Someone Needs a Lesson in The Blood of Dawnwalker: Catch and Deal With Vasil

Vasil is the loudmouth who insults Coen and his sick mother in the streets of Laslea, and the moment you get close enough to hear him, he bolts. That chase is the whole opening of Someone Needs a Lesson, a short prologue quest in The Blood of Dawnwalker that turns from a schoolyard grudge into something considerably darker once Vasil’s father Atanas shows up.

Quick answer: Run Vasil down and hold the interact button to catch him. When Atanas offers to let you punish his son, pick “Let him go, Atanas,” then “You’re drunk, Atanas. Go home,” and win the fistfight against Atanas. That is the only branch where nobody whips Vasil, and the quest still pays 250 XP.

Note: this quest contains a scene of physical abuse against a child. It can be avoided entirely, but only through one specific set of choices.

Where Vasil is and how the quest starts

Nothing needs to be triggered by a conversation. Leave Coen’s house in Laslea and take the path away from it rather than heading straight toward the Laslea Centre Shrine. Vasil is standing on the path near the village centre, close to the soldiers and the blacksmith, shouting about Coen’s mother. Getting within earshot starts the quest and sends him running.

He runs uphill through the upper part of town, past hay bales and grazing cows, in the direction of the food vendor. If you happen to be working through the Disturbed quest at the same time, you may run into him while following the footprints from Kvet’s grave.

Objective	What it asks for
Deal with Vasil	The umbrella objective for the whole encounter.
Catch Vasil	Chase him on foot and grab him with the interact button.
Talk with Vasil	The dialogue after Coen knocks him down.
Defeat Vasil	Optional, only if you pick a fight with him.
Talk with Atanas	The conversation once his father arrives.
Defeat Atanas	Appears if you refuse him or accuse him of being drunk.

Catch Vasil and choose whether to fight him

Sprint after Vasil along the dirt path. He does not have an escape route, so you only need to close the gap without getting hung up on fences or livestock.

Hold the interaction button once you are right behind him. Coen grabs him and puts him on the ground, and the objective flips to Talk with Vasil.

Pick a tone. “Just what is your problem?” keeps things verbal, while “Oh, I’ll show you.” starts a fistfight immediately. Staying calm does not end the argument, because Vasil keeps taunting and you can escalate at any point.

Coen trading blows with Vasil in the village lane during the Someone Needs a Lesson fistfight — The optional brawl with Vasil is short and ends the same way whether you start it or not. Image: Rebel Wolves

Beating him or letting him go changes nothing about what happens next. Either way, the noise draws his father.

Atanas arrives: every branch and what it does

Atanas interrupts the scene and asks what the commotion is about. Your first three replies are cosmetic. “We had a little disagreement, yes,” “He’s been bothering me all day,” and “Oh, it’s nothing” all lead to the same offer, which is Atanas inviting Coen along to teach his son a lesson.

Atanas at a wooden fence asking what is going on after the fight with Vasil — Atanas cuts the argument short with “Oi! What’s going on here?” no matter how the scuffle went. Image: Rebel Wolves

The next reply is the first one with teeth. Agreeing with “Oh? Alright.” sends everyone to a nearby tree, where Atanas cuts a switch and tells Vasil to take his shirt off. Repeatedly refusing with “I’ve got no time for this.” makes Atanas turn on Coen and demand a duel instead.

Choice at the tree	Outcome
“Ahh… All right.”	Coen strikes Vasil’s back with the stick in an interactive sequence. Old scars are visible.
“I’m not beating him.”	Coen backs out and Atanas takes over the whipping himself.
“Let him go, Atanas.”	Coen objects out loud, opening the path to stopping the punishment.
Say nothing further	A cutscene plays and Atanas delivers the beating.

How to stop the whipping completely

Objecting on its own is not enough. Atanas will still swing the switch if the conversation ends there, so the only route where Vasil goes untouched runs through a fight.

Choose “Let him go, Atanas.” when he hands Coen the stick. This interrupts the punishment and keeps the dialogue open.

Dialogue wheel with the option Let him go, Atanas highlighted during the punishment scene — “Let him go, Atanas.” is the line that opens the branch where the beating never happens. Image: Rebel Wolves

Follow it with “You’re drunk, Atanas. Go home.” Accusing him of drinking is what pushes him into a brawl instead of an argument, and the Defeat Atanas objective appears.

Win the fistfight. Atanas is a straightforward unarmed opponent, and dropping him ends the confrontation for good.

Coen fighting Atanas in the village after refusing to whip Vasil — Beating Atanas is the only way to keep the switch off Vasil’s back. Image: Rebel Wolves

The last conversation and how you know the quest is done

Every branch converges on the same closing scene. Coen walks past Vasil, who is sitting alone and bruised on a wooden bench. Depending on what you did, the options range from an apology (“I’m sorry.”) to offering help (“Maybe I could help you.”) to a flat “You could thank me, you know.” Ending it with “I see you’d rather be alone.” closes the conversation.

These lines all resolve identically. The quest completes as the dialogue ends, the objective clears from the journal, and Coen’s notes record why Vasil behaves the way he does, tracing the cruelty back through Atanas and the generations before him.

The only real failure state is running out of daylight. If the Blood Mass arrives before you finish, the journal simply notes that there was not enough time in the day to see it through.

Reward, time cost, and Vasil later on

Detail	Value
XP	250, regardless of which branch you take
Time cost	1 time segment out of the prologue’s 8
When time is spent	Near the end of the quest
Villagers affected	None die or leave as a result of any choice here

Because the segment is only consumed late in the sequence, this works well as the last thing Coen does before the Blood Mass. It is also one of the easiest prologue quests to drop entirely if you would rather spend that hour on Blasphemy, Deep Down, or Esme’s medicine, all of which decide whether specific residents of Laslea live through the evening.

Vasil turns up again after the prologue and hands over a unique amulet when he does. Nothing you say or do at the tree appears to change that meeting, so treat the whole encounter as a self-contained character piece rather than an investment with a payout attached.