Having finally found my brother Corvus holed up in a basement, the guy wouldn't speak to me. I offered him my lone healing fruit but he remains mute. Out of rage I killed him. On his body I found one pantaloon.

When a keystone character like him, whose rescue is suppose to advance me to Chapter 2, is non-responsive (and now dead), how does one proceed with the game?!

Is this a bug?

Hi,

You can only talk to NPCs when you're not in combatmode. Normally your character unsheaths his sword automatically after clicking on a NPC. But sometimes he doesn't. So maybe that's why it seemed like you can't talk to him.