Woe to the Vanquished

Woe to the Vanquished is a side quest in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings that starts in the Prologue and has a short follow-up in Chapter 1. After taking the town, Foltest’s soldiers begin abusing the people of the La Valettes, and Geralt steps in when he sees a soldier shoot a woman running from a house.

Inside, soldiers are threatening to kill townsfolk unless they give up their valuables. Geralt then learns that other troops have locked civilians in a house and mean to burn it, and he confronts the Temerian commander in charge.

How the quest ends depends on whether Geralt saves the townsfolk. In Chapter 1, a family of burghers he rescued tracks him down in Flotsam to thank him.

Walkthrough

Enter the house the woman fled from and stop the soldiers.
Keep the soldiers from killing the civilians inside.
Speak with the commander of the unit holding the townsfolk.
Defeat the Temerian commander in a duel.
Free the townsfolk locked in the building and decide whether to accept a reward.
Chapter 1: meet the grateful family of burghers in Flotsam.

Quest Consequences & Choices

Geralt can fail to stop the soldiers in the first house, in which case the civilians are killed. He can back down from the duel, and the commander’s men then rob and kill the townsfolk. If he wins, the soldiers leave and he frees the captives, either turning down a reward or asking for one. If he ignores the matter to follow Foltest’s orders, he never finds out what happened to them.

In Chapter 1, the rescued family finds Geralt in Flotsam. If he refused payment earlier, he accepts only their thanks; if he asked for a reward, they give him a pouch of orens.