Reason of State

Reason of State
Description
Region(s)	Novigrad
Location(s)	Novigrad Docks St. Gregory's Bridge The Butcher's Yard theater
Suggested Level	30
Previous Quest	Blindingly Obvious A Deadly Plot An Eye for an Eye Redania's Most Wanted
Additional Information
Type	Secondary quest
Enemies	Redanian Soldiers Witch hunters Witch Hunter Officer Dijkstra (optional) Dijkstra's Henchmen (optional)

Reason of State is a secondary quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

This quest is available during Act III and can only be obtained by the following factors:

• completing the Assassins' quests from Act I: A Deadly Plot, An Eye for an Eye, and Redania's Most Wanted. (This also means doing Triss' quests, A Matter of Life and Death and Now or Never).
• choosing to bribe Dijkstra with information about the Nilfgaardian Emperor Emhyr, rather than sway him by force, during the main quest, Blindingly Obvious.

Note: Completing this quest will affect the circumstances of the game's ending.

Walkthrough

Dijkstra tells the witcher to meet him by a warehouse portside of Novigrad.

Note that the secondary quest Warehouse of Woe will start just beside the warehouse if it hasn't been completed before. If so, you should complete this quest before continuing with Reason of State, since Warehouse of Woe will fail if you leave the area.

Once you enter, you will hear Dijkstra, Roche, and Thaler conversing just above you. Joining the conversation, Dijkstra will reveal his plan on how to lure Radovid out without using Philippa Eilhart; the witcher may accept or decline the plan during dialogue. If he accepts, they plan to lure him to the bridge leading to Temple Isle. As the discussions finish, the screen will pan to an owl eavesdropping on the conversation.

When the witcher exits the warehouse, he is greeted by Philippa, who states that their plan would never work, as Radovid is insane, not stupid, and wouldn't fall for just words. She in turn gives the witcher a ring, to which she claims Radovid would then believe Geralt and maybe even trust him completely when shown to the king.

When the witcher goes to Radovid to lure him, Radovid is reluctant to believe it as many others have tried to give him false information about Philippa Eilhart's whereabouts, which he had dealt with, brutally. When Geralt presents the ring, he is surprised, but only for a moment and mobilizes his men to the bridge, taking the witcher with him.

Once arrived, Radovid orders his men to secure the bridge so that no one gets in or out. He then orders Geralt killed while he is without his swords. Fortunately, Roche's ambush saves him and Geralt must join the fight to defeat the Redanian soldiers and witch hunters on the bridge.

After your weapons are stripped you will be able to find your torches in your stash.

Geralt, Roche and the Blue Stripes corner Radovid at the end of the bridge, but before they can get to him, Philippa appears out of a nearby house. She blinds Radovid with a powder and stabs him in the back with a dagger, then quickly morphs into an owl and vanishes. Geralt, Roche and the Blue Stripes make a quick getaway before any more Redanian forces arrive.

As the mission is completed, Roche, Ves, Thaler and Geralt gather in the theater to celebrate. When Geralt asks whether Roche will continue fighting against Nilfgaard, Thaler reveals that the conspiracy has been in peace talks with Nilfgaard, and they have agreed to assassinate Radovid and put a stop to guerilla activities in exchange for the withdrawal of Nilfgaard's forces from the Northern Kingdoms apart from Aedirn and Lyria, in addition to making Temeria a vassal state to Nilfgaard.

Dijkstra, however, has other plans. Believing the price for both the truce and Temeria's restored sovereignty (which he considers questionable) too high, Dijkstra openly opposes against Roche and Thaler's agreement. With Radovid dead, he plans to become Chancellor of Redania and continue the fight against Nilfgaard, and after the war's end unite the Northern Realms under his banner, including Temeria.

Of course, Dijkstra anticipated that Roche, Ves and Thaler won't just accept this blatant powergrab, and he has his men surround them. He offers Geralt the chance to walk away freely from this, leaving the other conspirators to their fate.

If Geralt walks away, Roche, Ves and Thaler will be killed and Dijkstra will come to power as Chancellor of Redania.

If Geralt chooses to fight, he and the other conspirators will fight and kill Dijkstra's men and then Dijkstra himself, leaving them free to arrange the peace agreement with Nilfgaard.

Journal entry

Momentous decisions altering the fate of entire nations are often made under unusual circumstances. For example, when Geralt was asked to take part in the assassination of King Radovid, he was standing in a bathhouse in Novigrad, half-naked and staring at a sweat-soaked Dijkstra. If he agreed to join in, he was to attend a meeting in a warehouse by the docks. There the co-conspirators would hash out the details of their plan to kill the most powerful ruler in the North.

Their bold plan succeeded: the Redanian king was assassinated on the bridge leading to Temple Isle. Radovid's was not the last blood to be spilled as a result of this conspiracy, however. With no more common goal to bind them, the co-conspirators turned on each other.

If Geralt does not intervene with Dijkstra's betrayal:

Geralt, who has always cherished his neutrality, decided not to get involved and left the assassin's hideout before fighting began. Though Roche and his band had already overcome a great deal, it was clear they would not be able to defeat the overwhelming numbers of Dijkstra's thugs. Madame Irina's empty theater hosted a brutal spectacle in which the fiercest Temerian patriots met a bloody end.

If Geralt kills Dijkstra:

Though Geralt has always prized his neutrality, he did not intend to sit idly and watch Dijkstra's thugs butcher his friends. And so the Redanian spy's long-awaited moment of triumph transformed into his final defeat at the witcher's hands.

If Geralt refuses to take part in the assassination (quest failure):

To this day I don't know what truly drove the witcher to take part in the assassination plot against Radovid. I also don't know what drove him to resign from this participation. Such are the facts, however: Geralt first courted high politics, then left them at the altar to fend for themselves while he saw to a more important matter: the fight against the Wild Hunt.

Objectives

• Meet Dijkstra, Roche and Thaler in the portside warehouse.
• Lure Radovid from his ship.
• Kill Radovid.
  • Follow Roche.
• If Geralt protects the Temerian patriots:
  • Defeat Dijkstra and his men.

Notes

• Although depicted as a thriving venue in The Play's the Thing, by the time of this quest, the theater is described as abandoned.
• When Dijkstra shows up after Radovid's death, he will quote a part from a play called "Vakmeth", act one, scene seven. This is a reference to Shakespeare's play Macbeth where act one, scene seven has the same lines.
• The situation between Nilfgaard and remants of Temeria forces under Roche have been hinted on several occasions prior to the quest's accessibility:
  • On the Nilfgaardian army "center" camp's notice board, there's an official order forbidding any imperial unit from attacking Temerian guerilla unless forced to retaliate.
  • In the quest A Frying Pan, Spick and Span, a half-burned document seemingly written by a Temerian agent (presumably Thaler from the use of excessive cursing) hints that he has been contacting a Nilfgaardian agent on undisclosed subject.

Videos

The Witcher 3 King Radovid Boss Fight (Hard Mode)

Kingslayer - The Witcher 3 DEATH MARCH! Part 109 - Let's Play Hard