The Blood of Dawnwalker: How to Complete the Ancient Circle in St. Tyna’s Grove

The Ancient Circle in St. Tyna’s Grove is one of 13 witchcraft ruins scattered across Vale Sangora, and it works the same way as the rest of them. A fresco carved into a large rock, a stone altar in front of it, and a pack of angry dead waiting for someone foolish enough to call them up. Survive the summoning and you walk away with skill manuals and level-scaled gear that beats most of what vendors sell.

Quick answer: Travel to the Ancient Circle near St. Tyna’s Grove Tower during daytime, inspect the fresco on the rock, then hold the Focus button on the altar and use Astral Communion 1. Defeat the Apparitions that spawn and loot the chest that appears beside the fresco.

Ancient Circle location in St. Tyna’s Grove

The circle sits on the eastern side of the map, northeast of St. Tyna’s Grove Tower. That tower is also the closest fast travel point, so it’s the cheapest approach in terms of walking time. On the map it shows up as a white ruins icon, and climbing the region’s scouting towers reveals it automatically instead of forcing you to stumble across it.

Map screen with the Ancient Circle marker tracked near St. Tyna's Grove Tower — Tracking the Ancient Circle marker on the map, just up from St. Tyna’s Grove Tower. Image: Rebel Wolves

Note: the St. Tyna’s Grove region actually holds two of these ruins. The second one is northeast of the Vedera Shallows Shrine and runs on identical rules, so the instructions below apply to either.

Requirements before you start the trial

Three conditions gate the encounter, and missing any one of them means the altar simply won’t respond.

Requirement	Detail
Time of day	Daytime only. Ancient Circles cannot be started at night.
Skill	Astral Communion, from the Witchcraft tree. It unlocks through the story during the Prologue.
Cost	1 Time Segment. Using the altar pushes the in-game clock forward by an hour.
Region level	St. Tyna’s Grove spans roughly levels 15 to 23, so bring gear that matches.

That Time Segment cost is the real consideration here. The clock in this game is finite, and an Ancient Circle is a straightforward trade of one segment for a manual and a few pieces of gear.

How to trigger the Astral Communion ritual

Fast travel to St. Tyna’s Grove Tower and head northeast to the ruins icon. Shapeshift (Vampirism) or Mercurial Fervor (Witchcraft) will cut the travel time considerably if you have either unlocked.

Walk up to the large rock and inspect the fresco carved into it. Coen reads the carving in a short scene, and this is what registers the site and puts the objective “Start the trail using Astral Communion” on screen.

Coen examines the carved fresco while subtitles play and a Skip prompt sits on screen — Inspecting the carving triggers a short scene before the altar becomes usable. Image: Rebel Wolves

Enter Focus Mode by holding the Focus button (L2 or LT), then look at the glowing stone altar sitting in front of the fresco. The Astral Communion 1 prompt appears once the altar is centered.

The Ancient Circle clearing in St. Tyna's Grove with the altar sitting before the carved rock — The Ancient Circle clearing in St. Tyna’s Grove, with the altar set in front of the rock. Image: Rebel Wolves

Confirm the Astral Communion. The screen washes red, the hour ticks over, and the spirits materialize around the circle. There is no way to back out once the ritual fires, so heal and restock before you press it.

Beating the Apparition fight

The St. Tyna’s Grove circle summons Apparitions, one of which carries a named health bar at the top of the screen. Combat plays out inside a red-lit version of the same clearing, and the arena is small enough that backing into the treeline is a fast way to get surrounded. Across the other circles in Vale Sangora you’ll also run into Vidmos, Psoglavs, and Guardians, so the enemy mix isn’t fixed from site to site.

Apparition health bar on screen during the red-lit fight at the Ancient Circle — The Apparition’s health bar appears once the summoned spirits attack. Image: Rebel Wolves

The red tint drops away the moment the last spirit falls, which is your confirmation that the trial is finished. A chest then becomes interactable near the fresco alongside a couple of smaller loot spots on the ground.

Ancient Circle rewards and loot

Manuals are the reason to bother with these sites. Everything else is filler, crafting stock, or sale value, though the armor and weapons scale to your level and usually land above vendor rarity.

Type	Items
Manuals	Herbal Remedies II Manual, Soul Stigma Manual
Gear	Ruby Diadem, Padded Wool Shirt, Squire’s Fine Padded Trousers, Cheap Fibula
Consumables and materials	Potent Regenerative Salve, Dust of Anachora, Glob of Likho’s Light
Valuables	Silver Chalice, Denarius

Loot window with the Herbal Remedies II Manual selected after the Ancient Circle fight — Grabbing the Herbal Remedies II Manual from the post-fight loot. Image: Rebel Wolves

A Soul Reaping Manual is also tied to an Ancient Circle chest in this region, so check both circles if you’re hunting a specific skill book. Grab everything from the ground piles before the chest, since it’s easy to fast travel away with a manual still sitting in the grass.

If the altar won’t activate

There are only a handful of reasons the ritual refuses to start. It’s night, in which case wait or sleep until daylight. You haven’t inspected the fresco yet, so the altar isn’t primed. Or you aren’t in Focus Mode, which is the only state where the Astral Communion option appears on the stone.

Once the chest is emptied, the site is done and won’t respawn, so there’s no reason to return. If you’re working through all 13 circles, the payoff is mostly the manual list rather than the fights themselves, and each one costs you an hour of a clock that never stops running.