Downwarren

Downwarren is a village on the northern edge of Crookback Bog in southern Velen, south of Reardon Manor, where the fields give way to the swamp. Before the war, its people were known for fine lacework and skilled smithing. Now it is a clump of bogside huts with damp thatch and sagging fences, surrounded by reeds and dead trees, with wooden shrines to the Ladies of the Wood along the paths. Many villagers bear the marks of offerings they have made with their own bodies. The ealdorman likes to remind visitors that no gods or masters watch over Velen, so you have to find your own protectors. Downwarren found the Crones.

In The Witcher 3

Downwarren is the Crones’ village. In Ladies of the Wood, the Ladies send Geralt here with a ritual dagger. Strangers get nothing out of the ealdorman, but the dagger proves who sent him, and the old man explains the village’s problem: for about three years, something under the Ancient Oak to the south has been behind a string of deaths. That leads straight into The Whispering Hillock and the spirit in the tree. When the job is done, the ealdorman pays the Crones’ price in a memorable way: he cuts off his own ear with the dagger.

What becomes of the village depends on Geralt’s choice. If the spirit dies, Downwarren survives, although the witch hunter Graden later hangs some of the villagers for witchcraft. If the spirit is freed, it takes its revenge and slaughters nearly everyone except the ealdorman, and the ruined village is afterwards haunted by wraiths. Either way, the ealdorman is still there when Geralt and the Bloody Baron set out from here in Return to Crookback Bog.

The notice board offers Contract: Swamp Thing, in which a peat digger named Leslav wants help with a monster in the mist, which turns out to be the ancient foglet Ignis Fatuus. A merchant who plays gwent sells food and alcohol, though he disappears after the Whispering Hillock whatever you choose.

Quests in Downwarren

Good to know

Downwarren has a fast travel signpost.
Swamp Thing only shows up on the notice board once you have the Eye of Nehaleni, so come back later in the game.
If you deal with the hillock spirit before talking to the ealdorman in Ladies of the Wood, the conversation skips ahead, and the outcome can differ.