Shadows in the Woods Walkthrough – Blood of Dawnwalker

Shadows in the Woods Quest Start

Shadows in the Woods starts on its own during The Firebrand, the moment Mert tells you about Sara. He was supposed to meet her, and he gave up her location to the guards while he was being tortured, which means the soldiers are already on their way to the rendezvous point. You do not need to finish Under Watchful Eyes first, but freeing Mert is what puts this quest in your log.

1 – Go to the Bridge near Stoneward Post

Quest Text:
“According to Mert, a girl named Sara is the contact for the manumits. However, she may have already been captured by soldiers at the rendezvous point in the nearby woods. – Mert told me how to find the rendezvous point used by the manumits. I must go to the bridge near Stoneward Post and then head southeast.”

Leave Stoneward Post and head southeast. The bridge you are looking for sits by the broken shrine, and there are soldiers posted at that shrine waiting for anyone who crosses. You do not have to fight them. Cross the river before you reach the bridge and you walk past the whole ambush without being spotted, which keeps you at full health for the fight that actually matters at the rendezvous point.

2 – Reach the Rendezvous Point

Quest Text:
“I found the bridge that the miller pointed out. Now, I must head southeast to reach the rendezvous point.”

The marker updates as soon as you reach the bridge and points further southeast, towards the river. This step uses a yellow search radius rather than a fixed marker, so switch to Focus Mode once you are inside the circle. The rendezvous point is a ruined hut, and you will hear the soldiers before you see them.

Save Sara or Kill Her

Two soldiers are holding Sara beside the ruined hut and a cutscene starts as you approach. You can attack straight away, or you can claim that Sara is your sister. If you claim her, the soldiers ask whether you knew she was working with the rebels, and you can either deny it or pay them 100 Denarius. Paying is the only answer that ends the encounter peacefully. Denying it puts you back in the fight.

Fighting is the better option. The two soldiers are not difficult, and their bodies carry the two most valuable items in the whole quest. Paying the 100 Denarius costs you both of them on top of the coin.

Soldier Loot and All Three Ambrus Dungeon Locations

Once the soldiers are down, loot both bodies. One of them carries the Perfect Block Manual, and the other carries a letter that reveals all three of Ambrus dungeon locations at once. Those three dungeons are Court activities, and the letter saves you from hunting them down one at a time later. If you leave the area before looting, the pile stays where it fell, so you can return to the spot beside the hut at any point and pick everything up. Sara waits there too.

Perfect Block Manual

The Perfect Block Manual upgrades your Perfect Block so that it restores more Stamina and more Activation Charge on every successful parry. It is worth reading straight away, because the fights ahead in Svartrau lean hard on blocking, and Stamina recovery is the difference between chaining parries and running dry mid-fight.

Give In to Hunger – The Fail State

If you reach Sara at night, Coen gets a third option that is not available during the day. He can give in to hunger and kill her. Doing that fails Shadows in the Woods outright and shuts down the path to Crake, so only take it if you are deliberately going for the darker route. Afterwards you are offered the chance to bury Sara, which costs one time slot and changes nothing mechanically.

3 – Follow Sara

Quest Text:
“I have rescued Sara, and she has agreed to lead me to Crake.”

Talk to Sara again once the soldiers are dealt with. You can tell her that Mert sent you, or that you are a friend of Vladimir. Either answer works and she agrees to take you to Crake. Follow her and she leads you to a campsite in the woods that is rigged with traps. Coen steps into one of them, Drogos pins him with a silver chain, and the manumits settle in to watch.

They are convinced Coen will burn up at sunrise, so they wait for it. At night that wait swallows every time slot you had left. When the sun comes up and Coen is still standing, you can answer that you are a friend or that you wish you knew what you are. The follow-up options depend on choices you made earlier in the Prologue, but none of them fully convince Crake. He wants proof, and that proof comes from the activities on the Court tab. Clear those and you can meet the manumits again at Svartrau.

Shadows of the Woods Reward

1000 XP, plus the Perfect Block Manual and the Ambrus dungeon letter if you fought the soldiers rather than paying them off.

Shadows in the Woods Day or Night – What Changes

The route, the conversation with Sara and the ending are identical whether you run this during the day or at night. Crake reveals that the manumits have been watching Coen and already know about his second nature either way, so the sunrise does not catch anyone by surprise. What changes is the price and the number of options you get.

During the day the campsite conversation costs a single time slot and that is the whole bill. At night you are chained until sunrise, and that sacrifices every slot you had left in the night. Night is also the only time the give in to hunger option appears, so it is the only reason to run this one after dark.