The Witcher: Pilgrimage

As the sun rose over the horizon, deep orange rays of light shot their way across the sky. Whereas before the forest was bathed in an inky blackness, now streaks of light pierced through the towering trees. When the world was just beginning to wake: this was Ciri’s favourite time of the day.

Creeping out of her sleeping bag, Ciri paused for a moment to take it all in. Digging and rubbing her feet along the green grass - still wet with dew from the night before, Ciri felt the warmth from the sun radiate on her naked skin. Although this moment of tranquillity was brief, the Witcher savoured every moment of it for she knew that it wouldn’t last long.

The ride up and around the mountain had been a gruelling slog for both and her horse, Kelpie. Narrow passageways, crumbling cliff faces and suffocating bogs plagued Ciri’s journey here. Yet, she made it through nonetheless.

After she got dressed, cleaned her weapons and had a bite to eat of some old dried fruit and nuts - Vesimir’s teachings are still engraved in her memory it seems - Ciri pulled out the leaflet from her satchel to look over it once more to double check she’s at the right place.

In broken common tongue and scribbled ink, it read:

Take pity on us, please! Our holy shrine has been tainted! Ruined! Oh the gods are punishing us for our wicked ways. ‘Tis true. But our praying and pleading’ to the gods have left us with nought but death and misery! Someone or something has been killing our people. The gods have sent forth their most horrid of creatures to slay us as we pray begging for mercy. We are mere mortals…poor ones at that.

Please, we beg of you, stay away from the temple atop the hill for it will bring you nothing but a bloody death. Only prayer will save us from this damnation - that, or a Witcher.

Ciri never failed to see the irony. These are the very people who would shun and lock their doors at the sight of Geralt and his kind, but whenever something foul interfered with their lives, their prejudices all but disappeared. Still, Ciri was not to let them suffer…regardless of their ignorance.

Ciri had found the temple the leaflet spoke about. Looking at it, it looked abandoned for decades - far older than when the note was written. The small stone chapel - no bigger than a shed - had been here for a long time, judging by its sun-faded, washed-out walls. Even with the shade of nearby trees, it was not protected from the elements.

Thick, lush vegetation coated the ground around the place of worship and extended around the white statue that took centerstage in the opening. Looking around, it was clear that this place was picturesque in its prime. But much like most of the places around here, everything and everyone had seen better days.

Closing her eyes, Ciri focused her senses, trying to hear out for the so-called vengeful monsters. However she was greeted by nothing but the soft rustling of leaves or a symphony of birds nesting in the nearby trees. Overall it was downright pleasant.

The sun was casting long shadows along the ground. However, one shadow took Ciri’s notice. What could have easily been mistaken for a large white rock, turned out to be a human skull slightly sunken into the damp soil.

Ciri brushed the dirt off of the skull. “Hmm…judging by the size I’d say it’s female.” She muttered to herself, clearly taking notes for talking to herself from Geralt.

Glancing up, she saw red blood glistening in the rising sun. Placing the skull down, she stepped over to the crimson liquid and saw it was coming from the chapel. Drawing her sword, Ciri stepped inside. But what did the young Witcher see? Well, dear reader, I’ll leave that to your imagination. Some things are best not put to ink and paper.

Unable to control herself, Ciri found herself bringing back up her breakfast of fruit and nuts. Wiping the mucas from her mouth, she saw it. The monster that…that did that to those people…blood still dripping from its twisted mouth. The men, the women, even the fucking children. It slaughtered them all. Ciri had seen Ghoul attacks before, but this one seemed worse. Perhaps the villagers were right afterall, maybe this was punishment from the Gods.

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From really struggling with this set at almost every turn at the start, from posing the ghouls, to the lighting to evening rendering the images - this was a set that was fighting me a lot of the way. However, at some point, it all just clicked and I was no longer fighting it. I could trust and predict how each image would come out which is essential for me.

Been ages since I did a set with Ciri and this is the second time using this model of hers. Going into the set, I wasn’t sure which model I preferred - the one I used before my Untamed Desires set, on the one I’ve used since. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

However, after this set I’ve decided to stick with the one I’m using now as it came out way better here than in my last set. Plus this makes all of my Witcher girls similar as they’re made by the same person, so no difference in look or quality between them.

In terms of visuals, this is one of my most picturesque sets with lucious green foliage and the best sun and sky lighting I’ve ever done. Which brings us on to the bane of my existence at first with this set.

For those who missed my previous posts, I used a blender addon called True Skies. It’s a beefy piece of kit that simulates an entire day-night cycle with clouds, fog etc. So it’s the real deal. However, the drawback is the rendering times.

Normally an image could take me 2 to 6 minutes to render at most. With this add-on for this set, it was taking 16 to 20 minutes per image. So that was a shock to my routine as I couldn’t blast out a load of images quickly or do many alternate angles with this one as before.

However, I do believe the results are worth it. Some of the shots I did looked stunning with the sun and shade of the trees when Ciri was on the bench. Only downside is that it’s less images than my indoor sets. But I do think that the quality was still there.

And this was the most effort I put into the story narration with Ciri. It’s not perfect as the AI can turn Ciri’s voice slightly Irish at times, but it’s a nice little bonus thing to add some flair to my stuff.

But now onto the followup set to this one. If you stick around to the end of this set, you’ll have an idea where Trill will be going next.

As always, let me know what you guys think of it and if you’ve read all this so far, congratulations.

Cheers,

Belethor

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