Prison Barge

The Prison Barge is a floating jail moored in the harbour of Flotsam in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Commandant Bernard Loredo keeps most of his prisoners aboard: captured Scoia’tael and anyone accused of helping the elven guerrillas. They are held below deck in cramped, filthy conditions while they wait to be moved to their final place of detention, where interrogation and, in the end, the gallows await them.

The barge appears twice in Chapter 1, first as a source of information and then, on one path, as the target of a jailbreak.

In The Witcher 2

In the main quest The Assassins of Kings, Triss learns that Ciaran, Iorveth‘s right-hand man, is among the prisoners. She and Geralt go aboard to question him about the kingslayer. Getting past the guards takes either Triss posing as a healer or some bargaining or intimidation from Geralt, depending on whether he accepted Loredo’s offer in Indecent Proposal. Below deck they find Ciaran barely alive, and a combined spell revives him long enough to talk. He reveals that the kingslayer betrayed the Scoia’tael, that his name is Letho, and that roses of remembrance grow near the elven ruins.

At the end of the chapter, if Geralt sides with Iorveth, the barge becomes the scene of The Floating Prison. The Scoia’tael assault Flotsam’s harbour to free their comrades, and if Iorveth was captured earlier, he is himself held on the barge. Geralt can even march him aboard as a fake prisoner to avoid some of the fighting. Once the barge is cleared, Loredo sets fire to a tower full of chained elves, and Geralt must choose between saving them and chasing Loredo to the gallows square to kill him. Afterwards Iorveth’s ship sails for Vergen.

On Roche‘s path, the jailbreak never happens: Roche’s plan in Death to the Traitor! goes after Loredo directly instead.

Good to know

• The guards on the pier and barge are weak, and the big shirtless thugs are the only real threat.
• Saving the elves from the burning tower brings a reward from one of them later, in Chapter 2.