"Hey look!" Shaynen pointed down the road. Where a trail of caravans were parked. Cleatus stepped ahead of the party. He approached the three ill-armored guards who saw him first.

“Halt!” The leading one yelled. Cleatus held his hands up and kept approaching.

“Friendly!” Cleatus called back. The three guards hesitated but relaxed.

“More travellers? Where y’headed?” The guard asked.

“The Great Grandfather Tree.” Cleatus said. “You?”

“Carsei, this caravan is filled with settlers. They want to rebuild the town.” The guard said, “Here, I’ll take you to the soon to be chief of the town. He can tell you more.” The guard led the party into the caravan. Right to the middle where a dwarven merchant was packing up his camp site.

“Hey we got some more travellers.” The guard introduced the party and then walked away. The dwarven merchant looked at the strange group.

“So, looking to reinhabit Carsei?” Cleatus said.

“Yeah,” The dwarf sighed. “This has been a cursed journey. As it would happen something is causing the dead to rise from Carsei. We’ve lost so many guards, just last night one of our merchants disappeared. Still missing.”

“He’s not missing. We found him.” Shaynen said. The dwarven man looked up hopefully. Cleatus pulled out a signet ring he’s scrounged off last night’s body.

“Here’s all that’s left of him.” Cleatus said. He handed over the ring. The dwarf’s face fell.

“I see.” He said quietly.

“We have to pass through Carsei, we could try and clear out the undead for you.” Cleatus offered. “We’ll take two of your three guards and clear out the city for you all.”

“Much obliged travellers. I’m sure we can rustle up some coin for your troubles.” The dwarven man said. He whistled and the three guards came running.

“Theo and Kal, you’ll go with them to clear out Carsei. Tayn, you’ll stay here with us.” The dwarven leader said. Theo and Kal stepped closer to the party as Tayn looked around uneasily.

The party with the two new guards head down the dirt road for Carsei.

“So your names are Theo and Kal?” Haagut pushed to the front of the party.

“Uh, yes. That is us.” Theo cleared his throat. Haagut thrust a hand out to Theo.

“Baron Fabius Von Fizzlebottom!” He declared.

“WHO?” Cleatus, Odelia, and Shaynen all said in a single voice.

“That’s my name!” Haagut jovially skipped. The party all shared an incredulous look.

The party reached the deserted remains of Carsei in less than an hour. The river ran through the middle of the still standing city. It was all unnervingly silent. Shaynen and Cleatus snuck through the buildings, leaving no doorway unopened. But there was no hint of anything living or dead.

“I don’t see any undead.” Shaynen said as they reached the middle of the city.

“Yeah well, we need to keep investigating. Y’know hunt for clues. Just like in those Hemlock Bones books,” Cleatus said. Shaynen stared at him blankly. “Y’know. Uh. It’s elementary my dear, Mattsen?” Shaynen shook his head.

“I don’t know what that is?” He frowned.

“Yeah… I forget you grew up under a rock," Cleatus said. He turned and his pupils contracted to nothing but slits. He drew in a deep breath.

"There's undead here. In the graveyard." Cleatus said.

"Well, duh." Odelia scoffed. The graveyard across the road was filled with freshly filled graves. Cleatus and Kal walked into the graveyard. Kal gave his shovel to Cleatus and he began digging up the graveyard. With only one shovel the rest of the group could only wait and watch for something to happen. The first grave was empty. A cold air settled over the yard, sending shivers up everyone's spine.

The second grave was also empty. A quiet sound reached Shaynen's ears. The sound of scraping and digging from below the ground. Cleatus sunk his shovel into the third grave and a bony hand grabbed it. The shovel was ripped out of Cleatus' hands and threw it across the yard. More hands broke out of the dirt. Cleatus pulled out his bow and started shooting as soon as a head was visible.

Nearly every grave held an undead, clawing up from the dirt. Shaynen took two steps and vanished in a glow of autumn leaves. Reappearing in the center of a mob just coming out of their graves. The glowing leaves appeared with him, each one flew outwards and circled the rising undead. They vanished, leaving only a small dazed look on the ghoul’s faces.

Two of them losing the dazed look almost immediately as Shaynen and Haagut both moved. Shaynen brought his staff down hard onto the closest ghoul and Haagut pointed at a fallen tree branch and shrieked at it. The fallen branch leapt up and swung at another ghoul.

Odelia vaulted over the fence, shoving over and stomping on a ghoul that tried to run at Cleatus. He gave a quick nod of thanks at her and Odelia nodded back. The rest of the ghouls in the graveyard surged forward. Swarming around the party. A mass of exposed bones swinging wildly for any purchase. Another arrow flew from Cleatus and Theo but neither seemed to slow the shambling crowd. The ghouls who’d been knocked to the ground began to twitch. Rising back up.

“They’re getting back up!” Haagut yelled. He stumbled around the fence as Shaynen was overwhelmed by ghouls. He swatted away the claws with his staff, constantly being swung around to fend off the oncoming attacks. Even with the animated stick swinging at the ghouls they paid it no mind.

Haagut pulled out his spear and thrust it through the back of a ghoul. Throwing it to the ground. Shaynen was jerked around again, with a slight gap in the onslaught he tried to attack. But the ghoul he tried to hit grabbed onto his quarterstaff. Ripping it out of his hands, and throwing it over the fence. The ghoul lunged forward and Shaynen reacted. Stepping forward and making two quick jabs that knocked the ghoul down.

Cleatus and Theo danced around each other, shooting while the other reloaded. Odelia wasn’t still. Darting around to follow where the reloader was and knocking away the ghouls attempting to run up.

Kal brought out his sword to the side of Haagut, helping give Shaynen room to breathe. Every ghoul that dropped was only down for a few minutes before rising again and swarming in tighter.

WIth no boundaries between himself and the swarm, Shaynen could only do his best to block and smack away the flurry of attacks. Failing miserably as the claws ripped into him and latched onto his shirt.

“Back. Off!” He commanded. A bright light erupted out of him. Throwing the ghouls in front of him to the ground. He stood up in shock as a second pair of golden outlined arms that waved in and out from his physical arms.

Another ghoul snatched at his shoulder, he turned. Thinking about attacking, the golden astral arms reacted before he did. Backhanding the ghoul away and smacking another.

“They’re staying dead!” Haagut pointed. Shaynen was hardly aware of the ghouls final deaths. Getting a little hysterical as he turned to face more ghouls. Attacking with the new appendages. The chill over the graveyard began to lift, The ghouls started falling one after the other and staying dead.

Soon the graveyard was still. Only the party still stood.