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The Witcher 3

Family Matters Walkthrough, Choices and Best Choice

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Family Matters Walkthrough

Family Matters is a Main Quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's Act 1. Find out how to complete the quest, as well as the best choices and rewards here!

Previous Quest Current Quest Next Quest
Ciri's Story: The King of the Wolves Family Matters Pyres of Novigrad
Quests Within Family Matters
A Princess in Distress
Ciri's Story: The Race
Hunting a Witch
Ladies of the Wood
Whispering Hillock
Ciri's Story: Fleeing the Bog
Ciri's Story: Out of the Shadows

Family Matters Walkthrough

Family Matters Objectives
1 Follow the Baron
2 Use your Witcher Senses to Search the Room
3 Talk to the Baron About What You Found
4 Find the Pellar's Hut
5 Deal with the Bandits
6 Talk to the Pellar
7 Lead the Goat to the Pellar
8 Read About Botchlings in the Bestiary
9 Talk to the Baron
10.1 Save the Stablehand and the Horses (Optional)
10.2 Open the Main Gate of the Stables (Optional)
11 Defeat the Baron in a Fistfight
12 Follow the Baron
13 Deal with the Botchling
Option 1 Option 2
Attack the Monster Turn the Botchling into a Lubberkin
14 Kill the Botchling Follow the Baron to the Castle's Entrance
15 Talk to the Pellar Protect the Baron from Wraiths
16 Follow the Pellar Use Axii Sign to Calm the Botchling
17 Prepare for the Ritual and Light the Fires Summon the Lubberkin
18 Relight the Fires if They Go Out Follow the Lubberkin
19 Walk the Pellar Home
(Optional)
Search the Area Around the Smokehouse
20 Find the Fisherman Voytek's Hut Examine the Dead Horse
21 Look Around the Fisherman's Hut
22 Talk to the Baron About His Family
23 Find Tamara
24 Investigate the Remaining Leads

Objectives 1-4

Step-by-step Walkthrough
1 Follow the Baron
After the cutscene, follow the Baron up the stairs.
2
Use your Witcher Senses to Search the Room
Enter the room to the east and use your Witcher Senses to find clues. Examine the following objects inside the room:

① candlestick on the table
② flowers on the jar
③ different colored wall
④ painting of the baron and his wife
⑤ wardrobe at the other side of the painting
⑥ wooden pillar near the flowers
3
Afterward, examine the candlestick again. Next, use your Witcher Senses to follow the red trail. It will lead you out of the room down the stairs.
4
Examine the floorboard at the end of the trail, then pick up the talisman.
5 Talk to the Baron About What You Found
Talk to the Baron waiting outside the rooms. Afterward, you'll gain 150 XP.
6 Find the Pellar's Hut
Search for the pellar's hut near a village called Blackbough. Leave Crow's Perch and follow the road northwest to the marker.

Deal with the Bandits

When you reach the Pellar's hut, you will be confronted by 5 of the Baron's men. You will be given dialogue options to deal with them, but your choice has no impact on the story.

Options to Deal with the Bandits
1 Offer to Heal Edric
Asking what they want with the Pellar and saying you can help their friend will pacify them. However, if you chose to kill the men in the Inn at the Crossroads during the Nilfgardian Connection, they will attack you instead.
2 Pay Them Off
You can try to bribe them with money, but they will not accept it. After choosing this dialogue, it will disappear from the options and you will have to select again from the remaining three.
3 Use Axii
If you have Delusion Level 2, you can convince them to leave. This earns you a 40 XP bonus.
4 Threaten
Telling them to leave or die will lead to a fight where you'll have to kill all of them.

Objectives 6-7

Step-by-step Walkthrough
1 Talk to the Pellar
Go to the Pellar's hut and knock on the door to talk to him.
2
Lead the Goat to the Pellar
After speaking to him, you will need to agree to find his goat and finish the quest A Princess in Distress to continue Family Matters.

A Princess in Distress Walkthrough

Objective 8-11

Step-by-step Walkthrough
1

Read About Botchlings in the Bestiary
Open the Bestiary and read the entry about botchlings to learn about its weaknesses.
2
Talk to the Baron
Head back to Crow's Perch. Upon arriving at the castle, you'll have the option to save the stablehand. Otherwise, talk to the Baron to continue.
3
Save the Stablehand and the Horses Trapped in the Burning Stables (Optional)
Head to the burning building and climb the ladder. Use the Aard Sign to clear the debris and drop down into the stables below.

Note: Don't forget to loot the chest before going down.
4
Open the Main Gate of the Stables (Optional)
Open the lock on each stall of the horses. You will not interact with the stablehand, but you'll hear him. When he says "Good work", it means you've freed all the horses including him. Proceed to open the main gate.

Note: When you get short of breath, approach the main gate to replenish.
5
Defeat the Baron in a Fistfight
Beat the Baron in a fist fight to calm him down, netting you 50 XP afterward.

By the end of the dialogue, you can choose to immediately proceed to going to the botchling or do preparations first. You can use this time to make Specter oil or Cursed oil.
6 Follow the Baron. Once you reach the grave, you will then have to choose what to do with the botchling.

Deal with the Botchling

Options to Deal with the Botchling
Attack the Monster Turn the Botchling into a Lubberkin

Jump to Choices

Attack the Monster (Obj 14-20)

Step-by-step Walkthrough
1
Kill the Botchling
Choose [Attack the moster] when presented with the choices. Geralt will strike the botchling, turning it hostile.

The Botchling is a tough fight. Light attacks are not very effective so stick with using heavy attacks. When the botchling's health drops low enough, it will grow spikes on its back and regenerate its health. Use Axii to force the spikes to retract and stop it from regenerating.
2 Talk to the Pellar
After defeating the botchling, make your way to the pellar.
3 Follow the Pellar
Follow him to the ritual site. Kill the 5 wolves that attack, then continue following the pellar.
4 Prepare for the Ritual and Light the Fires
Light the 3 fires by using Igni on the marked stones.
5 Relight the Fires if They Go Out
Once the ritual starts, relight any of the fires that go out. You can stand near the fire and use the Igni interaction instead of casting it. This will help you preserve stamina. Killing the wraiths is not required.
6 Walk the Pellar Home (Optional)
After the ritual, choose the option to walk him home to receive an additional 100 XP.
7 Find the Fisherman Voytek's Hut
Find the fisherman's hut, located east of Crow's Perch.

Jump to Next Step

Turn the Botchling into a Lubberkin (Obj 14-20)

Step-by-step Walkthrough
1 Follow the Baron to the Castle's Entrance
Choose [Turn the botchling into a lubberkin] when presented with the choices. After the cutscene, follow the baron to the castle's entrance.
2
Protect the Baron from Wraiths
Upon reaching the road towards the castle gate, wraiths will appear. You must kill them to continue.

Yrden and Moon Dust Bombs can help with fighting wraiths by restoring their physical form, making them more susceptible to physical damage.
3 Use Axii Sign to Calm the Botchling
After defeating the wraiths, calm the botchling with Axii right after. Continue following the Baron until you reach the threshold, two waves of wraiths will appear along the way.

Make sure to always calm down the botchling immediately upon eliminating the wraiths, or else it will transform and you'll have to kill it. This will render you unable to turn it into a lubberkin.
4
Summon the Lubberkin
Approach the lubberkin's grave. Examine it to sit and wait.
5 Follow the Lubberkin
Follow the lubberkin out of the castle where it leads you.
6
Search the Area Around the Smokehouse
Use your Witcher Sense to investigate the area. Examine the following:
The horseshoe prints outside the smokehouse.
Bracelet on one of the barrels next to the horseshoe prints.
Clothing on the ground south of the horseshoe prints.
7
Examine the Dead Horse
Continue following the lubberkin. Kill the Rotfiends that come in 3 waves of 2 then examine the horse.

Rotfiends explode when their health gets low enough. This will kill it and deal heavy damage to anything near it, even other monsters. Use this to your advantage by luring other monsters near Rotfiends that are about to explode, but be sure not to get hit yourself.
8 Follow the lubberkin to the fisherman's hut.

Objectives 22-23

Objectives
1
Look Around the Fisherman's Hut
Enter the hut and exhaust all the dialogues to know about what happened to Anna and Tamara. You will get 300 XP after.
2 Talk to the Baron About His Family
Head back to Crow's Perch and speak with the Baron. If you have not gone to Oxenfort to find Tamara yet, you will receive a Letter of Safe Conduct and 50 crowns when you agree to look for her.
3 Talk to the Baron about his wife and you will receive 300 XP. When he tells you about Ciri, the game will transition to the quest Ciri's Story: The Race.

Ciri's Story: The Race Walkthrough

Find Tamara (Optional)

Objectives
1 Go to Oxenfurt. It is found east of Hanged Man's Tree.
2 If you talked to the Baron first, you will receive a Letter of Safe Conduct, which will let you pass the bridge into Oxenfurt and give you 75 XP.
If you did not talk to the Baron first you will have to swim across and will not gain extra xp.
3 You can find Tamara in one of the northern houses marked on the map..
4 After talking to Tamara you will receive 150 XP.
5 Return to Crow's Perch and find the baron.

Investigate the Remaining Leads

Objectives
1 After telling the baron about Tamara, the objective will change to "Investigate the remaining leads". Complete Hunting a Witch and Wandering in the Dark to get the quest The Ladies of the Wood.
2 Complete Ladies of the Wood and return to the baron. He will tell you the rest of his story about Ciri, transitioning you to Ciri's Story: Out of the Shadows. Afterward, the Family Matters quest will be completed.

Family Matters Choices

Choice Results
Attack the Monster ・You will need to fight the botchling, along with a few wraiths.
・The baron will get angry afterward, but no impact on story and later quests.
Turn Botchling into Lubberkin ・You will need to fight waves of wraiths.
・No impact on story and later quests.

Choices and Decisions that Affect the Story

Family Matters Rewards

Gold Reward None
Exp Reward 200
Item Reward Letter of Safe Conduct x 1


Family Matters Quest Info

Quest Number 9
Region Velen
Quest Location Crow's Perch
Previous Quest Ciri's Story: The King of the Wolves
Next Quest Pyres of Novigrad
Missable? No
Failable? No

The Witcher 3 Related Guides

Main Quests Partial Banner

List of Main Quests

Witcher 3 Questlines

Prologue
Act 1 Act 2 Act 3
DLC
Hearts of Stone Blood and Wine

All Act 1 Quests

No. Quest Title
6 The Nilfgaardian Connection
7 Bloody Baron
8 Ciri's Story: The King of the Wolves
9 Family Matters
10 A Princess in Distress
11 Ciri's Story: The Race
12 Hunting a Witch
13 Wandering in the Dark
14 Ladies of the Wood
15 Ciri's Story: Fleeing the Bog
16 Ciri's Story: Out of the Shadows
17 Pyres of Novigrad
18 Novigrad Dreaming
19 Broken Flowers
20 Get Junior
21 Ciri's Story: Visiting Junior
22 Count Reuven's Treasure
23 A Favor for Radovid
24 The Play's the Thing
25 A Poet Under Pressure
26 Ciri's Story: Breakneck Speed
27 Destination: Skellige
28 The King is Dead – Long Live the King
29 Echoes of the Past
30 Missing Persons
31 Nameless
32 Ciri's Story: The Calm Before the Storm

Comment

3 Cesar Castor Cesar Castor almost 6 years

Hi there, we actually have a walkthrough concerning this quest! Check the link below. https://game8.co/games/Witcher3/archives/275827

2 Anonymous Anonymous almost 6 years

If you know the quest with the three crones and the spirit in the tree, kill it instead of releasing it, then he'll survive.

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