Buried Past is the side arc that digs into Coen’s father, Pieter, and the mercenary life he walked away from. It is not a quest you can rush — it stretches across several in-game days, eats time segments at almost every turn, and ends with a legendary chestpiece, one of the strongest sword abilities in the game, and a betrayal you can choose to answer or walk away from.
This walkthrough covers the fast path (most efficient sequence that avoids the most time costs) and the community-discovered optional objectives (wolf snares, chopped wood, feverfew ointment, the boarded window, Volk’s knife) that gate Volk’s final disposition. All four endings are described — the two “kill Volk” branches and the two “spare Volk” branches — with the loot each one gives you.
How Long This Quest Takes (time cost table)
The launch-build consensus across PowerPyx, Game8, and allthings.how puts the cost at 4-11 time segments, depending on whether you chase the optional objectives and whether you fight the Ravenous Bear at the Secret Glade.
| Phase | Time segments | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Buy beer + Slivovitz in Maragir | 0 (pure dialogue) | Optional, just an unlock |
| First visit to Volk (fist fight) | 1 | Unavoidable |
| Second visit (feverfew + ointment) | 2 if you help, 0 if you skip | Optional |
| Third visit (boarded window + knife) | 1 if you help, 0 if you skip | Knife only reachable at night |
| Travel to Giant’s Pawns + dig | 2 | Ravenous Bear is mandatory but skippable |
| Maragir monastery visit | 1 | Brings Pieter’s arc to a close |
| Fourth visit (the ambush) | 1 | Triggered by moonrise at the shrine |
| Total | 4-11 | “Optional tasks completed” path = 11, fast path = 4 |
The fastest completion (kill Volk on day 4, no optional objectives) is 4 segments if you ignore every wolf snare, firewood, and feverfew request. The “good ending” path (Volk spares you, leaves on his own terms, you get Volk’s Sword) is 8-11 segments depending on how much of the wolf + firewood + knife sequence you actually finish.
Sources: PowerPyx objective list (2026-09-04), Game8 “Time Available” field (2026-09-04), Game Rant “around 4 days” estimate (2026-09-04).
Step 1: Start The Quest At Maragir Or The Ruined Hut
There are two entry points, both work:
- Talk to the General Goods Merchant at Maragir Crossroads (southeast of Laslea). He recognises Coen as Pieter’s eldest boy and offers a discount on beer. Buy the beer for 100 denarii, learn that Pieter used to take a keg to a spot in the woods east of Svartrau, and the quest mark appears on the map. (Source: Game8 “Starting Location” entry.)
- Skip the merchant and go directly to the Ruined Hut shrine, northeast of Svartrau City, on the edge of St. Tyna’s Grove. Inspect the half-destroyed hut using focus mode. The merchant step is skippable; the hut inspection is not.
The “merchant tells you about Volk” route saves you one map ping but adds nothing mechanically — both paths land at the same hut, the same fist-fight, the same Volk dialogue.
Source: Polygon walkthrough (2026-09-04) confirms the merchant step is skippable.
Step 2: First Visit — The Fist Fight With Volk
When you enter the shed at the Ruined Hut, Volk, a blind old man, attacks Coen assuming he is a thief. The fight is a short, scripted brawl — Volk has low health and a single attack pattern. Win or lose, you can tell Volk who you are once the fists stop.
Win the brawl, then say you are Pieter’s son. Volk calms down, invites you inside, and the conversation opens with the story of how he met Pieter in their mercenary days. The dialogue has white lines (flavour) and yellow lines (plot choices). Exhaust every white line — the game adds optional objectives for each one, and missing them gates Volk’s final disposition.
The optional objectives that appear after the first conversation:
- Get rid of the wolves harassing Volk (cost: 2 segments, or 0 if you clear the den east of the hut without telling Volk — Game Rant tip).
- Chop wood for him (cost: 1 segment, marked on the map).
Bring Slivovitz instead of drinking it yourself — Volk opens up about Ireland, Constantinople, France, and the 5-year-ago job that left him captured, tortured, and blind. The Slivovitz itself is bought in Maragir (61 denarii from the merchant) or looted from any inn.
End the first visit by waiting at the Ruined Hut shrine for the next day/night of the same period. If you wait the wrong time of day, Volk has nothing new to say.
Source: PowerPyx first-visit section (2026-09-04), Game Rant “Complete the Buried Past quest by visiting Volk for multiple days” (2026-09-04), allthings.how walkthrough (2026-09-05).
Step 3: Second Visit — Feverfew And The Ointment
Volk is laid up with a bad back on visit two. Gather feverfew by the riverbank (cost: 2 segments), then prepare the ointment at his workbench (cost: 1 segment). He tells the story of Pieter’s horse, Conscience, and the snobbish nobleman Pieter killed on the road to Brno. The ointment itself can be skipped at no penalty — Volk will not refuse to talk to you, but the optional tree’s golden ending will be closed off.
Wolf den shortcut (community-discovered, Game Rant): East of the hut is a question-mark that turns out to be a wolf den. Clear the den on visit 1 without mentioning the snares to Volk. On visit 2, mention the snares — Volk will say Coen already took care of them, and you save one time segment.
Source: Game Rant “another way to deal with the wolves for Volk without wasting one time segment” (2026-09-04).
Step 4: Third Visit — Boarded Window, Volk’s Knife, And The Spar
Visit three opens with the Boarding up the bedroom window objective (cost: 1 segment). Then Volk’s Knife becomes available. Inspect the pile of puke outside the door to trigger the search objective. The knife is on the thatched roof of the hut — and you can only reach it by Planeshift at night (the witch-vampire teleport), so this objective forces a night visit.
After the knife, Volk asks Coen to spar. Win the spar and he gives you the Artery Strike Manual — the legendary Swordmastery active skill that lands a single huge hit with a chance to instantly decapitate wounded enemies. The skill is one of the strongest in the entire Swordmastery tree.
Then the conversation turns to the Battle of Cassel (1328) and the payout Pieter earned. Volk believes the gold is stashed somewhere. Tell him about the Secret Glade you used to visit as a child, and the glade gets marked on the map.
Source: Game8 “Optional: Find Volk’s Knife” (2026-09-04), Game Rant “spar with Volk during this visit and obtain the Artery Strike Manual” (2026-09-04).
Step 5: Travel To Giant’s Pawns And Dig Up The Treasure
The glade is in the mountains, west of Parlita and southwest of the Giant’s Pawns shrine. The trip costs 2 segments. A Ravenous Bear patrols the area and you can fight or skip past it.
At the marked spot, look for a tall tree with two stumps next to it. A rough circle of stones marks the dig location. Inspect it and Coen gets to work. The chest contains:
- Pieter’s Garb — legendary light chest armor. Raises maximum human health, human health restoration, weapon critical hit chance, and weapon critical hit damage. One of the strongest daytime armor pieces in the launch build.
- Pieter’s Unfinished Letter, addressed “To My Children.”
- A Prayer Book from Maragir — the lead that pushes the quest forward.
There is no gold inside. The treasure chest is a memorial, not a payout.
Source: allthings.how treasure contents (2026-09-05), PowerPyx dig-up objective (2026-09-04).
Step 6: Ask About Pieter At Maragir Monastery
The prayer book unlocks the monastery investigation. Head back to Maragir and find the St. Clement’s Monastery in the northeast. The monk outside, Brother Cosma, confirms that Pieter donated every coin from his mercenary years to fund the monastery’s scriptorium, framed as penance for his part in burning Cassel during the 1328 battle.
Free loot in the monastery (PowerPyx + allthings.how): The repository upstairs has a ladder to a second floor. The shelves hold:
- Renewed Focus Manual
- Herbal Remedies II Manual
- Charge Manual
- Medicus I Manual
- A Recipe for Minor Balm of Fortitude
None of these are required to complete Buried Past, but they are free progression sitting in plain sight.
Return to Volk and tell him the news. He does not take it well. Wait at the shrine until moonrise to walk in on the ambush yourself, or wait a full day for the soldiers to be already dead.
Source: PowerPyx monastery section (2026-09-04), allthings.how “ask about Pieter at the Maragir monastery” (2026-09-05).
Step 7: The Ambush — Kill Or Spare Volk (Four Endings)
The final visit depends on how you played the optional objectives and whether you found the treasure:
| Path | Trigger | What happens | Loot |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Completed optionals + found treasure | Wait until moonrise after telling Volk about the monastery | Two dead guards, Volk’s letter saying he refused to betray you, Volk’s Sword on the floor | Volk’s Sword (epic greatsword), 200 XP, 1 Skill Point |
| B. Skipped optionals + found treasure | Wait until moonrise | Two guards waiting alive. Volk admits he sold you out | Decide: kill (200 Denarii + Volk’s Sword) or spare |
| C. Completed optionals + refused treasure | Wait until moonrise | Same ambush, Volk betrayed you anyway | Same as B |
| D. Skipped optionals + refused treasure | Wait a full day | Volk is gone, his hut is empty, no ambush | Quest closes silently, no Volk’s Sword |
The kill-vs-spare choice matters:
- Kill Volk: You can loot 200 Denarii + Volk’s Sword (epic greatsword with max human health, Swordmastery cooldown, Witchcraft cooldown, bonus damage vs supernatural). Volk’s last words are relief — he is sick of being a blind, helpless man.
- Spare Volk: He is furious that Coen will not kill him. Return two days later and his corpse is inside the hut with no loot. Spare is mechanically worse.
Recommendation (community consensus): Kill Volk. The 200 Denarii + Volk’s Sword is the better outcome by a wide margin, and Polygon’s guide explicitly says “It would be better to kill Volk” (Polygon, 2026-09-04).
Source: Polygon kill-vs-spare section (2026-09-04), Game Rant outcomes table (2026-09-04), allthings.how final visit section (2026-09-05).
Reward Summary
| Reward | Source | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Artery Strike Manual | Spar with Volk on visit 3 | Swordmastery active skill |
| Pieter’s Garb | Secret Glade treasure | Legendary light chest armor |
| Pieter’s Unfinished Letter + Prayer Book | Secret Glade treasure | Lore items |
| Renewed Focus / Herbal Remedies II / Charge / Medicus I Manuals + Minor Balm recipe | Maragir monastery repository | Free progression |
| 200 XP + 1 Skill Point | Quest completion | Baseline |
| Volk’s Sword (epic greatsword) | Path A, B, or C completion | Best loot, gated behind kill choice |
| 200 Denarii | Path B or C with kill choice | Currency |
Tips And Common Mistakes
- Visit Volk at the same time of day each time. He only has new dialogue during the period you last spoke to him. Visiting at the wrong time stalls the quest.
- Exhaust every white dialogue option. Each one unlocks an optional objective. Missing them closes off the golden path.
- Knife retrieval is night-only. Plan to revisit Volk at night on visit 3. The roof is reachable only by Planeshift.
- Inspect everything in focus mode. The snares on the ground, the puke by the door, the cut marks on the tree stump — each one unlocks a side objective. Skipping focus mode skips the quest tree.
- Do not skip the monastery. The prayer book clue is the only thing that drives the quest past the dig-up. Skipping it leaves the quest open indefinitely.
- Do not skip the Ravenous Bear unless you have Shapeshift wolf form. Skipping without Shapeshift means a long walk back around the mountain that costs an extra segment.
Related
- All Endings and Secret Epilogue - How Volk’s fate intersects with the family-rescue endings.
- Three Skill Trees Builds - Where Artery Strike sits in the Swordmastery priority order.
- First 30 Days Survival Guide - When in the calendar to schedule Buried Past.
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