Location 21 - The V

The Venerator lies dead before you. Even with this victory, terrified, hopeless eyes look to you as townsfolk gather round. Mothers sob while fathers and neighbors try to reassure them that everything will be okay. All of the children have inexplicably disappeared. Dozens of tiny footprints in the mud by the village's main gate ominously suggest they may have fled into the Deepwood. Considering the carnage that has taken place within the walls of the village over the last few days, it is of small wonder what may have driven them to risk running into the forsaken woods.

"The children couldn't have gone far," one says.

"The Oathsworn will find them," promises another, looking up at you with unfounded hope. This is not your task here, and the hour is getting late for Verum. You know you must return soon with the Mendicants or many more lives will be lost. There is more at stake here than one village.

You look away from the need in the villagers eyes and face the village Banksmith. "Thank you Oathsworn," he says. "Without you, we would have been just like the others or worse. My wares are yours, take what you will. I owe you that much."

Nodding to the Banksmith you take in the scene. Several townsfolk continue to sway in an invisible breeze, staring expressionlessly into nothing. "Something is still bewitching them," the Banksmith adds. With the Venerator's lifeless body laying in a pool of his own blood, it is clear he is not the source of this witchcraft. You survey the Venerator's corpse, your attention drawn to the book he was carrying as it lays unceremoniously in a puddle of blood beside him. Wrapped in charred leather, and bound by thick iron chains, there is something wholly unsettling about the book.