The Blood of Dawnwalker: How to Complete From Above at Briar Sloughs Watchtower

From Above begins on its own the moment Smoke and Ashes wraps up and Coen walks out of Laslea. He spots a watchtower on the horizon and decides it will make a decent lookout. The quest itself is short, but it doubles as a practical tutorial for the vampiric traversal moves you just unlocked, and finishing it opens up a batch of new map markers across the valley.

Quick answer: Head roughly 200m southwest from Laslea to the Briar Sloughs Watchtower, kill the soldiers at the base, use Planeshift on the scaffolding and broken interior walls to reach the ledge at the very top, then pan the camera onto the three white dots in the distance and investigate all three.

What you need before starting the climb

Nothing gates this quest behind gear or a level requirement, but two things make it smoother. The soldiers at the tower base hit hard enough to be annoying at low levels, and the climb depends entirely on abilities you already have from the mines.

Requirement	Detail
Prerequisite quest	Smoke and Ashes (final Prologue main quest)
Location	Briar Sloughs Watchtower, about 200m southwest of Laslea
Abilities used	Planeshift (wall and ceiling walking via Shadowstep) and claw ride
Save point	A Shrine sits directly beside the tower for saving and perk management
Reward	100 XP and several new points of interest revealed on the map

Note: the Shrine next to the tower is worth a stop even if you do not need to save. If you levelled up during the Prologue, spend the skill point on a perk before you pick a fight with the guards.

Reach the tower and clear the guards

Leave Laslea and travel southwest toward the marker. The tower is visible from a distance, so you can run straight at it rather than following the road. Arriving flips the objective from “Reach the tower” to “Climb to the top of the tower”.

Deal with the soldiers gathered around the bonfire at the base. Sneaking up on one and opening with a heavy attack removes an enemy before the fight properly starts, which matters when you are still around Level 8. Loot the bodies afterwards.

From Above objective updates to climb the tower after the guards at Briar Sloughs are cleared — The objective switches to climbing the tower once the guards outside are dealt with. Image: Rebel Wolves

If you try to Planeshift mid-fight you will get a “Can’t use during combat” warning. Traversal abilities are locked until every nearby enemy is down, so finish the fight before you look for a route up.

Climb the interior with Planeshift

Circle around to the back of the tower. There is scaffolding propped against the exterior there, and it is the intended entry point for the climb.

Aim at the wall and use Planeshift to walk up the scaffolding and the broken interior levels. The floors inside have collapsed into a series of gaps, so you will be alternating between short shadowstep hops and stretches of wall walking to cross them.

Quest marker showing the tower 16 meters ahead while Coen moves toward the climb — The marker counts down the distance as you close in on the tower and start working upward. Image: Rebel Wolves

Search the chests on the way up. The lower ones hold minor supplies such as a Wooden Spoon, Denarius, a Parasol Mushroom, Red Wrapped Trousers, Yellow Sweet Clover and Tansy. Nothing here is essential, but the currency is useful this early.

Cycle of Ruin Manual and the upper chest

The one stop you should not skip sits on the wooden platform near the top of the interior. That chest contains the Cycle of Ruin Manual, which is required to unlock a specific skill, alongside the Ring of Purging and a Minor Yrakhiri Attunement.

Loot prompt on the upper platform of the watchtower during the From Above quest — The loot prompt on the upper platform, where the Cycle of Ruin Manual and Ring of Purging are stored. Image: Rebel Wolves

Manuals are consumed from your inventory to make skills available for purchase, so open the menu and read it once you have picked it up. If you leave the tower without it, you will have to make the climb again to get the skill unlocked.

Reach the vantage point at the summit

On the top floor, look straight up. There is a broken ledge above the ruined walls, and that ledge is the actual vantage point the objective wants, not the top floor itself.

Use Planeshift again on the damaged wall to scale it, then finish the last stretch of rock pillar with claw ride. The objective changes to “Scout the area from the vantage point” once you are on the ledge.

Objective reads Scout the area from the vantage point while Coen climbs the dark rock pillar — Claw ride handles the final rock pillar above the tower, with the scouting objective already active. Image: Rebel Wolves

Investigate all three points to end the quest

From the ledge you get a bird’s-eye view of the valley, with three white dots scattered across the landscape below. Hover the camera in the general direction of each one and an investigate prompt appears. You do not need pinpoint accuracy, just enough of a look in that direction for the game to register it.

Coen scanning the valley from the tower summit with marked points visible in the distance — Scouting from the summit, with the marked points of interest visible below. Image: Rebel Wolves

All three must be investigated. Scouting only one or two leaves the objective active, which is the most common reason players end up stuck on the ledge wondering why nothing has happened.

How to confirm the quest is finished

After the third point, a QUEST ENDED banner appears along with 100 XP. Open the map and you should see fresh markers where there were none before, including locations such as Mert’s Mill and Merl’s Hut.

Those new markers are the real payoff. From Above exists to break open the region for exploration now that the full map and the Court Activities system are available to you, and the day counter above your objectives keeps ticking down regardless of where you go next.