What? That's not true...all you need to do is get her a couple of books and kill her mother, who can polymorph into a dragon (if she isn't one, to begin with...)...
...oh. Well.

To quote another game:
"But the prize..." :D

Hehehe, I hope they manage to snag her voice actress for a future CDPR game. :D

As for prisoner interactions:
there's a couple of instances where you can try to quiet them (so as to avoid alerting guards). Mouse clicky QTE thingy.

As for the picture of Geralt helping a dude:

[spoiler]

that's a prisoner essential to your escape. you only get him if you didn't kill him earlier during the siege

[/spoiler]

re: sword
I've only been through the dungeon twice (and I think I was thorough) and other than the blackjacks, a club and the guisarme, the only sword is at the ends of the dungeon.