The Blood of Dawnwalker Smoke and Ashes Quest Guide

To complete Smoke and Ashes, follow Anca into Laslea, inspect Coen’s family home, return to learn Compel Soul, question the dead soldier with Brencis’s Banner, then clear the village gate. The marked actions use eight segments in total—one when returning to Anca and seven at the rubble. Hotfix 1.0.4 made investigating the rag optional, so it should no longer block the main route.

Smoke and Ashes quick facts

Detail	Answer
Quest type	Sixth prologue main quest
Starting point	Anca’s house, Laslea Glen
Requirement	Starts after Bad Blood
Fail state	None listed for this main transition
Time required	1 segment to return to Anca; 7 segments to clear the gate
Rewards	150 XP, Burning Blood, and Astral Communion
Patch status	Rag investigation made optional in Hotfix 1.0.4

The seven-segment gate action looks expensive because it deliberately carries the story from the ruined village into the next phase. Finish any prologue-only side quest you still want before arriving here; once Smoke and Ashes ends, the open world and the 30-day rescue plan become the main structure.

Follow Anca and search Coen’s family home

The quest begins at Anca’s house after Bad Blood. Follow her back toward Laslea and stay with the main objective as the pair enter the damaged village. When Anca stops near a dead soldier, Coen separates to check whether his family left evidence at home.

Enter the family house and use Focus Mode to inspect the signs of violence. The important clues are the blood and disturbance inside, Lunka’s abandoned doll, the cloth by the window, tracks in the yard, and the moved bed in the final room. The quest needs enough evidence to establish that the family was taken; Hotfix 1.0.4 means the rag is no longer a mandatory blocker.

If the journal does not advance, recheck the active objective rather than searching the whole village. Inspect the main family clues and then leave the house to return to Anca. Do not confuse an optional highlight with a required catalyst for the next spell.

Return to Anca and learn Compel Soul

Speaking to Anca after the search spends one time segment. She brings Coen to the dead soldier and teaches Compel Soul, the first required Witchcraft tool for this sequence. Equip or select the new ability as instructed, then cast it on the corpse.

The first attempt cannot produce a useful answer because the spirit needs a meaningful object to focus the interrogation. Search nearby rather than returning to the family house. Brencis’s Banner is beside the bodies close to the soldier; collect it and use it as the catalyst during the next interaction.

The resulting testimony reveals that Brencis’s forces took the villagers and that Coen has 30 days before the coronation. This is the story handoff from the tightly timed prologue to the wider campaign. It also gives context for why later choices spend segments instead of running on a continuous real-time clock.

Go to the village gate

Follow Anca to Laslea’s blocked gate after questioning the soldier. The road out is buried under rubble, and clearing it is the final major commitment of the prologue. Before interacting, confirm that any optional Laslea quest you want has already been completed; Deep Down and On the Run, for example, fail at the earlier Sacred Covenant cutoff and cannot be recovered here.

The gate interaction displays a cost of seven time segments. Accepting it removes the obstruction and moves the sequence into night, revealing Coen’s vampire form. The large cost is fixed to the story transition, so there is no faster rubble-clearing solution hidden elsewhere in the village.

After the work is complete, Anca explains her plan to travel toward St. Tyna’s and its forbidden knowledge. Coen can now leave Laslea and choose how to pursue Brencis, his Court, equipment, skills, and side stories across the wider map.

How to budget the eight time segments

Smoke and Ashes contains two separate displayed costs. Returning to Anca after searching the house spends one segment; removing the rubble spends seven. Think of the total as the cost of closing the prologue rather than an ordinary optional activity competing with the later 30-day route.

Do not try to save those segments by wandering for an unmarked exit. Instead, resolve desired prologue content before the main sequence reaches this point, prepare the inventory you want to carry out, and then accept the transition. The time-system guide explains how explicit hourglass actions differ from free exploration.

Smoke and Ashes stuck or missing rag prompt

The official 1.0.4 change says that investigating the rag is now optional. A current save should advance after the necessary family-home investigation even if that particular clue is not selected. If an older guide tells you the rag is mandatory, follow the current objective and primary clues instead.

If the search still does not advance, verify the build, leave and re-enter the house, and inspect the major highlighted evidence before returning to Anca. For a persistent blocker, reload a save from before entering Laslea and record the platform, build number, and exact objective. Avoid applying an unrelated workaround intended for the older required-rag state.

What to do after Smoke and Ashes

Activate a shrine and review the newly opened journal before spending more time. A balanced early route combines one useful Court activity or story lead with nearby exploration rather than crossing Laslea for every marker. Use the map and locations guide to identify regions and activity types, then check the best builds guide before spending scarce points at a shrine.

The open world is deliberately non-linear. You do not need to accept every discovered quest immediately, and leaving an unstarted lead in the journal is often safer than activating several timed objectives at once. Return to the quest database when you need the next route rather than treating Smoke and Ashes as the start of a fixed checklist.

Sources and update note

The quest sequence, time costs, rewards, and objectives were cross-checked against current launch walkthrough research and rewritten for this guide. The rag status is confirmed by the official Hotfix 1.0.4 notes. This page was reviewed for patch impact on September 11, 2026; the active tracker takes priority if a later update changes the evidence requirements.