An Untimely End Walkthrough - Avowed Guide - IGN (2025)

Before you could deliver your Message from Afar to the Aedyran Ambassador in Paradis, it seems you’ve managed to meet An Untimely End. However, this may not be the end of your adventure, if the mysterious Voice can help it.

Below, you'll find a complete Walkthrough for exploring the city of Paradis, including meeting the tracker Marius to track down your killer, visiting the Watcher outside the city, and gaining access to the Cistern to find the assassin’s lair, and defeat the boss within.

• Jump to A Section:
• Report to the Ambassador
• Recruit Marius
  • Investigate the Scene of the Crime
• Find the Watcher
• Speak with the Apothecarist
  • Pearl District Boss Battle
• Paradis Hightown
  • Search the Claviger's Estate
  • Investigate the Temple of Ondra
• The Cistern
  • Cistern Boss Battle
• Return to the Ambassador
• Leave Dawnshore

Struck down by an assassin’s arrow, your soul will begin to travel down to the Wheel, only to be pulled to a different area of the great beyond, where a manifestation of the Voice appears to talk to you. It will offer to bring you back, so that your goals may yet be realized, and you’ll soon awaken to the surprise of Kai and a healer named Liviana.

Liviana will suggest you visit someone more adept at reading souls to figure out just what happened to you, and to ensure you aren’t too traumatized from coming back to life. Kai will also mention that you should finally report to the Ambassador and fill him in on what’s happened, giving you two objectives you can undertake in any order. Given that one will take you out of the city, we’ll approach this quest in a way that makes sense given the overall path you need to take.

Report to the Ambassador

As you prepare to exit Liviana’s Clinic, be sure to look around for a Health Potion, and an ominous Friendly Warning Note nearby.

Outside you’ll find yourself on the outskirts of the Underbelly part of Paradis, and to reach the Embassy, you’ll need to head upwards. Paradis is a fairly sprawling city with a lot of its own secrets you should check out, so take your time on this quest.

As you head up the stairs to the left of the clinic (unlock the Lockbox at the bottom of the stairs if you have any lockpicks), you’ll reach the large plaza of the Administration District. Waiting for you at the top of the stairs is Remei Gardiola, who asks if you can help out a pair of refugees seeking to escape their past in the Shantytown. Accepting this request will start the Escape Plan Sidequest.

Head through the plaza to the west toward the large building with the purple and yellow flags to find the embassy. Just outside, there’s an injured soldier named Ofryc who will tell you about an expedition to the north that ran into trouble at a temple where another Godlike is rumored to live, and could use your help, starting the Dawntreader Sidequest. If you’re looking for a better weapon, we highly recommend investigating this one before too long.

Inside the embassy, you’ll run into your old friend Garryck, collect a ton of lore books, and talk to the Ambassador’s secretary, Tycg, who can provide you with a wealth of information about The Living Lands, the people in it, and the major settlements of Fior, Thirdborn, and Solace.

Head inside Ambassador Hylgard’s office so you can finally hand over that missive from the Emperor. It’s now become official that you’re here to investigate the Dreamscourge on behalf of the Aedyran Empire, though you’ll still have some work to do before you can really get started on that.

You’ll hear more about this intimidating Inquisitor Lödwyn, who seems more concerned with hunting down insurgents than the spreading sickness. Still, Hylgard agrees that the crime of trying to assassinate you out in the open can’t go unanswered.

In order to track down your would-be killer, Kai suggests you employ the services of the best tracker in the Living Lands, a dwarf named Marius. He can be found over at a tavern called the Grinning Balarok, near Liviana’s infirmary.

Recruit Marius

Leave the embassy and make your way back across the Administration District’s plaza, and be sure to head across the main bridge leading east to a large open Market District. You can meet a man named Sapiento de Falva who’s trying to track down a shipment of Luminous Adra, and you can accept his request to locate a group searching for it and start the Precious Light Sidequest.

The Market District is also home to two more merchant vendors - one selling magical items and supplies, and another selling arms and armor. Be sure to stock up on supplies, upgrade materials, and lockpicks here.

Just across from the blacksmith, you can also find a Bounty Board, where a Bounty Master will clue you in on five Bounties you can take on to take down unique named enemies all over Dawnshore. Some are more tougher than others, but you should at least consider taking down the spider Nacib in a bit.

Past the Bounty Master, there’s a guard overlooking a dead body, and you can head down the stairs to the right here to reach the Underbelly where the Grinning Balarok tavern is.

Inside, you’ll find the dwarf Marius being hassled by two humans. It’s up to you if you want to intervene or watch Marius do his thing, but rest assured he can handle himself.

Once the drunkards leave, speak to Marius to fill him in on the situation. He’ll accept the task of being your tracker, officially adding him to your party as your second permanent companion! Among his skills is the ability to scan the environment and highlight objects you may otherwise miss, so make use of it often to pinpoint potential loot!

Speaking of which, be sure to exit the Grinning Balarok into the back alley to find a destructible wall you can destroy with a grenade or the charge ability, where you’ll find a chest inside, with another chest being located by climbing the scaffolding to the top floor of the tavern.

Investigate the Scene of the Crime

With Marius now in tow, return back to the Administration District, and this time head south past the embassy to the gates where you were struck down (they didn’t even bother to wash away your blood).

Along the way, you’ll likely run into a guard hassling a trader, who may ask you to help search for contraband. If you inspect the cart carefully, you’ll even find a few grenades stashed inside — how you decide to handle this information and whether you report the trader or not is up to you.

Marius will deduce that the killer likely took his shot at you from atop the embassy itself in the distance, making that your next goal.

Head to the left side of the Embassy, and climb up the scaffolding here to reach the top. Along the way, you’ll notice that the alley behind the Embassy is rife with spiders, and you can burn a way through to a Derelict Garden, which also has a door leading out of Paradis right above the cave where the Nacib Bounty can be undertaken.

At the top of the Embassy, you’ll find several arrows, a Flask of Poison, and a glowing Backpack that contains a Unique Item: Blackwing Gloves. Speaking to Marius, he’ll wager that an Apothecary might know where the poison came from.

Unfortunately, that Apothecary resides at the top of the Pearl District, which is under the control of the Sparrohawks, a very nasty gang that is just itching for a reason to fight with you.

Before you start to explore the gang’s turf, you can find the East Paradis Gate Beacon at the bottom of the Pearl District, and the gate leading outside is the perfect time to take a quick detour to get the other half of your objective complete.

Find the Watcher

Leaving Paradis for the moment by way of the East Gate, you can find a main pathway leading further east into the Southern Embrace and the Southern Embrace Party Camp, which marks a good spot to get to know your new Companion (and talk to Kai about coming back from the dead).

Further east lies the bridge to the Emerald Stair, but the way is closed until you’ve concluded your business in Dawnshore. Instead, look for a pathway to the north, but be wary of patrolling Shadows that are likely of a Quality Level of 2, meaning you’ll want to upgrade your weapons and armor to at least +2 and above before taking them on.

Just past the Shadows, you can spot a hill to the left full of Skeletons where Sanza’ cartographer was last seen. You can explore the place known as Usher’s Hand at length or head up the main road to the God’s Gate Beacon to enter it from the north to find both Giermund’s remains, as well as a fragment of the Woedica Totem.

The God’s Gate Beacon will lead you back to upper Paradis and one of its gates, and we’ll have business in that part of town soon enough, but for now you’ll want to keep heading north along the main cobbled path up into The Rise.

Once you spot a stone bridge up ahead, you’ll find a large group of Xaurips ranging in difficulty to level 1 up to level 2 quality, but if you’d rather not tangle with them, you can simply climb up the stones to the left of the bridge to reach high ground, and The Rise Party Camp.

From the Party Camp, there’s a lot of interesting things to check out nearby. If you’ve rested enough at camp by now, there’s a chance The Voice may have asked you to explore to the East to find an Ancient Memory, which can do so by crossing the stone bridge east of camp to a Godless Ruin.

Heading across the north bridge, the main path splits right, but if you check to the left you can find another ruin that’s been converted into a Shrine to Woedica. Be sure to break open the wooden boards at the base of the ruins to find a gold glowing chest with Unique Armor inside, the Arcanist's Gloves.

Speak to the soldiers here to learn more about it, and the man in charge will actually ask you to take the Scales of the Oathbinder -- the Totem Base -- with you. You’ll now be able to place the Woedica Totem Base in your Party Camp to unlock passive bonuses, with more effects being added the more fragments you find (you can even find a list of location hints at Sanza’s shop in Upper Paradis to track down them all).

To the east of the Shrine to Woedica, a wooden bridge has been broken, but there’s an Eye of Rymrgand plant nearby you can use to create a platform of ice on the water, and then jump to the far side of the broken bridge.

Take the path upwards north, and be on the lookout for a small pathway on the left side leading to a ridge with several angry black bears. They guard a fallen skeleton that holds a Wayfarer’s Ring!

Take the winding path northward, and you’ll finally arrive at Runyd’s House, the local Watcher. Just below her house is a Perturbed Patron struggling with the nature of his soul and the deeds committed in a past life. You can offer your own wisdom, and the patron may even give you a coin to toss into the pond behind the Watcher’s house for good luck.

Head inside the house to speak with Runyd, and you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about your very strange soul and the Voice that seems to be tangled up with it. She’s got some interesting theories, but there’s more questions than answers to be had here. The good news, at least, is that your souls is extremely healthy for someone who has died, so no need to worry about that.

Before you leave, be sure to ransack her bedroom upstairs for a small gold glowing Lockbox that has Adra inside (very useful for upgrading your Unique Items to Fine Quality!).

You can also toss that coin the patron gave you into the pond outside when standing along the shore (or if you’re a jerk, you can loot all the coins in the water other people have tossed in).

Speak with the Apothecarist

Now that you’ve got a clean bill of help, and done a bit more exploring to gather more materials, you should be ready to explore the Pearl District in search of an apothecary. Going up the stairs, a member of the Sparrowhawks will try and intimidate you, but ultimately let you pass.

Just up the road you’ll meet their leader, a large imposing Ogre named Thalla the Taskmaster. He’ll also do his best to intimidate you, but won’t actually strike out until he has good reason, and you can bet that will happen sooner rather than later.

The Pearl District has several homes and balconies worth exploring, and you can even find the Thirdborn Land Deeds inside a home in the center needed for The Escape Plan Sidequest.

Head up the stairs to the top level of the district, where you’ll find some thugs harassing a courtesan. Luckily, they’ll back down without a fight, and you’ll be able to start the A Lady Never Tells Sidequest by checking out the bathhouse just to the right.

Be sure to look for a wooden shack nearby to the left with wooden boards you can break open to find a chest on the other side, and then head down the left alley to a larger yard where the Apothecary is also being harassed by gang members.

Unfortunately, this is not a conversation you can diffuse, as the thug in charge is not easily swayed by your godlike status, or even an abundance of constitution. However, once he claims that he’s going to hurt you, pick the “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size, like my friend Kai”, and his cohorts will get spooked before Wetenu attacks you himself.

In the ensuing brawl, having less Sparrowhawks to deal with can be a blessing, as even if you manage to get Wetenu by himself to beat down on, it will only be a short moment before four more Sparrowhawks appear on the walkway behind the Apothecary and surround you.

Divide and conquer the crew with your companions, and do so quickly, because the real fight is about to begin.

Boss Fight - Thalla the Taskmaster

With what must be a sixth sense, Thalla the Ogre will come charging in behind you eager for an excuse to smash you into a pulp. Thalla is the real reason why we’ve been recommending that you upgrade your gear as much as you can - if you’ve only done minimal upgrades, he’s likely to have two skull icons around his name, meaning he’ll deal a lot of damage to you, and it will take you forever to carve out his own health.

With at least all of your gear upgraded to +2, he’ll only have one skull making him more manageable, or you could even upgrade most of your gear to +3 to further boost your abilities against him, and you’ll need it for this grueling fight.

Thalla comes with a very large two-handed club, and will charge straight at you with very powerful attacks. Even though some can be blocked, he will often perform a brutal onslaught of up to three overhand slams one directly after the other in an attempt to chase you down. Be sure to make use of Marius’ brambles to keep him in place to make evading easier.

Even immobilized, you’ll also need to be wary of a large stomp attack Thalla can perform. If you see his boot rise up, dash backward and get out of the red circle to avoid getting knocked to the ground.

Be sure to take out any remaining Sparrowhawks in the area so you and your team can focus all of your attacking efforts on Thalla alone. Being able to pin him down with roots and then hit him on all sides can do wonders for taking a lot of his health down fast.

Once he loses more health, he’ll roar and start getting even more ferocious. The biggest threat to worry about now is that most of his overhead slam attacks will now cause a delayed unblockable tremor in a wide circle around him. This means you’ll not only have to dodge his initial swing, but keep backpedaling to avoid the follow up explosion by getting to a safe distance — which also makes countering very tough.

Try to use Kai as your main tank, using his abilities to draw the attention of Thalla, while you and Marius attack his backside and dance in and out of range of his slam tremors. Use everyone’s abilities in tandem to keep him off-balance: Kai’s jump attack can sometimes interrupt some of Thalla’s attacks!

Being a tough opponent, it’s also recommended you try and use everyone’s abilities to raise up Thalla’s stun meter so that you can get off some critical strikes on him, which takes a lot of sustained firepower (be aware that using certain abilities like the Ranger invisibility to perform a Godlike’s Thorn backstab will reset his stun meter!).

When Thalla finally falls, you’ll be able to loot some Adra from his corpse, and then talk to the grateful Apothecary. Still, as thankful as he is, he won’t name who bought the poison from him. Press him in any way you like, and he’ll reveal he never saw their face anyway, but the fact that they were wearing the clothes of a Mystic means they likely came from a nearby church.

Marius will suggest checking out the Temple of Ondra, while Kai will muse that the late Claviger was also seen in the company of mystics, and his estate may hold some additional clues. Both of these locations are in the northern part of the city, Paradis Hightown, which is your next stop.

Note: With Thalla dead, the rest of the Sparrowhawks who didn’t join the battle will now be itching to get revenge. Be sure to proceed cautiously back down the Pearl District to take out the rest of his thugs.

The easiest way to get to Hightown is to return to the Administration District past the merchant shops, but be wary. The plaza where a town crier used to be, you’re likely to find Paradisan Rebels who have realized you’re onto them, so expect more ambushes from them.

Hightown is a more wealthy district, and is home to a few different shops as well as places of worship and the Claviger’s Estate.

There’s a lot of commotion around the High Market Beacon where you enter, and you can also take a left across the moat to the Philosophers’ Alley to find a stolen goods vendor named Cutty, and a line of people waiting to see the fake Watcher people have warned you about (whether you want to out her as a fraud is up to you).

Heading up the main road, look for the red building on the right to find Sanza’s Emporium, the guy who gave you the cartography quest earlier. He’s got a wide range of curiosities and wares to sell, and be sure to buy the Treasure Map - Woedica’s Inheritance that points to treasure located just outside the Hightown East Gate. You can also buy the Fragments of the Scales, giving you clues to each piece of the Woedica Totem (the Broken Crown Jewel is actually sitting right in his back room - I’m sure he won’t mind if you take it), as well as a Unique Shield if you’re interested, and Adra to help upgrade your Unique Items.

From Sanza’s Emporium, you have two roads with two different objectives (be wary of the alley across from you, as some Paradisan Rebels will stand in the distance and lure you into an ambush). Taking the Street of the Gods will lead past several altars and statues to the Temple of Ondra, while the Philosopher’s Alley leads up to the Government District where Claviger Eamund’s Estate is. Since your path will ultimately end at the temple, we can check the estate first.

Search the Claviger’s Estate

Heading up the stairs to the large estate, you’ll find several dead bodies before a butler runs past warning of looters. Great.

Before heading through the gate, be sure to check all the way to the left to find a lockbox behind some crates.

There’s only one way into the estate, and you’ll be sure to meet resistance. Before opening the door, look for a small alley on the right side leading down to a small garden with a chest.

When you open the front door, you’ll immediately alert the raiding party of bandits, who can be pretty tough if you haven’t been diligent in upgrading gear. Lure them out back into the plaza to give yourself room to divide and conquer the group. Be especially wary of the Highwayman Barbarian who is the toughest of the group, as he hits especially hard if you don’t pin him down with entangling roots.

Once the bandits are dealt with, head inside to explore the ransacked estate. Start by grabbing a Health Potion off the dining table, and head through the kitchen.

Jump over the boxes past the kitchen to find a hidden area under the stairs sporting a chest that hasn’t been looted, and the Claviger’s Journal, First Entry.

Return back to the main hall, and go up the stairs on the right first to find some books as you reach the top floor, as well as the Claviger’s Journal, Second Entry, but you’ll find the door to the Claviger’s bedroom is locked. While you can pick it with three lockpicks, that’s kind of a waste.

Head back the way you came and take the stairs up to the left this time, leading to a balcony overlooking the entrance. Look left, and you’ll find a ladder up to a small tower where many weapons have been stashed, and you can platform up across another ledge to the bedroom’s balcony.

Inside, grab the Claviger’s Estate Key by the door so you can unlock it.

The bedroom past the study has a Health Potion in a small open drawer that also contains the Claviger’s Journal, Third Entry.

You can also look up in the attic past the study, and up here you’ll find a gold glowing chest that holds a White Key Cameo Amulet, as well as the Claviger’s Journal, Final Entry in an overturned bucket.

The real secret lies behind an overturned table in the study by the door. Look under where a lantern has been placed to find the Claviger’s Journal, Secret Entry has been stashed alongside the Cistern Key! Seems Eamund didn’t just know about the rebels — he was invested in their success, too.

Investigate the Temple of Ondra

Whether or not you got the clues in the Claviger’s Estate, all roads lead up to the Street of Gods, where a large statue sits in a plaza. Next to it is the Temple of Ondra, but you can also head north to find a Paradis Militia quartermaster selling a good Unique Armor and Bow if you specialize in those things.

Enter the Temple, and you’ll be met by its attendant, Elowe. While she initially plays dumb, there’s a few ways to get her to spill the beans:

• Use the clues you found in the Claviger’s Estate to get her to drop the act.
• With a Resolve of 5, you can intimidate her into revealing her secrets.
• Pay her 1,500 currency to bribe her into talking.
• Appeal to her cause by saying you’re here to help. If you’ve completed either Giuliana’s Quest (A Lady Never Tells) or helped Leoflaed and Glaedwine (The Escape Plan), she’ll be convinced.

Use any of these options, and she’ll relent and admit that the rebels are hiding in the cistern below the temple (giving you the key if you didn’t already find it). At this point, you also have a few options with what to do with her in particular:

• If you picked a Ranger background or have 4 Strength, you can convince her to switch sides and spy for you. Having a full pardon helps, and telling her it’s better than being a prisoner will convince her.
• You can give her the chance to flee, which will earn you some brownie points at the very least.
• If you’re deciding to play as a real jerk, you can execute her yourself, but be warned she’s pretty tough at Quality Fine+2. In theory, you can actually kill her to get back your bribe money! She also drops the Cistern Key, plus a Letter From Ygwulf.

While you don't have to try and recruit her, getting her on your side will play a beneficial role down the line (though there are other ways of getting the same intel if you don't).

With the path ahead now clear, use the Cistern Key to find the lair of the Assassin, Ygwulf, and his rebel gang. If you stopped that smuggler near the town gate, you can find a Smuggler Report that notes your involvement!

By now, it’s highly recommended that you’ve upgraded all of your main weapons and your chest armor to at least Common Quality +3, or even rank them up into Fine Quality if you’ve scavenged enough. The fights here are going to be rougher with more enemies of Fine Quality, and you’ll need to be dealing more damage if you want to survive.

Entering this mini dungeon will lead you down a path to a large room with a high wooden platform you can’t reach. However, there are some Electric Lily Seeds you can grab to electrocute people. A small crate nearby also has a Health Potion inside.

Turn left, and you’ll find a very tall room with pillars here, plus several Rebels waiting to attack. They are fairly tough, so be sure to focus them down one at a time with your allies' abilities, and use Marius’ entangling roots to lock others down so they don’t flank you. Keep an eye out for explosive red barrels too, as they can be detonated with Magran’s Fury should an enemy run near a barrel.

Once the first group is defeated, check to the right of a large locked door to find a Lockbox next to Ygwulf’s Log 1. To find the key to that door, you’ll need to do a bit of exploring.

Past an explosive barrel, look to the southwest to find a tunnel with weak wooden boards you can destroy to find a new pathway where a corpse is lying.

Marius will warn you in this next room to move carefully: Pressure plates dot the floor and will trigger a row of poison darts to fly out from the far side of the room (but you can take cover behind a large spider corpse).

Jump over the plates to reach the far side, and look for a yellow lever to disable them, allowing your allies to cross over without getting shot at. Be sure to look for a large Treasure Chest in the corner to loot.

Moving forward, have Kai burn a hole in some spider webbing, and look on the floor nearby to find Ygwulf’s Log 2.

You’ll find yourself in another tall room with many pillars, and a horde of low level spiders wandering around (sniping them from afar can be handy to thin the numbers). Search the center of the room for a Health Potion, then check the back corners for more webbing that Kai can burn away.

Moving deeper into the webbed caverns, note the glow coming from a spider egg that Kai can also burn to reveal an Essence Potion, then move right. Here you’ll encounter more spiders, including a few larger and stronger variants, so pick off the easy ones quickly to focus on the bigger threats.

While the main path leads left past a large cavern, be sure to look to the right for a webbed room that also has a cracked wall you can bust open with a Grenade. This leads to a large cistern room with a hall to the right with more webbing to burn away, revealing a locked Treasure Chest full of loot.

Keep searching the cistern room, and look in the back right for a wooden platform to climb up to reach a Backpack and Essence Potion, and the back left corner for piles of crates to break open, creating a path to crawl through to a dead body with a Dagger embedded in them along with a Skaenite Prayer.

Past the spider cavern, you can find a flooded stone tunnel past a skeleton holding a Health Potion. To reach the far side of the flooded tunnel, use the Eye of Rymrgand helpfully growing along the wall to create an ice platform halfway up the water to jump across.

The next large cavern has a pool of water and more ice grenades, which you can use to create a platform to reach a ledge on the far side where a dead body holds the Lower Cistern Key (first you should swim around the corner to find a skeleton with loot).

Climb up from the body, and then crouch through a rocky tunnel to reach a stone bridge (look to the right first for a smaller path leading to a Lockbox).

While Marius and Kai debate the morality of helping people, continue up to find a locked gate you can now unlock with the key. On the other side is another flooded room, and once again you can toss an ice grenade to create a platform to jump across and reach the other side.

On the other side, you’ll hit what seems to be a dead end, but certain iron grates can be broken apart with ice grenades, so toss one here to create a pathway back to the first Cistern Pillar Room (plus grab a Health Potion on your way out).

Drop down from the ledge, and now you’ll be able to unlock the large double doors you spotted earlier past Ygwulf’s first note.

Down the next hall you’ll encounter the next trap room, with the added bonus of an annoying rebel on the other side of the pendulum blades trying to snipe you. If you have ranged attacks, take him out first. Once the distraction is gone, time the blade swings carefully to dart between them and across to the other side so you can disable the trap for Marius and Kai.

Beyond the pendulum blade room is a storeroom with several more rebels, which you may be able to sneak up on and get in a Godlike Thorn strike if you’re quick. One rebel will try and snipe you from a ledge above, but he’s also standing next to an explosive barrel. It would be a shame if someone tossed up a grenade next to him.

Another Rebel may start to cast healing spells, and you’ll want to shut him down as quickly as possible before taking out his friend.

Defeat the rebels, and look around the room for grenades and other loot like a locked Treasure Chest on the ground floor, and another unlocked one on the upper floor before moving on.

You’ll enter one more tall pillar room, where more Rebels are waiting to engage with you. Again, they’re a pretty tough bunch, so use your companion abilities to focus fire on each of them in turn. When they’ve been defeated, grab a Backpck in the middle of the room next to Ygwulf’s Log 3, then look for a ramp leading up to the top level (along with a Lockbox you can loot).

Head through to the next upper room to take on the Rebels here one at a time, but be sure to watch your footing on the narrow wooden walkways.

Of note, there’s a Treasure Chest in the corner of the walkway, and just to the right you can also find a lower wooden platform below with a Backpack to drop down and grab.

Head through to the adjoining upper room above the large double doors you unlocked with the Lower Cistern Key. You’ll now be able to reach a Health Potion in a small crate along the walkway, and nearby you can find a Lockbox on a small stone ledge just below the walkway along with an Essence Potion.

Note that as you begin to cross to the far side of this upper platform, you can look along the eastern wall for a narrow wooden platform to move along, and reach the back of the main platform where you’ll find an Essence Potion and Treasure Chest.

Head back to the main platform and jump across to find a Health Potion in a small box above Ygwulf’s Log 4, the final note on the other side of the wall where you found the Treasure Chest, then move to the far side of the room.

Grab one last Health Potion in the final walkway leading to a large door, and prepare to face your killer.

You can also ask what your companions think about this: Kai is big on “second chances”, while Marius doesn’t like any threat to wander around still breathing, so you can make of that what you will. The Voice will also comment on your decision, and seems to be taking note of how you’ve dealt with this.

Should you choose to attack, you’ll have a tough fight coming:

Boss Fight - Ygwulf

If you decide to fight Ygwulf, you’ll not only have to contend with him, but a group of rebels as well. Ygwul is of Fine +3 Quality, meaning he’s going to be an extremely tough opponent even if you’ve managed to upgrade all of your gear to Fine Quality yourself!

Ygwulf is a fast attacker, dashing in with his twin knives, and is even able to turn invisible at will to flank you and cause confusion. The good news is he does have a weakness to bleeding, should you have the ability to do so with any of your items or attacks.

However, it’s best to first focus your attention on the three Assassins that join him in battle. They are obviously less durable than Ygwulf is, and they also aren’t the only companions who will join in the fight, and you’ll want to get rid of any distractions — particularly while Ygwulf vanishes.

If you need extra help getting him into a vulnerable state, be sure to look around the room for several red explosives barrels. Lure him near them before tossing a grenade or using firearms to explode them, and it will likely toss him across the room leaving him in a stunned state. There are also several ice grenade plants you can grab to help slow him down as well.

With his quick attacks and combos, it can be very helpful to lock him down. With Marius’ ability you can root him in place, making him a lot more manageable for a bit, though he won’t stay bogged down forever.

When he drops to half health, a second group of Rebels will appear from the top floor and come to aid him, and soon after he’ll use his vanish ability again. This is when things get really annoying, as he’ll usually reappear at the top of the stairs and use a Health Potion, bringing his health back to full while you’re engaged with his followers. This is why taking out everyone else is crucial, otherwise you’ll be dealing with them for even longer.

Once Ygwulf is by himself, you can focus fire all of your abilities and your companion abilities to keep him from moving around. Without his mobility, he won’t be able to last long, and you can stack effects like bleed, fire, or poison so that he’s constantly losing health

When Ygwful finally falls, you’ll get Ygwulf’s Key (which you’ll also get if you resolved things peacefully), but only by killing him can you get the Blackwing Armor.

Return to the Ambassador

Regardless of how you’ve dealt with things, you’re able to explore the Rebel Lair as much as you’d like, which holds a Lockbox in the corner of the bottom floor, and a locked Treasure Chest up on the higher floor up the stairs on the right.

To leave, head through the bottom floor door on the right and open the Treasure Chest on your way out, then grab the Health Potion as you drop down back in the Cistern Entrance.

Make your way back to the Aedyran Embassy and report on what happened to Ambassador Hylgard and let him know of what happened. If you let the rebels go, it will be up to you whether you want to try and find a convincing excuse, blame it on someone else, or just own up to your actions.

Whatever your methods, you’ll now be able to turn your attention to finally investigating the Dreamscourge. The Ambassador will explain that he’s sending you to the city of Fior mes Iverno over in the Emerald Stair to the west. He believes the Valian animancers there — while shunned by the Aedeyrans — may have vital clues in combating the Dreamscourge.

With the main path to the Emerald Stair to the west destroyed, you’ll instead be granted passage to the large gatehouse bridge off to the east so that you can finally leave Dawnshore behind.

However, before you can leave, the dread Inquisitor Lödwyn herself will at last make an appearance. And what an appearance it is: Though she technically “died” it seems Woedica was not done with her service, turning her into an enduring Death Guard with a soul still clinging to a body long lost of its flesh. This seems to not have diminished her zeal in the slightest, as he tears into the Ambassador for allowing the rebels to run rampart over Dawnshore.

Interestingly enough, regardless of how you may have dealt with Ygwulf and whatever your decision was for reporting their escape (if you let Ygwulf go), the Ambassador will still take the blame and spare you (most of) Lödwyn’s wrath.

If you encouraged Elowe in the Temple of Ondra to become a spy for the empire, you can also report the news to earn a bit of favor with the paladin. Whichever your dialogue choices are, it's clear Lödwyn cares little for the Dreamscourge, and will take matters into her own hands as she leaves to stalk the rest of the Living Lands to pursue her own agenda. Doubtless, this won’t be the last you see of her.

Leave Dawnshore

With all of your major objectives finally clear in Dawnshore, it’s time to depart for the Emerald Stair. At this point, you should make a point to do as much exploring as you can to leave no stone unturned: hunt down the remaining Side Quests you have yet to complete, finish off those Bounties, and track down the Totem Fragments of Woedica to complete its beneficial effects.

As you leave Paradis by way of the Eastern Gate, you’ll be stopped by an enigmatic Paradisan Rebel named Stecg. Depending on how you handled yourself in the Cistern, he’ll deliver one of two messages from the rest of the rebels:

After resting at the Party Camp and talking to Marius and Kai about your decision, keep traveling east along the road to find the Emerald Stair Gatehouse. Note that just to the left you can find a Tangled Adra that requires sleuthing through a ruin below it, and to the south is a small Godless Shrine holding a Fragment of Starmetal that starts a new Side Quest, Forged of Star-Stuff. No smith in Paradis knows what to make of it, so you’ll have to hang onto this new metal for a little while.

You can check out the gatehouse camp for a merchant with some good items to buy, but otherwise you’ll be free to press on after reaching the large gate to the bridge, which will take you north and to the west to reach the Emerald Stair, the second main region in Avowed where you can learn more about The Animancy Method.