The Blood of Dawnwalker 30-day time planner
Eight day segments, eight night segments, one family. Pencil the buffer first.
Copy this sheet before you accept a job with an hourglass on it. The Blood of Dawnwalker gives Coen 30 days and 30 nights after the prologue to pull his family off Brencis’s coronation block. Time is a currency, not a ticking clock. Exploration is free. Quests, shrine ranks, and other marked actions spend segments. Each calendar day has eight day segments and eight night segments. Across the month that is 240 + 240 = 480 spends, which feels rich until shrine tax and Laslea chores eat week one.
This page is a worksheet. The time system explains the rule. The Tools Hub points at the other two sheets. Open the build planner when the shrine is the problem, and system requirements when the GPU is.
Rules you write at the top of the page
Write these four lines on paper before Day 1. They are the whole planner.
- Coronation buffer: Days 28–30 are reserved. No new errand chains. No “one more shrine.” Family and castle only, or idle walking, which is free.
- Errand cap: Do not spend more than 2 segments on errands before day 10. A daytime fetch in Laslea is how witch-duelists arrive at dusk with no hexes and no buffer.
- Shrine leveling tax: Each node can cost a manual (hexes and steel), XP, and a time segment. Cap shrine spends at 1 segment per calendar day through day 10, then 1–2 per day through day 20. You cannot finish Witchcraft, Swordmastery, and Vampirism in this window.
- Clock matches the bar: Spend day segments on conversations, hex manuals, and sunlit quests. Spend night segments on feeding, claws, and castle recon. Do not burn four daylight units hunting a vampire node you cannot press until dusk.
If an action has no hourglass, it is free. Walk, look, listen, pick pockets of corpses, learn the map. When the UI shows an hourglass, read the number, write it in the column, then commit.
Worksheet legend
| Column | What you write |
|---|---|
| Day | 1–30 |
| Day spent | How many of the 8 daylight segments you actually paid |
| Night spent | How many of the 8 night segments you paid |
| Family / story | Castle, Brencis, parents, siblings |
| Errands | Anything that is not family and not a shrine |
| Shrine tax | Segments spent ranking a node |
| Notes | ”Kept 2 day unused” / “fed on deer” / “skipped tavern brawl” |
A full row should sum day spent ≤ 8 and night spent ≤ 8. Unused segments do not roll over as a bank you can cash on day 30 — they are simply time you did not spend that half-day. Unused is healthy. Unused is how the buffer stays real.
Days 1–10 (example budget)
Do not copy the quest names as gospel. Copy the shape: few errands, one shrine, leftover segments, night feeding planned.
| Day | Day spent (of 8) | Night spent (of 8) | Family / story | Errands | Shrine tax | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 2 | Prologue fallout, first lead | 0 | 1 (Acrid Dust or Burning Blood) | Keep 5 day unused on purpose |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | Ask Anca / local priest | 0 | 0 | Night: animals, not named NPCs |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | One family clue in Laslea | 1 (cap) | 1 | Errand #1 of 2 before day 10 |
| 4 | 2 | 2 | Travel Svartrau, talk only | 0 | 0 | Walking is free; talking may not be |
| 5 | 4 | 3 | Officer territory recon | 0 | 1 | Hex or Shadowstep, not both |
| 6 | 2 | 2 | Follow a haunted lead if Compel Soul is owned | 1 (cap reached) | 0 | No more errands until day 10 |
| 7 | 3 | 3 | One castle-adjacent quest | 0 | 1 | Check feeding before a city night |
| 8 | 2 | 2 | Allies check-in | 0 | 0 | Leftover is success |
| 9 | 3 | 2 | Manual hunt in ruins (day) | 0 | 0 | Manuals are free to find; ranking them is not |
| 10 | 2 | 2 | Review buffer | 0 | 1 | Last cheap shrine in week one |
Week-one totals in this example: errand segments = 2 (at the cap), shrine tax = 5, plenty of unused day and night. That is the point. A “full” day of 8+8 spends is how you arrive at day 11 already late.
Days 11–20 (template)
Fill empty cells in pencil. The numbers in Errand max and Shrine max are ceilings, not targets.
| Day | Day spent | Night spent | Family / story | Errands (max 3 this block) | Shrine tax (max 1–2/day) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | ||||||
| 12 | ||||||
| 13 | ||||||
| 14 | ||||||
| 15 | Mid-month audit: unused buffer still 3 days? | |||||
| 16 | ||||||
| 17 | ||||||
| 18 | ||||||
| 19 | ||||||
| 20 | If shrine tax > 12 for the whole month so far, stop ranking |
Mid-month audit questions:
- Has a night starve almost killed an NPC? Then the next night segment is a hunt, not a quest.
- Did you buy a vampirism node at 11:00? Then the next day shrine is a hex or steel apology.
- Is the family plot still a rumour? Then days 11–20 are for how to play objectives that actually name your parents, not for another tavern.
Days 21–30 (coronation buffer)
| Day | Day spent | Night spent | Allowed | Forbidden |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | ≤5 | ≤5 | Family chain, one shrine if you still lack Bite or Flock | New region tourism |
| 22 | ≤5 | ≤5 | Ally recruitment if allies still missing | Ranking a wolf-form perk |
| 23 | ≤4 | ≤4 | Castle recon | Errand chains |
| 24 | ≤4 | ≤4 | Manuals you will use this week | Manuals for a tree you abandoned |
| 25 | ≤4 | ≤4 | Feeding plan for the siege night | Starving into a murder |
| 26 | ≤3 | ≤3 | Story only | Side bosses “for loot” |
| 27 | ≤3 | ≤3 | Gear check, not ranks | Shrine tax |
| 28 | Buffer | Buffer | Family / Brencis | Everything else with an hourglass |
| 29 | Buffer | Buffer | Family / Brencis | Everything else with an hourglass |
| 30 | Buffer | Buffer | Coronation window | ”Just one more” |
Days 28–30 are the line you drew on day 1. If you arrive here with leftover segments, good. Walk the map for free. If you arrive here with zero, you spent the buffer in week two and the planner failed in the only way that matters.
Shrine tax in numbers
Assume a conservative launch-week read: many nodes cost 1 segment each. Twenty ranks is twenty hourglass pips. That is more than two full calendar days of only leveling, or a quiet leak of one pip per day for three weeks.
| Plan | Shrine segments (month) | What you actually own |
|---|---|---|
| Steel glue | 4–6 | Dust, Charge, one stamina, Artery |
| Witch-duelist | 8–10 | Blood, Flock, Life Lock, a couple of passives, plus stolen Dust |
| Claw assassin | 8–10 | Bite, Shadowstep, Shriek, Surge later |
| Balanced Dawnwalker | 10–14 | One hex, one gold dump, one bite, one teleport, stamina |
| Completionist | 30+ | A grey tree and a late family |
Put the shrine number in the same notebook as the errand cap so they cannot hide from each other.
Pre-session checklist
- Buffer days 28–30 still blank of chores
- Errands before day 10 still ≤ 2 segments
- Today’s shrine is 0 or 1, and the node fires in the current half of the clock
- Night has a feeding plan that is not “whoever is nearby”
- Unused segments are recorded as unused, not as failure
- Getting started / combat / controls are settled enough that you are not paying hourglasses to learn the parry
If you only remember one line: do not spend more than 2 segments on errands before day 10, and do not spend the coronation buffer because a side quest looked short. Short quests have hourglasses too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common questions.
Does walking around Vale Sangora spend segments?
No. Exploration is free. The clock moves when you commit to a marked action — quests, shrine ranks, and other hourglass choices. You see the cost before you pay it.
What is the coronation buffer?
Days 28–30 on this sheet. Keep them clear of new errands and new shrine ranks so the family clock still has room when Brencis is ready to crown himself.
Why cap errands at two segments before day 10?
Week one is for a working day bar, a working night bar, and a feeding plan. Laslea chores feel free and are not. Two pips is the leak you can afford.
Do unused segments bank until day 30?
Treat leftover pips as time you chose not to spend that half-day, not as a savings account. The buffer is reserved days, not a pile of leftover eighths.
How much shrine tax is safe?
One segment per calendar day through day 10, then 1–2 if the node fires in the half of the clock you are about to play. Completionist trees are not a plan.
Can I skip nights entirely?
You can idle a night and spend nothing, because unused is legal. You cannot use vampirism during a day you skipped toward. Feed before hunger picks an NPC for you.