Act I, Flotsam Part V

Act I, Flotsam Part V

It is now time to head towards the barge and Triss.  When you arrive talk to the Guards and convince them to let you talk to the wounded prisoner.  Follow Triss down into the prison barge and you get a CS in which you chat out the strategy -- you cast Axii (as a QTE) and then you chat with the elf and convince him to help you -- ask about the Witcher and he tells you about the Roses of Remembrance and what happened that lead to his being captured.

Using persuasion you can get him to open up -- and that leads to you getting another memory from your lost memories.  Triss convinces you that finding the Roses is important -- triggering The Rose of Remembrance quest -- go ahead and ask her to come with you...

Follow Triss as she leads you through the town to the other side and the forest, keep following her and defend her when she is attacked, and you will reach the entrance to the garden above for a brief CS.  Lead her up and you will have a rolling conversation about Cedric and the Roses -- you eventually reach the Elven Bath ruins, and pick the flower, triggering a CS with Triss as she waxes about the flower.  You give her one and then some opportunists show up to take the statue here...

They manage to completely piss you off and insult Triss so you kill them, but then you get attacked by an elf and you both fall through the roof to the baths below!  You get to see the actual baths and then talk to Triss to trigger the big sex scene of the game -- you suggest that she could use a bath and she heads in that direction (grin).

Because very few games on the 360 contain full-frontal nudity this was quite a surprise for many gamers -- and it is also perhaps one of the best rendered sex scenes ever for a video game.  You have to admit that the backdrop is amazing, and they did do a good job...

While that is going on you get a CS of an Elven patrol -- and they bitch a bit about the way that the humans have screwed up their world -- the sex scene continues in flashes, as the Elf continues to bitch... 

Probably the best done sex scene in a video game -- ever 

Triss tells you that she needs a few days to make the preparations to recover your memory -- and you tell her you will go find Iorveth while she does that.  She tells you to take care -- actually she argues with you about the wisdom of that...  Reassure her that you want her, and then decide how to answer what amounts to her forcing you to make a decision -- clear your name or head on your own quest...

If you choose to drop everything and do your own thing, you will open one path, if you choose to continue to clear your name (not drop it) you open another.  For the purposes of this guide, we are going to choose to continue to clear our names.  That may very well be the right choice but I do not think it was the one she wanted -- but she still backs your play!

She reminds you that she needs a few days -- and then Roche shows up -- before you leave be sure that you loot the chest (use the amulet to make it glow if you cannot find it) as one of the items you obtain is a book on The Wild Hunt that is a quest item. 

Before you leave the baths talk to Roche -- tell him about the notes that you found in the Insane Asylum, tell him about Loredo, and then point out that Flotsam is a good hiding place...  Roche tells you why this area is so strategically important and then you learn something you did not know before.  Remind him that you have to find the King Slayer and he fills you in on what his scouts were doing.

-- A Chat with Zoltan --

Now that we have that out of the way it is time to head back to town and have a chat with our mate Zoltan at the Inn...  You should run through the available discussion options with him as a matter of form, saving the question about Iorveth for last...  When you ask him about Iorveth he fills you in and then you are prompted to follow him to the meeting with the elf.

Zoltan will lead you out of the city into the woods for a short way, and then you trigger a CS in which Zoltan gives the password at your request to elven archers he cannot see -- you talk to one of Iorveth's lieutenants, who you convince to take you seriously by demonstrating your abilities to detect his men.  He instructs you to wait in the clearing -- so follow Zoltan some more and you eventually arrive at the designated meeting place where you trigger another CS in which it becomes obvious that you must slay the Arachas.

Note that along the path there are traps -- some set others sprung -- that you can disarm and collect as you go -- you should do that as they can be useful to you later.  Save your game before you drop down to battle the Arachas since that is the last convenient spot to do a save before you begin a section of CS's and play where saving is disabled.

The Arachas Battle in the Clearing 

Killing the Arachas is pretty straight-forward and between your Sword and magic should be easily done.  Be sure to quickly loot its corpse -- you only have seconds to do so -- before the CS kicks in, and it has some armor and other items on it that are worth grabbing...   Once you have dispatched it Iorveth shows up and after a CS you have some chat options -- Let Zoltan go, Letho wants you dead, and You're a murderer.

Now obviously the third choice is there to start some shit, and whether he lets Zoltan go or not is really immaterial to the story at this point, so the obvious choice is Number 2.  When you tell him Letho wants him dead -- your revelation that his lieutenant is still alive startles him, as he assumed that the elf was already dead.

Asking him about his dealing with the Assassin of Kings gives you a little information that you did not have but might have surmised, and asking the elf what he is fighting for provokes little information -- though asking him what his goal is could give you useful information.  Iorveth reveals his political view -- and you can then ask about the non-humans living in the city...  Who it turns out he thinks very little of!  That leaves you with asking what he plans to do with Letho -- the question as to whether he actually believes what you are saying or not is an open one -- but he does agree to take you to see Lethos, so hey, win-win!

You can choose not to continue from here -- and you should if you have failed to complete the various side-quests if any are outstanding -- but if you have them done (and if you are following the guide they should be at this point) then choosing to continue is the way to go!

Note: you should make a save now, and protect that save so that you can use it to begin the alternate path after you have completed the one you are about to choose, that decision is coming soon!  This is not the decision at the cross-roads, but to avoid a nasty bug in the game you need to be consistent with the path you choose so really this is the beginning of the crossroads decision, and so this is really where you should make your split-save.

No matter what you decide you have to fight Letho after you talk to him and choose your path -- so you should prepare for that battle as much as you can now by being sure to use any Talent Points you have available (if you have not already done so), make sure you have upgraded your armor using the armor upgrades, and applied any weapon upgrades you might have.

You can prep potions but remember that they have timers associated with them, and you should probably select the Sign you plan to use and whatever throwing weapon / bomb you want in the quick menu in advance now.  If you are going to use potions in advance you should wait to use them until Iorveth is bound and you are headed into the Garden for the meeting with Lethos.

-- A Meeting with Letho --

Walk the bound elf to the garden outside of the baths and you encounter Letho -- asking him who he is causes Letho to identify himself to you, and you get the chance to ask him several questions that reveal some of the motivations that guide him.  He knows you, but you of course do not know him...  The past that he reveals to you sounds interesting, but how much is true?

Asking what his relationship is to Iorveth does not reveal much, and asking who Serrit and Auckes are reveals that they are two more King Slayers -- and now we arrive at one of the major decision points in the Act: fight or don't fight?  It really does not matter because Roche and his men attack, and you are forced to decide whether you are going to help Iorveth or not.  He demands his sword -- if you give it to him, you are choosing to follow his path, and if you do not, then you are setting out on the path of Roche.

Letho Boss Battle One-on-One

-- The Decision of the Sword --

For the purposes of the guide we are going to be following Roche's path first, and then coming back after the end of the game and doing Iorveth's path -- if you decide that you want to do it the other way around you will need to skip ahead to the section where we begin Iorveth's Path (that is what it is called) later in the guide, then come back here to do Roche's.  Now you need to make that decision.

Bear in mind that you need to be consistent in the decisions that follow -- there are set ramifications to the decision that you are about to make...

Choice 1: Giving Iorveth his Sword
If you choose to give the elf his sword, he will then escape the ambush, and is later encountered with the Squirrels -- the contention between Roche and Iorveth is used by Loredo as his excuse to begin the extermination plans he has (that you learned about earlier) in Flotsam and this results in a battle between the non-humans and the humans, with many of the non-humans being killed (including the Derae the prostitute, though the Madam Margot survives).

Choice 2: Do not give the Sword to Iorveth
Instead of giving him his sword you end up punching him, and he is captured by Roche and his men (basically you have sided with Roche).  This basically removes Iorveth from the main story path from here on --  Loredo declares a holiday to celebrate your help in capturing the elf, and a different outcome takes place in the town.

The prostitute Derae lives, but Madam Margot ends up commuting suicide both because she knows that her role as Iorveth's informant will be exposed, and I think partly because she was actually in love with the elf...    You get a different set of CS's and the elves obviously now consider you a major enemy, so you can expect them to attack you on sight thereafter.

-- The Crossroads Bug --

In theory the decision that you just made is reversible sort of -- but in reality it is not.  What I mean by that is that the choice to help Iorveth here means you will need to choose to side with the Scoia'tael when the time comes at the Crossroads, and if you side with Roche here, you also need to side with him at the Crossroads -- because failing to do either (to be consistent) can cause bugs to appear in later parts of the game...

Some of the bugs are what are known as "Plotholes" where the CS's and conversations that come after contain facts that are not strictly speaking true, or sometimes possible, but in addition to that there have been reported instances where certain quest elements would not advance because they have a relationship to the decisions that you made.  It is not completely clear that this bears out in the Xbox 360 version of the game in the same way that it did in the PC version, but then I did not test it under the idea of why borrow trouble?  Just be sure that you stick to the decision that you want to make and make it the same at both points.

-- After you Battle Letho --

Roche will come and find you and ask you where the Kingslayer has gone -- you tell him that he got away and that you have to find Triss, and Roche leads the way outside.  BEFORE you follow him you need to go pick up your sword -- remember Letho threw it on the floor nearby the ledge?  You really do not want to leave without it mates.

There is a chest by the exit you can loot some items from including a stack of 15 Superb well-balanced Silver Daggers that are great for throwing at monsters...  When you get topside there is a dead soldier you can loot to get a Special Forces Sword that does 15-22 damage -- that is a point better than the Robust Cutlass that I was using and likely is better than whatever your steel weapon is, so be sure to grab that, right?