Bar the Truth

Quest · Other quests · Bandit Camp

Route

  • Brannok sends you to the Old Camp prison to find Arlin. Arlin admits he talked to the warders, but says he did not give away Quentin's camp.
  • Get the cell key, then decide whether to free Arlin, leave him locked up, or kill him. Quentin reacts favorably if you free him; killing or abandoning him makes Quentin assume Arlin talked.
  • Before seeing Quentin, change out of mage robes. Also keep Brannok's group alive until the job is finished.

Quest Parts

  • Bar the Truth:
  • I gotta find Arlin.:
  • I should interrogate Arlin.:
  • I need the cell key.:
  • I gotta get Arlin out.:
  • I can report back to Brannok.:

Outcome

Report back to Brannok after dealing with Arlin. The family includes experience rewards.

A secret held under hunger

Brannok's request begins with a problem of trust. Arlin, a member of Quentin's hidden bandit group, is being held in the Old Camp prison. If he has told the warders where the group is hiding, the camp's secrecy may already be broken. If he has not, leaving him behind is still a danger: the prison can turn a frightened man into a permanent liability.

Arlin's confession is complicated rather than clean. He did tell the warders a few things about Quentin, but insists that hunger forced the words out of him and that he never revealed the camp's location. He has spent a week without food, and his panic makes it clear that he is pleading for rescue as much as he is defending his loyalty.

The test of loyalty

Brannok gives the hero a way to help: obtain the cell key and decide Arlin's fate. Freeing him preserves the possibility that his explanation is true, and Quentin accepts the rescue as evidence that the hero handled the matter correctly. Leaving Arlin in the cell or killing him produces a different conclusion. To Quentin, either choice suggests that Arlin must have talked.

The decision shows that the bandits' secret is protected by judgment as much as by walls. Even an honest confession can look like betrayal when no one can afford uncertainty. The hero is not merely collecting information; they are deciding which version of events the hidden camp will be able to live with.

Entering a camp that does not forgive easily

Brannok warns the hero to change out of mage robes before meeting Quentin. Quentin's hatred of mages is immediate and lethal, so appearance becomes part of the mission's survival. After the work is done, Brannok opens the door to the bandits but makes clear that access is not friendship. The hero has earned a hearing, not immunity.

The quest's deeper consequence is the creation of a fragile relationship with a faction built on secrecy. The hero gains passage by protecting another prisoner's chance at redemption, while learning that every choice in a hidden community will be remembered as evidence of character.

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