Wait a moment please. Before we engage in near certain mutual destruction, I believe that it is important to my legacy, and yours, that you hear me out. As an incentive, if you stay your hands and your spells and listen to what I have to say, I will forgoe continuing this ritual until after I have spoken. Continue beating through the defenses of this castle, and I will continue the ritual. Your choice. Choose through your actions.

Ah. Good. I'm going to make some guesses about how you got here. You were minding your own business, getting food and ale at a tavern perhaps, spending hard earned coin from your last adventure, relaxing as you so well deserved. And then you were approached by perhaps a mysterious figure who offered you a great deal of money to help the kingdom survive a very serious threat. You then met in secret with a functionary of the king or queen who gave you an excellent story about a threat of terror and doom ahead. Then you met the king or queen face to face, perhaps under the cover of darkness, maybe in an ancient ruin, maybe in a secret passage under the castle. They confirmed the story to you, confirmed the legitimacy of the money, promising even more and great status within the kingdom if you were successful. The money up front was just for expenses after all.

The story you got was of the great undead hordes of the north, how their numbers have grown, how horrible necromancy is, and so on. But did you take the time to validate the story? Of course you didn't, not at first. There was no need. As you traveled north across the Erulid you began to encounter first hand witnesses to those who have seen the undead with their own eyes. The fear was palpable, as expected. Your resolve only hardened. You are the Heroes after all. But not even the most primal story really prepared you for what you found. Hamlets, Villages, keeps, castles, towns, cities ... absolutely stuffed with skeletons, ghouls, gasts, zombies, wraiths, ghosts and more.

You cut your way through them with some inconvenience to you. A thousand fell at your left hand and ten thousand at your right. But still you encountered more. And on you came.

I grieves my heart, and yes, I do still have one, it's over there on the shelf actually. You did not stop to really observe them did you? Not once did you apply any of that limited intelligence to anything you saw. Not the structure, the habits, the activities, the commerce ... the civilization you encountered. Ahhh... what do they teach in schools these days. It is as if the vaulted intelligence of the modern world is treated as a dump stat.

We are peaceful. Certainly many of us are armed with weapons, as we have our criminal element as do you. Plus with invaders from the south, one has to be careful.

The south.

You really don't understand do you? How we have grown so fast, how we understand the concepts of trade, politices, craftsmanship, and hospitality. Look out the windows at what is left of my city. Ask yourself one question first: Where did all of the undead come from? Who were they when they were alive?

Ah, yes. I see you haven't really considered that either. Every single being you destroyed was once alive. It is a tragedy that so few retain their vocal chords from the transition. What you hear as wailing is an attempt to communicate. What you hear as groaning is broken speech. They have been trying to tell you. Trying to reach you. Trying to stop you. Trying to make you see.

For we are your kin.

Suspicious, I know. But it is indeed true. Every death in your kingdom to the south adds to this nation. We carry on what we knew in life, but in a new place that makes sense with the limited grasp we now have. That wraith there? The spirit of Gravenrod the scribe. His immortal flesh you destroyed two days ago. He served your royal family faithfully for 60 years. This ghast was once Peg the beggar, starved to death by neglect. This zombie was Shellay, the fish merchant's wife drowned trying to help her husband salvage the catch from the broken nets. The ghost of Ultrinda in the rafters there, still traumatized by his unjust execution after being framed for a a crime he didn't commit, and the minor one he did do being buried with him to save the reputation of a noble's son.

We are your kin, your countrymen, your future.

What threat did we pose to you? It is not our fault that we are held thus. This nation has grown from necessity, beginning as nothing more than a place for all who cease to draw breath. It was chaos at first of course. My only hand in all of it was to provide structure, stability. Purpose.

It was not a bad death after all. One could look forward to the days and the time rather than just standing in one place hoping the way would reopen. Ah, you didn't know that either. Yes. They were not raised. They have been prevented from continuing. The past Beyond has been blocked. None may pass. We have not determined how or why. We can see the barrier, but we can not see the reason for it.

Despite your horrific destruction of my land, I would make use of you to find and remove the barrier. If you could lift it, then all of us remaining could move on. This interests you? Excellent. I was hoping it might.

There is just one catch.

You can not hope to comprehend the barrier while you live, and you can not hope to remove it if you die. Only by jointly functioning in both will to be able to prevail.

Ah. Hmm. Well, you see the problem. No one can be both alive and dead at the same time. But there are four of you, and you have worked closely for years? Decades? I suspect that if one or two of you were to cross over, you would be able to work with the others. Kind of a liason to work together across both realms.

Yeah, that might be a stumbling block for you I thought. I see no alternative though.

Which of you will die for the sake of all?