Xanthe’s Excavations: Bloodied Dagger Walkthrough (The Blood of Dawnwalker)

Bloodied Dagger is one of the three Ancient Digsite activities in Xanthe’s Court, and it is the only place in The Blood of Dawnwalker where you can pick up the Ancient Footwear, a Legendary pair of heavy boots. The activity itself is short — a cave, a handful of Blood Guard, and a caster boss named Armaya, Scholar of the Occult. The part people get stuck on is the sealed chest sitting in the same room, which will not open no matter how many times you mash the interact button.

Quick answer: After killing Armaya, use Focus Mode to spot the Ritual Dagger hanging on the wall to the left of the chest, pick it up, then cast Compel Soul on Armaya’s Assistant — the corpse lying in front of the chest. The seal breaks and the chest opens, giving you the Ancient Footwear.

Bloodied Dagger cost, rewards, and consequences

Like most Court Activities, this one is paid for in time rather than resources. Running it costs 3 time segments out of your 30-day clock, and it pushes Xanthe’s Anger meter closer to unlocking her boss quest, The Cycle of Love. It also makes noise: expect a BOYAR ANGERED notice and an INFAMY INCREASED warning telling you Brencis’s Court will hear about what you did.

Detail	Value
Objective	Find and collect research notes
Boss	Armaya, Scholar of the Occult
Time cost	3 time segments
Quest rewards	Armaya’s Notebook, Vial of Aether, Silver Earrings, Swordsman’s Amulet, Forbidden Sigils Manual
XP and currency	26 XP, 250 Gold, 1 Skill Point
Chest reward	Ancient Footwear (Legendary heavy boots, 154 Armour)
Side effects	Boyar angered, Infamy increased

Note: the Ancient Footwear is one of the Legendary items you need if you are chasing the Gear of the Gods achievement, and this dig site is the only place it drops. Do not leave the ruins without opening the chest.

Getting into the excavation site

Open the journal, track Xanthe’s Excavations: Bloodied Dagger, and follow the marker to the excavation site on the world map. Court Activities are not pinned automatically, so if the icon is missing you either have not discovered the dig site yet or have not looted one of the documents from Xanthe’s Recruiter activities that reveals more of her locations.

Coen follows the on-screen compass marker toward the Bloodied Dagger excavation site — Tracking the quest puts a compass marker on the dig site. Image: Rebel Wolves

Clear the guards standing outside the cave entrance. They are a normal Blood Guard patrol, so there is no gimmick here — just be aware that killing them is what triggers the trespassing warning once you head inside.

Enter the cave and fight your way through the cavern. If you are doing this at night with claws instead of a sword, expect your Corruption to tick up as you feed and use vampiric abilities during the fights.

The Corruption Rises notification on screen with the SHOW prompt highlighted — A Corruption Rises notification flags newly available vampiric powers. Image: Rebel Wolves

Keep pushing through the tunnels to the main tomb chamber. The guards inside come in small groups, and locking on with the target marker makes the tighter corridors much easier to handle.

Locked-on combat inside the cave with an orange marker over a hooded enemy — The orange marker shows the currently targeted hooded guard inside the ruins. Image: Rebel Wolves

Beating Armaya, Scholar of the Occult

Walking into the final chamber starts a cutscene with Armaya. She is a caster, not a duelist, and the whole fight comes down to reading her red magic. Her spells telegraph before they land, so keep moving and dodge out of the marked ground instead of trying to tank the hits.

Armaya, Scholar of the Occult marked in red during the boss fight in the tomb chamber — Armaya, Scholar of the Occult, targeted during the fight in the final chamber. Image: Rebel Wolves

Close the gap between casts and punish her while she is recovering. She has no adds and no heal phase, so a steady dodge-and-counter rhythm ends it quickly.

The dialogue choice after the fight

Armaya survives the fight and you decide what happens next. The options are “Die, then.”, asking her what she was looking for down here, and drinking her blood. Picking “Die, then.” executes her and skips time forward to morning, which matters if you were planning to spend the rest of the night on other activities.

Dialogue wheel showing Die then, What were you looking for here, and drink her blood options — The choice after the fight, including the option to drink Armaya’s blood. Image: Rebel Wolves

Whichever line you take, loot Armaya’s body afterwards. That is what actually closes out the objective and hands over Armaya’s Notebook along with the rest of the rewards.

How to open the sealed chest for the Ancient Footwear

The chest in the boss room is magically sealed, so lockpicking, hitting it, or repeatedly interacting with it does nothing. Two objects in the room break the seal, and both are easy to walk past.

Hold Focus Mode (L2 on PlayStation, LT on Xbox) while facing the left side of the boss room, near the vases. The Ritual Dagger hanging on the wall lights up yellow. Take it.

Turn to the corpse on the floor directly in front of the chest. This is Armaya’s Assistant. Interact with the body and pick the [compel soul] option to pull the information out of them.

Go back to the chest and use the Ritual Dagger on it. The seal breaks and the container opens.

Loot the chest to collect the Ancient Footwear, then check your inventory. The boots read 154 Armour, and the comparison arrow shows +37 against most mid-game heavy boots.

If the chest still will not open

There are only a few reasons the seal stays intact, and all of them are ordering problems rather than bugs.

You have not picked up the Ritual Dagger yet. Without it in your inventory the chest gives no prompt at all.
You compelled the wrong body. It has to be Armaya’s Assistant, the corpse positioned in front of the chest, not Armaya herself.
You skipped Compel Soul entirely. Compel Soul is the Witchcraft ability that reads the dead — if you have not unlocked it, you cannot finish the puzzle on this visit.
You cleared the room and left. The chest is not on a timer and the activity stays completed, so you can walk back in later and finish it.

You will know it worked the moment the interaction prompt on the chest changes from a sealed state to a normal loot prompt, and the Ancient Footwear lands in your inventory as a Legendary boots entry.

Bloodied Dagger is one of 15 Court Activities tied to Xanthe, and you only need roughly three-quarters of them to max her Anger and trigger The Cycle of Love. This one earns its 3 time segments regardless of whether you need the Anger, because the boots are a permanent Legendary slot filler and the other Excavations nearby — Unsealed Secrets and Malevolent Presence — sit close enough to chain together in the same trip.