A Pilgrimage for Power: Bear Trouble Walkthrough in The Blood of Dawnwalker

Bear Trouble is the first of four Sacred Stones in The Blood of Dawnwalker, and it is the one most players trip over by accident. There is no NPC handing it out. You simply wander close enough to a mountain path in the Briar Sloughs, the windchimes start ringing, and Coen decides the climb is worth making.

Quick answer: Cross the river west of the Briar Sloughs Scouting Tower, follow the windchimes and cairns to the plateau, kill the Ravenous Bear, inspect the bloody knife and the Uriash corpse, then spend two Time Segments on the carved glyph in the middle of the stone circle to finish the quest.

Bear Trouble requirements, location, and rewards

The quest unlocks after Smoke and Ashes and carries no fail state, so there is no pressure to rush it. Time only moves when you interact with the glyph at the end.

Detail	Value
Starting location	Briar Sloughs, west of the Briar Sloughs Scouting Tower
Quest giver	The windchimes themselves
Requirement	Complete Smoke and Ashes
Fail state	None
Enemy	Ravenous Bear
Time cost	2 Time Segments (spent on the glyph)
Rewards	250 XP, Ravenous Flock Manual, Quickcast Amulet

The journal entry Coen writes when the quest opens sets the tone for the whole climb:

While in the mountains, I found a uriashi path leading towards one of their sacred places. Maybe I should make the climb?

Day or night makes no difference here. The bear behaves the same way and the glyph can be read at any hour.

How to follow the windchimes up the mountain

Open the map and track the quest, then cross the river to the northwest of the Briar Sloughs tower. The ringing gets loud enough that the game is essentially pointing at the trailhead for you.

Hold the Focus Mode button and keep it on for most of the climb. The route is marked by hanging chimes and stone cairns wrapped in yellow fabric, and both are much easier to pick out of the rock face when Focus is active.

Coen picking a route up a rocky mountainside with the Follow the windchimes objective on the tracker — The tracker keeps the “Follow the windchimes” objective on screen for the entire climb. Image: Rebel Wolves

Work your way up the ledges. The path is a series of short climbs rather than one long scramble, and each chime or cairn confirms you are still on the correct line up the slope.

Coen climbing a rocky forest slope with the objective marker 19 meters ahead — Short stone ledges lead up the wooded slope toward the objective marker. Image: Rebel Wolves

Stop at the abandoned campsite partway up. Someone left food out to rot here, and scanning the area in Focus Mode reveals footprints that continue the trail.

Keep following the chimes, cairns, and prints until the path opens into a wide clearing at the top. Save your game here. A Ravenous Bear is resting in the middle of it.

Beating the Ravenous Bear

This is the same enemy type you may have already fought at Outlaw’s Gorge, with an identical moveset. It only has two attacks that matter, and both are unblockable, so parrying is not an option.

Charge: a straight-line rush that knocks Coen down if it connects.
Ground slam: the bear rears onto its back legs first, then slams the ground directly in front of it.

Dodge sideways for both. A perfectly timed dodge opens a counterattack window, which is the fastest way to chew through its health. Staying in front of the bear is what gets people killed here, so keep circling.

Coen facing the Ravenous Bear on the hilltop clearing with the Bear Trouble quest on the HUD — The Ravenous Bear guards the open clearing at the top of the trail. Image: Rebel Wolves

Loot the carcass once it drops. It yields Bear Meat, Bear Liver, and Animal Bones, and a Quickcast Amulet is among the pickups on the plateau.

The three clues at the top of the hill

With the bear dead, the objective flips to exploring the summit. Three things need inspecting, and the first two have to be done before the glyph will read properly.

Hilltop survey with the Explore the top of the hill objective showing on the quest tracker — The objective updates to “Explore the top of the hill” once the bear is down. Image: Rebel Wolves

Head to the west side of the clearing and find the Uriash body. Examine the wound on his forearm, which turns out to be a symbol cut into the skin rather than a bear injury.

Pick up the bloody knife lying near the stones. Combined with the marked forearm, this is enough for Coen to work out that the dead Uriash was attempting witchcraft of his own.

Return to the center of the circle and interact with the glyph carved into the standing stone. This costs two Time Segments. Coen copies the design down and concludes he can turn its power to his own use.

The carved Uriashi glyph on the standing stone at the center of the summit circle — The Uriashi glyph sits on the standing stone in the middle of the circle. Image: Rebel Wolves

You will know it worked when the quest completion banner appears, 250 XP is awarded, and a Ravenous Flock Manual lands in your inventory. If the glyph prompt does nothing, you have missed either the corpse or the knife, so sweep the west side of the clearing again with Focus Mode before trying it.

Turning the manual into the Ravenous Flock ability

The manual is not the ability. Open your inventory and read the scroll to unlock the next rank of Ravenous Flock, then visit any Shrine and spend the perk to actually put it on your bar. Ravenous Flock is a Witchcraft ability that stuns a target with an area attack and triggers extra area attacks when you hit that target. It costs 2 Activation Charges and 40 percent of Coen’s health per cast.

Rank	Cost	Effect
1	1 Skill Point, 1 Time Segment	15% damage
2	1 Skill Point, 1 Time Segment	50% chance to deal 308 extra damage
3	2 Skill Points, 1 Time Segment	25% damage
4	3 Skill Points, 2 Time Segments	100% chance to deal 308 extra damage

Bear Trouble covers only the first of those ranks. The other three Sacred Stones are scattered unmarked across the Vale of Sangora, near Westridge Outpost, St. Tyna’s Grove, and the Tantari Woods in the far south, and each hands over another manual and another 250 XP. Completing A Mother’s Plea for the Matriarch marks all of them on your map, which saves a lot of aimless climbing if you intend to max the ability out.