Valor Mortis Witch Hunt Walkthrough: The Outskirts to the City of Orphans (Chapter VII)

Chapter VII, Witch Hunt, starts as you leave the Cursed Hollow graveyard and enter The Outskirts. Its route is a single long stretch: cross a flooded causeway, pass through a drowned village and market, enter a coastal fortress, emerge at a wrecked harbour, and finish in the snowbound City of Orphans, where a children’s puzzle brings the chapter to a close.

Quick answer: Light the Broken Bridge Lantern to start the chapter, follow the single route through The Outskirts and into the City of Orphans, then answer the three shadow prompts from Mimi and Agnes to finish.

Where Witch Hunt starts and how you know it completed

As you exit through the arched stone gateway behind the Cursed Hollow church, “PUNISHMENT / CHAPTER COMPLETED” appears. Broken Bridge is the first Lantern: it stands on a stone gatehouse bridge, and lighting it displays “LANTERN REKINDLED” along with the “NEW MAIN QUEST CHAPTER” banner, beginning Witch Hunt.

Broken Bridge Lantern, chapter starts. Image: One More Level / via @Shirrako

Witch Hunt chapter completed. Image: One More Level / via @Shirrako

Much later, in the City of Orphans, the chapter concludes in a small chamber covered with chalk drawings. The two concealed children, Mimi and Agnes, challenge you to identify a shadow’s shape three times. After you complete the answers, “WITCH HUNT / CHAPTER COMPLETED” appears; the route to the Shrike continues through the sewers.

This chapter does not contain the Sewers Master Key, so the iron gates requiring it remain closed.

The Outskirts Lantern order

After the Market Square Lantern is lit, The Outskirts travel list displays the Lanterns in the sequence you encounter them along the route:

Outskirts Lantern travel list. Image: One More Level / via @Shirrako

Broken Bridge
Breach
Island of Whispers
Market Square

A hanging hourglass Lantern sits before the Aurelius fog gate, another stands on the harbour ramparts, and another waits on a stone roadway before the City of Orphans.

The Outskirts route to the City of Orphans

Walk the muddy road past the shacks beyond the gateway. A leaflet pinned to a boarded window reads “SHRIKE’S APPEAL” and ends with a “CONFIRM” prompt. Rekindle the Lantern on the gatehouse bridge to lock in Broken Bridge.

From the travel screen, the Abandoned Church is a single Lantern journey away under “RETURN TO THE ABANDONED CHURCH”. James’s Iron Bench, used for upgrades, is at this hub. When finished, travel back to Broken Bridge.

On the gate’s left, enter the fleshy tunnel to find “MICE RULES – NOTE TWO”. It exits onto a scaffolding ledge, where you’ll find a Stasis Whetstone and the Witch Hunt “QUEST UPDATE”.

Use the giant skeletal wooden frames as grapple points to cross the flooded ruins, following the “[E] GRAPPLE” and “[E] ACTIVATE” prompts. Fight off crawling infected and soldiers, including a rifleman on the walkways. Take the Mythic Catalyst Clot from a stone ledge, then use “[E] OPEN (HOLD)” to open the ornate red chest at the ruined overlook; the Dominatus amber is added soon afterward.

Pass the hanging hourglass Lantern in front of the golden fog gate. Beyond it, High Justicar Aurelius, Last of the Faithful, appears on a ruined bridge. Beating him gives 18,000 Catalysts.

Grapple over the marshland to reach a ramshackle village. In a barricaded shack, two hidden children known as the Mice are tucked into a twig nest; speak with them to update Witch Hunt. Light the next Lantern along the village path and collect the nearby Nephtoglobin Vial.

Battle your way through the flooded village’s barns, rooftops, boardwalks, and stone bridge. A chest in the street contains the Surplus amber and an Imperial Catalyst Clot, while a shortcut door in a barn leads back to the square. On the road to the lighthouse, Lucjan Skawinski is beside a large Shrike nest.

Pass through the ruined houses to reach another Lantern, then make your way over timber beams and stilt-house walls. From the rooftops, go by a sick-room flyer to a cottage and the Market Square Lantern. Fast travel to the church for upgrades, then return.

In the houses around the square, burn the red growth blocking a window gap with Fire, then grapple through into the loft. In an upstairs bedroom, two ornate chests contain Distilled Transmutation Material and an Empty Ferrofluid Flask.

Trace the water’s edge until you arrive at the ruined coastal fortress. Grapple over a break in the way and enter a crumbling shelter, then make your way up to the stone ramparts; an hourglass Lantern hangs in front of an arched doorway. Drop through a floor opening into a dark cavern and battle Experiment 83.

Out of the tunnels you reach a harbour over wrecked ships. Grapple across the hanging ship masts, rekindle the Lantern on the stone roadway, and climb the steps. A loading screen carries you into the City of Orphans.

City of Orphans to the chalk-room puzzle

A drawing pinned to a bare tree gives the “Drawing of a Lancer” and the “MONSTER HUNT / NEW SIDE QUEST” banner, with a Lantern in the street beside it. Follow the street to a square with a tall guillotine, where “QUEST UPDATE / WITCH HUNT” shows as you approach.

Clear the snowy streets, townhouses, and alleys. A child named Teddy talks from a stick nest. A townhouse alley holds a red chest with a Ferrofluid Flask Power Upgrade, a shortcut door you unbolt from the alley side, and an enemy that drops the Bottomless Well amber. The wine cellar under a door painted with a shrike symbol holds the Bedtime Stories book.

Push through more buildings and a barricaded street guarded by an imperial officer worth 2,000 Catalysts. A cellar red chest holds the Life Diverted amber, and a candle-lit rooftop nest gives the Silent Squeak amber.

Past an impaled soldier on a spiked barricade, a promenade bench where Lucjan sits, and a ruined market street, you face a heavily armoured greatsword knight at a gatehouse. In the plaza with a tall statue, a locked iron gate reading “This door is locked from the other side.” is unbolted from the opposite side of the street.

Grapple down the wooden structure with “[E] PULL (HOLD)”, climb the ladder onto the scaffolding and rooftops, and reach the small room covered in chalk drawings. Answer the three shadow prompts, the first reading “A dog.” then “A big bad wolf.”, and the chapter completes. A wrong guess does not block you: the children still let you through when the questions are done.

Ambers along the route

Amber	Where to get it
Dominatus	Ruined overlook, after the red chest
Surplus	Street chest in the flooded village
Bottomless Well	Dropped by an enemy in a City of Orphans alley
Life Diverted	Cellar red chest in the City of Orphans
Silent Squeak	Candle-lit rooftop nest

Dominatus replenishes Health on Critical Attacks; Surplus increases the Catalysts you get from kills.

Side quests you can start on this route

The Shrike’s Anthem begins with a torn page in an apple offering basket near a shack wall, tagged “NEW SIDE QUEST”. A child’s rhyme at a barn nest later triggers “QUEST UPDATE / THE SHRIKE’S ANTHEM”.

Monster Hunt begins in the City of Orphans when you find the Drawing of a Lancer; look around the city for more drawings pinned in other spots.

Bedtime Stories opens at a stick nest in an upper courtyard, where two Mice offer “Offer help.” or “Ignore.”. The key item is the “Bedtime Storybook”, picked up on an attic shelf.

Misericorde starts when you reach the impaled soldier on the spiked barricade. A board in the city also posts a “SICKROOM FLYER” begging alms and laudanum for sick children, signed by the Keeper of the Sick-Chamber near the Bridge.

With the chalk room cleared and the shadow prompts answered, Witch Hunt is done and the way forward drops into the sewers beneath the city.