They probably expected the wailing of beasts from outside the walls, but that was absent. They could hear a constant scratching noise though. Like fingernails on a plank of wood, they could easily picture the hundreds of skeletons as they attempted to dig their way through the palisade wall.

  Mark rested his body against the gate with it’s barring log. He could feel the vibrations of the finger bones attempting to claw through the gate. “OK, this is bad. We need to talk to the Guildmaster again.” He pushed away and started marching towards the centre of town.

  The others quickly joined him in lockstep.

  “So uh.” Tim had to mention as they walked. “How do I turn this off?”

  Every nook and cranny of Tim’s engraved surface was still radiating pure white light. The energy appeared to pour out of him in a constant stream that lit up the day even more than the sun at noon.

  “Should wear off in a minute.” Paul waved his hand. “Nothing to worry about.”

  True to his word, the light show came to a halt as they were moving. First at the extremities, rolling inwards with every step, until ending up with a bit of a curl over Tim’s heart. That last bit was only witnessed by Tim themselves because they had been holding their shirt open to make sure.

  The group reached the centre of town almost at a jog. No Guildmaster in sight, however there were a large number of foot prints in the snow heading off towards the adventurers guild. So they followed the trail and came upon a rather large crowd surrounding the building.

  “People, people!” The Guildmaster was stood on something to get their head over the throng. “Do not worry. I have already set a group on a quest to find out more. Until then I urge you all to return home and not leave the walls until you hear otherwise.”

  This did not have the desired effect.

  “What about food?”

  “Firewood? It’s only going to get colder!”

  “I need more herbs!”

  The Guildmaster spotted the group as they jogged up. “Hold on everyone. The adventurers have returned. Let me talk to them inside. For now, go home!” He motioned for them to approach and stepped down, disappearing from view.

  The crowd had a murmur of discontent running through itself. More whining and whinging from people along side genuine concerns. They parted in front of the group reluctantly.

  “Please sirs!” A woman reached out to grasp at Mark’s coat. “You’ll save us, won’t you?”

  An odd look crossed Mark’s face for a moment before he stiffened up. “Yes, of course.”

  “Oh! Thank you!”

  Her fingers lingered as Mark continued forward. Only letting go when he stepped out of arms reach.

  Finally reaching the doorway and making their way inside. Paul was the last one in and he shut the door behind him.

  “Oh god, this isn’t good.” Paul leaned against the doorway. Unlike the skeletons at the gate, he could hear the sounds of the crowd outside as they continued to talk to each other.

  Inside the main room of the adventurers guild were a number of people. The Guildmaster and Julia stood around one of the tables where a map was laid out. Everett, always a feature as of late was flanked by his teammates Nelly and Gary.

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  Without even looking up, the Guildmaster called out. “Report.”

  Paul was the first to speak up. “It’s skeletons alright. Skeletons, and lots of them.”

  “Hah, we’ve dealt with skeletons before.” Everett scoffed. “Let me and my team at them. We’ll have this mopped up in a couple of hours.”

  “Oh yeah?” Francis piped up. “Got many spells and whatnot to deal with walls of bones huh? You can deal with hundreds, no, thousands of them?”

  Nelly and Gary looked apprehensively at each other, but Everett didn’t notice as he sneered down at the halfling. “Liar, just like you halflings do all the time.”

  Paul slipped around the brewing confrontation. “Really is hundreds sir.” He took one look at the map. Couldn’t read any of the words, but the shapes and drawings for trees and fields still made sense. He pointed towards the northern forest. “They were pouring out of here. We went out, rescued cutter in his cabin, barely got back with our lives. There’s a mass of them at the north gate right now.”

  “Good work.” The Guildmaster rubbed his chin in thought. “Right, got a plan. Julia!”

  “Yes sir?”

  “Do up two quests. One, defence of the town. Anyone can join in. Head to the north gate and drive back those skeletons any way they can. Hold the gate at the very least. If those things get inside, it won’t be pretty.”

  “Will do.” Julia was already moving. She had a piece of parchment paper and quill in hand, noting down these details with alarming speed.

  “Everett, you and yours take that rabble out there and lead the defence.”

  With a condescending sneer at the group, Everett picked up his sword and shield.

  With much less condescension, Nelly and Gary picked up their own equipment, bow and staff respectively. They followed Everett as he led the way out the door.

  When the door had shut. “What should we do?” Mark was also eyeing the map.

  “You lot get the second quest.” The Guildmaster nodded towards Julia.

  She pulled out a second piece of parchment paper.

  “I’m sending you out the east gate. It’s mostly open field but there’s this river that travels north here.” The Guildmaster jabbed at the map. “Follow that into the forest, stay low and out of sight if you can. Once there you should be able to head deeper in and find what’s causing this to happen.” He looked up at the four of them. “As I recall, you cleared out a dungeon a couple of days ago?”

  “Yes sir. Plenty of Kobolds.” Paul nodded, only mildly irked that he had to call those furry dog people kobolds.

  “Mmmm. Well I know dungeons to spawn skeletons as a last line of defence when threatened directly. Cheap and quick soldiers.” The Guildmaster traced a line from a fresh set of letters near the top of the map. “If this is a dungeon break situation, we’ll have to endure a siege until spring.” He got a concerned look on his face. “A siege that we are not really prepared for, and sending for help will ruin this town.” He looked up. “So I’m sending you all out to find out exactly what we’re dealing with. Once we know exactly how much trouble we’re in, then we can make a better plan. Otherwise it’s going to be months of cold and starvation. Do you understand?”

  Mark nodded slowly. “Yes.”

  The Guildmaster reached out and clapped the man on the shoulder. “Good. Julia will mark you down as on the quest. Head out east and may the balance favour you.”

  -------------

  The outside streets were much more empty. Off in the distance the four could hear shouts and yelling. The defence was happening.

  They walked through the snowy mud of the town, heading east towards the gate.

  “So what do you think he meant by ‘may the balance favour you’?” Francis was the one to ask.

  “While I can’t be certain, that sounds like something religious to me.” Paul was double checking his stash as they walked.

  “Religion.” Tim mused as each of their foot steps sank fully through the snow. “Think that might have something to do with that whole ‘Kill God’ thing that keeps coming up? The one that keeps appearing on our ? Gah!” The aforementioned sheet popped into their view unexpectedly.

  His whole stock in it’s place, Paul perked up. “Probably. I mean I haven’t heard much of anything regarding religion while I’ve been out and about. We could be in a monotheistic religion kind of place, or it could be polytheistic.” He scratched at the fur on his neck. “Thinking on it a bit... I’m guessing Mono. That pink god lady said to kill ‘God’. She didn’t specify ‘which’ god though.”

  “Had any thoughts on how to actually do that though?” Francis asked as he walked along on top of the hard pack snow.

  “I’ve just been worried about cleaning clothes and figuring things out as of late.” Paul shook their head. “I’m sure something will come up eventually.”

  The East gate loomed ahead of them.