The Beast of Balaur is a side quest in the Boar’s Back region of The Blood of Dawnwalker, built around a string of disappearances in the mountains near Parlita. There is no quest giver standing around waiting for you. Walking into the right patch of mountain is enough to start it, and the whole thing ends in a cave with a supernatural wolf and a dead man named Iancu.
Quick answer: Climb the rocks north of the Mount Balaur Shrine west of Parlita, follow the footprints with Focus Mode to a cave, crouch through the gap at the back and kill The Beast of Balaur, loot Iancu’s body and the sarcophagus, then tell Ciprian in the house north of the Parlita Shrine that you found the body.
Where The Beast of Balaur starts in Boar’s Back
The quest area sits in the mountains west of the town of Parlita, at the western edge of the forest, marked by the Mount Balaur Shrine. Fast travel to that shrine and head north. Climbing the rocks above the shrine and examining the crosses planted in the ground is what triggers the quest, and simply entering the area is usually enough for the first objective to appear on its own.
There is a second way in. If you speak to Ciprian in Parlita first, he tells you his friend Iancu went up to the Balaur peak to test the rumours, and the quest opens with a “Find Iancu” objective instead of “Investigate the mountain.” Both paths converge at the same cave. Either version can be played during the day or at night.
Note: enemies and loot in this pocket of the map sit around level 29, so it is worth doing after you have some Boar’s Back progress behind you rather than straight out of the prologue.
Follow the tracks up the mountain
Explore the cave and beat The Beast of Balaur
Cave loot: Blood-Stained Letter and Verdant Knight’s Sword
With the wolf dead, inspect the skeletons and the corpse lying on the floor of the den. That corpse is Iancu, and looting it gives you the letter that proves who he was, which is what you need before Parlita becomes relevant. The stone sarcophagus in the same room holds the best reward in the quest.
| Item | Where it is | Details |
|---|---|---|
| A Letter to Iancu / Blood-Stained Letter | Iancu’s body on the cave floor | Identifies the dead man and unlocks the Parlita objective |
| Verdant Knight’s Sword | Stone sarcophagus in the same chamber | Level 29 Master Shortword, 295 DPS, 171–344 damage |
Optional: Brencis’s hideout and the Phial of Brencis’s Blood
The same cave hides Brencis’s old lair, and it is easy to walk straight past. You need to be there at night, because reaching it depends on Shadowstep.
Tip: this is not the only route to that ability. Xanthe’s Recruiters: Taste of Power in Altenmarkt, Svartrau City also yields a phial, and drinking Isbrand’s blood during Our Rotten Roots with Lacra unlocks Piercing Shriek as well.
Find Ciprian in Parlita to finish the quest
You know it worked when the journal entry moves to its outcome text and the XP award appears on screen. If the dialogue option to mention the body is missing, you have not looted Iancu’s corpse in the cave yet.
All The Beast of Balaur endings and XP rewards
The quest has four recorded outcomes, and two of them are failures. The full reward only lands if Ciprian is alive to hear the news.
| Outcome | How it happens | XP |
|---|---|---|
| Told Ciprian the truth | Found Iancu’s body and reported it to Ciprian in Parlita | 250 |
| Ciprian drained | You fed on Ciprian before delivering the news | 75 |
| Walked away (failure) | Started the quest but never investigated further | 75 |
| Body unidentified (failure) | Found the corpse in the cave but never traced it to anyone | — |
Why the quest can fail or lock you out
This one is missable. Once it is started, the objectives sit on the story clock, and the 30-day countdown to rescue Coen’s family can run past them, which drops you into one of the failure endings. Killing Ciprian, or draining him as a vampire, permanently removes the only person who can hear about Iancu, so the quest resolves at the reduced reward.
Skipping the cave loot is the other common stall. Without the letter from Iancu’s body, the Parlita objective never opens, and the trip into town accomplishes nothing.
Run at night with Shadowstep available and the whole loop, from the shrine to Ciprian’s door, is short enough to slot between the bigger Court Activities in Boar’s Back, and it hands you a level 29 shortword plus a legendary blade on the way out.
