The Blood of Dawnwalker: Western Slopes Destroyed Shrine Guide

The Western Slopes shrine in The Blood of Dawnwalker is one of 17 destroyed shrines scattered across Vale Sangora, and like the rest of them, it won’t do anything until you find its missing heart. Brencis ordered the shrines wrecked, so the idols that power them end up in the hands of soldiers and bandits camped nearby. Get the heart back and the shrine turns into a normal fast travel point with perk, storage, and wait functions attached.

Quick answer: Head northeast from the ruined shrine to the bandit camp in the forest, kill the three bandits, loot the crates for the Western Slopes Shrine’s Heart, then carry it back and place it on the shrine. That completes the quest for 11 XP and pushes the clock forward by one time segment.

Western Slopes shrine location and quest details

The shrine sits in the Briar Sloughs area, southwest of Stelian’s Redoubt on the far side of the forest. Walking up to the broken shrine and inspecting it starts the quest “Destroyed Shrines: Western Slopes.” Nothing spawns and no trail appears until that inspection happens, so a quiet ruin you walked past earlier is simply one you never interacted with.

Detail	Value
Quest name	Destroyed Shrines: Western Slopes
Shrine location	Briar Sloughs, southwest of Stelian’s Redoubt past the forest
Heart location	Bandit camp northeast of the shrine
Enemies	Three bandits
Heart held in	Camp crates (not on the bodies)
Reward	11 XP, shrine restored as a fast travel point
Time cost	1 time segment on restoration

How to find the Western Slopes Shrine’s Heart

Interact with the broken shrine to trigger the quest. Hold L2 or LT to enter Focus Mode and sweep the ground and foliage around the base. The thief’s footprints light up and point northeast, away from the shrine.

Focus Mode prompt to search the foliage around the ruined Western Slopes shrine for clues — Inspecting the shrine starts the quest and prompts you to search the surrounding foliage in Focus Mode. Image: Rebel Wolves

Follow the trail northeast into the forest. Shapeshifting into wolf form, or using the Mercurial Fervor witchcraft skill, cuts the trip down considerably. The camp is close enough that you should reach it in under a minute of running.

Objective marker to search for shrine clues while running along a forest trail at night — The tracked objective stays on screen as you follow the trail northeast through the woods. Image: Rebel Wolves

Clear the camp. Three bandits patrol the area, and killing all of them first means you can loot without being interrupted. There is also a chest here worth opening while you are cleaning up.

Search the crates. Focus Mode highlights the interactable containers and loose objects around the tents, and the steal prompt works on them the same way it does anywhere else in camp.

Focus Mode highlighting a shovel and crates in the bandit camp with a steal prompt — Focus Mode outlines the camp’s crates, sacks, and loose gear so nothing gets missed. Image: Rebel Wolves

Take the Western Slopes Shrine’s Heart from the crate. It is flagged as a quest item, so it will not clutter your normal inventory or get sold by accident.

Loot window with the Western Slopes Shrine's Heart selected and its quest item description shown — The Western Slopes Shrine’s Heart sits in the camp’s crates alongside ordinary loot. Image: Rebel Wolves

What else the bandit camp crates contain

Two pickups here are worth more than the junk around them. The Swiftness Manual is a skill manual, and Brencis’s Orders – Root Out Old Superstition is the written order from Knyaz Brencis of Vale Sangora that explains why the shrines are being torn apart in the first place.

Item	Type
Western Slopes Shrine’s Heart	Quest item
Swiftness Manual	Skill manual
Brencis’s Orders – Root Out Old Superstition	Readable document
Dark Wrapped Trousers	Armour
Broken Hammer, Shovel	Junk / crafting
Linseed Oil, Yellow Sweet Clover, Onion	Ingredients

Restore the shrine and confirm it worked

Run back southwest to the shrine. The objective marker updates to point at it with a live distance readout, so you can follow that instead of retracing the footprints.

Quest update telling the player to restore the shrine, with a 149 meter distance marker — With the heart in hand, the objective flips to restoring the shrine and tracks the distance back. Image: Rebel Wolves

Interact with the shrine to place the heart. The quest closes out immediately, you pick up 11 XP, and the icon changes from grey to blue on the map. From that point the shrine works like every other one: fast travel to and from it, buy perks, open storage, and skip time.

Note: placing the heart burns one time segment. That matters if you are mid-way through a quest with a deadline attached, since the 30-day countdown to save Coen’s family keeps running regardless.

Why the heart isn’t showing up

Three things account for most stalled attempts at this one.

The quest was never triggered. You have to inspect the destroyed shrine itself; walking past it is not enough, and the footprints will not render in Focus Mode until the quest is active.
You searched the bodies instead of the crates. Some destroyed shrines put the idol on a corpse, but the Western Slopes heart is stored in the camp’s containers.
You went the wrong way. The camp is northeast of the shrine, uphill into the trees, not back along the path you arrived on.

None of the shrines are tied to trophies or achievements, so restoring this one is purely about convenience. Given how much of Briar Sloughs you will end up crossing, though, unlocking a fast travel anchor on the western edge early pays for the time segment it costs several times over.