Season of Storms
Before the fame, a bard faced monsters and storms alone.
"Season of Storms" is a standalone prequel novella that plunges the reader decades before Geralt's legend began. It strips away the safety of the tavern to follow a young, impulsive Jaskier—then known as Dandelion—as he stumbles into a lethal labyrinth where his wit and poetry are his only weapons against monsters that don't care for ballads.
- Protagonist
- Dandelion (Jaskier)
- Setting
- The Kingdom of Temeria
- Timeline Placement
- Pre-main saga (approx. 120 years prior to Geralt's rise)
- Genre
- Adventure / Fantasy
- Author
- Andrzej Sapkowski
Lore & Background
Framed as a confession told by an aging Jaskier to Geralt and Yennefer, the narrative peels back the layers of the bard's polished persona. It reveals a time when he was merely a dreamer seeking glory, not yet the celebrated muse of the Continent. Set against a backdrop of simmering tensions between Temeria and its neighbors, the story exposes how even a simple traveler can be dragged into the gears of war and dark magical conspiracies.
In Their Own Story
The wind screamed through the skeletal towers of the ruined keep, carrying the metallic tang of ozone and rotting stone. Dandelion clutched his lute case—not as a weapon, but as a fragile anchor to sanity. Above, lightning tore the sky apart, briefly illuminating a beast that defied every entry in the bestiaries: a creature born of storm and malice. He possessed no silver sword, no mutagen-fueled reflexes; he was just a poet with a desperate hope that his words might be sharper than the claws waiting in the dark.
Reader's Guide
The tale ignites when Dandelion arrives in the kingdom of Temeria, only to find himself entangled in a deadly game orchestrated by a mysterious sorceress and a string of vanishing locals. Forced out of his role as a passive observer, Jaskier must act when he uncovers a malevolent entity manipulating fate for its own amusement.
As the titular storm season descends, Dandelion navigates a treacherous web of court intrigue, arcane traps, and visceral threats. He reluctantly allies with a grizzled warrior and a wary local guide to pierce the veil of chaos, marking his painful evolution from a naive dreamer into a survivor capable of making brutal choices.
The climax erupts within a violent tempest, where Jaskier faces the antagonist not in a clash of steel, but in a battle of wits. Leveraging his deep knowledge of lore and human nature, he outmaneuvers the villain to turn the tide. The story closes with Dandelion alive, yet irrevocably altered; the innocence of his youth lost forever beneath the weight of the storm.
Did You Know?
- The novella was published in 2013, long after the main saga concluded, serving as a bridge between earlier and later works.
- It is one of the few Witcher stories told entirely from Dandelion's perspective.
- The events take place roughly a century before Geralt becomes famous, showing an early version of the world.
- Andrzej Sapkowski wrote this to explore how his bard character might have faced danger without magical aid.