The Blood of Dawnwalker: Vicho Guide (A Study in Crimson)

Vicho is a Vrakhir living quietly in Svartrau City, and he is the closest thing The Blood of Dawnwalker has to a vampire with a conscience. His quest, A Study in Crimson, looks like a tidy murder mystery that wraps up in one night. It does not. The game marks the quest complete while the real killer is still walking around, and the only way to close it properly is to keep digging after the credits roll on that objective.

Quick answer: Finish A Study in Crimson, return to Simeon’s warehouse and open the hidden chest with the key from Simeon’s body, follow Ivo’s letter to his farm south of Svartrau City, then confront Vicho and offer to supply him with blood. That reopens and ends the quest, and unlocks the Unquenchable Thirst achievement.

Where to find Vicho and start A Study in Crimson

Several conversations can point Coen toward a merchant named Vicho, but the cleanest lead comes from Lacra, who mentions another Vrakhir living in Svartrau City under that name. Head into the city, find Vicho’s house, and step inside. Entering the house is what starts A Study in Crimson — there is no quest marker to accept first.

For most players Vicho is the first vampire they properly meet, and finishing his questline is what opens the door to the valley’s other vampires. It also runs alongside completely unrelated work, including the Fall Before Dusk quest and its boss fight against the Watcher of the Greifberg Dungeons, so expect the investigation to stretch across more than one outing.

Coen fighting enemies in the Greifberg Dungeons with the Watcher boss health bar on screen — The Watcher of the Greifberg Dungeons boss encounter, one of the fights that can pull you away mid-investigation. Image: Rebel Wolves

A Study in Crimson walkthrough: Following the murders

Walk in on Vicho fighting his own thirst. He will tell Coen to leave, and your reply here does not change anything — he is too far gone to argue. Stay, and he asks for help finding whoever murdered his friends. Agree, and the objective switches to following him across the rooftops.

At the victim’s house, Vicho admits he cannot rule himself out as the killer, which is exactly why he wants a second pair of eyes. Question him as thoroughly as you search the rooms. The item that matters is a threatening letter from Simeon, and it is on Devora’s body in the bedroom.

Go to Simeon’s place. He does not answer, but Vicho knows him well enough to be sure he is inside, so you break in anyway. Use Vicho’s key to open the doctor’s shed first. Among the clutter you will find Vicho’s teeth, which he flatly refuses to discuss beyond calling it personal — file that away. The house keys are tucked behind one of the books on the table.

Inside the house, search for the property deed to a warehouse Simeon bought from Costin, the blacksmith. That deed is your next destination.

The warehouse front door is locked for good. Climb up to the balcony and slip in from there. What is inside reframes the whole relationship between the two men, because Simeon was obsessed with becoming a Vrakhir himself.

Head down to the basement and find Simeon in Murohn form. For Vicho, that settles it — Simeon killed his friends during a transformation, and nothing you say will shift him off that conclusion. A Study in Crimson is then flagged as complete.

The hidden chest in Simeon’s warehouse

Before you leave the warehouse, loot Simeon’s body for a key, then go back to the first floor and open the hidden chest it unlocks. Inside is a reply letter from a man called Ivo, written to calm Simeon’s worries about Vicho. Ivo insists Vicho is always composed and in control, and adds that he is staying put on his farm but will keep his guard up.

Nothing in the journal updates at this point. There is no quest, no marker, no nudge — the letter is purely a lead, and the trail only becomes an objective once Coen actually turns up something incriminating.

Ivo’s farm: The evidence that Vicho is the killer

Ivo’s farm sits south of Svartrau City. If the letter did not click, the game gives you a second route — characters such as Ocha bring Vicho up again after his quest wraps, and that conversation steers Coen toward the farm later in the story.

You arrive to a bloodbath. The first piece of evidence is Simeon’s own letter to Ivo, warning that Vicho had lost his grip and his hunger was no longer in check, naming him as the one who killed his friends, and urging Ivo to take his family away from the farm for a few days.

The second is a dead woman inside the house. Compel Soul lets you question her, but the skill needs two objects first. The Wedding Headband is just outside the house, marked by butterflies drifting around it. The Farmer’s Sword is indoors, immediately behind the front door. With both in hand, the questioning fills in the last gap — Vicho saw blood during his visit, lost control, and killed everyone on the farm.

A Study in Crimson then reopens after being marked complete, with a single new objective: confront Vicho.

Vicho confrontation: The dialogue choices that keep him alive

Coen is not the one at risk here. Once Vicho understands he caused every death he was trying to solve, he stops wanting to exist, and talking him out of it is genuinely difficult. The only route that keeps him alive is offering to feed him yourself. Pick these lines in order.

Order	Dialogue choice
1	Vicho, we need to talk.
2	You don’t remember?
3	I’m sorry, but I think you’re the killer, Vicho.
4	What happened to you, it’s terrible.
5	Don’t do it, Vicho.
6	You can change.
7	But you have me now.
8	I’ll provide you with blood.
9	From blood transports.
10	I don’t think you’re a monster.

Note: the offer of blood is the load-bearing choice. Sympathy alone does not hold him, and the promise needs a concrete source behind it, which is what the blood transports line supplies.

How to confirm the Unquenchable Thirst achievement unlocked

When the confrontation ends, A Study in Crimson closes for good and the Unquenchable Thirst achievement pops. If you talked Vicho into staying alive, a follow-up quest called Unquenchable Thirst also appears in your journal, and its ongoing task is exactly what Coen promised — keep the blood coming.

If the achievement does not trigger, the confrontation almost certainly ended with Vicho dead rather than convinced. The dialogue path above is the one that keeps him breathing.

What happens if you stop after A Study in Crimson

Walk away once the quest reads complete and Coen later learns the killings in Svartrau City never stopped, with a Vrakhir still hunting after dark. It is a quiet, easy ending to miss, since the game never tells you the case was closed on the wrong man. The two things that prevent it are the warehouse chest and the trip to Ivo’s farm.

Vicho’s teeth in the shed, the letters passing between Simeon and Ivo, the farm nobody else investigates — the questline scatters its real answer across places the objective marker never sends you. Treat the completion notice as a checkpoint rather than a finish line, and the whole arc reads very differently.