Chapter Summaries

After inspecting his new territory, Lynn discussed the School of the Wolf’s future with Geralt and Regis, including improving the Trial of the Grasses and recruiting apprentices. As Lynn prepared to return north, he invited Regis to move his shop near Novigrad, and Regis agreed.

• Lynn returned to Castel Ravello Vineyard and told Geralt and Regis that his territory could support the School of the Wolf.
• Lynn invited Regis to help improve the Potion of the Grasses formula, and Geralt reflected on why the younger witchers were reluctant to recruit apprentices.
• Lynn asked Regis about his plans and said he would return to the north after finishing his work in the territory.
• Lynn suggested that Regis move his shop from Dillingen to a village outside Novigrad so he could live near friends.
• Regis accepted Lynn’s suggestion and asked him to help find a suitable place for the shop.

Lynn left Castel Ravello Vineyard and hired Letho, Auckes, and Serrit to recover three schools’ grandmaster equipment diagrams in Toussaint. With that task underway, he planned to search with Geralt for a way to make witchers undergo a second mutation.

• Lynn decided to use his Toussaint noble identity to help establish a trading company after returning to Novigrad.
• Lynn met Letho, Auckes, and Serrit at a campsite outside Beauclair and paid them their first month’s wages.
• Lynn sent the three Viper witchers to recover grandmaster equipment diagrams from three locations in Toussaint.
• Lynn prepared to take Geralt to search for a method of triggering a second mutation in witchers.

Lynn and Geralt entered the submerged elven ruins beneath a lake near Beauclair and fought their way past magical stone panthers. They found a passage leading toward Professor Moreau’s laboratory and reached a fork in the route.

• Lynn rowed with Geralt to the portal beneath the lake, activated it with Aard, and led Geralt into the ruins.
• Lynn and Geralt drank Cat Potions and followed the maze-like elven corridors toward a platform.
• Lynn warned Geralt that two stone panthers would attack, and they each faced one when the creatures came alive.
• Lynn and Geralt defeated the panthers and collected useful materials from their remains.
• Lynn and Geralt entered a passage beyond a collapsed wall and reached a fork leading farther toward Professor Moreau’s laboratory.

Lynn and Geralt navigated Moreau’s trap-filled ruins and reached his secret laboratory, where they learned the story of his failed attempt to reverse his son Jerome’s witcher mutations. A wraith ambushed them upon arrival, and Lynn forced it into a corporeal form with a Superior Moon Dust bomb.

• Lynn spotted a trap and pulled Geralt clear before a boulder rolled through the passage.
• Lynn triggered a hidden mechanical door, and the pair defeated the gargoyle guarding the circular room.
• Lynn used the gargoyle’s foot to activate a pedestal, then led Geralt through the portals to Moreau’s laboratory.
• The history of Thomas Moreau and his son Jerome revealed how Moreau’s experiments failed to reverse the witcher mutations and instead enhanced them.
• A wraith lunged at Geralt, but Lynn used a forceful spell to save him and struck the wraith with a Superior Moon Dust bomb.

Lynn and Geralt defeated the Wraith resembling Thomas Moreau and searched Moreau’s laboratory, discovering his research and a chamber that caused secondary witcher mutations. They took the equipment and planned to have a sorceress examine it, with Geralt insisting that Yennefer be asked before Triss.

• Lynn destroyed the Wraith that looked like Moreau, and Geralt wondered whether it had been a victim who died in the laboratory.
• Lynn concluded that the Wraith was probably Moreau, though he and Geralt accepted that they could not know for certain why it had remained there.
• Lynn and Geralt searched the laboratory and found research materials, a megascope, books, and Moreau’s mutation chamber.
• Lynn packed up the laboratory’s contents and explained that Moreau’s attempt to reverse his son’s mutations had instead made them stronger.
• Geralt suggested asking Yennefer to examine the chamber before Lynn’s acquaintance Triss Merigold, recalling that Yennefer had once made him kneel on an abacus.

Lynn met George of Kagen, a School of the Griffin witcher who had recovered the school’s lost grandmaster equipment diagrams with Letho. Lynn agreed to return the originals after copying them and offered George a free set of grandmaster armor, persuading him to travel with them to Novigrad.

• Lynn arrived at Letho’s campsite and met George, who offered to share his food.
• Letho explained how he and George joined forces at Hanse Castle and found the School of the Griffin diagrams, while Letho had already found the other three at Fort Ussar.
• Lynn agreed to return the diagrams to George’s school after making copies.
• Lynn offered George a free set of School of the Griffin grandmaster equipment, to be made by a blacksmith moving to Novigrad.
• George agreed to travel with Lynn and the others to Novigrad, while Letho realized Lynn had drawn him into a scheme.

Lynn traveled with Fringilla to visit Orianna after she reminded him of his promise, but Orianna was away when they arrived. While they waited, Lynn warned Fringilla that Plegmund was a fraud who planned to steal money meant for a grand statue, and she accepted the information as his return gift.

• Fringilla visited Lynn at Castel Ravello Vineyard and reminded him that he had promised to visit Orianna in Beauclair.
• Lynn thanked Fringilla for coming and gave her two barrels of his vineyard’s oldest rosé before they set off together.
• Orianna’s servant told Lynn and Fringilla that Orianna had been called away but would return shortly.
• While waiting at Orianna’s residence, Lynn told Fringilla that Plegmund’s miracles were fraudulent and that he planned to flee with money raised for a statue of Lebioda.
• Fringilla believed Lynn’s warning and gratefully accepted it as his return gift.

At dinner, Orianna offered Lynn wealth and status if he would settle in Toussaint, but he refused because he still had things to do. He and Fringilla spent the night at Orianna’s mansion, where both women joined him, and dawn arrived.

• Orianna asked Lynn what he thought of Toussaint, and he praised it as a peaceful, fairy-tale land.
• Orianna invited Lynn to settle in Toussaint and offered him a long-term contract, wealth, a horse, a sword, and a respected position.
• Lynn declined, explaining that he still had important things to do, and Orianna accepted his answer without pressing him further.
• Orianna invited Lynn and Fringilla to stay the night at her mansion, and Fringilla joined Orianna and Lynn in his room.
• Dawn came after the night at the mansion.

After Plegmund was exposed and punished for his fraud, Lynn met Duchess Caroberta, who asked whether he could lift the Curse of the Black Sun. He said he could not and privately concluded that the curse was a political pretext rather than a real force, leaving the duchess without the answer she hoped for.

• Fringilla exposed Plegmund as a fraud, and Toussaint’s people arranged to sell him into slavery through the Nilfgaard Merchants' Guild.
• Lynn visited Duchess Caroberta at Beauclair, declined her offer of a post, and confirmed that he and his companions planned to leave Toussaint.
• Duchess Caroberta asked Lynn whether he could lift the Curse of the Black Sun, and he explained its prophecy before answering that he could not.
• Lynn considered the cases of Syanna, Deidre Ademeyn, Renfri, and Lady Benigna and reasoned that the Brotherhood of Sorcerers treated the supposed curse according to political power.

Lynn explained that the Curse of the Black Sun was a political fabrication and advised Duchess Caroberta to treat Syanna as an ordinary child. With Syanna’s eleventh birthday approaching and the Brotherhood of Sorcerers expected to take her, the duchess considered entrusting her to a witcher.

• Lynn told Duchess Caroberta that the Brotherhood of Sorcerers had spread Etibald’s false prophecy and that Syanna’s suffering came from her loveless childhood.
• Fringilla explained that Syanna was the duchess’s granddaughter and heir to Toussaint, but the Brotherhood had identified her as a child of calamity.
• Lynn advised the duchess to conceal that Syanna was born during an eclipse and raise her like any ordinary child.
• Duchess Caroberta recalled that the Brotherhood had learned of Syanna’s birth and planned to take her on her eleventh birthday, while fear of the prophecy had left Syanna without affection.
• With Syanna’s birthday only days away and the duchess fearing rebellion if she defied the Brotherhood, she asked whether a witcher could take Syanna under the Law of Surprise.

Duchess Caroberta hired Lynn to take Syanna away from Toussaint and keep her safe, offering him two thousand Florins. Before they could act, a servant reported that Syanna and Anarietta had vanished from the palace.

• Lynn explained that the Law of Surprise did not entitle him to claim Syanna, so Duchess Caroberta commissioned him to take her away from Toussaint.
• Duchess Caroberta offered Lynn two thousand Florins, and he promised to care for Syanna.
• Duchess Caroberta explained why she trusted Lynn more than her knights, who had urged her to execute or burn Syanna.
• A servant named Krauser reported that Anarietta and Syanna were missing, though the palace guards had seen neither leave.
• Fringilla used magic to steady Duchess Caroberta after the news, and the duchess thanked her.

After Syanna and Anarietta disappeared from the palace playroom, Lynn questioned the servant and organized a search. As he and Fringilla headed to investigate, they discussed Syanna’s future and Lynn’s plans to guide her.

• Duchess Caroberta learned that Syanna and Anarietta had vanished, and the servant explained that Anarietta had sent their guards away before the girls disappeared from the playroom.
• Lynn questioned the servant, then advised Duchess Caroberta to have every gate in Beauclair guarded while he inspected the playroom.
• Fringilla joined Lynn on the way to the playroom and asked whether he truly disbelieved in the Curse of the Black Sun.
• Lynn told Fringilla he had not decided whether to teach Syanna swordsmanship, explaining that he first wanted to guide her character and ease her hatred.

Lynn and Fringilla discovered that Anarietta and Syanna may have entered a dangerous magical book called “Edge of Nightmares.” As they considered how to rescue the girls, Fringilla offered Lynn a safe life in Toussaint, but he refused and warned her to avoid Sodden Hill.

• Lynn searched the playroom and noticed a book beside an empty space on the bookshelf, leading him to suspect the sisters had entered it.
• Fringilla identified the book as “Edge of Nightmares,” a dangerous magical world created by her uncle, Artorius.
• Fringilla explained that Artorius had fled Toussaint and that she planned to go to the City of Golden Towers to swear allegiance to the emperor.
• Fringilla offered Lynn and his companions a prosperous home in Toussaint, but Lynn refused to place their fate in the emperor’s hands.
• Lynn warned Fringilla never to go to a place called Sodden Hill.

Lynn and Fringilla entered the magical world inside Edge of Nightmares to rescue Anarietta and Syanna. After crossing a misty forest together, Lynn recognized the nightmare world as the Siege of Kaer Morhen.

• Fringilla agreed to accompany Lynn into Edge of Nightmares and explained that they had to reach the nightmare's depths and destroy the monster controlling it.
• Lynn opened the book, and its magic pulled him and Fringilla inside together.
• Lynn and Fringilla emerged in a gray, mist-covered forest, where Fringilla used a Light Spell to clear their immediate surroundings.
• Lynn and Fringilla walked through the forest for an hour before reaching a vast military camp facing Kaer Morhen.
• Lynn recognized the scene as the Siege of Kaer Morhen.

Lynn and Fringilla entered an illusion of the past at Kaer Morhen and witnessed King Vadislaus debating Tissaia and Pyar Pree over the witchers’ fate. Pyar’s efforts had persuaded Vadislaus to target the witchers, setting the stage for the massacre.

• Lynn reassured Fringilla about the Kaer Morhen Massacre and continued with her into the camp.
• Lynn and Fringilla entered Vadislaus’s tent and saw him holding a military council with Tissaia and Pyar Pree.
• Vadislaus angrily accused Tissaia of coming to humiliate him, while she urged him to avoid bloodshed and preserve the witchers.
• Pyar Pree argued that the witchers were unnecessary and disloyal, and Tissaia challenged his claims.
• The chapter revealed that Pyar had persuaded Vadislaus to believe the witchers threatened his rule and coveted Kaer Morhen’s books.

Lynn and Fringilla watched a memory of King Vadislaus reject Tissaia’s appeal, then left the camp as Kaedwen’s army marched on Kaer Morhen. The castle’s resident sorcerers ignited oil in the ditch to devastate the attackers, while new screams and clashes erupted around the survivors.

• King Vadislaus threatened to expel Tissaia and Aretuza’s students unless she helped him seize the witcher castle, and Tissaia opened a portal and left.
• Fringilla warned Lynn that the events were an illusion from the past, and Lynn chose not to attack the king before walking away with her.
• Kaedwen’s army advanced on Kaer Morhen, expecting to plunder the castle and overwhelm its few defenders.
• Kaer Morhen’s resident sorcerers poured green liquid into the ditch and set it ablaze, trapping and killing many soldiers.
• As the surviving Kaedweni soldiers stared at the spreading fire, sounds of blades striking flesh and screams rose around them.

Vesemir and twenty-two witchers ambushed the Kaedweni army at Kaer Morhen, setting the soldiers into a panicked rout. Lynn realized that Vadislaus would later distort the defeat into a story about a mob incited by a sorceress, while the surviving witchers had little power to correct the record.

• Vesemir hid in a concealed pit with the other witchers as the Kaedweni advanced toward Kaer Morhen.
• The resident mages covered the trench and nearby ground with Grease and then Fireball, starting a deadly blaze.
• Vesemir and the other twenty-two witchers emerged from their pits and attacked the disoriented Kaedweni, driving many soldiers to flee.
• Vadislaus and the nobles watched the retreat and mourned the losses among their standing soldiers.
• Lynn concluded that Vadislaus would have the siege’s history rewritten to conceal the army’s defeat, and that the surviving witchers would be unable to challenge his account.

Pya tried to repair the king of Kaedwen’s trust by promising to destroy the sorcerers defending Kaer Morhen, while securing a position as the princess’s tutor. In Lynn’s vision of the past, Pya’s ritual summoned a monstrous centipede, and Lynn held back despite having a chance to stop it.

• Vadislaus accused Pya of misleading him after his soldiers were burned, and Pya apologized and promised the sorcerers would handle the defenders.
• Pya proposed using Alzur’s Double Cross, and Vadislaus agreed after Pya asked to tutor the princess.
• Lynn watched Pya and the sorcerers begin the ritual with dozens of bound peasants as Fringilla warned him that intervening could trap him in the past.
• Insects burst from the prisoners as the spell intensified, and a giant centipede emerged from the purple mist and charged toward Kaer Morhen.

Pya watched Viy rampage through Kaer Morhen until a Counter-Summoning Spell dragged it into a rift, killing the sorcerers who had summoned it. King Vadislaus then had Pya murdered and ordered the sorcerers’ deaths covered up as casualties of the siege.

• Pya watched a giant eye open above Kaer Morhen and shadow hands seize Viy, pulling it into the eye before the rift vanished.
• The Counter-Summoning Spell’s backlash killed the other sorcerers who had helped summon Viy, while Pya’s amulet subdued the chaos magic in his body.
• Three nobles restrained Pya, and Vadislaus stabbed and disemboweled him for coveting the king’s throne.
• Vadislaus ordered the bodies piled together and burned, with the deaths blamed on the siege of Kaer Morhen.
• Vadislaus expected Pya’s death to leave Ban Ard Academy’s headmaster position open and its rival sorcerers fighting over it.

Lynn fought through a nightmare in which the monster used the dead witchers of Kaer Morhen to provoke his guilt, then destroyed the false grandmaster. After the burning illusion gave way to an ash-covered world, Lynn and Fringilla found two surviving girls and crushed a black gemstone that tried to flee.

• Lynn recognized the grandmaster’s accusations as the monster’s attempt to manipulate him and drew his silver sword.
• The risen witchers attacked Lynn, but he defeated them with his enhanced abilities and master-level swordsmanship.
• Lynn froze the grandmaster with Superior Northern Wind Bombs and shattered him, after which the corpses and castle burst into flames.
• Fringilla protected Lynn with a magical barrier as the fire consumed the illusion and revealed an ash-covered world.
• Fringilla found two little girls, including Anarietta, alive, while Lynn spotted a black gemstone on Anarietta’s shoe.
• The gemstone fled, but Lynn crushed it beneath his boot.