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The Witcher 3 Story So Far - Full Plot Recap by Chapter

The Witcher 3 Story So Far

The story of The Witcher 3 recapped chapter by chapter in the words the game itself uses, from the Prologue to Chapter 3. Every recap stays hidden.

⚠ This page recaps the whole story. Every section stays hidden until you open it.

Prologue

2 recaps
⚠ Lilac and Gooseberries: In Search of Yennefer

While seeking Yennefer, his friend and lover of the past, Geralt neared the village of White Orchard. The sorceress seemed just a few steps ahead, but remained elusive.

Finally, with the help of the Nilfgaardian garrison commander, Geralt learned that Yen was, in fact, in nearby Vizima.

⚠ An Imperial Audience: The Hunt for Ciri Begins

Geralt and Yennefer were reunited, and Geralt was content. But this was not the most important thing to happen to him in Vizima. The witcher also learned that Cirilla, his one-time ward, had returned from her long voyage. What's more, she was in danger. The witcher was to seek and find Cirilla - at the emperor's command and Yennefer's behest.

Chapter 1

10 recaps
⚠ The Nilfgaardian Liaison: Picking Up the Trail in Velen

The witcher's contact in Velen was to be Hendrik, the emperor's spy, operating incognito in the war-ravaged land. The agent's mission - to gather intelligence about Ciri.

Yet Geralt reached Hendrik too late - the Wild Hunt had gotten to him first. He found only the spy's corpse, though the wraith riders had failed to find his notes. From them the witcher learned that Ciri had been a guest of the local warlord, the Bloody Baron, and that she had quarreled with a witch.

⚠ Unexpected Company: A Witch and an Elven Mage

While searching for the witch Ciri had quarelled with, Geralt ran into an old friend - Keira Metz. The sorceress told the witcher about a masked mage with a hideout, where Ciri was supposed to have hidden. The witcher set off for the hideout with Keira in tow.

Ciri had, in fact, never reached the elven mage – yet the Wild Hunt had. The ghostly retinue was one step ahead of Geralt - or so it seemed. Geralt felt that all was lost, until Keira gave him a new lead - the Crones of Crookback Bog.

⚠ Crookback Bog: Ciri Encounters the Crones

While wandering through Crookback Bog, Ciri had happened on the sinister Crones. The monstrous sisters took her in, then wavered, unsure if they should eat the young woman or surrender her to the Wild Hunt. Ciri escaped before they could decide. Pursued by one of the Hunt's spectral riders, she had fled into the swamp. There, Geralt lost her trail again. He now needed a new lead.

⚠ The Baron's Hospitality: A Swallow at Crow's Perch

Exhausted and wounded, Ciri collapsed in the swamp. Some peasants then found her and took her to the baron, Velen's self-appointed ruler at the time. The warlord took the young woman in, had her nursed back to full health, then sent her on her way to Novigrad.

⚠ Roaring Pyres: The Hunt in Novigrad Begins

As the emperor's spies told it, Ciri had reached Novigrad. No lone attempt to find her in the North's largest city could every make sense. But Geralt had friends he could count on. The witcher decided to contact Triss Merigold.

⚠ Novigrad Dreaming: Ciri and Dandelion in the Big City

Triss could not help Geralt. Yet she did direct him to Corinne Tilly – an oneiromancer who specialized in finding lost and missing souls.

Guided by Corinne Tilly, the witcher had a dream. In it, Ciri and I, Dandelion, were reunited. Geralt now knew that to find Ciri he would first need to find his dearest and oldest friend.

⚠ The Swallow Takes Flight: Ciri Escapes Her Pursuers

But this was hardly simple. As the witcher soon learned, I'd fallen afoul of Novigrad's underworld bosses and disappeared.

Yet Geralt finally discovered that I was imprisoned in the dungeon of the Temple Guard.

Geralt and his friends finally managed to free yours truly. Good thing, too, for I did, in fact, know what had happened to Ciri. Sadly, she was no longer in Novigrad. Pursued by a swarm of bandits, then cornered by the Temple Guard, she had disappeared in a flash of light and a gust of warmth. Where to? This I did not know.

⚠ Anomaly: Reading the Signs in Skellige

As Yennefer of Vengerberg told it, there had been a magic explosion in Skellige. It had destroyed a vast swathe of primeval forest and was related somehow to Ciri's reappearance. Geralt set out for the Isles to join the sorceress and seek further clues of Ciri's whereabouts.

As it turned out, the druid Ermion had no intention of letting the sorceress examine the destroyed woods. Geralt and Yennefer sought out Jarl Crach an Craite, who helped them break down the druid's resolve.

⚠ Echoes of the Past: What Happened in the Deformed Wood?

Yennefer's suspicions proved true - Ciri had indeed appeared in Skellige. She had arrived from another world, together with a masked mage. She and the mage had then fought the Wild Hunt, before fleeing through portals that carried them to Velen.

There, one trail ended and another began. A long time later the Wild Hunt had reappeared on the isle of Hindarsfjall. This could mean Ciri had returned to Skellige once more.

⚠ Ciri Sails Away: The Trail in Skellige Ends

On Hindarsfjall Geralt and Yennefer learned Ciri had returned to the Isles indeed. She'd rejoined her friend, the masked mage. They had boarded a boat and sailed off in an unknown direction. The boat had returned, one passenger on board - a creature as mindless as it was hideous.

One of the Skelligan jarls had captured the poor beast, then sold it to a merchant from Novigrad.

Chapter 2

3 recaps
⚠ Casting Off the Curse: The Mage Lights the Path to Ciri

The curse that held Uma proved a difficult one to lift, but Yennefer and the witchers managed. The ugliest man alive revealed himself to be not a man, but an elf, and an elven Sage at that. Avallac’h – for this was his name – was the elven mage who had helped Ciri flee the Hunt, and then hidden her away on the Isle of Mists.

⚠ Defending Kaer Morhen: The Wild Hunt Comes for Ciri

On the Isle of Mists, where the elven mage had concealed her, Geralt found Ciri at last. They could not celebrate their reunion, for the Wild Hunt descended on them. They fled, Ciri teleporting them both to Kaer Morhen, where their friends awaited.

Insistent in its pursuit of the woman witcher, the Wild Hunt arrived at Kaer Morhen soon after. A great battle ensued, and the defenders of the fortress might all have perished had Ciri not demonstrated her magic powers. So sudden and violent was her outburst that the Wild Hunt was forced to withdraw. The battle was won, the war had only started.

⚠ Man or Prune: Who or What is Uma?

His long search for Ciri led Geralt to conclude that Uma, the ugliest man alive, the victim of a curse, was the key to finding the young woman. Geralt needed to lift the curse, so he took Uma to the home of the world's greatest specialists on dark spells - to the witchers' fortress of Kaer Morhen.

His long search for Ciri led Geralt to conclude that Uma, the ugliest man alive, the victim of a curse, was the key to finding the young woman.

Chapter 3

4 recaps
⚠ Payback: Ciri and Geralt Take Revenge on Imlerith

After the battle of Kaer Morhen, while the defenders licked their wounds and mourned their losses, Ciri began to plan her revenge. She woke Geralt one night and urged him to come with her to Velen. She new she would find Imlerith there, atop Bald Mountain. She had decided he had to die.

The plan proved a sound one. On Bald Mountain Geralt and Ciri killed Imlerith and two of the Crones. Spurred by the success, they decided to challenge Eredin himself.

⚠ Great Preparations: Seeking Allies

Geralt needed to face Eredin, but could only hope to beat him with the help of friends. The Wild Hunt would only be defeated with magic of the extraordinarily powerful kind. So Triss and Yen set out to reassemble the Lodge of Sorceresses. Avallac'h, too, began to lay plans of his own.

The elven Sage decided to erode the King of the Hunt's support in his own realm. With Geralt in tow, he ventured through several worlds to the city of Tir nà Lia, where they found Eredin's viceroy, Ge'els.

Ge’els had been a loyal subject of the Alder Folk's previous king. When he learned Eredin was a regicide, he agreed to help Avallac'h and Geralt defeat the usurper.

⚠ High Noon: The Final Battle Against the Wild Hunt

The King of the Wild Hunt sailed aboard Naglfar, a mammoth longship that traveled between worlds. Advised by Ge’els to do so, the witcher set out to find the Sunstone - an artifact needed to draw Eredin into a trap.

Using the Sunstone, the sorceresses of the Lodge summoned the Naglfar to a bay along the shore of Undvik Isle. Thus began the last, decisive battle against the Hunt.

In the clash, Geralt killed Eredin, freeing Ciri of the Hunt. But in dying, Eredin named Avallac'h the young woman's true threat and traitor.

⚠ The Lonely Tower: Farewell to Ciri

The King of the Wild Hunt lay defeated. As to Ciri with her extraordinary gift, her story was hardly done. The sorceresses helped the witcher establish Ciri's and Avallac’h's whereabouts - they were somewhere on Undvik. Geralt and Yennefer set out together to find them.

Eredin's last words, however, proved a lie. Avallac’h had not abducted Ciri, he was her mentor. They had gone to find a portal that had opened within Tor Gvalch'ca, Falka's Tower. Ciri entered the tower. She was to use her powers to end a danger once and for all, to save the worlds from eradication in the grips of the White Frost.

The recap The Witcher 3 writes for you

The Witcher 3 writes its own recap as you play, one entry per turning point, so the thread can be picked up after a long break. This is that recap in full, in order, from the Prologue through Chapter 3.

It is the whole Witcher 3 plot, so every section stays closed until you open it. Open only as far as you have played.

Ciri, the reason Geralt is on the road at all in The Witcher 3
Ciri, the reason Geralt is on the road at all in The Witcher 3

Following the Witcher 3 cast instead

The people in the recap have their own journal entries on the Witcher 3 characters page, which track what Geralt knows about each of them at a given point rather than what happened overall.

The quest that produced a given beat is on the Witcher 3 quests page, where objectives stay collapsed for the same reason the recaps here do.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does The Witcher 3 story recap come from?

From the game itself. The Witcher 3 writes a running summary as you play, and this page reproduces those entries in order rather than paraphrasing them.

Does the recap cover Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine?

The recap follows the base game from the Prologue through Chapter 3, which is what the in-game Witcher 3 summary covers.

Is this Witcher 3 story page spoiler free?

The list of chapters is safe to browse. Each recap stays collapsed until you open it, so nothing is revealed until you choose to read it.