Ghostknight: Resurrection - Excerpt 7 (late middle - just before excerpt 4)

The village lay just as the tinker had described it, empty of all human life. It appeared the villagers had just left their buildings without looking back. Several of the houses had open doors. In other places the beds were rumpled and unmade as if the owners had risen from them and just walked out of their houses.
“That may very well be just what happened,” said Brom when Obern made this observation. “Possession would do that, but the entire village? I don’t know what sort of creature could do such a thing on such a scale. No struggle, just gone.”
The village itself was surrounded by hard packed earth, but inspection around its borders turned up a large number of human tracks heading into the forest.
“Keep your swords loose, gentlemen,” said Brom. We are following these.”