The Witcher 1 In-depth Story Recap

Five years ago marked the end of the great war with the Empire Nilfgaard and the death of the legendary witcher Geralt of Rivia.

But this is video games, so retcon that, Geralt's alive and he's running through the woods.

All tuckered out, our boy goes down. But his fellow wolf school witchers had some good looking out.

Lucky for Geralt, his little midnight frolic had taken place near Kaer Morhen, the witcher's home base.

Post up for some R&R, Geralt hooks up with Triss Marigold, who's excited to hear all about what her old friend's been doing.

Until Geralt shuts her down saying he doesn't remember anything from his past life.

But right when things start getting good, a bunch of filthy peasants raid the keep and kill the moon.

In between incinerating plebeians, Triss manages to catch a glimpse of the leaders of the attack.

Some Harry Potter looking dork named the Professor, and the angriest Hawaiian I've ever seen.

The two had used the battle as a distraction to roll dirty to the basement and snag up all the secrets to the witcher's mutagens.

The resident FNG little Leo tries to shoot back, but he ends up getting put down.

The remaining witchers pour one out, split up, and go on the hunt, ready to track down the men who attacked them and reclaim their secrets.

Geralt locks down the south, heading to the city of Vizima and Temeria.

Immediately upon reaching the outskirts, he already knows he's in for a treat. Demon dogs are eating people out in the middle of the street.

Geralt catches the young boy Alvin, barely escaping a pack by the skin of his teeth,

And suddenly this kid starts floating around, glowing, talking about the Ice Age or something.

This was cool and all, but Geralt really didn't give a shit at that point. He was busy trying to track down the group that he now knew as Salamandra.

Scoping out the area, Geralt hooks up with some of his legacy buds. Shani. Don't you recognize me?

Whatever happened to you? And the dwarf Zoltan Chive. True to a witcher. Died, came back to life.

Nobody's seen him for five years, and he wants to know if something's wrong.

Geralt, of course, having no idea who they are, takes their word for it and pals around with them.

Ending up the errand boy for the bigwigs in the outskirts community, Geralt manages to scrape together that he was preceded by another witcher named Berengar, also seeking Salamandra.

But nobody's seen or heard from him since Geralt got into town.

With the dirty work of half the village under his belt, Geralt's assigned one final task. Finding the source of the hellhounds.

Being told to start with the witch Abigail, because witches must be evil, Geralt works with her to possess the small boy Alvin with a demon who's going to tell him where the hellhounds come from.

It's a great idea.

They deduce at this point that the creatures are created by the malice of the very people Geralt's been working for.

Finally given the location of the salamander hideout, our boy rolls out to make some waves.

Mid ass-kicking session, he's given the surprise of learning that most of the locals had been working with Salamandra all along, and also that the pissed off Hawaiian from Karamoran was actually named Azar Javed.

Who's Azar Javed? A powerful mage. You're no match for him.

Ready to pack it up, he runs into Abigail on his way out.

The townspeople were rousing for a classic witch hunt, post-up just outside.

Geralt is then given the option to serve her up or protect her from the angry mob. Either way, scoring himself a pass into the city of Azima.

But on his way in, his chops get busted by some Myron scrub and shipped off to prison.

Abso-fucking-lutely beautiful. Not about to just stand around, Geralt bargains to hunt the cockatrice in the city sewer in exchange for his freedom.

Knee-deep in shit, he bumps into Siegfried, a knight of the Order of the Flaming Rose.

The Order was a group dedicated to protecting the citizens of Temeria, even hunting monsters for them, an act that threatened putting the Witchers out of their job.

The two squad up and take down the Cockatrice, getting out of the sewer ASAP.

Now in the beautiful plague-ridden city streets, Geralt makes a stop at the House of Raymond, Collarpop and Bad Boy and Detective Extraordinaire.

He racks up a list of names whose personal space he believes Geralt should invade. And invade he does.

Eventually excusing Vivaldi, the dwarven bank owner who

doesn't own his bank, Taller, the shady fence who's actually

Temerian secret intelligence, guard captain Vincent, who's investigating salamandra just as hard, and the merchant Levarden, who actually invites Geralt to his anti-salamander secret society.

Leaving only the too obvious crime lord ramsmeet and the turbo nerd Kalkstein.

Doing a little extra credit though reveals that Javed's been bending you over a barrel, murdering and disguising himself as Raymond halfway through your investigation.