Witcher 3 Bloody Baron Best Ending: How to Get the Good Outcome (Family Matters)

Updated September 29, 2026. The "good" Bloody Baron ending in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the one where both Anna and the Baron survive, and it hinges on one decision that isn't even part of Family Matters: kill the spirit trapped under the Whispering Hillock. There is no perfect outcome. Every route costs someone, and this guide lays out exactly who.

Spoiler warning: everything below this line spoils the full Bloody Baron storyline, including every ending. If you want to play it blind, go in with one tip: think carefully before you trust anyone at the Whispering Hillock.

How the Bloody Baron Questline Is Structured

"The Bloody Baron" is the fan name for the story around Phillip Strenger, the warlord who rules Velen from Crow's Perch. In the quest log it is spread over several separate quests, and that split is why so many players miss the choice that decides the ending.

1. Family Matters - the Baron will tell Geralt about Ciri if Geralt finds his missing wife Anna and daughter Tamara. This quest has the botchling choice.
2. Ladies of the Wood - a separate main quest in Crookback Bog, where Geralt meets Gran, the orphans, Johnny the godling and, finally, the Crones.
3. The Whispering Hillock - a quest set during Ladies of the Wood. This is where the ending is decided.
4. Return to Crookback Bog - Geralt and the Baron go into the bog for Anna. The outcome depends on what you did at the Hillock.

If you want a refresher on the first half of the story, our older write-up covers the Bloody Baron, Ciri's Story and Family Matters quests step by step. This guide sticks to choices and consequences.

Family Matters: Kill the Botchling or Turn It Into a Lubberkin

Partway through Family Matters, Geralt learns that Anna miscarried after the Baron beat her, and that the unburied child has come back as a botchling. You can deal with it in two ways, and both routes end at the same place: the fisherman Voytek's hut, where Geralt learns that Tamara is in Oxenfurt and that Anna was taken.

Kill the botchling

Geralt fights the botchling and collects its blood. The Pellar then uses the blood in a ritual. While he performs it, you have to keep three braziers lit and fight off wraiths. The spirits speaking through the Pellar point Geralt toward Voytek.

Lift the curse (the lubberkin route)

The Baron carries the botchling back to the threshold of Crow's Perch while Geralt protects him from wraiths. When prompted, cast Axii to calm the botchling. If it goes feral, you will be forced to kill it. The Baron names the child and buries it, and it becomes a lubberkin, a friendly guardian spirit. After waiting, Geralt calls the lubberkin, and it leads him to a smokehouse, Anna's dead horse and finally Voytek's hut.

Does it affect the ending?

No. Walkthroughs and player testing agree that the botchling choice changes how the Baron reacts and how you find the trail, not how the story ends. Most players still pick the lubberkin route because it's the more humane choice and it's the Baron's clearest attempt to take responsibility for what he did. Just don't count on it to save anyone later.

Ladies of the Wood: The Crones, Gran and the Orphans

Ladies of the Wood starts near the end of Wandering in the Dark, when Geralt gets a book called The Ladies of the Wood and learns about the witches of Crookback Bog. A trail of sweets from a shrine leads to an orphanage in the swamp, run by a caretaker the children call Gran.

• You can talk to the orphans by playing hide-and-seek with them or by bringing the sweets they ask for.
• They send you to Johnny, a godling who has lost his voice. You get it back from a sealed bottle in a harpy nest.
• Johnny persuades Gran to let Geralt contact the Crones, the three witches who rule the bog and the villages around it.
• The Crones give Geralt the Crones' Dagger and send him to the Ealdorman of Downwarren. He tells Geralt the village's troubles come from the Whispering Hillock.

The twist, which comes later, is that Gran is Anna. The Crones have enslaved her and made her the orphans' keeper, and the children in her care are ultimately meant for the Crones. That's why the Hillock choice matters so much: it decides whether the orphans escape and who pays for it.

The Whispering Hillock: Free the Spirit or Kill It

Under the Hillock, a spirit is bound to an ancient oak. It says it is a prisoner of the Ladies of the Wood. GamerGuides' walkthrough identifies it as "She Who Knows," a primeval power of Velen that the Crones overthrew. It offers to rescue the children if Geralt frees it, which means gathering its bones, a raven's feather and a mare for a ritual. Or you can simply kill it.

Free the spirit (after the Ealdorman sends you)

• The spirit keeps its word and rescues the orphans from the Crones.
• It then takes revenge on Downwarren and massacres the villagers who served the Crones.
• The Crones blame Anna for losing the children and curse her. That sets up the worst version of Return to Crookback Bog.

Kill the spirit

• Downwarren is spared.
• The Crones take the orphans. The game strongly implies they are eaten.
• Anna survives, but losing the children breaks her mind.

The early-release variant

Some guides note a third path. If you find the Hillock and free the spirit before the Ealdorman has sent you there, the Crones don't blame Anna. She survives, mentally broken, as in the kill route. But Downwarren is still attacked, and the spirit doesn't rescue the orphans. So you get the survivor ending for Anna and the Baron, and the village and the children both suffer. Treat this as a situational edge case, not the "better" good ending.

Return to Crookback Bog: How Each Ending Plays Out

Return to Crookback Bog opens with Geralt meeting the Baron in Downwarren. They head to the Crones' huts together and fight drowners, water hags and other monsters with a group of witch hunters. What happens next depends entirely on the Hillock.

If you killed the spirit: Anna and the Baron both live

Geralt and the Baron find Anna alive but out of her mind after the Crones take the children. The Baron finally acts like a devoted husband and takes her to the Blue Mountains to look for a healer. The game never shows whether she recovers. It's the most hopeful ending on offer, and most guides call it the "good" ending for that reason.

If you freed the spirit: Anna is cursed

Anna has been turned into a monstrous water hag (some guides call it a grave hag). To lift the curse, Geralt goes into a hidden cellar where four dolls stand for Anna. Pick the doll with the violet hollyhock bloom, her favorite flower. Pick any other doll and Anna burns to death on the spot.

Even with the right doll, the curse is tied to her life. Anna turns back into a woman, says a few words and dies. The Baron carries her away. When Geralt goes back to Crow's Perch for his payment, he finds the Baron has hanged himself.

Every Choice and Its Consequences (Table)

What Happens to the Orphans of Crookback Bog

The orphans are the hidden price of the "good" ending, and it's worth being honest about that before you choose.

• Spirit killed: the Crones take the children. Nothing on screen is graphic, but the story leaves little doubt about what the Crones do with them.
• Spirit freed the normal way: the spirit gets the children out. Players report that if you revisit the orphanage after the questline, you find a note about new orphans whose names match the Crookback Bog children, which suggests they reached safety (commonly said to be an orphanage in Novigrad).
• Spirit freed early: per the same player reports, that note never appears, which points to the children being taken.

So the real choice isn't "good vs bad." It's the Baron and Anna vs the orphans and Downwarren. As ConsolePulse's guide puts it, no outcome saves Anna, the Baron, the orphans and the village all at once.

Which Ending Should You Pick?

If "good ending" means the one where the Baron's story ends on hope rather than a noose, kill the spirit. Anna lives, the Baron leaves Velen trying to make things right, and Downwarren survives. You pay for it with the orphans.

If you care more about the children, free the spirit and pick the violet hollyhock doll so Anna at least gets a moment of peace. You're choosing to save a group of innocent kids at the cost of a village that served the Crones, and the lives of two deeply flawed adults.

A few practical notes before you commit:

• Save before the Hillock. The decision locks in during Ladies of the Wood, well before Return to Crookback Bog shows you the result.
• Don't leave Return to Crookback Bog too long. Guides warn that it, along with Ciri's Room, fails if it isn't finished before the main quest The Isle of Mists.
• Play Gwent with the Baron first. He's a Gwent opponent, and neither ending leaves him around for another match.
• Give Tamara the doll. The Baron hands Geralt a cloth doll for Tamara if you talk to him before visiting her in Oxenfurt. It's a small, sad scene, and the only closure she gets.

If you're new to the game and building Geralt for fights like the botchling and the bog monsters, our Witcher 3 combat tips for beginners and the best early-game skills guide are the places to start. Axii is worth having when the botchling scene comes up. Playing the free next-gen update? See our overview of the Witcher 3 Remastered upgrade. Quest choices and outcomes haven't changed there.

Frequently Asked Questions

For more Velen guides, settings and walkthroughs, head to our Witcher 3 hub.

Sources checked on September 29, 2026 against the Witcher 3 Fextralife wiki, GamerGuides' Witcher 3 walkthrough, PC Gamer, GamesRadar+, Destructoid, TheGamer and the Wikipedia entry for The Bloody Baron.