Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski

Baptism of Fire
The Witcher Book Three
Written by Andrzej Sapkowski
Translated by David French
Trade Paperback: $16.00 /$11.34 Amazon

The numbering of the Witcher series confused me at first. The first book is the Last Wish and that makes this the fourth book.

But it's only the third book of the 'series' as the Last Wish is a collection of short stories. Nothing too complicated but it does throw the numbering off on different sites.

Baptism of Fire brings us Geralt, the White Wolf, the Witcher. He is a highly trained warrior of an order of monster slayers whose origins lie in the use of mutagenic potions to augment the human body past its normal limits.

His standard companion, Dandelion continues adventuring with him. In many ways, Dandelion is a good 'companion' style character, much like Monglum of Elric fame. He's not a great fighter, but can at least thrust a sword. His background and socialite ways give him a far different, perhaps more civilized outlook, to the Witcher's monster butchery.

There are other new companions along the way that join the Witcher in his 'Baptism of Fire', including a hunter, an old enemy, and one who should be an enemy. Other characters met along the way, like Zoltan Chivay, will be familiar to anyone who's played the video games.

The translation work is fairly done. It's not obvious that this is a translated work in terms of rough passages where you ponder what the author meant. There are times, however, when a lot of telling the audience what's going on instead of showing the audience what's going on happen.

On one hand, tell not show does save a ton of space. On the other, it's not as effective.

There's also some weirdness where a storyteller is telling children about the Witcher's tale. It's not badly done, just out of place compared to the previous chapters that didn't use a wandering storyteller.

Yennifer, the sorcerer who is at times the Witcher's lover and ally, has a brief spot in the book but it's more of a set up for future novels. Much of the material involves the Witcher save for a few brief spots on other characters just to see what they are doing.

Like previous novels in the series, this one ends not quite at a cliffhanger, but close enough that the reader is left eager to pick up the next novel.

In terms of stealing for a game of Dungeons and Dragons or other Fantasy RPGs, the game is ripe with ideas.

The Witcher in and of itself is a title bestowed upon those who pass a series of tests that make them more than human. Many die in the trying due to their bodies rejecting the potions that transform them. Others are changed in ways far more horrible than pale flesh and white hair.

The Witchers are supposed to be neutral, not serving any particular king or kingdom but instead, dedicated to the cause of killing monsters for profit.

It would make an excellent PrC or Paragon Path in 4th edition. The real trick is what do you bring in? In the novels, Geralt isn't that much of a showcase for Witcher power. Oh sure there are times when the author has the White Wolf cut through soldiers, but the novel starts with Geralt incapacitated due to wounds and it takes him a long time to recover. We also don't see any fancy spellcasting from Geralt in the novel nor even herb use or lore.

False Princess

Ciri, the 'foretold one' if you will, the girl with all the bloodlines, is supposed to be a noble character and bearing.

Instead, she travels with 'the Rats', a youth bandit gang that is murderous.

Play with player's expectations of how characters will be. Have them met people and later on find out that those people have undergone changes that might not seem normal, but are part of the growth they've been forced to experience by the harsh realities of the world.

Red Herrings

The Witcher is bound to Ciri from events in previous books. This isn't just an older warrior feeling parental over a young child. Rather Geralt knows what's happening to Ciri through dreams and the dreams foretell a life less than happy.

Initially, Geralt hears that Ciri is in one country and is being prepped for marriage to seal an alliance. He spends a lot of time and effort moving across the land in order to get there.

But the information is wrong. It's false information to keep people off the real trail. The time lost in seeking out this false hope is considerable.

When you're running your own campaigns, don't be afraid to toss red herrings into the mix. If they players are seeking someone with a common name, do they have the right person? Are there multiple crypts with the same name? Is there a crypt and a tomb? Is there a lost library and a lost labyrinth? 

War As An Obstacle

Outside of the normal problems that war presents, in a war where the players are not part of any army or part of any nationality involved in the war, they are at risk for being attacked by all sides.

This can present it's own unique opportunities though as character get involved in the strangest things. For example, in Baptism of Fire, Geralt winds up saving a queen and becoming knighted. 

The other problem with being in a war zone is that humanity is terrible. There are rapes, murders, genocide and other wretched factors that happen in the real world all the time. In a fantasy setting? Who knows what strange things may happen. For example, many settings ranging from the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, to more modern Eberron, have some part of the campaign setting scarred from a 'big weapon' that ended a previous war.

War As A Resource Drain

In addition to the dangers of getting killed outright, there are dangers of a more subtle yet still potentially dangerous origin.

Supplies.

In their travels, the Witcher and his allies come across a logging operation. It's a vast operation and takes up a lot of space and slows their advancement as they cannot easily cross the logging operation. The trees cut down are shipped out for supplies elsewhere.

Anyone who's seen the Lord of the Rings knows that one of Treebeards biggest factors in influencing his decision to fight against Sauraman the White was the logging of the forests. "A wizard should know better."

And in many cases, it's not going to be just trees. Food, metal, and in a campaign setting with available magic resources, any of those, will be up for grabs and become crucial points of potential conflict with the enemy.

The Witcher continues to expand the setting and touches on some modern issues while at the same time remaining fundamentally a fantasy story. If you're looking for something to inspire interesting characters as a player or different monsters and monster origins as a Game Master, Baptism of Fire is a good pick.

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

Fantasy Novel Review

When I initially read, novel, The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski, I wasn't overly impressed. I don't know if it was the translation, the short story format, or just the writer getting to the introduction parts of his world and characters but it struck me as rather mediocre. Unfortunately for me, I had already purchased the Blood of Elves in kindle format when it was on sale. I figured I'd already read the first book, might as well plow through the second.

It was the right call. Blood of Elves is a much better book than the Last Wish. I don't know what the author Andrzej Sapkowski did between the books, or if the company found a better translator or what, but it is head and shoulders above the previous book.

The book's title, Blood of Elves, is a bit of a play on words. I initially thought it would be something about the sacrifice of elves in that the world had passed them by and it was their time to move on. And in part, that element is there. But more than that, it's the bloodline of elves. In the Witcher's setting, many individuals have the blood of elves in their heritage. Many can claim lineage to the elves.

It uses a lot of the material set up in The Last Wish, but isn't overly reliant on the reader having read that book. Instead it does a lot of subtle world building by allowing various factions and personalities from different regions and races to air out their world points which provides the reader with a lot of background and detail as to what the current state of the world is.

In doing so, it provides the reader with clearer understandings of the various characters including Geralt, the Witcher, an albino who was raised from an orphan, as are all witchers, to be a slayer of monsters. There are other cast members we are introduced to, including Ciri, who is a 'Surprise Child' which has a faerie tale quality to it. A Surprise Child is one conceived of when a favor is granted and payment is allowed to be anything. Very similar to King Arthur's own tale in the movie Excalibur. 

Many members of the cast make appearances here including Dandelion, a poet, bard, performer who acts as part time spy for his country, as well as being a friend to the Witcher himself. In some ways, he reminds me of a 'Companion' style character popular in Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series. He's useful, but can't compare to the main cast so to speak.

The only problem with the book, is that it knows it's part of a series. While you wouldn't have to read any books previous to it to enjoy it, it ends on an obvious cliffhanger. This isn't something I'm fond of because there have been books by Ryamond Feist that just ended when things were 'getting good' and I was furious because at that time, I was reading them as they were coming out.

For those interested in the works of Andrzej Sapkowski, we have the following:

Blood of Elves in Paperback for under $8.00.

Blood of Elves in kindle format for under $7.00. 

Below I'll be discussing some of the specifics of fantasy novel Blood of Elves and how it might work in your own games.

Witcher

Geralt is a Witcher. We find out more about these characters here. They were originally orphans taken in and trained at a citadel. They were subject to magic, training, and specific diet to augment their abilities. Some of this training is physical and martial related. Some of it is magical and spell related. All of it on the focus of destroying monsters.

Initially I thought that such a concept might be a prestige or paragon path, but after seeing that the changes are permanent and that the effects include things like reduced aging and augment physical abilites from the schooling, it would seem to be more of a core class or at least a rational for why a core class might have such abilities. Depending on the campaign, for example, in an OSR style game and designing your own classes, something done a bit in the Player's Companion to Adventurer Conqueror King, you might try to restrict players from taking a 'powerful' class by having very high requirements to get in. This in short was the method that the official Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game used to limit say the number of Paladins in a game.

The thing that shines through in the Witcher though, is that a specific class has specific elements to it. In this case, the witcher's training ground and home has been destroyed prior to the start of the novel. This limits any new witchers from being fully changed as those that were not there and did survive, do not have the knowledge base on how to craft the alchemical drugs needed to physically transform any students they do have. 

Despite their foundation being destroyed though, most of them shown here are loyal to the cause and the idea. They do not hold with the idea of working for a specific country or place. Geralt even talks about the world failing and in the ruins of that new world, fighting and killing monsters until one of them kills him. It's good character depth and motivation.

World Building

At the start of the novel, a group of various individuals ranging from merchants and wizards to kings and advisors, are listening to an entertainer. After the tale of the entertainer, they begin to speak about the things in the tale and assigning specific names to things only hinted at by the speaker.

In the modern era, there may be a certain assumption of knowledge. You can know what's happening in your town, your city, you state, your country, your hemisphere. Knowledge is deep and detailed. Things can be verified and cross checked. The request for information are instant.

In most fantasy settings, even those with wizards and other methods of circumventing the perils of long term travel, this is not true. The people on the next horizon might be completely unknown. Historically groups like the Mongols seemed to arise from nothing and nowhere because no one had really investigated and more importantly, made that knowledge widely known.

Throw red herrings into the campaign when you can because chances of everyone knowing everything? Slight to non-existent in those times characters find themselves part of. 

Character Knowledge

On the other hand, don't be afraid to give the players specific knowledge that is not common. Allow them to know things that even the so called professionals are wrong on. In the novel, Geralt is amused by a scholar who is speaking to him of certain types of creatures and how something Geralt is talking about, simply cannot exist. Of course when Geralt is proven correct, the scholar quickly changes his mind.

Giving players specific knowledge based on their profession or actual personal experiences gives them a reward beyond magic and gold. It is information that they might be able to trade with others of their profession or use to get into guilds or companies.

Miscellania

There are numerous other bits that show up in the Blood of Elves that make for some potential good gaming.

For example, on rivers, borders might be a bit difficult to detect and enforce. When certain trade goods are taxed or banned outright, will characters claim the law on their side if on a watery surface and claim the tariffs were unfairly enforced?

Factions within Factions: The 'wild' demihumans believe that they are fighting for their freedom. They have been roused to action by outside agencies. Those agencies aren't too concerned for their welfare. This leads the 'wild' races of elf, dwarf, and gnome, to fight against those living within and working within the human kingdoms, leading some of the human kingdoms to closely question, and set up tests of loyalty for those races. A situation in which there can be no clear winners. 

Blood of Elves is a strong fantasy novel and far ahead of The Last Wish. After I finish wadding through some of my other back log of books, I'll be sure to return to the next novel in the series. Hell, I might even pick up the computer game by that time.

If you enjoyed my ramblings, please +1, share, and ask questions or comments on your own enjoyment/dislike of the book.

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

When I first heard of Geralt, a Witcher, a professional who hunts down supernatural horrors, it was not in a positive context. Over on Michael Moorcock's website, some of the fanbase essentially noted that the Witcher was a direct rip off of Elric, an aspect of the Eternal Champion created by Michael Moorcock. And what's more, the character or at least the world and setting, is apparently part of a best selling series of computer games.

That didn't necessarily strike me as a bad thing mind you. Conan, despite the dozens if not hundreds of stories written about him, has relatively few by the actual original author, Robert E. Howard. Most of these stories have been written decades after his death. 

So when the opportunity came to pick up The Last Wish by  Andrzej Sapkowski, at a decent price on the old Kindle format, I snatched it up. It appears to be a series of short stories broken up by an over arching rest point where Geralt is preparing himself for future travels after taking an injury in a case.

In terms of 'being a rip off' Elric, at least in this book, I can see where the comparison comes from, but Geralt is no Elric.

But let's start with the similarities. They are both albino characters. They are both spellcasters and master swordsmen. They both use drugs and elixirs. Note that in Geralt's case, the dependency, at least in this novel, seems like a new thing as opposed to Elric's ongoing need for them due to his chronic weakness. The other thing that would be annoying if I was Michael Moorcock would be having had a character like Elric whose bylines include The White Wolf, which at least one person calls Geralt here.

However, Geralt doesn't have a rune blade that drinks souls or has sword his own soul or alliance to the forces of Chaos and their worlds are vastly different. This bit is important because even in the first Elric book, the albino of that series is going to other worlds and planes and eventually times and manifestations of himself.

In terms of weapons, Geralt uses two different types of swords, one made of cold iron and the other of silver. Each suited for fighting a specific type of creature. Their outlooks, again, at least as far as this book is concerned, are also different although there are some similarities in terms of themes of fate and destiny.

In terms of the novel itself, it was worth a thought in terms of how certain types of characters fit into the wider world. In Geralt's case, he is a Witcher.  Being a Witcher means hunting down supernatural entities. But it notes that even during Geralt's time, that the need for his services has become less and less and that 'honest Witcher' work is harder and harder to find.

The whole idea of the Witcher would fit in well with specific roles in a fantasy game. Such roles have long been a part of Dungeons and Dragons, being put into more game related mechanics in the various Complete books with kits that provided game benefits and often role playing penalties or guidelines. It was made more concrete in 3rd edition with prestige classes that characters couldn't start as, but could advance into, and then part of the overall core mechanics in the Player's Handbook in 4th edition with paragon classes.

It showcases how such designs could go in a variety of methods. The abilities that Geralt has, are particularly suited for many dangerous things, not just fighting against monsters. In one short story, he has to note that he is not an assassin and those who seek to use him as such meet poor results. Geralt though, is not a player character. In a situation where characters are down on their luck, will they use their special and specific abilities to go outside those boundaries?

Another interesting bit that Andrzej uses is that of folk tales. He plugs several events from a variety of sources into the setting of Geralt with no problem or even attempts to make it subtle. This has been done for other settings like the Forgotten Realms with some success by plugging in deities from other campaign settings or eras. When something works, it works.

A third thing apparent, is the changing of an age. In one of the short stories, a fey creature is 'stealing' secrets of farming from humans and providing them to the elves. Geralt notes that the elves only chance of survival is to trade and work directly with the humans or they'll die out of starvation and only have a last ride out against humanity and then fade into legend. Given that the title of the next book I have by the author is The Blood of Elves, perhaps that vision comes true already.

In the Forgotten Realms, in some time lines at least, the elves, much like they are in Middle Earth, are a fading power. As are the dwarves. This is a common theme when humanity and technology and civilization are on the rise. The only thing that doesn't become too clear in The Last Wish, is how this interacts with the ideas of magic. Geralt has the ability to cast spells, as do many others he encounters and few of the human spellcasters seem to have any issue with civilization as opposed to the things in the wild that might be considered mythical which are being hunted to extinction.

The Last Wish isn't the strongest book I've read in the genre and my purchase of future volumes of the Witcher will be heavily influenced by how much I enjoy Blood of Elves, and of course, any future sales I may find that feature the books at the prices I like.

For those who've played the Witcher game, is it worth picking up for a person who doesn't play a lot of games on the computer?

For those who've read all the novels, is there one in particular that stands out from the crowd?