Book excerpt: The city of Yharnam: an ancient, gothic metropolis and home to the Healing Church. Founded by Laurence, the first vicar, the church has become renowned for its miraculous blood-based curatives, attracting the sick and afflicted to Yharnam from far and wide. However, recent days have seen the city fall foul to a nightmarish plague known as the Ashen Blood disease, the source of which remains a mystery. Hunters now stalk the streets in search of beasts as the moon hangs ominously low in Yharnam’s sky, while two unlikely citizens search for answers.