Withering Away is the second mission in the Prologue of The Blood of Dawnwalker's story. It begins automatically at the end of All Good Things. As usual, throughout this walkthrough we'll avoid as many spoilers as possible while giving you all the tips and directions you need to make sure you don't miss anything along the way. For this playthrough in particular, we'll also be following the optimal route to see as many endings as possible in a single playthrough, saving you the trouble of starting over unnecessarily.
As soon as the mission begins, interact with the storage chest to the right of the door to collect your belongings. Then head outside into the yard and interact with the axe to chop some firewood. You'll need to split a couple of logs to continue.
Enter through the other door in the yard and turn right into the kitchen. Interact with the stove to add the firewood.
Choose whichever dialogue options you like during the following sequence. You'll notice that dialogue choices that advance the conversation are highlighted in yellow, while the others provide additional context. Unless we tell you otherwise, you can exhaust the optional dialogue choices before moving a conversation forward. In this case, it doesn't matter which yellow option you choose when you're given two of them.
You can open two chests: one in the kitchen and another in the bedroom, next to the Training Sword you're about to pick up. They contain general items that may come in handy later. Don't forget to equip the sword from your inventory. Those cool claws you used earlier aren't available to you right now... even though they're technically your own hands.
If you look at the objective, you'll see a clock icon with a +1 next to it. This means that completing this objective consumes 1 time segment. Each full day consists of 16 time segments, although you won't really need to worry about that just yet.
Once you head outside, you'll see several side quest icons, represented by an exclamation mark inside a golden box on the compass. Ignore them for now and head towards the marker roughly 200 metres away. When you arrive, the game will explain time-sensitive objectives and how time progression works. Again, you don't need to worry too much about it yet.
Knock on the door of Anca's house to continue. The game will then teach you how to use Focus Mode, the familiar "detective mode" found in many games that highlights objects you can interact with. One of them is the barrel next to the door. Follow the path downhill towards the river to trigger a cutscene.
Follow Anca for a short distance until another cutscene begins. During the conversation, you probably won't have the 50 denarii she initially asks for. You can choose the second option to pay only 25 without suffering any negative consequences.
During the conversation, you'll eventually be given two options that advance the dialogue but have different effects. One continues the main quest immediately, while the other starts an optional side quest before returning you to the main story. This is also the game's way of showing you that optional activities may cost additional time segments.
We recommend choosing "Gladly – I've missed it too" and completing Page-Turner to earn some extra experience.
Follow the objective marker and make a quicksave in case you get this next part wrong. You'll soon see why. A cutscene begins when you return home, after which you'll need to prepare the medicinal herbs. This is your first important choice.
You need to choose the following options:
If you prepare the medicine incorrectly, there will be consequences later in the story. Whenever we specifically recommend a choice like this, follow our instructions if you want the optimal route and avoid unpleasant surprises.
Afterwards, choose whichever dialogue options you prefer. Once the conversation ends, Like Father, Like Son will begin.
