Posted on December 31, 2025
Fort Northreach shitter!
Open-world RPGs where you invent your own backstory always either start out in a prison or at the site of a shipwreck. And Avowed doubles that down into the ground by making you do both. When you first crack open a cold Avowed run you’ll find yourself at Fort Northreach, a shitty, crumbling, dusty-ass kennel where undisciplined soldiers go crazy from the spore plague. The first quest (basically, Escape the Fuck Away from Fort Northreach) introduces you to Ilora, a character who was notably resistant to Mold Madness but is otherwise of very little consequence. You might think she’s going to be important later, but she’s not. She just peaces out after you get to the next landing spot and you kind of run into her later on where she vouches for you to her boss (a human trafficker!).
This is her dormitory at Fort Northreach, which she is locked into. Also in her cell is a former employee of Fort Northreach, who Ilora trundled off to the afterlife in an act of self-defense during the Mushroom Prison Riot. It’s worth a side-eye that the crumbled wall is not an egress and the only door is bolted shut, but this ain’t Skyrim so we’re expected to look past that. Also in Ilora’s jail cell is this Wilson, basking in the glow of the evening sun and the inner peace of knowing they had nothing to do with this utter shambles.