The town guard says they’ll look into Donald Kleinvingers and his Hierarch. Meanwhile, they have a new contract for me. Nilfgaard has been building houses on Temple Isle ruins since they took over – and now some people turned up dead. Burned to a crisp, even though their surroundings were untouched. Town guard suspects some kind of monster is responsible. I’m on my way there now.
I visited the houses of the victims. Just like the town guard said, they died of serious burns, the corpses are charred. Except, if they got set on fire, or even hit by the oni’s lightning, the surroundings would catch fire too. Even the internal organs are charred. I see the fire’s trails inside their bodies… going outward. The fire came from inside. Multiple victims of strange burns in short span, all in houses built on ruins of a temple destroyed by the Fire. This is the work of one seriously pissed off specter.
I need to check the area, see what exactly stood here before. Perhaps find out who the specter was in life. And ask around what the victims were doing just before their deaths. Find out what triggers the attacks so I can destroy the culprit.
Still investigating, but I thought about Ithlinne’s prophecy again. “The world will die amidst frost and be reborn with the new sun. It will be reborn of Elder Blood, of Hen Ichaer, of the seed that has been sown. A seed which will not sprout but burst into flame.” What if the “new sun” is Nilfgaard? What if Cirilla “burst into flame” to beat the White Frost and now her return to Emhyr is the rebirth “with the new sun”? I don’t think the world perished amidst the ice in any possible interpretation, though. Still have to figure that one out.
Some of these folks believe in spontaneous combustions. People do not just burst into flame for no reason. It must have been a spirit. One old lady believes her husband was punished by the Eternal Fire for daring to live in a house built on hallowed ground. Your whole “Eternal Fire” was extinguished, after it consumed half the city. When will they stop this nonsense?
Though her superstition does give me idea. Eternal Fire, hallowed ground, victims dying of immolation. What if this spirit believes it’s punishing people? Being dead does not mean you are free of stupidity.
There is something under this floor. I hope the owners don’t mind a little… redecoration. They don’t, because they’re dead. I’m not very good at humor.
I’m coming back up, but I think I can summon the specter to destroy it. The exact spot they built the houses on wasn’t just hallowed ground. It was a crypt. An ancient crypt dating back to the founding of the Eternal Fire. And in it, disturbed grave of Hierarch Vlambell. Yes, the legendary Mad Hierarch who dabbled in magic. The one who used fire magic to burn his enemies until his own priests considered him too radical and killed him. The Great Fire must have disturbed his grave, and the houses were a final nail in the not-so-proverbial coffin.
Journals of Addar of Toussaint 