The Royal Blood is a time-based quest in The Witcher 2 that happens during Lorveth’s path. While Witcher and Philippa worry about Saskia and Triss, a commoner arrives and explains how people are against Prince Stennis due to the accusation that he poisoned Saskia.
The peasant also states that the mob is outside the Prince’s quarters and is demanding that he be punished for his conspiracy. Before you run up to the corridor where the fight is going on, make sure you are ready to take on the Royal Blood quest as it is timed.
You’ll need to do all the stuff required before the time runs out and the trial will start. Also, make sure you are done with the side quest, With Flickering Heart. Let’s jump to how you can complete the Royal Blood quest.
Start the investigation in The Witcher 2 Royal Blood Quest
When ready, go to the Castle of Three Fathers, and you’ll notice a crowd in the left corridor. Enter, and Zolton and Dandelion will greet you. They would fill you in on what’s happening, which would then lead to the confrontation between Iorveth and the villagers.
Lorveth will then ask you to investigate while he calms down the mob. He asks you to be quick, so try to do the tasks as quickly as you can.
As you are short on time, you can choose to talk to different groups or choose to do the quest first and then talk. Either way, you’ll only be able to talk to a few.
You can also talk to Dandelion and Zolton, but they don’t add anything other than what has already been said at the start. It is recommended to talk to dwarves and the locals in front of the guards who start the Suspect: Thorak quest and point towards Willy, the servant of Saskia for the Walls have Ears quest, respectively, in The Witcher 2.
You can come back later to talk to other groups once you are back. But to save time, it’s better to complete the quests and then spend time piecing together the information. Also, the information from these two quests is more valuable than any other conversation.
If you are at risk of starting the cutscene before ending the side quests, you can make a wrong choice in the end.
How to complete Suspect: Thorak quest?
Once you talk to the three dwarves, they would point towards a copycat runesmith who could’ve made the duplicate chalice. This would start the side quest, Suspect Thorak. Before going forward with this quest, you’ll need to finish Baltimore’s Nightmare quest first in The Witcher 2.
When done, go to Thorak’s house or talk to him if he’s alive, which would be determined by the end of Baltimore’s Nightmare. If alive, he would deny this claim, but you can just go to his house and search. Inside, there would be a receipt, which would be proof of his association with the conspiracy.
This quest would prove the suspicion that commoners didn’t poison her as Olcan poisoned the chalice, and it was his doing. You’ll also get 100 extra points on completion.
What to do in the Walls have Ears quest?
After talking to the locals and learning about Willy, Saskia’s servant who served her wine, told locals about the poisoning. Go outside and go up the slope to the Scoia’taels soldiers. Behind them by the pole, you’ll find Willy. Talk to him, and he will refuse to say anything. Here, you’ll need to use the Axii sign or Intimidation.
After the effect, he would explain how he only heard the conversation between Prince Tennis and the Priest (Olcan), who is now dead. Geralt asks him to provide much more solid proof. He claims to know nothing else but would direct you towards Priest’s house as maybe you could find something there.
To find the Priest Olcan’s house, go to Cecil’s house first in The Witcher 2. Here, the path from the town hall to Cecil’s house is on the east side of the city.
To reach Cecil’s house, go straight down towards the market. Don’t climb up any stairs, and stay on the ground level. Once you get to the market, turn right (east) and go through the continuous tunnels until you get to the area with a large gate and a small red gate to its right. Go inside and talk to Cecil. He will give you the Priest’s house location in The Witcher 2.
Now, go back from the three tunnels but go west from the market. Then, go south toward the tents. Pass through, and you’ll soon be at Priest Olcan’s house. Go inside and examine everything in the area. If you’ve done Suspect: Thorak quest by now, the notes here would reveal the same diagram for the chalice found in Thorak’s house.
This would prove his involvement in poisoning Saskia. Once done, you’ll get 1000 XP. Now you can go back to the Town hall to enter the cutscene or talk to other people.
Should you spare or kill Prince Stennis?
Once you are back and the time runs out, the cutscene will start in The Witcher 2 Royal Blood quest. There would be a lot of back and forth, and you can answer several options with known information. These choices don’t matter much other than knowing more or less before the final decision.
The conversation would be held for a while, and it would all end with Silgrat, the brother of the war hero Seltkirk, asking you to choose what should be the result. You can choose between:
- Prince is guilty: Killing him then and now.
- Let him have a fair trial: Guards would take him away.
Option A: Kill him
If you choose to kill him, the townsfolk will beat him until he dies of injuries. At this point, Geralt would walk up to his body and collect his now spilling blood. This option is better if you would like to collect Stennis’s blood without any problem.
Option B: Spare
The second option is to spare him for now so he can have a fair trial. Later on, Stennis is not punished and roams free, ruling the city until Saskia confronts him. If you choose this option, you won’t get the Royal blood in The Witcher 2 and will later have to get it by requesting Henselt.
Choosing to kill Prince Stennis seems a much more viable option, considering how there is proof that Olcan and Prince were close. As one of the commoners said, Price may not have poisoned Saskia but indeed made way for someone else to do so.
This is later proven to be true if you see how hesitant Price Stennis is to give blood to save Saskia. Also, later on, getting blood becomes harder.
Additionally, the nobles, who are closer to Prince Stennis, showcased distance for non-human folk, which pushed Stennis’s agenda of making the city for only humans and driving non-human out. Consider all this and then decide what type of decision is a better one. Neither affects the later actions much, so you don’t need to stress over it a lot.
