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Background

King Foltest will give you this quest when you talk to him in the Castle at the start of the chapter.


Walkthrough

The king will tell you that Princess Adda has transformed into a striga again, and he'll ask you to remove the curse that is causing it. To learn more about the problem, he'll suggest that you consult the "excellent minds" of De Wett, Triss, and Velerad, who you'll find in the throne room of the Castle:

• De Wett will tell you that Adda was born from an incestuous union between Foltest and his sister, and that "the striga's reappearance proves the royal dynasty is cursed." He'll also hint that you might get an extra reward if you kill the striga rather than cure it.
  
  
• Triss will speculate that somebody close to Adda "helped" her to become a striga again. "We both know that curses don't cast themselves."
  
  
• Velerad will remind you of how you cured Adda the first time, and he'll inform you that she has been seen in Old Vizima. He'll also remind you that "Foltest loves his daughter very much."

After you've spoken to all three, a chamberlain will come up to you and tell you that King Foltest would like to meet with you. When you reach the king's chamber, you'll update Foltest on what you've learned, and he'll say about what you'd expect -- that he'd like you to remove the curse if possible and only slay Adda if you must.

Later, when you enter the hospital in Old Vizima (#1), a soldier will run up to you and tell you that the striga has been sighted at the tower (#2), and then he'll rush off to show you the way. When you reach the tower, you'll discover a mutant there rather than a striga, but you'll still get 3000 experience points for killing it. Also, you'll meet Kalkstein at the tower, and he'll tell you to look for the striga at the chapel in the Swamp Cemetery (#3).

When you approach the chapel, you'll meet a desperate father who will confirm that the striga is staying inside, and also that she only hunts at night. If you check your quest log at this point, you'll see that you'll have two options for completing the quest: to kill the striga or to stay next to her sarcophagus and "somehow survive the night."

Past the desperate father, you'll also encounter Velerad. Velerad will tell you that he was sent by the king to check up on you, and also to remind you that you should look for clues as to who cursed Adda. Then he'll walk into the chapel. You should save at this point, because once you follow Velerad into the chapel, you won't be able to leave it again until you've completed the quest.

Inside the chapel, you'll find Adda's sarcophagus in the big chamber on the southern side. When you loot it, you'll find Ostrit's Journal inside, and you'll see that somebody used the information in the journal as a template to renew Adda's curse.

If you entered the chapel at dusk, then Adda should be in the room with her sarcophagus. If you didn't or she's not, then you'll need to meditate at the nearby campfire until dusk (plus perhaps one hour), and then she should appear.

If you want to kill Adda, then you should just attack her using your silver sword and the strong style. Adda can cause pain, but otherwise she shouldn't be too tough, and you might not even need to buff up with potions. When Adda dies, you'll find a Striga Heart on her corpse, which will allow you to create the potion Striga's Urge.

If you want to cure Adda, then you'll need to stay in the room with her sarcophagus for a long enough period of time, while keeping Adda and yourself alive. Technically, you're supposed to stay in the room all night, but really it's more like five minutes. You can use signs and your steel sword (using the fast style) to keep Adda at bay, or you can just run around in circles for the entire time. The latter is the easiest approach. Once you've survived for long enough, Adda will return to being herself, but she'll leave the chapel after briefly talking to you, and you'll only see her again in the Epilogue.

When you return to Velerad outside of the chapel, he'll give you the steel sword D'yaebl if you kept Adda alive, and he'll also reward you with 2000-3000 experience points depending on the option you picked (either way, you'll end up earning about 3000 experience points total). Then Velerad will nudge you towards the Old Manor, and he'll suggest that you might want to check there if you're interested in finishing off the Salamandra.

When you arrive at the Old Manor, you'll be greeted by Count de Wett, who will inadvertently reveal that he was the one who turned Adda into a striga again. You'll then have to kill him, but the fight shouldn't cause you any problems, and you'll find a Salamander Brooch and Experiment Notes on his corpse.

Finally, you'll need to report your findings to the king. There isn't any way to return to the Castle, but you'll meet up with Foltest again at the start of the Epilogue. When you tell him what happened, you'll receive 11,000 experience points, and the quest will come to an end. Foltest won't hold it against you if you had to kill Adda.


1 - Hospital


2 - Tower


3 - Chapel


Exits:

1. Path between Old Vizima and the Swamp Cemetery.