The Blood of Dawnwalker: How to Investigate the Suspicious Sound in Tiny Dancer

Tiny Dancer starts with a noise you can hear but not place — something scratching around on the upper floor of a shop in Svartrau City. The source is a caged sanzhana, one of the moth-like creatures a merchant has been keeping for entertainment, and freeing her feeds directly into the letters you send to Lunka from the Yawning Burrow. The whole thing runs about two time segments, and the route you take depends entirely on whether the sun is up.

Quick answer: Head to the merchant shop across from the Curious House on the southern side of Altenmarkt in Svartrau City and stand by the locked door until the sound triggers the quest. At night, Shadowstep up to the rear balcony and walk straight into the attic room. During the day, you have to fight the merchant, read the Storekeep’s Letter by the barrels, and pull the Merchant’s Key out of the lute on the table.

Tiny Dancer quest location in Svartrau City

The shop sits near the southern end of the market in Altenmarkt, directly in front of the Curious House. Coming down the street from the market, it is the second house on the right. You do not need a quest giver or a prior conversation — walking up to the locked door and listening is what puts Tiny Dancer in your journal.

Quest tracker reading Investigate the suspicious sound as the player closes on the waypoint in Svartrau City — Closing on the waypoint, with the objective updated to investigate the suspicious sound. Image: Rebel Wolves

Once it triggers, the journal walks you through four objectives in order. They are short and they overlap, so it is worth knowing what each one actually points at.

Objective	What it points at
Investigate the suspicious sound	Stand by the shop’s locked door until the noise registers
Find a way to get to the upper floor	Either the Merchant’s Key by day or the rear balcony by night
Find the key to the cage	The cage key on the desk in the attic room
Find the hidden treasure using Focus Mode	Loose floorboards in the room next door, after the sanzhana tips you off

Night route: Shadowstep to the rear balcony

This is the quiet version, and it skips the entire ground floor. The front door is not the way in after dark — the balcony at the back of the building is the only opening.

Wait for nightfall, then get onto the rooftops around the shop. Your vampiric mobility is what makes this work, so you want Shadowstep available before you commit.

Circle to the rear of the building and Shadowstep up to the balcony. From there, the attic door leads straight into the room where the sanzhana is caged.

Move through the door without alerting the merchant downstairs. Stay crouched — the point of this route is that he never knows you were there, which keeps the option of leaving without a fight open.

Player crouched and moving through a dark interior room with quest objectives listed in the corner — Crouching through the darkened upper floor after entering from the balcony. Image: Rebel Wolves

Day route: the merchant fight and the Merchant’s Key

During daylight there is no stealth option. The shop is open, the merchant is standing right there, and pushing past him toward the stairs is what starts the fight.

Walk in and talk to the merchant, asking him about the noise. He gives you an explanation for it, and you can press him about going upstairs.

Force your way toward the upper floor. He turns hostile immediately, so fight him and finish it. His body carries a legendary Knightly Ring, a Golden Broach, Denarius, and Slivovitz.

Melee exchange with the red-haired merchant inside the shop, his health bar showing above him — The merchant turns hostile the moment you head for the stairs. Image: Rebel Wolves

Search the corner of the room near the barrels and read the Storekeep’s Letter. It tells you where the key to the upper floor is stashed.

Go to the lute sitting on the table and take the Merchant’s Key from it. This is the only key that opens the stairwell door.

Unlock the door, climb to the upper floor, and take the room on the left. The caged sanzhana is inside.

Player standing at the wooden stairwell door with the investigate the suspicious sound objective active — The locked stairwell door that the Merchant’s Key opens. Image: Rebel Wolves

Free Sanzhana with the cage key

Both routes converge here. The cage key is not hidden — it sits on top of the desk in the same room as the cage, on the left as you come in. Take it and open the cage.

Steal Cage key interaction prompt highlighted on the desk beside the cage — The cage key sits in plain view on the desk beside the cage. Image: Rebel Wolves

You will know it worked when Sanzhana speaks up after being released, thanks you, and mentions a hidden treasure elsewhere in the house. That dialogue is the completion trigger, and the journal outcome records that the merchant had been keeping one of the sanzhani for his own amusement.

Note: if the sound never triggers the quest, you are not close enough to the locked shop door. And at night, the ground-floor entrance will not get you upstairs at all — the rear balcony is the only way in without a fight.

The hidden treasure under the floorboards

Sanzhana points you to the next room. Use Focus Mode to scan it, find the loose floorboard, and take what is underneath. What you actually collect depends on when you did the quest and how the merchant situation resolved.

Route	What happens at the stash
Daytime	The merchant is already dead, so you walk in and loot the floorboards uncontested
Nighttime	The merchant is guarding the room; entering starts a fight that ends with him dead
Either route	Silver is the only guaranteed item; armor and crafting materials are randomized

The randomized portion can roll legendary armor if you are lucky, but superior or mastercrafted chest pieces and leggings are the more common outcome. The Amulet of the Lizard, an epic amulet, can also turn up alongside the silver.

Completing Tiny Dancer without killing the merchant

If you take the night route and want him alive, ignore the treasure entirely and leave the house after opening the cage. The quest still closes out and you still get the completion XP — you simply forfeit the floorboard stash, since the merchant is standing between you and it.

Killing him carries no story consequence either way. There is no faction penalty, no locked content, and no change to how the main plot with Brencis plays out. It is purely a roleplaying decision about whether the silver is worth the body.

What freeing the sanzhana unlocks

Return to the Yawning Burrow and speak with the Sanzhani Tsarina. She rewards you for saving her sister by carrying another letter to Lunka at the castle, and you pick the question it asks. The reply arrives the next time the day-night cycle flips.

Tiny Dancer is one of five sanzhana quests scattered across Vale Sangora, alongside Good Home, Burrow Sorrows, Pearly and Precious, and Come Hither. Finish all five and the Tsarina hands back a full day of time — which, on a thirty-day clock, is the real payout here.