Another year passes, another Ascension Day arrives, but this year two figures approach the town to fulfill the Old God's pact... They entered the town without being challenged. Her little legs kept a quick pace to match his ground-eating stride, keeping him in line on her left as she'd been taught. ...

I slip from nightmare to nightmare. I don't know where I am. Everything looks funny. People are all around me, shouting and cursing. Al is there, telling me to stand up and go with him. It's cold and my neck hurts. I can't remember anything. I look around for Marya and realize that she's the bloody...

The next entry appears to have been written by two different hands. The first matches the girlish style common throughout the journal, while the second is jagged, almost rushed, with noticeably more pressure behind the quill. The page itself shows spots of old dampness where droplets of moisture fel...

Dear Diary, We were let out of classes early today. I didn't know why at first, but when sister and me went out to play, we saw the knight came back! The big dark one that comes every year. He must be an even better baker than ours, because he brought us more yummy tarts! There was something else, ...

Dear Diary, Something sort of strange happened today. The knight with the funny name came back again, and like I promised last year, I got my sister to come with me after school to find him. She still thinks he looks scary, but I promised he's nice and I'd protect her if he was mean. We looked arou...

Remember they did, for none but the very young, most oft hidden away and protected from knowledge of the ancient pact, would ever be permitted to forget, as the townsfolk's ancestors intended. Half a decade and more would pass after that dark day at the healers' house, and each year would bring anot...

Page after page, the short journal entries report the return of the Rot and of the squire boy on the same day each and every year. Rotters raise varying forms of undead, the boy, gradually growing into a man, relieves the threat, and he takes his payment. SO goes the cycle, until the turn of another...

Another year's past, and the ancient pact binds us still. They sent the same one as last year. Apparently he’s a squire. Alas for whatever knight took him under their wing. The boy talks too much and too slow. I can't be sitting around blabbing with him all day. I've got a town to run. Anyway, the ...

Found within the worn old pages of the sheriff's personal logs, accounts of an ancient curse and a squire bound to bear its weight finally are exposed to the light of day. The first of these follows... Another year, another Rotter raised and felled, another price paid. They sent a new one this time....