Roadside Surprise is one of two Blood Transports tied to Ambrus, the first of the three vampiric vassals you can push toward a duel. It is a short Court Activity with a twist at the end, and the letter you pick up afterward opens up four more jobs in the same region.
Quick answer: Travel to the road just east of Stoneward Post, kill every guard escorting the transport, then interact with the highlighted blood barrels to destroy them. That completes the quest, costs three in-game hours, and pays out XP, a skill point, and Kobold’s Blood.
Roadside Surprise location and quest marker
The transport sits on the road immediately east of Stoneward Post, in Ambrus’s territory. Court Activities are not pinned on your map by default — they show as “Unknown Activity” until you find them yourself. Climbing the region’s towers marks them with white question mark icons, which flip to a yellow exclamation mark once you get close enough.
Because this is a moving transport, the group wanders a short distance along the road. If no marker appears where you expect it, walk the road in both directions until the yellow icon pops. The encounter is Level 1+, so it is safe to do it straight out of the Prologue.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Activity type | Blood Transport (Court Activity) |
| Vassal | Ambrus |
| Location | Road east of Stoneward Post |
| Recommended level | 1+ |
| Time cost | 3 time segments (3 in-game hours) |
| Objective | Defeat the guards, then destroy the barrels |
How to complete Roadside Surprise
The Klaus the Brave cutscene
This is where the quest earns its name. When Coen cracks open the last barrel, there is a man crammed inside it — Klaus the Brave, alive and extremely annoyed about it.
Klaus was riding inside the barrel to smuggle himself into Stoneward Post. The conversation covers his infiltration plan and how dangerous the post actually is. Nothing here can be failed, so pick whichever dialogue lines you prefer.
Rewards and how to confirm the quest is done
Once the dialogue wraps, a QUEST ENDED screen appears with the payout listed. You get XP, a skill point, and Kobold’s Blood. If that screen never shows, a guard is still standing or you have not interacted with the barrels yet — both objectives must be done in that order.
Note: destroying the shipment cuts into Ambrus’s blood supply, which chips away at Brencis’s court defenses and pushes Ambrus’s anger level up. It also counts toward the ten Vrakhiri Transports scattered across the map — wreck any eight of them and the Delivery Delay trophy unlocks.
Loot the Urgent Letter to unlock four Ambrus’s Collectors quests
Do not walk away the moment the quest closes. There is an Urgent Letter sitting on the cart, and reading it is what puts the next batch of activities on your map. Skipping it means those quests stay hidden until you stumble onto them in the world.
| Quest unlocked | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Ambrus’s Leech-Pickers | Follow-up thread from the Workers Needed notice |
| Ambrus’s Collectors: Bounty of the Mire | Clear the camp and destroy the leech barrels (3 time segments) |
| Ambrus’s Collectors: Wetland Helpers | Clear the camp and destroy the leech barrels (3 time segments) |
| Ambrus’s Collectors: Unsavory Solutions | Clear the camp and destroy the leech barrels (3 time segments) |
Everything you can pick up here
The guards and the cart between them carry a mix of consumables, clothing, and readable notes. None of it is required to finish the quest, but the letters are worth opening.
| Item | Type |
|---|---|
| Moldovan Red Wine | Consumable |
| Vial of Human Blood | Consumable |
| Milk with honey | Consumable |
| Revitalising Tonic | Consumable |
| Blue-Maniled Coat | Gear |
| Bright Peasant Trousers | Gear |
| Letter About Shipment | Note (guard loot) |
| Short Letter | Note |
| Urgent Letter | Note (cart) — unlocks four quests |
| Workers Needed | Notice |
Roadside Surprise pairs naturally with Bloody Business, the other Blood Transport in Ambrus’s region, and the three Collectors camps it unlocks sit close enough to chain together in a single trip. Each of those costs another three hours, so plan the route before you set off — time in this game is a resource you spend, not one that ticks by on its own.
