Should You Free Branko? Judge and Executioner Choice Explained

One prisoner swears the other is a snitch. The camp you just cleared holds the paperwork that proves it. Judge and Executioner — one of Ambrus’s Draining Dungeon activities in St. Tyna’s Grove — ends with a fate call that the game lets you investigate before you make it. This guide covers the evidence, the three options, and what follows at the woodcutter’s camp.

The Setup

The activity (3 time segments, 250 XP and a Skill Point) sends Coen to a soldier outpost where prisoners wait behind an iron gate. Clear the guards, loot the Keeper’s Keys from the captain’s corpse near the campfire, and open the cell — where one prisoner immediately accuses his fellow captive, Branko, of selling people out to Ambrus’s soldiers and the Vrakhiri.

Coen can take the accusation at face value, or answer “Anything to support these accusations?” and then “I need to think about this, look around.” Always take the second path. The camp contains two documents that settle the question:

1. The ledger in the eastern tent lists what each prisoner is held for and what awaits them. Everyone else: torture and draining to force confessions. Branko: explicitly exempt from torture.
2. The interrogation protocols on the western table record how brutally the other prisoner resisted — and note that Branko required no coercion at all, because he was fully cooperative.

Branko did it. The paperwork condemns him.

The Three Options

Choice	What happens
“I’m setting both of you free.”	Both prisoners walk. Branko asks you to visit the woodcutter’s camp later — where, if freed, his snitching continues
“Branko — you’re staying where you are.”	Only the accuser goes free; Coen tells Branko he read the documents. The freed man calls Branko a backstabber on the way out
[Give into the hunger]	Coen murders both prisoners. Immediate +Corruption, same XP and Skill Point, no camp follow-up worth having

Both legitimate options close the quest; neither blocks a reward. The follow-up sends you to a woodcutter’s camp crawling with Brencis’s men either way — kill them and loot the Military Report, which confirms Branko’s informing beyond argument. If you left him locked up, the report adds a grim coda: his cell was found containing only his corpse, no wounds — starvation or thirst.

The Payoff

Clear the follow-up camp and the freed woodcutters leave a Thank You Note alongside the Beastmaster’s Ring, an accessory that closes out the activity. That reward arrives whichever fate you chose for Branko — the choice is moral bookkeeping, not optimization.

Which Is Better?

The evidence-based answer, and the one both the documents and the epilogue support: leave Branko where he is. Freeing him sends an informer back among the people he betrayed; community-documented outcomes show he keeps informing, and the inmates he travels with pay for it. Starvation in a cell he earned is the justice the game’s own paperwork argues for — though if your Coen answers to a different code, nothing mechanical stops you from opening the gate.

Worth pausing on why this quest lands so well: Blood of Dawnwalker rarely lets you verify an accusation before acting on it. The default — the fast path most players take — is judging a man on a stranger’s word. The dungeon’s design quietly rewards the slower instinct: look around first, read what the camp itself has to say, then decide. The two prisoners argue; the paperwork settles it.

If you are mapping Ambrus’s three Draining Dungeon activities against your schedule: all three cost 3 time segments and pay 250 XP plus a Skill Point, so the differentiator is gear, not economics. Twists and Turns frees prisoners with no strings attached; Judge and Executioner pays the Beastmaster’s Ring; Evil and Convenience pays the Amulet of Endurance through its Chief Jailor coda. All three are worth clearing before the Court arc consumes your calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get the Beastmaster’s Ring without the woodcutter’s camp fight? No — the camp follow-up is part of the activity. The ring waits in the cabin with the Thank You Note.

Does this choice affect Infamy or endings? No. It pays XP, a Skill Point, and epilogue flavor — nothing touches the eight endings.

What if I feed on both prisoners? You get the standard XP and Skill Point immediately plus Corruption, but the follow-up camp and its ring still trigger; you simply arrive with less context. Role-playing a monstrous Coen is fully supported.

Where exactly are the two documents? Eastern tent: the prisoner ledger. Western side of the camp, on a table: the interrogation protocols. Both are in the dungeon grounds you clear before opening the cell.

Related Guides

• Camp encounters & choices — the sibling activity, Evil and Convenience, and the camp systems
• Kill the soldiers at the mill — another evidence-first fate decision
• Court activities: Gauntlet, Lunar Game & the Ring — where this activity sits
• Drain or kill: every boss decision — if the hunger option tempts you