The Blood of Dawnwalker has quite a few questlines that dig into Coen's family life and their own personal stories, and one that you'll be able to complete relatively early is Buried Past. A quest that can be picked up in Maragir.
This story focuses on Pieter's life before settling down with his family, during his more wild days as a Mercenary.
It's a past that he has kept hidden from you, but one that, with some poking around, you'll be able to uncover for yourself.
How To Start Buried Past
Alcohol Merchant in Maragir
To begin Buried Past, you will need to head out to Maragir, an area southeast of Laslea. Here, you'll find a merchant during the day who is selling alcohol, and he'll recognise your face, claiming to know your father, Pieter.
He claims that he would buy beer from him, and would head off to the St Tyna's Grove woods. It seems that all this time your father had a double life, and it's something well worth investigating.
Looking After Volk
Location of Volk's Home
As it turns out, Pieter hasn't been hiding a second family. Instead, he's been looking after a former comrade from his Mercenary days. A man called Volk, who is old, blind, feeble, and in need of care.
However, upon learning that Pieter is no longer able to help him survive, he asks for your help instead.
There are several quests that are marked as optional, such as cutting firewood for him or helping him with a pack of wolves near his home. As well as boarding up his windows, finding his knife for him, buying beer for him, and gathering supplies that come later.
Returning to Volk after a day's rest
These are absolutely optional, but helping him versus not helping him will have a distinct impact on what happens at the end of this quest, so, fair warning.
After this, you'll need to go away for at least a day, and upon your return, you'll be able to ask him for another story about your father. This will happen a total of three times.
Training fight with Volk
On the first occasion, you will receive no reward, nor the second. But on the third occasion, you'll be able to learn the Artery Strike skill after defeating him in battle. A small mini-boss fight that is rather unremarkable and won't give you any trouble, and you get the manual as a reward for winning the fight.
After this fight, Volk will bring up the story of your father and his time in Cassel again, and the huge sack of gold that was rewarded to him for his dastardly deeds there. However, you never knew your father to be flush with cash. Which makes Volk think he might have stashed it somewhere.
Discussion about Pieter's rewards at Cassel with Volk
During this conversation, mention 'the glade'. And this will allow you to follow a path your family would have trodden during your childhood, leading to a beloved spot where your father might have stashed his riches.
Finding Pieter's Treasure
Starting Point leading to hidden treasure in Parlita
After talking to Volk about your father's lost riches, you can set off to Parlita. Once you arrive, use focus mode to find the baker's stall near the entrance to town, and this will set you on the trail out of town to the Glade.
Listen to Coen's instructions, and it will take you past an abandoned home, off to a side road at the Wallows Shrine, and then through to an area nearest to the Giant's Pawns Shrine.
Ravenous Bear mini-boss at Pieter's Glade
Here you will need to fight a Bear mini-boss, which can be as high as an orange skull difficulty depending on when you engage with this quest. It's best to rely on your vampire form to get through this portion if you're under-leveled.
Then, once the bear is taken care of, you'll want to head to the cliffside where you'll find a campfire and a shovel using focus mode. The treasure dig site is a little harder to find, but nearby, you'll find a tree with a series of stones laid out in a circle. You can inspect this, and Coen will dig up his dad's buried treasure.
Dig site at the glade near Giant's Pawns
You'll find a chest, and inside, you won't find a sack of cash. But instead, your father's old armor and a prayer book from the old monastery in Maragir, and a letter addressed directly to you. The standout item being Pieter's Garb. A legendary piece of armor that justifies doing this quest alone.
With this discovery, you can then head to the Monastery and talk to the Monks, who will inform you that your father donated all of his earnings to help build a scripture room within the Monastery. You can then head back to Volk and tell him the news.
Volk's Betrayal Or Departure
Final fight with Volk
After telling him the news about the money being donated, you'll be told to go away for another day as you have been doing to let Volk rest. But when you return next, you'll get quite a surprise.
If you helped Volk with all those miscellaneous tasks we mentioned, you'll find a bunch of Bakir's guards outside his home, long dead. Volk leaves a note inside his home telling you that he was offered a stack of cash to set up an ambush for you. But he refused and has decided to go it alone on one more big adventure.
However, if you choose to largely avoid doing these odd jobs, Volk will rat you out to the guards, and when you arrive at his home, they will come out and try to kill you in cold blood.
If you survive, Volk will appear and tell you that it's nothing personal; he just needed the money and couldn't rely on your help. But he isn't about to back down, meaning he'll try to fight you and claim the bounty himself.
You can either fight him in a relatively challenging boss battle. Or you can simply walk away, as a blind man isn't exactly going to be able to chase you down.
Whether you choose to fight him or have helped him enough to get into his good graces, the reward remains the same. You'll gain Volk's Sword, an epic rarity weapon that is pretty handy for fighting supernatural enemies, while also gaining a nice boost to human health, making it a decent day build option.
The only way you will not gain this reward is if you don't help Volk and then also choose not to fight them. As they will then decide to kill themselves if you allow time to elapse and return.