How did you handle Keira?

[Thomas999]

How did you handle Keira?

I've completed two playthroughs now, and just couldn't justify taking her in in either one. She'd just proved herself untrustworthy, and declared her intentions to give Radovid, who has a hard-on for burning mages and freaks, whatever she could to buy his mercy regardless of who else it might hurt. Somehow giving her directions to the Witcher hideout just didn't seem like a great idea, however fun she is to be around. Especially not with Vesemir in the process of covering the tracks to the fortress. And especially not just to save her from bedbugs, even if it'd be unbecoming of a gentleman to voice a thought like that out loud.

I didn't kill her either, just gave her mildly disappointed and vaguely sympathetic looks and wished her good luck with Radovid. She's an adult, after all. Her and Geralt saying goodbye without loud and pointless recriminations is very bittersweet, and the cutscene with Triss taking her down from the stake is legitimately sad and beautiful. All in all I'm very satisfied.

That said, it seems that one of the hidden achievements requires her presence at the battle with the Wild Hunt, which makes me quite annoyed that I didn't save her in one of the playthroughs now that I've started trophy-hunting.

 

[Riven-Twain]

Personally, I never bothered with achievements. I saw no compelling reason to kill her, and I considered her plan to approach Radovid rather ill-considered, based on his conduct at Loc Muinne; so, I simply chose to direct her to Kaer Morhen.

Spoiler

Lucky for Lambert that I did.

 

[Thomas999]

Personally, I never bothered with achievements. I saw no compelling reason to kill her, and I considered her plan to approach Radovid rather ill-considered, based on his conduct at Loc Muinne; so, I simply chose to direct her to Kaer Morhen.

Spoiler

Lucky for Lambert that I did.

I usually don't bother either, except when I notice that I'm pretty close to the platinum, none of the trophies left are hugely bothersome, I have a few hours to kill and I spent good money on a particular game and wouldn't mind feeling that I've made it as worthwhile as possible. In this case it'll just have to wait until next time I feel the urge to play the game through. Missed the 'Even The Odds' trophy as well. Wish it hadn't been a hidden either, so I'd have known earlier.

And meh, Lambert is fine either way. I was actually disappointed during my first playthrough, after hearing people make such a fuss about her saving his life. I expected to lose him at Kaer Morhen after letting her go to her death, but all it did was force me to spend ten seconds saving him myself.

 

[Riven-Twain]

people make such a fuss about her saving his life.

It must be his appreciation for poetry that endeared him to them.

 

[iCake]

I sure didn't like her playing Geralt like that, but it looked to me like she'd done all that out of massive desperation so I took pity on her. She's cunning and manipulative at heart though, there's no doubting that, so the decision I'd made left an unsettling aftertaste. I still couldn't just let someone go and practically commit a suicide out of that clouded judgement. That's perhaps the primary reason I sent her to Kaer Morhen.

 

[cyberpunkforever]

in the first playthrough, i chose the wrong dialog options and ended fighting her, then reloaded a save game, and chose the wrong dialog options again, and she left to se radovid, i didn't know what would happen after that, so i just continued, then i saw her death, terrible
then on the second playthrough i told her to go to kaer morhen,

 

[Thomas999]

I wasn't exactly angry at her either. The culmination of Geralt's affair with Fringilla Vigo in the books showed, to me, that he's simply learned not to have very high expectations when it comes to the trustworthyness of supposedly-besotted sorceresses. And again, Keira is an adult, and nothing she proposes directly impacts Geralt himself. I don't feel any responsibility to save her from her own judgement beyond speaking my opinion on Radovid's likelihood to accept her, which doesn't sway her in the slightest. Much less bet my fellow witchers' safety on it after she'd just given ample reason not to trust her with that particular information.

Like with the "bad" Blood And Wine ending and Radovid beating Nilfgaard, it only feels bad if you see it as Geralt's responsibility to both save everyone possible and stab all the world's problems away. If you don't then it's just nature taking its course and people ultimately reaping what they sow, which I feel fits the Witcher's themes better than happy endings all around.

 

[Merc616]

She's an adult, after all. Her and Geralt saying goodbye without loud and pointless recriminations is very bittersweet, and the cutscene with Triss taking her down from the stake is legitimately sad and beautiful. All in all I'm very satisfied.

I didn't know the details of that scene and now I kind of want to see it but I wouldn't want to see it in a playthrough - there's YouTube for that. Keira came off as very desperate and it was clouding her judgment so I chose the dialogue options to try to talk some sense into her. Awful things can happen in Witcher games and I expected it was one of those situations where the dialogue decisions were very critical.

 

[sv3672]

I didn't know the details of that scene and now I kind of want to see it but I wouldn't want to see it in a playthrough - there's YouTube for that.

On the PC version of the game, it is possible to use console commands to change the outcome of Keira's quest line, I have posted those and also a save at the end of Bald Mountain in the save games thread. This way, "A Final Kindness" can be seen in game without having to replay many hours. Another bit of information that might be interesting, there is a list of all choices in the standoff scene and what consequences they lead to here.

 

[Ginvoice]

Romanced her then sent her to Kaer Morhen

 

[Kagio]

To get more contant direct her to Kaehr

 

[Razrback16]

My first playthrough I made sure not to do any research on quests and just play them making my own decisions without knowing the consequences -

I didn't trust her at all and so did not let her leave with the notes so it ended in me killing her.

Now that I know she can be reasoned with and doesn't actually intend anything bad with the notes, I send her to Kaer Morhen every time.

 

[rsny]

I tried to "stop" her but didn't realize it was a fight to the death. I thought she'd just get knocked around but now she's dead and I've only just discovered that's a bad thing lol.

 

[LukeSparow]

I never do the quest anymore. "book" Geralt never seemed to interested in Keira to begin with, and I doubt he would waste time hunting down some pussy (that's basically the instigator of the quest) when he's focyssed on finding Ciri, whom he knows is in immediate danger from the Hunt.
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The timing of the side quest is just off. Besides, by ignoring it she gets staked later which is a nice dramatic plotpoint, and a much better instigator for the Radovid assassination plot than anything else the game throws at you.

 

[IAvariciousI]

First playthrough I took her head off, the second I spared her. I never liked her at all, she was a posh snob.

 

[SorceressJ]

Same for me. But as I'm on my third playthrough right now, I kept her alive again and want her to meet Lambert in Kaer Morhen again.