Plague Maiden

Plague Maiden

Species	Specters
DLC	Base game
Oil	Specter Oil
Signs	Yrden

The Plague Maiden is a rare Specter, a spirit of disease and pestilence also called a pesta. One haunts the tower on Fyke Isle in Velen. She is met in the secondary quest A Towerful of Mice, which opens early in the story through Keira Metz.

Lore

When plague sweeps through a land, a spirit sometimes walks it. She looks like a sick woman whose flesh rots off her bones. A swarm of rats crawls in her wake. No one knows if she brings the pox with her or is simply drawn to it, like a moth to a flame. One thing is certain: she delights in pain and suffering and loves to hear men howl and moan.

Many doubt that plague maidens exist at all. Only two sightings have ever been recorded, both during raging epidemics. Joachim von Gratz kept notes at the Vilmerius Hospital in Novigrad. His patients saw visions of a woman covered in scabs and boils, with rats scurrying all around her. Henbane and poppy extract quieted these ravings.

Plague maidens always take the shape of women, and no one knows why. Some believe that, like other specters, they are born from the strong emotion of a certain kind of death. A long and painful illness before death is one such case.

The plague maiden of Fyke Isle was once Anabelle, the daughter of Lord Vserad. The lord moved his court to the tower on Fyke Isle to escape the Nilfgaardian armies. While famine raged all around, he lived in excess and cared nothing for his starving people. The story told in Velen is that the gods cursed him for it. A host of mice ran into the tower and devoured everything, the lord and his court included. The truth was darker. The court mage, Alexander, experimented on rats in his laboratory. One day, peasants broke into the tower and killed everyone inside. Terrified, Anabelle drank a potion from the mage, thinking it would kill her. Instead, it left her paralyzed. The peasants took her for dead and left. When she woke, she still could not move, and the rats ate her alive.

Behaviour

A plague maiden appears in places where plague has taken many lives. On Fyke Isle, the curse centers on Anabelle. Rats overran the tower, and the spirits of the dead still relive their last moments around it.

Anabelle's spirit roams the empty halls of the tower. In life she loved a fisherman named Graham. Graham let the peasants onto the island, and he never knew she was still alive after drinking the potion.

Weaknesses

Coat the silver sword with Specter Oil. Like other wraiths, a plague maiden is weak to Yrden. The trap holds her still and solid while the silver sword does its work. Swarms of black flies drift around Fyke Isle. Igni burns them away.

A witcher's immunities should at least protect against the diseases she carries.

In A Towerful of Mice, the first fight cannot be won by the sword. However much damage she takes, the plague maiden survives until the curse on the island is broken.

Plague Maiden Map Location and Quest Guide

Finish An Invitation from Keira Metz to receive the quest from Keira.
Use Keira's boat to reach Fyke Isle, then head toward the tower.
Explore the tower and use the magic lamp to watch the ghosts of the massacre.
Pull the two levers in the false top of the tower to open the way to the mage Alexander's laboratory.
Use Keira's lamp to investigate the laboratory and contact Anabelle.
Refuse to carry her bones and survive the plague maiden's attack.
Talk to Keira, then find Graham in Oreton and tell him about Anabelle.
Take Graham to Anabelle at the top of the tower.
Return to Keira and tell her the curse on Fyke Isle is lifted.

Map credit by Map Genie.

Contracts and Quests

Quest	Quest Giver	Location	Reward
A Towerful of Mice	Keira Metz	Fyke Isle, Velen	Reject Anabelle's request: 500 XP Take Anabelle's remains: 300 XP

The Plague Maiden is met in A Towerful of Mice, a secondary quest in Velen. It follows An Invitation from Keira Metz. The sorceress Keira Metz asks the witcher to help her lift the curse on Fyke Isle. Keira lends a boat and a magic lamp that reveals the spirits of the dead.

Rotfiends, drowners and ghouls roam the island on the way to the tower. Inside, the magic lamp shows the last moments of the people killed in the massacre. The mage's laboratory sits at the top of the tower behind a hidden entrance. Two levers in the false top of the tower open the way. There, the mage's lamp calls up the ghost of Anabelle. She agrees to forgive Graham, but she wants her bones carried to him for burial.

Accepting her request leads to disaster. Graham confesses his part in the massacre and takes the bones. Moments later he screams. He lies dead, surrounded by rats, with Anabelle floating above him as a plague maiden. The curse on the island is broken, but the pesta is free to roam the world and spread the plague.

Refusing her request makes her reveal her true form and attack. Keira then sends the witcher to Graham in Oreton, just north of the isle. Back on the island, wraiths of the curse's victims attack Graham, blaming him for their misery. At the top of the tower, Graham swears he still loves Anabelle and kisses her. She returns to human form, Graham dies with her, and the curse lifts. This path gives the larger experience reward. Either way, the quest ends by telling Keira that the curse is gone.

Drops

Name	Image
Wraith Mutagen	-
Wraith Essence	-
Specter Dust
Infused Shard
Lesser Glyph of Yrden

All Monster Categories

All Specters

Name	Image	Variant of	Oil	Signs	Bombs	Location	DLC
Banshee		-	Specter Oil	Yrden	-	Toussaint Oxenfurt	Blood and Wine
Barghest		-	Specter Oil	Axii Yrden	Moon Dust	Toussaint	Blood and Wine
Daphne's Wraith		-	Specter Oil	-	-	Toussaint	Blood and Wine
Devil by the Well		Noonwraith	Specter Oil	Yrden	Moon Dust	White Orchard	Base game
Ethereal		-	Specter Oil	Yrden Aard	Northern Wind Dancing Star	-	Hearts of Stone
Hym		-	Specter Oil	Igni	Moon Dust	Skellige	Base game
Jenny o' the Woods		Nightwraith	Specter Oil	Yrden	Moon Dust	-	Base game
Longlocks		Banshee	Specter Oil	-	-	Land of a Thousand Fables	Blood and Wine
Nightwraith		-	Specter Oil	Yrden	Moon Dust	Velen Skellige	Base game
Noonwraith		-	Specter Oil	Yrden	Moon Dust	White Orchard Velen Skellige	Base game
Penitent		Wraith	Specter Oil	Yrden Quen	Moon Dust	-	Base game
Phantom of the Amphitheater		Banshee	Specter Oil	-	-	-	Blood and Wine
Plague Maiden		-	Specter Oil	Yrden	-	-	Base game
Red Miasmal		-	-	-	-	-	Base game
The White Lady		Noonwraith	Specter Oil	Yrden	Moon Dust	-	Base game
The Wraith from the Painting		-	Specter Oil	Yrden Quen	-	-	Hearts of Stone
Umbra	-	-	-	-	-	Toussaint	Blood and Wine
Wraith		-	Specter Oil	Yrden Quen	Moon Dust	White Orchard	Base game