Slowly making your way down an alley flanked by high walls, you sense movement and hear the slight scrape of a boot on stone. Plunging your arm into an open window you drag a shocked, dirty villager into the light. "Please, Oathsworn!" he begs. "We mean no harm!"

Hauling the man to his feet, you watch as a handful of other villagers appear from the darkness with their hands raised. Once you get a clear look at them, you realize these must be survivors from Refuge. Somehow they escaped the devastation and sought shelter here. You lower your weapons as the survivors approach and they invite you to join them inside their makeshift home.

You find more survivors huddled together by a small amber fire in the middle of a stone room. With a welcomed reprieve from the torrential rain, you ask if they know what is happening in Refuge. The eldest of them offers a reply. "We… we returned from a hunt and everyone was dead. The village was dead. After gathering what supplies we could find, we started to leave, but something was there. Something malefic. The One as my witness, it was a blood twister. We never saw it but we know what it did to Borik. He lost control of himself as all his bones twisted, breaking them into splinters. Then, spears of blood went right through Gorlan. The rest of us… we ran. Straight into the woods until we got here. That's when this storm set in."

Looking at their tired, frightened faces, you doubt these people will survive long. Running only gets you so far in the Deepwood and fear has them all but paralyzed. None of them would fare well in a fight.

Across the room, you see a pile of supplies. They seem to have found a few things of worth in the ruins and have also taken what looks like some Maiden Blossom from Nydia's stores. Maiden Blossom is known to be a powerful pain reliever. With the numerous injuries you have endured from your travels, the herb could be of some use to you. As you eye their stash, some of the men move to block your view.

"We have nothing to offer you, Oathsworn," one man pipes up. "We don't even have enough for ourselves, and things are getting more and more desperate by the day."