The dead fanned out around them as they headed towards the nest gate, checking down every alleyway and side street, looking for any potential threat.

“These guys seem a lot smarter than the normal minions I've seen,” Jicker said to Mary as he watched them work.

“They aren’t any smarter actually, but I’ve set up a bunch of...preset commands, so they can react to most common scenarios without me having to command them directly. Saves me from having to replace them after I forget to tell them move out the way of a high speed wagon,” she replied.

“Huh, that’s a really good idea.”

“There are a few reasons why I'm in charge of the guild. But speaking of skills, after your fight at the first gate, what do you have left?”

Jicker looked through his pack and thought about it. “I’ve got a hundred or so shots of poison, a handful of stuff for causing frenzy, and a few healing supplies. But I'm pretty much out of everything else.”

“So you’re pretty much tapped out at the moment,” she said thoughtfully. “Can you make up some more?”

“If I had some supplies, a crafting station and several hours of work, sure, I could make some more stuff.”

“A simple no would have been fine. What about regular combat? Your blade still in good condition?”

“It works just fine, and I've got a few regular darts for what it’s worth.” He said holding up one of the darts he’d made from Snuffles’ hair so long ago. Mary looked at it in disbelief.

“You came to this fight with those?” She asked incredulously.

“I was planning to get a new one fairly soon, but then things started happening.”

“As I recall, you happened. We have a few people in the guild who do good work; you should ask one of them once things settle down.”

“I’ve got one being put together at the moment, assuming the store isn’t destroyed in the siege.”

“In town? Is it nearby?”

“A few blocks over I think but I don't think this is the time to go shopping.”

“It’s always time to shop.”

~~~~~~

Most stores hadn’t been affected by the fighting so far, but once the army managed to clear the walls, that would quickly change. Laura had apparently shut up shop for the day, but hadn’t put up any defences on her store beyond putting up a closed sign. It seemed that she, like most of the businesses in town, either didn’t think the siege would succeed or that it wouldn’t affect them if it did.

Knocking on the door, they waited for a reply as the skeletons began to search the ears for enemies.

“Seriously, don't we have more pressing things to do right now?” Jicker asked as they stood there.

“Rising Moon does, yes. But now that we’ve taken one gate, things are right on track, and we’ve got a little while to kill before our forces are in position to take the next gate. It’s also a good chance to see how the local merchants feel about our takeover, and whether we’re going to need to replace them. And besides you’re not much good to us with that stick.”

After a few minutes of knocking, Laura came and opened up, crouching down to peer through her own door.

“In case you didn't know, the sign says closed. Reading isn't exactly a hard skill to learn around here… oh hey, it's you. Isn't a bit dangerous to be walking around the city today?” she asked as she looked down at him.

Jicker looked from her to the undead forces that had stopped their search and turned to face the giant, identifying her as a potential threat.

“It’s more dangerous for some than others,” he replied to Laura, who was now looking concerned about the forces surrounding her store. “I was coming to see how my order was coming along. Is it ready?”

“Your order? It’s... um…”

“Let’s move past this part shall we?” Mary said, speaking up. “Now, Laura wasn't it? What your opinion on our attack on the city?”

“What? I don't know, I don't get told anything. If you succeed, are you going to wreck my shop?” she asked in a hard voice, her grip on the doorframe tightening and beginning to crack the wood. While Jicker took a step back in the face of the unspoken threat, Mary remained unfazed.

“Assuming you’re both willing to pay your taxes to us instead and have our guild members as customers, you’re more than welcome to keep your shop.”

“And are you going to damage it during your takeover?”

“We don't plan to, but things happen in battle that can't be planned for. Same as the city could damage it during the defence.”

Laura sighed. “Fine, you can come in I guess, but the skeletons stay outside. I don't let any pets or summoned creatures inside, and that not changing now.”

“Fair enough, it’s your store.” Mary said giving a wave, signalling for the dead to take up defensive positions around the building.

On entering the building they saw that Laura wasn't quite as unprepared as they’d thought, a large ballista positioned and aimed towards the door. A number of other weapons and objects had been placed around the windows, several glowing with magical power.

“Didn't trust us not to raid your place?” Mary asked, examining the defences.

“Surprisingly, none of this is for you or the defenders. The fighting at the walls had called away all of the normal guards and patrollers, so a number of people are spending their time looting. I’m kind of surprised to see a little guy like you as a part of the invasion,” she said to Jicker.

“Kind of just got swept up in things I guess. Now, is my pipe finished?”

“It is, and I think you’ll be happy with how it turned out.”

As Jicker followed Laura into her workshop, Mary stayed out in the display room, apparently looking for something. Searching through her shelves, Laura pulled down a wooden box, small by her standards but still bigger than he could easily lift himself. Placing it on the floor, she opened it, letting him see his new weapon.

“I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, despite how much of a pain it was to work on something so small,” she said as he looked over it.

A little over three feet long, it stood a little taller than him when he rested it on the ground, and was around an inch in diameter. Made of white material he didn't immediately recognize, it was covered in fine, flowing scrollwork ending in polished brass end pieces.

“What’s this made of?” Jicker asked as he examined pipe.

“Treated troll bone, which I can tell you, was a pain to work with. But it’s as light as wood while being stronger than most metals, with the added benefit of being able to repair most damage done to it.”

Jicker gave it a few swings to test it out, getting a feel for it. While the bone was as light as she’d said, the metal ends gave it enough heft that it would still be a solid weapon.

White Pipe of Striking

Item type: Weapon

Grade: Rare

Restriction: Level 16 Minimum

20-32 damage

This stylised blowgun can be used as both a ranged or melee weapon, and will recover lost durability over time. All projectiles fired will gain an additional 5 damage and 20% increased effects.

It was a beautiful piece, and the increased effects of fired ammunition made it irreplaceable for him, enhancing his main source of damage substantially.

“It’s perfect, how much did it come to?” Jicker asked as traced the lines along the pipe.

“Let’s see, you left me with four hundred gold, taking into consideration materials and design costs...you owe me seventeen hundred gold.”

Jicker looked at her in disbelief. “For a pipe? I could get one made of solid gold for less than that!”

“Easily,” she agreed. “Because troll bone is worth a lot more than its weight in gold once treated, and a lot harder to carve as well.”

“When I left you to work on this I didn't expect you to try and bankrupt me!”

“It’s high quality custom work, and I expect to be paid for it!”

“Custom work that you wouldn't be able to sell to anyone else!”

“Normally I wouldn't care,” Mary said, having come to find them. “But we’re on a bit of a schedule here, so can we hurry this up? Here's the gold.”

She threw a small bag to the giantess who grabbed it out of the air and opened it.

“Boo! Haggling over the price is half the fun on these sorts of jobs! Besides, this is way more than the thing is actually worth.” Laura said, but still pocketed the money.

“You didn't need to pay for that,” Jicker said, despite knowing he didn't have gold to his name at the moment.

“I didn't, it’s coming out of your share of the winnings from the siege. But since I've apparently already over paid, maybe you can help me with something. What's the biggest drum you’ve got Laura?”

“Hmm? Wide, tall or over all?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in interest.

“Wide I suppose, and with real leather drum skin.”

“Odd requirement, but I've got a few four footers that qualify. But if you give me ten minutes I can put together a six or eight foot wide one.”

“The eight foot would be perfect, better than I’d hoped. Will the excess I just paid cover it or are you going to try and gouge me for this as well?”

“No, you’ve covered this. Pull up a seat while I get to work.”

The next ten minutes were a strange experience. Despite the fact that a battle for control of the city was happening only a few blocks away from them, they sat patiently and relaxed as they watched Laura work. A huge circle of wood was quickly assembled and nailed together, the sanded back to a fine finish. Once the base was completed, an entire bear skin was brought out and quickly cut and shaped to fit, the head and claws left attached by Mary’s request. The resulting instrument was somewhat crude in appearance, but the seemed to fit given the large size.

“She’s all done. I’ll get it out of the store for you, since I don't want you to break anything, but after that it's all yours,” Laura said, giving the drum a final check, brushing of a few specks of sawdust.

Once she’d carefully manoeuvred the drum out of the store, Mary had a number of her skeletons lift it up, carrying it down the street like a litter. Before they could head off, Laura large hand landed on Jickers shoulder.

“Jicker, one last thing. I had some leftover bone from working on your pipe, and I had some time to work with it. I’d planned to offer it to you as part of our negotiations, but since your friend just paid the first number I said I didn't get a chance. And since I can't really sell it to anyone else, and because I’ve already made a profit even with this included, here.”

She handed him a small, black leather pouch, little more than a pocket. Looking inside he saw that it contained a number of fine bone spines growing from the bottom of the pouch, ending in razor sharp points.

Troll Splinter Box

Item type: Ammunition

Grade: Rare

Restriction: Level 23 Minimum

A fine leather pouch holding 24 darts of bone, which deal an additional 4 points of damage when used as projectiles. Darts disintegrate 5 minutes after being removed from the pouch, and will regrow after this period in 1 minute.

“This is great! Way better than having to scrounge up bits of metal or wood to fire,” Jicker exclaimed, attaching the pouch to his belt. Pulling one of the darts free, he loaded it into the pipe to find it fit perfectly. “You do excellent work.”

“Thanks, I do my best. Now if you don't mind, I’m going to go and barricade myself inside until this is over.”

As they left the store and began heading down the road, the dead once again grouped up around them, clearing the street as they went. People might not be particularly concerned at the fighting at the walls, but a squadron of heavily armoured skeletons still had enough of an impact to empty the way in front of them.

Jicker had been looking at the drum they were carrying and after a while he couldn't contain his curiosity.

“I wanted to have a united front in the shop, so I stayed quiet, but seriously what's the drum for?” He asked Mary.

She turned to him and grinned. “We’re going to go and drum up some help,” she said, her expression then rapidly turning serious. “Never tell Gabe I said that.”

~~~~~~~

“So run this by me again?” Jicker asked from his seat, leaning back on a tombstone as he watched Mary work.

Rather than head to the next gate, they’d instead made another detour and ended up at the city cemetery. With an army of necromancers battering the walls, defending the city’s dead had become a necessity. But while a number of guards had been pulled back to keep an eye on the cemetery grounds, they were woefully unprepared to defend it from forces that rushed at them at Mary’s command. Jicker had loaded his new blowgun and tried to find an opponent, eager to test out his new weapon, but any potential targets had been quickly buried under the hacking blades of the skeletal warriors.

And so now he sat out of the way as she drew a series of circles on the ground, centred around the drum. It in turn had been adorned with a number of symbols drawn in fresh blood, taken from one of the soldiers who shown up to change shifts with those who’d already been killed.

“I thought you’d played Genesis before? You should know this stuff,” Mary replied as she worked, focusing on the lines she dug into the soil.

“Played the game, yes. Seen someone start painting blood onto a drum in a graveyard? That one's new to me.”

“The drums a focus, a bit more hocus pocus than I normally use but it’ll work. I channel the spell through the drum with the help of the circles I'm setting up and then the spell gets carried along with the sound, amplifying and extending it.”

“I get that, I suppose. But why didn't you bring a drum with you then?”

“Firstly, because for it to make any difference it needs to be substantial, and I couldn't invade a city while hauling around a massive drum. And secondly, this is a bit more freestyle than the rest of the plan.”

“Was that a joke?”

“What?” Mary asked, confused.

“Freestyle music? While you're working with a drum? You know, ba-dum-tss!” Jicker said, miming hitting the cymbal.

“...I swear I would end you if we didn't need everyone we have right now. Now get ready to move, I’m going to start in a sec,” she said, dusting off her hands while shooting him a dark look.

Sitting cross legged in the circle she sat next to the drum, and began to chant as she struck the drum. As the first beat started Jicker felt the magic wash over him, then flow back with echoes that hadn’t been there before, the sound and magic mixing and twisting. Each note added to the build up of energy and shaped it into something else, something far darker than just sound.

As the spell reached its finally, Mary struck the drum with a massive blow, shattering it and driving chunks of wood into the ground. But even though the drum itself was destroyed, its sound continued to reverberate around the graves, rolling heavily through the air. Eventually these last sounds went silent, sinking into the ground, or at least beneath it. For a brief moment there was silence, the dust beginning to settle back down after the spell.

A grave right next to where Jicker was sitting was the first to break open, a figure rising up with surprising force, throwing lumps of dirt and pieces of their coffin aside as if they were weightless. Standing over six feet tall, the corpse was unlike any that he’d seen before. It was a zombie, the grey skin and rotting flesh was a give away, but this one seemed like it was stronger now than it had been in life. The muscles in its arms and back were almost comically enlarged, to the point they tore through the skin and left the figure hunched over. The arms became so distended that they dislocated from the shoulders, hanging down loosely and swinging in what would have been agony in anything that could still feel pain, the flesh tearing away from its hands and leaving fragments of bone exposed.

But the thing that caught Jicker’s attention the most was its face. Its jaw had become misshapen and filled with far too many teeth to eat properly, but from the swollen muscles in its neck, it would have enough bite strength to tear into whatever it came across. Its eyes still contained some remains of what they’d been before, but were entirely filled with rage and hunger.

Jicker had been so caught up in looking over the undead that had risen next to him that he hadn’t noticed as at first dozens, and then hundreds of other bodies started clawing their way out of the ground. They were varied, being of many different races and in various states of decay, but they all had the same deformations.

He went up to the one next to him, looking to see where the additional muscle was attached and whether he could use it in a creation of his own. But as he got close, the zombie spun around and lunged at him, its arms swinging wildly at him, giving audible sounds as its shoulders cracked under the strain.

“Heel!” Mary shouted, causing it to pull back just before it took his head off. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“It’s a zombie; I doubt it thinks much about anything.”

“Not it, you! Who just walks up to someone’s zombie after it’s just been raised!”

“None of your other ones have been an issue, I figured these would be the same?” he hazarded.

“Those other ones have been trained and given sets of instructions. These are just a bunch of motor functions and the desire to feed on the living,” she sighed. “What were you doing anyway?”

“I was seeing if I could copy its weird muscles into my stuff,” he answered distractedly, watching as lump of skin fell off its arm and landed wetly on the ground.

“Can you?”

“No idea, I’ll have to try later.”

“Why not try something on one of them? That should give you a better understanding.”

Jicker was about to reply when he hesitated. Why couldn’t he change one? “Hold it still,” he said putting his hand the zombie and activating adaptation.

Normally when he activated the ability, time seemed to slow down and focus on the creature, letting him work with extreme accuracy. But whatever the ability normally latched on to seemed to slide off of the zombie, lacking some crucial component.

Warning! Adaptation cannot currently be used on undead or inorganic targets.

“No luck I’m afraid. Doesn’t seem to work on undead creatures,” he informed her, while his mind considered the implications of the word ‘currently’. He shook the idea from his head, deciding that it was a problem for another day when they weren’t about to fight. “Why are they like that anyway?”

“The drum probably,” she replied with a shrug.

“What?”

“I doubt it’s the same for whatever it is that you do, but a lot of the time magical summoning is more art than science. Sometimes things are affected by tiny little fluctuations in the air, sometime by the stars and more often things just...happen.”

“So you’re saying it’s just...magic.”

“Look, I used a bear skin drum, now I have bear-ish zombies. What else do I need to say?”

“...Charge?”

“...works for me.”

~~~~~~~

He’d picked a bad day to come in to the city, the soldier thought as he sharpened his sword. He’d only stopped in to Ardenvale to pick up some supplies for a quest in a town, but in that brief window of time the siege had been declared and the city had locked down. As a decent fighter, they’d wasted no time in conscripting him to the defence force, and at that time he’d agreed, happy with the idea of getting a few levels and some gold for pushing back a bunch of whiney corpse lovers.

But they had misjudged their enemy and were paying the price for it. What they’d thought would be an effortless day of lazily firing from the battlements had quickly turned to a desperate struggle for every gate. Once they’d brought out that monstrous weapon and punched holes clean through the walls, any hope of just staying out of it was shattered, and the reserves they’d planned on quickly being redeployed around the city.

At least for now it had gone quiet at the gate, the latest push having been beaten back and both sides recovering and tending the wounded. The defenders had patched up the damage to the wall as best they could, but it was weighing heavily on everyone when they looked at the repairs. Each time they held them off and each time they fixed what had been broken, but each time there was less to work with and the cracks were beginning to show. But they didn’t need to hold them off forever, just until reinforcements made it in from another city, which could happen at any time if they were lucky.

But luck isn’t something to be depended on, and almost as one the defenders paused and turned looking towards the sound that had been picking up. What had began as a low drone turned into a roar as they rounded a corner, a rushing wave of corpses, howling for blood and breaking everything that stood between them and their prey.

It was a bad day to come to the city.

~~~~~~~

Mary hadn’t had time to properly organise or train the dead she’d raised, but had decided that they’d suit her purpose’s as they were. The newly created zombies, named Igors because of their hunched backs, were almost feral in nature, and at best could function as a mob. But with their great strength and numbers, they could be used as berserkers, simply sent in to fight and kill until they either ran out of opponents or died.

When Jicker had fought the seekers, he’d watched fighting through precision and planning. When they’d taken the first gate, they’d relied on surprise, deception and speed. But now, as he watched the Igors crash into the hastily formed defensive line of the gate guards, he saw brutality and chaos at work.

There was no strategy, no key points of attack or direction, no form of command. Just every zombie doing everything they could to sink their teeth in to the living in front of them. With their shoulders all but useless, the favoured huge blows of their arms to drive their victims down, swinging well past were an arm was supposed to stop and getting more force because of it. The shattered hands had become effective maces, the broken shards of bone tearing at flesh and turning glancing blows into horrific wounds.

While he managed to pick of one runner and hit a couple of targets in the fight, Jicker quickly realised his contributions to the battle were going to be minimal at best and took to the roof, finding a spot to watch things unfold. The result of the fight had been determined before it had even begun, and no act of valour or courage from the defenders was going to change it. The numerous defences they’d set up, magical shield and physical barricades, all of it had been placed with the assumption that the enemy would be attacking from outside the city. When the Igors struck them from behind, they found themselves trapped against their own safety measures.

A few of the more nimble and magical fighters managed to escape the fray, dodging the raging dead around them and tried to head further into the city to get word to their commanders. Unfortunately for them, the skeletal champions had been hanging back and had formed a ring around the battle, and made short work of the already injured escapees.

It had been brief frenzy, but already the fight was done, though the Igors feeding would likely continue on for some time. Climbing down, he made his way around the undead as they gorged themselves, not willing to come between them and their meal. Getting to the gate house, he shooed a zombie that had been eating the person manning the lever away, luring it out by throwing a piece of body away.

He wondered briefly as he pulled the lever open, at how the scenes of violence didn’t seem to be affecting him as much as they would have previously. He wasn’t the target of the attacks, which helped, but in the past seeing zombies eating his enemies would still have made him sick, and he wondered if it was gremlin ability to be able to stomach things, or whether he was just becoming jaded.

As the forces began to file in through the gate and take the surrounding streets, Mary came down to get reports from her officers.

“How are things going out there?”

“General casualties are going as expected, with the node doing a lot to minimise the effects of holy magic on our forces. So far they continue to patch every hole we’ve put in the walls, but they’re slowing down.”

“Good. Have word sent to Arcus to cease fire and move the node up towards one of the gates we’ve taken. I want that aura stretching over as much of the city as we can get,” she said with a nod. Another guild member saluted and took off back out to the battlefield.

“Actually, we’ve taken three gates so far,” the soldier said, continuing with their report.

“One of the pushes broke through?” she asked in surprise.

“Not exactly. Gabe came past one of the gates to lend support and let loose something I haven’t seen before, and left the gate buried under a dozen feet of ice, with combatants from both sides included. We have people digging out who we can and thawing them out, and once the gate defrosts enough to open, it will be ours.”

Mary groaned, ignoring the laughter that came from others who’d overheard the report. “Of course he did. Well, it’s not how I’d planned to take the third gate but I guess it’ll do. If we’ve got three gates, we can now start circling throughout the city proper and get to work claiming it. Without the walls to keep us out, our number advantage can be applied in full. Have our forces move in and group up in the markets, bring everyone we can spare.

We’ve got one last objective to take, and that’s the council chambers themselves. Once we take those, and drive out the council, Ardenvale is ours.”