Avowed: Dawntreader quest guide

Dawntreader is one of the more interesting side quests in Avowed. You can potentially unlock it within the first few hours of the game, but it’s very much off the beaten path, and easily missed. In Northern Dawnshore, while you’re on the way to Paradis, you will find an area called Pilgrim’s Path. Here, you’ll learn that an Aedyran expedition went missing while exploring a Temple of Eothas.

What makes this quest especially interesting is that you will have quite a few choices. It’s a great introductory side quest and shows you that things aren’t always exactly what they appear to be. Whether you pick up Avowed early via the Premium Edition or on launch, Dawntreader is a must-complete side quest.

Note: This article contains spoilers for the Dawntreader quest in Avowed, and the optional objectives you can participate in.

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How to complete Dawntreader side quest in Avowed

• Find someone to report to at the Embassy.
• Find the Aedyran Expedition Team
• (Optional) Speak to the Oracle of Eothas
• (Optional) Retrieve the Relic
• (Optional) Continue searching for the Aedryan Expedition
• (Optional) Return to the Oracle
• (Optional) Defeat the Oracle

While on Pilgrim’s Path, it won’t be far before you find the Aedyrans that grant you the Dawntreader side quest. Agree to help them and that will begin this lengthy, but fascinating quest in Dawnshore. You’ll find the Eothasian Temple cave entrance nearby.

Your great adventure begins with this hole (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Shortly after entering, you’ll learn about a new mechanic in Avowed — activating magical devices. You’ll see a blue glowing shield and an orange shield on the wall next to a mostly-closed gate. If you hit the object near the orange shield with an electric attack, it will activate the rune, and open the gate. You’ll be doing this quite a lot in the future.

Inside this area, you’ll find electrical damage on the ground, as well as a Skeleton Fighter and two Skeleton Monks to defeat. Fan of Flames easily shreds through them, but be careful of lunging attacks. The Fighter can also shield himself, which reduces incoming damage. Loot the backpack before returning to the main area of the Dawntreader quest in Avowed; it contains 37 Copper Skeyt, a Common Grimoire of Greater Elements, and a Xaurip Tongue.

This will come in handy later, we promise (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Head up the steps from the starting point of the dungeon, and then hop down to get to the next area. Make sure to loot any plants you see along the way, as they’ll come in handy for crafting and cooking.

As you head down where the wooden planks are, Kai will note there’s a broken tripwire; it sounds like the Aedyran Expedition went through this way and did not welcome guests. Continue to loot the various plants you find in the Dawntreader quest in Avowed, and follow the path. If you look out into the distance, you’ll see a massive statue and a wide open area. You can’t get there yet - but you will.

Squat and make your way through the little tunnel nearby, and you’ll start to hear The Voice again. You’ll also need to make a little jump to get to the next section of Avowed’s Dawntreader side quest. Do so and squat in the tall grass to hide from the nearby Xaurip. If you take your time, you can stealth kill him here, but two more Xaurip will still pop up that you have to fight.

Give this guy the God Stab and move on (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Climb the nearby wood planks before heading back down onto the path. If you hide in the grass, you’ll see a Xaurip Guard, facing away from you. Sneak down, stealth kill it, and loot the backpack for 37 Copper Skeyt, Common Pistol, and a Beetle Shell. You’ll also see a breakable wall nearby, so attack it and go through.

You’ll have to do some jumping across platforms for the next step of Avowed’s Dawntreader quest. The first nearby platform has a backpack to loot, with 29 Copper Skeyt, a Common Wand, 3 Iron Chunks, and a Letter to Karlodh. This gives you some lore if you want to read it.

Continue to hop across the rocks down the path, which will lead you to an electrically charged area containing a few books you can read and corpses to loot. Walk along the edge of the wall to get to the steps, to go up into the next portion of this temple. You may aggro some enemies, but they can’t quite get to you yet. Just keep going.

This might be one of the funniest bits of dialogue I've seen yet (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Walk up the stairs, and you’ll see an Aedyran, who looks injured. Before speaking to him, I hopped down to defeat the Xaurips that were nearby, because we aggroed them. They’re weak, but one can throw spears at you, which is annoying. Defeat them and then talk to Caedmon.

He feels like he’s going to die, and you’ve got a few options. One is comical if you have at least 1 Intellect. Caedmon says he doesn’t want to die a virgin, but you can ask Kai to help him out. You can also choose to be callous and refuse to help, but don’t do that. Either give him a healing potion or use Dream Touch to heal him.

Agree to help him ... for now (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Wrap up the chat and tell him you’ll see him back in town; this is where the optional objectives start. You still need to find the Aedyran Expedition Team, but now you can also Speak to the Oracle of Eothas. I chose this route, and it wound up being correct because that’s the only way you’ll likely find the Expedition Team.

There’s a hidden passage to your right before you head down the path to crawl through. Crawl in, then break the breakable wall to open a treasure chest. It contains a Common Great Sword and Vessel Flesh. There’s also a lore book to read. Do so, and then head down the path to Marker B to reach the main area and speak to the Oracle.

Unfortunately, it's spider time. (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Be friendly with Sargamis the Oracle, and agree to help him find the Relic. After the conversation, head into the nearby open gateway, and run until you find water. Swim down and through the path, and come up for air at the very end. Head to the main chamber after climbing out of the water, and you’ll encounter a trio of Ivory Spinner Spiderlings to defeat.

There are plenty of lore books in here to read and a backpack to loot, containing 33 Copper Skeyt, Vessel Flesh, Pelt, and 2 Softwood Branch. Not far ahead you’ll also have to fight an Ivory Spinner and more spiderlings. The leap attack is annoying, but that’s about it.

Burn through the spiderwebs nearby with either Kai’s Firestarter ability or magic, and progress through Dawntreader in Avowed. Follow the path down into the next area containing a Xaurip Elder and several beetles. Definitely kill the Elder first, so it will cease healing its allies. He’s in the water, so feel free to zap him with electrical magic.

The Godless Executioner is slow but powerful (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

After this encounter in Avowed, head up the path, following the quest marker. The Voice will make another appearance. This is where things get difficult. Grab the Splinter of Eothas in the nearby room, but get ready — a swarm of Undead is about to spawn. Several Skeleton Monks appear, which are easy enough to beat on their own.

The next wave has a Skeleton Fighter and Skeleton Archer in addition to Skeleton Monks. The Archer needs to be the priority so it quits shooting you, and then take the Fighter out with magic if possible.

The final wave is the most brutal. It features at least one Skeleton Priest, other assorted Skeletons, and a Godless Executioner - a boss skeleton. It uses a great sword and has an extremely powerful lunge attack. Get ready to dodge this as soon as he rears his sword back. Kill the Priest first so it quits healing. There is also at least one explosive barrel in the room to utilize.

You can easily see the other Essence Generator through the window (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

I try to kill the smaller skeletons first before focusing on the Executioner, mostly to have fewer things hunting me at once. The Godless Executioner’s attack isn’t very quick, and you can escape to focus on the other skeletons. Freeze and burn him, and he’ll go down pretty quickly.

Crawl under the nearby pathway in this room, shoot the Essence Generator with lightning magic, and then do the same to the one on the left, as soon as you enter the room containing the splinter. This will open the nearby gateway. There’s a treasure chest in here containing an Amethyst, Turquoise, Awakened Wood, 2 Pelts, a Softwood Branch, and an Essence Potion.

Head back into the main chamber where you fought the boss, and you’ll have three options to choose from:

• Find Someone to Report to at the Embassy
• (Optional) Continue searching for the Aedyran Expedition
• (Optional) Return to the Oracle

Just climb up through here, and you'll find the Expedition Team (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

There are a few ways for this to play out, but this is the route I took. I followed Quest Marker B for Dawntreader in Avowed. You’ll notice that the quaking flooded the chamber you were recently in. Climb up the wood and jump across the broken bridge to get into another area. Climb the rocks to your right, and drop down into the area with the purple glow nearby.

Take the path up and The Voice will speak to you again in Avowed, questioning why the Oracle built the idol here. Follow the path, unbar the door, and this path leads back to the Oracle himself. Don’t go that way yet. Turn back, head down, and climb up the boxes and platforms. You’ll see a blue circle on the mini-map, which indicates you’re in the right area.

Squat and crawl through the nearby hole, and drop down into the next room. The good news is you found the Aedyran Expedition; the bad news is that they’re all dead. Their life was stolen to fuel the statue the Oracle made. Loot the quest items off of the bodies, and head back to the Oracle for the next step of Avowed's Dawntreader side quest.

Which will you choose at this pivotal time in Avowed? (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Question Sargamis about the bodies, and he’ll sort of admit to his deeds. He doesn’t seem too upset about it. You can choose to help him and give him the relic, but we didn’t. Eventually, you’ll have to choose between giving him the relic, lying and saying you couldn’t find it, or attacking him.

We opted for combat. It turns out Sargamis is pretty weak, all things considered. He can summon Fire Blight Minions, which shoot little balls of fire at you. Sargamis uses a fiery enchanted sword and summons minions, so catch him with a Blizzard if possible to try and freeze him.

He is Resistant to Fire, but it still hit him pretty hard. In addition to sword strikes, Sargamis can also shoot fireballs, so try to stay mobile and evade them.

He's resistant to fire, unfortunately - but he still took quite a bit of damage from it (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Once he’s defeated, you can loot the Unique Sword Last Light of Day +2, and speak to The Voice. This is the final important part of Dawntreader in Avowed. You can choose to aid the Voice or not, but we opted to help. Follow the prompts, and activate the statue. Take the nearby elevator, get out of the dungeon, and return to town to wrap up the Dawntreader in Avowed.

Head to the Embassy in Paradis, and take the time to read all the lore books inside, which contain some pretty interesting stuff. Wrap up Dawntreader in Avowed by speaking to Ofryc, sitting just outside the Embassy.

And thus, Avowed's Dawntreader quest is complete (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Tell them the truth about what happened as well. You’ll receive a Unique item as your reward - Delver’s Caution. It grants +1 Dexterity and +15% Parkour Speed while equipped. With that, Dawntreader has ended in Avowed, and you can move on with the main story.

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Avowed releases on February 18, 2025, on Xbox Series X|S and PC. To learn more about the game, check out our in-depth review.