Valor Mortis: How to Reach the Orchard in Chapter 3

The Orchard is the third lantern in the Fallen Village, and getting to it during Chapter 3 – Rendezvous is harder than it looks. Valor Mortis has no in-game map, so you have to read the route from landmarks: a ladder over the village wall, a burning cart, a house with a back door, and a cellar sealed by corrupted roots. The path only opens after you find a key and destroy the growth that feeds those roots.

Quick answer: From the Marketplace lantern, cross the wall, go through the house into the cellar, grab the Storage Key, destroy the core behind the locked gate, then take the stairs up and follow the lanterns.

Marketplace lantern to the Fallen Village cellar

The run starts at the Marketplace lantern, the hanging hourglass checkpoint in the Fallen Village. Everything up to the cellar is on the surface and takes well under a minute if you don’t stop to fight.

Leave the Marketplace lantern and run straight down the dirt path toward the village fence. The settlement buildings sit directly ahead of the checkpoint.

Starting at the initial Lantern — The Marketplace lantern, where the route begins. Follow the dirt path toward the buildings. Shown at 00:04 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

At the wooden gate structure, climb the ladder up to the lookout platform. This gets you over the perimeter wall.

Drop off the wooden walkway into the muddy street on the other side. Sprint down the road past the burning cart.

Enter the lit doorway of the wooden house on your right. Go straight through and leave by the back door into the courtyard.

Climb down the ladder hatch in the courtyard. It drops you into a dark underground storage cellar.

Descending into the underground cellar — The ladder hatch behind the house leads down into the storage cellar. Shown at 00:40 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

Storage Key and the root barrier in the cellar

The cellar is a short puzzle. A stone staircase leads back to the surface, but red corrupted roots block it. Those roots come from a fleshy core locked inside a barred cell, and the cell needs the Storage Key. Trying the door without the key shows “This door is locked and requires Storage Key.”

In the cellar, go beyond the locked barred door and check the rear-left corner. The key is tucked behind a cluster of wooden barrels.

Pick up the Storage Key from the top of a wooden crate, marked by a white pillar of light. The prompt “Storage Key ADDED TO INVENTORY” confirms the pickup.

Retrieving the Storage Key — The key's crate is tucked behind the barrels in the back-left corner of the cellar. Shown at 00:58 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

Go back to the barred door and interact with it. The message “The door was opened with Storage Key” means the gate is unlocked.

Enter the cell and strike the pulsing orange-red bulb fixed to the wall. Its destruction removes the root barrier covering the stone staircase on the other side of the room.

Unlocking the door and destroying the corruption core — Destroying the corrupted core inside the cell clears the roots blocking the exit stairs. Shown at 01:13 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

Cellar stairs to the Orchard lantern

Once the roots are gone, the rest of the trip is a straight line. The lanterns along the final path help a lot, because the Orchard is thick with fog.

Climb the now-open stone staircase back to the surface.

Exiting via the cellar stairs — With the roots cleared, the stone stairs take you out of the cellar. Shown at 01:20 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

Continue along the dirt path, passing through the open gates of stone and wood. They open into the misty orchard.

Keep to the trail marked by lanterns hanging from wooden posts. They run through the tree grove to the next hourglass checkpoint.

Navigating the foggy orchard path — The post lanterns mark the way through the fog to the Orchard checkpoint. Shown at 01:46 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

Interact with the hanging hourglass lantern at the end of the path to activate the Orchard checkpoint.

Confirming the Orchard lantern is active

Activating the Orchard lantern restocks your items from the Stash, shown as “Items restocked from Stash,” and opens the lantern menu. You’ll see four options there:

Dark Lantern menu with three buttons over a blurred forest scene with a rusty lamp post. — The Lantern menu offers the options Level Up, Upgrade Ferrofluid Flask and Leave.

LEVEL UP, for spending currency on your character
TRAVEL, for moving between lanterns you’ve activated
UPGRADE FERROFLUID FLASK, for raising flask healing
LEAVE, to close the menu

Once this menu appears, the Orchard counts as a checkpoint. If you die later in the Fallen Village, you respawn here and don’t have to repeat the cellar.

Fallen Village lanterns and region details

The Orchard belongs to the Fallen Village, region III. Without a map, it helps to know which checkpoints exist in the area and what else is there.

Fallen Village	Value
Region numeral	III
Lanterns	Fields, Marketplace, Orchard, Path of Fire
Boss	The Iron Marshall
Chests	9
Notes placed	5

Enemies in the region are Shambling Civilians, Risen Musketeer, Risen Soldier, Volunteers, Carrion, Howler, Risen Grenadier, Risen Duellist, Eternal Guardsman and Risen Sapeur. Expect some of them on the road between the Marketplace and the cellar.

The Marketplace lantern, your starting point for this route, is also in the Fallen Village.

Ferrofluid Flask upgrades at the Orchard lantern

The UPGRADE FERROFLUID FLASK option is the first thing many players use at a new lantern. A Ferrofluid Flask heals 50 at base, you can carry up to 5, and each Empty Ferrofluid Flask adds one more charge. Each potency upgrade costs Ferrofluid Flask Power Upgrade materials.

Upgrade	Healing	Power Upgrades needed
Base	50	—
1	60	1
2	70	2
3	80	2
4	90	2
5	100	3
6	110	3
7	120	3
8	130	4
9	140	4

Taking a flask from 50 to 140 healing costs 24 Ferrofluid Flask Power Upgrades in total.

The Fallen Village holds two Ferrofluid Flask Power Upgrades in its chests. Louis’s Laboratoire sells one for $3,000 from the start of the game and restocks one more each in chapter 5 (Crime) and chapter 9 (In Ruins). The Fortress has the most in chests with four, followed by the City of Orphans and the University with three each.