What the Well Holds

What the Well Holds is an off-screen companion adventure in Pillars of Eternity.

In-game description
The pitch:

"A few miles north of Kindle Vale sits a tiny village called Whitewreath. So small that it's often missed on maps and tax records, the village has little contact with the rest of the Dyrwood. Despite its tiny size, the village has a long history, dating back to its use as a Glanfathan tribal camp over three centuries ago.

One of the most prominent features of the community is a deep well, the top of which is made from Engwithan adra. Though not of any religious significance to the Glanfathans, all who see it agree that the well is truly ancient. In recent years, locals have reported strange sounds from within the well. Some describe it as animal sounds, others as odd speaking in a foreign tongue. No one has dared venture down into the well, but villagers are becoming nervous about drawing water from it.

Though the community has modest resources at their disposal, they have reached out to nearby lords for assistance."

The conclusion:

"Venturing into the depths of the Whitewreath well, [Companion Name] discovered that while the foundations of the well were made of a living adra, the source of the sounds were wichts that had been dropped into the well by their mothers.

In total, a dozen women from Whitewreath and the surrounding woods had dropped their children into the well after they learned they would turn into wichts. Some had died, but many survived the fall, living on small rodents and other critters that wandered the ruined Engwithan tunnels under the well.

[Companion Name] was forced to fight the aggressive wichts, but eventually emerged and told the village what had transpired. Some of the mothers confessed what they had done immediately. Others fled the village. In the end, no one had the desire to punish anyone for what had happened."