The Blood of Dawnwalker: The Highland Grave Full Quest Walkthrough

The Highland Grave is an optional world quest in the Rockfalls region of The Blood of Dawnwalker. It hands Coen three pieces of high-tier gear for very little combat, provided you pick up one small item before you ever reach the ruins.

Quick answer: Loot the Scholar’s Key from the skeleton crushed under a cart along the road near the Rockfalls Pasture Shrine, then travel northwest into the mountain ruins, tell the Uriashi “I just want to look around.”, unlock the sturdy door with the key, and open the chest inside for 250 XP.

The Highland Grave rewards and XP

Everything worth having sits in a single chest behind the locked door. Opening it completes the quest instantly.

Reward	Type
Ancient Hero’s Talisman	Master amulet
Blasphemous Echo Manual	Witchcraft manual (Master Character Development)
Ring of Quick Strikes	Legendary ring
Quest completion	250 XP

The stat lines across the set lean toward weapon damage, critical hit chance and critical hit damage, physical damage reduction, witchcraft ability damage, and reduced vampiric ability cooldown. The Ring of Quick Strikes is the standout for a melee-focused Coen build, but the amulet and manual make the trip worth it on their own.

How the quest starts, and why the skeleton matters

Two things can trigger The Highland Grave. Walking up to the ruins and speaking with the guards will start it, and so will inspecting the crushed skeleton on the road. Only one of those two also gives you the Scholar’s Key, and without that key the inner chamber stays shut. Do the skeleton first and you save yourself a second trip.

Your staging point is the Rockfalls Pasture Shrine. If it is still listed under Destroyed Shrines, you need to recover its Shrine’s Heart from the Soldier Camp to the south and restore it before you can fast travel there.

Finding the skeleton and the Scholar’s Key

Fast travel to the Rockfalls Pasture Shrine and follow the road away from it. The remains are on the roadside, not hidden off in the wilderness, so stick to the path rather than cutting across country.

Coen sprinting along a snowy mountain road with the L3 sprint prompt shown on screen — Sprinting along the snowy road out of Rockfalls toward the roadside remains. Image: Rebel Wolves

Look for a wrecked cart half-buried by a landslide with a skeleton pinned underneath it. Interact with the remains to trigger a short scene where Coen searches the satchel.

A skeleton pinned beneath a collapsed cart on the roadside as Coen examines the landslide — The skeleton crushed under the landslide-damaged cart, the interaction that starts the quest. Image: Rebel Wolves

Collect all three items from the body. The Scholar’s Map of Vale Sangora marks the ruins on your map, the Tattered Journal explains who the scholar was, and the Scholar’s Key is the one you cannot finish the quest without.

The quest entry appears in your journal as soon as the scene ends, with a yellow search area on the world map.

Getting past the Uriashi at the ruins

Head northwest of the Rockfalls Pasture Shrine into the mountains. The entrance is a stone ruin tucked into the rock face, inside the yellow quest area. Open your map on the way if you want to confirm you are in the right zone.

Coen standing in front of the dark stone entrance to the Highland Grave ruins with the quest tracker on screen — The dark doorway into the Highland Grave ruins, northwest of the Rockfalls Pasture Shrine. Image: Rebel Wolves

Walk in and let the horned Uriashi approach you. They keep outsiders out of the deeper chambers and will accuse Coen of being a thief, but the encounter does not have to turn into a fight.

Choose “I just want to look around.” and apologise for sneaking in. Uriash then allows Coen to search the area. Avoid the option that offers a fight unless you genuinely want to clear the ruins by force.

Dialogue wheel with the option to start a fight with Uriash highlighted instead of the peaceful reply — The dialogue menu with the combat option highlighted, the one to skip if you want the peaceful route. Image: Rebel Wolves

Opening the sturdy door and finishing the quest

Move away from the guards and track the objective marker to the locked stone door deeper inside the ruins. The tracker reads “Open the sturdy door” and counts down the distance as you approach.

Quest tracker showing the Open the sturdy door objective a few metres from the marked stone door — The “Open the sturdy door” objective marker inside the ruins. Image: Rebel Wolves

Interact with the door to use the Scholar’s Key. It opens without a lockpick and without any check, since the key is the intended solution.

Open the chest in the room beyond and take all three rewards. The quest closes out the moment the loot is collected, and you receive 250 XP.

If the quest does not complete, the cause is almost always one of two things. Either you reached the ruins without the Scholar’s Key and cannot open the door, or you left an item behind in the chest. Both are fixed by returning to the skeleton or reopening the chest.

Looting the rest of the ruins without starting a fight

Vases and secondary chests are scattered around the ruins, and their contents sell well. The catch is ownership. Anything highlighted in red counts as stealing, and taking it can alert the Uriashi and drop Coen into combat he had just talked his way out of.

Note: If you would rather not tiptoe around, killing the Uriashi removes the restriction entirely and lets you empty every container in the ruins. That trades a clean exit for free access, so decide before you touch anything red.

Because the Rockfalls Pasture Shrine sits so close to both halves of the run, The Highland Grave is one of the cheapest ways to pick up master and legendary gear early. Slot the Ring of Quick Strikes and the Ancient Hero’s Talisman straight away, read the Blasphemous Echo Manual if you are leaning into witchcraft, and carry on with the rest of Rockfalls.