The Blood of Dawnwalker: Investigate the Churchyard in What Hunts the Night

The churchyard leg of What Hunts the Night is short, but it can stall you. There is no combat and no puzzle here, just a set of stains on the ground that have to be inspected in order. Miss one and the objective sits there unchanged while you circle the ruins.

Quick answer: Inspect the yellow ichor splatters on the churchyard floor one at a time, follow the trail to the large wooden tower door, then interact with the door. The objective changes to “Check the belltower doors.”

How to reach the churchyard investigation

What Hunts the Night begins as soon as you wrap up Where Loyalty Lies. Head back into the city and follow the compass marker to Crake’s location, go down into the cellar, open the door and finish the conversation. Any dialogue choice works here.

After that you wait for nightfall. Sara joins the group once it is dark, and the three of you set out to look into the scouts’ deaths. The churchyard is the second of the three investigation stops, tracked in the journal as the scouts’ deaths objective at 2/3.

When you arrive, Crake points out that a section of the tower wall has collapsed recently, and Coen spots a strange liquid on the stones that is still wet. That liquid is the trail you are meant to follow.

The quest tracker showing Investigate the churchyard while Coen walks through the dark ruins at night — The tracker reads “Investigate the churchyard” while you move through the ruined grounds at night. Image: Rebel Wolves

Follow the ichor trail across the churchyard

Move toward the middle of the courtyard and look for the first yellow splatter on the ground. Stand over it and use the inspect prompt. Coen comments on the dark liquid, which confirms the splatter registered.

Scan the ground ahead for the next yellow mark and inspect that one as well. The stains sit low and are easy to walk past in the dark, so sweep the ground rather than the walls.

Keep following the remaining splatters. They form a continuous line that runs away from the collapsed wall and toward the base of the tower, so once you have two of them the direction is obvious.

Walk up to the large wooden tower door at the end of the trail. The interaction prompt appears on the door itself, and Coen notes that the stains lead all the way to it.

Coen standing in front of the wooden tower door with the inspect prompt on screen — The wooden tower door at the end of the trail, with the inspect prompt active. Image: Rebel Wolves

How to confirm the objective is complete

Two things tell you the churchyard portion is finished. The tracker swaps from “Investigate the churchyard” to “Check the belltower doors,” and the door itself picks up an “Open the door” prompt. Interacting with it plays a short scene where Coen fails to shift the door and Sara steps in to handle it.

Quest tracker updated to Check the belltower doors as Coen inspects the highlighted doors — The objective updates to “Check the belltower doors” once the trail has been followed to the end. Image: Rebel Wolves

If the objective does not update

The usual cause is a splatter that was walked over instead of inspected. Each stain needs its own interaction, and Coen has a line of dialogue for each one, so silence means nothing registered. Retrace the trail from the centre of the courtyard back toward the tower and check the ground for any mark you skipped.

Note: the door prompt only appears after the trail has been read. If you reach the tower and nothing is interactive, there is still a stain behind you.

What waits behind the belltower doors

Opening the doors starts a boss fight immediately, so save or top up before you interact. The enemy is the Beast of St. Teotim’s, a large monster with a sizeable health pool. Sara fights alongside you, and the encounter can take a few attempts.

Sara is wounded during the fight, which triggers the next story scene. After that you examine several parts of the creature’s corpse for clues, then escape the area with Crake through hostile guards, climbing over a locked gate to open it from the far side. Crake then takes you to Mevasser, which closes out the quest and leads directly into What Moves the Dead.

The whole churchyard sequence is a good preview of how investigations work elsewhere in Vale Sangora. Highlighted objects are the only things that matter, they have to be inspected individually, and the quest simply waits until you have read all of them.