Anna Strenger was the wife of Phillip Strenger and mother of Tamara and Dea.
Biography[]
During the Battle of Anchor, Phillip took a spear in the shoulder and was tended to by Anna. Once he'd recovered, he immediately asked her to marry him and the couple appeared to be happy and soon welcomed a baby girl, Tamara. Shortly after she was born though, Phillip was sent to Cidaris to fight in another war, this time to aid King Ethain on King Foltest's behalf. As he was seldom home, Phillip turned to drinking and soon become so dependent on it, he couldn't stop drinking even when he was home. Anna, either due to loneliness or not able to put up with her husband's drinking or a combination of both, soon turned to a childhood friend, Evan, for comfort and for about 3 years had an affair with him while Phillip was away.
Eventually, Anna decided it was best to leave Phillip completely and one day packed up and took Tamara with her to Evan's, leaving a note behind for Phillip to let him know she was leaving. Upset, Phillip followed her to bring her and Tamara back. However, still enraged, Phillip ended up killing Evan, upsetting Anna, who proceeded to yell and claw at him before picking up a knife and trying to stab him. Phillip moved out of the way just in time and, not knowing what else to do, beat her. This event marked the change in their relationship to an abusive one.
Life at Crow's Perch[]
Later, during the Third Northern War, Phillip moved the family to Crow's Perch where Anna made a small garden to tend to, and while Phillip tried to put on the air of a happy family, abuse still went on and by 1272 Anna was pregnant again. Extremely desperate to not have another child with the man she hated, she made a pact with the Crones where she'd be in their service for a year if they would do away with the unborn baby. However, ever deceitful, the Crones twisted it so while the fetus would die, it was also sapping Anna of her strength and killing her as well. In turn, Anna went to The Pellar for help, who gave her a strong talisman to ward off the Crones' evil magic.
Wanting to get far away from Phillip and Velen, at one point Anna and Tamara (now a teen) secretly started planning an escape and enlisted the help of Voytek. Soon after Phillip, drunk once more, flew into a particularly mad rage and fought with Anna before passing out. Anna ended up miscarrying right there but she and Tamara decided that was their best chance to run and quickly ran to meet up with Voytek. However, in their haste, Anna didn't realize she'd dropped her talisman during the fight, her only protection against the Crones. As the two women rode for the fisherman's home, the Crones sent a fiend after Anna, grabbing her and carrying her back into Crookback Bog.
The Bog[]
The Crones soon put Anna's pact to use, having her take care of the orphans at the bog. However, due to a combination of the Crones magic and the stress of all that'd happened the night she miscarried, Anna's mind became addled and her hair went white, though she was sane enough to take good care of the children, who only knew her as Gran. At one point Johnny, a godling living in the area, also befriended her and the children and would drop in time to time and sing to her.
Sometime later that year, Geralt dropped by in his search for Ciri, but not trusting strangers, Anna tried to get him to leave. However Johnny, as a favor to the witcher, dropped in and was able to convince her to help Geralt and so she went and arranged a meeting of sorts, where the Crones spoke through her, informing Geralt to go help Downwarren's ealdorman and then they'd help him out.
If Geralt did Return to Crookback Bog:
- ...and killed the spirit or released it before getting the task: The group found Anna, but she had lost her mind and was babbling about nonsense. Phillip, filled with regret and sincerely wanting to make up for it, decided to take his wife to the Blue Mountains where a powerful hermit lived, in hopes he could cure Anna. Tamara, who couldn't go with them due to other obligations, made her father swear he'd take care of her before they left.
- ...and released it after he got his task: The group found Anna, but in the form of a water hag. Desperate to find a way to cure her, Graden and Geralt investigated and found several dolls, one of which was linked to Anna.
- If Geralt picked the wrong doll: Anna burst into flames and died. Suddenly very stoic, Phillip merely told the witcher to come to Crow's Perch for his pay. Before Geralt did though, Phillip proceeded to hang himself off the tree in Crow's Perch's courtyard.
- If Geralt picked the right doll: Anna turned back into her normal self, but as her life was tied to the curse, she knew she'd soon die. Phillip apologized to her for everything he'd done. After Anna died, he then told Geralt he could collect his pay at Crow's Perch. Before Geralt did though, Phillip proceeded to hang himself off the tree in Crow's Perch's courtyard.
Journal entry[]
- Geralt did not meet Anna Strenger, the Bloody Baron's wife, when he visited Crow's Perch. Some time before his arrival this woman had disappeared in unexplained circumstances along with her daughter Tamara.
- Geralt did, however, receive a detailed description of the missing woman. Anna was a comely forty-something woman with green eyes and hair dark as raven wings which she kept tied in a tight bun behind her head.
- Geralt discovered that Anna's marital life had not been working out as well as she might have hoped. She had recently been pregnant, but lost her child for unknown reasons shortly before her disappearance.
- When Geralt pushed the baron about the matter, the ugly truth finally came out. Desperate and miserable, Anna had fled, taking Tamara with her, after her drunken husband beat her badly.
- The baron was convinced Anna had miscarried because of his actions, but Geralt was not so certain about this - he couldn't stop thinking about the strange talisman meant to ward off evil power Anna had received from the pellar.
- During their heart-to-heart the baron gave Geralt a somewhat clearer image of the Strengers' married life. While her husband was off leading military campaigns, Anna would seek comfort in the arms of a childhood friend.
- Once the baron discovered the truth, he fell into an indescribable fury and killed Anna's lover, something which, predictably enough, further deepened the chasm separating the couple.
- The situation grew even more entangled when Geralt discovered that, after fleeing Crow's Perch, Anna had been taken captive by some gigantic beast who carried her off into the darkness. As if that weren't horror enough, eyewitness testimony claimed her hands had burned with strange, glowing symbols shortly before this.
- Perhaps this was precisely what the talisman Anna had received from the pellar had been meant to guard against?
- If Geralt talked to Tamara:
- Tamara only deepened Geralt's sad understanding of her mother's situation. The women had decided to flee together because they had had enough of the baron's drunken rages and beatings. Anna hated her husband so much that she was ready to do anything in order to be free of the man - and the child he had put inside her.
- Geralt put the facts together and realized the old woman in the swamps was, in fact, Anna, the baron's missing wife. He also learned that the signs on her hands were symbols of the pact she had made with the Crones in order to get rid of her unwanted child.
- Geralt's suspicions were confirmed shortly thereafter. The curse afflicting the unfortunate woman was indeed the Crones' doing. Anna had turned to the ghastly sisters because she did not wish to give birth to the baron's child.
- The Crones granted her wish in their own, twisted way: with a curse which made the fetus inside her wither on the vine, taking Anna's life energy with it. In despair she turned to the pellar, who made her a talisman to hamper the evil magic's influence. Anna had lost this during her fight with the baron and was thus rendered defenseless against the Crones' magic.
- After that, the worst was free to happen - the markings on her palms began to burn and a fiend dragged her to the heart of Crookback Bog, where she paid back her debt as the Crones' slave.
- If Geralt frees the Ghost in the Tree...
- Though Anna was found in the end, she was no longer herself, for a terrible curse had transformed her into a monster. The witcher had a good idea who had prepared this fate for her.
- and lifts the curse from Anna:
- Geralt snapped the evil spell afflicting Anna, restoring her true form. Yet the Crones had a included one last nasty pinch of vengeance in their vile brew that caused Anna to die as soon as she regained her freedom.
- Anna's loved ones had time only for a brief farewell before she parted.
- and fails to lift the curse from Anna:
- Despite the witcher's best efforts, he did not succeed in lifting Anna's curse. To the despair and horror of all who witnessed it, Anna Strenger died a horrible death, incinerated by the Crones' last act of vengeance.
- If Geralt killed the spirit or freed it before being given the task:
- Anna was found in the end, but the events she had witnessed and took part in had left such a deep mark on her body and mind that she would never again be the same. Her mind had quite simply cracked under the weight of it all, dropping her into an abyss of horror and despair.
Associated quests[]
Notes[]
- Her journal entry for the final parts are bugged. Regardless of which decision was taken, part of her final entry appears between "Geralt put the facts together..." and "Geralt's suspicions...". They are in the correct places on this page.
- Anna Strenger's missing poster image also appears in the background of the "Characters" page of the game's glossary, but in a book instead of on a poster.
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