Valor Mortis: The Scarecrow Side Quest Walkthrough

The Scarecrow is the first side quest you can pick up in Chapter 3: Rendezvous of Valor Mortis. You find it in the Fields area of the Fallen Village, where a mutilated man is tied to a wooden cross and kept alive. Soldiers took two of his belongings. If you return both and then follow his crows, he can finally rest, and you get Bountiful Harvest, an amber, along with 6,500 Catalysts. The quest is short. Both items are easy to walk past in the dense grass, though, and the quest does not end when you hand them over.

Quick answer: Take the Lover’s Pendant from the corpse under the tree behind the scarecrow. Get the Letter with a Drawing from the upstairs desk of the nearby house. Return both, then follow the crows to the barn loft and interact with the blue memory.

Where The Scarecrow quest starts

Chapter: Chapter 3, Rendezvous, available right after you arrive.
Area: Fallen Village, Fields. The scarecrow sits in the field to the right of the story route.
Nearest checkpoint: the Fields Lantern, close to Laurent.
Navigation: there is no in-game map, so every direction below starts from the Fields Lantern.

Rest at the Fields Lantern. If you are face-on to the lantern, the scarecrow is along the path to your left. Follow the muddy dirt road into the open field, where a bound figure is surrounded by circling crows.

Approaching the Scarecrow — The dirt road from the Fields Lantern runs straight to the scarecrow's post. Shown at 00:15 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

As you get close, a blue memory plays in which two soldiers argue about why the man won’t die. One says the captain ordered “Eternal suffering.” When the memory ends, interact with the scarecrow and “The Scarecrow” appears as a new side quest. William points out a mark on the man’s neck where a medallion used to hang and a pocket torn from his clothes. Those are the two items you need to find. Interacting more than once gives you a few extra lines about who the man was.

Triggering Scarecrow Memory & Quest Start — Interacting with the scarecrow after the memory adds The Scarecrow to your side quests. Shown at 00:32 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

Lover’s Pendant location

You can see the pendant from the post. Walk past the scarecrow, leave the dirt track, and head into the tall marsh grass toward the lone bare tree behind him. A dead soldier is slumped at the base of the tree next to a small wooden cross, and the Lover’s Pendant is on the ground beside him. Pick it up. William asks whether it belonged to the man on the cross.

Finding the Lover's Pendant — The pendant is next to the corpse at the foot of the tree behind the scarecrow. Shown at 00:59 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

You can hand over the pendant right away, but keeping it until you have the letter lets you return both items in one trip.

Letter with a Drawing location

The letter rests on a desk upstairs in the wooden house beside the Fields Lantern. A wooden wheel is fixed to its front wall, and the house stands just left of the gate opposite the lantern. The front entrance is bolted from within, so use the back door to get inside. You can approach from the lantern side or return later from the Marketplace Lantern.

Route from the Fields Lantern

Pass through the gate opposite the Fields Lantern. On the way, shoot the luminous red orb to unlock a faster entrance. If the shortcut remains shut, follow the main route through the barn by the scarecrow; it eventually brings you back here.

With your back to the lantern, head straight through the village and turn left into the wheat field. A Risen Grenadier and several Shambling Civilians in the field confirm you’re on the right path.

Keep going left through the wheat until you reach a path that climbs uphill to the back of the house. The back door is open.

Navigating to Abandoned House — The uphill path to the house brings you to its open back door. Shown at 02:08 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

Go inside and up the stairs, then take the Letter with a Drawing from the desk. It’s a bloodstained note to Jan from Ella. It sets up a meeting at “the old shed where the black crow keeps watch” and includes a small sketch of the way there.

Collecting the Letter with a Drawing — The Letter with a Drawing names the old shed, which is where the quest ends. Shown at 02:24 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

As you leave, undo the bolt on the front door. This gives you a shortcut toward the Fields Lantern and the scarecrow.

Once you have the letter, the quest updates to say you have both items and need to take them to the scarecrow. You can also find Hand Grenades in this house.

Route from the Marketplace Lantern

If you missed the house the first time and have already unlocked the Marketplace Lantern, go back through the broken carriage where you picked up the Blunderbuss and continue past the gate. Turn right through the large hay bales toward the house in the distance, then pass the explosive horse corpses. The letter is on the house’s second floor.

Plague villagers, explosive cows and bloated horse corpses fill the field route and blow up when you get close, dealing heavy damage. Shoot them or hit them with the Fire Transmutation from a distance. To take down the Risen Grenadier, shoot its left arm, which removes about half its health, then shoot the bombs it carries.

Returning the items and following the crows

Retrace the dirt trail to the scarecrow, then interact with him. The game removes both items together and displays “Several items (2)” as they leave your inventory.

Returning to the Scarecrow — Interact with the scarecrow again to give him both belongings. Shown at 03:04 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

Watch where the crows go. William says the man looks at peace and the birds have left. The crows head toward the settlement and circle a wooden shack in the wheat field you crossed earlier. No reward appears yet, and the quest log still lists a step to follow them.

Go to the shack. It’s the old shed from Ella’s letter, a run-down barn with a diamond-shaped window. If fighting makes you lose track of the crows, go back to the gate in front of the destroyed carriage and cut right through the wheat toward the diamond-shaped window. Then follow the path to the right around the wall until you reach the shack again. Going through the lower house corridor also gets you there.

Traveling to the Old Shed — The crows lead to this wooden shed, the meeting place described in the letter. Shown at 03:59 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

Kill the exploding horses and villagers around the shed with gunfire or the Fire Transmutation. Then climb the ladder into the loft. If you can’t reach the upper floor, shoot the cart next to the barn to create a platform you can use.

Crawl into the hay loft, where blue spectral traces are spread across the straw. Let the memory of Jan and Ella play, then interact with the apparition in the hay to finish the quest.

Scarecrow quest reward and completion check

When the memory ends with Ella telling Jan “I’m not afraid of him. I don’t love him. I love you,” a Quest Complete banner appears. You receive the Bountiful Harvest amber and 6,500 Catalysts. William then says someone loved the man on the cross deeply.

Interacting with the Memory & Quest Completion — The Quest Complete banner and Bountiful Harvest reward confirm The Scarecrow is finished. Shown at 04:24 in Ghosts of Reykjavik’s video. Image: One More Level

To check it later, open the Quests menu and go to Side Quests. The Scarecrow moves from Active to Completed. Its journal entry now tells the full story: the man was having a secret affair with a local woman, and a jealous town soldier killed him and put his body on display. Returning his belongings lets his spirit rest.

Bountiful Harvest amber values by rank

With Bountiful Harvest active, collecting Nephtoglobin Remnants also replenishes Health alongside the usual Nephtoglobin refill. The amber has three ranks, with each rank restoring more Health per remnant. Volunteers in the City of Orphans may drop it as well.

Rank	Health per Remnant
1	3%
2	4%
3	5%

The Nephtoglobin Remnants stat upgrade under the Sufferance attribute works well with it. It has 4 ranks, and each rank makes remnants restore 10% more Nephtoglobin. The amber’s Health restore stays the same no matter how many ranks of the upgrade you have.

Weapons and consumables for the Fallen Village route

Keep your distance from the explosive foes around the scarecrow, house, and shed; three items along this route are useful for handling them. Fire Transmutation sets foes ablaze, causing damage over time, and can light objects in the environment.

Fire Transmutation level	Base damage	Damage	Ignite damage
1	5	15	4
2	7	17	4.5
3	8	18	5
4	9	19	5.5
5	10	20	6

Level 2 requires two Crude Transmutation Material; level 3 takes two Pure, level 4 takes two Distilled and level 5 takes one Quintessential. Brittleness is the level 2 upgrade, increasing the damage Melee Attacks deal to ignited enemies.

You find the Blunderbuss in the Fallen Village, inside the broken carriage on the same route. This close-range firearm can strike multiple enemies with one shot, making it useful against groups of exploding villagers and horses. At level 1, it deals 15 damage, with a 150 damage cap. It holds 2 rounds, reloads in 3.5 seconds and has a 0.2-second interval between shots. Showstopper, its level 2 upgrade, allows its shots to disrupt Unblockable Attacks.

Hand Grenade	Value
Risen Grenadier drop	30%
Placed in Fallen Village	2
Max carried	3
Price / sell price	200 / 100
Sold by	James’s Iron Bench, from the start

Hand Grenades explode on impact. The Risen Grenadier near the bend toward the house can drop one, and the house that holds the letter also has grenades inside.