Ozarrik takes one cart, Erevan takes the other cart after loading his ballista onto it, and the two find horses nearby the bandits were using. The two say goodbye to the hunters, separating from them, as they ride back to the Frostblood tribe.

Halfway there Erevan stops his cart. Ozarrik stops his too.

“What’s going on?” Ozarrik asks.

“The others are far enough away and I have a friend who needs these corpses.” Erevan tosses a red coin onto one of the bodies.

A black shimmering portal opens up and Hvardrik steps through. He looks at the bewildered Ozarrik, then at the two cartfulls of bodies, and sighs. With a clap of his hand two undead come through the portal and start chucking corpses through the portal.

“What is this?” Ozarrik asks.

“This guy reuses the bodies of bad people to do relatively good things.” Erevan answers.

“You always have to have me portal in when there are witnesses.” Hvardrik shakes his head.

“There are sixteen corpses, I only owed you another eight.” Erevan crosses his arms.

“You are all business, huh kid?” Hvardrik smiles. “I can give you eight hundred gold for the trouble or we can discuss another tattoo.”

“Anything for crafting faster?” Erevan asks.

“I can do something about your hands, it’ll have a few more practical applications than just crafting, but it’ll cost fifty corpses.” Hvardrik says. “So you would owe me another forty-two that I’d want in, say, two months?”

“Deal.” Erevan says.

“Why don’t we ride to wherever you are going, and I can tattoo you there.” Hvardrik says.

“The Frostblood village. Are you familiar with it?” Erevan asks.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of it. Strong mercenaries come from there.” Hvardrik nods.

“Is it okay if he comes with us?” Erevan turns to Ozarrik.

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“Sure.” Oz shrugs. “But don’t mention necromancy.”

“My lips are sealed.” Hvardrik bows with some bravado.

Hvardrik jumps into Erevan’s cart and the three continue towards the village. Arriving just before sunset. Ozarrik distracts his family at dinner while Erevan is tattooed at their tent. Ozarrik eventually comes back to the tent and eventually falls asleep despite the noise. As Hvardrik continues the tattooing process through most of the night.

Before the sun rises the Necromancer portals out of the village. Erevan breathes a sigh of relief now being able to go to bed. He considers how he will possibly obtain forty-two bodies before the end of the next month.

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Erevan wakes up the next morning and meets Ozarrik. Varin and Taghig quickly find him and relentlessly ask about his solo fight with the werewolf of which Ozarrik didn’t know any details about when he recounted their mission at dinner. Erevan answers a few questions but spares details about the fight as they all start working on the ballista.

Afterwards Erevan finds Zitirius telling grand stories of heroism to the young-ins of the tribe. Erevan sits down and listens with the kids. The stories Ziti tells are about their great grandfather fighting Giants to claim this land.

Erevan and Zitirius eventually head to dinner. Erevan has to once again recount his fight against the werewolf. Afterwards they all retire for the night and Erevan goes back to his tent with Ozarrik.

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Erevan wakes up the next day and gathers his companions before settling down to get started on their work. They make some progress before taking a break for the day.

Erevan relaxes and does some basket weaving with Dhievni after he is done working on the ballista for the day. Eventually he heads to the dining hall and sets up the dinner table before the rest of the family joins him for the meal.

Erevan retires for the night early and heads to bed.

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Erevan’s group continues crafting. Starting to see glimpses of the finished product.

They break halfway through the work day to attend the religious ceremonies which Dhievni leads. After a few rituals and a few tribespeople speak, Taghig leads the tribe in prayer, and Erevan asks that his necromancer friend’s interference in the cycle of life be overlooked.

They eventually go to bed.

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Erevan and the group get to fine tuning the mechanisms of the ballista in the morning

Erevan joins Nawne on firewatch. She is delighted to have the werewolf slayer help her with her chore for the day. The two end up talking about good dogs and bad dogs. And how Nawne wants a dog one day.

After awhile they go to the family dinner where Nawne raves about dogs the whole night.

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That next morning Erevan and his group are joined by Nawne who wants to assist with the small mechanisms with her tiny hands.

Erevan is surprised to find Vali surrounded by kids as she tells an ancient folk tale about nature spirits seeking companionship. Erevan sits and listens to the story as the kids have grown accustomed to him doing. Vali seems a little flustered by the new addition to her audience but continues.

Afterwards they head to dinner and have a great meal with the family.