Withering Away looks like a simple fetch quest right up until Coen is standing over a cauldron with six dialogue options and no second chance. Once Anca hands over the stronger herbs, the quest updates to “Bring the herbs back to Pieter and read the recipe from Anca” — and the game genuinely expects you to read it, because the brewing prompts never repeat the instructions back to you.
Quick answer: Read “Instructions from Anca” in your quest items, hand the herbs to Pieter outside his house, then at the cauldron pick [use hot water] followed by [add three spoonfuls of herbs].
The recipe from Anca, word for word
The note sits in your inventory as a quest item called Instructions from Anca. Open the inventory, move to the quest items tab, select it, and confirm to read the full text rather than just the item name.
Brew three scoops with water that’s hot, but not quite boiling. Give to Esme before mass, then twice daily.
That single line covers both choices you are about to be given. “Hot, but not quite boiling” rules out the boiling option, and “three scoops” is the dose. You can read the note at any point after leaving Anca’s hut, including while you are still walking home, so there is no reason to wait until you are already at the cauldron.
Getting back to Pieter with the herbs
The two cauldron choices that decide the brew
Brewing is handled entirely through dialogue prompts at the cauldron. There is no skill check and no crafting minigame — the game only checks whether your two picks match Anca’s note.
| Prompt | Options offered | Correct pick |
|---|---|---|
| Water | [use boiling water] / [use hot water] / [use cold water] | [use hot water] |
| Herbs | [add one spoonful of herbs] / [add two spoonfuls of herbs] / [add three spoonfuls of herbs] | [add three spoonfuls of herbs] |
Note: the water prompt is the first one to appear, and boiling water sits at the top of the list. It is an easy misclick if you are mashing through dialogue.
Getting Esme to actually drink the medicine
While the brew steeps, Pieter brings up sword practice. The options here are “Sounds good.”, a question about Vladimir, and “I’ve got other plans.” None of them affect the medicine, so pick whichever conversation you want.
When the conversation runs out, tell Pieter that the brew should be ready. He sits Esme up, and she resists taking it. Choose the option to tell her a story — that briefly brings her back to herself, which is what lets her drink. From there, “Just a sip.” finishes the scene.
How to confirm the medicine was made correctly
Once Esme takes the brew, Withering Away closes out and Pieter invites Coen outside to spar, starting Like Father, Like Son. That handover is your signal that the objective is done — but it happens whether or not you brewed correctly, so the quest log alone will not tell you which version you got.
The real check comes later, during the Blood Mass in Sacred Covenant. With hot water and three spoonfuls, Esme is still weak but lucid enough to sit through the ceremony. Brencis complains about the state she’s in and mutters about culling the herd, then leaves her alive.
What happens if you brew it wrong
Wrong water temperature or the wrong dose produces a brew that does nothing. Esme stays lost in her own head and causes a disturbance during the Mass. Brencis reacts badly, and she is killed by the vampires in attendance.
Because the ceremony is several quests away from the cauldron, this is not something you can fix on the spot later. If you realize you picked wrong shortly after the scene, load the nearest autosave and redo the two prompts — the sequence takes under a minute to repeat.
The prologue quietly uses this as a lesson in how The Blood of Dawnwalker treats reading material. Anca’s note is optional to open, the game never repeats it, and a two-line recipe you skimmed past decides whether a character survives the first act.
