The Witcher 2 Walkthrough Part 5: La Valette Dungeons

Back in the dungeons, Roche will now ask what you would do if you were free. You can fight him, but it won’t end well for you. Instead, choose to pursue the assassin and prove your innocence. Roche hands you the key to your shackles. Before he leaves, mention the group of Scoia’tael you saw on the way up to fight Aryan La Valette. This piques Roche’s interest and gives you a lead to follow after you escape the dungeons.

The guards will escort you back to your cell and leave you chained up to the ceiling. To escape, you can either provoke the guards, which will trigger a cutscene of Geralt knocking one of them out, or use the key to escape immediately, which will force you to attack the guard yourself. Either way, a second guard remains and you must brawl with him in a quick time event similar to the one you played when facing off against the captain of the Temerian soldiers in To The Temple.

Upon finishing the final guard, you must decide how you want to escape the dungeons. You can either take the stealthy route or run out swinging. If you choose stealth, be sure to put out all of the mounted torches as you escape, or the guards will easily spot you.

Either way, you’ll be fighting using your bare hands; all of the items you had collected earlier in the prologue have been confiscated and you won’t be able to get them back until you leave the dungeons and begins the adventure proper. Once you defeat a few guards, however, you should be able to pick up one of their clubs, making combat a bit easier.

Head forwards from your cell, carefully taking out every guard as you come to them. Remember to blow out the torches and stay out of the moonlight that seeps through the cracks in the ceiling if you’re trying to play quietly. Once you reach the door at the end of the long hallway, you’ll have two choices.

There are multiple routes to leave the dungeons.

 If you go to the right from the door:

You’ll find two guards patrolling the room. Take them out either stealthily or aggressively and you’ll be rewarded with a key that will open a trap door to your right. Open the door, jump down, and proceed down the winding corridor to the climbing spot on the wall. From here, you’ll hear a violent interrogation taking place. If you chose to spare Aryan La Valette earlier in the prologue, you’ll find him being tortured here. If you killed him, the prisoner will be replaced by his mother Louisa.

No matter who the prisoner is, you should free them by sneaking up behind the guards and taking them out. If you spared Aryan earlier, he’ll thank you but claim that he is exhausted and cannot walk. In this case, he asks that you scout ahead and take out all of the guards ahead, leaving him a clear path. Walk into the room ahead and take out the guards there before heading upstairs and dispatching that guard as well. After clearing out the area ahead, go back and support Aryan on your back. Follow the symbol on your mini-map to find the secret passage that Aryan mentioned, which will trigger a cutscene. Following the cutscene, walk down the path and exit through the door to leave the dungeons.

If, however, you killed Aryan, you’ll find his mother in his place. Kill the guards in the same way. Upon helping Louisa, Shilard, one of her followers, will come to help. Louisa tells Shilard to go distract some guards. Follow him to the room ahead and hide so the guards won’t see you when Shilard alerts them. You may now proceed through the door ahead with no trouble.

If you go to the left from the door:

A disturbed prisoner will begin shouting obscenities at you. You’ll have to approach the door to his cell and silence him by repeatedly clicking the left mouse button before the guards are alerted and attack. Keep moving down the hallway, carefully pausing to take out the guard in the doorway. From the doorway, head to the right. One more guard patrols this room. Kill him and loot his body to get a key to the door in front of you.

The events that occur upon opening this door are again dependent on whether you killed or spared Aryan. If you spared him, you’ll see him fighting off two guards. You will have to fight off the remaining guards. Go into the next room and kill the guard there before heading upstairs to kill that guard too. Come back to carry Aryan to the secret exit marked on your mini-map and leave through the door in front of you to escape.

 If you killed Aryan, you’ll see a Nilfgaardian ambassador using his silver tongue to free Louisa from the dungeon. Shilard will appear and distract the guards in much the same manner as he would if you went to the right. Follow him to the next room, hide, and wait for the guards to vacate the room before leaving through the door in front of you.

If you told Newboy the truth about his cursed amulet in the first chapter of the prologue, he will approach you as you exit the dungeons and thank you breathlessly. He will give you a book with details about dragons and distract a pair of guards for you. Run past the guards quickly or they will turn and see you despite Newboy’s efforts. If, however, you did not warn Newboy about his amulet, his corpse can be found nearby. Loot it to get the amulet.

Proceed down the winding dirt pathway to get to the docks. Loot the crates sitting by the water’s edge to get a few crafting ingredients before walking out to the pier to meet Roche and Triss. At this point, if you helped Aryan escape, you’ll receive the Strong Back ability, which grants you +50 carrying capacity. Either way, you’ll get 1,400 experience points. Roche will make a comment on your escape methods, although your choice of escape method doesn’t otherwise affect anything. From here, it’s off to Flotsam to track the Scoia’tael and start Act 1 proper.