8 Witcher 3 Choices That Seem Small Until They Lead to Brutal Outcomes

The Witcher 3 has a lot of massive decisions with stakes that are important, and it signals pretty clearly when a big decision lies before you. The outcomes lead to the changing of nations and the fate of the world.

However, it also includes small moments with seemingly simple decisions to make. Choosing wrong, however, can lead to brutal outcomes that could also have wide-reaching consequences. There were several times when I looked at my saved files, wondering if it was worth going back six hours just to circumvent an awful outcome from a flippant decision I had made hours ago. Here are some of the most brutal.

8 A Towerful of Mice

Be Helpful, Unleashing the Plague

The Catriona plague is literally the Black Plague that was carried over from our world to the world of The Witcher. It devastated the Northern Kingdoms, with a mortality rate of 98%. Not much of this is explained in The Witcher 3, which inadvertingly turns the quest a Towerful of Mice into a minefield.

The ghost of a woman called Anabelle who died on the island will ask you to take her bones to her lover to break the curse. This seems like an innocuous request that should result in peace for the spirit, but it leads to a killing Graham and spreading the Catriona plague among Valen's people. This is something easy to miss, as you need to uncover a certain memory with the magic lamp to get the option to refuse.

7 Sending Keira to Radovid

Into the Lion's Den

Speaking of A Towerful of Mice, there's another possible brutal outcome tied to it. Keira wants to find a cure for the Catriona plague, and one possible way to acquire some of the best research, funding, and minds to do so lies with King Radovid. You can encourage Keira to go to Radovid, abandon her research entirely, or send her to Kaer Mohren.

Sending her to Radovid may seem like the best option for someone who wants to conduct medical research as it theoretically gives her the best resources, but anyone who's been to Novigrad knows that this is a terrible idea. Keira gets brutally executed offscreen, and you see her burnt corpse on the way into the city. It's a horrible end for a great character, and also makes it much harder to save Lambert later because Keira isn't present to save him.

6 The Whispering Hillock

Both Options Suck

The Whispering Hillock is the first real example of how difficult it is to deal with spirits in The Witcher 3. The Ladies of the Wood ask you to kill the Whispering Hillock, who has been plaguing the nearby village of Downwarren. Freeing or killing the spirit both seem like pretty benign decisions, but both lead to awful and unavoidable outcomes.

Freeing the spirit instead of killing it leads to the deaths of the villagers in Downwarren. It also frees the orphans from the Ladies of the Woods, a positive outcome for them, but this leads to them turning Anna into a water hag. Killing the spirit keeps the orphans imprisoned, and they're all eventually eaten by the Crones.

5 Letting Emhyr Pay You

Toss a Coin to Your Witcher

At the end of the day, witchers do their jobs to get paid. It's easy to fall into this habit, especially when you have to fight to not get cheated constantly, and accepting payment for a job isn't particularly malicious.

Accepting payment from Emhyr for finding Ciri is the exception. After finding her and bringing her to Emhyr, a grotesque scene plays out with Geralt holding out his hands while a servant plies him with gold, all while Ciri watches in horror. This has repercussions beyond this moment though, and makes it far more likely that Ciri doesn't return from the White Frost.

4 Not Getting Syanna's Ribbon

A Silly Trinket

A lot of the events in Blood and Wine run on the laws of whimsy, which can lead to some brutal outcomes. In the Land of a Thousand Fables, the Little Flint Girl has Syanna's ribbon amongst her wares for 500 gold. This seems like a frivolous thing to buy, but overlooking it to save some cash or because it doesn't seem important to get the trinket has consequences.

Getting the ribbon means that Syanna lives, as she is teleported to the Land of a Thousand Fables when Dettlaff attacks her. Without the ribbon, he's able to kill her. Syanna has done a lot of terrible things, but she's a product of her circumstances, and doesn't deserve to be torn apart by a vampire. It's insane that her fate depends on a childhood ribbon, but this small choice is life or death for her.

3 Sparing Whoreson Jnr

Some People Can't Be Reformed

One of the absolute worse characters in The Witcher is Whoreson Jnr. When you track him down and get the information you need from him, you have the option to kill or spare him.

Unlike Syanna, I see no reason at all to spare him, but those who think he deserves mercy and the chance to be better will be disappointed. If spared, he continues his vile ways and leaves a trail of bodies behind him. It's one of the choices in The Witcher 3 where the outcome is obvious from the outset, but for those who want to hold onto hope or mercy, it's an unpleasant reminder that some people just don't change.

2 Choosing to Ignore Radovid

Inaction is a Choice

Getting involved in politics isn't really a choice, and choosing to do nothing is a stance on its own in The Witcher 3. The plot involving Radovid is very long, and ignoring it may seem like a decent option, especially as witchers aren't supposed to get involved in politics at all.

This means that Radovid remains alive and kicking, and that's bad news for pretty much everyone in his realm. Non-humans get the brunt of his ire, but sorceresses, magic users, and anyone deemed unacceptable continue to be targeted and killed in large numbers. The outcome is the continued pogroms and mass slaughter of innocent people, and it's something that's entirely preventable.

1 Letting Olgierd Die

Experience the Horrors

I do not like Olgierd at all, and no matter how many times I've played Hearts of Stone, he's never grown on me. I think he's an awful person, and that didn't start when he met O'Dimm. So, when the time came for O'Dimm to claim his soul, I just let him do it.

The scene that unfolded before me was horrifying. Watching Olgierd wither away into nothing but a skull was nightmare fuel. When Gaunter then asked me what I wanted from him, I confidently told him I wanted absolutely nothing after watching that. Since then, I've chosen to fight for Olgierd's soul. I may not like him, but no one deserves that.