Withering Away Walkthrough in The Blood of Dawnwalker| Time Limit, Medicine Recipe & Failure Conditions

2026年9月5日2026年9月8日

The Blood of Dawnwalker

This post is also available in: 日本語 (Japanese)

!!MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

This guide covers the route I personally chose and the outcomes I was able to confirm during my playthrough.

Other choices and their resulting branches are still being tested.

TOC [ close ]

Withering Away Overview

Esme, Coen’s mother, has grown extremely weak.

If Brencis, who despises weakness, learns about her condition, she could be killed during the Blood Mass, where villagers are forced to offer their blood.

To save his mother’s life, Coen heads to the herbalist Anca to obtain medicine.

How to Start Withering Away

This quest begins automatically after completing All Good Things.

Time Cost

This quest progresses alongside Page-Turner.

When you visit Anca:

If you choose to stay and study Latin with her, it costs 2 Time Segments, and Page-Turner begins at the same time.
If you choose to head home immediately, it costs 1 Time Segment.

You must choose one of these options, so at least one of these Time Segment costs is unavoidable.

If you then choose to help Anca after she collapses, it costs an additional 1 Time Segment.

The scene where you give the medicine to Esme also consumes 1 Time Segment, which is mandatory.

Time Limit

Until the Blood Mass?

Quest Objective

Complete the household chores.

Withering Away Walkthrough

Collect your gear.
Talk to Pieter.
Complete the wood-chopping minigame.
Pick up the sword inside the house.
Leave the house. This begins the 8-Time-Segment free-action period before the Blood Mass.
Follow the marker to find Anca and speak with her.
Receive the medicine ingredients and recipe from Anca.
Go through the conversation with Anca. Depending on your choice, Page-Turner may begin here.
Return home.
Brew the medicine. Use the recipe you received in Step 7!!
Complete the quest.

Unique Mechanics of This Quest

When you leave the house in Step 5 above, the eight-Time-Segment free-action period leading up to the Blood Mass begins.

You can head straight out to obtain the medicine for Esme, spend your time completing side quests, or use those Time Segments to learn skills instead.

I cover how time progression works in more detail in a separate guide, so check that out if you want to learn more about the system.

Correct Medicine Recipe

During Step 10, you need to brew the medicine.

According to the instructions Anca gives you, the correct choices are:

Use hot water
Add three spoonfuls of herbs

I say this because I forgot to properly note down the recipe during my playthrough and accidentally added two spoonfuls of herbs, causing the medicine to fail.

Story Choices and Endings Guide: Family and NPC Survival Conditions

Rewards

Completing the wood-chopping minigame rewards you with:

250 XP
25 denarii

Failing to prepare the medicine correctly rewards:

100 XP

Failure Conditions and Missable Events

Because this is a time-limited quest—and considering the entire purpose of the quest—I believe it must be completed within the eight Time Segments before the Blood Mass, or it will fail.

Using the wrong recipe to prepare the medicine does not immediately fail the quest itself.

However, if the medicine is prepared incorrectly, Esme becomes delirious during the Blood Mass, incurs Brencis’s displeasure, and is killed.

Tips

For the wood-chopping minigame, input the upward direction and then interact to progress.

Inside the house, you can also pick up a Canteen of Water, one of the ingredients used to craft the Minor Mending Ointment, whose recipe was unlocked during the previous quest.

What Is the Oatmeal Pieter Tried to Feed Esme?

The food Pieter tries to feed Esme is oatmeal.

It is a simple porridge-like food made by coarsely grinding oats with a millstone and boiling them in water or milk.

In terms of its place in the local diet, I was unable to find a source specifically covering Eastern European culture.

However, English-style oatmeal made primarily from oats was one inexpensive staple eaten by peasants and the working classes, while oats were also sometimes used as feed for livestock such as horses.