The Bittersweet Toast Walkthrough in The Blood of Dawnwalker

The Bittersweet Toast is a missable quest that grows out of The Gilded Gauntlet, Ambrus’s main confrontation in The Blood of Dawnwalker. It starts when you accept Iulian Codrin’s plan to weaken Ambrus before the duel, then follows him to a poisoner named Vera whose disappearance turns the whole trip into an investigation. The quest ends only after you finish Vera’s brew, light five ritual pillars, and defeat the Fallen Witch.

Quick answer: Accept Iulian’s plan during The Gilded Gauntlet, follow him to Vera’s hut, trace her tracks through the swamp to the ritual altar, grab the ritual scroll, finish the brew with salamander skin, then use Astral Communion in daytime to light all five pillars and kill the spirits and Fallen Witch. Return to Iulian to complete the ritual.

How to start The Bittersweet Toast

This quest is a sub-quest of The Gilded Gauntlet and starts at Codrin’s Hunting Lodge in the Maragir Wealds. When you begin The Gilded Gauntlet, you get an optional objective to speak with Iulian Codrin. Do this before you duel Ambrus, or you lose access to the quest entirely.

Iulian explains that Ambrus never drinks from Brencis’s communal blood barrels. Instead he feeds on his own personal blood donors right before every duel. His plan is to poison the donor so Ambrus unknowingly drinks poisoned blood and enters the fight weakened. When you ask how, he offers to take you to Vera, a skilled poisoner who lives nearby.

Choosing “How would we do that?” begins The Bittersweet Toast. If you refuse, Iulian tells Coen to return if he changes his mind, and the quest stays available. Note: accepting the plan directly leads to Vera’s death.

At the meeting point you can pick “Can I meet you there?” to travel separately, but this costs an extra time segment to light a campfire that you would otherwise skip. Following Iulian straight away is the more efficient choice.

Follow Iulian to Vera’s hut

Follow Iulian down the rocky path. A pack of three wolves blocks the way, so deal with them. Iulian notes that Vera usually keeps predators away with poisoned bait, which hints something is already wrong.

Keep moving until you reach a shrine where a man’s body lies torn apart. Inspect it. Whatever killed him left a distinctive slime trail, and Iulian starts to fear for Vera.

Continue to Vera’s hut. Iulian knocks several times, gets no answer, then forces the door open to find she is gone. He asks you to search inside for clues while he checks the area.

Iulian standing beside a companion at a pond, saying 'Thank God' during a dialogue scene — A cinematic exchange between Iulian and Coen near the water during the search. Image: Rebel Wolves

Inspect the witchcraft table inside to find a list of ritual ingredients and the details of the ritual Vera was working on, along with a salamander trap used for skins. The last item you inspect spends one time segment. You can also open a chest in her bedroom to read letters between Iulian and Vera.

Talk to Iulian outside. He reveals that vrakhiri normally resist poison, but Vera found a way to bypass that by strengthening the mixture with a hex. He guesses she is out setting traps for the salamanders the ritual needs.

Track Vera through the swamp

Head west to the edge of the water to find salamander traps in various states. There is another trap on the northwest side of the pond. Keep following the path past a poisoned rabbit until you reach a trap leaning against a tree stump.

At the stump, enter investigation mode and inspect the trap and the ground. Coen spots Vera’s tracks in the soft mud, giving you a trail to follow with Focus Mode.

Follow the tracks southeast. You pass a bear that has been torn in half with the same slime around it, a clear sign the creature was close to Vera. Continue until you find her body leaning against the ritual altar she was preparing for Iulian.

Inspect Vera’s body to trigger a cutscene. Iulian breaks down and confesses that he was to be the donor Ambrus feeds on, meaning he planned to poison and sacrifice himself. Vera believed she could keep him alive, but he considered it too dangerous and, in truth, wanted to die to end his humiliation while becoming the weapon that kills Ambrus.

Investigate the surrounding clues. Look at the knife, her slime-covered body, the bloodstains, and her torn bag. The blood trail leads back into the swamp, meaning she was attacked elsewhere. Asking “With Vera dead – what happens now?” spends one time segment.

Find the ritual scroll

Follow Vera’s blood deeper into the swamp with Focus Mode. You pass several blood patches and a spot where she stumbled, then her trail meets a massive slime trail leading to a clearing where she was attacked.

Search the clearing. Pieces of her notebook and other spilled items are scattered on the ground, all covered in slime and blood. In the center of the pile sits the scroll with the ritual instructions. Picking it up spends one time segment.

Look up from where you found the scroll to spot three more pages in the distance. The third page reveals that a gland from the slime-trailing lizard would let Iulian survive the poison. This unlocks the optional path to save him.

Optional: Kill the Pale Ravager for the Tatzelwurm Gland

Saving Iulian is entirely optional and requires hunting the creature that killed Vera. Follow the slime trail northeast until it disappears into a narrow gap in the rock, then squeeze through into the cavern.

The Pale Ravager appears immediately to defend its lair. It burrows underground and pops up for either a close attack or a ranged unblockable spit, usually about two seconds after emerging. Dodge the spit left or right, and dodge backward away from the lizard to avoid its unblockable ground slam. It typically does two unblockable attacks about five seconds apart before burrowing again. Its slower bite attacks can be perfect blocked to open it up.

Defeating it grants 100XP and lets you loot the Tatzelwurm Gland, which spends one time segment. Adding this gland to the brew is what keeps Iulian alive during the duel.

Note: the gland is a moral choice, not a mechanical one. Iulian survives the duel and successfully poisons Ambrus whether or not you add it, and he refuses the gland when you offer it. Either way, Iulian later returns home and takes his own life, so no version of the quest keeps him alive long term.

Finish the brew and wait for daytime

Return to the altar where Vera’s body is and hand Iulian the ritual scroll. He reads the notes and explains that the brew must be made right before the ritual, and the mixture at the altar is already half prepared.

The half-prepared ritual brew at Vera's altar, missing its final salamander skin ingredient

Finish the brew at the same spot where Vera’s body was found. It only needs one final ingredient, salamander skin, to complete.

The ritual needs Coen to cast Astral Communion, which only works during the daytime. If it is night, you must wait for dawn. Rather than advancing time and wasting it, spend the remaining hours unlocking skills or clearing nearby quests, then come back when it is day.

The 'Time Has Passed' notification on the HUD as Coen waits inside the hut for daytime — The HUD notification confirming time has passed while waiting for daytime before the ritual. Image: Rebel Wolves

Once it is daytime, speak with Iulian again to trigger a short cutscene before the ritual begins.

Perform the ritual and beat the Fallen Witch

Journal showing The Bittersweet Toast updated with 'Perform the ritual' as the active objective — The Journal updates to “Perform the ritual” as the active objective. Image: Rebel Wolves

Use Astral Communion to light the five pillars scattered around the altar. Light the first, second, and third in sequence.

After the third pillar lights, a group of weak spirits spawns. They mostly attack with swords, so dodge and pick them off one at a time.

With the spirits cleared, light the fourth and fifth pillars. Another wave of spirits appears, this time alongside the Fallen Witch.

Defeat the second wave and the Fallen Witch. She is not very strong, so take your time and focus on dodging her swings rather than trading blows.

Combat against the Fallen Witch and hostile spirits during the ritual finale

Return to Iulian to finish the ritual. In the final cutscene Iulian drinks the remaining brew and screams in pain, begging Coen to stop or kill him, but Coen forces him to finish it. Completing this cutscene ends the quest and awards 250XP.

Time segments and rewards

Action	Time segments
Speak to Iulian at his lodge	1
Ask “Can I meet you there?” (optional)	1
Follow Iulian	1
Find out where Vera is	1
Ask “What happens now?”	1
Find the ritual scroll	1
Loot the Tatzelwurm Gland (optional)	1
Finish the ritual	3

Rewards are 100XP for killing the Pale Ravager and 250XP for completing the quest. The quest fails if you kill Codrin or leave in the middle of the ritual.

Using the poison against Ambrus

Completing the quest adds a deadline to the duel. You have 48 time segments, or three in-game days, before Ambrus notices his condition and brings a different victim. Ring the bell at the duel site no later than two time segments before sunrise on the third day, and note the duel can only start at night.

At the duel, Ambrus prepares to feed on Iulian but grows suspicious of the looks between him and Coen, then demands that Coen drink first. Your reply decides how much poison lands.

Your choice	Result
“Letting a peasant drink first? What kind of boyar are you?” or “I don’t trust anything you offer.”	Ambrus drinks from Iulian and takes the full poison; Coen is not poisoned.
“Gladly! To a juicy slaughter.”	Both Coen and Ambrus drink the poisoned blood; Iulian survives but Coen is poisoned too.
“I don’t drink from humans.”	Ambrus kills Iulian but still takes some poison; the effect is weaker and wears off mid-fight.

At full strength the poison steadily drains Ambrus’s health, so you can win largely by surviving and dodging. Missing the deadline does not permanently fail the duel itself, but it removes the poison plan and forces a straight fight.