"The first time I ever went to the Bone Garden, it was maybe half a year ago. I'd heard tell of a place full of undead from other adventurers who had been there, so I thought I knew what to generally expect. I was wrong.

"First off, there was a shark. We'd accepted a job to look for the lair of a bone devil in the northeast. I thought we could freeze and walk across the surface of the little pond north of the entrance, avoiding the Corpse Flower to the east.

"Bad choice. A very big, very hungry undead shark tried attacking us as we crossed. It came bursting out, slammed into the ice, tilted the whole bridge. It was hugely dangerous, and though we we're hitting hard and could probably have finished it off, it would have taken a lot of our resources and take down the shark wasn't the job we were being paid for. So, we wound up in a situation where it was best for both sides to just cut and run. The shark couldn't hurt us if we weren't on the water, after all.

"I then... I guess I thought I'd just try and see, so, I... Messaged the shark. And... it answered.

"It turns out its name was Bruce. It was, I guess it used to be a person? A warlock? And he got turned into a shark and then killed and turned into a zombie. To be honest, not the greatest conversationalist, very little of his mind's still intact, but the key thing was I managed to negotiate passage across for us by feeding the shark. So a word of advice to all of you out there, if you're headed to the Bone Garden, Bruce is not your enemy. Feed the shark. You can also go around the pond, just be mindful of the damn trap plants underground. They're everywhere, and they swallow people.

"Bruce let us pass. As we proceeded deeper into the area, there were whispers up ahead. Important thing to know about the Bone Garden is that that it has a lot of narrow, winding passages and blind spots. I used an old trick: pop a mirror ahead, use it to peer around corners before approaching.

"Eventually we found the source of the whispers. A hooded figure talking to a creature that would become very familiar to a lot of us: the Bone Devil. The Devil sank in the ground and several undead came after us, but we managed to dispatch them.

"That left the question of how to pursue the Bone Devil. I cannot stress enough that this thing had disappeared into a marshy area, and we had been asked to find it's lair in order to get paid, so..."

Iuri takes a deep breath and shudders.

"So we went into the mud and muck and investigated it, eventually uncovering a passage. Not just any passage, oh no. The entire thing was made of blood and bones and roots. It was absolutely disgusting.

"We went down inside, and it closed up behind us. Mechmo had ended up in front, and from deeper in this hellhole, hordes of bone dogs attacked him. We chased the things off, but Krowveraas went down.

"I knew we had to find a way out. I just... I got everyone who could move and we ran. The way we had come in was blocked, but I found... some sigils? Honestly, all I remember is bones and blood and screaming. There was something big in there, and I thought the ground sloped up, and we ran that way, and we got out.

"Honestly, I wasn't even sure after that if I wanted to go back to the Bone Garden, but go back I did. That trip became the first of many. A story for another time."