Spoilers for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
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Yes—on the usual quest route, if Geralt kills the spirit beneath the Whispering Hillock, the Crones take the orphans from Crookback Bog. Guides describe the children being eaten as an implication of that choice, not as an explicitly shown event. The answer is not unconditional: freeing the spirit changes the children’s fate, while creating a different set of tragedies.
Why the answer depends on Geralt’s choice
The orphan question is tied to the decision at the Whispering Hillock. Geralt can either kill the spirit beneath the hill or release it. The Crones’ treatment of the children follows that decision, so saying simply that they always kill the orphans leaves out the branch that matters most.
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The game also presents the decision as a trade-off rather than a heroic rescue with no downside. One option puts the children in the Crones’ hands; the other saves them from the Crones but unleashes a disaster affecting Downwarren, Anna and the Bloody Baron. The exact sequence can vary when quests are completed in a different order, so the comparison below describes the usual route summarized by the available guides.
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Choice outcomes at a glance
| Geralt’s choice | What happens to the orphans | Other consequences on the usual route |
|---|---|---|
| Kill the Whispering Hillock spirit | The Crones take the children. Guides imply that they eat them. | Anna survives but is driven mad, and the Bloody Baron takes her away. |
| Free the Whispering Hillock spirit | The children are saved from the Crones. | The spirit attacks Downwarren; Anna is cursed and dies, and the Baron dies by suicide. |
This table is a route summary, not a universal decision tree. The Game8 choice guide and the Witcher 3 decision checklist both warn, in different ways, that quest order can alter how consequences unfold.
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If Geralt kills the spirit
The children are taken by the Crones
On this branch, the Crones take the orphans from Crookback Bog. That is the clearest factual answer to the title’s question: choosing to kill the spirit leads to the children being handed over to the Crones.
Players often use the shorter wording “the Crones kill the orphans,” but the game’s presentation is less direct than that sentence suggests. The guides describe the children being eaten as an implication. They do not establish a plainly shown scene in which the Crones announce or visibly carry out the act. For accuracy, “the Crones take them, and the game strongly implies they are eaten” is better than claiming an explicit on-screen execution.
What this branch does to Anna and the Baron
The usual-route summaries describe Anna surviving, although she is driven mad. The Bloody Baron then takes her away. That outcome can make the spirit-killing decision look less catastrophic than the alternative if the player is focusing only on the fate of Downwarren, but it does not turn the choice into a happy ending. The children’s loss remains the defining cost of this branch.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsBecause the children’s fate is inferred rather than depicted in a single definitive scene, discussions sometimes disagree over whether the Crones “kill” them, “eat” them or merely take them. Those descriptions are referring to the same branch. The safest wording distinguishes the observed event—the Crones take the orphans—from the guide-based implication about what happens afterward.
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If Geralt frees the spirit
The orphans escape the Crones
Freeing the spirit saves the children from the Crones on the route covered by the guides. If the priority is preventing the orphans from being taken, this is the branch that accomplishes that goal.
The rescue carries a severe price
Releasing the spirit causes an attack on Downwarren. The usual-route account then has Anna cursed and dying, while the Bloody Baron dies by suicide. These events are why the choice is not framed as a simple “good” answer. Geralt can prevent the Crones from receiving the children, but the release transfers the tragedy to the village and Anna’s family.
The consequences are emotionally connected but should not be collapsed into one claim. Saving the orphans describes their outcome; Downwarren’s destruction, Anna’s curse and death, and the Baron’s suicide describe the cost paid elsewhere. The game deliberately forces the player to decide which harm to accept rather than allowing every threatened character to be saved in the same branch.
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What it gets right
- It identifies the branch in which the orphans are lost: Geralt kills the spirit.
- It reflects the guides’ interpretation that the Crones eat the children after taking them.
- It answers the wording most players use when they ask about the orphans’ fate.
What it gets wrong
- It suggests the outcome happens in every playthrough, even though freeing the spirit saves the children from the Crones.
- It presents an implication as though the game shows an unambiguous killing scene.
- It hides the fact that the alternative has major consequences for Downwarren, Anna and the Baron.
For a spoiler-conscious explanation, say: “On the usual route, killing the Hillock spirit causes the Crones to take the orphans, and guides imply the children are eaten. Freeing the spirit saves them from the Crones but leads to the Downwarren and Anna/Baron tragedies.” That wording keeps the branch, the level of certainty and the trade-off together.
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Why quest order matters
The sequence in which the relevant quests are completed can change the order or form of some consequences. The reference material does not provide a fully verified decision tree for every possible ordering, so no short answer can promise the exact same result for every playthrough.
This does not erase the central comparison. The usual route still gives the clearest answer to the title: killing the spirit is the route in which the Crones take the orphans, while freeing it is the route in which the children are saved from them. The qualification matters when a player has approached the area in an unusual order and is comparing a personal outcome with a guide’s standard sequence.
If you are planning to see both branches, make a manual save before committing to the spirit’s fate. Treat that save as a way to compare narrative consequences, not as evidence that one branch is secretly consequence-free. Both routes have permanent losses in the usual summaries.
How to choose without reducing it to a simple good-versus-evil answer
Choose based on the children’s immediate fate
If your first priority is keeping the orphans away from the Crones, freeing the spirit is the relevant choice. This is the only branch in the comparison that saves them from being taken.
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Choose based on the wider local consequences
If you are weighing the survival of Downwarren and the fates of Anna and the Baron, the branch consequences become more complicated. Killing the spirit avoids the attack described for Downwarren and leaves Anna alive, though mad, with the Baron taking her away. Freeing it produces the attack and the deaths described above. That does not make the first branch morally clean; it simply changes who bears the cost.
Choose according to the story you want Geralt to tell
The quest is designed to deny a universally satisfying answer. A player role-playing Geralt as someone who refuses to sacrifice children may accept the destruction that follows the release. Another player may judge that unleashing a dangerous spirit on a settlement is unacceptable, even knowing what the Crones will do. Neither interpretation requires pretending the other branch has no victims.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the available guides actually establish
The Game8 guide, the Witcher Wiki decision checklist and the Games Learning Society explanation are secondary guides and reference pages. Together, they support the branch-based answer and the usual-route consequences, but they are not official game documentation.
That distinction explains two careful qualifications. First, the sources describe the children being eaten as an implication, so an article should not invent a quotation or claim an explicit official confirmation. Second, the checklist notes that quest order can alter consequences, so a guide summary should not be presented as a guaranteed result for every possible sequence.
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No meaningful statistic is needed to answer this question. The issue is a narrative decision with mutually exclusive outcomes, not a percentage-based system. The important precision comes from naming the choice, the route and the difference between what the game shows directly and what the guides infer.
Common questions about the orphan outcome
Do the Crones kill the orphans in every ending?
No. They take the children on the usual route where Geralt kills the Whispering Hillock spirit. Freeing the spirit saves the orphans from the Crones.
Does the game explicitly show the Crones eating them?
The available guides treat that fate as an implication. They support saying the children are taken and are implied to be eaten, not claiming that the game provides an unmistakable on-screen confirmation.
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No. It saves the children from the Crones but leads, on the usual route, to the attack on Downwarren, Anna’s curse and death, and the Baron’s suicide.
Can a different quest order change the result?
It can change the sequence and some outcomes. The standard comparison is useful, but the available references do not verify every alternate ordering in enough detail to guarantee an identical result in all playthroughs.
Bottom line
On the usual route, yes: killing the spirit beneath the Whispering Hillock causes the Crones to take the Crookback Bog orphans, and the guides imply that the children are eaten. Freeing the spirit saves them from the Crones, but the attack on Downwarren and the deaths of Anna and the Bloody Baron make it a tragic alternative rather than a perfect ending.
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