Blackbough

Blackbough is a small village in the Crow’s Perch region of western Velen, a short walk northwest of the Baron’s fort. Plank cottages with thatched roofs sit along muddy paths at the edge of the forest, and the place is named for the stacks of charred logs around it, the leftovers of loggers who used to bring unwanted branches here to burn. The villagers prefer an older legend, that their village was founded by a prominent member of an ancient race of tree people. Pick whichever story you like; the soot is real either way. A blacksmith works the forge, a merchant waits by the signpost, and the woods start right behind the last hut.

In The Witcher 3

Blackbough matters mostly because of the man who lives just north of it. The Pellar is a village soothsayer and healer, a man the peasants half fear and half rely on, said to speak with the dead. In Family Matters, the Bloody Baron suggests that his wife Anna might have turned to the Pellar for her mysterious talisman. When Geralt arrives, the Baron’s men are threatening the old man over a cure that went wrong, and once they are dealt with, the Pellar refuses to help until his runaway goat is found. That is the side job A Princess in Distress. Once Princess is home, his vision of a child covered in blood sets Geralt on the trail of the botchling. The Pellar also sells cheap alchemy ingredients, diagrams and runestones.

The village has troubles of its own. In Wild at Heart, a villager named Niellen hires Geralt to find his missing wife Hanna, while his sister-in-law Margrit would rather the witcher stopped asking questions. On the bridge just north of the village, a woman appears at night in Last Rites, asking for a ring to be left on her husband’s grave in the cemetery near the Pellar’s hut. Jonah, one of the Velen fist fighters, also lives here.

For trading, there is a blacksmith who sells weapons, runestones and a treasure map, and a merchant by the signpost. Both play gwent.

Quests in Blackbough

• A Princess in Distress
• Wild at Heart
• Last Rites
• Fists of Fury: Velen

Good to know

• Blackbough has a fast travel signpost.
• One of the broken shrines in Defender of the Faith stands between Blackbough and Crow’s Perch, and Last Rites only appears after that quest.
• The horse races of Races: Crow’s Perch start at a crossroads just east of the village.