The Blood of Dawnwalker: Both Ambrus’s Prisoners Quests Explained

Ambrus moves prisoners across Vale Sangora in small escorted convoys, and two of those convoys are marked Court Activities in your journal. They share a name, a setup, and a time cost, but they are separate encounters in separate places, and each one ends with a different person walking away grateful.

Quick answer: Ambrus’s Prisoners: Lucky Crossing sits on the road near the Svartrau Bridge shrine and unlocks Ursul the Undefeated as a skill manual merchant. Ambrus’s Prisoners: Fate’s Mercy sits further north, past the fortified Military Camp, and unlocks A Good Deed Is Its Own Reward with the smith’s apprentice in Svartrau. Kill the three escorts, free the prisoners, and do not feed on them.

Both prisoner transports compared

Both encounters count toward Ambrus’s Anger meter, and both cost 3 time segments. The convoys patrol, so the exact spot shifts between playthroughs. Work the road that runs from Svartrau City’s northeastern gate out toward the Military Camp west of the Stoneward Post shrine, and you will run into both of them.

Quest	Where to look	Reward
Lucky Crossing	South stretch of the road, usually near the Svartrau Bridge shrine	250 XP, 1 skill point, Ursul unlocked as a merchant
Fate’s Mercy	North of the fortified Military Camp; follow the road north	250 XP, 1 skill point, starts A Good Deed Is Its Own Reward
A Good Deed Is Its Own Reward	Altenmarkt market, Svartrau City, daytime only	Master Bracers (blue quality)

Neither quest is marked on the map until you find it. Synchronizing the towers early makes both of them appear as white question marks once you get close.

Lucky Crossing: Free the prisoners and duel Ursul

Open the journal and track “Investigate Ambrus’s prisoner transports.” The marker points toward the Svartrau Northern Crossroads area. Follow the dirt road until the objective flips to “Intercept the transport.”

Kill the escort. There are usually three of Ambrus’s soldiers guarding three prisoners, and they are ordinary infantry with no special mechanics. Sword combos and your standard special attacks are enough.

Talk to the prisoners and free them. If it is night, the dialogue will offer [give in to the hunger]. Do not pick it. Any other reply works, and one prisoner will question whether you can actually fight.

Keep talking until Ursul Varna offers to teach you swordfighting and points you to his camp. The conversation advances the clock by 3 time segments and the objective becomes “Meet up with Ursul.”

Cutscene of the freed prisoners talking to Coen after the convoy escort is killed — Ursul Varna sizes up your swordsmanship right after the rescue and invites you to his camp. Image: Rebel Wolves

Head to Ursul’s camp along the northeastern edge of the Svartrau Outskirts forest. Track the objective and follow the marker through the trees.

Player moving through the Svartrau Outskirts forest at Moonrise toward the Meet up with Ursul marker — The “Meet up with Ursul” marker sits in the Svartrau Outskirts woods, shown here at 43 m during Moonrise. Image: Rebel Wolves

Speak to him and choose “Can you teach me about swordfighting?” That starts a duel against Ursul the Undefeated. He fights as a miniboss and may carry an orange skull early on, so treat him as a real threat rather than another roadside soldier.

Level 14 level-up notification with a SHOW prompt appearing during the duel with Ursul — The duel is worth enough experience to push a level-up mid-fight, with the SHOW prompt offering your new skill points. Image: Rebel Wolves

The quest closes out once you have talked to Ursul at his camp, and the 250 XP plus the skill point land whether or not you win the duel. The duel itself costs no extra time.

Ursul’s skill manuals and prices

Beat him and the promised “training” turns out to be a shop. Ursul sells combat skill tomes, which is useful when you want a specific skill instead of waiting for one to drop. His stock has included the following.

Manual	Cost	Qty
Sharp Eye Manual	561	2
Renewed Focus Manual	558	1
Walking Fortress Manual	1,070	1
Precision Manual	563	1
Counterattack Manual	549	1
Omniblock Manual	293	1
Perfect Block Manual	285	1
Perfect Riposte Manual	281	1
Stinging Blade Manual	273	1

Second Skin II has also shown up in his inventory. Every one of these manuals can be found elsewhere in the world eventually, so treat the shop as a shortcut rather than a required stop.

Fate’s Mercy: The second convoy

Fate’s Mercy runs the same script with different people at the end of it. The journal describes it plainly, with the objective “Intercept the transport” followed by “Free the prisoners.”

Follow the road north past the fortified Military Camp. The escort patrols, so scan the road rather than a fixed point. One reported position sits on the path between the Western Slopes shrine and the small village to the south.

Map screen with the player marker in the forest and a yellow exclamation quest marker nearby — The second convoy shows up as a yellow exclamation marker on the map once you get close enough to discover it. Image: Rebel Wolves

Approach Ambrus’s men to trigger the quest, then kill the three guards. As with Lucky Crossing, this is a straight fight with no objects to destroy or bodies to loot.

Free the prisoners and resist the feeding option if it is night. One of them is an armoursmith’s apprentice, Danilo, who offers a reward for the rescue.

Coen telling the freed prisoners you're safe now, all's well in a dialogue scene — Reassuring the freed prisoners keeps the rescue outcome intact and sets up the follow-up reward. Image: Rebel Wolves

Reply however you like when he brings up payment. Both greedy and modest answers end with the same invitation to his shop in Svartrau, and the quest closes for 250 XP and a skill point after 3 time segments.

Claiming the Master Bracers in Svartrau

A Good Deed Is Its Own Reward has no deadline and costs no time segments. The apprentice stays put, so you can bank it and collect whenever you are next in the city.

Travel to Altenmarkt along the northwestern edge of Svartrau City. It has to be daytime, or the apprentice will not be there.

Head into the middle of the market square and find the building raised on stilts. Go up the stairs to reach the Smith’s Apprentice.

Talk to him and claim the reward. He hands over a master-quality (blue) pair of bracers, and the quest clears from your journal.

Why the quest failed or gave you nothing

Fate’s Mercy tracks three possible outcomes, and only one of them leads anywhere useful. The failure states are easy to trigger at night.

You lost control and killed them. Choosing the hunger option ends the encounter with dead prisoners and no follow-up quest.
You never freed them. Leaving the convoy alone or letting the prisoners die closes the outcome with nothing awarded.
The apprentice is not in Altenmarkt. A Good Deed Is Its Own Reward only resolves during daylight hours.

You will know each convoy worked when the quest disappears from the active list and the XP and skill point notification fires. Ursul’s shop confirms itself the moment a trade menu opens at his camp with manuals in stock.

Clearing both convoys costs 6 time segments total and pushes Ambrus’s Anger meter noticeably, which matters because you only need roughly three quarters of his Court Activities done before his boss quest opens up. Between the two, Lucky Crossing carries more long-term value thanks to Ursul’s manual stock, while Fate’s Mercy is worth doing purely to keep the meter climbing on a road you are already walking.