Avowed Message from Afar walkthrough: Should you accept The Voice’s power in the Strangleroot?

Getting to Dawnshore is just the first step in Avowed. After surviving Fort Northreach with Garryck, you still have to actually do what the emperor sent you to do—and that quest puts you on a crash course with a mysterious voice and an offer of power.

Message from Afar is the first main story mission in The Living Lands Proper, and it also gives you your first big choice in Avowed: Should you trust the disembodied voice talking to you through the Adra Pillar and accept its power? Or should you listen to your parents’ advice and not accept help from strangers or strange disembodied voices? We’ve got the answers you need.

Avowed Message from Afar: Full walkthrough

Land in Dawnshore, meet Kai, and go to the Strangleroot

The beginning of this quest has a very “early main quest in an RPG” feel to it; it’s straightforward, and its main goal is getting early story beats out of the way while showing you the ropes and letting you play around in the first big, open area. You and Garryck will make it to the docks of Dawnshore and promptly run into Captain Cynric of the Paradis militia and Kai, a tall, coastal aumaua. Telling them you need to see the Aedyran ambassador to discuss your investigation into the Dreamscourge, they’ll reveal the Ambassador and the Claviger, the government leader of the city of Paradis, are both currently missing, last seen going towards the Strangleroot in the north.

Being an expeditious and resourceful person, you agree to find the Ambassador yourself, and Kai will offer to go along, as he needs to see the Claviger. Kai is one of the game’s party companions, and you’ll want him along for his quips and his combat capabilities, as he can tank and aggro enemies to take the heat off you in battle.

Head north, following the quest marker towards the Strangleroot. As you go, make sure you pick up any health potions or health-restoring food you can find. You’ll need it for the Strangleroot. You may encounter xaurips, water beetles, spiders, and bears along the way, or you can sneak past them all if that’s the sort of thing you’re into. We don’t judge. Much.

When you get to the Strangleroot, the game should teach you about burning down the vines blocking the entrance, which you can accomplish with a spell, a Magran’s Fury grenade, or by issuing an order to Kai. Once you’ve entered the Strangleroot, there’ll be a couple more bears to take on and some extra loot you can find by poking around the side paths before you happen upon the Ambassador.

How to defeat the Dreamthrall Elder Brown Bear

You’ll find the Claviger and most of the Aedyrans who joined this journey to the Strangleroot are dead, but the Ambassador is still alive—and he’s being stalked by a Dreamthrall Elder Brown Bear.

The bear is pretty hardy against your attacks at this point, and it’s got a couple of different attacks to look out for, including some strong melee multi-attacks and a range-spitting attack that can poison you. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed, use Kai’s Leap of Daring ability to your advantage. Using Leap of Daring on the bear will cause it to only attack Kai for several seconds, giving you the opportunity to heal or chip away damage against the bear unbothered.

The bear is resistant to cold damage, but cold attacks can still freeze it in place for some free shots. Fire damage still works fine on it, as do weapon attacks. Just use your dash liberally if you’re a light armor aficionado and keep dancing around those attacks to take down the bear.

Talking to the Ambassador and the Adra Pillar

Introduce yourself to Ambassador Hylgard, who’ll reveal that, unfortunately, the Claviger is dead thanks to the bear. You can probe around these dialogue options to find out a bit more about what happened here, but as you do, a disembodied voice that’s been reaching out to you starts getting much more insistent.

The Voice will direct you to the Adra Pillar in the back of this grove, and it’s time for you to actually speak to this entity, whoever they may be.

The Voice will tell you about how it feels a connection to you, and how there’s some sort of corruption poisoning the grove you’re in as well as the rest of The Living Lands. Given you’re here to investigate and possibly put a stop to the Dreamscourge and you’ve already had to deal with a couple of bosses that seem to have been controlled by it, that does sound like you’re on aligning paths with whatever The Voice might be.

But The Voice then offers you the power to heal the grove you’re currently in, and you’re faced with Avowed’s first big choice: Should you accept that power?

Consequences of denying The Voice’s power in the Strangleroot

Why the hell should you trust something that can speak directly into your mind? For all you know, maybe that voice is causing the Dreamscourge! Denying The Voice’s power will leave The Voice upset with you, and you’ll gain the Godlike’s Will ability, which gives you an extra ability point to spend.

You’ll also see a new pathway formed in the Strangleroot, and there’s a sickly green haze hanging in the air in this new area. Whatever’s wrong with the Strangleroot, you clearly didn’t fix it. As you might have guessed, you also haven’t heard the last of The Voice, who will be important at the end of this quest.

Consequences of accepting The Voice’s power in the Strangleroot

If you accept The Voice’s power, you heal the Strangleroot and receive the Dream Touch ability. Dream Touch is an essence-based ability that heals you and your party. If any party members are downed, using the Dream Touch will revive them and give them health back without you needing to actually go over to them.

Should you accept The Voice’s power in the Strangleroot in Avowed?

I think this is an easy choice: Yes, take The Voice’s power in the Strangleroot. Sure, you don’t know who or what The Voice is yet, but Dream Touch is incredibly useful as you start getting into more difficult fights where you need companions by your side, and it can help you cut back on the number of health potions you use.

The extra ability point is nice, but you’ll get plenty of ability points in your travels. The powerful heal and revive tool that Dream Touch gives you is just better, in my opinion. From a role-playing perspective, you’ll be on the good side of The Voice, which is about to help you in the biggest way possible when you go back to Paradis at the end of the quest. I won’t spoil it for you, but you’ll want to be on speaking terms.