Sacred Covenant is the fourth main quest in The Blood of Dawnwalker’s Prologue, and it is the one that turns Laslea Glen’s slow dread into open bloodshed. The whole thing takes place at the village church at sundown, where Knyaz Brencis and his retinue arrive to collect the blood tithe. Coen sits through the sermon, watches his mother give blood, loses his temper, and wakes up hours later on the losing side of an ambush.
Quick answer: The mass plays out the same way regardless of what you say during it. The only thing that changes the outcome is whether you gave Esme the correct dose of herbs back in “Withering Away” — with the right dose she survives Brencis’s inspection, without it she is killed at the altar.
Sacred Covenant quest details
The quest begins automatically after “Like Father, Like Son”, or it starts on its own if you burn through the remaining daylight on side content. Anything still in progress when the sun goes down fails, so wrap up loose quests first.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Location | Laslea Glen church |
| Starts after | Like Father, Like Son (or automatically at the Blood Mass) |
| Fail state | None |
| Reward | 250 XP |
| Duration | Ends three time segments into the night |
You get two options before the ceremony. Pass time by doing other quests, which is the better use of the evening, or go back to Pieter and skip straight to the mass. Objectives are short: attend, optionally talk with villagers, then sit in the pew next to Pieter and Esme.
Walking into the church: Gremla and the villagers
Pieter coaxes a tearful Esme out of the house, and the three of them walk through the fog to the church. Inside, the first thing Coen sees is hanging above the altar. Depending on how the quest “Blasphemy” ended, that will be either Sister Gremla’s body or the tapestry she was weaving. Pieter’s explanation is blunt — she displeased the Knyaz.
Before you sit down, Vladimir pulls Coen aside to float the idea of an ambush against Brencis. The other villagers are scattered around the chapel and can be spoken to in any order.
- Vasil, standing near the front
- Brothers Gavril and Lazar at the back
- Anca and Vladimir in the third row, behind Pieter and Esme
Only the Anca conversation gets a proper cinematic close-up. Coen thanks her for helping his mother, and after she asks how Esme is holding up you can pick the flirty line, “So I can come see you even when I’m not running errands?” The rest are brief exchanges with no lasting effect.
Florin’s sermon and the timed dialogue choices
Sitting in the pew next to Pieter and Esme triggers the cutscene. Father Florin opens by framing Gremla’s death as a lesson in obedience to Knyaz Brencis, and he keeps returning to the same theme — people stray, so they need a shepherd.
Coen gets timed responses at two points. You can call the sermon out with “This is sick,” or take the [remain silent] option — Pieter’s advice is to keep quiet and avoid drawing eyes. Either way the scene continues down the same track.
| Florin’s line | Your options |
|---|---|
| “We err, such is our nature. Hence we need a shepherd.” | Speak up (“This is sick.”) or [remain silent] |
| “Such is the nature of our sacred covenant. May it last forever.” | Speak up or [remain silent] |
The covenant itself is Florin’s justification for everything. Brencis drinks the village’s blood, and in return the valley is spared plague, war, and famine. The congregation, Coen included, answers with the vow: “May it forever endure.”
The bloodletting ritual and Esme’s collapse
Florin welcomes Brencis and his officers, and the tithe begins. Brencis opens his own hand over a chalice, and Florin drinks from it — the exchange that formally seals the covenant each time.
Esme’s turn at the altar is the pivot of the whole quest. She is forced to drink, and Brencis immediately notices how weak she is. He calls the villagers thin-blooded and muses that it is time for another culling. Coen answers by calling him a monster, which earns a direct threat from the Knyaz before he leaves the church.
Note: Coen’s outburst is not what decides Esme’s fate. Her survival was locked in earlier, during the medicine preparation in “Withering Away”.
How to keep Esme alive through the Blood Mass
Esme draws Brencis’s attention either way. The difference is whether she is killed on the spot. Getting the dose right matters well beyond the Prologue — an Esme who lives is a prerequisite for setting up every ending on a single save.
You will know it worked at the mass itself. With the correct dose, Brencis singles Esme out and talks about a culling, but she is not killed at the altar. Without it, she dies there.
The silver mine ambush that ends the quest
After the church, control cuts to a cabin. Coen wakes and sets a doll beside the sleeping children before Pieter lays out the plan — get to the mines and pull silver ore before Brencis works out what the village is doing. Pieter insists Coen fetch his sword, despite Coen pointing out how close the garrison is.
Pieter and Vladimir lead the villagers out into the night.
In the mine, Vladimir reminds Coen they are stronger together while the work goes on. Kostel keeps watch outside under a full moon and calls out that Brencis’s men are coming. Pieter orders everyone to hold. An explosion knocks Coen out, and he comes to wounded, with Vladimir over him explaining that the rest are dead or taken. Sacred Covenant ends there, awarding 250 XP, and “Bad Blood” picks up in the mines.
Who Knyaz Brencis is
The figure presiding over the mass is the Knyaz of Vale Sangora, and he took the valley by force two years before the Prologue. He rules alongside three vrakhir boyars from Greifberg Castle above Svartrau, and plenty of people in the valley still credit him with saving them — though not, as it turns out, for their benefit. Bandai Namco’s character page notes he was born in the ancient Roman Empire and remains openly proud of that heritage.
His human name was Caeso Burrienus Laurentius, born AD 131 to a wealthy senatorial family. He rose fast through Roman officialdom with his eye on a consulship, then was turned into a vampire and dropped from the top of that ladder to the bottom. The ambition never went anywhere. He is voiced by Andrew James Spooner.
Nothing you say in the pews changes the shape of the evening — the sermon runs its course, the tithe is collected, and the mine ends in an ambush either way. What carries forward is Esme, and that comes down to three spoonfuls of herbs in hot water hours before anyone sets foot in the church.
