While travelling in the salt marshes of the North, Geralt slayed an insect-like monster
called a Kikimora, and brought it to the town of Blaviken in the hopes of reward.
Unfortunately, his old friend Caldemeyn, the local Alderman, explained there was no bounty
or reward, but took him to see the wizard Irion who lived in a nearby tower, and might
have some use for the beast.
Only Geralt was permitted inside where he found a beautiful, high level illusion, displaying
a house and orchard, with a naked woman carrying a basket of apples.
Much to the Witcher’s surprise, the wizard Irion was revealed to be Stregobor, a powerful
sorcerer who once served in the court of Kovir and spoke ill of Geralt, accusing him of being
a brute and charlatan who made a living killing endangered creatures.
As a result, the King refused to pay when the Witcher when he slayed a 2 headed water
snake, given only 12 hours to leave the realm.
Stregobor explained that he was now on the run, and living in Blaviken under the name
Irion, taken from the wizard who lived in the tower previously and died 200 years earlier.
With his specialties being illusions and weather, he could conjure his own pleasures within
the tower, while manipulating storms to bring fish to the shores, thereby keeping the locals
happy.
But his life here was now under threat from a monster, and he considered it destiny that
the Witcher arrived in his hour of need.
Geralt reluctantly listened to Stregobor tell the story of Eltibald, a wizard greatly respected
by some and thought a lunatic by others.
Eltibald studied the writings of Werebubbs, an ancient species that predated humans as
well as those of the Dauk and Wozgar, humans who lived in the North before nordlings.
Claiming that all three sources agreed, the wizard foretold of doom as the Eclipse of
the Black Sun herald the return of Lilit, a demon goddess worshiped in the east.
According to Eltibald, her return would be prepared by “sixty women wearing gold crowns,
who would fill the river valleys with blood”.
This was interpreted to mean 60 princesses born during or after the eclipse.
A group of wizards, including Stregobor, were given charge of the campaign to eliminate
this threat, killing the girls they suspected and performing autopsies, as well as one vivisection
to learn more.
Discovering horrendous mutations, Stregobor personally witnessed a girl with organs missing
and in the wrong places as well as a 6 chambered heart instead of 4.
Unfortunately it was difficult to determine which girls were afflicted until they were
autopsied, so a number of innocent girls were killed along with those they considered guilty.
Realizing the slaughter of innocents could not continue, the wizards started isolating
the girls by locking them away in tall towers.
Some died, others escaped or were rescued by knights and princes.
Of those who survived, they fulfilled their part of the prophecy by causing terrible devastation
in places like Narok, North Velhad, and Talgar.
The Witcher listened to his story but couldn’t help interrupting with counter arguments,
claiming he did not believe any of the curse or prophecy nonsense, and that what really
happened was a group of wizards took advantage of a mad man’s ravings to manipulate rulers
and increase their own power.
Geralt had seen plenty of mutations in his time, including his own, and so was not fazed
by the look of their organs, and as for those who went on to do terrible things, they acted
no worse or different than other sadistic rulers, not born under a black sun, who tortured
and murdered their people on a regular basis.
Frustrated by the Witchers skepticism, Stregobor returned to the immediate problem, explaining
that one of the girls born after the eclipse was the beloved eldest daughter of the Prince
of Creyden and his first wife.
This was uncovered by the Prince’s second wife Aridea, a fair and intelligent woman
from powerful family, with connections to the Brotherhood of Sorcerers.
Through inheritance she came into the possession of a magical mirror which could predict the
future.
Asking about the fate of the realm, the mirror said the Princess Renfri would cause the death
of Aridea and many others within the castle.
This prophecy coupled with the knowledge she was born after the black sun, led Aridea to
contact the Brotherhood, which sent Stregobor to investigate.
During his time at the castle, not only did his tests confirm she was mutated, but she
tortured a canary, two puppies, and gouged out the eyes of a servant.
Although Stregobor wanted to isolate the girl, Aridea insisted she be killed, and so Renfri
was sent with one of her hired thugs to be eliminated in the forest.
The thug was later found dead with his trousers around his ankles and a hair brooch stabbed
into his ear.
Four years later, Aridea learned Renfri was now a skilled warrior living in Mahakam under
the name Shrike, leading a gang of seven gnomes who were terrorizing the countryside.
Although Aridea, her husband and their children soon died, possibly killed by Renfri, Stregobor
continued the hunt, searching for the cursed princess.
The wizard was in Mahakam, when the Gnomes turned on each other and died, leaving only
Shrike who spotted him and attacked.
Using a spell Stregobor turned her into a slab of crystal and collapsed a mine on top
of her, but it was not enough, as she was later found by a prince who spent a fortune
on a counter spell.
Bringing her home, his father was outraged that the infamous Shrike was in his presence
and ordered her killed, but the Prince staged a coup and eliminated his father and brothers,
to become King with Renfri as his First Favorite.
Determined to seek vengeance she made 3 assassination attempts on Stregobor in Kovir, followed by
attacks in Pontar, Angren and now Blaviken.
The wizard suspected that her mutations allowed her to track him and were continuing to progress,
as she was now immune to magic.
Stregobor asks Geralt to kill Renfri, claiming it was the lesser evil.
But he refused, saying “Evil is evil, Stregobor.
Lesser, greater, middling, it’s all the same.
Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred…
But if I’m to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”
Returning to the tavern and explaining the situation to the Alderman, they both confronted
Renfri who was there with 6 well trained warrior, threatening her with arrest.
But when she presented a letter from the King, naming her a friend and forbidding mistreatment,
the Alderman had no choice but to drop the matter and leave.
After departing and having dinner with the Alderman and his family, Geralt retired to
his room where Renfri was waiting.
She snuck into the house to offer the Witcher a proposal which might save the town from
bloodshed.
Revealing her side of the story, she claimed her insane step mother plotted with Stregobor
to remove her, so her own children could inherit the realm.
Sending her to be killed in the forest by a hunstmen, he raped her before taking pity
and letting her flee.
Doing whatever was necessary to survive, she prostituted herself, stole, killed and spent
time in prisons, all the while being chased by her Step Mother and Stregobor, who once
tried to poison her with an apple.
Fortunately she was saved by one of the seven Gnomes she befriended, stating that they treated
her better than most humans.
Claiming that she was not responsible for the death of Aridea, and was therefore robbed
of her vengeance, the rest of her fury was directed at Stregobor, and nothing would stand
in her way.
However, in order to prevent anyone else from getting hurt, Renfri suggested Geralt enter
the tower and kill the wizard himself, believing that one must choose the lesser evil, when
the alternative is true evil.
The Witcher asked her to renounce this vengeance, but she says it was not possible and then
became sullen as if in a trance, saying “‘I pity you.
You claim a lesser evil doesn’t exist.
You’re standing on a flagstone running with blood, alone and so very lonely because you
can’t choose, but you had to.
And you’ll never know, you’ll never be sure, if you were right . . . And your reward
will be a stoning, and a bad word.
I pity you . . ." Renfri then returned to normal and agreed to renounce her vengeance
before spending an intimate night with the witcher.
The next morning Geralt was told a story by the alderman, claiming one of Renfri’s thugs
was recognized as a part of the infamous Tridam ultimatum, where a group of outlaw were set
to be executed, until their comrades took over a ferry, threatening to execute the passengers
one by one until their friends were freed.
Geralt recalled Renfri mentioning Tridam and realized she lied and was about to hold the
marketplace hostage until Stregobor surrendered.
Geralt asked the Alderman to arrest renfri and the others but he could not violate the
orders of the King and forbid him from making trouble.
But Geralt was convinced there would be a massacre, and headed to the still empty market
where the outlaws were waiting with an ultimatum from the princess, stating “I am what I
am.
Choose.
Either me, or a lesser.”
Understanding what she meant, Geralt pulled out his sword and deflected a crossbow bolt
shot his way, before engaging and slaughtering all six of his opponents as all of Blaviken
watched from a distance.
Renfri then arrived and revealed that Stregobor refused to leave his tower under any circumstances,
even if she killed the entire town and surrounding villages.
Therefor Renfri wasn’t going to kill anyone because it was pointless.
But with her men dead she could not stop herself from attacking Geralt, who pleaded with her
to stop and flee.
But she would not, and so they fought until he stabbed her thigh, causing her to collapse
and bleed out.
In her final moments, she asked Geralt to hold her, but he wisely refused, finding a
dagger hidden beneath her after she died.
With the fighting ended, Stregobor arrived to thank the Witcher and bring the body back
for an autopsy, but Geralt pulled out his sword and forbid it, even though it was the
only way to be certain she was a child of the black sun.
Backing down, Stregobor suggested leave together for Kovir, as the people of Blaviken would
not understand the context behind the massacre they just witnessed.
But Geralt would not go, and so after the wizard left, the townsfolk started to hurl
rocks.
Shielding himself with a sign, the Alderman walked up and banished him from ever returning.
And so the Witcher departed, and in time an uniformed version of this event spread throughout
the continent, earning him the nickname The Butcher of Blaviken.