The Witcher 2 Walkthrough Part 29: Where Is Triss Merigold (Aedirn) Part 1

This quest is a continuation of one that opened up at the end of Act 1. With all of the chaos unfolding in Aedirn, it can be easy to forget that Triss Merigold is still nowhere to be found. A central thread of the main plot revolves around finding her and her captor Letho, though, and right about now would be a good time to start pursuing some leads.

The quest Royal Blood cannot be completed without making a little progress in this quest line first. To begin the search for Triss anew, head to Philippa’s house. She will mention a man from the tavern who claims to have seen a redheaded woman falling from the sky. The word of a drunk man is dubious at best, but there are no other leads to go off of at this point, so it’s best to pay the man a visit. You can find him, where else, in the tavern. His name is Martus Birut, and you will have to buy him a drink before he will even begin to talk. Put down the orens for the drink or ask the bartender to tell you the now-familiar story of the mysterious woman. Apparently, the redhead was last seen with a troll outside of the city’s boundaries. Now you will have to leave Aedirn and head out to visit the troll, who can be found in the ravines to the south of the city.

The troll will not be violent, as you may have been expecting, but rather calm and understanding about the situation. When you speak with the troll, he will tell you that he found Triss injured in the ravines below the city and scooped her up and took her back into his lair to recuperate. As Triss recovered, the male troll fell in love with her. This caused the female troll to leave, and soon after Triss did as well. The troll will tell you that Triss’ red kerchief is currently being held by the female troll. You should now try to seek out the female troll in order to find out anything else that she may know about Triss’ whereabouts. You will get a choice in this section to promise something about the female troll. You can either promise not to hurt her, or simply not say anything, indicating your willingness to do anything necessary to find Triss.

Leave the first troll and head around the curve to the right of the ravine. From here, turn to the south and proceed down the winding ravine path to find the female troll. When you find her, though, she will be in trouble. Adam Pangratt and his group of mercenaries will be attacking her. Here you will have another choice. You can either side with the mercenaries, or side with the troll. Siding with the mercenaries will result in the death of the female troll. After she dies, you can loot Triss’ bandanna from her corpse. If you help the troll, you can get the mercenaries to back down through somewhat nonviolent means. You will still have to kill two of the mercenaries, but Adam himself will surrender. If you choose to do this, simply block the mercenaries’ attacks with your Steel Sword and hack them apart when they leave themselves open. Helping the troll is the best option, though, because you will have to fight the male troll if you end up killing his female counterpart. You will also be able to summon trolls to help you during the climactic battle at the end of this chapter. When Adam surrenders, you can send him to Vergen to join up with Saskia. You won’t be able to get Triss’ bandanna back from the female troll this way, though. If you take the female troll’s side, you will actually get the bandanna from the male troll who you spoke with earlier.

Head back to the north and around the curve to the left. This will lead you back to the male troll. If you promised not to hurt the female troll and you made good on this promise, he will admit that he had the bandanna the whole time, and hand it over to you along with an item called the Troll Horn. The Troll Horn, when blown later in the story, will call an army of trolls to your aid. If you allowed the female troll to die, her mate will fly into a rage and attack you. Cast Yrden on him as soon as the battle starts and roll around behind him to swipe furiously at him with your Silver Sword. Repeat this process as much as necessary to bring the lumbering troll to his knees. If you are having trouble, you may want to consider applying some potions to yourself before you approach the clearing with the troll in it. This battle can be one of the easier ones in this section of the game because you will know exactly when it is coming up, so you can prepare yourself as necessary to take him down.

At this point, you should head out to finish any side quests that you haven’t finished yet. You will be nearing the climactic finale of the chapter, and if you have certain side quests still in your Journal, some of them will inexplicably be marked as “Failed” in your journal if you continue on with the next step of this quest. You will also want to take a break from “Where Is Triss Merigold” for a few minutes to head out and complete the “Royal Blood” quest. You will still need to help Philippa make a cure for the poisoned Saskia, and the rest of this quest can and should wait until you have completed the steps necessary to bring Saskia back to a healthy state. She will not be able to help you until her attention has been taken off of Saskia, but after this happens, Philippa will be able to help you locate Triss by using her bandanna.