The Blood of Dawnwalker A Suspicious Gift — Side Quest Walkthrough — Wiki & Guide

Published 2026-09-215 min read

A Suspicious Gift walkthrough: the Deacon's missing custodian, the almshouse investigation, the bookshelf passage, the abomination boss, and the cathedral library key.

A Suspicious Gift is one of The Blood of Dawnwalker's most easily missed quests — and missing it costs you more than XP. The Deacon of Svartrau Cathedral wants the custodian Radu found, and the reward is access to the cathedral library. The quest also belongs to Xanthe's court activity, the Cathedral Ceremony, so skipping it closes that door too.

Map marker for questioning people in Svartrau Cathedral in A Suspicious Gift

Everything starts and ends at the cathedral in Svartrau — the marker sends you asking around its nave.

How to start (and how not to miss it)

The trigger chain is strict:

Take the quest A Monk and a Saint and speak with Albertus, the monk in the lowlands west of Svartrau (letters from random couriers or a word with Anca can point you there). He sends you to the cathedral and its Deacon.
Do not learn about the catacombs beforehand: starting the cathedral's other catacomb quest, or breaking into the treasury or library on your own, makes the Deacon refuse to talk.
Do not max out your Infamy. At peak Infamy the cathedral seals permanently and the Deacon is never at his post during the day.

Either of the two cathedral quests — this one or its catacomb sibling — continues A Monk and a Saint, so achievements are safe either way. But only A Suspicious Gift awards the library key.

The almshouse

The Deacon sends you to the almshouse north of the cathedral to ask about Radu.

A highlighted almshouse resident to question in A Suspicious Gift

The residents know more than they say — the highlighted one talks for a price.

In the ground-floor room on the left, talk to the resident at the table. He wants 100 denarii for what he knows about Radu.
His tip: search the derelict wing upstairs.

The bookshelf passage

In the wing's southeast room you'll find a bookshelf with scratches on the floor beneath it.
Inspect the scratches, then push the shelf aside to reveal a hidden stair down.

The derelict wing depths

Work through the lower floors and pick up three things:

An empty bottle on the first floor — it feeds the Compel Soul interaction later, the same Witchcraft ability that powers the Dead Man Talkin' achievement.
A valuable brooch on the bottom floor.
At the bottom waits the wing's boss, the almshouse abomination. Kill it and loot the corpse — it carries the custodian key, which opens the building east of the cathedral treasury.
A blood vial sits in the room's corner.

With the boss down, use Compel Soul on the corpse in the room to squeeze out the rest of the story.

Report back

Return to the Deacon and tell him what became of Radu. The quest pays 150 XP and, more importantly, access to the cathedral library — and it formally closes Xanthe's Cathedral Ceremony court activity.

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