Larry

KeeperLooks like I need a key.

LarryTry to look natural. We don't want to draw any unwanted attention.

KeeperBetween an escaped convict and a floating skull, you'll be the one drawing attention.

LarryI don't know what happened, and I don't want to stick around and find out.

LarrySo what was in the stash?

KeeperThe King's signet...

Larry... very fancy...

Keeper... an Inquisitor's medallion...

Larry... could be useful...

Keeper.... and a rusty key.

LarryThat's what we need to open a door! Grab the lot!

KeeperIsn't a prison supposed to have guards?

LarryLook! A note.

LarryYeah, yeah — let's complain about how this isn't hard enough.

KeeperI hate to break it to you, but you're a...

LarryA talking skull?! No way, that's impossible.

KeeperRight. I appreciate the sarcasm.

LarryIt's kind of my thing.

LarryThanks for getting me outta that can.

LarryI got a feeling we're gonna be best buddies. Ha ha.

LarryLet's get outta here.

LarryThe best way to get lost is blend into the crowd...

KeeperWhere's the Town?

LarryWe're in it... Well, inside the walls.

LarryJust need to head down from Crown Hill...

KeeperDo you mind if I put you in my bag?

LarryIt's a bit humiliating... but you're right. A jumping skull might draw some unwanted attention... he he...

You should go to bed.

I heard you living types kinda need sleep.

And put me on the box by the bed. I don't like being stuck in a dark sack.

LarryI believe that's our cue.

LarryI'll wait for you by the morgue.

LarryHeh... So dusty... But it's better than the Inquisitor dungeon...

KeeperMuch better. I actually like this place.

LarryWe found a place to lay low... he he.

KeeperWe just need to clean it up and fix a few things.

LarryYeah... it's so dusty I'm gonna sneeze.

KeeperYou literally have nothing to sneeze with.

LarryFair point... see you tomorrow.

LarryHow did you manage to lose the body already? Go get it!

KeeperSo what now?

LarryNo idea.

KeeperSince everybody is starving...

Keeper... maybe we should cut a piece off and sell it?

LarryAre you crazy? How do you even come up with this stuff?

LarryA much better plan would be taking everything from his pockets!

LarryI mean, he looks fine.

LarryI'm sure at some point we'll figure out the whole autopsy thing.

LarryOh look — there's actually a book on precisely that!

LarryOkay, take the body and follow me.

LarryHey, where's the body? Get it back!

LarryYou can bury him here...

LarryGood job. Now we can go and show this certificate to the Head of the Guards.

I'm a respectable, distinguished, magical animal!

And what do they ask of me? Carry dead bodies.

This world has no sense of justice.

KeeperYou do have quite an advanced vocabulary for a donkey...

I think I'm having a deja vu.

KeeperWhat were you saying about justice?

Never mind that, I'm actually happy doing any work at all.

It's way better than becoming lunch meat.

Speaking of which, I brought you a dead body. It needs to be buried.

KeeperIt's not right to just throw him into a hole.

KeeperHe needs some kind of gravestone... or at least a sign.

LarryYou're free to use whatever you find in that chest.

LarryJust don't forget the shovel...

LarryNow put the sign on the grave...

LarryIt's not much, but whatever...

LarrySo this is the morgue.

KeeperHow do you know?

LarryWhile you were sleeping, I stretched my bones a bit.

LarryNow put the body on the autopsy table.

LarryOkay, grab the body and follow me.

LarryHey, you started without me again!

KeeperDrawing from my Graveyard Keeper knowledge, it's some kind of elevator for resources.

KeeperIf I can restore it, I'll be able to move items from here to the surface.

KeeperRelax, I'd call you if I found anything interesting.

LarryWow... how interesting. What can it be?

LarryAnd what's over there?

LarryDo you hear that sound behind this debris? Some kind of clinking.

LarryThat's exactly the problem... you wouldn't recognize something interesting.

KeeperI don't know, but it seems like it should be a path to the forest.

KeeperI bet this is the path to the forest mine!

LarryThat echo... there's a space behind this. A big space.

KeeperThis debris looks like it will be hard to clear... and after that I'll need to reinforce the ceiling.

KeeperI'm not sure it's worth the trouble.

LarryI told you clearing that debris would be worth it.

KeeperI have to agree... It'll take a lot of work to restore everything... but the potential is very promising.

LarryBut there's got to be something valuable over there!

KeeperMetal, gears... sounds like a machine graveyard.

KeeperSeems like there's nothing interesting here...

LarrySee, that's exactly what I'm talking about.

LarryIt's an abandoned Inquisitor factory.

LarryLook, it all connects with gears under the ground...

LarryI bet you can place something that moves over there...

KeeperYeah, like a conveyor belt...

LarryI don't know what that means, but I bet you can...

LarryAnd here you can rebuild the part that puts the whole thing in motion.

LarryYou just need some poor fellows to turn it.

KeeperWhere would I find someone willing to turn it down here underground?

LarryWell, for example... maybe you can use some of those undead fellows wandering around our yard.

Ouch... that hurts!

KeeperNot when you're wearing full plate armor.

If you're here to punish me, you should know that I'm immortal!

This was all a huge mistake

If anyone deserves punishment here, it's me...

KeeperI'm not here to punish anyone...

It's you!

Phew... what a relief. You're the only one who can understand me.

I just wanted to go home...

We both wanted to go home. But instead we got stuck in this nightmare.

The portal fooled us.

KeeperI see. But the portal is still our only chance to set everything right... and send you home.

The problem is, the portal is gone. It was shattered into pieces.

KeeperLuckily, I have all the pieces but one... and it's somewhere around here.

LarryHa ha... no one expected a second talking skull, did they?

Lucius, old friend... is that you?

LarryWho else, Jove? After all, we share the same curse.

KeeperThis is all very touching, but maybe we should talk somewhere safer.

KeeperI don't think my army can hold off all those zombies for much longer.

I can buy us some time. I've never tried ringing this in the middle of the day before...

But it probably won't make things worse.

LarryAnd what does that mean?

Judging from recent events... things just got worse.

KeeperThen we better hurry.

KeeperFollow me!

KeeperI can still hear the sounds of battle... that's a good sign.

KeeperAlright... I think we're safe here for now. We can rest a little.

Wait a moment... I need to catch my breath.

KeeperBesides, I have a lot of questions.

Yes... I should explain what happened.

How much do you already know?

KeeperI spent the last eight years chained up in a dungeon.

Oh. Alright then... I'll start from the beginning.

And to be clear... I didn't know if that other part of me is even still alive...

That's how we became trapped in the Palace... unable to control the evil we unleashed.

Although we did still have the bell... to call off the zombies once a week.

Yes, they were supposed to find the portal fragments, so we could fix everything.

But they always failed... They only brought us useless junk.

Well, the food and the booze were good at least.

LarryHa ha... that explains why the zombies retreat at the sound of the bell.

KeeperGood thing my zombie army is much better organized than that.

KeeperNow we're finally close to fixing the portal. Let's move.

LarryYou know... I still don't understand why they never tried to find you.

KeeperI think they were happy together... just the two of them.

LarryYeah, they're quite a couple...

LarrySo, how is everything around here?

KeeperFresh air, hard work... I kind of enjoy it.

LarryGood... I took a risk and snooped around the base.

LarrySurprisingly, there's notes scattered all over the place.

LarryA lot of them... no idea who wrote them, or why.

KeeperWhat kind of notes? Anything useful?

LarryMostly words. Emotions. Stuff like that... I read them.

LarrySo you wouldn't have to.

LarryThat's what I learned about the last days before the apocalypse.

LarryThen the zombie transformations just stopped...

LarryBut there were already too many undead...

LarryNow people fear every dead body...

LarryYet somehow they've learned to live in this mess.

KeeperVery interesting...

LarryI've got an update about your situation.

KeeperYou found some more notes somewhere...

LarryYeah... mostly about the final day of a guy named Rufus.

LarryPersonal stuff. You know how it is...

LarryPlus I have another trusted source...

LarrySomeone big in the grave business.

KeeperSomeone with long ears?

LarryYep... a certain donkey, very talkative. Full of strange theories.

KeeperI'm listening...

LarryRemember when you told me about the guy with red eyes who split you in half...

KeeperWhat about the second god, and the second betrayal you mentioned?

LarryNot important. The second god was a failure.

LarryNow stop interrupting...

LarryBut something bad happened to him...

LarryAnd I believe you're the new Graveyard Keeper now.

KeeperHm... no one ever told me any of that. I'm not sure...

LarryThen tell me... doesn't it seem odd to you, that a certificate appears when you bury a body?

KeeperNow that you mention it... yeah, that is a little strange.

LarryExactly. It's part of an ancient contract...

LarryAnd you're part of it too now.

KeeperHmm... looks like blueprints for the equipment they used here.

KeeperBut not a single word about the serum recipe.

KeeperThey keep referring to some book with the formula... the Necronomicon.

LarryHeh... I read that once! Although I only skimmed the cooking section.

KeeperI guess I'll need to find someone who knows more about zombie resurrection... and that book.

LarryShouldn't we check their notes first?

LarryI told you this is the place!

LarryThink you might try resurrecting your own zombies at some point?

KeeperYeah... that would be nice. Those green guys are pretty useful.

LarryI found some notes here about the experiments that the inquisitors were up to.

LarryThey were hoping to resurrect their own zombies, and make them fight the bad ones.

KeeperNot a bad idea, actually.

LarryLooks like they got pretty close, too... They managed to resurrect them. Just couldn't control them.

KeeperTo control them, I think you need to put a collar with a blue stone on them.

LarryYeah, sounds like a good solution...

LarryYou should ask the guy in the wooden mask about those stones.

LarryI bet they were doing it somewhere near the morgue... We need to get into that room.

LarryThat's probably where they kept all their resurrection secrets.

LarryLooks like they took most of the equipment with them...

LarryBut look — they left some resurrection serum, and a few notes.

KeeperAccording to this, they were using electricity to resurrect corpses.

LarryUsing what, sorry?

KeeperSee those long thin rope things on the wall? Those are wires... They carry electricity.

KeeperBut where would they get electricity here?

LarryThose wire things go all the way up to the top of the tower...

LarryEvery when it storms, lightning strikes the tower.

LarryAnd the wires start making all kinds of funny sparks. he he

KeeperWait... there's a lightning storm every ?

LarryYeah... just like clockwork. This world has become even weirder than I remember.

LarryI'm pretty sure that before the apocalypse, zombie resurrection worked perfectly fine without all that elec... whatever.

LarryBack then the air was full of magic.

KeeperGot a better idea? Because sending zombies down main street sounds like a quick way to start a riot.

LarryWho said anything about the street?

LarryBet the Inquisitors had a way to get to the Town unnoticed.

LarryAnd judging by this tunnel? I'd bet it leads straight into Town. Quietly.

LarryDon't you ever get tired dragging crates to the Town all by yourself?

Keeper...You might actually be right. I'll check it out.

LarryOf course I am. You should really start getting used to that.

LarryHa ha... go on, take a look. I bet it's just what you need.

LarryI couldn't help noticing that little spark of madness in your eyes.

KeeperYou think so? You are a talking skull, after all... Are you even real?

LarryOh, great... here we go.

LarryI'm just saying you need some ways to relax... try some good food, drink some wine.

KeeperHeh... maybe you're right, Larry... I do like this new life...

KeeperIt's just... sometimes what I have to do feels a little too strange.

Another sinner for you, comrades.

LarryWhat are you staring at, grab him!

LarryIt all started about eight years ago.

LarryThey'd been having trouble with their dead long before that...

LarrySomething about betraying their gods. Twice.

LarryBut that's not important.

LarryEverything really went downhill after a strange man who couldn't die appeared...

LarryA man who was meant to be you.

LarryAfter that, the dead began to rise...

LarryBefore anyone could bury them in the northern graveyard...

LarryOr send them off on ships.

LarryThen one day, even the living started turning undead. In masses.

LarryIt began near the Royal Palace, and soon swallowed up most of the town.

LarryThe man with red eyes was once a local god.

LarryHe provided people everything, in exchange for worshiping him.

LarryThen they betrayed him... for a newer god.

LarryAfter that, they were on their own with all their problems and their needs.

LarryThey abandoned all the old rituals, and the cycle of reincarnation collapsed.

LarryThe lost souls became a real problem...

LarryLong story short... the Old God showed the people mercy, and signed a contract with them.

LarryHe gave them a Graveyard Keeper to guide their souls and grant them peace after death.

LarryThere were many graveyard keepers, each serving their time...

LarryEach brought here from distant lands.

LarryAnd just when you appeared, another one arrived in the North Graveyard.

LarryHe looks exactly like you...