Starting work on my post now, but I had something I wanted to clarify.

My initial plan was for my guy to return to the village, get his pay and then get intercepted by a group of soldiers belonging to the local baron. As you might expect, they will [i]firmly[/i] insist that he accompany them so that they can bring him to their lord who has a problem only a witcher can help with*. I was thinking that your character might run into the group in the village itself or after they depart toward the baron's castle. However, since he left fairly early, before the locals were still awake, I'm not sure how feasible that idea is anymore. Thoughts? 

*-> I haven't actually figured out what this problem is yet :lol Maybe a curse of some sort?