. I stopped feeling the stone floor beneath my feet and instead felt clay and even grass. What on earth was going on? Still, I pressed forward, continuing onward. After some time, I came across another alchemical table. This one had books and various ingredients, some of which had labels. While I recognized most of the ingredients, the potions were unfamiliar to me. The mage seemed to have a notebook there, detailing the experiments he had been conducting, mainly on people. According to the entries, these people had apparently volunteered and knew what they were getting into. It was hard for me to believe that someone would willingly come to such a damp and desolate cellar to suffer like that. Nevertheless, I decided to go back to the first alchemical table, just in case I had overlooked some books there. When I returned to the first alchemical table, I indeed didn't overlook any books. However, I heard the singing again. I approached the source and saw the woman once more. She still had her back turned to me, but this time, I didn't want to waste any time and drew my sword. I didn't intend to wait around, so I swung the sword at her. My blade simply passed through her. It then dawned on me that she might be a ghost, so I used Yrden, a sign used for dealing with wraiths. Afterward, I attempted another strike, but Yrden had no effect. For the first time, she turned to face me, and to my astonishment, she had no lower jaw. It was more than just a gap; her throat went straight through to her neck, and it didn't make sense how she could have been singing without a tongue. I had no idea what had happened to her, so I tried to question her, hoping she would nod or gesture. I asked if an experiment had been performed on her, and she nodded. Then I inquired if the mage had done it, and she nodded again. This started to smell like something rotten. Suddenly, she disappeared once more, leaving me puzzled. I continued searching. I followed the same direction as before, ending up back on the clay floor. This time, I noticed a narrow passage I hadn't seen before. It was on the left side and had a small stairway leading downward, and there was water there. It wasn't deep, barely reaching my ankles. But it was freezing, and I mean really cold. Eventually, the water began to turn into ice. The corridor seemed endless, and I gave up and retraced my steps instead, and continued further along the large passage, back towards the alchemical table. I walked and walked until I heard the beast. And I saw it: black and hairy, bigger than a wolf but smaller than a horse, and it definitely didn't look like anything I knew. I tried using Signs, but they didn't work. I attempted to strike it, but my sword simply passed through it. Eventually, it vanished without even attacking me. What on earth was that? I kept going. After a while, I started hearing more voices, but this time, it wasn't singing. It was ordinary speech, and I heard many voices. The clay floor began transforming into wooden planks. The voices became louder and, most notably, cheerful. Now, there were even torches on the sides. Up until this point, I had to use Cat, a potion that allowed me to see in complete darkness. Finally, to my surprise, I arrived... at a bar. There were many people there, enjoying themselves and not paying any attention to me. Except for one thing: they were walking through each other. Clearly, they were ghosts. I approached the bartender and asked him what I was supposed to do there and what the problem was. When I asked, the whole bar stopped, and everyone stared at me. It sent a chill down my spine. The bartender began to whisper to me that everyone there was dead and didn't want to hear about any problems. They died during the experiments of that mage, including him, but it was all voluntary. As a reward, they got the chance to spend their afterlife in this cozy, happy tavern. However, if someone were to disturb their peace, terrible things would happen. Nevertheless, the bartender was still willing to help me and told me what to do. Apparently, I had to go back to that narrow icy alley. He said that at its end, I would always find stairs that would lead me back to where I started, but I shouldn't be discouraged and keep going through it several times. After doing so, I would find my way out. There wasn't much else I could do, so I followed the bartender's advice. I walked back into that narrow alley, going back and forth as he instructed. I was freezing. When I was there for the fourth time, something grabbed my leg. I tried to cut it off, but my sword just went through it. This time, Yrden worked, and when I used it and then struck, the hand disappeared. A few dozen meters later, I saw those hands again, but this time they were in the walls, and there were dozens, maybe hundreds of them. However, they didn't attack me; instead, they gently caressed me, which was no less disturbing. Then, suddenly, the ice ended. The floor beneath me did too, and I fell, falling endlessly into emptiness. Even with Cat, I couldn't see anything. However, I landed gracefully on the floor, as if I stepped off a single step. However, when I looked around, several people with hoods were standing around me, all looking downward. My swords didn't harm them, and for some reason, my Signs didn't work. Not only were they ineffective, but I couldn't even cast them. There was nothing else in the room except for them. At first, I stood there in shock within that circle, but then I started moving around the room, trying to do something to get a reaction from them. Eventually, they vanished, and an opening appeared in the wall. It led to a strange slide, and without much choice, I slid down it. I ended up in a large cave with natural light at its end. There, I saw the Mage, and I was so angry that I intended to go and kill him or at least beat him up. However, a Stone Golem materialized in my path. I had no way to fight it. Aard probably wouldn't do anything to it, and that's not to mention that my Signs still weren't working. It killed me. Again and again. I can't remember how many times; I had enough of it, seriously. When he killed me for the fiftieth time, everything around me started to fall apart. I woke up on the floor of the mage's tower. He was just looking at me with a smile, holding a knife in his hand. I didn't even react; my head was spinning terribly. I expected him to want to kill me or something now, but instead, he congratulated me for not going insane and passing his master's test. He gave me my money and some pocket watch, not telling me what they were for. And then, with the dagger that I thought he would use to kill me, he cut his own throat. Honestly, I had had enough of everything, so I simply left and went home. It was only early evening outside, so I hoped I hadn't lost too much time there... However, I didn't know that I had been lying there for 4 days.*

**Reward:** *40000 gold*

**Additional Reward:**  *Stopwatch*

### **Lustful "God"**

*Date of entry: 18th of June 1312, 1st age*

*Two people complained to me that their god was making demands they no longer liked and that he was threatening them, so they wanted me to kill this god. Normally, I wouldn't dare to challenge a deity, but something told me that this wasn't a real god. The reward wasn't that great, at least not in terms of gold, but they also promised me two cottages, which I could certainly put to good use, so I accepted the job. I met them on a trail in the middle of nowhere, and from there, they led me to the shrine where they worshiped this god. There was plenty of food, candles, and so on around the shrine. They told me that they once passed by here and started to hear a voice. Automatically, they thought it was the voice of a god. So they began to pray here, and the god had demands that they fulfilled. They gave him food, drink, and so on. At first, it was okay, but then he started demanding more. He wanted their women. They refused, and so the god began to threaten them, promising to slaughter them for their disobedience. However, even with such threats, this god couldn't win them over, and instead, they sought out a Witcher to handle this problem for them. Frankly, I don't quite understand their logic. If it were a genuine god, I wouldn't have done anything about it. Among other things, he also demanded sacrifices from them, luckily only of animals. I told them not to go anywhere, and in the meantime, I started looking around. At first, I thought I wouldn't find anything, but when I expanded my search area, I found a hidden entrance in the ground. As I entered, I discovered a tunnel leading back to the shrine. On the way, I saw plenty of food, even lots of spoiled food. This god was clearly receiving much more food than he could possibly consume. As I approached, I could hear his breathing. Eventually, I saw the corpulent creature sitting on his throne. At first, he tried to deceive me, claiming he was indeed a god and questioning my audacity to enter his shrine. However, he quickly realized that his tactics wouldn't work on me and gave up his attempts. Since he was a conscious monster, I gave him a choice. He either stops demanding such lofty things as sacrifices and the women of his followers, and if he still wants to be worshipped, he should only ask for minor things. If someone else dares to complain, I will return, and this time, I won't waste time talking. I believe he understood quite well. Then I simply went back up and collected my sweet reward.*

**Reward:** *10000 gold*

**Additional Reward:** *2 Cottages*

### **Suicidal School**

*Date of entry: 19th of June 1312, 1st age*

*This contract came again from Captain of the Guards from Lostmere, and it seemed quite serious. Allegedly, over the past few weeks, about 3/4 of the teaching staff at an orphanage school killed themselves. I had never seen anything like this before, so out of curiosity, I took the job. First, I went to gather information. The Captain of the Guards told me that all the suicides happened within the last 3 weeks, which meant that sometimes two teachers took their lives on the same day. The remaining teachers are naturally stressed, and it's affecting the whole school, considering that 3/4 of the staff is missing, and no one wants to work there for obvious reasons. They have to combine classes and mix them. From what I learned, it's a school for orphans, meaning most of the children live in the orphanage, but there are also orphans who have been adopted and have relatively happy lives. Captain didn't tell me much more and instead suggested I visit the coroner for more information. So, I went. I reached the coroner and asked him to show me the bodies and provide additional information. He told me that the victims killed themselves in various ways, literally using whatever was at hand, regardless of how painful it might be. If they had a compass, they stabbed it into their eye and pushed until it reached their brain. If they had a pen, it went into their throat. And if there was nothing at hand, they simply fell lifelessly onto the edge of a table. I examined the bodies in the meantime, but I didn't notice anything peculiar, except for one thing that the coroner described to me. The victims who died from self-inflicted injuries had a postmortem spasm in their hand, which was quite strong. The oldest body that still had this spasm was almost two weeks old. It could have been a hint of some telekinesis or partial mind control. Furthermore, the coroner told me that according to the witnesses, the victims never screamed or made any sound at all. No cries for help. Their bodies were always found by another teacher. The children in the school also behaved strangely. They didn't respond to the guards' questions, and when they did, they claimed they didn't know what's happening in the school or that nothing bad was going on. Some of them allegedly witnessed the suicides, which was really disturbing. I began to suspect that one of the children might be responsible. Therefore, I asked about the children who were taught by all the deceased teachers over the past three weeks. The coroner pointed out around three children, but only one of them seemed to be surrounded by a lot of dark things. About four weeks ago, this particular child's parents were murdered, and after a week at the orphanage, he was sent to the mentioned school. He still resides in the orphanage. The child's name is supposedly Billy. I thanked the coroner for the valuable information and headed to the school. When I arrived, I announced myself at the reception and found out that a class was in session. I didn't want to disrupt the class, so I just listened to it from outside the wall and waited until it was over. After about 20 minutes, the class ended, and the children had a big 45-minute break, which was perfect for me. I waited until all the children left the classroom, which didn't take long; they poured out like an avalanche. And to no surprise, only one child remained in the classroom. Billy. I overheard him talking with the teacher. The teacher was telling him how great it is that he can draw, enjoys dancing, and performing, but that he might not make a good living out of it. The teacher suggested that if Billy focused more on learning math and logical subjects, it would benefit him a lot more in life. However, the teacher assured him that he would never force him into something he didn't want to do, but he should think about it. He genuinely seemed like a good teacher. When the teacher left, I asked if I could talk to Billy, and the teacher allowed it. So I entered the classroom, and Billy was still sitting at the table, drawing. He had many scribbled and crumpled drawings there. I started innocently asking Billy questions about anything that could help me find out if he's involved or at least has some connection to the incidents, but he didn't respond much elaborately. I looked at his drawings. Sometimes he drew two almost identical pictures, but each had some differences. For example, he drew the same forest twice, but once it was dark and the other time bright and cheerful. Then there was a picture of his classroom, once with the teacher and everyone obediently at their desks, writing. The other one without the teacher, and everyone was drawing and dancing all over the classroom. I also noticed one of the drawings where one student was entirely colored in black, but I didn't ask about it yet. I decided to visit the Captain of the Guard again. I needed to see the murderer of Billy's parents. He told me that the murderer is still in prison, awaiting execution, and if I want to speak with him, I have to do it within the next 4 days. That was more than enough time for me, so I headed there immediately. The guards showed me the exact cell where he was held. When I found him, he looked quite miserable. He appeared stressed and was covered in sweat. That might be expected from someone facing execution, but he seemed even more anxious than one would anticipate. I asked him about the whole situation with the family. He said that he didn't come there to kill anyone, just to rob the place. He claimed to have received a tip from some citizen that nobody would be home at night and that there were valuable items inside. He had never seen that person before, nor did he know that the informant was a criminal. Nonetheless, he decided to take the risk, broke in at night, and started stealing, but someone was home. Billy's parents resisted and shouted, so according to his words, he had to kill them. And he killed them both. He claimed that he had no idea there was a child inside; otherwise, he would have killed the child too. He also insisted that he had never killed anyone before and that he carried the dagger only for self-defense. I didn't know how to find the alleged citizen he mentioned, but I urgently needed to locate him, as he could be the key to everything. So, I went back to the Captain of the Guard and arranged for the prisoner to be released, but I would still keep an eye on him. The plan was for him to lead me to that person. The Captain agreed, and within a few hours, the prisoner was released. I followed him closely. At first, it seemed like a waste of time because he just walked back and forth near the prison, lost in thought, looking just as stressed as before. However, eventually, he started to move somewhere. I kept on following him until he entered an old, dilapidated building. I listened carefully. Initially, he continued pacing inside the building, lost in thought. But then I heard him mumbling something, something about how it should have never happened and that it was a mistake. Then he fell asleep. I didn't intend to leave, so I sat on a bench across the street. I could still keep an eye on him. For a while, nothing happened, and I must have played the homeless role too well because four guys tried to rob me, but a single punch to each of them quickly resolved that situation. However, I then felt that something was going on. I rushed into the building and noticed the murderer on the couch. He was no longer asleep; instead, he had a pencil lodged in his throat, seemingly self-inflicted. I began searching the house, the basement, the second floor, hoping to find someone else, but then it struck me that he probably had never been there; he was merely under some kind of influence. I leaned more and more towards the idea that it was a Demon. I returned to the school just as they were having their last class. I waited outside the classroom with the teacher I had met before, but I wasn't paying much attention to what he was saying. Suddenly, he stopped talking in the middle of a sentence. I listened to the heartbeats of the students, but there was no change. I peeked through the keyhole, but I couldn't see anything inside, so I burst in. There, I saw the teacher struggling, trying not to stab himself with a pencil. I quickly ran to him and used Aard to throw him against the wall, causing him to drop the pencil and fall unconscious. I also cast Yrden on him, just to be safe, as there was still the possibility of a ghost or a wraith. The children were completely calm and continued writing their notes. On one of them, I decided to use Axii. The child almost immediately burst into tears and began talking about a dark voice that threatened them, suppressed their memories and emotions, and wanted to harm them all. I continued questioning, but the children didn't know what the demon looked like. They said it only appeared to Billy. Meanwhile, the teacher woke up, and fortunately, he no longer had suicidal tendencies. So, I told him to leave the school and find some guards to protect him. My next step was to go to Billy, but first, I needed advice, so I went back to Grodlick. Luckily, he was in the tavern. I asked him about demons, and he told me that he didn't have much experience with them because they are very rare. He said they are essentially immortal and can only be driven away from the place they're affecting, but usually only temporarily. He told me I would have to outsmart the demon and make it appear to me. Then, I needed to find the object that binds it to Billy and destroy it, preferably crush it entirely. I returned back and headed to the orphanage. I asked where Billy was and they led me to him. Unfortunately, the room was full of children, and I wanted to talk to Billy alone. Fortunately, I somehow managed to convince all the children to leave. Then I asked Billy again. I inquired if he ever gave anything to that entity, received something from it, or if he simply didn't throw anything at it and denied everything. He also mentioned that he saw it, but only in a cloudy form. A black cloud. He first saw it in his room on the night his parents died. And otherwise, he sees it everywhere. However, he only hears it at school, not at the orphanage. The entity tried to convince him to do various things, even to kill, but he always refused. I was quite surprised that he could resist such temptations. Nevertheless, there might have been something suppressed within him, so I had to use Axii on him. Then I asked again. Now I learned that Billy did lose something, but not because of himself; the demon stole a ring from his mother on the first night at the orphanage. And that was the connection. The ring had to be at the school. Therefore, I went to the captain of the guards, and he arranged for 30 guards to help me search the entire school. Help came from the teachers as well because they knew the students' secret hiding places, which I might not have found, or at least it would have taken me a long time. However, no one went alone, and each teacher had at least one guard with them. I searched the first floor, but I didn't find much. There were several rings, but none belonged to Billy. For a moment, I wondered if the demon might be controlling more people like this, but I thought it would be unlikely. I was about to move to the second floor when I heard screams from above—they found him, they found the ring. I rushed upstairs, and to my horror, I heard bodies hitting the ground, several of them. I ran upstairs and saw several bodies lying on the floor—teachers and guards. The only one standing was one teacher—the same one I sent away earlier. The demon must have possessed him, when it tried to force him to kill himself.* I tried to take the ring from him, but he just pointed his hand at me, and I flew across the room. He didn't do anything else, just looked at me and smiled. I activated Quen and approached him, expecting him to do the same thing again, so I was prepared. I ran towards him, thrust my sword into the ground, and swung the hammer at his hand. I hit him, and the ring flew off his hand, crushing his hand in the process. I stepped on the ring, but it didn't destroy it, so I picked it up and used Igni on it. I felt it melting, but then a lot of smoke appeared around me, and I couldn't see anything. I was engulfed in endless darkness. I didn't know what was happening, so I started meditating. That must have helped because suddenly I could see again. However, I felt like a passenger. I could see through my eyes and see around me, but I couldn't control anything. To my horror, I saw myself holding the sword against my chest, trying to stab myself. I could feel my hands, and I struggled to resist, but I couldn't control them. *I couldn't even use Signs. I realized that I could use my voice, so I started screaming for help, and most importantly, I told them that the priority was to destroy the ring. I heard others getting closer to me, and at that moment, I was pulled back into the darkness. I tried to weaken the demon from within by mocking him and deliberately considering his power weak and insignificant. It seemed to work because he became aggressive and appeared in his smoky form in front of me. I couldn't do anything, and he started choking me, but I continued to ridicule him. He began to tell me that he had already taken care of everyone outside with my hand, and now he would use me as his killing machine. It worried me because if everyone outside was dead, there would be no one to stop him, but I didn't show it and kept making fun of him instead. Then suddenly, he disappeared, saying, "One more still lives," and after a while, I heard only a deep scream, and I returned to my body, fully in control. I looked around, and it startled me. When I saw the lifeless bodies of the guards and teachers around me, and in my hand, I saw a bloodied sword, my whole body covered in blood, foreign. I looked down at the ground and realized that the teacher who had been possessed returned to himself after the demon jumped into me, and he managed to crush the ring with my hammer. I thanked him and suggested that for the good of both of us, we should tell the truth - that the demon was responsible for the killings, and we had nothing to do with it, and we couldn't prevent it, to which he agreed. Later, I asked Billy if he still saw or heard anything, but he said no. Then I wrote a letter to the Inquisition because they should definitely be interested in the demon, especially since there is a chance he might return. Finally, I went to claim my reward.*

**Reward:** *55000 gold*

### **Hunter's Request**

*Date of entry: 20th of June 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was quite good in the sense that I knew exactly what I was dealing with - a Leshen. The contract was posted by an experienced hunter who claimed to have seen it and wanted to go after it together with me. I didn't have a problem with that, so I accepted the contract. I met with him in a town down south and asked for the details. He told me about how he had already dealt with one Leshen before and that he knew more or less how to fight them, but he couldn't take all the credit, as his former clan played a significant role in it. Unfortunately, he mentioned that it was precisely because of that Leshen that his former clan became just that - a former clan. He killed 20 members of his former clan, and the remaining 3 blamed him for it, so they left. And he assured me that they were definitely not rookies. Since then, he has had a grudge against Leshens, but he said he wasn't foolish enough to go after one alone, which is why he sought the help of a Witcher. He also mentioned that he saw two of the Leshen's totems in the forest and offered to lead me to them. It was good to have a capable companion for this contract, as I usually encounter unhelpful peasants or townspeople on such missions. We set out almost immediately, and he informed me along the way about the wolves that live in the area. I was worried that the Leshen might summon infected wolves, which wouldn't be good, but he reassured me that there are only two wolf packs here and they don't attack people. Surprisingly, he had incendiary bottles in his equipment, but I approved of it. He guided me to the first two totems, which I destroyed, and then we searched for the third. Finally, we found it and I also destroyed it. After a while, nothing happened, but after a few minutes, the wind started to pick up rapidly, and leaves swirled around us. Then, I heard something familiar. A branch flew at us, but I managed to cast Igni on it and avoid it. However, it hit the Hunter and knocked him down for a moment. Then, we saw the Leshen in all its glory. It was definitely bigger and older than the one I killed before, but it wasn't an Arch-Leshen or anything like that. I ran towards it and tried to sever its legs, but it teleported before I could hit it. It disappeared for a while, but I heard roots approaching us from underground. I used Aard to stop them, and then more roots were coming. I waited until they surfaced and then dodged and cut them. The Hunter didn't manage to dodge, but he also succeeded in severing some of the roots. Then the Leshen appeared in front of us again. This time, I charged at it once more, but I nudged my sword with Aard. The Leshen teleported again, but I noticed that I managed to sever one of its legs. Then a root struck me in the back, which made me stagger, but it wasn't anything serious. I turned to look at the Leshen just as the Hunter threw a Molotov cocktail at it, and the Leshen caught fire. I also heard wolves approaching. The Hunter began picking them off while I finished off the Leshen. Once the Leshen was defeated, the wolves returned to their normal state, and the Hunter had to kill just a few of them. I decapitated the Leshen and took its wood as a trophy. Then we made our way back to the Hunter's house. There, he gave me my reward and even paid me extra for leaving him the Leshen's head.*

**Reward:** 40000 *gold*

**Additional Reward:** *15000 gold*

### **Bandits with a spice**

*Date of entry: 20th of June 1312, 1st age*

*The contract was from the same town I had just come from, so the journey back and forth was a bit tedious, but the description wasn't too difficult, and the reward was good. It was about bandits who repeatedly attacked caravans carrying and delivering supplies. I arrived back in the town and asked the local Captain of the Guard for details. It was a larger group of bandits, around 30 members. The Captain knew where their camp was, but he was afraid of losing his men, so he didn't send anyone there, and no one else offered to help. The reason this particular group was so dangerous was that they had a mage and a bounty hunter in their ranks. The bounty hunter might not have been anything special, but the mage could pose a problem. I immediately planned a classic trap. I assumed that the bandits in the town had informants, like rats, who would tell them about the caravans leaving from there, so they could attack them in time. I decided to take advantage of this. I identified myself as a courier who had an important message to deliver to Lostmer, concerning this bandit group. I told the Captain to spread the word about the message but in a discreet manner, and that I would leave in four hours. I also mentioned that I wouldn't mind if any volunteers wanted to join me. Four hours passed, and nothing interesting happened, but the Captain informed me that one of the guards had volunteered to come with me. According to the Captain's recommendation, he was excellent with a sword. We set out together, not speaking much, which suited me as I needed to listen. About halfway through the journey, I started hearing suspicious sounds. I heard bows being drawn, so I quietly whispered to my companion, telling him to load his crossbow. Then I informed him about the exact location of the assailants and asked him to be prepared. I also cast the Quen sign on myself as it would give me a better chance to avoid being hit. The attackers shot first, but they either missed or hit the Quen shield. We fired back, and both of us hit our targets. We reloaded our crossbows, but they were faster in reloading theirs. I didn't have the Quen sign anymore, so I pulled us both to the ground, narrowly avoiding the arrows. Then we fired again, and once more, our shots hit the mark. After that, some bandit swordsmen approached us – four on me and two on my companion. I managed to handle them swiftly without getting a scratch, and even my companion took care of his attackers effortlessly. We decided to leave the ambush behind and headed straight to their camp. To my surprise, this camp was different from most of the bandit camps I had seen before. It had makeshift palisades, wooden stakes that marked the boundaries of the camp. The camp had four entrances, each guarded by two sentries. Instead of tents, they had only sleeping bags, which allowed me to easily count them and keep them in my sight. There were 19 bandits in total, which meant three were still missing. Among them, there was likely the mage, as I could only find the bounty hunter apart from the ordinary bandits. I decided to sneak up on one of the sentries and used Axii on him, telling him to kill as many of his comrades as possible. He killed the man next to him, and then rushed into the camp, managing to kill another before the others realized what was happening and killed him. At that moment, they were all standing close together, which played right into my hands. I charged at them, using Igni and then immediately following up with Aard. The dust and debris were stirred up, and for a while, I couldn't see clearly who I was striking. When the dust settled, I noticed that my companion was still fighting with the bounty hunter, who unfortunately survived my initial attack. I had to deal with four more bandits, and just as I had them in sight, I heard the remaining members of their gang approaching. I killed one of them without even seeing him, just shooting in the direction of the sounds. Then I noticed the mage. I threw a weapon at him, but he created a shield to protect himself. Determined, I charged at him with Quen activated. He threw some ice blades at me, and although I tried to dodge them, I wasn't successful. It went through Quen and stabbed me in the hand. I tried to pick it up and throw it back at him, but it melted in my hand. He attempted to create another ice blade, so I charged at him. Grabbing one of the weapons I had taken from his comrades, I threw it at the ice blade, shattering it. He tried to create another one, but I was already upon him and cut him down. The last survivor who stood next to the mage just stared at me in terror and did nothing. There was no need to kill him, so I simply bound him. Then I turned around to see how my companion was doing, and to my surprise, he had just dealt a fatal blow to the bounty hunter, stabbing him in the abdomen. Though he was injured himself, it wasn't too severe, and I healed him with a restorative potion. After that, we collected what we could, loaded it onto the horses present, and made our way back to the town.*

**Reward:** *45000 gold*

**Additional Reward:** *9 horses, some swords, daggers and armor*

### **Icy Crypt**

*Date of entry: 21st of June 1312, 1st age*

*I didn't even choose this contract, it chose me; I was approached by a man who begged for help, saying that his brother went into some tomb and never returned. Since I had nothing else to do at the moment, I decided to give it a try; the reward didn't seem too bad either. First, we walked to the nearest village where he lived, and from there, we reached the tomb. It stood alone, with no other graves or tombs around. It looked quite ancient. He refused to enter the tomb under any circumstances, so I ventured in alone. I couldn't help but notice the intense cold inside. I went deeper and deeper, surrounded by ancient inscriptions and graves, though I couldn't understand what the inscriptions meant. As I pressed on, I heard footsteps echoing in the cave. I saw several undead creatures ahead. They didn't react to my presence; even when I started beheading them, they remained unresponsive. I continued walking further and deeper, finding more undead, and none of them resisted; they were like empty shells. Eventually, I reached the coldest room of all. There were a few more lifeless shells, and at the end of the room, there was a throne with a frozen figure seated upon it. As I defeated the last undead, the ice on the throne began to crack. I readied myself, knowing something was about to happen. Slowly, something began to rise from the throne, and I couldn't fully describe what it was. It was like an icy skeleton, standing a head taller than me. It wore armor and wielded a large hammer with runes. On the ground beside the throne, I also saw a lifeless body. Without hesitation, I engaged the creature, striking wildly at its head and targeting its arms. However, my sword couldn't penetrate its armor, while its blows inflicted great pain upon me. And that wasn't all; it also unleashed spells upon me. A chilling ice blade nearly froze me to the ground, and a frost storm filled the room, causing my beard to freeze. I tried to fight the creature, but I couldn't see it clearly, and I could barely hear it. In the end, it was too much for me, and it started gaining the upper hand. Besides, my task wasn't to kill it, so I quickly found the lifeless body on the ground and then felt my way to the exit on the wall. I stopped almost as soon as I left the room, and the storm immediately ceased. I could see only the creature staring at me. I'd say I should never enter that room again. It then returned to its throne and slowly froze once more. This one was beyond my capabilities, but my mission wasn't to kill it. I made my way back up, showed the brother's body to the person who hired me for the contract, and received my payment.*

**Reward:** *30000 gold*

### **Powerful, Influential and Wealthy**

*Date of entry: 24th of June 1312, 1st age*

*I was afraid of this one, a powerful, influential, and wealthy client. That's exactly what the contractor for my next contract was like. From the beginning, I was prepared for anything, any trick or deception. Overall, the task was that someone had kidnapped the client's daughter, and he was willing to do anything to get her back, and the reward was, of course, quite substantial. The Lord owned quite a large castle with an even larger garden. The servants let me in. There were streams, ponds, fountains, hedges, and who knows what else. Besides the servants, there were also plenty of various nobles present. The servants had to let me in three times - first at the main gate, then at the front door, and finally the door to the office. I entered, and the Lord inside immediately started explaining everything to me. He said that his daughter was kidnapped during the night. He heard a noise, woke up, then heard her scream, and rushed to help. However, he and his servants couldn't catch them; they only saw them jumping out of the window with his daughter. After that, they couldn't catch up to them. He was, of course, ready to pay a hefty ransom, assuming that was their motive. However, he spread the word everywhere, offering large sums, and no one responded, except for a few jokers, but no serious leads. That worried him even more because then he had no idea what they wanted with his daughter. He told me that I would only get the money when his daughter was alive, and all the mercenaries he had seen would be dead. He also granted me access to his entire house for searching, but I didn't need it; I headed straight outside to the window where they jumped from. I saw tracks in the mud, leading to the fence. There, I noticed more traces, likely from a carriage. I followed them until I ended up in a small village, so tiny that it didn't even have walls, and you could see from one end to the other, with a maximum of 200 inhabitants. The carriage had stopped near one of the larger houses. I knocked on the door, and a couple in their thirties opened it for me. They didn't look like mercenaries or bandits. They asked what brought me here, and I showed them the contract. In return, I started asking them questions. I listened to the beating of their hearts, but it didn't seem like they were lying when I inquired if they had anything to do with it. Their house looked entirely ordinary, and they even had a dog upstairs. The husband apparently returned late in the evening from work, and his wife usually slept by that time, so it's possible that the intruders broke in during that period. I went to check the cellar. At first glance, I didn't notice anything suspicious. But as I passed through the cellar for the second time, I saw blood and torn nails on one of the walls. I focused on that area and noticed a slightly protruding stone. I pulled it, and it revealed a secret door in the wall. I entered inside. The door must have had some seal because it was only now that I heard sounds from there. They were slow footsteps. I went into a stone hall with cells on the sides. Most of them were empty or contained corpses. Some cells had people inside, but they didn't react to my presence. I could now hear voices, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. It was either some strange language or perhaps an incantation. I entered a room and found myself in a circular chamber. Around the perimeter, there were more cells with eight individuals standing in a circle around a hanging girl, all of them holding knives. I didn't wait and decided to use my newly acquired sword. I started throwing it at the cultists and always brought it back to my hand, killing them one by one. According to the description, the hanging girl was my contractor's daughter. I carefully untied her and treated her wounds. Then, I helped her escape. I advised a couple upstairs to call the guards. Afterwards, I escorted her back to her father. He was more than grateful, thanking me countless times and joyfully giving me my reward. Finally, a good experience with a powerful, influential, and wealthy individual.*

**Reward:** *100000 gold*

### **Human Traffickers**

*Date of entry: 26th of June 1312, 1st age*

*This time, I decided to take on some contracts directly from the Captain of the Guards in Lostmere. I had the desire to deal with some real scum, like slavers and thieves. The first contract he chose for me involved some real scumbags - human traffickers. If anyone from other continents ever reads this diary in the future, they should know that except for Grazur, slavery is not allowed anywhere here. Of course, it still exists, as that's the nature of the world, but it's illegal. Even the corrupt guards wanted nothing to do with these pigs. I received information that they operated in a brothel, which had a warehouse next to it. I went there and, pretending to be one of the corrupt guards, I told the receptionist that we didn't like his business, but for a share, we could overlook it. I tried to arrange a meeting with someone higher up. He went to a back room, where he was negotiating with someone about killing me and such - nothing out of the ordinary. He came back and told me that one of the organizers would be waiting for me upstairs. I used Axii on him to extract all the information I needed - the location of documents, lists, abducted people, the number and locations of guards, but he didn't know where the money was. I told him to gather all the guards (six of them) at the reception while I went into the office behind the reception. I found and took all the documents, lists, and evidence I could find. Then I returned, and the guards were already waiting. I quickly and silently took care of them. After that, I went upstairs where one of the higher-ups was supposed to be. I entered, had a brief conversation with him before using Axii again. I got from him only the location of the money, which he claimed was hidden beneath some bathhouse in another city. He told me everything about the traps, details, and guards. I didn't want anything else from him, and he met his end as well. Next, I went to the warehouse where, as I learned, there were only three guards. It was quite dark, so killing them was not difficult at all. I then took all the lists and evidence of their nefarious dealings and went to free the prisoners. The poor souls were crammed in cages, looking worse for wear. I carefully let them out, and those who were not completely traumatized helped me with the others. I even sent some of them to fetch the guards. They secured the place, and my job was done.*

**Reward:** *45000 gold*

### **Dirty Merchant**

*Date of entry: 26th of June 1312, 1st age*

*Another contract directly from the Captain of the Guards, this time it was about some quite well-known merchant who allegedly sold weapons and sometimes armor to almost all thieves, murderers, and underworld organizations. My task was simple: find evidence and make him talk, or kill him. The Captain gave me the location of the shop, and I easily found it. At first, I wanted to handle it without using Axii and catch him off guard. I pretended that I wanted to arrange an illegal deal and asked for a shipment of weapons. He was ready to write it down, but for some reason, I changed my mind and decided to use Axii. I told him to bring me all the illegal records of his sales, and he willingly brought them to me. He even showed me a few prohibited weapons he had in the back, along with the corresponding records – that made things even better. I took everything and then just showed it to the guards, and that was the end of his illicit trade. This was quick and easy; I wish every contract was like this.*

**Reward:** *40000 gold*

### **Haersleyan Spirit**

*Date of entry: 26th of June 1312, 1st age*

*I finished the day with this last contract from the Captain of the Guards, and it was probably the worst one – Haersley. The worst city I have ever been to. Fortunately, I didn't have to go there directly, but I can't stand even the name. Anyway, let me tell you what the contract was about. Supposedly, one of the few things Haersley does well is their liquor. They claim it's amazing, and most of the taverns and other establishments in Lostmer buy it from them. However, lately, about half of the shipments have gone missing. Not during transport, but after they arrive in Lostmer, in the warehouses. More precisely, in one specific warehouse – all the thefts happened there.*
The usual procedure was that the delivery always arrived in the morning and stayed in the warehouse for a whole night before being distributed to the taverns the next day. I thought the best way to find out who was stealing it would be to dress up as a new worker, spend time there until the next delivery, and find the culprit. So, I went there, worked the whole day, and slept overnight since the next delivery was expected the next morning. I woke up very early in the morning, having an hour and a half before the delivery was supposed to arrive. When it did, we unloaded it from the carriage, placed it in the warehouse, and I started working again the whole day. As the evening approached, the other workers wanted to get rid of me, and I already knew who the thief was. Despite their insistence, I decided to stay and pretend to sleep, but this time it was just an act. I overheard them discussing how they would steal it and kill me if I woke up. It was hard not to chuckle. I waited for about 30 more minutes and then heard them opening the crates. At that moment, I got up and sleepily said that I was leaving. They hoped I hadn't seen anything and let me go. However, as soon as I was outside, I contacted the nearest guards and informed them about the ongoing theft inside the warehouse. I also asked them to send my payment home because I had no intention of going back there, so I headed straight home.

**Reward:** *35000 gold*

### **Harpies**

*Date of entry: 28th of June 1312, 1st age*

*Today, I had a craving for something maritime. I didn't expect to fight a Kraken or anything like that, but I just wanted to experience something related to the sea. After all, I had never been on the sea before. Eventually, the bartender in the tavern found something for me. It was about Harpies bothering a lighthouse on the edge of a cliff. So, I set out for it. Since it was quite a distance, I decided to use Becky to get there faster. When I arrived, I saw only the lonely lighthouse and a house nearby. The sea wind was blowing strongly. I knocked on the lighthouse door, but instead, the door to the house opened. I explained why I was there and asked for information. The lighthouse owner told me that the Harpies flew in from the sea, and he always saw them on the horizon, usually in the evening. My initial plan was to wait for them, but I wasn't sure if all of them would come. He mentioned that each time, there were a different number of them, with the largest group being 12. I inquired if he had a boat, and he mentioned a small boat in Lostmere. I told him that I would head in the direction from where they usually appear the next day and that I would need his boat, so I asked him to bring it to the port the following morning. I returned home and spent some time relaxing, chatting with Kellen, and having a drink. By evening, I went to bed. The next morning, I woke up and headed straight to Lostmere. I found the owner of the lighthouse, and he showed me his small boat – it was indeed tiny. I got in and started paddling. It was a bit nerve-wracking; as I mentioned, I had never been on the sea before, and the waves and wind were rough with the small boat. Luckily, I didn't tip over. I paddled until I spotted a small islet on the horizon, with an abandoned tower on it. The islet was tiny, with a small hill on one side. There was a bit of grass, but mostly just rocks. And there stood the tall tower, with Harpies circling around it. I left the boat on the sandy shore on one side, ensuring it was secure so it wouldn't drift away. Then, I quietly made my way up. I found the first Harpy on the penultimate floor, and I easily killed it, taking its head as proof. At the very top, there were around five more Harpies, and I used Igni to burn them all. The remaining ones were flying around, trying to attack me, but Harpies are not nearly fast enough to withstand my attacks. One by one, they swooped down on me until there wasn't a single one left. I didn't even get a scratch. There were 15 of them in total. Just to be sure, I thoroughly checked the entire tower, but there was nothing else of interest. The tower was located in an intriguing spot, and it might come in handy someday. After that, I sailed back towards Lostmere, and when I arrived, I showed the Harpy head to the lighthouse owner, and he rewarded me. However, I had to walk quite a long way to get the money because he kept it in the lighthouse.*

**Reward:** *30000 gold*

### **Puzzled**

*Date of entry: 30th of June 1312, 1st age*

*This contract came to me by chance. I had just entered the tavern when I overheard someone talking to Lansa about a contract, but Lansa didn't want to take it. Then, this person came to me and asked if I would do the contract instead. Of course, for a good reward, I'll take almost any contract. I asked him what it was about, and he told me that he and his group wanted me to wipe out a family. It seemed quite unusual to me, so I listened to his heart, but it didn't seem like he was lying. In the end, I used Axii on him to make sure I got all the information. He said they were part of a faction that operates similarly to Witchers, but apparently, they're worse. People hire them to solve problems. This family supposedly hired them to deal with a problem with a Ghoul on their estate, but when they arrived, the family brutally attacked them. But they didn't want the trail of their murders to lead directly to them, so they hired someone else to do this dirty job. The reward was truly significant, so I eventually accepted it. At first, I thought about stopping by the headquarters of that faction, but in the end, I headed straight towards the residence where the family lived. From the outside, everything seemed clean, and there were no traces of Ghoul tunnels in the garden. It looked like all the family members were inside. I was also told that it was a man, a woman, and their three children: a daughter and two sons, all of them adults already. I found an open window at the back and slipped in. However, I still had doubts about the whole situation, so I decided to use Axii on each of them separately and ask them what really happened here. It was already evening, which worked to my advantage. First, I found one of the sons by the fireplace. I used Axii on him and asked what happened. He stuttered, hesitated, and didn't know what to say, which is peculiar when under the influence of Axii. In the end, he said he couldn't remember anything, so I sent him to sleep. Then I found the daughter. I used Axii again, and she also told me that she knew nothing. It was really strange. Then I found the father and the other son together, so I left them for the time being, and they didn't talk about anything interesting. I went upstairs and found the wife in one of the rooms. I controlled her and asked whose idea it was. For a while, she didn't say anything either, but eventually, she said that they did attack the faction, but she couldn't remember why. I sent her to sleep as well. Then I waited for some time until the two of them separated. Eventually, they did, and I first checked on the son. He told me that it was his father's idea, but he couldn't remember the reason. I sent him to sleep too. Finally, it was time for the father. I controlled him, and he told me that nothing of what I thought happened, actually happened. It was the opposite, and the faction was trying to kill them for various reasons. I had no reason to doubt him since he was under the influence of Axii. So, I took a note from their house and went to the base of the faction. There, I pretended that I had massacred the family, presented the note as evidence, and collected my reward. Then I headed home. However, something strange happened on the way home. Halfway there, I started feeling sick, my head was spinning, and I could hardly see anything. In the distance, I saw a house, so I rushed towards it, but then I passed out. I woke up back in my room at the inn. To my surprise, I was tied to the bed. I called my sword to me and cut the ropes. I also noticed that I wasn't wearing my armor, just a sleeping shirt. I changed my clothes and tried to leave the room, but it was locked. Fortunately, I had my own key, so I unlocked it. I went downstairs, and to my further surprise, there was no one in the inn, not even the bartender. The whole place was in disarray. It all seemed really strange to me. I went outside the inn, and everyone was looking at me strangely... even fearfully. I stopped two guys and asked them what had happened. They said that they didn't really remember or something, but that I had rushed into the village like a madman, swinging my sword around and even injuring my colleagues, who had gone to Lostmere because I had seriously injured Katie. I never expected this. I headed to Lostmere on Becky. At the gate, I was stopped by the guards who looked quite angry. They told me other things I had done, such as slaughtering the entire organization. I had no recollection of that either. They said they would like to arrest me, but due to my status and various circumstances, they couldn't. In the end, I decided not to join the others and went straight towards the organization, where there were supposedly some survivors. When I arrived there, there were only about 4 people left alive. As I approached, they drew their weapons, but their leader quickly signaled them to hide them. It seemed like they knew what was going on. I had a conversation with the leader, who told me that despite what I had done, he didn't hold it against me and knew exactly what I had been dealing with. He told me that they, too, had been partially under the influence of that man, and that's why I couldn't hear the truth or recognize the lies from his companion. They believed that what they were being told was the truth. He informed me that the man I eventually spared was indeed the one I was supposed to kill. He had powerful telepathic abilities, which allowed him to control anyone who believed in him. He also mentioned that the father controlled the rest of his family except for the eldest son. The only one who is truly their son is reportedly the eldest, while the girl and boy are people he controls to act as his son and daughter. His wife is supposedly his real wife, but over time, he also started to control her when they argued. This organization had apparently been hunting him for a long time, but without success. This infuriated me because I almost killed my own people because of that bastard. I returned to the tavern and took my large crossbow. Then I went back to the organization once more, and an idea struck me. I asked the leader if I had to hear him for him to control me. He answered, "Yes." So, I plugged my ears. Then I set off towards their home. When I saw it from a distance, I noticed the whole family was in the yard doing some strange warm-up exercises. I watched them for a while and finally, with my crossbow in hand, I approached them directly while nodding my head as if in agreement with whatever that man was saying. When I reached him, I pulled out my crossbow and shot him in the head. With the caliber of the bolt, his head exploded, splattering everywhere. Consequently, his control over his wife, "son," and "daughter" was broken, and the eldest son pulled out a dagger while falling to the ground. Pathetic. I cut off both his hands and feet and then fired bolts into him. He passed out from the pain. After that, I took them all on horseback. I tied the body of that man and the semi-conscious son behind the horse. I rode with them all the way to the organization's headquarters, where the leader welcomed me and said he would help me deliver them to Lostmer and explain the situation. So, together, we reached Lostmere, where they were taken over by the authorities. Finally, I rode back home.*

**Reward:** *100000 gold*

### **Big Fucking Crossbow**

*Date of entry: 30th of June 1312, 1st age*

*After that last contract, I really felt like slaughtering something big. The barman found a contract for me involving a Fiend, requested by a solitary hunter who lived in a cabin deep in the woods. The reward wasn't that great, but I didn't care. So, I took my big fucking crossbow and arrived at the hunter's cabin. I knocked on the door, and an elderly-looking hunter opened it. He said he doesn't buy any religion and then closed the door. I knocked again and showed him the contract. The guy didn't seem to be in his right mind; perhaps old age had affected his mind, as he was acting like a madman. He was past his hunting days. After some persuasion, he finally let me inside. It was a strange sight in there. He was boiling identical water in several pots and told me that when mixed, it would create the ultimate potion that could exterminate all Fiends. Eventually, he even believed that I was there for the Fiend and not to sell onions or religion. He revealed the Fiend's location, in a cave to the west. So, I headed in that direction. As I approached the cave, I saw the Fiend dragging a dead wolf inside. I wanted to shoot him right away, but I missed the chance. Instead, I made some noise near the cave entrance and then backed up Becky a bit to a tree, preparing my crossbow. The Fiend emerged, and I fired at his chest. The crossbow had such power that it knocked me off my horse. I quickly got up and prepared to shoot again, but to my surprise, I didn't have to. The Fiend lay motionless on the ground. Just to be sure, I shot him in the neck from up close. I took his head and left. I couldn't believe how good that crossbow was. I arrived back at the cabin of the crazy hunter and showed him the head through the window, proving that I wasn't selling religion or onions. Eventually, he believed me and let me in. He took the head since I didn't need it; I already had the Fiend's head. Then, out of nowhere, he took a hammer and started pounding the ground. I started to think he was dangerous. Under the floor, he had a chest full of gold coins and gave me my reward. I then set off for home. As I left, he shouted at me never to return, or he would take me down with a ballista.*

**Reward:** *25000 gold*

### **Mental Asylum**

*Date of entry: 3rd of July 1312, 1st age*

*This contract sounded really interesting; it was about a job at the asylum, not just any asylum, but the second largest one in Estren called the Lostmere Mental Institute. Over the past three weeks, 13 patients had died there. All in the same manner, but with no apparent connection between the victims. I decided not to go there as a Witcher, at least not initially. Instead, I changed my clothes and decided to enter disguised as a new recruit, a guard. The institute had its own guards because no city guards wanted to be there. Although the institute was called Lostmere's, it wasn't actually located in Lostmere. People wouldn't like having a house full of lunatics right next to their homes, so the institute was built far away from everything, in the forest. That's where I headed. When I arrived, I was surprised at how enormous it was. Even just the gardens were the size of a village. The guards greeted me at the gate, and when I announced that I was the new recruit, they escorted me inside to the reception. The receptionist disappeared for a moment and then returned with the administrator. He was more than thrilled to have new reinforcements, even though he didn't expect me at all, for obvious reasons. He took me on a tour of the entire institute while giving me some information. He provided me with equipment for the guards, a sort of cudgel for hitting, and a smaller magical wand that could paralyze. He showed me the women's and men's blocks, all four floors, dormitories, offices, cellar, locker rooms, showers, basically everything. From him, I also learned the exact cause of death for the victims, which was heart extraction. It always happened at night, without any signs of struggle or screaming. Eight men and five women had fallen victim to this. He also mentioned that the institute was built 250 years ago and that it was so old and vast that even he didn't know all the corridors. Some passageways and sections were even bricked up. Some walls were so thick and hollow that patients had used them for passage in the past. The administrator then offered me the option to live temporarily in the institute since they had their own dormitories for doctors, nurses, and guards, making things more convenient. I accepted because I wanted to be there during the night. So I started my first shift, which was in the women's block. My main task was to stay in the common room where patients spent most of their time, but I also patrolled the hallways. I was just standing there, bored, when another guard approached me, providing an opportunity for more questions. I asked about more things regarding the history of the institute and also about the current cases, but he didn't know much since he hadn't been working there for very long either. However, he told me about one person who might have more information. One of the maintenance workers had been at the institute for 60 years, which was even 20 years longer than the current administrator. However, I was on guard duty and couldn't just leave my post, so I had to wait. The guard I was talking to also advised me not to interact too much with the patients and if they asked me anything, I should tell them that their questions should be directed to the nurses. It wasn't so much a passing of the responsibility, but the guards simply weren't qualified for that. During my first shift, I had to deal with a brawl when one woman jumped on another, claiming she had "stolen her man," and I had to intervene. The rest of my shift went relatively smoothly, and in the evening, I decided to go to the cellar to meet the coroner. He couldn't tell me much more than what I already knew, and he couldn't show me the bodies either, as they had been cremated. Nonetheless, he had some useful information. He said that the hearts were extracted while the patients were still alive, which didn't explain why there were no screams during the process. It was also a very precise and exact incision, ruling out any beast or most humans as the culprits. The coroner said that such precision could only be achieved by a doctor or a surgeon. The incision into the chest and the removal of the heart were absolutely clean. Then I went to sleep, or rather, I tried to sleep. Until around two in the morning, I listened carefully in case I heard any strange noises, but I didn't hear anything unusual, so I eventually fell asleep. Early in the morning, I asked about any new victims, and a man had died somewhere on the 4th floor. There wasn't much to investigate there, so before my shift, I immediately went to talk to the maintenance worker. He told me some useful information, such as the fact that similar murders had occurred even when he was new there. Back then, it was much more brutal, with 120 deaths, including around 20 staff members. And they never caught anyone. And this was during a time when there were several Witchers around. After the 120th death, the killings just stopped. I didn't get any more information at that time. Then, it was time for my shift. This time, after a short while in the common room, the patients had a few hours of free time in the garden. This allowed me to speak with the patients directly, as they might hold the key to solving this mystery. It was quite possible that they had seen something that was killing the others, but the guards dismissed it as madness. I looked around the garden and decided whom to ask first. In the end, I attempted to question several women, mostly asking if they had seen anything otherworldly, something they considered unreal, or if the victims had seen anything before their deaths. However, it mostly led nowhere. It wasn't until one woman that I started making progress. She called herself the "best detective in the world," and apparently, that was also the reason why she was confined here. She told me that the last woman who died had some seizures the day before her death, but it was nothing that hadn't happened before. Before I could proceed further, I had to deal with another scuffle. I heard chanting, "fight, fight, fight!" coming from one corner of the garden, and other guards were already gathering there. There was a circle of women, and inside it, two women were prepared to fight against each other. I stepped in between them and threatened to paralyze them if they didn't stop. One of them eventually backed off, but the other one hit me instead, so I also managed to hit her. To my surprise, she endured the paralysis and fell only on the third attempt. The other guards took care of her, and I returned to the "detective." We continued talking for a while until we were interrupted by that troublesome woman. I was on guard because I didn't want anything to happen to this patient. She started talking about monsters, saying I had an Alghoul on my back and that the "detective" was a ghoul, and other similar things. It was really strange that this patient had such knowledge. I suspected she might be a Witcheress, but how would she end up here? Nevertheless, I managed to get her away, and I eventually asked the "detective" whom I could talk to about recent sightings that could help me. She pointed out four women. One of them was the troublemaker. As I approached her, she was doing various acrobatics and even somersaults, truly impressive. When I started talking to her, she also spoke about monsters and finally mentioned that on the night the last patient died, she heard something gracefully land in her room. However, that was all she had to offer, so I moved on. The next woman had lifeless eyes; she didn't do much, just stood there. When I started talking to her, her expression barely changed. But she was quite helpful, telling me she could hear and see all the dead in this place. Every single one of them. And it gave her a headache. Nonetheless, on the night the last patient died, she heard some specific words from the spirit world: "Take her where nobody goes." She eventually asked me to kill her, which I, of course, didn't do. I moved on to the next woman. This one was truly intriguing; she only wanted to give me information in exchange for sex. Eventually, we settled on a deal that I would do something with the staff I carried in return for the information. In the end, she didn't reveal much, mostly repeating what I had already heard from the others. Still, I upheld my end of the deal, and she seemed happy. She even called me her favorite. The last woman was the most interesting one, and she ended up helping me the most, even though she didn't speak at first and didn't even look at me. Among her first words were that I looked terrible, and she felt sorry for me, saying she couldn't bear to look at me. Not exactly flattering remarks. But then she turned around and started telling me that she also heard how they "carried away the dead patient to a place where nobody goes." However, this woman knew more. She told me that a hundred years ago, there was a fire that destroyed an entire block; all the patients there died, along with most of the staff. Over 300 people died in that incident, and one of the deceased was the head surgeon. The entity responsible for the killings is supposedly this doctor's spirit, but it is very strong and can even take on a material form. She said I should ask the administrator more questions because he knows more than he admits and should also look into the records. Finally, I asked her why she was in the asylum because she didn't seem like a madwoman; rather, she seemed like a clairvoyant. I found out that her parents put her there after she predicted her sister's death. With this information, I headed to the cellar first to search for records. There, it was written about the surgeon as a highly skilled man who took excellent care of patients and saved and healed many of them with his surgeries. However, many of his experiments didn't turn out so well... In the end, it was written there how he died during the fire, and there are words from the former administrator describing a mass grave at an undisclosed location. I had to know that undisclosed location, but I doubted anyone here would know it. Besides, the former administrator had been dead for 20 years. So, I went to the current administrator and asked him how to find out about this location. I no longer pretended to be a guard but showed him that I was a Witcher and presented the contract as proof. He told me that the former administrator has a living daughter in Lostmeru, and there might be a diary of the former administrator if he kept one. Thus, I arrived at the given address in Lostmeru and knocked on the door. An older woman, around 60 years old, opened the door. I explained to her what I was looking for, and she let me inside. She confirmed that her father indeed kept a diary and said it might be somewhere in the attic. I went upstairs and found it. I read it in front of her, so she would know everything. There were lots of records, including some from before his time at the asylum, but I wasn't interested in those. I skipped ahead to the part about the fire. He wrote about how shaken he was, what a tragedy it was, and so on. In the end, he wrote about how he had to deal with the mayor, the captain of the guards, and other people, and how the paperwork was a nightmare. He felt like the place was cursed. Eventually, he listed three possible locations to bury the bodies, but there were no exact details mentioned. I thanked the woman and wanted to keep the diary for myself, but she insisted otherwise. So, I had it copied by a scribe for a small fee. Meanwhile, I went to investigate all three locations. At the first two places, there was nothing, but at the third location, I found an enormous mass grave. I gathered some volunteers and together we dug it all up. It took the whole night, but we managed it and burned all the bones. In the morning, I returned to the asylum and found out that 13 people had died during the night. It was a tragedy, but also evidence that I was getting closer to the truth. I took one of the guards with me and asked him to show me where the burnt-out block had been bricked up. He led me to a wall, and I destroyed it with Aard, then went inside. The whole place was dusty, full of cobwebs, and charred. As soon as I entered, I could sense the presence of many souls. They were whispering to me. Finally, I found him. The dead surgeon was charred, but not completely turned to ashes, which was strange because the records indicated otherwise. In this form, he had only third-degree burns and was still wearing his doctor's coat, although torn and burnt. I used Yrden on him, but to my surprise, he completely ignored it and approached me. However, he disappeared after I swung at him. Several other ghosts appeared there and pointed me towards the showers. So, I headed in that direction. The surgeon kept reappearing multiple times in the showers. I even burned his coat, but it didn't stop him. I searched for something to halt him, but he kept appearing over and over. At one point, he managed to hit me with a scalpel, but luckily, my armor protected me. He even sent "dogs" after me, which were ghosts bound to move on all fours. Then, the clairvoyant began whispering to me. She told me that to destroy him, I needed to destroy his coat. However, the one he was wearing wasn't the real one; it was just a part of his illusion. I had to find the genuine one. I headed to the surgeon's office as it was the first place that came to mind, but I didn't find anything during the search. Then, the clairvoyant whispered to me again, saying that the real coat was in one of the lockers in the staff changing room. I immediately went there, and I knew I was on the right track because he tried very hard to prevent me from going there. However, he had nothing to stop me, so I drank a Berserker potion and aggressively ripped the locker doors until I found the charred coat inside one of them. I set it on fire, and then I saw the burning ghost right in front of me. Afterward, I returned and arranged with the Administrator to take the Clairvoyant under my care. He agreed, but she would still be considered incapable of performing normal activities and would be regarded as insane, so I would be fully responsible for her, and there would likely be a lot of paperwork, possibly even from her family. Nevertheless, the contract was completed, and I had my reward, so I headed home. On the way, the clairvoyant told me about the troublemaker back at the institute, confirming that she was indeed a Witcheress. I wonder how she ended up there.*

**Reward:** *90000 gold*

**Additional Reward:** *Copy of Warden's Journal*

### **What Ghoulery is this?!**

*Date of entry: 5th of July 1312, 1st age*

*In this contract, it was written about a huge beast that destroys everything around and kills cows. So, I expected something big, and I took my large crossbow with me. It was about a farmer who claimed that something killed all his cows, clawing and devouring them halfway. The farm was not part of any town or village, just a few houses and the farm. I arrived there and knocked on the door, but at first, they didn't want to open. I had to introduce myself and explain why I was there. The farmer looked quite frightened. He let me inside and told me more. He said he had never seen the creature, that it always killed at night, but it was definitely huge. He didn't tell me much, and since the cow carcasses were still on the farm, I went to see them. I searched for tracks and examined the corpses. The claws weren't as big as one would expect from a truly gigantic monster, so it seemed odd. Eventually, I found something really strange – I discovered cow tracks leading out of the enclosure, and what's more, there was only one set of tracks. It occurred to me that it might be some cult of people killing cows and using some disguise, at least boots, to make it look like cow hoof prints. I followed the tracks, and they led me to a dilapidated house. And when I say "dilapidated," I mean this house was really falling apart; it didn't even have a roof, and you could barely call the remains walls. Anyway, I went inside to take a look. It was completely empty, except for bugs and dust. But by sheer coincidence, there was an old sheepskin lying on the ground. I brushed it off, and underneath was a trapdoor. I opened it, and it led to a tunnel. It was quite long and led to a room. There wasn't much in it except for some candles and herbs drying on a string. I continued further along the tunnel, and then I found it – cow boots lying on the ground. I kept going through the tunnel and heard the sound of a boiling cauldron. As I approached, I could also hear light footsteps. I entered the room, ready with Quen, and in front of me stood a cloaked figure. I thought it was some cultist, and that idea was reinforced when he started speaking with a hoarse voice. However, he then removed his hood, and to my shock... it was a Ghoul. A talking Ghoul. I couldn't believe it; I thought it was just another disguise, but he kept talking and told me he was really a Ghoul, and that he became a victim of some twisted experiment where someone tried to implant consciousness into a beast. I looked at him in disgust, raised my crossbow, and splattered him against the walls. On my way back, I took the herbs and headed for my reward.*

**Reward:** *65000 gold*

### **Merchant From Far Away**

*Date of entry: 5th of July 1312, 1st age*

*This contract sounded intriguing, at least I was going to meet someone I had definitely never encountered before. It was a contract from a wealthy merchant from a distant land overseas. The only problem the merchant had was that someone stole his monkey while transporting some goods. And he was offering a reward of 100,000 gold coins for its return. So, of course, I took the job. Supposedly, his ship was docked in the port of Lostmer, so I headed there. I could see the ship from afar. It was enormous – larger than any other ship in the harbor, and truth be told, bigger than any ship I had ever seen. It occupied the space of three regular ships in the port. It was also the cleanest thing around, shining like a diamond in a sewer. Adorned with ornaments, gold, and silver. Even the sails were made of gold. I approached the gangplank guarded by two men in black attire. When I reached them, they behaved exactly as I expected – haughty and condescending. But I had nothing to prove to such snobs. I told them the reason for my visit, and they let me through. On the ship, there were many others dressed similarly to the two guards, some even adorned with purple trims. I approached one of them and explained why I was there. Reluctantly, he led me to the merchant who was sitting in a massive room. Everything in that room seemed to be worth more than everything I owned combined. And so did the merchant himself, wearing a gilded robe, looking regal enough to be a king or a prince, but he was just a merchant. We talked for a while, and to my surprise, he wasn't nearly as arrogant as his crew. I could have a normal conversation with him. He told me more about the monkey, what exactly happened, where it disappeared, and whom he suspected. Of course, he suspected a local motive, and I couldn't blame him, as I did too. He said he would send one of his people with me to show me the exact location. After leaving the ship, accompanied by a well-prepared companion, we went to the warehouse where they were unloading the cargo. I found the tracks of their carriage and looked for clues that might give me some information. Eventually, I came across some interesting tracks. They had a unique ornament on the soles and were relatively fresh. I followed them, and they led me to a tavern. At first, I just observed the surroundings and then went to talk to the innkeeper. I wanted to use Axii on the innkeeper, as it would be quicker, but there were too many people around, so I simply asked him if he had seen anything suspicious lately. Fortunately, he had no issues with it and immediately told me about a strange guy dressed in black who had been walking around with a monkey in a cage. He gave me the room number and handed me the key. I headed upstairs. Before entering the room, I listened at the door and heard some ritualistic sounds and other strange noises. When I unlocked the door and burst inside, I was horrified. I saw a naked man engaged in a disturbing act with the decapitated monkey. The room was covered in blood, and there was a pentagram drawn on the floor. Black clothes were scattered around him. I felt the urge to kill him, but I assumed he needed to be alive, so I quickly used Axii on him. I instructed him to get dressed, place the monkey's body back in the cage, take it, and then I led him away with my sword at his back. I escorted him back to the ship where everyone looked at him with disgust. I brought him back to the merchant. As I expected, the merchant looked shocked and even teary-eyed. I thought they might try to execute me too, but then the merchant surprised me once again. He understood everything and handed me the reward. As I was leaving, I saw them decapitating the culprit on the ship's deck.*

**Reward:** *100000 gold*

### **A Witch and a Witcher**

*Date of entry: 7th of July 1312, 1st age*

*This sounded interesting. In a certain town, they wanted to solve the problem of an area allegedly controlled by a dark aura - supposedly, anyone who entered it immediately fell ill. This aura was said to be the result of a battle between a Witcher and a Sorceress. Someone had previously taken a contract to deal with the Sorceress, and a certain Witcher accepted it, fought her, their spells clashed, resulting in an explosion, and the affected area was the only thing that remained. All the grass and vegetation withered there. Most people, including the mayor of the nearest town, who had originally issued the contract, wanted to leave it be. However, the local captain of the guard wanted to get rid of it for good, so he issued this new contract. First, I headed to the town to meet with the captain of the guard. He provided me with some information, telling me who witnessed the incident so that I could question those who saw it firsthand. I also asked about the affected area, and he confirmed that indeed, anyone who entered it fell ill with a fever. That sounded quite unusual. I decided to take a look at the area first. As soon as I entered, I felt slightly nauseous, but it didn't affect me as much as it did normal people. Everything there was withered, and there was a crumbling hut. Then I headed to the nearest village where the witnesses were supposed to be. I spoke with everyone there and gathered information. Apparently, the sorceress had been living there for some time, and when the villagers learned about her, they tried to capture her themselves. However, she killed 60 of them and reduced their bodies to dust, not a single bone remained. Then they sent a Witcher after her, and that's how it all ended. I went back to the affected area and searched it thoroughly. In the middle, right at the site of the explosion, I found a small hole. It was really tiny, not even a hare or a ghoul could fit in it. However, it felt like the hole had to mean something. I activated Quen, and then used Aard below me. I started sinking into the ground, and around me, a clay tornado started forming. I panicked a bit and used Yrden, but it didn't do anything at all. Then, I just waited to see what would happen because apparently, there was nothing else I could do. Eventually, I found myself in some kind of tunnel. It was made of stone, and there were torches on the sides, so I took one and proceeded through the tunnel. It took some time before I reached a room, and it was almost empty.* So, except for one thing, next to the wall, there was a Witcher nailed to the wall with a stalactite through his chest. Moreover, he was missing his arms, he was already dead. I took everything useful from him. There was nothing else in the room, so I continued through the tunnel. But after about 15 minutes, I found myself back in the same room where I was before, and there were no side passages. I really didn't understand it; it must have been some kind of illusion. I started searching the room. I heard some faint movements and breathing in the room, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. Eventually, I decided to burn the body of the Witcher. Suddenly, something in the air caught fire; it was like the air itself was burning. However, after a while, everything around me started to reveal its true form. There were many candles and, most importantly, what was burning was a curtain above the passage to the next room. I went through the passage, and at the end, there was a half-dead sorceress with a sword in her chest. She was alive but looked quite defeated. *I had a conversation with her for a while, and I found out that this sorceress had never harmed anyone. She had been living peacefully in her hut, and when the villagers found out about her, they naturally started gathering people to kill her, and she was only defending herself. I also learned that the Witcher's sword was coated with a certain poison, and it was more likely that the poison, rather than the wound in her chest, would kill her. I asked about the infected area above. She told me that she could heal it, but in her current state, she wouldn't be able to manage it, and she believed that she would die soon. Without her healing, it could take decades for the area to heal on its own, and there was no guarantee it would even happen. I had to consider my options carefully. I probably wouldn't have received the reward if I had returned and said that it might fix itself in a few decades. I had to take action. I asked the sorceress if there was any way to prolong her life until we found a better way to heal her. Eventually, she reluctantly admitted that she had ingredients to close the wound caused by the sword, but nothing to counteract the poison. She also warned me that the wound closure was only a temporary solution, and after about 30 minutes, once the potion wore off, she would die immediately. I prepared the potion following her instructions, applied it to her wound, and let her drink some of it. Then I carried her and hurried back to the village, and from there, I set off to find Grodlick. I rushed into the tavern with the sorceress. Lansa and Grodlick were there, and I quickly started explaining the situation to them. Lansa went to find out what kind of poison it was, while Grodlick searched for some medicinal remedies. They both returned almost at the same time when she had only about 5 minutes left. Grodlick frantically mixed a curative potion, while Lansa prepared the antidote. In the end, they were ready, they poured it into her wound, and she had to drink some of it. Then we just waited. After a few minutes, she stood up. We were a bit apprehensive at first, fearing she might attack us, but thankfully, she kept her promise. After several tens of minutes, she mounted a horse with me, and we rode back to the infected area, which she slowly healed. Then, she started to panic a bit because she had nowhere to go, no home, and was essentially a fugitive. So, almost casually, I offered her to stay with us, and after some time, she decided to accept the offer. Eventually, I only went to collect my reward.*

**Reward:** *60000 gold*

### **Village Massacre**

*Date of entry: 9th of July 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was intriguing and quite morbid... One village lost about half of its population overnight. No one saw or heard anything. The reward offered was quite high, so I decided to take it. I was also warned that this was a really big thing, and there would be interest from other Witchers and Bounty Hunters, so I wasted no time. I walked there, and when I arrived, I witnessed the horror. Dozens of bodies were hanging from the trees all around the village. There were indeed many people present, including guards from Lostmer and probably other towns. I saw some Bounty Hunters, but no other Witchers. I immediately started asking questions to gather information. I inquired about the village's guards and whether anyone was on duty that night. Unfortunately, all the guards from that night were dead. I searched for more guards and found out that about a week ago, some strange character had been lurking around the village, observing it from a distance. They drove him away, but they didn't pursue him further. I continued to explore the bodies. All the corpses had bruised ankles and no other signs of a struggle. They looked as if they were from the previous night, but something seemed off about them, their eyes were empty. When I examined them closer, I noticed large faded scars on their chests, each body had one. When I cut them open, the insides looked as if they had been dead for much longer. Moreover, all the organs, bones, and blood were missing. There was nothing inside. I began to suspect that perhaps all those people were already dead, and their shells were just moving around. So, I went back to the village and found some locals to inquire further. I asked about things like whether their loved ones had eaten, slept, and other similar details in the past week. Some of them didn't know because it had become such an automatic activity, they didn't even notice if anyone did them. However, one woman told me that she was quite certain her children had last eaten a week ago, and she hadn't seen them or her husband eat since then. That only strengthened my theory about the corpses. Nevertheless, I still had to find out who did it and why. I asked the guards again if there was any building or hiding spot in the direction where they last saw the man a week ago, but they couldn't give me any useful information. So, I asked a local hunter; he might have a better idea of what was around. He only mentioned an abandoned lumberjack camp, so I headed there. As I was leaving, I heard two other bounty hunters sneaking behind me. They probably wanted a share of the reward, which didn't sit well with me, but I let them be. When I saw the camp, something felt very odd about it. There was a faint mist surrounding it, and a strange green aura. As I got closer, the aura started to hum strangely. In the camp, there were three huts, so I searched through each of them, and in all of them, I found disgusting totems made of blood, entrails, and bones. I tried to destroy them with Aard, but they surprisingly proved to be quite sturdy. Only when I cut one with my sword did it fall to the ground. As I went to sever the second one, I saw the two other bounty hunters suddenly fighting each other. It seemed really strange, but I decided not to intervene. When I destroyed the second totem and came out again, both bounty hunters were dead. I severed the third totem, but not much happened. After thinking for a while, I decided to set the huts on fire using Igni. Then, a figure appeared where the two bounty hunters had died, just staring at me. I didn't pay much attention to him and continued burning the huts. He started talking to me about how he couldn't let me do it while allowing me to do it; I didn't quite understand, but I didn't ask. It wasn't until I burned the last hut that I realized it hadn't affected him much, and he pulled out a weapon. He was peculiar, dressed in Witcher-like armor and carrying weapons, but his appearance... He had the same green aura around him, green eyes, and almost looked undead. During the fight, I dealt heavy damage to him; I even cut off his hand almost at the beginning, but it simply grew back. Nothing seemed to work on him. I tried Yrden, but it simply exploded when he stepped into it. I also used Igni on him, but he just disappeared for a moment and then materialized again. He once struck my thigh, and I couldn't even heal it, only bandage it, because the healing potion caused a burning sensation. I attempted to use his sword, but when I held it for a while, it started to burn me too. Eventually, he dealt me a quite hard blow, stabbing his sword deep into my side. I managed to pull it out, and despite the pain, I simply cut him down. Although he materialized again, he didn't have such a strong aura around him, and his eyes stopped glowing. I severed his hands again, and this time, although they grew back, they were rotten. He started applauding, and pieces of his hands flew off his body. For some reason, he told me his name during the fight and said that I should ask about him in one of the fortresses in No Man's Land. He also mentioned during the battle that he needed those totems to create an army, whatever that was supposed to mean. I didn't know what to make of it, but he was gone, and my task was fulfilled, so I went to claim my reward.*

**Reward:** *100000 gold*

### **Baron's Daughter**

*Date of entry: 10th of July 1312, 1st age*

*Grodlick called us for this task; it was a contract that all of us were supposed to take, well, I say all, but some couldn't make it. I went along with Grodlick, Lansa, Kellen, and Katie. Silvie was still far from being in any condition to do anything. It was meant to be a secret mission because it involved the daughter of a Baron from one of the fortresses. The Baron didn't want anyone to know that his daughter had disappeared. Even we were not supposed to know, but Grodlick had connections. The Baron secretly invited various people from his circles, including paladins, but no one found anything. However, his general and captains began seeking help elsewhere because the Baron looked as if he were barely alive without his daughter. He spent his days in silence, sitting in his office, not giving any orders or anything. So, his own army needed him to snap out of it; otherwise, he wouldn't be fit for the position he held. I think that under normal circumstances, they would have already overthrown him or called someone competent to get rid of him, but from what I learned, he is otherwise a good and respected person, so that might be why they tolerated him. We set off towards the fortress. It was the first time I had been to such a place and also the closest I had ever been to No Man's Land. In the fortress, the General welcomed us and provided some information. He said that the Baron might not greet us very well, and he might even kick us out. However, at his request, we were to investigate, and even if the Baron didn't change his mind about the reward, he would still pay us from his own funds. Then he led us straight to the Baron. The Baron was sitting somberly behind his desk, writing something. When he realized who we were, he immediately told his guards to throw us out, but we managed to convince him to let us stay. We thoroughly explained our intentions, and he pondered over it. Eventually, he agreed to let us find his daughter and promised to reward us on the condition that we never tell anyone about it, and he took that seriously. He even made us sign a contract about it. We had to wait for about an hour as the contract had to be prepared and even enchanted to have a magical bond with the written content. Then we all signed it and gained access to the entire fortress so that we could find his daughter as effectively as possible. We split up, and I went to speak first with one of the Captains of the guards, to inquire about who was on duty on the night of the disappearance. It seemed really strange to me that no one knew anything and heard nothing about it. One of the Captains confirmed it to me and then gave me a list of all the guards who were on duty that night. I then went to her room to check it out. There, Lansa and Ophelia were already inspecting it. They said they didn't find much except clear signs of a struggle. There were claw marks on the walls and even small pieces of them embedded in the walls and floor. I couldn't understand how someone could have missed this. Then, on the bedsheet inside the wardrobe, there were faint traces of blood. I returned to the Captain of the guards, and he gave me the prepared list of all the guards, narrowing it down to those who were currently in the fortress. I asked if he knew whether all these people had eaten, drunk, and done other normal activities since that time, but he had no idea. However, he suggested that the cook might have some clues, so I headed to the kitchen. The cook couldn't help me completely because he usually doesn't remember names and faces, but out of around 25 people, he could recall 5 who he knew hadn't eaten. I went looking for them. I found one of them and, again, discovered a scar on his chest. I brought him to Grodlick and explained the situation. Grodlick immediately started gathering information, and I set out to find the others. I found the second one and immediately sent him to Grodlick, then continued searching for the third person. When I found the third one and sent him to Grodlick as well, he suddenly collapsed and died on the spot. I quickly ran to Grodlick, where I saw the guard writhing in spasms. It seemed that Katie and Grodlick were keeping him alive somehow They were preparing a spell. Katie explained that it was a tracking spell and that when he died, they would be able to trace the source of what caused all this. Finally, the spell was completed, and a plant grew out of the guard's body. Katie told us to take as many leaves as possible, as they acted like a kind of magnet and would guide us in the direction we needed to go. So we each took several leaves, gathered the rest of the people, and set off in the direction it pulled us. It led us deep into the forest until we came across a large hole. It wasn't exactly a cave, tomb, or anything like that, more like a chasm. We used ropes to descend, and when we were all down there, it didn't look like a natural cave at all. Clearly, it was man-made. We proceeded through a long corridor until we reached the first room. There wasn't much in it, except for two hanged bodies. We continued on and came across a crossroad. This time, we decided not to split up and went left first, then right, and finally continued straight. The paths on the left and right were dead ends with hanged bodies, nothing more. At the end of the last path, we entered a large hall, and in the middle stood a figure above a table where a woman lay. The woman had a sword impaled in her, but there was no blood flowing. Instead, her blood was suspended in the air above her. At first, I thought it might be the same person as yesterday, but he looked different and didn't have that aura around him. He drew his sword against us, but he didn't stand a chance against all of us. With the help of my large crossbow, I practically shot off his entire arm, and the others finished him off. Finally, I shot his head, which splattered everywhere. We recognized the girl as Baron's daughter, but we didn't know what to do with that sword. Eventually, we simply pulled it out, and I quickly healed the wound that started to bleed. Then, we carried her unconscious body outside and back to Baron. And then we left with a hefty reward.*

**Reward:** *180000 gold*

### **Missing Potatoes**

*Date of entry: 12th of July 1312, 1st age*

*In this case, some farmer was experiencing the disappearance of potatoes and other farm produce. Normally, I wouldn't take such a case, but it was said that the disappearances were happening under peculiar circumstances, so I decided to investigate. The farm wasn't far away, so the journey didn't take long. When I arrived, I understood why they were willing to pay so much to solve the mystery of the vanishing potatoes. It was a truly vast farm with numerous fields and livestock. Many people were working there, and the property itself was enormous. I found the owner of the farm and began discussing his problem. He led me to the cellar where the produce was going missing. The storage room was large, and he told me that it wasn't just potatoes disappearing, although they were the most affected. Other vegetables and grains were also vanishing. I asked if it could be one of his employees, but he insisted that he trusted all of them and that hardly anyone had access to the cellar. Then I inquired about the timing of the disappearances, and he said they occurred during the night. Though I wasn't entirely convinced that none of the employees were involved, I decided to search the place thoroughly. I went through the cellar multiple times but found nothing. I was about to give up and ask the people outside when, in the corner of the room, I discovered a strange powder. There wasn't much of it, scattered on the walls and the floor. It was orange, and I couldn't understand its purpose. I tried manipulating it in various ways, using Igni and Aard, but it didn't react. I didn't know what to do next, so I decided to wait there until nightfall, hoping something would happen. I began meditating, and when darkness fell, I drank Cat potion to enhance my senses. I waited and waited until I noticed the orange powder stirring in the corner of the room. Suddenly, a small purple figure appeared. It quickly collected some of the produce and vanished again. So, the orange powder seemed to be related to teleportation. It appeared that it hadn't noticed me, so I went to the corner and tried to teleport with the powder, but it didn't work. I was about to give up, assuming it wouldn't return that night, but I decided to stay until morning. My patience paid off when it reappeared later in the night, and this time, I managed to catch it. However, it teleported away, and I was taken with it. We ended up in an underground location with nothing but the thing. I realized that this creature couldn't be some mindless monster, so I started speaking to it. It revealed itself as a Godling, an ancient magical being capable of many tricks. I asked why it was stealing and it told me that it needed food for the orphans it had found in the forest, as it wanted to care for them. I asked why the Godling didn't simply take the orphans to the town or somewhere safe, but it seemed not to understand. According to its standards, it had found them, and so it felt responsible for their well-being. However, I hadn't seen any orphans around, so I started having doubts. Although I hadn't shown them to the Godling yet, I wanted to verify if he indeed had any children with him. In the end, I told the Godling that I would help him find food, money, and shelter for the orphans. As I gained his trust, he snapped his fingers, and the illusion around us disappeared. I realized that the place wasn't just a clay hole, as it mostly seemed before. There was furniture, carpets, shelves, and most importantly... several orphans. I told the Godling that I would provide him with money, food, and even let him stay in one of my houses, but he must stop stealing. It appeared that he liked the idea, and he agreed not to steal anymore, thanking me for my help. I went to claim my reward afterward.*

**Reward:** *60000 gold*

### **Amnesia**

*Date of entry: 13th of July 1312, 1st age*

*I was offered this contract before the one with the farmer, but I wasn't too keen on taking it. However, in the end, I decided to go for it. It concerned an estate where a woman lived alone with her servants since her husband had passed away. I was told that the estate was in decline because, after her husband's death, she couldn't get more money. She didn't work and couldn't manage her finances, so everything was going downhill. Nevertheless, things were much worse now. The servants in the estate were dying, and what was even more troubling, nobody inside the estate remembered these deaths. Everyone only remembered the first death. The others were known only thanks to the guards from Lostmere who were investigating the initial death. They noticed that more servants were missing, but nobody inside the estate was aware of any additional staff. This led to the discovery that several others had died. Even after this revelation, nobody inside the estate remembered, and they had to rely on the information from the guards. As I approached the estate, I could indeed see its state of decay. The garden looked like it hadn't been cared for in a long time, and overall, the whole place appeared dirty. Someone from the staff stopped me at the door, but I showed them the contract, and they let me in. Inside, it looked slightly better than outside, but only slightly. It was still visibly neglected. I climbed up the stairs and was directed towards the lady of the estate. When I saw her, she looked visibly stressed and pale. You could tell that she knew what was likely awaiting her with this decaying estate, and now, this situation with the staff. I asked her a few questions about the servants and the incidents, just to make sure what I was told matched reality - and it did. She also couldn't remember anything about the staff except for the first woman's death. I used Axii on her, but even then, she couldn't remember anything. However, she told me about another maid who had found the body of the first one and that she might know more or be able to help. With that information, I went to find the mentioned maid. I found her while she was dusting the windows. I forgot to mention earlier that there were originally 15 servants, but in this situation, only 13 remained, counting the first death that was known, and the second death that nobody inside was aware of. I was a bit worried that this could be another case involving a demon, as I seem to have a stroke of bad luck in these situations. I greeted the maid and told her what I needed. She then showed me the room where she found the body, but she didn't remember it very well; she had suppressed the memory. I had a solution for that. I used Axii, and then she told me everything. She recounted that she was cleaning when she noticed a partially open door to one of the rooms. Curious, she peeked inside and saw a dead servant lying on the bed with a dagger in her chest and a figure standing beside her. She started screaming and ran away. When the others came to the room, there was no figure or dagger to be found. However, still under the influence of Axii, she mentioned something strange – that there were still 14 servants in the house and acknowledged that two of them had died. I inquired about the fourteenth person, and she told me about a woman who usually works in the cellar. I asked her to lead me there, and she did. As we descended the stairs, I heard something. It was dark in the cellar, and I took advantage of that. I instructed her to talk to the woman but not to mention me. While they walked to the other side of the cellar, I approached from a distance. The woman looked strange, as if her form wasn't real. When I was close enough, I threw my sword into her stomach, and she fell to the ground. She lay there, but as I checked to see if she was alive, I heard something approaching me from behind. However, there was nothing there. I simply threw Igni into the corridor, and when I saw the burning silhouette, I impaled it with my sword, and it was over. Then I just went to collect my reward.*

**Reward:** *55000 gold*

### **Unexpected outcome**

*Date of entry: 14th of July 1312, 1st age*

*This contract was interesting because usually it's the husband who dies, not the wife. However, in this case, the widower requested help to solve the murder of his wife by a mysterious monster. It happened in a large house not far from Lostmeru. When I arrived, a slightly frightened man opened the door and invited me inside. I asked him to describe the situation in more detail. He told me that they were just relaxing in the living room that evening when someone suddenly burst through the door. He went to check it out first, and some massive monster threw him aside and then killed his wife before fleeing, without stealing anything or harming him further. He described it as a creature with claws, horns, and human-like legs. With such a description, I had no idea what it could be. I searched the house but found nothing, so I went outside to try and find some clues. To my surprise, I found giant boot prints right in front of the house. They weren't as deep as I would have expected from such a massive creature. Still, I had no idea what it could be. The footprints led into the forest, and I followed them until I came across a campfire and a tent. It seemed odd that a monster would be camping in the middle of the forest, let alone with a tent. In the camp, I didn't find much except for a bag full of heads inside the tent. It appeared that the creature had left the camp, so I decided to ambush it. I climbed a tree nearby and waited. I waited until nightfall, and only then did I see a large figure approaching. However, as it got closer, I noticed that it didn't have horns or claws. It looked like a normal person, well, a normal two-meter-tall person, and he had two swords with him. Nonetheless, it didn't change the fact that he killed the man's wife, but I decided to talk to him first before considering killing him. When he was right by the campfire, I jumped down, and it was clear that he didn't expect me, but he didn't react in any particular way, nor did he draw his swords. I asked him about what happened and why he killed a random man's wife. His answer surprised me; he revealed that the man's wife was actually a succubus, and he himself was a Doppler. However, he didn't know that she was a succubus, and he hadn't done anything wrong, so he didn't kill him. Nevertheless, his wife had killed many people, so he dealt with her in this manner. I wasn't sure what to do because this Witcher hadn't done anything wrong, and he even seemed to have done the right thing. However, I was paid to kill what killed his wife. In the end, he resolved the situation himself. He offered me to take the head from his bag, hand it over to him, and claim the reward. So I thanked him and did exactly that.*

**Reward:** *40000 gold*

### **A Voyage**

*Date of entry: 22nd of July 1312, 1st age*

*A message arrived from Lostmere. Several merchant ships, including one armed escort vessel, had gone missing at sea. My first thought was a storm, but that was ruled out; there shouldn't have been any in their route. It was assumed that either something large attacked them from the skies or the sea. The possibility of pirates existed, but surprisingly, it was considered the least likely scenario. We were all supposed to take on this contract—Grodlick, Lansa, Kellen, Katie, and even Silvia, who decided to join us after a long time. The preparations were to take one more day day, so we got ready, and the following day, we set out for the Lostmere harbor. It was bustling with activity, swarming with people. I met with the Captain of the Guard who was organizing the mission, and he informed me that besides us, several other individuals would sail with us. Apart from the necessary crew for maintaining the ship, there were a few additional fighters, mainly from the guards. Furthermore, an extra assistance vessel was designated to sail with us, carrying soldiers directly from the royal army. There were still some last-minute preparations in the harbor, and then we finally set sail. The voyage was supposed to last several days until we reached the location where the ships were last seen, thanks to some device that provided mages in Lostmer with their last known location. The journey was peaceful, but on the fourth day, an unexpected storm hit. Some were frightened, fearing it might sink our ships, but luckily, that didn't happen. However, the storm persisted throughout the entire voyage. Finally, we arrived at the spot where all those ships had sunk. There was nothing left on the surface, no wreckage, nothing. Both ships anchored, but they still rocked heavily. Then, we waited. After a while, we started to believe that nothing would come, but then I glanced away for a moment, and where one crew member stood before, suddenly no one was there. There was no place for him to hide so quickly. I became more vigilant and closely observed the movement on the ship. Then, out of nowhere, I saw someone from the crew being impaled by a trident-like weapon and pulled overboard into the water. I peered over the railing into the water from all sides, searching for whatever it was, but I couldn't find anything. Then, finally, the creature appeared on deck. It was a monster like none I had ever seen before. It looked like some kind of reptile but with arms and claws, yet it had no legs; it moved by crawling on its tail, standing upright at about 2 meters tall. In its hands, it held a trident, and it looked truly hideous. I immediately rushed towards it and began to fight. It had quite tough skin, but after a few attempts, I managed to pierce through it. Once I wounded it, the creature retreated back into the water. After a while, more of them climbed onto the ship - four on one side and three on the other, with one of them being larger. Grodlick, Lansa, and I decided to take care of the three together. Surprisingly, we easily killed the two smaller ones, but the third was larger, perhaps over 3 meters tall, and it had armor. Lansa was the first to attack, but as he got closer, the creature swatted him overboard with a single hit. We didn't have time to check if Lansa was okay, so Grodlick and I immediately attacked the creature. We managed to land several strikes, but the Signs didn't seem to work well against it. Then, it stabbed me directly in the thigh, but we eventually killed it, and I healed my wound. Only then did we look into the water, searching for Lansa, but he was nowhere to be found. The sea was still stormy, and the waves were massive. I looked towards the other ship, but in the rain, I couldn't even see it. On the other side of our ship, they had also dealt with those creatures. They found more of them, including one that appeared to be some kind of mage; at least he carried a staff with an orb. I drank a Berserk potion and ran straight towards him. I didn't look back, but when I got too close, he used some kind of spell that knocked me back almost the entire length of the ship. And by the time I got back there, he was already gone, along with most of the others. All of those creatures returned to the water and never resurfaced. I managed to collect a few of their heads. Then we waited for the storm to calm down, and finally, we saw the second ship. It had lost both masts, and only two people out of about twenty survived. We took them aboard our ship. However, Lansa still hadn't appeared, even after the storm had passed. Although we waited for a few hours, we couldn't wait indefinitely, and so we sailed without him...*

**Reward:** *200000 gold*

### **Second time's the charm**

*Date of entry: 23rd of July 1312, 1st age*

*It was time for revenge. I had taken this contract before, but I didn't succeed. Well, technically, I did succeed, but I couldn't kill the creature I wanted to. It was that icy skeleton from the cursed crypt. Last time, I couldn't kill it and barely escaped with my life. However, this time, I had better equipment, and I could even get paid directly for its death, so I set out on the journey. I knew the way, and I still remembered the inside of that tomb. As I approached, the cold grew more and more intense. Then, I saw that room. At the far end, that bastard was sitting, unmoving, frozen. When I entered the room, he started to rise and took his hammer in hand. He immediately used his magic, just like before, summoning a snowstorm that blinded everything. I hugged the wall, waiting for his attack. Eventually, his hammer flew towards me, and I dodged it, counterattacking. However, it seemed that I didn't inflict any damage. He attacked me several times, but I managed to evade each one, yet it couldn't be said that I was doing any significant damage either. In the end, I used Aard to momentarily break the storm, and I saw him again. I threw my sword at him several times, and he summoned it back, but this time it seemed like I did something. Then, he concealed himself within the storm once more. I continued evading each of his attacks until the time came to use Aard again. This time, I didn't hesitate, and I attacked him relentlessly with the Berserk potion, even using Igni, whether it would work or not. Eventually, I managed to pierce his armor and cut him, and it seemed to be his end. I claimed my prize, and this time, I emerged from the battle as the victor.*

**Reward:** *180000 gold*

### **Piece of Cake**

*Date of entry: 23rd of July 1312, 1st age*

*Contracts in the vicinity of Lostmer were starting to run out, so I went to see the deputy of the mayor if he had any small job for me. After browsing through some files, he indeed had something. Bandits had raided a caravan with goods on one of the roads between Lostmer and a fortress, and my task was to find them, eliminate them, and return the stolen goods. Thus, I set out on the path and headed straight to the location marked on the map where the incident occurred. It wasn't too far, so I went on foot. I reached the designated spot and from there, it wasn't difficult to follow the tracks into the woods. There shouldn't have been too many bandits, but they were said to have some combat experience. However, they didn't stand a chance against me. When I arrived, I didn't even bother with sneaking around this time. I rushed right into their midst and started cutting them down without hesitation until there was hardly anyone left. They had many horses, some money, and the stolen goods. I had to return the goods, but I decided to keep the horses and the money for myself.*

**Reward:** *65000 gold*

### **Escort Mission**

*Date of entry: 30th of July 1312, 1st age*

*The last few days, I haven't been doing much, just training, either alone or with the others, but otherwise, nothing much was happening, and the contracts in the area were running out. On the contrary, there were a lot of things happening in Lostmere. Corrupt captains of the guard were exposed, along with the guards under them, and the army arrested them. Just a day later, illegal arenas emerged, leading to many more arrests. Let me mention one event more specifically, which is related to this contract. The champion of one of those arenas, who, by the way, was the only one who defeated me, was also captured, and it turned out she was a highly sought-after and dangerous assassin. They were going to transport her for execution straight to the capital city. And how does it relate? Well, after a few days of this happening, a patrol from the army arrived at the village where we live. I didn't know what was going on until I saw a familiar face, Henrik. I couldn't understand why he came with an army escort since he was the Captain of the Guard, but I was glad to see him. Later, he told me that he had been promoted - he became a captain in the army. He mentioned how I had inspired him to do more than what was required and not overlook things that could be resolved, and it paid off for him. Now he had a job from his superiors. During the escort of the aforementioned assassin named Lilith, something happened. Along the way, her escort of about 20 people, including one officer, had to report at individual checkpoints, each a few hours apart. The problem arose when one night, the escort reported at Checkpoint 8 but didn't show up at Checkpoint 9, which was just before an enormous chasm they had to cross. Henrik and his own escort were assigned to follow their trail and find out what happened. He thought of asking me to help him, and of course, I accepted. For about an hour, his men prepared themselves, giving me time to prepare as well, and then we set out. The entire escort rode on horses, and along the way, I asked for more details. I found out that the escort consisted of two wagons. One wagon had the officer sitting on it, and inside the wagon were secured the weapons of the assassin, Lilith. It was guarded by four soldiers. The second wagon was a prisoner wagon where Lilith sat, her hands bound with magical restraints and her legs with ordinary ones. We reached the first checkpoint and asked if everything had gone as planned. They said yes - the restraints were checked, and everything was reported correctly. I looked around a bit, but I didn't find anything unusual. The monotony continued after each checkpoint, with the same events and the same answers. Occasionally, I asked if anyone had noticed anything suspicious, but no one had. It was at the 6th checkpoint, while I was scanning the surroundings, that I found something. On the ground in the grass, I discovered a tiny piece of metal, a link from a chain. I showed it to the others, and we continued on. We reached the 8th checkpoint, which was supposed to be the last one. The only thing they mentioned as unusual, which they had noted at the previous checkpoint as well, was that Lilith walked strangely, shuffling her feet and keeping them together. If my assumption was correct, she managed to break the chain around her legs, which could have been the reason for her peculiar gait, so that no one would notice. In any case, now the enormous chasm awaited us. Henrik told me that the chasm was not as old as one might think compared to the rest of the world. It was "only" about 1000 years old when a massive earthquake struck the area, causing the entire city that stood in that location to collapse. It's a truly massive area, and to cross it, you have to go over a series of precarious bridges. It takes almost an hour to get through. We left the horses at the checkpoint, and someone would take them around the ravine. We proceeded on foot. After about an hour, we arrived there. And it was indeed as enormous as they said. Small wooden bridges led across the entire chasm. We stepped onto the first one, and it immediately started swaying. We walked cautiously and slowly. We crossed the first bridge and then proceeded to the next ones. We had crossed about three bridges when we noticed a small, dilapidated house on a piece of rock between the bridges. I was surprised that such a thing was even there. But it couldn't be called a proper house; it had no roof and hardly any walls. I looked inside, but there was nothing there. We wanted to move on to the next bridge, but to our horror, there was none. Only a pole to which it had been tied. I started to look around, and I noticed dried blood and hanging ropes leading downwards. And when I looked carefully, I saw numerous lifeless bodies at the bottom of the chasm. So, this is what happened. The bridge beneath them collapsed. Well, our mission was not over, as we had to at least find out if anyone survived and, if possible, confirm the death of the Officer and Lilith. The escort came prepared, and we had some ropes to help us get down. I descended first and immediately began searching the area. Everywhere, there were broken and bloodied bodies—it was a gruesome sight. I also found a locked chest where I assumed the confiscated weapons were stored. When the others climbed down, I asked how many bodies there were supposed to be. There should have been 25, but after counting, we only found 20 bodies. So we started looking around, and I found two bodies in different places that seemed like they didn't die immediately after the fall but were now lifeless. As I was circling one of the bodies again, it grabbed my ankle. One of the soldiers was still alive. The medics in our party quickly started treating him. We needed to find out what he knew. For a while, he didn't say anything, just stared at us in shock. But eventually, he started talking. He told us about how they were crossing the bridge with Lilith, and everything was going relatively well until they reached the bridge where they now lay. Lilith began to resist more and more until she revealed that her feet were free, and she started kicking at everyone. She even kicked two people off the bridge and down into the chasm before the bridge collapsed. As they avoided all the soldiers' attacks, one of them accidentally cut both ropes of the bridge, causing it to collapse. It became evident that the officer and Lilith fell as well, but their bodies were not found. So I began to look more closely. Eventually, I found another body, but this one didn't seem to have died from the fall. It was quite far from the impact site and had a sword in its chest. From there, blood trailed away. I followed it, with Henrik and half of our escort behind me, while the other half stayed with the injured soldier and kept watch over him. We navigated through the narrow alleys; it was like a maze made of stone. Fortunately, we had a clear trail to follow. Along the way, we found a suspicious key, which probably belonged to the mentioned chest. Finally, we arrived at a small clearing where, to our surprise, we found a monastery. None of us could believe it—how could there be a monastery in such a place? It didn't even appear to be in such bad condition. The trail led inside, so we followed it. The tracks led to the far end of the monastery, where there was a blocked hole with a boulder. I used Aard to move it, and we continued further. Behind the monastery, there was another stone street, and after a while, we came across a cave. However, the tracks didn't lead into it; instead, other tracks led out of it. They were enormous tracks that even dug into the stone. The blood led us to a larger area of nothingness, where there was much more blood and a broken sword. The tracks then led more chaotically further into a small cave. It wasn't that small, but whatever was making those deep tracks into the stone likely couldn't fit inside. We entered the cave, and for a while, we heard nothing. Eventually, we heard the echo of some moaning. We hurried, and there we found Lilith and the officer sitting next to each other, leaning against the wall. The officer was motionless, while Lilith was writhing in pain. It seemed she no longer had her hands bound together, but the officer had tied her hand to his own. We asked her what happened, staying cautious. She told us about how she survived and tried to escape. However, a soldier quickly pursued her, and she managed to kill him with his own sword. But then the officer appeared, and before she could draw the sword from the soldier, he subdued her and tied her to himself, pulling her away. Both were severely injured, but what was even worse was that they were suddenly being pursued by stone goblins. They wanted to kill them. They didn't have the means to fight them, so they ran until they found the monastery. However, the stone goblins kept coming after them even there. Fortunately, they found a hole at the back and crawled through it, blocking the entrance. They rested for a while until something much worse started pursuing them. It was made of stone but was massive, armored, and had four legs, with a head resembling some sort of vulture-like scavenger. They ran until they reached a clearing, where the officer attempted to fight it, but it ended up severely injuring him and breaking his sword. He was still conscious and dragged her into this cave, where he eventually passed out, and they've been sitting like that ever since. I had no intention of helping her; she was responsible for this whole situation. However, the others helped her to her feet because they couldn't just leave her there, especially with the officer tied to her, and the key to the restraints apparently swallowed by him. So, they lifted her along with him, and about four people carried them. Lilith only needed to be held under her arms. We walked as quickly as the situation allowed, but eventually, I heard heavy footsteps in the distance. We quickened our pace. We passed through the monastery, and the footsteps grew louder. Then, we heard shouting from ahead. When we arrived at the original site of the fall, it was full of small stone goblins. The soldiers were surprisingly holding their own, but there were casualties. The medics said that the injured needed to be taken up first, and they started making makeshift stretchers to bring them up, one soldier at a time. It was quite slow. Meanwhile, I took care of the goblins. You could kill them with a sword, but Aard worked much better. Igni didn't affect them at all. It was slow progress, and then I no longer heard just footsteps but also the sound of rock being disturbed directly below us. Then, an enormous stone creature appeared directly below us. It even had a tail that looked like a mace, and everything about it was made of stone. The head seemed to be covered in some sort of skin texture, but it still had a stony appearance. It started swinging its tail everywhere. I had to act quickly. I drank a berserk potion and ran towards it. I tried to strike its legs with my sword, but it did nothing. So, I began to climb it. I chose one of its hind legs and slowly climbed up. The armored shell was the most challenging part to get through because it was slippery. But after about ten minutes, I managed to get past it. Then I headed towards the creature's head. I thrust my sword with all my strength into its neck and followed up with Aard. I saw its head shatter into pieces. However, it continued to twitch violently. I plunged my sword into it to hold on, but eventually, it was too much, and it flung me against the wall. Luckily, I had Quen, but the impact still left me dizzy. When I got up, the creature finally fell. Most of the soldiers were lying on the ground as well. Fortunately, one of the medics miraculously had no injuries, and Henrik was also okay, though he had a cut on his forehead, but nothing serious. However, during the fight, the creature must have broken the trunk in which Lilith had her weapons, because now, with one free hand, she held one of her weapons and threatened to kill us. Henrik approached her slowly, and I used Axii on her, although it didn't work entirely, it confused her enough for Henrik to take the opportunity and tackle her to the ground. Her weapon dropped, and with the impact, Henrik dislocated her shoulder. It took another two hours to get everyone up, but then we safely crossed the ravine through another path. I had to accompany them to a few more checkpoints in a larger city, where I was supposed to get paid, and then I could return home. On the way, Lilith tried to bribe Henrik, but it didn't work on him. We arrived in the city later, I received my reward, and I said goodbye to Henrik. Then I was on my way back home.*

**Reward:** *200000 gold*

### **It doesn't get easier than this**

*Date of entry: 31st of July 1312, 1st age*

I had nothing to do, so I went to Lostmere to see the captain of the guards. The change in their mood and appearance due to getting rid of corruption was noticeable; they no longer had to fear being betrayed from within. However, despite his good mood, the captain didn't have much work for me. Eventually, he dug up a contract for dealing with a few bandits who were causing trouble not too far from our tavern. They were said to be only about 4, but they had already killed 2 people. The reward wasn't substantial, but as I mentioned earlier, I had nothing to do, and it was the right thing to do. The captain of the guards showed me on the map the area where they were likely to be, and I set out on my own. I searched through the woods until I saw a campfire among the trees. All four of them were sitting around it. They looked really dreadful, without armor or proper weapons. Only one of them had a rusty sword. I didn't intend to waste any time, so I dashed into their camp with two swords and beheaded two of them before any of them could react. It couldn't have been any easier. Then I went to collect my reward.

**Reward:** *20000 gold*

### **Small Debt**

*Date of entry: 31st of July 1312, 1st age*

*The bartender didn't have any contracts at the moment, so I asked him if he had any other work that didn't necessarily have to be a contract. He thought for a moment and then remembered that his friend from a nearby village had a problem. He lent a large sum of money to someone else, and that person simply disappeared without returning anything. The guards didn't want to get involved because it was just a verbal agreement, and he couldn't find the person himself. It wasn't a lot of money, but since I had nothing to do, I decided to take the job. I walked to the village and talked to the bartender's friend. He told me that he considered this person a good friend, but he had betrayed him. He lent him 30,000 gold coins, and he didn't get anything back, and then the guy vanished from the village. I didn't need to hear more, so I went to the guy's house on the other side of the village and entered inside. There wasn't much to find until I noticed an open window on the opposite side of the house with tracks leading into the forest. I circled around the house and followed the tracks. They led deep into the woods. I came across a campfire that was a few hours old, so I added more wood and kept following the tracks. Eventually, I found him. He had a bag with him, which I assumed was full of money, and also a shovel with which he was digging a hole. I used Axii on him and asked him why he did what he did. He simply said that he took advantage of the fact that someone gave him so much money and then he ran away. Then I took the bag and stepped back a bit, waiting for Axii to wear off. When he woke up and noticed that I had the bag, he started running after me. He was pitiful, and I wanted to have a little fun with him, so I let him catch up to me and then I would run a bit farther away. I kept doing this all the way back to the village. We ended up at the house of the bartender's friend, where I knocked and told him to come out and see. He looked puzzled until the poor guy caught up. He started making tough talk about how he would beat me up, smash me, level me, and who knows what else. I let him rant, and he tried to hit me several times, but he only got punched in return. I also tripped him a few times, and towards the end, he almost started crying. Then I let him bump into a tree, which knocked him to the ground, and he cursed me, claiming I was a wizard, trying to gather an audience around him who found his performance entertaining. In the end, I got bored with it all, so I knocked him out. I left the bag of money and the bag of crap behind, took my reward, and left.*

**Reward:** *25000 gold*

### **Lilith Ravenswood**

*Date of entry: 5th of August 1312, 1st age*

*Arrived in Rostmund today, the capital city of Estren. I got a room in a hotel right next to Henrik's. My friend Henrik Barrington needed my help again, and this time, the task led us right into the heart of the bustling metropolis. It all revolved around Lilith, that elusive, dangerous Lilith. The same Lilith I had crossed paths with before, back in Lostmere and during her escort to this very city. Henrik informed me that Lilith was scheduled for execution in just a few days. However, she managed the impossible – she escaped from the seemingly impregnable prison. That prison was renowned for holding the most dangerous criminals under tight security. We wasted no time, and as soon as we arrived in Rostmund, Henrik and I made our way to the prison. We began our investigation by interrogating the guards, and they all repeated the same lines – confusion and disbelief. They claimed Lilith was securely held in a spell-protected cell, bound with anti-magic shackles, and there was simply no feasible way for her to escape. However, I knew better than to accept the surface explanations. Using Axii a probed the mind of Lilith's closest guard, delving into his mind to uncover the truth. His mental barriers crumbled under the pressure, and I learned the reality. The guard had been bribed to turn a blind eye while Lilith made her escape. He removed her shackles and disabled the spells, making her flight possible. The treacherous guard's actions, however, were only the beginning. I dug deeper into the guard's mind, and what I discovered shocked even me. It appeared that Lilith hadn't orchestrated her escape – someone else did it for her. An enigmatic figure dressed in black, a member of the notorious Silver Brotherhood, had broken her out. The reason behind his assistance was simple – he believed Lilith's unique skills as an assassin would be an invaluable addition to their ruthless guild. By saving her from execution, he hoped to secure her loyalty. Lilith, on the other hand, didn't share the man's enthusiasm for the Silver Brotherhood. She was grateful for her freedom, but she refused to be indebted to anyone, especially not to a group of ruthless killers. Their heated argument escalated into a physical confrontation. Although Lilith was undoubtedly a skilled fighter, her time in prison had left her weakened and injured, giving the man in black the upper hand. As the situation grew dire, I grew tired of just watching and standing aside. Engaging the man in black, I fought to kill the man and save Lilith, even though my disdain for her actions as an assassin was strong. In the end, I managed to defeat the man, saving her from certain death. But I couldn't trust her. I despised her for many reasions. Yet, I realized she could become a valuable asset – a spy within the Silver Brotherhood, sharing critical information that could aid our cause. Reluctantly, I made a daring decision. I brought Lilith with me as we emerged from the tunnel into the night. The rendezvous she was supposed to have with her mysterious savior was already underway, and a caravan awaited her. Meanwhile, I informed Henrik of my plan – to use Lilith as a double-agent. Initially hesitant, Henrik eventually agreed, understanding the potential benefits of the arrangement. We staged the man's death, creating the illusion that I was chasing them from the start and I killed the man in black while she temporarily incapacitated me and escaped. She made her way to the caravan while I pursued one of the decoy caravans. My target was the Silver Brotherhood members, and I dealt with them swiftly and decisively. With the mission accomplished, it was time to return to Rostmund. The rest of this mission was dependant on Henrik and mostly his superior's decisions.*

**Reward:** *100000 gold*

### The Light-footed Bandits

*Date of entry: 6th of August 1312, 1st age*

*The contract I found myself entangled in didn't seem like nothing out of the ordinary at first. I crossed paths with Lord Ralph Kahler, I've already heard about him from Henrik. Just another posh nobleman, though from my first impresion he didn't seem as insufferable as most of his kin. I was looking for work and he presented me with a contract that led me to a forest path outside the city, where caravans were frequently attacked. As expected, I immediately set to investigate. The guards who survived the ambushes could only offer vague descriptions of the attackers. To unravel the mystery, I ventured to the ambush site myself. My senses guided me, and it didn't take long to discover something unusual - tracks and footprints etched upon the trees. These abndits were skilled in their craft, attacking from the treetops and stealthily retreating through the dense foliage. Their choice of vantage points granted them a decisive advantage over the caravans, rendering them vulnerable and unaware. With each step, I tread carefully, piecing together the puzzle. The signs were faint, but my keen eyes never missed a detail. My path followed theirs, leading me deeper into the forest, where the band of about twelve elves lay hidden. Approaching cautiously, I prepared myself for a confrontation. To my surprise, the elves didn't strike immediately, their eyes betraying a mix of fear and desperation. Curiosity filled me as I allowed them to share their reasons for the attacks. Struggling to survive, these elves faced discrimination from merchants and sought refuge across the pass into Flebend, the neighboring continent of Clifela. Their intention wasn't murder, but a desperate quest for the resources needed for their journey. In that moment, I made a decision - one guided by compassion. I chose not to end their lives, but I retrieved the stolen resources. Additionally, I provided them with the gold they required to procure their own supplies, offering them a chance to begin anew in Flebend. Returning to Rostmund, I delivered the recovered goods to Lord Ralph Kahler and lied about what I did with the bandits. Then I just simply collected my reward and hoped the elves learnt their lesson.*

**Reward:** *20000 gold*