Scenes From a Marriage is one of the quests fulfilling Olgierd's three wishes in the Hearts of Stone expansion.
Journal entry
- With two wishes down and one more to go, Geralt reported back to Olgierd. There he received his third and final task, which, following in the vein of the its predecessors, seemed nigh unto impossible to complete. Olgierd wanted Geralt to find and bring him the violet rose he had given his wife the last time he saw her. As this was many years ago, and flowers are not noted for their longevity, the rose had certainly disintegrated by now. Yet since Geralt had grown used to finding the unfindable and doing the undoable, he nevertheless set out to try to recover this flower of yesteryear.
- Olgierd's abandoned residence was haunted by the ghost of his wife, Iris von Everec – or more accurately, by deadly spectral emanations coming from her dormant spirit. Geralt had to overcome many obstacles before finally awakening Iris' ghost from her tortured sleep so he could talk to her about the violet rose. After he did so, he traveled to the world of the ghost's imagination to revive memories repressed within it and defeat the embodiments of Iris' fears. In short, it was one of Geralt's more unusual adventures. At its end, our hero emerged from the imagined world with a very tangible rose in hand, ready to deliver to Olgierd in completion of his wish. The price of obtaining this rose? The ultimate end of Iris von Everec.
Walkthrough
The Haunted Manor
After Geralt fulfills Olgierd's second request, the man tells him the third and final wish: for Geralt to go to his old estate and retrieve the violet rose he gave his wife, Iris, the last time he saw her. Geralt arrives at the manor to find a scared thief whose partner had gone missing while they were exploring the manor. Geralt goes into the manor to search for the rose and the thief's partner, and finds that someone has been maintaining the garden, even though the manor has been abandoned for years. When Geralt reaches the front door, he finds drag marks heading behind the house. Geralt follows the sound of digging and finds a garden with several graves. He sees the other thief dead and finds the muderer is an eyeless monster, only known as the Caretaker, who proceeds to attack him. Once the Caretaker is dead, the mysterious black cat and dog speak to Geralt, curious as to why he came to the manor. He asks to see Iris for the violet rose and the animals inform him on finding her in the house. As he enters the house, he hears Iris's voice echo. He travels through the house and discovers a wraith haunting the house, deterring his path. He reaches the bedchamber to find Iris's body. Geralt needs to contact Iris's ghost, so first he needs to lay her bones to rest. Geralt finds a nice spot for her grave and, once buried, summons her spirit. She magically creates a painting of the manor and enters it, with Geralt following.
The Painted World
Geralt finds himself in the surreal painted world reminiscent of the estate. The dog and cat appear, informing him that in order to truly awaken Iris, Geralt has to complete the memories she has been denying, and destroy the fears and nightmares that bind her. He finds spectres of Olgierd and Iris frozen in place, with certain elements of the scene missing. He then replaces the missing items, causing the spectres to reenact the memory. Geralt sees the couple's marriage begin to deteriorate with each memory. He sees that Iris's family did not approve of Olgierd as her husband. He also saw Olgierd trying to use magic to summon O'Dimm to try and break the pact he forged, but the magic failed and set fire to the manor. Geralt observed as Iris and her father attempted to null the marriage and Olgierd subsequently killing him. Since then Olgierd became more cold and distant from her, giving her the dog and cat to keep her company in his stead, with the Caretaker to protect her. Geralt reaches the final memory where Olgierd left a letter for her, stating he was leaving her with only a letter and a rose to remember him by. As he reads the letter, Iris's greatest fear, in the form of her husband, appears and attacks Geralt. After a succession of bodies are possessed by the nightmare, Geralt prevails and finally meets Iris. She still waits for Olgierd, and now, thanks to Geralt, she was able to awaken from her dreams. While the original violet rose had withered in the real world, the rose in the painted world still exists, Geralt asks her for the rose, but Iris is hesitant, not wanting to give up the last thing connecting her to her husband. The connection the rose has to Iris is so strong that it binds her to the world, so should it be taken, she and the world will cease to exist.
Choice:
Geralt will decide whether he should take the rose and break Iris's connection to the world, or allow her to keep it and remain.
- Leave the rose - If Geralt decides to let Iris keep the rose, the dog and cat will be resigned to their fate to watch over her, hoping another in the future will free them. Iris will go back into her slumber, and Geralt leaves through the portal back into the real world. It is there where he finds a portrait of Iris with the violet rose which he will take to Olgierd.
- Take the rose - If Geralt decides to take the rose, Iris gives it up willingly. The dog and cat are now freed from their service and, in gratitude, they give Geralt some advice. They warn him to beware of O'Dimm and, should he stand in O'Dimm's way, the witcher should "seek salvation in glass that can't be broken". Iris gives Geralt the rose and the entire painted world begins to crumble, and Geralt leaves the world before it completely vanishes.