Standing, you look around. Aside from the body at your feet, you do not see any other corpses. Where are the rest of the villagers? Hands on hilts, you go looking.

It does not take you long. Nailed to the village hall with great wooden spikes is the body of another man, older this time. His eyes have been plucked and the symbol each of you have branded on your wrists has been carved into his chest. A challenge has been issued to you. One of his arms is posed, pointing into the Deepwood.

Not twenty paces into the Deepwood, you find another corpse posed like the first. This one is lashed to the ground by thorny vines. You peer in the direction it points. You follow a trail of corpses. The barbarians have taken the people from the outpost and used them as grotesque signposts. You hear a distant scream, clearly human. There are survivors ahead.