Januarius

The village tavern is run by Januarius, the first trader you’ll deal with and the man who buys your Burial Certificates. He calls it an old village tradition, never mind that the village has never had a graveyard. His stock includes Beer, Berry Pie, Town Gratitude and the Exhumation Certificate.

He’s also Jully, Head of the Village and wearer of the wooden mask. Mention fairies and Januarius steps out to fetch “Jully”, who then insists you’ve never spoken before (achievement Two faces). Whenever a quest points you to the Head of the Village, it means Jully: pick Call Jully while talking to Januarius, and Call Januarius to switch back. Jully is prickly and pompous (“In matters of nature, my knowledge is complete!”), the only worshipper the Goddess of Nature has, and Januarius would love to see the end of his “little dictatorship”.

Your introduction is What the Fairy?, which also points you toward Herm, the village merchant.

Certificates for cash

Each burial produces a certificate, and Januarius always pays the same for it:

Grade	He pays
Burial Certificate I	1 silver
Burial Certificate II	2.5 silver
Burial Certificate III	5 silver

In any week, the first 5 of each grade you sell also earn 1 happiness apiece, within his weekly cap of 10. First-tier corpses only ever come with Certificate I, so early on that’s 5 happiness per week at most.

Good Fellow

Jully keeps fairy-summoning secrets to himself until you’ve proven yourself to the village: Good Fellow requires village reputation 10. Just a handful of quests add to it, 5 each, and the first two you can manage are Herm’s Planted and Delivered and the twins’ Two Peas in a Pod. When you’re there, have Januarius call Jully.

According to him, fairies are ancient nature spirits older than the red-eyed god, who in his telling deserted everyone long ago. A summoning needs teeth. When you ask whether a dead man’s will do, he adds Dream Dust, which only the Plague Doctor can supply: “that excuse of a man”, cursed and living underground. That leads to Albert; the remainder of the summoning is on the fairy’s page.

Into the Forest

Once the port is open, the forest outpost guards refuse entry without a pass, and Jully is the only one who can issue it. Into the Forest plays out in the village:

1. Raise the forest. Januarius hands you over to Jully, who tries bandits as an excuse, then glowing demons, and at last states his price: fix the Royal Post Box outside the tavern. There’s a rival establishment at the port now, and the tavern needs the trade.
2. Fix the box. Selecting Repair the box does it (plus a Town Gratitude), and a menu of services opens. Request the Head of the Village certificate and you receive a Temporary one, with a note that a permanent certificate needs a proper election. The King’s signet from the prologue isn’t required; sitting through the long verification works just as well.
3. Give Januarius the certificate. He’s thrilled, since an election could topple Jully’s “little dictatorship”; Jully, somewhere offstage, is not. You get a Town Gratitude and a Story.
4. Request the pass. Januarius gives it to you on Jully’s behalf. Present the Forest Pass at the outpost, where the guards keep it.

Among the post box’s other services is paying taxes: 2.5 silver, rewarded with nothing but the message “Tax increased!”.

The election

Ask Jully to perform a ritual for the swamp Goddess and he demands a sign first: her help winning the election. Election Fever then shifts to Januarius, who’s turned up a hefty election rulebook in the post box. Neither man can run; Jully would loathe Januarius if he won, and Januarius plans to dig up a rule barring Jully. So the candidates are the twins, Heffry and Jeffry. He hands you a checklist, three items of which need outside help:

Item	Who	Reputation required
Security	Herbert	60
Polling station	Linda, Dockside Club	60
PR campaign	Gunter, the Astrologer	50

Your first approach to each asks for 5 less, but reputation only moves in tens, so the real figure is the same. Nothing is consumed. Those totals equal every reputation quest each character has offered up to this point, which makes the election the knot where the middle of the story ties together.

Then head to the village tavern for Campaign of Thrones, worth a Town Gratitude and a Story. The whole cast is present, and you can’t leave before speaking to Jack and Agatha. A twin wins, though nobody’s sure which. Walking out closes the election (achievement The People Have Spoken), lifts Januarius’s store to tier two, and starts several new quests. One is the twins’ Press for Cash, where Januarius signs your printed money and his store goes up another tier.

Goddess in the Swamp

Jully honours the deal, but the Goddess finds him lacking in Faith. Goddess in the Swamp has you bring him 100 Faith, which he keeps, then escort him to the swamp shrine for the ritual.

The trip is a cutscene with several stops:

• The forest outpost. Jully announces he’s off to wake the Goddess; the guards are relieved they voted for a twin.
• The bridge. Hans and Sven, the bandits, wave him through because “this guy is insane”.
• A rest stop. He shares two wheels of cheese that appeared under his bed right after your first ritual conversation. They aren’t yours.
• The shrine. The fairy Soul looks him over, the ritual succeeds, and she draws him aside to settle an old debt over his teeth.

You can’t leave the swamp until you’ve spoken to the Goddess, and her words set you on the track of the Red Eye. You also get a Story.