THE MOMENT
There were no apparent visitors, but it would've been incorrect to say the cemetery was empty when Surge arrived. It was dusk, with the light fading fast, and dozens of undead inhabitants milled around the graveyard. They were all mostly still, though, except for a lone figure. The cloaked individual could be seen moving between the skeletons and dispersing each one to lay it to rest. Surge guessed that's who he was there to see and started forward. He'd heard tales in town of an unknown grave keeper who makes and tends the graves of every forgotten warrior, and that felt like someone he wanted to learn from. [Undead Aura] He wasn't there to fight and activated one of his abilities to avoid drawing attention. A delicate golden mist gathered around him, almost in the shape of a skeletal exo-suit, as he marched forward across the graveyard. The few skeletons and zombies that he passed ignored him completely, and he reached the cloaked figure in no time. It was a man; that much was apparent as Surge drew near. The large, bulky man engaged in combat with a skeleton as Surge covered the distance, but he won in a single blow. The skeleton's bones flew apart and fell into an open grave after being dispatched, and the cloaked man began shoveling dirt onto it. "I've heard tales of an unknown grave keeper...," Surge said once he was close enough. The man stopped shoveling, but somehow the dirt continued to pile up in shovel-load intervals to fill the grave. “Townfolk love their gossip…,” he replied. He was an older, muscular man with a lifetime of hard work visible on his physique and on his wrinkled, silver-stubbled face. “You'll find no shortage of tall tales.” “I'm a necromancer.” Surge had run out of things to say, and he still hadn't found the right phrase. “Are ya?” The old grave keeper shook his head. “A true necromancer respects the dead; they’re more than just tools. I've seen no such respect offered.” “Oh yeah!” Surge was used to quests happening more automatically. He'd heard about the grave keeper from a flower girl while wandering through town. The rumor came with his purchase, and he'd put it out of his mind by the time he got to the cemetery. He produced a white rose and set it down at the closest headstone; it happened to be nameless. “A truer display of respect has never been witnessed,” the gravekeeper laughed. “You must be a necromancer to have that much care for these wretched, unknown deceased. You remind me of a younger me,” he added as he reached under the cloak. “Take this. Carry on with respectful care,” he said. The grave keeper offered Surge a golden Ability gem, and the boy took it. “I will,” he nodded. The grave was full by now, and Surge wandered off in one direction while the grave keeper moved to tend to the nearest skeleton.