**spoilers ahead**

If the girl and his mother were only there to prove how corrupt Loredo is, then both their roles should have been bigger and clearer. His mother, and her addiction to fisstech, should at least have been mentioned by the villagers. The girl was only mentioned as "having disappeared, presumed dead". Nobody was actively making an effort to find her, everyone simply gave up on her. To me, that didn't give the impression she was important to the story and expected to pop up at any time. It was just a warning that the forest is dangerous.

Loredo himself never seemed very corrupt to me. Sure, he hated the elves but you can't blame him for that. He seemed to defend and protect Flotsam quite well, tried to let it prosper, agreed to let Zoltan and Dandelion go and didn't even become angry when he caught Geralt sneaking in his backyard.

So, only by suddenly introducing the elven girl and his mother, and a spy we never see or hear about until the last second, am I to conclude Loredo is a bad man who should be killed? Why not simply gradually show us his cruel nature and corruption during Geralt's quests?

Again, I think the storytelling is flawed. It may be a lack of exploration on my side, but I am pretty sure I found all 'secret' passages around Flotsam and even bought and read all available books in and around the village. I took my time and stayed in Flotsam at least 15 hours of real time gameplay. In my opinion, that should at least be enough to know precisely what's going on. Instead, I was still confused when going into chapter 2.

You clearly weren't paying attention. Loredo was a racist looking for an opportunity to create a human-only paradise (revealed in dialogue with... Zoltan, I think), he defended Flotsam out of self-interest (taxing everyone into oblivion and using the outside threat to cement his absolute control), he's a rapist, and was generally only nice to Geralt when he was angling to use him. In fact, if you refuse to help him, there are some thugs sent by Loredo that will attack you on sight in the middle of town.

The fact that the girl isn't mentioned much isn't important--you hear of her no matter what, and hearing so little of her makes is such a "whoa..." moment when you finally find her because you aren't really thinking about it until then.

EDIT: He was secretly working with both Kaedwinis and Salamandra members, too.

well in the end Hensel butchered all Roche's men. The conspirators was exposed.

well if you are doing an investigation, you wouldn't haste too much. You want to caught the big fish

Lots of characters, like the villagers themselves, share Loredo's opinion about non-humans. He asks for two whores at his house every night, but that doesn't make him a rapist. He send the thugs after Geralt because he is such a bad loser. Yes, I am probably naive as hell, but I still think the way I interpreted the hints and background is also very valid.

I didn't mean the two whores, I meant the captive elf who he kidnapped and impregnated. Clearly that wasn't consensual.

If you listen to and pay more attention, you would know that Loredo is incredibly corrupt. Good intentioned in some ways, yes but it depends on how you look at it, but very corrupt.

Numerous times there are clues to the fact that he tolls merchants heavily, outright steals or 'confiscates' produce from them, supports racism or, at the very least, doesn't stop it (you hear stories of elven people being bashed by guards for no reason). He employs thugs and murderers, even one time setting mercenaries on you if you dont do what he wants in the fist fighting quest, and even condones the killing of Temerian intelligence supporters (Thalers messenger is killed by Dmitri in the troll trouble quest).

He agreed to let Zoltan and Dandelion go (both of whom arguably were wrongfully arrested) but then killed the other elf on the gallows stand.

There are multiple other examples of his corruption and even his hatred of elves and dwarves.

I don't want to extend this discussion much further, because it is getting off-topic, so I'd like to conclude that you have very valid points as to why Loredo is corrupt and cruel. In hindsight, it is plain to see he was a bad man that should be dealt with.

But the way I interpreted the hints and pieces of the story puzzle, his real intentions came as a surprise and several important plot points came out of nowhere. This did not happen once during the game, but many times. I often felt like I missed something, hoping that things became clearer later on. This often wasn't the case, which leads to my personal opinion that the story was flawed.

Thanks anyway for clearing things up and making good arguments against my stand.

SPOILER - SPOILER - SPOILER SPOILER - SPOILER - SPOILER SPOILER - SPOILER -

about Loredo:

1. he wants you to loose a fistfight - you dont agree with him, he gets 2 mobs to kill you.

2. the way he executed 2 other elves at the time first reached Flotsam gave me an impression on his character.

3. his mother is addicted to drug.

4. there are complains from merchants as he abuse his superiority.

5. he has a catapult ready to launch against any ship sailing against his will.

6. he is a Temerin commander who is willing to sell his loyalty to Henselt

7. the whore whom you met when trying to sneak into his house complains about him.

8. his racist views is beyond vindication: if you take Iorveth path: there will be a massacre in Flotsam. His guards just stand there.

9. The people in Flotsam are racists - but if he were good, then he must have been different.

10. The people outside Flotsam are not racists - they are not attacked by the Scoiaetel

etc

Ok, I'll take the bait and explain my reasoning, which may seem weird or naive to you, that can't be helped. Again, I agree with your kind of reasoning and think you did figure things out pretty well. But the way I chose to follow the story, a lot of the plot didn't make any sense to me.

Here goes:

I didn't do the fistfights until the very end of the chapter. So only then did I learn Loredo is a very bad loser.

Well, Geralt had been attacked by the same kind of elves not 15 minutes ago, and although I am against the death penalty in general and public hanging in particular, in the Witcher universe this occured to me as simply upholding the law and the way things are done there. Loredo was setting an example to prevent Scoia'etel attacks.

I chose a different conversation at the hospital, so I never learned anything about his mother until I met her. She was a monster, but that doesn't automatically make Loredo a monster, too.

The are also complaining about the non-humans, so I couldn't feel very sorry for them. Flotsam is a busy port at a very important spot near 4 borders. Of course the people running the town want to see some of the profits merchants make there. Let them complain, I thought :)

Ah, that was against merchant ships? I thought it was to defend the town. Ok, I screwed up there and did not pay attention.

You don't know that until the very end, when CD Projekt suddenly invents a spy you never see.

That's also at the very end of the chapter, when I started to learn that he wasn't a nice guy.

Very end of the chapter, again. By then I already knew he was up to no good.

Which is why I didn't think Loredo was much different from the other people in town and figured out that life is rough and so are the people from Flotsam. Not a town I would like to live in, but an environment that should be pretty standard in Geralt's universe.

I figured this had to do with the non-humans issue, or just with poverty.

cool reply

Left him to Roche

Why does Geralt go there? Letho kidnapped Triss, and the last he heard, this was where Letho brought her. Geralt's trying to capture or kill Letho in order to clear his name, since most people still believe that he killed Foltest. And he's trying to rescue Triss from Letho's clutches.

EITHER reason would be enough to go there, and both at once ... Geralt has an OVERWHELMING reason to be where he is.

Why does Henselt tolerate Geralt? Well, this curse thing started, and Geralt helped to save the king's life by killing the wraiths, in the very beginning of Chapter 2. That doesn't mean that Henselt trusts Vernon Roche and his band, and indeed, Geralt is allowed INSIDE Henselt's compound, whereas Roche and his people are camped OUTSIDE.

As to why Henselt tolerates Roche, I think many of the other posters have good points there. Henselt can't murder high Temerian officials without starting more trouble, and he has plenty on his plate at the moment, plus having them in the area allows him to gather the evidence that eventually will allow him to kill them.

Spoilers.

Cedric just before he died told Geralt, that he will regain his memories, if he dispell great curse, and that he must go to Henselt to do so (if I reember correctly). Cedric is a known medium so his words have some weight in such cases. That's another reason why Geralt would go with Roche to Henselt camp.