Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of imprisonment, violence, sexual assault, and misogyny.

A town hires a witcher—a mutated human who works as a monster hunter for hire—to eliminate a reptilian monster called a basilisk. After a tense wait, the townspeople, led by a cunning man, assume that the witcher is dead and attempt to steal his belongings, but a stranger and two sword-wielding women intervene. The witcher, Geralt, emerges from the basilisk’s lair, shows the basilisk’s severed head, and claims his payment, exposing the townspeople’s attempt at theft. Defeated, they disperse, but the stranger stops the leader, and one of the women swiftly decapitates him. Geralt thanks the stranger, Borch Three Jackdaws, and the Zerrikanian women (Téa and Véa) for their help. Three Jackdaws invites Geralt to an inn, revealing himself as a leper. Geralt agrees to join them.

At the inn, Three Jackdaws orders an extravagant meal, impressing the innkeeper. Geralt notes his apparent wealth, and the conversation turns to dragons. Geralt adamantly denies hunting dragons, even dismissing the existence of golden dragons as myths. Three Jackdaws probes further, and Geralt concedes the possibility of golden dragons as sterile mutations. Three Jackdaws leaves for a moment.