Ahead of the Paperwork

Ahead of the Paperwork
Felled the thing the region was named for while every one of its smaller sorrows was still open. The ground is settled; the story is simply not yet due.

Counted when a region's boss dies while none of that region's three side stories is finished. In the Hollow Fields the boss is the Old Sexton and the side stories are What the Bell Held (seven Restless Dead in the Sunken Orchard), The Shepherd's Count (three Shepherd's Dead in the Shepherd's Cairn Field) and The Standing Tenants (five standing tenants in the fields south of the road). A side story is finished by killing its bodies, whoever kills them, even before you have read about it.

Route

1. Start a new journey and read the clerk's board at Tallow's Cross: that is the first main quest, The Road In.
2. Follow the road east to the Cut-Bell Chapel, fighting only what comes at you. The Sunken Orchard and the standing tenants lie south of the road and the Shepherd's Cairn Field north of it; keep to the road and none of their bodies notices you. The walkers you meet on the way finish The Sexton's Trail.
3. From the chapel go back west to Gallow Barn, north of the road, and kill the Ploughman (Account Outstanding: the Ploughman). The recorded run did it at level 5, with one drink from the flask.
4. Walk back to the chapel and open the Journal (J) before you go behind it: the quest list shows only the main quests, In Progress and Settled. A side story you had finished would be listed too.
5. Kill the Old Sexton in the graveyard behind the chapel. The card comes with his death, together with The Office Vacated. His fight has its own guide.

What goes wrong

• A detour. Seven Restless Dead, three Shepherd's Dead or five standing tenants killed on the way finish their story at once. Pass by any group off the road.
• Too late in this region. If a Hollow Fields side story is already finished, the achievement can still be had in a later region whose side stories are all open when its boss dies.
• New Game+. The count of finished side stories carries into New Game+, so there it only works in a region whose side stories were never done.

The recorded run

One Huntsman run from New Game, recorded at normal game speed. It also earned A Region Without a Deduction, Read It Back to Him, No Deduction and the Old Sexton's achievements.

▶ Play