Barghests Specters

Journal Description

Shun sin! Renounce foul deeds! And if evil threatens to overwhelm your will, ponder the fate of the Outskirts of Vizima! Remember the hideous barghests which scourged them and repent!
– “Sermons for Feasts and Funerals,” by the Reverend Yomen of Tretogor

Folk of simple or superstitious minds claim committing particularly rotten acts will bring down the wrath of the gods in the form of “barghests,” phantom dogs which stalk the roads at night. Even if this were their origin, barghests saints and sinners alike would need fear barghests, for they attack both with equal ferocity. Witchers rarely believe in the gods, but they do accept that barghests exist and are always connected with some sequence of tragic events that happened in the past. Their explanation, however, holds that barghests result from a curse or a concentration of ill will.