Are you looking for ways to save Mert in The Blood of Dawnwalker? This miller happens to be a cousin of one of Coen’s close friends. He might even be connected to a rebel group that’s planning to overthrow the vrakhiri overlords. Unfortunately, he’s rotting in a prison, but you have a chance to free him.
In This Article
The Firebrand quest guide – How to save Mert with the help of a few bugs
The Firebrand: Renna and the mill
The Firebrand: How to infiltrate Stoneward Post
Under Watchful Eyes: How to free Mert from the prison
Under Watchful Eyes: Escaping Stoneward Post
Shadows in the Woods: Sara, Crake, and Drogos
Where are Mert and Renna now?
The Firebrand quest guide – How to save Mert with the help of a few bugs
The Blood of Dawnwalker Firebrand quest becomes available quite early in the campaign:
The next morning after the Blood Mass, you check on the burned village of Laslea Glen. As you approach a corpse of a guard, you’ll see a banner in front of a ruined house.
The house once belonged to Coen’s friend, Vladimir, who has ties with the rebels.
Enter it and activate Focus Mode to look for clues. You should find a sack with silver arrowheads and a burnt letter.
Reading the letter kickstarts The Firebrand quest, which directs you to the home of a miller.
Note: Ideally, you should complete The Firebrand quest during the day. Since Coen is a human, there should be more options to converse with other NPCs. In our playthrough, however, we tackled these objectives at night. We did encounter a few bugs, which were helpful instead of being a hindrance.
You receive The Firebrand quest during the prologue.
The Firebrand: Renna and the mill
To do this part of The Firebrand quest in The Blood of Dawnwalker, go to the mill due south of Laslea Glen. You can’t miss it since it’s along the main road that’s dotted with fast travel shrines.
If you do this quest during the day, Mert’s wife, Renna, will greet you. She’ll tell you about her cart, which is a way for her to inform you that there are guards nearby and that Mert is already imprisoned inside the Stoneward Post. You can avoid fighting the guards at this stage.
At night, though, the guards will be alerted. You can lie to them about your identity, but you should still pick the “On second thought, talk to my sword about it.” Kill the guards and talk to Renna afterward. Ask her about Mert and she’ll tell you about Stoneward Post.
Ensure that Renna won’t be hassled by the guards anymore.
The Firebrand: How to infiltrate Stoneward Post
You can save Mert in The Blood of Dawnwalker if you play your cards right at this stage of The Firebrand quest. During the day:
The tasks are more involved, as you have to talk to several guards and NPCs.
All the back and forth eventually leads you to the overseer, and you can tell him that you’d like to see Mert.
You can pretend that Mert is “going to be sick,” which allows him to inform you about his manumit contact. This leads to another quest called Shadows in the Woods.
Also, now that you’ve met with Mert, you’ll be presented with a quest called Under Watchful Eyes. It’s time-sensitive, which means you only have a few days to break him out of prison. Failure to do so will lead to Mert’s death.
But if you do The Firebrand quest at night, you can utilize Coen’s vampiric abilities and traversal methods. Here’s what we did:
We went to the back of the tower in Stoneward Post. We had enough stamina to Shadowstep and Planeshift to reach the top.
We saved the game and gingerly dropped down the ledges, careful not to land on the floor.
There’s a slight opening where you can activate Focus Mode and target the overseer with Voracious Bite. Because the overseer is alone in the tower, you can fully drain his blood and kill him. Doing so lets you loot all sorts of items, including a key.
As an aside, if you accidentally land on the floor, the overseer will turn hostile and you have to fight him. He’ll likely kill Coen in a couple of hits.
You can sneak into Stoneward Post via the tower (left). But you can also accidentally fall and get spotted by the overseer (right).
Under Watchful Eyes: How to free Mert from the prison
Now, it’s time to do The Blood of Dawnwalker Under Watchful Eyes quest:
Use the key to open the door to the prison. Crouch-walk gingerly and activate Focus Mode as you approach the lone guard. Use Voracious Bite and drain him completely. You’ll also be able to loot the Prison Keychain from his corpse.
The dialogue here was actually bugged for us. It’s as though we were still exploring the area during the day–i.e. there was an option to talk to the guard even though he’s already dead.
That said, when we spoke with Mert a few times, we were eventually able to free him from his cell.
Grab the keys (left) and free Mert (right).
Under Watchful Eyes: Escaping Stoneward Post
The goal now is to save Mert in The Blood of Dawnwalker. If you read the quest description, it tells you that Mert has to pass through the Stoneward Post’s main gate. The problem is that there are four interconnected areas from the tower to the main gate, and they’re all filled with high-level soldiers.
Here’s how we managed this issue:
We went back up to the overseer’s room. There was a new fella named Rayko the Incorruptible. We used Voracious Bite until he pushed us away, then we just attacked and beat him normally. He dropped a Master Fencer Manual, along with other uncommon and rare loot.
Outside the overseer’s tower, we had to fight two soldiers and a dog. The encounter was still manageable since there was enough space in the yard.
We did not go to the other yards anymore. Instead, we checked the metal gate near the tower. The gate can be unlocked using the Prison Key, and the path actually leads to a somewhat hidden backdoor.
Since the coast was already clear, we simply told Mert to come with us to the backdoor exit. This allowed us to complete both The Firebrand and Under Watchful Eyes without too many hassles. We also suggested that Mert and Renna could go to the Svartrau City almshouse to seek sanctuary.
Note: If you still want to fight the other soldiers, you can obtain items like the Recipe for Supernatural’s Bane Brew, Swiftness Manual, and Restless Blade Manual.
Eliminate a few guards (left) and bring Mert to safety (right).
Shadows in the Woods: Sara, Crake, and Drogos
As mentioned earlier, this arc leads to another quest called Shadows in the Woods. Simply go to the marked location in the forest and you’ll spot a woman tied to a tree. Talk to the soldiers and either bribe them or take them out.
The woman, Sara, is a member of the Manumits. Follow her to be taken to the two leaders of the rebel group: Crake and Drogos. This unlocks an overarching quest called Where Loyalty Lies, where your goal is to increase your infamy to Notorious level or higher.
Rescue Sara (left) so you can meet the resistance deep in the woods (right).
Where are Mert and Renna now?
If you want to see Mert and Renna again, simply travel to Svartrau City. Go to the Cathedral Complex and enter the large building off to the side. You’ll find the couple resting on the second floor of the almshouse. They’ll thank Coen for his help.
Mert and Renna are safe, thanks to you.
That does it for our guide on how to save Mert in The Blood of Dawnwalker. He’s not the only character who needs aid. If you keep adventuring you might encounter folks with quests, such as Ocha: The Heart Wants What It Wants and Vicho: A Study In Crimson.
