| Plague maidens | |
|---|---|
| |
| Details | |
Class |
Specter |
Vulnerable to |
Specter oil Yrden |
Tactics |
Turning into immaterial form, and turning material when attacking |
Loot |
Specter dust Essence of wraith Infused shard Wraith mutagen |
Other loot |
Lesser glyph of Yrden |
Associated quest
Bestiary entry
- "Patients seem to have hallucinations of a woman covered in scabs and boils, with rats scurrying about all around her. These ravings subsided after an administration of henbane and poppy extract."
- — Joachimn von Gratz's notes, Vilmerius Hospital in Novigrad
- When plague ravages a region, a spirit will sometimes walk its lands, a ghost resembling an ill woman whose flesh rots off her bones and in whose wake crawls a cavalcade of rats. No one knows whether this spirit brings the pox with her or is merely drawn to it like a moth to a light. Yet it is certain that she delights in dealing pain and suffering, in hearing the howling and moaning of men.
- Many have called into question the very existence of plague maidens, or pestae, as they are sometimes called. Only two sightings of such a creature have ever been recorded, both during times of raging epidemic.
- As the name "plague maiden" suggests, these wraiths take the appearance of females, though exactly why that is remains a mystery. Some speculate they, like other such specters, arise from the powerful emotional charge associated with certain circumstances of death, such as death preceded by a long and particularly painful illness.
- Not much is known about how to fight a plague maiden, though one can assume they possess many traits in common with other phantoms and wraiths. They undoubtedly pose a great danger, though a witcher's immunities should at least prevent him from catching the contagious illnesses they carry.