Family Matters is hailed as one of the best story quests of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. You will approach Baron Phillip Strenger, also known as the Bloody Baron, for help in finding Ciri after reaching Velen in the first act of the game.
However, the Baron has a task of his own. He will only help you if you help him find his missing wife and daughter. The quest starts out fairly straightforward, except that nothing is as simple in the Witcher franchise.
Your search will lead you to some horrible secrets of the family and the doings of the Bloody Baron. Do note that this is one of the longest quests of the game. Your search for his family will require you to travel all over Velen, so make sure to discover every signpost in your travels to fast travel.
The Bloody Baron can be found at his keep in Crow’s Perch. Follow the bridge from the Crow’s Perch signpost to enter the gated town and make your way north into the courtyard of sorts.
Go past his guards in whatever way you wish and speak with the Baron. You will find him extremely disturbed over his missing family. He will make it clear that unless you find his wife and daughter, you will not get a single clue about where Ciri has gone.
Find the Talisman
Once you are ready, the Baron will lead you to the bedrooms of his wife and daughter. Here, you must use your Witcher Senses to find any clues to their whereabouts.
The daughter’s room only contains clues to their backstory. The main clues you are looking for will be found in the Baron’s room. Interact with every glowing object at this stage in the Family Matters quest and then follow the scent to discover a talisman that Tamara had to ward off evil magic.
The Baron will deny knowing anything about the talisman. He will suggest you go visit the Pellar and Keira Metz for more information.
Find the Pellar’s Hut
The Pellar’s hut is north of Blackbough, west of Crow’s Perch. When you reach there, you will find the Baron’s men already there. You will have two choices to deal with Baron’s men here in Family Matters.
You can either pay them to leave or fight them. Either way, speak to the Pellar afterward, and he will ask you to find his precious goat named Princess in return for information.
Once you return his goat to him as part of the A Princess in Distress side quest, the Pellar will reveal that the Baron’s wife and daughter were not taken. They actually escaped in the middle of the night due to the Baron’s abusive nature.
You will also get to know that Tamara suffered a miscarriage at the hands of the Baron. That dead baby was buried by the Baron near Crow’s Perch. However, due to the nature of the tragedy, the corpse has returned as a Botchling, an undead fetus.
Confront the Baron about his lies
Return to the Baron, and you will find his entire keep on fire. If you want to earn some extra gold, rescue the stablehand named Oswin first before heading inside the keep.
The Baron is drunk and aggravated. He will attack you on sight. Use your fists to defeat him, and he will start telling the real story behind his family’s disappearance. You will finally get to hear the Bloody Baron confess to his anger issues.
Now you have two choices. You can either give the Botchling a proper burial to remove the curse or kill it and give its blood to the Pellar.
The choice you make at this point in the Family Matters quest in The Witcher 3 will determine what ending you get for this mission and how the rest of Bloody Baron’s questline proceeds. We have explained the events that follow each choice so you can make an informed decision regarding the fate of the Botchling in TW3.
Bury the Botchling (good ending)
Lifting the curse by finally giving the Botchling a proper send-off is considered the best choice for a good ending to Family Matters in The Witcher 3. The Baron will accompany you on this task as he should. You will have to fend off some Wraiths while the Baron takes back the Botchling for a proper burial.
Do note that during the fighting, the Botchling may become enraged. You need to keep it pacified, or else you will have no choice but to kill it, which will make it impossible to lift the curse. Hence, cast your Axii sign to ease the Botchling once you defeat the Wraiths during Family Matters.
When the Botchling is finally buried, the curse will lift. Meditate to fast-forward a day and night to see a Lubberkin (a friendly guardian spirit) rise from the grave. This will be the best ending for a tale with a lot of suffering, and even though it won’t change the outcome of the final objectives relating to the main quest, Family Matters, it will put the Baron on a path of redemption for his bad actions.
The spirit will lead you to the missing wife and daughter. Simply follow the spirit to reach a house outside of Crow’s Perch. Unfortunately, the house is empty but with signs of an attack. The Baron’s family was here at some point but the corpses of their horses suggest that something attacked them.
The Lubberkin will then lead you to another location, a fisherman’s hut.
Kill the Botchling (bad ending)
If you decide to kill the Botchling instead of lifting its curse, follow through the same route as above, but this time, use your silver sword to kill it. In order to defeat the Botchling, you need to be above level 8.
The Botchling has two weaknesses, and these include cursed oil and the Axii sign. The Botching will lunge at you, followed by a swipe attack during the fight, and summon 3 wraiths to fight you while this monster regenerates its health. You should deal with the wraiths and then focus on dealing damage to the Botchling using your Igni sign.
At Death March difficulty, the Botchling in Family Matters is an even bigger threat. Make sure to coat your weapon with Specter Oil and use Thunderbolt Potion during the fight.
The best attack strategy to use against the Botchling will be to use cast Quen first to reinforce your defense and use Igni to deal fire damage at a medium distance.
Similarly, if you are playing at death march difficulty, then instead of taking a direct offensive approach, you will need to do a lot of blocking and dodging and wait for the Botchling to release the Wraiths. Then you need to use Axii and hit it with a set of heavy strikes to bring down the Botchling health in the Witcher 3.
As for facing the wraiths alongside the Botchling at Death March difficulty, you can coat your weapon with Specter Oil to increase your damage and keep Quen up. You can also use Yrden to trap them and then take them out one at a time.
Once the Botchling is dead, take a vial of its blood and head to the Pellar. He will lead you into the forest to perform a ritual that will point you toward the fisherman’s hut.
Investigate the fisherman’s hut
Whichever decision you make, you will end up at the fisherman’s hut. Speak to the people here to know that Anna, the wife, was taken by a beast. However, Tamara, the daughter, is completely safe in Oxenfurt.
You will now have two choices. You can either return to the Baron with the new information or head to Oxenfurt to find the daughter first.
I would recommend the choice where you revisit the Baron and tell him what information you found. He will give you a doll to give to Tamara when you find her. However, heading straight to Oxenfurt is also a valid option and has no downside.
Find Tamara in Oxenfurt (optional)
This is an optional objective. If you want to meet her to know her side of the story as well as to confirm she is safe, head to Oxenfurt. If not, go to Crow’s Perch to talk to the Baron, which will automatically fail this objective.
If you are reaching Oxenfurt for the first time, you will first need to complete the Thou Shalt Not Pass side quest to enter. Tamara’s house will be marked on your map. When you finally find her, she will tell you that she will never return back to her father, the Baron.
You can bring up the doll that the Baron gave you, but Tamara will not care.
Speak with the Baron
It is finally time to conclude this long quest. Find the Baron at his Crow’s Perch keep and tell him all that you have gathered about his wife and daughter.
He will be sad that his daughter Tamara has decided not to return, but regarding his wife, the Baron will be adamant that you find Anna, or else you will get to know nothing about where Ciri is.
Investigate all remaining leads in Velen
The quest will branch out from here on, and the main quest goes on a pause. To proeed with the Family Matters quest, you will have to investigate the remaining leads about Anna by going to Crookback Bog in The Witcher 3 to meet the Crones and completing the Crones questline.
After completing Ladies of the Wood, return to the Baron to tell him what you found out about Anna and the pact she made with the Crones. At this point, the Baron will finally tell you about Ciri’s whereabouts and then makes another request of you.
After telling you about Ciri, the Baron asks you to help him get Anna back from the Crones. This triggers the Return to Crookback Bog side quest. Return to Crookback Bog is the final step in Bloody Baron’s questline in The Witcher 3, and once you finish it, the Family Matters quest will also end, giving you 1000 EXP as a reward.
