Madness and monsters. Those are the two most prevalent factors for any settlement’s demise. Just how many bones and ashes tell this same story in these cursed lands mudded with death?

But this record shows us something worth reading: how a village tried to endure both threats in quite the… mysterious way.

The big tree in the center? That’s the key. They called it Mercy, though common folk avoided the name. Superstitions told it listened; that if called, it answered back. It was their protector, after all. It would be unwise to waste its precious time with futile words. Or so they thought.