The Blood of Dawnwalker: Twists and Turns Quest Guide (Investigate the Cellar)

Ambrus’s Dungeons: Twists and Turns is one of the Court Activities tied to Ambrus in The Blood of Dawnwalker, and it hides its second half behind a locked cell door. The outpost sits in the Marnir Wealds, in the northeastern part of Ambrus’s domain, and the quest only wraps up once you’ve gone underground, killed the chief jailer, and dealt with the prisoners he was guarding.

Quick answer: Kill the guards at the outpost, take the gate into the mountainside, fight your way down to the prison chamber, loot the chief jailer for the Jailer’s Keys, then use them on the cell to the right of the entrance and finish the conversation with the prisoners.

Twists and Turns quest details and rewards

This is a Draining Dungeon activity, so clearing it pushes Ambrus’s anger closer to the point where his boss fight quest unlocks. Like every Court Activity, it also burns in-game time, which matters because you only have 30 in-game days before the story forces its ending.

Detail	Value
Quest name	Ambrus’s Dungeons: Twists and Turns
Region	Marnir Wealds, Ambrus’s domain
Activity type	Court Activity (Ambrus’s Dungeons)
Recommended level	Level 1+
Time cost	3 time segments
Key item	Jailer’s Keys
Reward	250 XP, 1 Skill Point

Court Activities are not pinned on your map from the start. Until you stumble into them, they show up as “Unknown Activity,” so the outpost has to be found in the world before the objective marker becomes useful.

Clear the outpost in Marnir Wealds

Head to the fort built into the mountainside in the Marnir Wealds, near the northeastern edge of Ambrus’s territory. The tracked objective reads Investigate the outpost. Walk up to the wooden door in the palisade at the front and go straight through.

Player moving toward the tracked Investigate the outpost objective in Twists and Turns — The tracked objective reads “Investigate the outpost” as you approach the palisade gate.

Two guards patrol the yard inside. Kill both, then loot one of the bodies for Directives from Ambrus, a note explaining what the camp is actually doing. Once the yard is clear, the objective flips to Investigate the cellar.

Sword combat against a red-highlighted guard with a full health bar in the outpost yard — Both surface guards have to go down before the cellar objective appears.

Before you head down, check the tent. A desk inside holds a Letter of Admonishment, which reveals where to find the separate activity Ambrus’s Prisoners: Lucky Crossing. It’s optional, but it’s free map knowledge and costs no extra time.

Investigate the cellar and take the Jailer’s Keys

Find the gate cut into the rock face at the back of the camp and pass through it into the cave. The route down is short but branches once. Take the stairs, and at the intersection go right, then keep descending to another gate.

Beyond that gate is a large torchlit chamber where the prisoners are held. Fight the jailers here until the objective updates to Take the key from the chief jailer. The chief jailer is the one you need dead; the rest are just in the way.

Melee fight against a highlighted jailer in the torchlit underground prison chamber — The prison chamber fight ends with the chief jailer, who carries the key.

Walk up to the chief jailer’s body and press the loot prompt to pick up the Jailer’s Keys. Without this item the cell door stays shut, so grab it before you move on.

Loot prompt on the chief jailer's body during Ambrus's Dungeons: Twists and Turns — Looting the chief jailer hands over the Jailer’s Keys and updates the objective.

Open the cells: Free or condemn the prisoners

The cell you want sits just to the right of where you entered the chamber. With the keys in hand, inspect the barred gate. The objective now reads Open the cells, and unlocking it is what spends the quest’s 3 time segments.

The Open the cells objective on the HUD as the player faces a barred prison cell — The barred cell to the right of the entrance is the one the Jailer’s Keys open.

Talk to the prisoners. You can ask about their past, which reveals they served the knyaz before ending up here. You then decide whether to leave them locked up for serving Brencis or let them out.

If you free them, they’ll ask what you want in return. Choosing “Do what you can to oppose Brencis” sends them off to make trouble, while “You owe me nothing” simply earns their thanks. Either way, the payout is identical.

Note: The choice changes the tone of the scene and where those prisoners end up, not the reward. Nobody gets a better item for picking one line over the other.

How to confirm the quest completed

After the final dialogue, a short cutscene plays and time advances. You’ll see the QUEST ENDED banner along with XP (250) and Skill Points (1) on screen. Once that appears, Twists and Turns is logged as finished and its contribution to Ambrus’s anger is banked.

If the quest is still sitting open, one of two things is usually the cause. Either the chief jailer’s body was never looted, so you don’t have the Jailer’s Keys and the cell gate won’t respond, or the cell was opened but the conversation with the prisoners wasn’t seen through to the end. Clearing the surface guards alone never completes it.

Twists and Turns stays available after Ambrus is dealt with, so there’s no rush to clean it up on a specific day. That said, it’s one of the cheaper Ambrus activities in terms of effort for a full Skill Point, and since you don’t need to finish every Court Activity to draw a vampire out, low-friction ones like this are worth prioritizing on a first run.