Smoke and Ashes is the last main quest of the prologue in The Blood of Dawnwalker, and it ends with Coen locked into a thirty-day deadline. It begins on its own once Bad Blood wraps up, starting inside Anca’s hut in Laslea Glen. The quest is short on combat and heavy on investigation, but two of its objectives eat a large chunk of in-game time, so it helps to know where those costs land before you commit.
Quick answer: Follow Anca to Laslea, search all six clues in Coen’s house, take the Compel Soul hex from Anca, grab Brencis’s Banner from the pole near the burned house and use it as the catalyst on the dead soldier, then clear the rubble at the village gate to finish the prologue.
Smoke and Ashes quest details and rewards
The quest cannot be missed and has no fail state, but it does spend time. Clearing the gate alone burns seven time segments, which is what pushes the world into night and triggers Coen’s first controlled transformation.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Starting location | Anca’s Hut, Laslea Glen |
| Quest giver | Anca |
| How it starts | Automatically after Bad Blood |
| Missable | No |
| Total time cost | 8 segments (1 to return to Anca, 7 to clear the rubble) |
| Rewards | 150 XP, Burning Blood, Astral Communion, Witchcraft and Vampirism skill trees |
If you pre-ordered the game or own the Eclipse or Collector’s Edition, the Sangoran Wayfarer’s Armour set lands in your inventory the moment Smoke and Ashes ends. Edition contents are listed on the official The Blood of Dawnwalker page.
Leaving Anca’s hut and reaching Laslea
Coen wakes up bandaged on a cot with no memory of surviving the night. Anca explains that she pulled the pickaxe out of him and then watched the wound close on its own. His eyes have changed, but he still looks human, and neither of them can explain why.
Search your family home: All six clues
Two stray dogs are eating a corpse outside the house and will turn on you. You can fight them bare-handed, but it is faster to open the inventory first and equip clothes and the Artisan’s Longsword. They drop Dog Hide and Animal Hide.
The objective only completes once every clue has been inspected. Nothing here is hidden behind a skill check, but the backyard and bedroom are easy to walk past.
| Clue | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Broken door | At the entrance, rammed off its hinges |
| Lunka’s Toy | On the living room floor, near the window |
| Overturned table and window | Living room, with cloth snagged on the sill |
| Blood on the floor | Storage room across from the living room |
| Footprints | Backyard, through the eastern door |
| Moved bed | Coen’s bedroom, off the courtyard |
The picture that comes together is grim but useful. Someone tried to burn the house, the door was forced, and hobnailed boot prints track back and forth as if the soldiers were hunting for someone. There are bloodstains and a shifted bed where a person hid, but no bodies, which is the detail that keeps the rescue plausible. Garlic and Onion can also be picked up inside while you look around.
Return to Anca and unlock Compel Soul (1 time segment)
Stepping outside triggers a cutscene. Coen breaks down at the thought that his family has vanished for good, and Anca offers what she calls a gruesome alternative. She can make the dead soldier talk, but the ritual needs Coen’s trust and his blood.
Agreeing to it, with the line about doing anything at all, moves the conversation forward. Anca cuts his wrist with a dagger, uses the blood to light her runic tattoos, and transfers the Compel Soul hex to him. A glowing red rune is left burned into his wrist. This is the first ability in the Witchcraft tree.
Cast Compel Soul on the dead soldier and find the catalyst
With the banner in hand, the soldier gives up his last memory. Brencis ordered every villager taken to his castle to be drained for his coronation, and Anca puts that coronation thirty days out. That number becomes the campaign’s clock.
You can choose to bury the man with the others afterwards, which plays a short cutscene of Coen and Anca laying him in the ground under a wooden cross.
Clear the rubble at the village gate (7 time segments)
Anca hands Coen a guide to other hexes and warns him to be careful with them before leading him to the destroyed gates. Brencis wanted Laslea sealed and empty as a warning to any other village thinking about resistance, so the way out is buried under debris.
Walk up to the rubble and press the interact prompt. The work consumes seven time segments in one go, so the sun sets during the cutscene and Coen shifts back into his vrakhiri form. Anca still has no explanation for why the vampiric side stays dormant in daylight.
Note: those seven segments are unavoidable. Since time in the game only moves when you complete quests or make certain dialogue choices, there is no way to clear the gate cheaply or come back to it later.
Finish the last conversation to close the quest. Coen commits to turning Brencis’s own curse against him and his court. Anca says she is packing for St. Tyna’s, her former convent, whose library holds forbidden books on fighting the vrakhiri, and tells Coen to meet her at the inn nearby when he is ready.
How to confirm the quest completed
Completion is unmistakable. The prologue ends, the quest log awards 150 XP, and the Witchcraft and Vampirism skill trees open alongside the Burning Blood and Astral Communion abilities. The full map of Vale Sangora becomes available along with the Court Activities system, and From Above starts on its own as you leave the village.
One thing worth checking before you commit to the gate. Every prologue quest is timed, and any prologue objective you have not finished disappears permanently once Smoke and Ashes ends. If there are side quests around Laslea Glen you still want, handle them before clearing the rubble, because the thirty-day countdown to Brencis’s coronation starts the moment the prologue closes.
