The Witcher - Choices and outcomes...

One thing that is hard to grasp is the gray morals of the Witcher.


Geralt in this game has a unique issue to deal with. How the choices affect future outcomes in the game.
Due to something that happened in the first chapter, where a Witch had been living outside the settlement, something was drastically changed in the fourth chapter.
She mainly made potions and what not to help the towns folk, maybe even do divination's to help people see some futures..
But, one of the religions of course noted her as an outcast. I could put my lot with the townspeople and had her burned at the stake. Or help her out due to her "lesser" evils.
I sided with the witch. This made her appear later in a small village I am in, as she left the old homestead. This village accepted her as their "Healer".
Due to her also being saved, she shaped my character to accept some of the ways that magic work. I now believe all monsters may not be evil, and allowed me to find a way to cure a spirit that was cursed instead of outright sending it to Hell by my sword.

Due to this system, I grappled with my latest dilemma.


Another Witcher I had been following was believed to be a renegade.

He ended up working for an evil organization that would kidnap children and use the ways of conversion used to make a Witcher (as it is actually a mutation) to create their own experimental monsters to use against others.
The results were not pleasant.

He had been sent to take care of me, but was unsure of this. So, instead he wished to take a young boy under my supervision back to this vile group to appease their need of my death.

I could have either not judged him, or stopped him. I took the avenue of ending his existence.

Why would I do this?

He had mentioned how he had hated what those who created the Witcher's had done to him (Witchers are created by humanity to destroy the abominations they fear the most..).
He took up with this evil group as he was his own entity, to pursue his own destiny.

But now he was unsure.

He had taken it upon himself to continue helping this group though.

Was it weakness? Fear?

All of his work had led to many innocent lives being sacrificed for their science.

I took this matter into my own hands.


Was I right?

As he lay dead at my feet, I find a letter written by his hand.

"I always believed that witchers had stripped me of the ability to communicate with humans. Now I know this to be untrue. Whatever the reasons, I cannot talk to people, so I write this letter instead. Herein, I admit: I am a coward, I fear pain, incapacitation and death. I was afraid at Kaer Morhen, afraid when I fought monsters, and finally, I feared the Professor and Azar Javed, especially the latter. He supervises Salamandra's scientific project, creating deadly creatures from black magic and mutagens. He is a powerful mage, but if my plan works, he will be a dead mage and the witchers' secrets will be safe. In spite of everything, I am content our paths crossed as I set off now for Vizima.

Berengar"

Choices and outcomes...how harsh the life of the Witcher is.

Age of Conan - Change our Destiny

As I noted previously, the wife and I have taken the path of not doing the "Destiny" storyline.
The single player aspect of it detracts from us playing together, and with so much to do on the island besides this story, we headed out in search of changing our destiny.


Using various quests and dungeons, over the last 3 days, we have been able to get to level 16 within a 10 hour span. Not only is this reasonable, it was quite fun.

Knowing that eventually we would need to get off the island, Shanra and Ethalos needed a plan. The Red Hand's spies were everywhere.
I enlisted the aid of an old colleague of mine, Jheren, to look into the mysterious character only known as the "Smuggler".
The "Smuggler" understood that some who fought the resistance were in slightly more danger than others and would be willing to take them to their homeland.
More danger existed upon our homeland than it did in Tortage, and he knew we may be needed elsewhere.
But, to find him, we need a code, a special code he had hidden.
A simple note was found that had clues of his location.
"In the south, the pelican sits above the docks, overlooking a boat of fish that it desired. Behind the Pelican secrets could be found."


Jheren headed south in Tortage and looked to the docks for answers. Upon arriving he surveyed the location intensely. Off to the left he noted a large building "overlooking" the docks.

Studying the building, Jheren finds an interesting surprise. A Pelican is beautifully painted upon the building. Now, he needed to decipher the clue even more.
"Behind" the pelican?
Jheren moves around to the rear of the building.

He finds a note tacked onto the back of the building. It reads about an abandoned warehouse in the NW corner of Tortage. It is signed...

"The Smuggler"


Jheren searches the various buildings and happens upon an old Abandoned Warehouse. He tries to be careful as some old filthy Pirates make their home near here. If spotted, he could be their next Booty!
A young beggar girl has made her home in this alley and eyes Jheren suspiciously, but then looks the other way as he enters the building.

Inside awaits the smuggler...

_______________________

So far I only know that you may not attempt this quest to leave the Island until level 17. And we are almost there.
But, we still have a good bit of quests in our quest log, and we are still having fun since we entered the Underhalls for the first time.
The Acheronian Ruins also hold fun, and as an added bonus, we have a collections quest there, where we can get various "prizes" for a number of leather straps from Picts we kill.
We do know that we have gained some quite unique armor pieces and weapons since we have entered these two locations.
We are earning money as well. This is very important for us if we leave the Island.
So, the chance to change our Destiny still continues. We will see just how far we can progress with altering the fates of these characters.