Message from Afar Walkthrough - Avowed Guide - IGN (2025)

After getting shipwrecked On Strange Shores, you’ve managed to escape the Soul Plague that overwhelmed the soldiers stationed there and found a boat to sail to The Living Lands. As the Envoy of the Aedryan Empire, it’s your job to deliver an important Message from Afar to the Aedyran Ambassador here at the city of Paradis, but finding him won’t be so easy a task.

Below, you'll find a complete Walkthrough for exploring the early areas of Dawnshore as you search for the ambassador, including the port of Claviger’s Landing, as well as early Side Quests and points of interest as you traverse Ivona’s Threshold to reach the Strangleroot, and defeat the boss within.

• Jump to a Section:
• Speak with Captain Cynric
• Find the Strangleroot
• The Strangleroot
  • Boss Battle
  • Examine the Adra Pillar
• Enter Paradis

Speak with Captain Cynric

After saying your goodbyes to Garryck (and possibly Ilora), head up the dock to find a local human militia captain arguing with a scaly and colorful Rauatian named Kai.

You’ll get a good first dose of how the locals of Paradis feel about the Aedyran Empire, as well as many other wild terms and names that you may not fully understand unless you’ve played the Pillars of Eternity games. Luckily, there’s a button to pull up a list of history and lore that’s been mentioned in the conversation whenever you want - use it often so nothing escapes your notice!

Speaking with the pair, you’ll soon learn that finding the Ambassador won’t be an easy task - he left Paradis (which is on lockdown until he returns) along with the city’s Claviger (kind of like a Governor) to investigate claims of a plague in the wilderness to the north.

The good news is that upon learning of your intentions, Kai will nominate himself to travel alongside you to find the missing pair as your first permanent companion!

Kai is a competent fighter who uses both sword and pistol in combat, and helps greatly with his ability to draw the attention of the enemy away from you, and can even set certain things on fire! Companions also get their own Ability Tree, where you can not only unlock new abilities for them, but improve existing ones with certain upgrades.

Find the Strangleroot

Your next main objective is to head north away from Claviger’s Landing to find the Strangleroot where the Aedyran Ambassador and Claviger were last seen entering. However, before you march on after them, there’s plenty to see and do around here.

The world of Avowed isn’t fully open world, but it does boast several large regions to explore, with the Dawnshore being the first. Here you can find many different points of interest, track down collectibles, and undertake Side Quests while finding loot and materials to upgrade your gear at unlockable campsites.

To start, follow the Militia Captain up past the docks to a small square that boasts three different stores. One of them, Valtur, will sell you a variety of weapons if you didn’t obtain what you were looking for at Fort Northreach (but you’ll likely find more weapons pretty quickly). Another, Lynna, sells a variety of armor (and lockpicks!) as well as a Treasure Map you should consider grabbing now if you want to find some great armor later. Finally,

Just across from the merchants, you can also find a woman named Dehengen in need of assistance to deal with a band of Xaurips that have overrun her home to the northwest along the Fractured Shore, starting the Cabin Fever Sidequest. As early quests go, it’s worth your time so you can get a Unique Ring that’s incredibly useful to have.

Be sure to explore Claviger’s Landing as much as you can. You’ll find that not only are there many secrets that can be reached by climbing and platforming across rooftops and platforms, but there’s really no such thing as stealing in Avowed! Open every chest, backpack or lockbox, and grab every item and piece of currency not nailed down, nobody will care!

In particular, be sure to look for a tower next to the broken bridge leading toward Paradis to the west, and climb the ladders for easy rooftop access to find treasures.

You can also explore a bit to the northwest to find a large building with a barred door, and head around to the west to climb up the rooftops so that you can drop down onto the wooden platforms and enter from the top floor. In here you’ll find a glowing purple chest with a ton of loot, a Common Spear below and a locked chest that requires a few Lockpicks to open! Be sure to take note of the shimmering noise when a lootable container is near, as it can clue you into nearby secrets.

Speaking of secrets, you should also make time to check out the towering Lighthouse to the west. It requires a bit of platforming to scale, but you’ll find a ton of good things as you climb up, including a Totem Fragment Collectible (it can’t be used in its current form), another Treasure Map on a skeleton, and a glowing yellow chest at the top with Arcanist Boots, a Unique Item that offers extra bonuses.

You can even take a dive down into the cove to the south to find a Backpack with more loot, and an Eye of Rymrgand plant that doubles as a frost grenade (and can create temporary ice platforms on water)!

Heading north from the docks, you may spot a large tower called Magran’s Assay on the borders leading to the Fractured Shores where Dehengen’s house is. Be sure to check out this tower, and at the top you can challenge a Weapons Master named Cosmina to a fight (apparently there’s no rules against Kai joining in), and upon winning you can earn yourself a free Common Wand, Great Hammer, or Arquebus Rifle!

Back on the road out of town, you’ll find another of the large Adra Pillars that you encountered in Fort Northreach. Here, an Adra Waystone can be interacted with to create a Party Camp at Ivona’s Threshold where you can spend the night preparing your gear and talking to your companions.

Important Note: By interacting with Workbench, you can begin to upgrade the quality of your weapons and chest armor (Gloves and Boots don’t require upgrades). There are 4 Tiers of quality — starting with Common — and each tier includes three ranks leading to a fourth that upgrades to the next tier. You’ll need to amass a good amount of Softwood Branches, Iron Chunks, Pelts, and Paradisan Ladder plants, and you’ll soon find that enemy difficulty goes by the same quality level as your items. With that in mind, you should try to upgrade your main weapons and armor to at least +1 before venturing into the Stranglewood.

Camps also allow you to do a few other important things:

• Stash items or take them back out from the main chest
• Increase or change the effects of Unique Weapons at the Enchanting Table
• Use the Cooking Fire to craft food recipes so that you can replenish more of your Health and Essence, or even craft specific drinks to increase attributes or dispel accumulations of dangerous elements.
• Talk with your Companions when they have a notification icon to get their take on recent events. Speak with them enough, and they may even offer to do a training session with you to increase your Attributes permanently!

After resting at camp (interact with the Adra Waystone to rest until morning), look a bit to the east to spot a lone man named Sanza who is in need of help tracking down his lost cartographers, starting the Mapping the Living Lands: Dawnshore Sidequest (best to take this one on a bit later).

Since the main city of Paradis to the east across the river is on lockdown, you should head north past the Pargrun Wall to make your way toward the Stranglewood. Once you pass the defensive palisades the militia has put down, be ready to run into groups of Xaurips and Spiders that dot the landscape.

One such group hides in the old Watermill along the river, and you can use the wooden scaffolding outside to reach the broken rooftop, ambushing them above and finding a Chest in the rafters, and a Backpack below.

Once you reach the Western Pargrun Wall Beacon, you’ll find more camps of Xaurips waiting for you on both sides of the wall, with the main road cutting through.

If you found the Treasure Map while exploring the Lighthouse, be sure to head along the wall to the river to locate a secret cave with the reward!

When the main roads begin to crumble and veer to the left, keep heading north toward the large twisting roots in the distance. Before you can reach the Strangleroot proper, you’ll have to take out some Black Bears. These foes are very durable, and it’s not advised to take them head on, as they can rear back on their hind legs and perform staggering swipes as they lurch forward for several hits in a row.

When you encounter two at the same time, use Kai to direct their attention as you launch ranged attacks at their head for critical hits, or swipe in with melee attacks from the sides.

Entering this mini-dungeon of sorts, you’ll find that fast-travel won’t work while inside the Strangleroot, so be sure you’ve stocked up on cooked food at camp, upgraded your weapons to at least +1, and have a few Health Potions to work with.

Ahead of you will be more large brambles that need to be burned away, and a small building swallowed up by the roots (with a destroyed rear wall you can access it from).

Note that a smuggler’s body here holds a Quest Item, a Dirt-Speckled Amulet. However, this item isn’t actually tied to any Quest you currently have, but by inspecting it, you can learn that it belongs to the merchant Valtur back in Claviger’s Landing, and can turn it in for a reward!

With your new companion Kai at your side, use the Radial Action Bar to command him to burn away the brambles with his attack, opening a pathway beyond.

In the next clearing, another Black Bear is munching on a soldier’s corpse, with branching pathways leading in both directions. Defeat the bear so you can loot the soldier yourself, as well as some supplies off to the right.

Check out the path to the left first where another house is being destroyed by twisting roots, and burn away the brambles to enter the home, where you can find a Chest.

Just past the ruined home is another structure, and you’ll find some weak wooden boards to blast apart revealing another treasure Chest to loot.

Both this path and the one to the right of that first Black Bear (be sure to check this path for a smashed wagon with a Merchant’s Journal and Lockbox to loot) lead to another clearing with a small stream, where two more Black Bears are feasting on a Xaurip. Be sure to check the small cave the stream leads into on the left for a Health Potion.

You can see a large cavern on the ledge above, but before trying to reach it, take the footpath up to the left first past a dead bear with a Common Spear embedded in it.

This path leads to a dead end, and there are several Xaurip enemies here to take out, including one with a shield. After they’ve been defeated, you can search the area to find a dead Aedyran Soldier mage holding a Common Wand and some Field Notes, now covered in roots.

To find the Ambassador, look for more brambles to the right of the stream and burn them away. There’s another bear on the ridge path up here, next to a small orange plant called Magran’s Blessing. Unlike other plants, consuming it will increase your damage and damage reduction by a whopping 20%, so hang onto it, as you’ll be needing it very soon.

Head through the cave tunnel as The Voice urges you to proceed and root out the corruption it seems to be in danger from. As you drop down into a lower portion of the cave, you’ll find the dead Claviger Eamund (who holds a Letter to the Claviger Note), and the nearby Ambassador Falscen Hylgard will urge you into battle to protect him from the monster that’s hunting them.

Boss Fight - Dreamthrall Elder Brown Bear

Your next fight is against another bear, but this one is no joke. The Dreamthrall Elder Brown Bear has been corrupted by this Soul Plague, or Dreamscourge as the locals have come to call it, and is as strong as it is disfigured.

The Brown Bear boasts a lot of health, and you’ll need to be on guard to consistently chip away at its health while staying out of range of its claws. Similar to Steadman Ralke at Fort Northreach, the Tanglefoot Ranger ability can help a lot here in keeping the beast pinned down while you snipe it from afar, or use Kai to draw its attention.

If you’re favoring spells, note the two icons below its health bar. The Elder Brown Bear takes a lot more damage from fire, but is highly resistant to frost attacks. Even without spells, you can still use Magram’s Fury or Kai’s Fire and Ire attack when upgraded with fire damage to consistently light the bear on fire and burn away his health, and supplement with any Magran’s Fury you have.

While there are no fire grenade plants in the room, you can find several poison grenade plants called Forgotten Soul Pods stashed around the sides of the arena, which can also be used to chip away at the bear’s health.

Try to focus on dealing sustained damage in tandem with Kai to build up its stun meter so you can unleash major damage when it falls, and keep away from its powerful claws at all costs. Keep a good eye on your stamina bar, as you don’t want to be caught winded when its starts to charge.

In addition to the bear attacks you’ve come to know so far, its powerful forward swipes will now be unblockable. It can also stand up on its hind legs to either knock you back with a roar, or spew poison in your direction, so be ready to dodge to the sides when you see it rear up.

If you find yourself on the ropes, note that the bloody corpse of the soldier in the room holds a Health Potion you can grab in a pinch, and also be sure to eat any foods that give you a buff, like the Magran’s Blessing plant outside the cave for a damage and damage reduction boost.

Once you’ve defeated the scourge of the Strangleroot, be sure to inspect and loot the fallen Aedyran Soldier in the middle of the arena. He holds a Unique Shield called Unflinching Duty, and the Adra he carries can be used to eventually upgrade unique items like the Shield to the next quality level!

When the Ambassador emerges from his hiding spot, you can speak to him to learn more about what happened. As you speak with him, the Voice will again call out to you from the nearby Adra Pillar, and it seems there may be a way to use this Adra to cleanse part of the corruption.

Examine the Adra Pillar

Head up the path to the top of the room where the tangled Adra sits and interact with it, prompting another long and confusing conversation with this mysterious Voice. The Voice doesn’t seem to be any of the Gods you know of, but has been slumbering for some time until your arrival.

As it speaks to you, it will periodically quiz you on how to handle certain situations. While these don’t seem to have any actual consequence, they do allow you to expand your character’s views and personality.

However, it will eventually imply that it can cleanse this grove, and give you the gift of its healing touch, but it will ask something of you in return at a later time. This particular question does have an important consequence should you choose to refuse its request, which you can read below:

If you accept its request for help, you’ll be granted a new Godlike Ability: Dream Touch. This power acts as both a healing burst that can also revive nearby allies, but can also damage those plagued by the Dreamscourge.

Choosing either answer will still cause this mysterious force to cleanse a part of the Strangleroot, burning away brambles to reveal a path out of this mess. Kai and the Ambassador will understandably want to know what just happened, and it will be up to you to share the details — just know that the Ambassador will be reporting what he’s witnessed to Inquisitor Lödwyn of the Steel Garrote, a zealous group of oathbreaker hunting paladins who are trying to crack down on the rebels resisting the Aedyran influence in the Living Lands.

The Ambassador will want you to head to Paradis next to hand over the missive in the comfort of his office, so your next task is finding a way out.

Luckily, a new area has opened up that you can traverse by following a stream to a large pool of water. As you start to climb up the rocks, be sure to check the farthest small rocky platform off on the left for a skeleton holding some items, then look for a way to start climbing up and jump to a high ledge.

Once you reach the top, you’ll find your exit by dropping down a ledge (be sure to look behind you for a skeleton with a Backpack you can loot) and the Ambassador will depart on his own.

Enter Paradis

Carefully drop down all the way to the ground, and you’ll find yourself at the Overgrown Expanse Party Camp, which is a good spot to rest up from your adventure. From here, you may also want to quickly strike out to the east across a nearby bridge, testing out your new Godlike Power on some undead, and explore a nearby Pargrunen Cache to find some Unique Items and Collectibles.

Head back to Claviger’s Landing and sell your recently acquired wares if you like (and be sure to turn that Amulet over to Valtur for a reward) and then look for the main bridge leading over to Paradis.

However, before you can finish crossing, you’ll be accosted by a little “Welcoming Party”.

In truth, there’s no way to talk down Brentis from a fight, but you can at least scare Pod off by appealing to him and then mentioning that he isn’t her first (or last) lackey, and then dispatch Brentis easily on her own. Interestingly enough, she carries a Cryptic Letter on her that indicates someone is looking for intel on you.

Past the bridge you’ll arrive at the main gate to Paradis, as well as the Fellowship Harbor to the south, and a Shantytown a bit further east outside the gate. There’s even a helpful Bannerman here who will explain the different flags if you inspect them.

The harbor has a fair share of secret chests to track down if you explore enough — including a hidden area below the docks hiding both treasure and phantoms.

You should also make a point to investigate the Shantytown, as there are a few Side Quests to find here for some good early loot, and plenty of high spots with treasure by platforming across the ramshackle buildings.

When you’re finally ready to enter Paradis, head up the stairs past Captain Cynric to enter the vast port city and take in the sights… until an arrow takes you in the gut. Seems your adventure is coming to an Untimely End, but perhaps not if that mysterious Voice has a say in the matter…