Should you free Ilora in Avowed?

There are several choices and critical decisions you have to make through your time playing Avowed. The decisions you make stack up throughout your playthrough, dictating how people treat you and the events that unfold, even as early as meeting Ilora shortly after you land.

When you initially meet her shortly after your ship crashes, and you explore the fort, she doesn’t give you the best impression. She’s off-put by how you look, given that you’re godlike. However, because of your history like this, everyone has this immediate impression of you and doesn’t know how to take it. Based on her starting impression, she might not encourage you to release her from jail despite her future impacts. Here’s what you need to know about whether you should free Ilora in Avowed.

What happens when you free Ilora in Avowed?

Your decision to release Ilora during the early portion of Avowed does impact future events— granted, not huge ones.

If you release her from her jail cell, she plays a small part in a side quest that occurs later on. In the quest Escape Plan, Ilora offers assistance regarding a smuggler willing to save refugees but wanting you to pay them. With Ilora’s help, she convinces them it’s a better idea to work with you rather than force the refugees to pay, and the smuggler helps the refugees at no additional cost to you.

Upon your first meeting with Ilora, she reveals she’s a smuggler when you and Garryck speak with her. She’s less than thrilled when she finds out you’re an envoy for the Aedyr Empire. As you exhaust her dialogue options, she reveals she was smuggling items through the various Aedyr checkpoints they set up throughout the region. Unfortunately, Garryck, a loyal subject to Aedyr, doesn’t make the conversation easy, attempting to convince you not to trust her.

However, Ilora points out and confirms that the soldiers of the fort went mad, killing each other. She noticed it during her first day in her cell as they were talking gibberish to each other, and the next day, they began fighting and killing each other. It’s a link to the main story, the primary reason Aedyr’s Emperor sent your character to investigate this region and figure out what’s happening. Garryck still doesn’t trust her, but she’s telling the truth. Although Ilora does not play a more significant role in the main story of Avowed, she helps you piece these important components together at the start of your journey.

What happens if you don’t free Ilora in Avowed?

You can make the decision to not free Ilora by agreeing with Garryck that it might be too dangerous to let a smuggler side with you. She was locked up in the jail cell for a reason, and given the state of the fort, it might be better to not take any risks during this portion of your journey.

Immediately after leaving her, you decide to work on breaking down the brambles to proceed deeper into the fort. Thankfully, Ilora did leave behind a ship you can Garryck could use to escape the fort. However, when you get to the quest to work alongside the smugglers to save refugees, Ilora won’t be there to assist during that portion of Avowed. You don’t get any rewards but have plenty of consequences for not helping her.

While it’s not a huge boon to you, you should free Ilora, as she does help during this early portion of Avowed. Not only does she assist you in a side quest in the future, but when she leaves the jail cell, she helps you escape the rest of the fort, making the fights in this location much easier. There’s no downside to freeing her during this portion of your playthrough; adding her to your cause, even briefly, is a great idea.

There’s also no upside to leaving Ilora in her jail cell. Nothing happens by having her stay behind, and you receive no gains from the act. It only hurts you moving forward, and you’re better off adding a temporary ally to your party in Avowed rather than turning down the help from someone you met moments ago—even if she isn’t thrilled by your appearance and doesn’t trust you or the Aedyr Empire’s goals.