I found this quest a bit confusing. This was my approach:

- I found the shard in the autopsy but it seems you can't do anything with it at the time you make your decision of who to accuse.

- I read the book on succubi which states that victims lack energy and focus, and the only thing they care about is the succubus. Eleyas did not exhibit any signs of the succubus' power and there's no mention that he reeks of sulfur.

- I ended up accusing Eleyas based on the fact that he doesn't look like a succubus victim, so I assumed he's not telling me something.

- Iorveth never definitively says that the shard came from Eleyas' sword, just that he ran away when confronted.

Am I missing something? Did the writers forgot about the book on succubi, or is there something fishy about Eleyas?

Buy the surgical tools from the magical person (forget her name) near the second doors that lead into the heart of Vergen, then examine the body again :)

EDIT: I looked it up. Felicia Cori is the name of the person you buy the surgical tools from.

EDIT2: Okay, if you have the shard then you must have used the surgical tools. I should really stop skimming. Anyway, Eleyas should confront you when you go to the succubus' lair. You're not really missing anything.

Thanks... I actually hoped I did miss something, because this quest just doesn't add up.

Here's another: if Eleyas loves the succubus, why did he send a witcher to investigate? Seems to me he isn't under her spell and really does want to get rid of her.

Considering the damage in the autopsy, I almost expected Eleyas to transform into a werewolf or something because the succubus is cramping his style... :)

He doesn't love her, he's obsessed with her and sent Geralt, a monster hunter, to her with the expectation that she would be killed and all of his crimes would be attributed to her.

Were you paying close attention to the dialogue? Pretty much all of your questions were answered in the dialogue :/

This game has dialogue? :O (pun intended)...

The game never made it abundantly clear that Elyas is the culprit, especially it is unclear whether the sword shard is actually from Elyas sword - could be from any sword....
And to me he seemed genuinely convinced of his innocence, even when accused and confronted in the final fight.

I ended up thinking up various explanations of how Elyas could have learned about the succubus (e.g. some other elves fought about her [explaining the sword tip], and he investigated on his own) without being responsible for the murders.

And in the end it came down to: Kill the Succubus (monster), and the humans/elves won't fight anymore. Kill the possibly mad elf, and the problem will resurface in a couple years.

And so, a succubus was killed...

Why would he run outside the city and attack you on sight, though? It's kind of insane if the sword fragment isn't his.

I think the point is that there's evidence implicating both, though. The fragment implicates the elf. The hair in the dead guy's hand implicates the succubus. As for which you choose, that comes down to who you believe more. There's no clear-cut good and evil in this game, and this quest really reflects it.

Personally, I believed the succubus. The scratch marks and hair seemed like a sex thing, but there's only one way that sword fragment could have gotten in there. It's possible that someone else took his sword and used it, but then why would he run? Besides, wouldn't he tell someone that his sword had been taken? If the sword belonged to someone else, why bother running at all?

As far as I know, the Succubus' spell isn't permanent. And when it wore off on Elyas, he got angry when he learned that he wasn't special anymore in her eyes (must've seen her encounters with other males), which drove him mad and eventually lead him to employ a witcher to get her killed.

At least that's how I interpreted the story. Again, you might see it differently, and that's the beauty of this game.

So I killed the elf and had sex with the succubus (win/win :D)

When I showed the shard to Iorveth, he compared it to Elyas' sword and confirmed it came from that.

Don't know why others seemed to get different dialogue...

...But I too have had lower comprehension of the game dialogue ever since the scene with Triss in the Elven baths...

I showed the shard to Iorveth and there was a brief fade to black (indicating Iorveth went to confront Elyas). When Iorvath returned, he said Elyas had disappeared. I went back to the succubus lair and Elyas attacked me.

The story is that Elyas was one of the succubus' 'lovers', but she needs the energy from more than one man. So when she moved on to other lovers, Elyas became consumed with jealousy and rage. He wanted the succubus to himself and when he realized that would never be, he then wanted her dead. So he killed all her lovers and made it look as if she were the one doing it.

It's because I paid attention that I have questions. I like the spell wearing off leading to jealous rage explanation, though I wouldn't infer that from the available text. I would've assumed that succubi continue to feed on a victim's life energy until death. Less "hunting" and risk of exposure to witchers and angry wives with pitchforks that way.

Yeah it's a bit unclear like many decisions in this game. That's the beauty of it. ;)

But on the topic: is Geralt really unable to see the difference between a claw wound and a sword wound on a dead body? Is it possible to attack and kill somebody and then add some sword wounds to make it look like an attack from a monster? So that a sword fragment in the wound is the only way to tell these apart?

another one who didn't pay attention to dialog. maybe turn on subtitles.

he needed the shard as evidence. it wasn't good enough that he thought it was a sword strike

I had the same dialogue, perhaps others just weren't paying attention.

How about reading my post before you tell me to turn on subtitles? If the bloke has been killed by the sword then why is the succubus a suspect at all? If we are dealing with sword wounds and it wasn't Elyas then it is somebody else that is murdering young men after they get dizzy from all the hot succubus sex.

And as far as Iorveth confirming that the shard came from Elyas' sword, Iorveth couldn't find the guy when he went looking for him. So no, he didn't confirm it.