Diederik

Overview

Diederik is an ally of Kliff Macduff and a member of the Greymanes. He is a minor but named character who appears in scripted story sequences and fights alongside Kliff at various points in the game. His most notable moment is accidentally starting the Queen Stoneback Crab boss fight.

PCGamesN described him as "a posh British companion figure akin to The Witcher's Jaskier (or Dandelion)" -- a chatty, slightly oblivious presence who provides personality and comic relief against the otherwise grim backdrop of mercenary life on Pywel. His role is more color than combat, though he does participate in fights.

The Queen Stoneback Crab incident

The Queen Stoneback Crab is a colossal creature that disguises itself as an ordinary boulder covered in valuable gems. The encounter begins when Diederik, seeing the gems, decides to mine them. His dialogue before approaching: "How could anyone tire of such a sight?" He apparently could not. The creature wakes up.

What follows is one of the game's more memorable boss fights. The Queen Stoneback Crab is several times larger than the player characters -- essentially a walking hill. Multiple previews have compared the fight to Shadow of the Colossus and Dragon's Dogma: you mount the creature, climb across its body, and break gem formations to expose weak points that you can actually damage.

The creature fights back with distinct mechanics. It shoots giant jets of water to shake climbers loose from its shell, forcing you to time your holds and repositions carefully. When thrown off, you can use the cape's gliding ability to slow your fall and reposition, then use the grappling hook to latch back onto the crab and resume climbing. The loop is: climb, break gems, get blasted off, glide, grapple back on, repeat.

The fight rewards finesse over brute force. You need to time your combos carefully, know when to attack versus when to hold back, and understand the creature's stomp and sweep patterns to avoid getting thrown off. Both PCGamesN and Shacknews reported that their Gamescom demo sessions ran out of time before they could finish the fight, which gives a sense of how long the encounter runs.

Pearl Abyss first showcased this boss at Gamescom 2024. The Shacknews hands-on described the Stoneback Crab as incorporating Monster Hunter-style mechanics alongside the climbing elements. The encounter has become one of the most discussed boss fights from the game's pre-release coverage.

Role in the Greymanes

Diederik is listed alongside Yann, Naira, Marius, and Hubert as a Greymane member who appears in the story and fights alongside Kliff in scripted sequences. He is not part of the three-person inner circle of Oongka, Yann, and Naira, but he is present enough to be named in official materials and preview coverage.

His personality -- talkative, somewhat naive, drawn to shiny objects -- makes him an odd fit for a hardened mercenary company, which is part of the humor. The Jaskier comparison is apt: he is the bard-type character in a group of fighters, even if he does pick up a weapon when needed.

See also