Family Matters is the long Act I main quest where Baron Philip Strenger refuses to share what he knows about Ciri until Geralt tracks down his missing wife Anna and daughter Tamara. The investigation runs through Crow’s Perch, Blackbough, and Oxenfurt, and it hands you one meaningful in-quest decision at the botchling’s grave. What most players want to know is simple: which choice matters, and what each outcome leads to.
Quick answer: The only branching choice inside Family Matters is whether to kill the botchling or lift its curse. Both paths reach the same fisherman’s hut, but lifting the curse avoids the Baron’s rage, so it is the better outcome.
Botchling or lubberkin: the decision at the grave
After defeating the Baron in a fistfight, accompany him to the burial site at midnight. The grave contains no body, and the botchling reveals itself. A timed choice lets you attack the creature or try to lift its curse. Choose promptly: wait too long, and it becomes hostile, forcing you down the kill route.
| Choice | What you do | Baron’s reaction |
|---|---|---|
| Kill the Botchling | Fight the creature (use heavy attacks and Axii to stop it regenerating), then take its blood to the Pellar for a locating ritual. | Angry that you killed his child. |
| Lift the curse (Lubberkin) | Escort the Baron as he carries the botchling to the manor threshold, calming it with Axii, then bury and name it. | No anger; the transformed lubberkin helps track the family. |
Both routes end the same way. Whether you fight the botchling or turn it into a lubberkin, the trail leads to the smokehouse, Anna’s slain horse, and finally the fisherman Voytek’s hut. The difference is tone and combat, not the destination.
On the lubberkin path, cast Axii on the botchling the instant you finish off each wave of wraiths. If it becomes enraged, it transforms and you are forced to kill it, losing the peaceful outcome.
Why lifting the curse is the better outcome
Turning the botchling into a lubberkin is the closer thing to a good ending for this stretch of the story. Killing it makes the Baron furious and forces a tougher fight against the creature and the wraiths at the ritual site. Lifting the curse skips that resentment, and the lubberkin actively guides Geralt through the clues about what happened to Anna and Tamara. The lift the curse option is the one to pick if you want the calmer path with no lingering blame from the Baron.
The choice that actually decides the Baron and Anna’s fate
Family Matters itself does not settle what happens to the Baron and his wife. That is decided later, during the Whispering Hillock decision inside the Ladies of the Wood chain. This is the true fork for the whole storyline.
- Kill the tree spirit: Anna lives, but remains ill; the Baron takes her away from Velen to find a healer in the Blue Mountains. Neither dies. The Crones eat the orphans at Crookback Bog.
- Free the spirit: The orphans survive, while Downwarren is destroyed. Anna becomes a deranged hag and dies; overcome by grief, the Baron hangs himself.
- Trick the spirit: Same result as killing it, but without the fight against the tree’s heart.
The consequences of this decision unfold in the follow-up quest Return to Crookback Bog. If Anna is alive then, your doll selection determines her outcome. Choose the doll bearing the violet hollyhock bloom to lift her curse; she nevertheless dies after bidding farewell to her husband and daughter. Pick any other doll, and she bursts into flames without ever recovering her true self.
Tamara and the witch hunters
Once the lubberkin or blood ritual points you to the fisherman’s hut, you learn Tamara is living in Oxenfurt. Traveling there to speak with her is where you can shape the family’s other outcome. The reconciliation between the Baron and his daughter is yours to broker.
- Reconcile the Baron with Tamara: Father and daughter reach a fragile peace before he leaves.
- Storm Crookback Bog with the witch hunters: Tamara comes back accompanied by armed hunters, making the raid more brutal and potentially wiping out the Crones’ thralls.
Choices that do not change the outcome
A few decisions in the quest look important but carry no story weight. Knowing this saves you from overthinking them.
- The Baron’s men outside the Pellar’s hut: Use Axii (needs Delusion Level 2 for bonus XP), offer to cure their friend Edric, or fight. The story is unaffected. Bribing never works, and if you killed the Baron’s men at the Inn at the Crossroads earlier, they attack regardless.
- Dialogue in the Baron’s chambers: Your replies only change his verbal responses, not events.
- Saving stablehand Oswin: Optional. Rescuing him from the burning stables earns 20 Crowns later but does not alter the quest.
How the questline wraps up
After visiting the fisherman’s hut and traveling to Oxenfurt, finish all of Ladies of the Wood; Family Matters cannot advance before then. Once it is complete, return to the Baron and share the news about Anna.
The quest concludes when you exchange information with the Baron, hear more about Ciri, and accept his request to retrieve Anna from Crookback Bog. Family Matters then ends, and the Return to Crookback Bog side quest begins immediately; the Whispering Hillock and doll decisions settle the family’s fate.
