“Listen, it won’t be that bad mate,” Zach said with all the confidence and bluster of a bloody fool. “We’ll head in under the cover of darkness and be out before you know it. Bob’s your uncle!”

“Oh sure, a simple stroll through some Ghouls and Zombies! What could go wrong?” Skrakch spat. “Everyone in Dray’Mel knows the Undead are famed for their welcoming natures!” He affected the gait of a shuffling zombie. “Welcome…” he hissed in his best ‘uUdead’ voice. “Would you like some tea?... I only want to eat your face…”

As soon as Zach had gotten their full agreement, the eager Halfling decided there was no time like the present. He wanted to get to the stash and claim it before anyone else did. Which is how Skrakch found himself leaving the comfort and ale of the Plagued Rat and following Zach on a trek around the Inner Wall instead.

“Oh and you best believe we’re going at night,” Skrakch continued, dropping the accent. “I’m not sticking around until sun up. Just the idea of it is enough to turn my stomach and you know I’m not exactly a delicate flower.”

The irritated Ratling didn’t need to see Zach’s nod to know that the Halfling agreed with his sentiment. It was a well-known fact amongst the Slums that the denizens of the Undead District were much more active during the day. And by active, Skrakch thought to himself with a shudder, he meant they’d move twice as fast and be even quicker to throw themselves at anything moving in their eyesight. Thankfully, the Undead calmed down somewhat as soon as darkness fell over the city.

“You know, nobody knows exactly why the Undead are calmer during the night,” Skrakch said as they moved along the wall. “It’s a hotly debated subject-”

“Nope. No book learning, please. Ain’t got the stomach for it,” Zach interrupted, waving a hand dismissively.

Skrakch rolled his eyes. Of course. You wanted to give Zach a good scare? Show him a library. He shook his head and tutted to himself.

The Ratling turned his attention to the ruined houses close to the Inner Walls. A lot of residents of the Slums had tried their hand at scavenging past the Inner Walls. It was seen as something like a rite of passage for the teenage Human folk to bring something back from one of the houses as a way to prove themselves. The smartest of them went only once and saw firsthand how dangerous it was. The rest ended up fodder for the Undead horde.

Still, if you were able to come across some truly impressive loot, it was a quick ticket to some hard earned coin but only the craziest Slum-Runners tried it more than once. Skrakch had personally seen one poor sap get ripped apart limb from limb the last time he’d gone on a scavenge run. For a while, he’d been convinced that was his route to becoming Chosen but, after seeing that, he’d sworn on the spot not to do it again.

And yet here he was. How quickly such oaths were broken. Now he was prodding and poking the Inner Walls, trying to find a decent break in the stonework so that he could risk getting his face ripped off.

Even in the Slums, the areas around either side of the Inner Walls were left vacant. Nobody wanted to set up shop or home and risk finding that the Undead denizens had found a fresh opening. The Tomb Makers were pretty diligent at keeping most gaps contained but all it took was one particularly persistent Zombie or Ghoul and then all hell would break loose.

Still, the lack of people around certainly made the job easier. The two rogues were able to quickly traverse the empty streets, picking their way around the occasional spot of rubble. Most of the alleyways, like the rest of the Slums, were rather cramped but Skrakch had long gotten used to the tight quarters.

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It wasn’t long into their search that Zach suddenly grabbed Skrakch by the shoulder and covered his mouth. Before Skrakch could bite him and protest about having the Halfling’s disgusting hand touching him, he could see why he’d done it. The usual eerie silence was disturbed by a rustling sound up ahead. Nodding briskly, Skrakch pulled Zach’s hand from his face and slowly made his way forward.

Everything within him screamed at him to turn tail and run but, with his body on high alert, he crept onwards, making sure Zach stayed in his sights. The both of them were adept thieves, well versed in keeping a light step, so it didn’t take them long to get near the source of the sound. Arriving at a bend in the narrow street, Skrakch carefully poked his head around a dilapidated building. Just around the corner stood a figure, lean and gaunt in shape.

Garbed in torn rags, the figure was hunched over, its back to them. One look at his twisted frame, even from this distance, was enough to let Skrakch know that it wasn’t a simple thief or some dumb teen out to prove himself by the Walls. Keeping his eyes on the figure, Skrakch could make out the blood alongside the sound of flesh being devoured.

Normally, such a sight would be more than enough for Skrakch to assume it was a solitary Ghoul. An easy enough threat for them to handle. But, as he continued to watch the figure, he was filled with a sense of dread. Things weren’t going to be that easy for them.

Carefully learning back around the corner, Skrakch knew that it would be suicide to speak aloud to his partner. Thankfully, most rogues within the city knew a common second language. The Thieves Cant. He had to admit that he was a bit rusty at it, but Skrakch quickly signed towards Zach in a flurry of hand motions. Careful. Threat. Not Ghoul.

Zach stared at him for a couple of minutes, obviously trying to process whatever he’d try to tell him. Eventually, he rolled his eyes and shoved Skrakch aside to take a look for himself. He peered around the corner for a moment before lurching backward. Slowly moving through the motions, Zach replied in a fully understandable version of the Thieves Cant that made Skrakch’s earlier movements look like he was trying to wrap an invisible present. Badly.

Threat. Dangerous. Avoid. Shade.

Nodding to each other, the two stealthily crept past the creature, making sure not to make any noise. Thankfully, the figure was hellbent on devouring its meal, and as they made their way past it through the street, Skrakch caught sight of what it was eating.

With a look of pure bliss on its face, the rather average looking Human was in the midst of stuffing his face with his own intestines. Gnawing and gnashing at his own bloody esophagus, the man dug deep into his own chest and stomach to pull more and more flesh loose. Blood was pooling by his feet, but the beast was too enraptured to notice.

Swallowing the bile that threatened to spill forth, Skrakch hastened his steps before the two of them left the man behind, turning down a separate street.

“By the Gods Below, what the Hells was that?” Skrakch coughed out as soon as they were safely out of the creature’s earshot, spitting a glob into the street as he continued putting as much distance between the creature and him as he could.

“You’ve never seen one of those? That poor bastard was some schmuck who got unlucky enough to run into a Shade.” Zach looked a bit disturbed but had already returned to the business at hand. “Bloody things are rare, thankfully. Supposedly it’s some kind of Wraith, but instead of picking up fools for the Butchery, it just takes them for itself. Possesses the body, and then acts out however it wants. I guess by not having your own body, you end up missing things. Judging by what that one was up to, the thing it was missing was a good meal,” Zach let out a dark chuckle, prodding the walls as he looked for an opening.

“Shades are real?” Skrakch looked at Zach with wide eyes. For all his studying in the Dray’Mel library, he was certain the Shades were a myth, a story brothers and sisters told their younger siblings to frighten them into fits. “Gods Above…”

Though to be fair, Skrakch had seen enough ghastly critters that he shouldn’t have been surprised. If Dray’Mel could be counted on for one thing, it was new and invigorating ways to get killed.

“Oi! Squeakers! Look what I’ve found,” Zach was tossing aside a large piece of rotting wood, he let out a low whistle as he uncovered a decent enough sized hole in the Inner Walls. “I bet we can fit Ornn through that bad boy. All we need to do is come back later with the Goblin and Winnie and then we’re golden,” Zach grinned at him and Skrakch grimaced in return. “Come on mate, it won’t be that bad. Think of the coin!”