It should comes as no surprise then to learn that The Witcher 2 also has a lot of great moments. During my first playthrough I encountered a quest so fun and interesting that after completing it I reloaded to an earlier save so I could play through the quest again trying out different outcomes. The rest of this post details my experiences with the quest and why I like it so much. Spoilers abound.
The quest started out simple enough; Geralt left the local tavern and was greeted by a male elf named Ele'yas. Ele'yas explained that several murders had taken place in burned down village just outside town. He told Geralt that all the victims were male and they had been human, elven and dwarven. The final clue the elf offered was to inform Geralt the bodies were interred in a nearby catacomb.There are a few reasons I like this quest. The first reason is I like how it offers choice. You have the option to go in and slaughter the succubus like. This makes the quest much shorter and is similar to what you would find in many other fantasy RPGs. The other way to handle the quest is described above. It's much longer and provides a much more interesting story. Even when you choose the longer path, at nearly any point you still have the freedom to go back, kill the succubus and end the quest the quick way. Most other games would lock you into the "help succubus" path when you talk to her but The Witcher 2 still offers you the freedom to make the decision on her final fate all the way to the end of the quest.
Since the village was close Gearalt decided to visit it first. There he found some blood on the ground and the scent of sulfur in the air. With nothing more to be discovered in the village he made the long trek to the catacombs.
Geralt searched through many bodies in the catacombs until he finally found one of the murder victims. He conducted an autopsy where he noted the body had many wounds indicating he was attacked by some sort of beast. Beneath the body was a book of poetry that appeared to belong to Dandelion.
The trail seemed to be cold. Geralt was out of options so he went back to the tavern to find Dandelion and return his poetry book. During their conversation together Geralt hatched a plan. Since the clues pointed to the beast being a succubus he decided to use the bard as bait to lure her out of her lair. He requested Dandelion meet him at the burned down village after midnight.
Dandelion and Geralt met at the appointed time and decided upon a course of action. It was agreed that Dandelion should perform some poetry to try and lure the succubus out. It only took three versus from the poetry book to entice the succubus. She revealed the entrance to her lair and invited Dandelion in. Dandelion's better senses said he should go back to Geralt but at the same time the thought passed his lips, "I've never ploughed a succubus". The foolish bard descended into the pleasure den below while an astounded Geralt blurted out, "Fucking idiot actually went in".
Geralt followed Dandelion into the chamber below and found the bard, clearly enthralled, lying on the succubus' bed. Standing over her prize was the beast Geralt was looking for. Had there been any onlookers they would have been surprised to see he didn't cut her down immediately. Instead he decided to see if a non-violent solution was possible. Succubi were, after all, sentient creatures that could be conversed and reasoned with.
The succubus was straightforward with Geralt. She freely admitted she rendered her services on the victims but she denied killing them. Her reason was very simple: corpses have no life energy to sustain her. A succubus does what it does so it can drain small portions of a person's life energy. If a person dies then they can't come back and provide more life energy.
The succubus didn't just defend her actions and deny the murders, though. She also had an idea of who the murder was and their motive. She believed the murderer to be Ele'yas, a former lover who had fallen in love with her. She explained that he could not accept her nature and was jealous of her many partners. She claimed he had resorted to killing them and butchering their corpses to make it look the work of a beast. She even explained why the elf sent Geralt on the quest. It was just a ploy to throw the scent off himself (and possibly to trick the witcher into killing the succubus covering up his crime completely).
The succubus' words made a lot of sense. However, Geralt knew he had to be wary since he was dealing with a demon. After careful consideration he decided to confront Ele'yas with the information the succubus provided. To the surprise of nobody, Ele'yas denied involvement.
Geralt wasn't convinced of the Ele'yas' innocence. His next stop on this strange journey was the lodgings of the elven unit the elf belonged to. There he laid out his accusation to the unit leader. The leader had a very simple response: provide proof.
What proof did Geralt have other than the word of a demon? Not much, but enough, as it turned out. Back in the catacombs Geralt had found something during the autopsy on the victim. Inside one of the lacerations he discovered a tiny metal fragment. Why would wounds inflicted by a succubus contain metal fragments? Geralt surmised they wouldn't. He suggested the metal fragment be compared to the sword Ele'yas carried. The leader went off to do just that but returned quickly with a report: Ele'yas had vanished.
It did not take long for Ele'yas to resurface. As Geralt was on his way back to the succubus' lair he was attacked by the elf. If the other evidence wasn't enough to prove who the true murder was then the attack certainly was.
The succubus was grateful to Geralt for his help. She was delighted to have her name cleared so she could go back to providing pleasure for men willing to exchange a bit of life energy for it. She was so eager to return to her ways, in fact, that she offered herself services to Geralt as thanks.
The second reason I like the quest is because it rewards paying attention to things outside the quest. The quest doesn't initially reveal the potential murder suspect is a succubus. Geralt mentions a smell of sulfur but doesn't immediately state it's possibly a succubus until much later. However, astute players who have purchased and read a book on succubi will pick up this clue and know in advance what Geralt is hunting. This is a small way the game allows the player to feel smart and clever.
The subtlety in the quest doesn't end there, though. The small fragment of metal that offers tenuous proof Ele'yas was culpable for the murders can only be found if you visit a merchant and purchase surgical tools. If you don't purchase the tools then Geralt won't find the small fragment and you won't have proof that exonerates the succubus. The game does not provide any direct instructions to get the tools. The closest thing to a hint the game provides is found with the same vendor. It's a book on autopsies. While I don't think it's necessary to read the book, it does serve as a hint to purchase the surgical tools. It's quite possible to miss the vendor completely or forget about the item.
My third reason is actually my main reason for liking the quest. It follows along with a theme that appears in the first two games and probably the third as well. It twists the whole idea of killing monsters. In the first two games there are a creatures typically classified as monsters who don't show any signs of being evil. On the other hand there are plenty of humans, elves and dwarves, though, who do truly horrible things. In this particular quest, yes, the succubus is clearly a demon. She has hooves, horns and a tail. She has sex in exchange for draining small amounts of life energy. She doesn't kill, though. So is what she does really that different than the what the ladies of the Eager Thighs Brothel do? Contrast that with Ele'yas who has committed murder (multiple times) out of jealousy.
This quest reminds me very much of a quest in the first game involving The Lady of the Night. It is another quest involving demons, sex and just who or what a monster truly is. I could easily write another post just as long detailing that quest. It touches on many similar themes. If the cinematic for The Witcher 3 (linked in the previous paragraph) is any indication, it looks like the theme of "what is a monster" will continue in it as well.
The final reason I like the quest is really simple. It contains a hilarious piece of dialog which you can see in the clip below.