How To Make Mother’s Medicine In The Blood of Dawnwalker (Withering Away Quest)

TL;DR

• The correct way to make Mother’s Medicine is: use hot water, then add three spoonfuls of herbs.
• Get the herbs from Anca, the herbalist in Laslea Glen — she is by the river behind her hut, not inside.
• The herbs cost 50 Denarius. If you only have 25, she accepts that. If you have nothing, she gives them on promise of payment.
• This quest takes 1 time segment minimum. Staying with Anca during the storm costs an extra segment but unlocks the Page-Turner side quest.
• If you brew it wrong or skip it entirely, Esme dies at the Blood Mass. The quest fails and there is no way to fix it after.
• Withering Away is the 2nd main mission in the game and must be done before the Sacred Covenant quest.
• The game has an autosave — if you mess up the brewing, reload the last save and try again.

The Withering Away quest trips up more players than almost anything else in The Blood of Dawnwalker’s prologue. The problem is simple but easy to miss: Anca tells you how to brew the medicine during your conversation with her, but once you are actually at the stove making it, the game does not let you check her written instructions. If you did not memorise what she said — or skipped through the dialogue — you are left guessing. And guessing wrong means Esme dies. This guide gives you the exact answer up front, then walks through every step of the quest so nothing catches you off guard.

If you are just getting started with the game and want a broader picture of how the prologue fits into everything else, our Blood of Dawnwalker Beginner’s Guide covers the time mechanic and how the open world opens up once the prologue is done. And before jumping in, it is worth checking whether your PC is ready — our Blood of Dawnwalker PC requirements guide has all four performance tiers explained.

Make Mothers Medicine In The Blood of Dawnwalker

How To Make Mother’s Medicine — The Correct Answer

When you reach the brewing step at Coen’s house, two choices appear on screen. Pick both in this order:

1. Use hot water
2. Add three spoonfuls of herbs

That is it. Hot water and three spoonfuls — not boiling water, not one or two spoonfuls. This matches Anca’s instructions exactly: “Brew three scoops of this mixture, with water that’s hot, but not quite boiling.” Pick anything else and the medicine will be wrong. Esme will not recover, and the consequences at the Blood Mass later that evening are permanent.

What Is The Withering Away Quest?

Withering Away is the second main mission in The Blood of Dawnwalker. It starts automatically after you complete the first quest, All Good Things. The quest kicks off in Laslea Glen at Coen’s house, where Coen’s mother Esme is refusing to eat and is visibly unwell. Her condition worries the whole family, and with the Blood Mass — a ceremonial gathering where vampires drink from the villagers — happening at sundown, Pieter (Coen’s father) is desperate to get Esme calm and functional enough to survive the night.

Pieter sends Coen to Anca, the local herbalist, to pick up a stronger remedy. The rest of the quest is about getting those herbs, bringing them home, and brewing the medicine correctly before the Blood Mass begins.

Quest at a glance:

• Starting location: Laslea Glen / Coen’s House
• Unlocks after: All Good Things
• Time cost: 1 time segment minimum (2 if you stay with Anca during the storm)
• Reward: 500 XP for the Anca section, 100 XP for administering the herbs
• Fail state: Medicine brewed incorrectly, or quest not completed before Sacred Covenant begins
• Failure consequence: Esme’s death at the Blood Mass — permanent, no reversal

Full Walkthrough — Every Step

Step 1 — Morning Chores

The quest begins with Coen waking up from a nightmare. Pieter immediately puts him to work. Check the chest near your bed for your clothes and equip them from the inventory menu. Head into the small yard, pick up the axe, and split the logs when prompted. Once that is done, go to the stove in the next room and add the firewood.

The family sits down to breakfast. Esme refuses to eat. No matter what dialogue option you pick here, nothing works — the scene is scripted. Pieter concludes that she needs stronger herbs and tells Coen to go see Anca. While you are inside, loot the chest in the dining room. It contains a Parasol Mushroom, a Clay Cup, and Fruit Juice. You can also pick up the Training Sword from the room — open your inventory and equip it before heading out.

On your way out, Yanna will ask for your help fishing at the stream. Whether you agree or decline does not matter — either choice picks up the side quest Live Bait. You can do this later. For now, Anca is the priority.

Step 2 — Find Anca at Her Hut

Head southwest from the family’s hut toward Anca’s location. Knock on the front door. No answer. Anca is not home.

This is where the game introduces Focus Mode. Activate it and examine two clues near the hut: the vegetable patch has only been half-watered, and the nearby water barrel is empty. Coen figures out that Anca has gone to the river to refill it.

Go around the right side of the hut and follow the path down. You will spot Anca kneeling by the river’s edge. You have two options here:

• Call out to her — she turns around and comes over.
• Keep looking — you get to observe some unusual markings on her hands and arms before she notices you. This gives you a small extra piece of her backstory.

The choice does not affect the quest outcome. It is purely about how much you want to see of Anca’s background at this point.

Step 3 — Inside Anca’s Hut — Getting the Herbs and Recipe

Anca heads back inside and Coen follows. She explains the remedy to you and gives you the critical instructions that you will need later:

“Brew three scoops of this mixture, with water that’s hot, but not quite boiling.”

Write this down or remember it. The game will not show it to you again at the stove.

Next, Anca tells you the price. The herbs are made with rarer ingredients than usual and cost extra. Here are your payment options and what happens with each:

• Pay 50 Denarius (full price) — Anca is happy and appreciative. Best outcome for your relationship with her.
• Pay 25 Denarius (half price) — Anca accepts reluctantly but goes along with it.
• “Sorry — can’t afford it” — Anca gives you the herbs on a promise that you will pay her back later. The quest continues the same way.

Regardless of which option you choose, Anca gives you the sachet of herbs and a written instruction sheet. The sheet is in your inventory but you will not be able to read it once the brewing screen appears, so do not rely on it.

Step 4 — The Storm and the Time Decision

As you are about to leave, rain starts pouring outside. Anca asks if you will stay until it passes and offers to teach Coen Latin as she used to. This is where your time budget matters.

• “I really have to go” — costs 1 time segment. Coen leaves with the herbs. The quest continues normally.
• “Gladly — I’ve missed it too” — costs 2 time segments and immediately triggers the optional side quest Page-Turner. During the lesson, a tree crashes into Anca’s herb shed. You help her collect 11 herb bundles from inside — three of them are behind the door and easy to miss.

Page-Turner is worth doing if you have the time to spare. It gives you more of Anca’s character and a nice moment between her and Coen. But if you are trying to keep your time cost low, say you have to go and move on.

Either way, after leaving Anca’s hut you should have accumulated enough XP to level up. Check your skill points before heading back.

Step 5 — Return Home and Brew the Medicine

Head back to Coen’s house. As you approach, you will notice Pieter outside talking to Vladimir. Wait for the conversation to finish, then speak to your father and hand over the herbs. Pieter tells Coen to prepare the medicine.

The brewing screen appears. This is the moment players mess up. The game will present you with choices about how to prepare the herbs. Here is exactly what to pick:

1. Use hot water — not boiling, not cold. Hot.
2. Add three spoonfuls of herbs — not one, not two. Three.

Pick anything else and the medicine will be wrong. Wrong medicine means Esme cannot calm down at the Blood Mass and she dies. If you realise you have made a mistake, use the autosave to reload before the Blood Mass cutscene locks you in.

Step 6 — Getting Esme to Drink

With the medicine brewed correctly, Coen takes it to Esme. She initially refuses and pushes the spoon away. Coen tells her a story to calm her down, and eventually she drinks the brew.

After this, Pieter takes Coen outside to practice sword fighting — this automatically starts the next quest, Like Father, Like Son. Withering Away is now complete.

Note: After the sparring session with Pieter, choose “See you then” rather than pressing him to talk further. This keeps the remaining time available for other activities before Sacred Covenant begins. Following Pieter up the hill to train together will skip forward — let him wait, not you.

What Happens If You Fail the Medicine?

This is worth knowing before you accidentally find out the hard way.

If you brew the medicine incorrectly — wrong water temperature, wrong number of spoonfuls — Esme will not recover. She stays weak and mentally unstable. At the Blood Mass that evening during the Sacred Covenant quest, she makes a scene. Brencis notices her condition and is furious. The other Vrakhiri vampires feed on her immediately. Esme dies in a scene that is described by players as genuinely brutal and upsetting.

The same result happens if you run out of time and never complete the quest before the Blood Mass begins.

If you brew the medicine correctly, Esme survives the Blood Mass. She is still weak and clearly suffering, but Brencis merely comments that he needs to “cull the herd” — he does not act on it. She stays alive as a prisoner along with the rest of Coen’s family, which is the whole point of the main story going forward.

There is no way to reverse Esme’s death after it happens. The autosave is your friend here. If you see the brewing screen coming up and are not confident about the right answers, load the nearest autosave before it and try again.

Anca’s Payment — Which Option Is Best?

Many players worry about getting the payment wrong, especially if they are low on Denarius early in the prologue. Here is the short answer: all three payment options lead to the same quest outcome. Anca gives you the herbs and the instructions regardless of whether you pay 50, pay 25, or pay nothing at all.

The difference is purely in how Anca feels about Coen after the conversation. If you plan on building a relationship with her later in the game — and there are hints she is a romanceable character — paying the full 50 Denarius is the better choice where possible. It leaves her with a more positive impression of Coen from the start.

If you are short on money at this point, do not panic. The quest will not fail because of it.

Should You Stay for the Latin Lesson?

The Page-Turner side quest triggered by staying with Anca is optional. It costs one extra time segment on top of the base cost of Withering Away, bringing your total time use to 2 segments instead of 1.

Whether that is worth it depends on how comfortable you are with the time system at this point in the game. During the prologue, the time budget is more forgiving than it will be in the open world after. If you want to see more of Anca and pick up the herb bundles from her damaged shed, go for it. If you want to keep things moving and save your time, say you have to go.

One thing to know about Page-Turner: during the Latin lesson, Anca gives you a choice of what to read. If you choose Petronius, the right answers are Fear and Lightning. If you choose Catullus (which makes the exchange more flirtatious), pick Kisses and Grains of Sand. Neither choice changes the quest outcome, but they colour the scene differently.

Rewards for Completing Withering Away

• 500 XP — earned during the Anca section of the quest
• 100 XP — earned when you administer the herbs to Esme
• Minor Mending Ointment recipe — unlocked from the chest in Coen’s room at the start of the quest
• 25 Denarius — reward for completing the breakfast segment
• Progression into Like Father, Like Son — the next main quest begins automatically

Quick Answers — Common Questions