The Gilded Gauntlet is a main quest in The Blood of Dawnwalker. This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of the The Gilded Gauntlet main quest.
- Starting Location: Maragir Wealds / Maragir
- Requirement: Complete “Smoke and Ashes“, and Ambrus must be angered by completing his Court Activities
- Fail State: Though the quest has a time-sensitive icon because it has to be completed at night, this quest does not have a time limit that will cause it to fail.
- Reward: 500XP, 1 Skill Point, Scarlet Shield ability (if you drain Ambrus)
- Time Required:
- Erdene shows you the way: 1 Time Segment (Starts “The Bittersweet Toast” quest)
- Ring the bell at night to summon Ambrus (2 time segments)
- Quest Description: It seems Ambrus has tired of my interrupting his plans. I should see what he intends to do about it.
Objectives:
- Investigate the scene
- Meet Iulian Codrin at his hunting lodge (Optional)
- Follow Iulian’s Plan
- Show up for the duel on time
- Show up for the duel with Ambrus
- Ring the bell at night to summon Ambrus
- Defeat Ambrus
Starting Location: The Gilded Gauntlet
Complete Ambrus’s Court Activities until he becomes angered and this quest appears. You don’t have to finish all of his court activities, just around 75% is needed to anger him. You can check his anger level by scrolling over his icon in the Court menu.
Investigate the Scene
Once you’ve destroyed enough of Ambrus’s holdings to make him “Angered”, this quest will appear on the south side of Maragir and will literally have your name on it.
As you approach, you’ll see that someone has been crucified and there are several peasants standing around jeering at the corpse. Once they notice who you are they all flee and you can get closer. At the foot of the cross is a message for you direct from Ambrus himself. He challenges Coen to a duel, a fight to the death at a location of his choosing. Also, the longer that you delay the duel, the more innocent people will die in Maragir.
Meet Iulian Codrin at His Hunting Lodge (Optional, 1 Time Segment)
A woman approaches you and says that a servant of Ambrus, Iulian Codrin wants to speak with you. She lets slip that her master knows Ambrus well, and knows his weaknesses. It’s enough to make you consider it. If you agree, you will also get a second quest “The Bittersweet Toast“. If you take up Erdene on her offer, she will take you there immediately. (For additional information, see “The Bittersweet Toast“)
Show Up for the Duel On Time
If you chose to complete “The Bittersweet Toast“, from the end of that quest you will have 3 days to duel Ambrus, otherwise exactly 48 time segments after “The Bittersweet Toast” is completed this objective will fail. Iulian’s condition becomes obvious to Ambrus after 3 days, which causes him to bring a different victim to the duel. Complicating matters is the fact that Ambrus will only duel at night, so you will have to start the duel by 2 time segments before sunrise on the 3rd day in order for Iulian’s plan to be successful.
Show Up for the Duel With Ambrus (Time Sensitive, Night Only)
This objective is misleading. Though it does have the time-sensitive icon next to it, it’s because it can only be accomplished at night. This objective will not fail, even if you go past 30 days. Also the 2 time segments will be spent once you ring the bell, rather than occurring when you show up.
Ring the Bell at Night to Summon Ambrus (2 Time Segments, Time Sensitive, Night Only)
If you try to ring the bell before sundown, it will give you the option to “wait for nightfall”. Rather than wasting time, spend that hour finishing a side quest or getting a perk then come back. If it’s after dark, you will be able to ring the bell and trigger spending 2 time segments.
Ambrus will appear 2 time segments later. The setup of the duel will depend your actions, namely whether you completed “The Bittersweet Toast“, and whether you were able to “Show Up to the Duel On Time”. If so, then Iulian will be present to spring his trap, otherwise Ambrus will drain another villager.
If Iulian makes it to the duel, when Ambrus proposes a toast and brings him over, he clocks the looks going back and forth between Iulian and Coen and decides to tell Coen to drink first.
If Coen says “Letting a peasant drink first? What kind of boyar are you?” or “I don’t trust anything you offer”, Ambrus will drink from Iulian and be poisoned, and Iulian will survive to die (or not) from the poison.
If Coen says “Gladly! To a juicy slaughter” Coen and Ambrus will both be poisoned in the duel, and Iulian will survive.
If Coen says “I don’t drink from humans” then Ambrus will suspect that there’s a reason he won’t drink. He will jam his claws into Iulian’s stomach, killing him, but will still become poisoned by the blood somehow. Since he didn’t ingest the poison though, it isn’t as effective and will wear off partway through the fight.
Defeat Ambrus
Ambrus is a worthy opponent, but he just will never shut up. He has three unblockable attacks, usually coupled with a shadowstep move.
- From a distance, he will go into a ready stance then start to spin, lifting one foot from the ground before shadowstepping towards you. He will reappear near you, the sword will come down in an overhand slash as his body spins through the air. Dodge backwards to avoid it.
- From a distance, he will go into a ready stance then he will lean into a shadowstep without spinning. When he reappears, he will slice from down to upwards in a straight line. You can dodge to the left or right to avoid it but be quick. You can then hit him with a combo before he recovers from the move and goes into his next attack.
- From medium to close range, he will go into a ready stance, then spin the sword around his left and right sides in a figure 8 pattern while stepping towards you. You will need to dodge multiple times in a row to keep your distance. If you’re extremely close (and fast enough) you can hit him once with a claw strike then dodge to the left or right twice, out turning him.
He is adept at blocking regular attacks, so you will need to perform Perfect Blocks followed by a Perfect Riposte to reliably do damage to him. It’s also usually effective after a Perfect Riposte to go immediately into a claw art attack, if you have bracers that allow it. He will regularly shadowstep away from you to set up for his next attack, so use the lock on ability to keep him from popping up behind you.
There are two break points on Ambrus’s life bar. Once you have pushed him past his first break point, he will start using his Scarlet Shield ability. You will see the diamond shaped shield indicator appear below his life bar, which will also turn grey. If you strike Ambrus when he is in this state you will actually heal him instead. Keep dodging until the ability runs out.
Once you push him past his second break point, he will also start glowing blood red and start teleport around you doing a flurry of blows from multiple angles, sometimes appearing in two locations at once. Concentrate on defense until he returns to his normal attacks.
Once his life bar is almost completely depleted, the ending cinematic will play and you will have your choice of draining Ambrus’s blood or killing him.
Choosing to drain Ambrus’s blood will grant you access to his Scarlet Shield ability, or increase your skill in it by one point if you’d already found a vial of Ambrus’s blood somewhere. Unlike the vials, drinking directly from the source will cause you to be projected to Anachora (earning the 
Realmwalker trophy if you haven’t gotten it yet), and Ambrus will start to beg you for mercy, asking you to invite him in. What this means is that a part of Ambrus’s soul will live on in Coen, instead of being devoured by unspecified horrors in the vrakhiri version of hell. Practically what this means is that Ambrus will occasionally provide commentary in your head as you explore the world, and later will assist you in your fight against Brencis. There does not seem to be a downside to inviting him in, or change anything in the endings if you don’t.
If Ambrus has been successfully poisoned before the duel, you can literally just dodge through the entire fight and won’t even have to strike a blow. He will slowly lose life, and occasionally double over as he is wracked by the pain of the magical poison eating away at him. When his life depletes to almost nothing, you will see the same ending cinematic where you choose whether to drain Ambrus’s blood or just kill him. The same will also be true for you if you drink from either Iulian before the duel or Ambrus after you’ve won. Your health will continuously drop until you have a little over half of your last health segment left. If you drank directly from Iulian, the poison will last for 10 time segments after the end of the duel, and cannot be cured otherwise. You’ll simply have to wait it out.
If Iulian survived the duel because you added the Tatzelwurm Gland in “The Bittersweet Toast”, he will have some scathing words for Coen afterwards. If Iulian did not survive the fight however, but if you approach his body after the fight, you will be able to bury him for 1 time segment. It isn’t an objective, but it’s the least you can do.
This finishes The Gilded Gauntlet in The Blood of Dawnwalker.
For all other Quests refer to The Blood of Dawnwalker Walkthrough.
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