Except… well, you aren’t really at the end of the quest. Yes, the game will say you finished it, but… well, we’ll get there.

 

4. A side quest should introduce or reiterate a new mechanic or skill.

 

You’ll engage in three gameplay elements in “On Death’s Bed”: combat, acquiring ingredients, brewing a potion. Since this side quest is at the game’s start: you’ll likely still be getting used combat, but you might not be familiar with making potions. By the time you finish this side quest, you’ll have a starter’s education on how to gather ingredients and make potions. You start with something simple, learning the foundations of an alchemy that will keep you alive down the line. It all starts here.

 

You’ll also keep your sword hand strong in this side quest when you encounter drowners. They are easy foes for early-game content. They go down like chumps, but again this is about building the player’s familiarly and confidence in combat. And this side quest gets that job done here.

 

5. A side quest should reveal more about the world.

 

Narratively speaking, this is where the real education kicks in. At this point the player is certain of a couple things: there are monsters in the world, and Witchers – you – hunt and kill them.

 

“On Death’s Bed” knows this and takes the player on the next logical step: detail.

 

It's a dark world. Lena is going to die no matter what. The best you can do is ease her suffering. This does a staggering job at setting up the tone of the world. You can’t save the day. You’ll be faced with bleak choices where you are finding the least-worst option you can live with.

 

There are three other aspects you can learn by omission. You can absolutely miss this quest, which will have its own consequences. Second, you can fail this quest if you don’t complete it by a certain point in the main storyline. Third, no matter what you do in the quest, there will be consequences. Also, might be confronted at any moment about your choices, which “On Death’s Bed” hits you using a delayed fuse.

 

Spoilers ahead for “On Death’s Bed”: When the player reaches Velen, the player meets a soldier who delivers news about Lena. If you helped her, you learn against all odds she survived the attack because of the potion. She even got reunited with her love. Who brought her to a nearby village to recover. However, the potion you gave her fried her mind. She’s alive, but she will never be whole again.

 

And you as the player will be left with this slight paranoia. The world knows your actions, and you have no idea how they might shake out. Even the best moment at the time might come back to bite you down the line. It’s a brutal, beautiful way to keep the player off-balance while constantly reminding them of how bleak this world can be.

 

6. A side quest should reveal more about the player’s place in the world.
 

Implicitly, you are the only person around who can handle this beast. You've been hired to do so because normal villagers are too weak. This reinforces Geralt’s place in the world as a monster hunter, and it reinforces that Geralt is the only one who can do this. Everyone else, like poor Lena, would just get pasted.

 

At the start of "On Death's Bed," Geralt offers to make a potion that can stop Lena’s hemorrhaging, but it’s a Witcher potion. Witcher potions are not made for normal humans. Within the first two minutes of the side quest, the message you need to know about you is writ large: You are not normal.

 

And this reinforces Geralt's backstory. He’s been modified through years of mental and physical training along with concoctions that have altered him. Biologically he looks human, but he isn’t. He’s an outsider, and the potions that keep him healthy will kill humans… even if given with the best of intentions. He knows this. He has enough compassion to say it, especially to a healer figure tending to a dying woman. Eventually, you will run into NPCs who see you as a freak. But not here. Not yet. Here, Geralt is a fellow healer of sorts. He removes terrible blights from the world. He wants to minimize suffering. He seeks to keep people safe, even though he won't say it in this side quest.

 

Geralt’s tone and word choice and body language implies it’s a dangerous world and he is well aware of it. However, he doesn’t react to the revelation that Lena was risking her life to see a boy. This is smart as it allow the player to not only form their own opinions, but also give Geralt an early ambiguity when it comes to love (And oh boy will you explore your own roses and thorns of romance in Witcher 3). Geralt understands love, affection, and desire. He's not a human, but he's human enough to recognize the most human of longings. The trouble is, his empathy will also force him to be tested. This is just the first test.

 

To me, “On Death’s Bed” reinforces Witcher 3's thinking as a whole: you are a protector, but you are also a tool that is hired. You are strong, but you are disposable. You can only do so much, and what you do might be end up being for the worse than if you did nothing. You exist in a harsh world, and you have been molded to survive in it. That’s your lot. Good luck out there, Witcher.

 

For such a short side quest - one you can easily miss - is sets the table of The Witcher 3 so well I can't stop thinking about it even a decade on. I'll always come back to the healer's hut, the dying woman, the dilemma of ambigious hope in the face of certain death.