so there is no such thing as an ending where the baron, his wife, and tamara rode off into the sunset together?

HAH!

Absolutely not.

Yes, I realised the devs are going for the "think of the children" dilemma here, but it's not for Geralt to get caught up in such sentimentalities, but rather to rid the land of monsters for a price. And he was contracted to destroy the spirit; my Geralt rarely reneges on his contract. I still think that three witches who eat children but otherwise protect the swamp region and keep their word are a lesser evil than unleashing an insane and powerful spirit upon the realm. Besides, if you play until the end of the game (this thread already has heavy *SPOILERS* in it so I won't put them on the bottom of my post), the witches do get what they deserve. So essentially with my choice you kill two (three/four?) birds with one stone.

As for your other points, the Baron did indeed commit some heinous acts, but he regrets them genuinely, and is not a fundamentally evil man. Plus, he has PTSD and he was driven to the brink by his wife's infidelity. Also, he's the only person keeping his soldiers in line. They only start raping and pillaging once he leaves Crow's Perch or dies.

They do it on a regular basis. He does not control what they do when they are out on patrol. When he leaves to cure his wife or hangs himself, you get the same events in the keep. Rape and abuse. He is just there acting like he is the boss and cares little about the well being of the people. When you arrived at the Hendrik's contact. What exactly happens? Behaviour of the soldiers imply that Baron exercises discipline?
The Witches do not protect the swamps. They are using the stupid peasantry as cattle and force them into submission, preventing them from fully utilizing the potential of the land. They are slaves without the mind of their own. What would happen if Radowid or Emhyr won the war? That swamp would be purged first thing in the morning. Radowid would burn it all and Emhyr would discipline it all. Both have the means to do so.

Why does the mare kill the villagers? Because they blindly serve the witches :P That is the punishment. It would happen to them eventually anyways if you look into the future far enough.

Anyways :D cool exchange man!

Yes you are.
He took over an abandoned keep.
The Lord fled the keep to get away from the war & was murdered by peasants on Fyke Isle.

wrong again:
He only appointed himself Baron recently, for all of their marriage he was a poor foot soldier.
When Tamara was young & wanted a Triss Merigold doll, he had to make her one because they could never afford something like that.
So no, not for money and position.

They did plough the land, what grew was determined by the crones.
You expect unarmed dirt farmers to defend their land from armed & armored soldiers?

3 or 4 generations & most who died in that time, died of plague (created by the tree spirit), war (the last two started by Emhyr var Emreis) or were lured to their death in the whispering hillock by the tree spirit.
So yes, thousands less than if the crones hadn't saved them from the tree spirit.
The crones are extremely powerful, they sent a fiend to collect Anna, it ripped her horse to bits, but returned her to the crones unharmed. because even that great beast is subservient to the crones.
Their retribution for crossing them is absolute.
Only a fool would disregard their power & the peasants of Downwarren were no fools.
They did what they had to, to survive.



They didn't gang rape her, they said there will come a time when he doesn't get her hidden in time & then they will make him watch them gang rape her.
But they are not the barons men. The baron's men are labelled as barons men, if you look at the ones who is saying that, they are just a bandits.

Except the innkeep identifies them as the Baron's men and killing them makes all the Baron's men hostile to you until you talk to the Baron.

No, they are the ones inside the inn

This is what happens if you go to the hillock first and free the spirit, Anna lives, and so do the children. If you don't save the spirit the orphans are eaten for sure, if you do save the spirit they are at least saved from the crones (certain death) anything else beyond them being saved e.g. being killed by the spirit instead or something like that (we do not know this) is just made up via the imaginations of cynical players. The Baron takes Anna to the Blue Mountains in hopes of a cure, so we do not know if she will be 'crazy forever'. Though some would lead you to believe that she will 'be crazy forever', this is dumb, because we will not be sure of Anna's situation until we learn of Baron's success or failure in the Blue Mountains. There is also a chance (if both parents live) that Tamara leaves the Witch Hunters--the Baron says when he returns he will come to get his daughter. This leaves a chance for reconciliation. If both parents die, Tamara is the last of the Strenger family, the rest are dead so obviously there is no chance of reconciliation and Tamar will probably stay with the Witchhunters. As for the spirit being more evil than the Crones, well the Crones eat children...So they are not morally defensible to begin with...The Spirit nuked a cult indentured to the Crones, that supplied the Crones with both adults and children, and whatever power they got out of it. Not really a good spirit but at least it does not eat children (it saved some), torture godlings, adorn itself with body parts, make deals with desperate people and sadistically twist the outcome (e.g. Anna's miscarriage), try to eat Ciri and give the leftovers to the wild hunt, etc... And oh yes there is a dubious book that puts the crones into a rosy light while telling us that the hillock spirit went crazy and killed some villagers, it also talks about how the crones were saviors of Velen (what a bang up job they have been doing! Velen is like the Disneyland of the continent XD) wonder who might have written that book? lol

That still does not mean they wouldn't gang rape her alter on. You see what Baron's men are capable of when you return to the Keep after completing the quest. Sadly, those guys who entered the Tavern were Baron's men. You didn't listen to the dialogs with the innkeeper then.

Both Baron and her wife, had enough time to settle their differences and live happyly ever after. They didn't. I will not sacrafice the life of 5 children just because they got a wake up call recently O_o. Baron is also talking with Nilfgaardian officers. You think they didn't have a deal? :D
The men entering the inn are Baron's men. You learn that later on from the dialogue with the innkeeper. They are dressed just like other Baron's men. If you kill the ones in the inn, you will have to kill every single one of them in that village. They are hostile. Then, when you drive to the keep, some guards will attack you and people will run away in fear. You will have to find an alternative entrance through the caves nearby...and! Suprise! Our peaceful Baron has a little chat with Nilfgaardian officials :) So yes....you still think he just took the keep because it was standing empty?