The Blood of Dawnwalker: Our Rotten Roots Full Quest Walkthrough

Our Rotten Roots is the point where Lacra’s storyline in The Blood of Dawnwalker stops being a search and turns into a descent. Isbrand — the vampire who sired Brencis — is alive but broken, and the only way to pull anything useful out of him is to walk through his memories in a dead plane called Anachora. The quest is night-only, it eats four time segments off your 30-day clock, and it ends with a boss fight and a choice.

Quick answer: Finish Hive and Seek, let one full in-game day pass, then meet Lacra in the Westridge Outpost tower at night. Tell her you’re ready to commit the four time segments, find all three of Isbrand’s memories in Anachora, and defeat Isbrand, The Broken Shade to unlock the Piercing Shriek vampirism ability.

Our Rotten Roots requirements, time cost, and rewards

The quest sits inside a chain that starts with A Friend Like This, runs through Song of the Mountain and Hive and Seek, and continues afterward into The Night of Horrors and the Midnight Reckoning ending. You can’t shortcut into it — Isbrand’s body has to already be at the fort.

Detail	Value
Quest giver	Lacra
Starting location	Westridge Outpost tower, in The Silts
Requirement	Complete Hive and Seek, then wait one full in-game day (16 time segments)
Time of day	Night only
Time cost	4 time segments, committed the moment you tell Lacra you’re ready
Rewards	1,000 XP, 1 skill point, Piercing Shriek vampirism ability
Leads to	The Night of Horrors, then Midnight Reckoning

Note: the quest also has a failure outcome in which Coen gives up on Isbrand and moves against Brencis without his or Lacra’s help. Since the coronation deadline governs everything, don’t sit on this one for twenty in-game days.

How to start Our Rotten Roots at Westridge Outpost

Burn a full in-game day on other content after Hive and Seek. Lacra explicitly asks for a day with Isbrand, and the objective won’t advance until that time has passed.

Track “Meet Lacra in the fort at night” and fast-travel to Westridge Outpost. Make sure it’s actually night when you arrive — the objective carries a moon icon and won’t trigger during the day.

World map with the Our Rotten Roots objective marker selected for tracking at Westridge Outpost — Tracking the quest marker on the map before fast-travelling to Westridge Outpost. Image: Rebel Wolves

Climb to the stone tower and talk to Lacra, who’s tending Isbrand’s body. She explains his mind has come apart and proposes draining him to reach Anachora. You can ask for her news in any order — none of it changes the outcome.

When you tell her you’re ready, the four time segments are spent immediately and Coen drains Isbrand. Both of you drop into Anachora, a red-lit plane built out of floating stone.

Traversal rules inside Anachora

Anachora is a linear obstacle course dressed up as a dream. Every section funnels you toward a sandstorm — the swirling column that plays the next memory when you walk into its center. Between them you’re platforming across floating rock with Phaseshift and Shadowstep, and riding walls down with Clawride.

Your stamina is unlimited here, so you can’t slide off a wall by hanging on it too long. You can still fall, though, and falling doesn’t drop you back on the ledge — it reloads the last autosave, which is usually whenever you last stood in a conversation. Quicksave before every climbing section and you’ll never lose more than a minute.

Finding all three of Isbrand’s memories

First memory: the kneel or perish confrontation

Head through the stone gate ahead of you to clear the “Pass the gate” objective, then start wall-jumping across the gap on the other side.

After the first cluster of phantoms, take the floating stones up through the middle of the area. Dropping to the lower level is optional and only nets you a fight and some loot, including consumables like Minor Mending Ointment.

Clear the ghost soldiers that spawn on the next platform, cross to the building opposite, and go through the tunnel. Another group waits on the far side before the wall run up toward the sandstorm.

Walk into the middle of the sandstorm. The memory shows Isbrand cornering Brencis and giving him the choice to kneel or die.

Second memory: the mansion courtyard and the vidmo miniboss

Ride the wall down from where you land and push into the ruins ahead, then teleport across to the platform with blue lanterns beside the doorway.

Cross the broken platforms until you reach the outside of the mansion. Entering the courtyard spawns a large mixed group, including tougher soldiers and Essence of Grief spirits, and you have to kill all of them to move on.

New Glossary Entry Added notification for Undead Dog with the SHOW prompt on screen — New enemy types in Anachora add glossary entries as you meet them. Image: Rebel Wolves

Head back outside and platform to the next building. A miniboss spawns at its exterior — it’s a vidmo, so it uses the same witch attack patterns you’ve already seen, just with a much bigger health pool.

Go through the door to reach the sandstorm. This memory covers Brencis and his wife Helvia, who refuses him and dies in purple flame.

The optional sandstorm: Lacra’s past

The third area splits. Lacra wants you to go right, which is the story route. Going left is entirely optional and she’ll try to talk you out of it, because that memory is about the harm Isbrand did to her.

If you take it, Lacra leaves and you enter the sandstorm alone. Fight through the next group, Clawride down a very long wall, and follow the path to the storm. There’s no penalty for viewing it, and you can apologize to her afterward — the dialogue you pick there doesn’t change anything mechanically.

Lacra speaking to Coen in Anachora, urging him to keep moving toward the next memory — Lacra pushes you toward the story path at the fork in the third area. Image: Rebel Wolves

Last memory: the town and the sandstorm chamber

Either route lands you in a town area. Pass through the doorway flanked by white fires, then enter the building immediately on the right, where Lacra is standing next to a torch on the ground.

Take the door inside the house and drop down. The lower level is a linear stretch of catacombs and ruins with several enemy groups between you and the end.

In the circular room holding the final sandstorm, work your way down the platforms lining the edges until you reach the small platform at the bottom center, then step in.

Memory cutscene showing Brencis standing over a beaten Isbrand and forcing him to submit — The final memory: Brencis overpowers Isbrand and takes the power of the place for himself. Image: Rebel Wolves

How to beat Isbrand, The Broken Shade

What’s left of Isbrand’s soul reads you as a threat and attacks. Lacra fights alongside you, which takes a lot of pressure off.

He moves like a murohn or any other vampire you’ve dueled and has no signature attack of his own, but his patterns are erratic, so react rather than pre-commit to combos. The one thing to watch for is Piercing Shriek — the same ability you’re about to earn — which he fires in a wide cone directly in front of him. Get out of the frontal arc or block it, then punish the recovery.

Should you invite Isbrand in or leave him in Anachora?

Once he’s down, Isbrand begs. Lacra tells him to beg properly, and she’ll spare him herself if you stay quiet. Speaking up with “Beg for what?” or “Can I do it instead?” hands the decision to Coen and opens the two real options.

Choice	What happens
“I’ll do it. I invite you in, Isbrand.”	Coen absorbs his essence. Isbrand occasionally speaks inside Coen’s head for the rest of the game, though far less often than Ambrus or Bakir if you’ve already taken them in.
“I’m sorry. You’ll stay here, forever.”	His soul is abandoned in Anachora permanently. No further voice, no further appearances.

Neither option gates content or changes the reward. Piercing Shriek is yours either way, so treat it as flavor rather than a build decision.

Confirming the quest completed

You leave Anachora, return to the tower, and have a final conversation with Lacra. Our Rotten Roots then closes out in the journal with 1,000 XP, a skill point, and the Piercing Shriek unlock notification. Check your vampirism abilities — if Piercing Shriek is listed, everything registered correctly.

The only common reasons it doesn’t wrap up are the obvious ones: arriving at the fort during the day, trying to talk to Lacra before a full in-game day has passed, or dying inside Anachora and getting kicked back to an old autosave. With the quest logged, Lacra’s arc continues into The Night of Horrors, which feeds the Midnight Reckoning ending — and the knowledge pulled out of Isbrand’s memories is what you’ll use against Brencis.