The Blood of Dawnwalker: Forge It Anew Hostile Takeover Walkthrough

Hostile Takeover is one of three sub-quests under Forge It Anew, the side questline in The Blood of Dawnwalker that rebuilds the shattered blade of St. Mihai. This one hides its Sword Shard inside a kobold burrow in the hills near Shrike’s Crag, and the resident guarding it is a poison-heavy miniboss called Munch-Munch. Clearing it takes one fight and a short bit of looting.

Quick answer: Travel to the kobold cave north of Rockfalls near Shrike’s Crag, kill Munch-Munch inside, then interact with its nest and spend 3 Time Segments to pick up the Sword Shard. The quest ends the moment the shard enters your inventory.

Where the Hostile Takeover cave is near Shrike’s Crag

The cave sits in the mountains west of Svartrau City, tucked into the high ground above the quarry at Shrike’s Crag. It is not a spot you stumble into on a road — you have to climb. Several nearby landmarks can be used to line up the approach depending on which shrines you have already unlocked.

Landmark	How to reach the cave from it
Rockfalls	Head north and climb the hills; the entrance is hidden in the rock
Westridge Outpost shrine	Travel east through the forest, then up over the mountains
Giant’s Pawns shrine	Continue just past it, southwest of Boar’s Back
Svartrau City	Go west toward the Shrike’s Crag quarry area

A large cross planted outside marks the burrow, and there are wolves prowling the slope plus dead kobolds scattered near the mouth. Once you get close enough, the quest updates to Forge It Anew: Hostile Takeover with the objective “Enter the cave.”

What you need before entering

You do not need to have started Forge It Anew to trigger this. Walking up to the cave starts the sub-quest on its own, and the mural inside will reveal the rest of the shard locations. If you already picked up the Broken Sword of St. Mihai from A Monk and a Saint, the objective “Find other sword shards” will be sitting in your journal.

Journal screen with the Forge It Anew entry selected and the Find other sword shards objective highlighted — The journal entry for Forge It Anew, with the “Find other sword shards” objective selected. Image: Rebel Wolves

Two practical things to sort out first. Munch-Munch hits hard and applies poison, so bring healing consumables and expect the fight to go badly if you are far under-levelled. Looting the shard afterwards also costs 3 Time Segments, so budget that against whatever else you have running on the clock.

Note: the three sub-quests can be done in any order. Nothing about Hostile Takeover requires you to have cleared Do Not Disturb or Executive Order first.

How to beat Munch-Munch inside the kobold nest

Enter the cave and move in slowly. It is dark, cramped, and Coen will comment on the smell of blood and rot as you push past the entrance tunnel.

Engage Munch-Munch, the oversized corrupted kobold that lives here. It is a Wrongs-variant miniboss with a health bar, and it is noticeably tougher than the regular kobolds you cleared on the way in.

Munch-Munch boss health bar on screen during the cave fight in The Blood of Dawnwalker — The Munch-Munch health bar appears the moment the miniboss aggros inside the burrow. Image: Rebel Wolves

Play around the poison. Both its claw swipes and its breath attack apply the debuff, so block and dodge rather than trading hits, especially if your gear is behind the curve. Munch-Munch is also vulnerable to Dirty Trick, which is worth opening with.

Player locked onto the highlighted Munch-Munch during combat with its health bar visible — Locking onto Munch-Munch during the fight — dodging the claw swipes avoids the poison stacks. Image: Rebel Wolves

Once it dies, sweep the room. The kobold corpses and containers drop crafting materials including Kobold Bile, Tainted Marrow, Kobold Brain, and Kobold’s Blood, plus assorted gear.

Reading the wall mural and looting the Sword Shard

Inspect the painted map on the cave wall. It reveals all three shard sites on your world map at once, which is why the order you tackle them in does not matter. The accompanying text explains that St. Mihai came here to wipe out the kobolds and lost his blade doing it.

Interior of the kobold burrow near Shrike's Crag during the Hostile Takeover quest — The interior chamber of the burrow, where the mural and the nest are found. Image: Rebel Wolves

Switch on Focus mode and sweep the chamber. The Sword Shard sits in Munch-Munch’s nest on a raised ledge, and it is easy to walk straight past without the highlight.

Interact with the nest and confirm the “Pick Up Sword Shard” prompt. This spends 3 Time Segments, and you will see the “Time Has Passed” notification as the game advances the clock and saves.

Time Has Passed notification on screen after looting the Sword Shard in the cave — The “Time Has Passed” prompt confirms the 3 Time Segments spent on looting the shard. Image: Rebel Wolves

How to confirm Hostile Takeover is complete

Picking up the shard is the completion trigger. You get a “QUEST ENDED” banner on screen, the Sword Shard lands in your inventory, and 250 XP is awarded — often enough to push a mid-game character to the next level outright. Open the journal and Forge It Anew: Hostile Takeover should now be filed under completed quests.

Detail	Value
Miniboss	Munch-Munch (corrupted kobold, inflicts poison)
Time cost to loot	3 Time Segments
Quest reward	Sword Shard, 250 XP
Extra loot	Kobold Bile, Tainted Marrow, Kobold Brain, Kobold’s Blood
Completion cue	“QUEST ENDED” banner and journal update

If the quest has not closed out, the shard is still in the nest. Clearing Munch-Munch and inspecting the mural on their own do not finish anything — only confirming the pickup prompt does, and that prompt requires you to accept the time cost.

That shard on its own does nothing. It has to be handed over alongside the other two, from Do Not Disturb and Executive Order, to the Uriash Hermit blacksmith in the northwest of the map, who forges the Restored Sword of St. Mihai. From there the blade still needs to be tempered at the ruin nearby before it becomes the Imbued Sword of St. Mihai, a level 21 Legendary Greatsword built for the fight against Brencis.