main thread
Reach Brencis.
Decide beforehand how much preparation, how many allies and how much power you want to bring.
Acting against Brencis's organisation raises Infamy, which changes patrols, shop access and how anti-Brencis groups treat you.
This is the design claim, not a journal entry: the developer's statement that an early attempt is possible. The named quest that actually ends the story in the retail build is A Deal with the Devil, which is a separate record — what an unprepared early attempt costs you is still unpublished.