There are a lot of surprises in Avowed decent combat despite the lack of a lock-on button, a gorgeous and distinctive visual style, and the same voice actor who played Garrus in Mass Effect voicing Kai, the first companion you run into. But one of the best surprises for me was an early side quest that involves helping out some sex workers who are simply trying to survive and do their damn jobs in a city that has (cruelly and stupidly) outlawed birth control.The name of the quest is A Lady Never Tells, and you can collect it from a woman named Giuliana who owns a bath house in the city of Paradis called The Mermaids Den thats actually a brothel. Youll meet her if you notice her courtesans getting hassled by members of the Sparrowhawks, one of the in-game factions that apparently enjoys picking on the disenfranchised. Once you talk to Giuliana, youll learn the Sparrowhawks have intercepted a shipment that was supposed to go to her. She doesnt tell you what the shipment contains, only that she could really use some help getting it back.If you agree to this, youll have to continue to contend with the Sparrowhawks to get it back, but that seems fine because these guys are clearly jerks whove got another thing coming to them. Once you go to the place where theyre hiding the shipment, you can talk your way through it and avoid fighting them, or just do some ass-kicking to secure the package once again. When you collect it, your character will notice the crate has been tampered with already, and so youll automatically see the contents. In a text box that pops up on the screen, youll learn the shipment contains sachets of woodsy, bracing-smelling herbs. The scent identifies them as Hyleas parsley, common to the Aedyran mainland. Small doses can prevent a pregnancy. A large dose can end one.When you return to Giuliana, youll have the option to tell her you know what the shipment contains. (Other sites Ive read about this questline say this option only appears if you have the Arcane Scholar background, but my character is a War Veteran and I still got a version of this dialogue option, so I suspect it appears in some form for everyone.) If you tell Giuliana youre aware of the contents, however, shell get upset and fear that youll reveal her secret, since this contraceptive herb is actually illegal in Paradis. If you arent playing as a complete asshole, you can reassure her that youll keep her secret. If you successfully manage to convince her of this, shell reward you with a neat item: the Night-Mistress Favor Trinket, which will slowly regenerate your essence whenever youre close to a companion.The cool thing about this quest and about Avowed in general is that it does a lot with a little. Its short but it still tells you something important about the type of place that Paradis is. Youll even have the option later on at your campsite to discuss the politics of Paradis with your companion Kai, for example, and reinforce your characters point of view on the matter. The characters in this game talk about sex in ways that real people do they tell jokes and rib each other about it, but they also take into account the seriousness of situations like birth control access. This particular quest may be short, but it goes a long way in both showing what kind of place your character is visiting but also, letting you decide what kind of person youre going to be.