Throughout the following five homes they’ve met with a similar situation twice, a trio of undead commoners in one building and a family of three still alive behind their barricades. Most surprisingly, the last building housed a still living merchant inside.

“I’ve seen you before,” the feminine voice from behind the door answered to there knocking. “I saw how you dealt with the fallen.”

“We were tasked with searching for survivors by captain Hyord from the inner town. Are you alright there?”

“Is there more of you inside?” Letty joined in to the questioning.

“Hyord’s still alive,” the woman muttered behind the door. “I guess even the scourge can’t take that stingy bastard. There’s only me and my son. Forgive me for not opening my doors in front of strangers, but a woman can’t be too careful in times like these.”

“It’s understandable,” Letty quipped. “It’s enough for us to know that you’re still alive. Once the fallen got completely cleared out from the town, the local guards will come along to inform you.”

“Thank you,” the woman said. “And please be careful! I heard awful noises from the shop beside ours in the past few days. There might be monsters in there.”

“Thank you for the warning.” Osmond nodded to no one in particular before their group said their quick goodbyes.

The next building was a small scribe’s shop, seemingly in tune with the theme of Scholar’s Square. The door was locked and so were the windows, making it obvious that whoever or whatever was inside, had to have been there from the start.

“How do you want to do this?” Cruz turned towards the dark elf.

“There are no runes or any kind of wards on the door, so we should be able to break in if needed.”

“Maybe we should knock first.” Letty offered her opinion.

“I’ll do it.” Her sister offered before raising her staff towards the door, knocking on it three times.

For a moment, only silence answer their enquiry before a set of deep growls resounded from the other side of the door that almost shattered a second later when something heavy smashed into it from the other side.

“Yep,” Fabien sighed. “It’s definitely still in there.’’

“Whatever it is,” Osmond looked at the door that creaked under the pressure of the second attack from the yet to be seen creature. “It’s definitely strong. Maybe we should back up a bit.”

Everyone moved back immediately, the dark elf pointing his blade stuff towards the door.

“When in doubt,” he said as runic symbols began to form from the faint blue thread that seeped out from his staff. “Blast it out.”

A second later the runic symbols formed a magic circle that collapsed in on itself, turning into a fist sized fireball. The ball quickly elongated to form a thick arrow that burst forward and struck the door. It seemed that the combination of the crushing attack from the inside and the fiery arrow from the outside did the trick as the door shattered in a wave of flames. A moment of silence ensued as the outlanders stared at the destroyed door that was still smouldering where the fire arrow burnt the hard wood.

“Well...” Fabien tried to say something before the growl returned, a lot more angrier than before.

A bear like creature burst through the smoking remains of the door heading straight for them with its rotten jaws wide open.

“Shit!” Cruz cursed as she pulled her sister to the side in order to evade the charging abomination.

The rest of the team managed to evade as well, thanks to the creature’s poor body control during its charge. As it stumbled to a halt, trying to turn around, they had plenty of time to have a good look at it. It was indeed an undead bear, although most likely a cub judging from its size.

“How the fuck did a bear get in there?” Fabien asked as he readied his sword that began to throw small electric arcs along its edge.

“Kill first, questions later.” The dark elf answered as he used his phasing strike to stab toward the undead bear, managing the strike it in the neck area as the beast moved its head out of the way at the last moment.

The creature moved with enough force to push the young spell weaver away after his bladestaff got stuck in its rotting flesh, but it slowed down just enough for the others to release their attacks on it. A lightning covered sword stabbed into its side with a shadow bolt hitting it square in the face. Cruz smashed the creature’s front left kneecap, and it immediately bent the wrong way.

An unearthly roar shook the square as the fallen released its rage, making everyone stagger back for a moment. Despite its useless left front limb, the rotting beast was still capable of moving well enough to take a bite at the infernal young man. Before it could do so, its head met the glowing surface of a shield.

“Is everyone okay?” Quentin asked as he held his shield firmly while a flaming whip snared around the beats’ neck.

“Sure took your sweet time.” Fabien let out a relieved sigh as he watched his sister pull at the creature’s neck while Amanda smashed down on it with her blazing hammer.

The bear’s skull broke with an audible crack as it collapsed on the ground lifeless.

“How the hell did a bear get in here?” Valerie asked as she willed her whip to loosen up from the now twice dead creature’s hefty neck.

“You know,” her brother sighed. “I asked the same question before it tried to take a bite out of me.”

Everyone raised their hands towards the dead beast out of instinct, a shimmering mist of Amaranth leaving the corpse, only to split up and float towards those that took part in a battle in equal measures.

“Seriously though,” Amanda looked at the bear. Where did you find it?

“Over there at the scribes shop,” Letty pointed towards the stay of smoking remains of the door. “We found a survivor in the shop beside this one and she warned us about hearing strange noises coming from there.”

“And it turned out to be this thing.” Cruz finished the story.

“It was still just a cub,” Sophie examined the corpse. “Do you think that it was kept as a pet or something?”

“Most likely,” Fabien nodded. “The door was closed from the inside so it was likely already there when the shit hit the fan.”

“Either way,” Osmond spoke up as he stepped beside the carcass. “I’ve been lacking in puppets, so I’ll be taking this one if you don’t mind.’

“Go ahead.” They said as one, watching the young shadow touched spell caster work his magic.

As the rotting fur and flesh melt off to reveal a pristine milky white skeleton with only its skull broken, everyone felt a slight shudder run along their spine. The broken skull bone mended itself before Osmond let the glowing ball of spirit essence in his hand fall on it. A moment later the now clear bear skeleton began to slowly move, standing up in front of everyone.

“I can never get used to seeing you raising bones like this.” Valerie shook her head with a clear disgust visible on her face as Regis let out light chuckle, earning a strange there from everyone.

“Resurrection...” He said it with strange accent

“Don’t you dare!” Osmond growled immediately, as if recognising the strange way the spell weaver said the word.

“By erection...” The dark elf continued in an almost singing way.

“Raise your bone up to the sky...” Fabien joined in, barely able to hold back his laughter.

“And you’re never gonna die...” Cruz and Valerie continued, laughing along the lyrics.

“Hallelujah...” Quentin added, surprising everyone in the process.

“Resurrection!” The entirety of the group finished the song, the shadow touched youth staring daggers at them.

“I hate you,” he said with an exaggerated huff. “I hate your so bloody much!”

A moment later a hearty laughter filled Scholar’s Square.

“I really needed this.” Quentin sighed as he grabbed his side.

“We all needed this.” Valerie agreed along with the others.

“I have to admit it though,” Amanda looked at the skeletal bear. “That thing is quite impressive.”

“That’s what she said.” Fabien couldn’t stop himself from blurting it out, earning a punch in the shoulder from his sister and a somewhat disgusted expression from the others.

“You know brother,” the infernal woman spoke begrudgingly. “Just because we have a vacancy in the team clown role, that doesn’t mean you immediately have to take it over.”

“So cruel,” Fabien let out a mock wince. “To think that my own sister would shoot down my chance to become a stand-up comedian.”

“Alright everyone; settle down,” Quentin turned serious and stoic once again. “We still have a few buildings to check out before we can head back to the inner town.”

“Yeah,” Amanda rolled her eyes. “And try to be a bit more careful from now on. We can’t run back and forth through the whole square to save your asses every time you run into something nasty.”

“Likewise.” Osmond nodded as the group separated once again.

“So what now?” Letty asked as they stood in front of the scribes’ shop.

“We already took down the monster, but it would be better to check out to place to make sure there’s nothing else dangerous in there.”

“Fine by me,” Regis agreed. “I was in need of some proper scribe’s equipment anyway.”

“Regis,” the wood elf looked at the young spell weaver in a cute yet stern way. “We agreed on not looting everything that isn’t nailed down, remember?”

“I’m not going to take everything, but I need a couple of things and I doubt that the owner would yell at me for taking a quill or something. But I can leave a few coins behind if you want me to.”

“Let’s get inside first.” Cruz ushered the group into the shop through the broken door.

The inside of the building could have been called well organised if not for the mess caused by the undead bear. Neatly carved wooden shelves lined the walls, holding different kind of tools and supplies necessary for anyone doing scholarly work. The first thing that caught their attention was the blackened blood smeared all over the floor, leaving a trail that lead towards the door behind the counter.

“Weapons ready.” Regis whispered as he took the lead, his bladestaff pointing forward in a spear like fashion.

The door behind the counter was slightly ajar, allowing him to take a peek inside, seeing what was likely the remains of the owner of the shop. They walked through the door with slow steps, finding themselves in a storage area with a set of stairs on the right leading upstairs and a similar one leading down on the left. No other door could be seen in the storage room, meaning that there was only one entrance and they already used that one.

“We’ll check upstairs.” Osmond stated as Cruz and Letty followed along.

“I guess that leaves the basement for the two of us.” Fabien concluded.

“So it would seem.” The dark elf nodded as he summoned a phantom light wisp that looked like an overgrown firefly.

“Nice trick,” the infernal young man praised. “I’ll have to learn that one too.”

The two of them walked a down the stairs with their weapons pointed forward as the phantom firefly floated roughly a metre ahead of them, just above their head. It was dark in the basement with a stale stench of rotting vegetables and damp wood lingering in the air. A couple of cheap candelabras were fastened onto the walls which Fabien lighted one after the other to brighten the room.

The source of the stench turned out to be a couple of small crates that contained surplus rotten vegetables that were once likely meant to be the shop owner’s food reserves. There were a couple of other crates down there as well, most of them signed with different markings that meant little to the outlanders. A somewhat decent looking cupboard stood tall at the adjacent wall, filled with different kinds of equipment and supplies.

“Should we look around?” Fabien asked with a knowing smile.

“Pry open the crates while I look through that cupboard.” Regis answered as his inner scavenger resurfaced.

The wooden cupboard had four shelves. The topmost one held a couple of ordinary kitchenware while the one beneath it was filled with woodworking tools. The one below held raw materials consisting of different kind of woods and what he believed to be by some kind of an animal horn. He felt a slight tingle from his staff when he touched one of the more exotic looking wood blocks that was a bit larger than his fist. It’s shape and texture wasn’t familiar to him, so he cast charlatan’s wisdom on both the wood and on the horn as well.

{Landwaker Shedding}

{Plant rarity: uncommon}

{Plant quality: decent}

{Crafting material}

{Basilisk Horn}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Crafting material}

“Damn,” he blurted out. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”

“Did you find something?” Fabien asked from the other side of the basement as he turned around.

“I found a piece of Landwaker wood along with a basilisk horn.”

“Basilisk horn? How the hell did that get into a scribes’ shop?”

“I think the owner spent his spare time practising wood carving, judging by the tools on the shelf. Either way; I’ll be taking these with me. Did you find anything when your end?”

“For one,” the infernal youth sighed. “I think I found where the bear came from. It looks like the guy really did keep it as a pet or something. I also found a couple of miscellaneous stuff in the crates that you might want to have a look at.”

“Just a minute,” Regis said. “I’ll check out the last shelf first.”

With that, he stuffed the Landwaker shedding and the basilisk horn into his knapsack before crouching down to have a look at the bottom shelf. It contained several small books and scrolls, but something still felt off for the dark elf. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it for a few moments, but as he looked back and forth between the different shelves, it occurred to him.

The bottom shelf seemed to be slightly shallower than the others. Regis reached out and knocked on the back wall of the shelf, a hollow sound catching his ear. He unceremoniously shoved the books and scrolls aside before he drew his dagger and traced it along the back panel, prying it off after he wedged the blade into the corner. Once the wide board came loose, a small compartment revealed itself

Inside, he found two books, a rolled up piece of leather and a scroll. ‘This looks promising.’ He thought to himself as he pulled out the items from the hidden area.