A Study in Crimson opens with Coen poking around a shop in Svartrau City that locals whisper about, and the first thing the quest actually asks you to do is chase down a sound. The objective reads “Find the source of the noise,” and it can stall players who assume the answer is hidden somewhere in the clutter. It isn’t. The noise belongs to a person, and the game only lets you meet him after you’ve handled one specific object in the room.
Quick answer: Inspect the dead rat sitting on the shelf on the first floor, rotate it to examine the eyes, bite marks and fur, then open the room’s door. The cutscene of Vicho whipping himself plays automatically and closes the objective.
Where the objective starts: Vicho’s Emporium in Altenmarkt
Vicho’s shop sits in the Altenmarkt part of Svartrau City, on the northern side. The quest is night-only, because Vicho is a vrakhir and cannot be out during daylight. Arriving in the day gets you nothing.
The ground-floor entrance isn’t the way in. You need to climb to the balcony and enter through the door on the top floor, which is what triggers the quest in the first place. If you have been following Lacra’s thread, she points you toward Vicho after Hive and Seek, but you can also simply walk in on your own.
How to find the source of the noise
What the rat tells you before the cutscene
Every detail on the corpse is setup for what you’re about to walk into. Coen reads the body out loud as you turn it, and each line narrows down who has been living here.
| Detail on the rat | What it points to |
|---|---|
| Collapsed eyes | The animal was drained completely of blood |
| Bite marks | Something fed on it directly rather than killing it another way |
| Clean fur | Not a stray, so it was likely bred on the premises as a food source |
How to confirm the objective completed
You know it worked the moment the door swings open and the scene takes over. Vicho is on his knees, whipping himself and praying for the strength to hold off his thirst, asking to be granted the will to keep the beast at bay. Coen interrupts him, and Vicho’s first reaction is to tell you to get out.
A “Time to Decide” prompt follows with options ranging from “Please, I mean no harm!” to “I’m not afraid of you.” None of these responses lock you out. Vicho is cornered and rattled, and the conversation lands in the same place regardless, with him identified as a vrakhir and Coen admitting he isn’t sure what he is himself. The quest then moves on to Vicho’s request for help.
Why the objective might not trigger
There are only a couple of reasons this step refuses to move forward, and both are about how you arrived rather than what you did in the room.
- You are in Svartrau City during the day. The whole quest runs at night only, so the shop gives you nothing until after sunset.
- You tried the ground floor instead of the balcony. Entry has to be through the upper door for the quest to begin.
- You skipped the rat. The door scene is gated behind the room search, so inspect the shelf before heading out.
What happens immediately after
Vicho asks Coen to help find out who murdered his friends, the jeweller Eli and his wife Devora. Saying yes moves you straight into following him across the rooftops toward the murder scene. Turning him down is not a dead end, since the log switches to “Return to Vicho when ready” and he waits in the shop.
Note: the investigation eats four time segments, and Vicho will send you away if the current night doesn’t have that much left. If that happens, the objective becomes “Return to Vicho after sunset,” and you come back on a night with enough of the clock remaining to see it through.
The rat is worth keeping in mind for later. It is the earliest sign that Vicho has been feeding on something in that building, and it quietly plants the doubt that drives the rest of the case, right up to the point where Vicho himself admits he cannot rule out his own hands.
