Hearts of Stone - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Database

Hearts of Stone

Casimir’s moody temperament, his unfaithful wife and a certain virile postman.
The dwarf’s role would be to bypass the vault doors using explosives. True, Casimir seemed an unreliable partner in crime, given his oscillations between rage and despair after learning of his wife’s cuckoldry, but Geralt decided to risk it and enlist the dwarf in his crew.

Bassi’s method were far from subtle, but no one can deny their effectiveness. His skillfully placed explosives blew the vault door to pieces, opening the way for the crew to grab the valuables within. The dwarf walked away laden with riches and clearly no longer bothered by his wife’s infidelity.
the witcher was tasked with putting together a crew of expert thieves and break-in artists. One of the candidates was a certain Casimir Bassi, a demolitions specialist who had cut his teeth in the mines of Mahakam…

when the witcher and the surviving Borsodi brother dueled, Casimir supported the losing horse – and paid for this mistake with his life.

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the witcher had to save her circus troupe from humiliation. He duly performed the required feat, and the limber elfess then joined the break-in crew.

Eveline Gallo performed as tasked and guided Geralt and his accomplices into the auction house. Yet as soon as the heist stopped going according to plan and Redanian soldiers surrounded the auction house, she shimmied up and out the chimney and was never seen by Geralt again.

To rob a vault, one must force open armor-plated doors and secret away mounds of loot. First and foremost, however, one needs to get inside the building containing said vault. To accomplish this, Geralt could use the help of a certain Eveline Gallo – a circus performer famed through all the North, and who, it seemed, used her considerable talents for less law-abiding purposes as well…

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he tried to cheat him by keeping Maximilian’s House for himself. Luckily the witcher kept a clear head and, instead of slaughtering Ewald at once, proposed a compromise both sides would find acceptable. Their paths parted soon afterwards, as Ewald left to manage his family fortune and Geralt returned to the Path of a witcher.
he tried to cheat him by keeping Maximilian’s House for himself. This treachery pushed even the usually level-headed witcher over the edge – his steel sword flew into motion at once and soon Ewald’s corpse lay next to that of his hated brother. The tale of the Brothers Borsodi had come to a tragic close.
When he found himself witnessing a battle of brothers, Geralt chose to stand by Horst. Though the elder Borsodi was undeniably arrogant and mean-spirited, he, at least, had not tried to cheat the witcher or use him in a private vendetta as had Ewald. The witcher thus foiled Ewald’s years of planning moments before they were to come to fruition, then put an end to Ewald’s life as well.

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Geralt has escaped a great many predicaments, sometimes of his own doing, sometimes aided by others. One of the strangest helping hands was that extended to him by Master Mirror. The witcher was on an Ofieri ship, held captive and bound for a date with the gallows… when, out of nowhere, in came Master Mirror. He reminded the witcher of their first encounter, when he helped Geralt find Yennefer in White Orchard. Now he was offering help as well – this time, for a price. In exchange for freeing Geralt from the ship, he demanded Geralt meet him at a certain crossroads. When the witcher agreed, a strange mark appeared on his face. It was as though Master Mirror had put a stamp on him to show they had entered into as pact – a suspicion later confirmed beyond all doubt…

Gaunter O’Dimm explained he and their mutual acquaintance, Olgierd von Everec, had entered into a strange pact. Their deal stipulated O’Dimm would have to grant von Everec three wishes. Yet he could not do so on his own, having to call instead upon the services of a proxy. And who better to provide such assistance than a witcher? Since O’Dimm made agreeing to be this proxy a condition for receiving help off the Ofieri ship, Geralt had little choice but to agree.

Master Mirror appeared once again – suddenly and out of nowhere, as usual – after Olgierd proclaimed his first two wishes. Mirror told Geralt of a way to show Olgierd’s brother the time of his life, even though this life had in fact ended years earlier. He equipped Geralt with von Everec blood and the knowledge of how to summon Vlodimir’s ghost. Just how O’Dimm had managed to collect a vial of von Everec blood was never made clear, but then again, burning question marks hung over everything this strange figure did.

Master Mirror made an appearance at the wedding Geralt attended with Shani and the ghost of Vlodimir, who inhabited Geralt’s body so that he may enjoy one last night of earthly revelry. When midnight struck, Vlodimir was unsurprisingly in no mood to abandon the pleasures of the witcher’s flesh. Yet Master Mirror intervened to put an immediate and cruel end to Vlod’s stay among the living. Geralt later told me the cries of torment Vlod’s ghost made haunted his dreams for months to come.

win it, and he would be defeated once and for all.

Geralt decided to deliver Olgierd to Master Mirror’s murky hands, thus completing their bargain. Geralt knew it was over at once, for in that moment the mark which had appeared on his face on the Ofieri ship disappeared like charcoal smudges drenched in a rain shower. That was the last Geralt ever saw of Master Mirror. I do not think he was missed.
Geralt soon discovered Professor Shakeslock’s words were true. Master Mirror could indeed be defeated at his own game. Geralt made a bet with him, wagering everything on one battle of wits, and won. By solving Master Mirror’s riddle, he drove the demon from our dimension – though I fear he may yet return. His kind always returns.

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Horst Borsodi, owner of the most famous auction house in all the North, was a snob and a buffoon. He looked down his nose at Geralt from the very moment they met, and when he heard what had brought the witcher to him, he had his men toss him out and beat him. To say their relationship got started off on the wrong foot would thus be putting it very lightly indeed…

It came as no surprise, then, when Geralt chose to stand by his partner, Ewald, in the final showdown between the two brothers. With their strength combined, they defeated Horst’s hired muscle. A few moments later, Ewald killed his hated brother in a spectacularly cruel fashion. It was later said none walked behind the once rich and mighty Horst Borsodi’s casket and none shed a tear over his grave…
Nevertheless, when the Borsodi brothers faced off in a final showdown, Geralt chose to stand by Horst. He never revealed why he made this decision – perhaps he considered a pompous buffoon less of an evil than a bloodthirsty cheat, which is what his erstwhile partner, Ewald, had proven to be. With Geralt’s support, Horst managed to defeat Ewald. He repaid the witcher for this by giving him the ornamented box known as Maximilian’s House.
Nevertheless, when the Borsodi brothers faced off in a final showdown, Geralt chose to stand by Horst. He never revealed why he made this decision – perhaps he considered a pompous buffoon less of an evil than a bloodthirsty cheat, which is what his erstwhile partner, Ewald, had proven to be. With Geralt’s support Horst managed to defeat Ewald, but was not given long to enjoy this triumph. When Horst revealed that, despite his earlier promise, he did not intend to give Geralt Maximilian’s House, the witcher decided to take it from him by force. Horst died by the witcher’s blade before his hated brother’s corpse had even cooled.

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Geralt needed someone who could scale the glass-smooth wall of the tower abutting the Borsodis’ Auction House. One of the few capable of this was Hugo Hoff, alias “Beef Patty” – a halfling with countless break-ins and robberies under his belt. Geralt was told to look for him in Oxenfurt, whose seedy taverns served as watering grounds for students and criminals alike.

Sadly, it turned out Hugo Hoff was in no condition to join Geralt’s crew. The halfling must have stepped on some powerful toes, for someone had slapped stone slippers on him and taken him for a long walk off a short pier – and into the Pontar.

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When Geralt visited Olgierd von Everec to hear his third and final wish, he learned the rough and rowdy ataman had once been married. At some point he had left his wife, however, and gave her a violet rose as a parting gift. Geralt’s task was to find this rose somewhere in the von Everecs’ abandoned manor. When he arrived there, he discovered the estate was haunted by a malicious wraith tied to Olgierd’s wife, Iris, who had died of loneliness years prior. Her rage and remorse now filled her former house with evil energy.

Geralt gathered up Iris’ remains and buried them in the manor’s garden. He did this both out of simple human decency and cold calculation, for he knew this act would calm her unsettled spirit and lead him to the violet rose. During the funeral a now quieted Iris appeared to Geralt and took him on a journey to a world which existed only in her mind. This “painted world” consisted of her fears and memories, which Geralt now had to confront.

Iris von Everec’s memories first recalled happy days spent in Olgierd’s company, then became darker and darker. In fact, even the sunnier ones had an ominous cloud hanging over them – an uneasy feeling something horrible would soon happen. Iris von Everec had been a sensitive woman and noted subtle changes in her husband’s behavior. She had lacked the courage, however, to delve into their cause.

Olgierd von Everec’s heart had turned to stone, turning him into a monster. Iris hated what her husband had become, but could not stop loving him. The couple endured together in a painful cohabitation until Olgierd ended it by abandoning his wife. Iris never came to terms with their separation, could not, in fact, even bring herself to read her husband’s farewell letter. Yet the violet rose he gave her upon leaving she kept, making it a focal point for all the longing and love raging in her soul. When she died, these unresolved feelings kept her spirit in this world and continued to cause her suffering.

The witcher’s intervention helped Iris accept what had happened to her and her husband. When he asked for the rose, she agreed to give it him, knowing this would put a final end to her pain and suffering – and also her very existence.
Olgierd von Everec’s heart had turned to stone, turning him into a monster. Iris hated what her husband had become, but could not stop loving him. The couple endured together in a painful cohabitation until Olgierd ended it by abandoning his wife. Iris never came to terms with their separation, could not, in fact, even bring herself to read her husband’s farewell letter. Yet the violet rose he gave her upon leaving she kept, making it a focal point for all the longing and love raging in her soul. When she died, these unresolved feelings kept her spirit in this world and continued to cause her suffering.

The witcher’s intervention helped Iris accept what had happened to her and her husband. She was now free to dissolve into the ether, but the thought of this horrified her. She thus entrusted her fate to the witcher, who was unwilling to deprive her of existence. She thus remained in our world by entering a painting which Geralt then delivered to Olgierd. Her sad eyes stared out at him from that canvas for the rest of his life.

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educated, a lover of art and an adherent to a certain noble code. Yet Geralt also perceived something indefinable within the man, something years later he would call “a void crying out to be filled.”

to bring him the house of Maximilian Borsodi, and to show his brother Vlodimir the time of his life…

what was that “something very personal” Gaunter O’Dimm intended to collect from Olgierd?

Once Geralt realized Master Mirror was playing for the highest of stakes – Olgierd von Everec’s soul – he decided he could not sit idly by. Instead he found a way to cheat the demonic being and win Olgierd back his soul. Free from his pact and his heart restored, Olgierd thanked Geralt and gave him his sword – a souvenir which had been in his family for generations – then walked off into the sunset.
Geralt did not have to wait long to find out what lay at the heart of the contract between Olgierd von Everec and Gaunter O’Dimm. In exchange for regaining his family fortune, clearing his name and marrying Iris, Olgierd had agreed to give Master Mirror his soul. Geralt could now only watch as O’Dimm collected his due. Thus ended the sad tale of Olgierd von Everec, a man who lived as if there was no tomorrow, feasted as if he had never known joy and loved a love so strong he was willing to surrender his own soul for it.
Geralt did not have to wait long to find out what lay at the heart of the contract between Olgierd von Everec and Gaunter O’Dimm. In exchange for regaining his family fortune, clearing his name and marrying Iris, Olgierd had agreed to give Master Mirror his soul. Geralt knew of a way to stop this, but for some reason did nothing and instead watched as O’Dimm collected his due. Thus ended the sad tale of Olgierd von Everec, a man who lived as if there was no tomorrow, feasted as if he had never known joy and loved a love so strong he was willing to surrender his own soul for it.

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Geralt was racking his brains for a way to defeat Master Mirror when Shani came to his rescue. She knew of a professor from the Oxenfurt Academy who had spent years scrutinizing every manifestation of black magic and surely would be able to help. Unfortunately, the witch hunters had decided the professor’s knowledge was best used for their goals and their goals only and had placed guards outside his home. Officially he was a free man, but in reality, no one entered or left the house without their permission.

The professor told Geralt of the long hours he had spent scouring old tomes for accounts of Gaunter O’Dimm, alias Master Mirror. He had been set on this trail by Olgierd von Everec, who paid him handsomely for his labors. This research had borne fruit in the form of a great many secrets about the mysterious O’Dimm, including a possible way to outsmart him. Sadly, however, the professor did not live to see if this trick would work for Geralt in practice, for during their conversation Shakeslock made one step outside the runic circle drawn on the floor of his residence and died immediately. We will never know if this step was accidental or deliberate – by the time Geralt met him, he had become a tired and tormented wreck who just might have considered death a relief.

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he opened the cage in which the group of mercenaries led by Hans of Cidaris held him using only a fish bone. After this feat, the witcher had no doubt Quinto was the man to fill the gap in his break-in crew.

Quinto demonstrated the craftsmanship of a true artist by tickling open the auction house vault doors in the blink of an eye. He also demonstrated the rotten cynicism of a true lowlife by displaying not one speck of loyalty to his companions. In the fight which took place in the auction house’s basement, he stood against the witcher – and paid for this mistake with his life.
Geralt has taken on a mad assortment of tasks in his life, many of which strayed far beyond his core trade of monster hunting. Recruiting a team to break into the vault in the Borsodis’ Auction House, however, stood out as atypical even against this motley backdrop. One of the shady characters the witcher was told would make a good candidate was Quinto, the most famed safecracker north of the Yaruga.

Quinto demonstrated the craftsmanship of a true artist by tickling open the auction house vault doors in the blink of an eye. It soon seemed this would be his last display of criminal mastery, however, for afterwards he agreed to Horst Borsodi’s offer of honest employment as a security specialist. How long he stayed on the right side of the law remains unknown – for neither I nor the witcher ever heard tale of him again.

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Geralt entered the Oxenfurt sewers expecting to hunt down a hideous monster – so you can imagine his surprise when down one of those dank, slimy corridors he ran into Shani, an old and dear friend. Geralt and I had first met this extraordinary young woman years earlier, when she was just a coltish coed, but by this time she had grown into a dignified doctor and a fearless field medic for the Redanian Army.

This latter role had led her, and a unit of soldier escorts, to descend into the sewers. Their goal was to gather a sample of the venom spewed by the monstrosity squatting there. Geralt, a gentleman through and through, agreed to help her in her task.

Geralt’s encounter with Vlodimir von Everec reminded him that he and Shani had once shared passionate (though passing) feelings for each other. He also became aware some remnant of these feelings was still lodged in his heart…

At times fate composes tales so shocking no poet would dare put his name to them, for fear his public would mock them as overly outlandish. Such was the case when Geralt and the ghost of Vlodimir von Everec shared a body for an evening and accompanied Shani to the wedding of Aldona, her friend from the Academy. Some might have let this unusual escort interfere with their enjoyment of the evening – but not Shani. Looking around at the tasteful wedding decorations, smelling the rich odor of berry-laden rowan – a plant near and dear to her heart, one which summoned up fond childhood memories – Shani felt the heedless abandon of her younger years return and, overjoyed, threw herself into the thick of the festivities.

One thing is certain – Shani was not bored by the company of Vlodimir von Everec, who showered her with professions of burning desire and swept her off her feet with his maniacal energy. Yet when the hour came for him to return to the netherworld, she breathed a sigh of relief, for now she could spend some time alone with Geralt, who was much more sensitive and predictable (though Vlod would probably just call him boring).

A pleasantly-begun evening blossomed into a night of rapture, then settled into a golden dawn on the shores of a lake, serenaded by nature’s first awakening murmurs. Though Shani seemed delighted by this course of events, the morning air had put her in a reflexive mood. She parted ways with Geralt, explaining she had to think through what had just happened.

Fate decreed Shani would not linger long in her hometown of Oxenfurt. For as long as the war lasted, she was the Redanian army’s to command, and her commander had decided to send her to Kaedwen, the conflict’s eastern front. Before setting off she managed to inform Geralt about a certain Professor Shakeslock, who might be able to help with Gaunter O’Dimm. Geralt thanked his friend and they parted ways, hoping they would meet again, later or, quite preferably, sooner.

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Geralt’s auction-going experience ended in catastrophe. Not only was he summarily tossed out on his venerable witcher rear end, he also failed to learn anything about Maximilian’s House. Then, while pondering his next step, he was approached by a mysterious stranger. This man did not say who he was, where he was from, how he knew of the witcher or how he had found him. All he would reveal was that he could help Geralt gain access to the auction house vault – without asking the owner’s permission. The stranger proposed they meet somewhere more secluded so he might explain his plan in greater detail.

The mysterious man was planning to break into and rob the auction house. He claimed the subject of Olgierd’s wish – Maximilian’s House – was to be found inside its vault. Though the witcher usually refused to engage in criminal activities, he came to the conclusion he had no choice but to agree to work with this secretive gentleman.

During the break-in the mysterious stranger was revealed to be none other than Horst Borsodi’s brother, Ewald, who had disappeared years earlier. This family reunion was no joyous event, however. Rather than grasp hands and pat shoulders, the brothers immediately reached for each other’s throats.

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Tasked with finding the violet rose Olgierd had given his wife, Geralt traveled to the von Everec family’s abandoned estate, which had become home to a host of strange and horrifying creatures. Among these were a black cat and dog who, though able to speak, chose to say very little about themselves. Geralt surmised they were demons from another sphere who had been summoned by black magic, trapped in animal bodies and bound to serve Iris von Everec. The enigmatic duo trusted Geralt would help them regain their lost freedom, even though he himself had no idea how he might go about doing such a thing.

Later, when Geralt encountered Iris von Everec’s memories, he learned Olgierd had summoned the otherworldly dog and cat to keep his wife company in his absence – an idea only a man with a heart of stone could have imagined working. The two creatures remained loyal to Iris even after she died and transformed into an enraged ghost, but they never loved her and felt no sympathy for her fate, for such feelings did not form a part of their nature and did not reside in even the darkest corners of their souls.

In the end the strange dog and cat regained their longed-for freedom when Iris von Everec gave Geralt the violet rose, thereby ending her existence. With their lady gone, the dog and cat’s service ended, and they were free again at long last.
In the end the strange dog and cat did not regain the freedom they craved. Geralt refused to cause Iris von Everec to cease existing, meaning these creatures would continue in her service, for such was the nature of the pact they had made with Olgierd. Perhaps they still keep their lady company in her dreams to this day – no man can know for sure.

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Geralt was tasked with finding Vlodimir von Everec and showing him the time of his life. This would have been one of the witcher’s least remarkable missions – had not Vlodimir been dead for years at this point. The mysterious Master Mirror did not think this much of an obstacle, however. He handed Geralt a vial of von Everec blood and told him of an incantation which would summon Vlodimir from the grave. Geralt thus journeyed to the von Everec family crypt and sought out the younger von Everec’s place of burial.

Vlodimir liked to have a good time and had found death sorely lacking in quality entertainment. His demands for his night of fun were simple. He mainly wanted to get well and thoroughly plastered and… well, let us say the dead man’s inability to enter into relations with the fairer sex had tormented him terribly. All in all, after hearing Geralt relate Vlodimir’s complaints about the afterlife, I feared death all the more…

Vlodimir jumped into Geralt’s body and together they accompanied Shani to her friend’s wedding. There Vlod found more than enough entertainment to scratch his itch. He dove for slippers in a pond, played gwent, drank enough for three horses, chased pigs and even managed to steal a kiss from Shani.

When midnight struck, the capping ceremony began and Vlodimir von Everec’s time among the living came to an end. Yet the witcher’s skin had felt so good on him, he had no intention of shedding it. Only the appearance of Master Mirror finally forced Vlodimir back whence he came. In Geralt’s account, Master Mirror caused Vlod’s ghost a great deal of pain while banishing him. I do not know exactly how one can cause a disembodied spirit pain, but clearly Master Mirror knew a way. He was strange, that one. Even thinking about him now gives me goosebumps.